This article includes spoilers for The Last of Us season two and The Last of Us Part 2
Summary
The Last of Ussomehow manages to make an already terrifying undead creature in a Clicker and make it even more terrifying as the games progress. We’re yet to see a TLOU infected’s final form in HBO’s adaptation though, but writer Craig Mazin has teased that might be about to change.
In season two, episode five of the show, which aired on Sunday night, Ellie chases Nora down into the basement of a hospital the WLF is using as a home base in Seattle. The second level of that basement has been cordoned off due to it filling with spores, a way in which cordyceps can spread in the games that has only just been introduced to the show.
The recreation of the Ellie/Nora scene is fantastic. However, the episode ends before viewers are shown what’s lurking in the third level of the basement. Earlier in the episode, members of the WLF discuss there being a B3, but since they sealed everything off at B2, where Ellie and Nora find themselves, they have no idea what horrors might await them right under their feet. Mazin knows, and those who have played The Last of Us Part 2 might know as well.
There’s Something Scary Living Under That Hospital
How Do I Tell My Non-Gamer Friends To Brace Themselves For The Rat King?
Mazin commented on the unknown horrors of B3 during this week’s The Last of Us podcast, noting that gamers might know what’s down there (H/T toScreen Rantfor the transcription).
We understand that there are horrors in B2, even if we have not seen them yet. We understand that they’re there. But note, nobody knows what’s on B3, just leaving that out there. I think some people who played the game might know.
Mazin doesn’t say it as that would spoil what’s to come, but the something he’s referencing here is a villain called The Rat King. For those who haven’t had to face off against one of the most horrifying boss fights in all of video games, The Rat King is a giant infected creature that appears to be an amalgamation of a bunch of clickers, stalkers, and bloaters all rolled into one terrifying monstrosity.
The idea in both the games and the show is that infected tend to die off pretty quickly. However, if they survive, they continue to grow and become bigger threats. The Rat King is an example of what happens when multiple infected survive for years, and may even have been one of the first people to be struck down by the cordyceps two decades before the events of the games and the show.
As for when we might see The Rat King in the show, it might be a while. There are only two episodes left of season two, and it seems likely episode six will be a flashback episode featuring Joel, and I’m assuming episode seven will culminate in the standoff at the theater between Ellie and Abby. We’ll almost certainly be seeing a lot more of Abby in season three, and she’s the one who has to fend off The Rat King in Part 2.
