Lastly, while insects do gain some level of aggression when infected, they normally do not attack other insects. All 600 species of Cordyceps which seize control of insect bodies do so to force the host into a humid place where the fungus can feed on the body and spread its spores, so if an evolved cordyceps infected a human and over the course of many days transformed the body into a shambling host, the fungus' end goal would be much the same.

Even if it did, fungal infections are slow, taking a matter of weeks, and nothing like the near-instant transformation depicted new filaments take some time and energy to produce. Human brains contain hundreds of thousands of times more neurons compared to an ant brain, and it would be an extraordinarily rapid evolution for cordyceps to gain the ability to infect and take over one. Overall, the probability of a fungus of this type evolving the need and capability to infect humans is astronomically small. Sadly, it could not be re-created for the show.As with the game, the series' depiction of the cordyceps fungus has some inaccuracies. This was a lovely, heartwarming sequence that lifted up Ellie’s head space as the center of this universe. The game tries to re-create this experience for the player with button prompts while the camera is zoomed in on Ellie’s face, as she reacts to her electronic dreams. In the video game, the arcade machines are busted, and instead Riley asks Ellie to imagine the video game in her head. In the show, the machine just works and the two girls actually play the game. The arcade game sequence underscores a huge difference in how effective video game storytelling can be.It’s a style of gameplay sometimes referred to as a “prestige tour,” popularized by developer Naughty Dog in their efforts to tell video game stories beyond violence.

This is probably also the episode that most mimics the video game version, as the “Left Behind” gameplay consisted mostly of walking and talking. It’s an important one as it confirms Ellie as gay, and lays out her foundational trauma, much like the show did with the death of Joel’s daughter. This entire episode is a retelling of a chapter that wasn’t in the original release it was released later, as downloadable content.

The last of us the left behind download