The Last of Us: Kiss scene in episode 2 has an explanation

alert of spoilers for episode 2 of The Last of Us.

The second episode of The Last of Us had a grotesque scene, difficult to watch. More than that, it brought a novelty to the universe created by Naughty Dog, never before seen in games.

The scene, towards the end of the episode, shows an infected person slowly approaching Tess (Anna Torv), until he gets close enough to give her a kiss, with tendrils coming out of his mouth.

In games, the infected are always violent, and there has never been a similar scene. But there is an explanation, which was given by the creators of the series.

“We were already talking about tendrils coming out and asking these philosophical questions. Why are infected people violent? If the intention is to spread the fungus, why do they need to be violent?” said Craig Mazin to Variety.

“We ended up concluding that they don’t need it. They are violent because we resist, but if we don’t? What happens if you stay perfectly still, and let them do that to you?”

“We landed in that nightmare. It’s disturbing and violating. I think it’s primal in the way it invades your body. To take an overused word, it’s triggering.”

“It’s a remarkable combination of Neil’s direction and Anna Torv’s portrayal, because there’s obviously nothing there. Our VFX department did this beautifully finished job to look real and terrible.”

Another explanation surfaced on HBO’s official The Last of Us podcast. Craig Mazin said that the scene represents love and the way it works.

“The fungus loves too. It multiplies. That’s what we do when we love someone. Many of us multiply. That’s how the species is propagated,” Mazin said.

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