This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 1.
The HBO series The Last of Us has done a great job thus far of making those infected by Cordyceps seem as terrifying as they do in the games (if not more so in some cases). We’ve seen characters chased by “runners,” the still somewhat-human earliest stage of infection. They’ve had to sneak by “clickers,” a late stage of the infection that renders the host blind and only able to detect people through echolocation and sound. And we’ve seen a couple of “big boys,” more commonly known as “bloaters,” a late stage of infection that creates a thick armor on the host and makes them incredibly strong and difficult to kill. But the show has finally found a way to introduce another kind of infected found in the games – “stalkers.”
Found in The Last of Us Part I, Part II, and the Left Behind DLC, stalkers are the second stage of infection in the game after runners and before clickers. It takes anywhere from two weeks to a year for the Cordyceps infection to reach this stage. Physically, stalkers resemble a cross between runners and clickers. They still look vaguely human, but are starting to have Cordyceps growths on their head, often covering at least one of their eyes but not always.
They make an odd and chilling sound that’s not quite as refined as the clickers’ echolocation, but shows the development of this level of communication with the infected. But they also know how and when to be quiet to get the upper hand on their prey. As Ellie (Bella Ramsey) points out in the episode “Future Days,” these infected seem smarter than the other stages we’ve seen previously. “I’m not saying it can do math or anything, but it didn’t run at me. It did what we do – took cover, planned, waited, lured me in. Stalking,” Ellie tells the Jackson council.
