The Final of Us Season 2 dropped a significant bombshell in its fifth episode. The Cordyceps fungus is not simply transmitted by means of bites. You may also turn into contaminated by means of airborne spores.
This revelation will not come as information to The Final of Us recreation followers, as spores have been a mechanic because the very first recreation. Nonetheless, the scene that introduces spores to the present additionally hints at a significant Contaminated enemy from The Final of Us Half II: the Rat King.
What’s the Rat King in The Final of Us Half II?
The Rat King is a boss from the second half of The Final of Us Half II, and it is definitely essentially the most disgusting creature in each video games. It is primarily based on the true (however uncommon) phenomenon of rat kings, which happen when a gaggle of rats will get their tails irreversibly tangled.
In the case of the Rat King in The Final of Us Half II, exchange rats with the our bodies of the Contaminated, and the tangled tails with the Cordyceps fungus, and you’ve got a reasonably good thought of how this unholy amalgamation was shaped. Significantly, you thought a Bloater was unhealthy? Effectively, a Rat King is Clickers on prime of Stalkers on prime of a Bloater, so it is simply unhealthy information throughout.
How does The Final of Us Season 2 trace on the Rat King?
In The Final of Us Half II, the Rat King lurks within the basement of the WLF-controlled hospital the collection introduces in episode 5. Although we do not meet it on this episode — and with two episodes left, it is unlikely we’ll meet it in Season 2 — The Final of Us nonetheless finds a solution to trace at its existence.
Mashable High Tales
Within the episode’s opening sequence, Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) talks to WLF soldier Elise (Hettienne Park) about why she made the choice to dam off all entry factors to the hospital basement, dooming a number of of her males to die.
The explanation Elise provides is the spores, however she provides that regardless that the hospital basement was the place the primary Cordyceps sufferers had been introduced when the outbreak began, it was oddly devoid of Contaminated.
“Nothing, the entire flooring was empty,” Elise tells Hanrahan of what is within the basement. “Not even rats.”
The precise point out of rats appears like a reasonably clear trace to The Final of Us avid gamers that the present writers are interested by the Rat King. However even the basement’s vacancy is a chilling reference to what’s coming. It has been 25 years because the Cordyceps outbreak — sufficient time for the basement to get horribly overgrown with fungus. And if these first Contaminated our bodies had been left down there, undisturbed, for 25 years, that is additionally sufficient time for them to turn into fused collectively into the mass that’s the Rat King.
Meaning the basement flooring is not really empty. All of the our bodies simply grew into one big enemy that nobody is aware of is down there. Perhaps the lacking rats even fused with the Contaminated Rat King. (Or perhaps they had been an early meals supply.) Both method, we’re in for a nightmare at any time when the Rat King lastly exhibits up.
New episodes of The Final of Us Season 2 premiere on HBO and Max Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
