The Last of Us Episode Two Brings One of the Games’ Creepiest Sequences to Life

This piece contains spoilers for The Last of Us series as well as the game that inspired it. If you want to get a spoiler-free feel for the show check out our The Last of Us Season 1 review now!

Throw your mind back to the first time you played The Last of Us. What was the first moment you felt the hairs on your arm begin to stand up in alarm? There’s a high likelihood it was as Joel, Ellie, and Tess ventured into the dark halls of the museum in Downtown Boston. It’s a desperately harrowing sequence; grim. violent, and tense. The kind that’s best played in the pitch black night, with the volume loud so that you can trace and avoid the newly revealed Clickers’ cries. And in “Infected,” Druckman and co. translate that feeling perfectly.

The second episode HBO’s adaptation builds in even more moments and conversations translated near verbatim from the game — eventually presenting a masterclass in tension and horror in its final act, adapting one of the most eerie sequences from the source material with terrifying precision.

One of the hardest things about adapting a video game to television or film is the big question of how you put the viewer in the shoes of the protagonist. The nature of gaming means that we get to drive the story, make the decisions, and feel the emotions of the character we’re controlling. It’s choices like that which made The Last of Us game such a massive hit. It puts us in the driver’s seat and asks the player to make impossible choices, pushing us to ask monumental moral questions while trying our best to survive the end of the world. So far, the series has used handheld cameras, intelligent lighting, and a deftly written script to immerse viewers into Joel and Ellie’s world, even if they aren’t getting to drive the decisions they make.

The third chapter of the Naughty Dog horror game, “Outskirts,” sees you headed to the Capitol Building just like Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and Tess (Anna Torv) are in the second episode. Your goal is to drop off the unexpected burden of a young infected/not-infected girl named Ellie with the Fireflies in exchange for the swag that Robert double crossed you for. But on your way, you get your first real taste of the horrors that await outside the Quarantine Zone.

Zombie storytelling has long been defined by creeping around dark tunnels, shadowy empty buildings, and moonlit nights. But in The Last of Us game, the creators contradict that trope by placing us in the overgrown beauty of a city gone to ruin. Much of the adventure takes place outside and many of the first opponents we face are human. But as Joel, Tess, and their cargo reach Downtown Boston, everything changes. Suddenly, they’re pushed into the dark depths of the abandoned buildings where the Infected still roam. While the game briefly dips into the depths of the subway first (and we’ll likely venture into those tunnels sooner rather than later in the show), the series dives straight into the haunting halls of the Museum.

The tonal switch in the show is so well done that, as soon as Joel smashes through the Cordyceps holding the Museum doors closed, the atmosphere shifts. But there’s a specter of hope: the fungi was “bone dry,” meaning perhaps the monsters inside might not be as bad as we think. Alas, as the trio pull out their flashlights, anyone who’s played the game — or watched a horror movie — feels the goosebumps begin to rise. Although their outdoor route is blocked by writhing mushroom-monsters, everything in you screams at them not to enter the dark. But, of course, they must. Echoing footsteps and wobbling flashlights throw you into memories not just of playing The Last of Us deep into the night alone, but also of Resident Evil, Night of the Living Dead, and the kinds of yarns that never end well and always feature a monster that’ll haunt you for years.

As Ellie, Joel, and Tess creep through the museum halls, director (and game creator) Neil Druckmann utilizes shaky cam, closeups, and the roving beam of Joel’s flashlight to pull us in. Every creaking footstep and shuddering breath feels like a threat. When Joel warns his companions that they need to be absolutely silent, gamers will know why. But, for those new to the material, it’s just one more thing to fear before the horror is truly revealed.

Viewers have seen some of the lesser Infected before the protagonists make it to the city, but it’s in the moments in the museum that the show introduces the most nightmarish evolution of the Cordyceps brain virus, the fungi-faced terrors known as Clickers. To become a Clicker, the Infected must have survived at least a year and, while they’re blind, their hearing is supernaturally sharp. Their plated skulls are overgrown with fungal decay and finger-like funnels. All that hints at their previous humanity are their gaping, tooth-filled mouths. Although game players meet the Clickers just before they head into the Museum, it’s in those empty echoing halls that they really have to test their stealth and skills against them. It’s a desperately harrowing sequence; grim. violent, and tense. The kind that’s best played in the pitch black night, with the sound loud so that you can trace and avoid the Clickers’ cries. And in “Infected,” Druckman and co. translate that feeling perfectly.

The hair-raising final act is a great example of how the team thoughtfully cherry picks from the games’ most iconic sequences. While the epic scope of the sprawling Subway station would have been impressive so early on (we’ll likely see them head there later in the series), the second episode is all about the intimate burgeoning relationship between Joel, Ellie, and Tess. The contrast of their casual, almost friendly journey (and banter) in the wide open space of the fallen city and the agitated fear that immediately permeates as they enter the cramped interiors of the museum is striking. It also helps that an empty museum is an inherently eerie, liminal space. We expect to see them bustling with life, but here The Last of Us guides us through ruined corridors of broken glass, haunting mannequins, remnants of the past wrecked by time and the violent effects of the Cordyceps virus. It’s the perfect setting for the show to introduce it’s most notorious monster, and the battle for survival that the trio fight against the Clickers cements Joel and Ellie as comrades in arms, at least for now.

Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.