there TV Shows from The last of us remains very faithful to the video games while reinterpreting some aspects of it, particularly in terms of world building and the dynamics of the Cordyceps infection, but some viewers may have spotted that root cause of the pandemic based on some clues already present in the first episode of the series.
Let’s assume, of course, that what’s reported is a potential, giant spoiler for what will come out in the following episodes, so those who don’t want to receive advances, even if only suspected for the moment, might be better off not doing so, to read the following.
The Last of Us, an image from the TV series
It has to be said that Craig Mazin himself, showrunner of The Last of Us TV series, has clearly said: “Very attentive viewers might be rewarded while watching this episode because we left some little crumbs which will then be taken later could find meaning”. as to confirm the fact that they are included in the first episode of the series Hints to explain different things that then gradually develop.
Below this would be the origin of the infection which, as we have seen, spreads differently than the spores in the video game, but obviously also has a different beginning. From what various fans have gathered, Cordyceps could be starting to spread flourwhich initially affects everyone who trades in this product and its derivatives.
This would also explain why Joel and Sarah, along with Tommy, are initially unaffected by the disease: on the first day of infection, a series of coincidences keep the characters away from the flour: it’s Joel’s birthday, but his daughter is forced to boil eggs, instead of baking a cake precisely because he has no flour in the house. Both refuse to eat biscuits offered by a neighboring family (who instead soon contract the disease), and there is news on the radio of a catastrophic situation in Jakarta, where huge flour processing plants are set to be exported around the world.
Later, when the situation becomes critical, Sarah again rejects the cookies because they contain dried fruit. All these elements represent too many coincidences for the fans and could explain what is the original vector of the infection.
Obviously there is also someone here in the editorial office who has already seen the whole series, but still we can neither confirm nor deny the theory at the moment because we promptly blocked him on Whatsapp before he could spoil it for us. To find out if the flour theory is correct, all that remains is to wait for all the next episodes of the series, which also became the second-best debut for HBO since 2010, behind House of the Dragon.