Warning! This article contains spoilers for both The Last of Us episode 2 and the original game.The Last of Us episode 2 featured a terrifying new variant of the show's infected in a heart-pounding scene. On their mission to take Ellie to the Fireflies at the State House, Joel and Tess—played by Pedro Pascal and Anna Torv respectively—have the option of taking a less-dangerous but longer route, or following a shorter but more perilous path. At first, the trio takes the long way before seeing a horde of infected between themselves and the State House.
This leads Joel, Ellie, and Tess to a museum that is infested by another kind of infected. In a scene taken directly from the game, the trio must make their way through the museum to traverse the buildings that keep them from their destination. Bella Ramsey's Ellie is then introduced to a type of infected she had only heard rumors of before: Clickers.
How Clickers Are Different From Other Infected (& Why They Look Like That)
Clickers are a different type of infected from the usual Runners in both appearances and characteristics. Clickers are differentiated from Runners in that they are humans who have been infected by the Cordyceps illness for longer. If a human host is infected for longer than a year, the Cordyceps fungus begins growing externally. This causes fungal growth to become prominent on the hosts' heads, completely enveloping their eyes and blinding the host. This explains their different appearance from the much more human-like runners.
The fungal growth that differentiates Clickers also acts as a sort of armor. Runners are much easier to kill, often dying with a clean shot or a hit to the brain as shown in The Last of Us episode 1. However, the fungal growths on Clickers harden, allowing them to take multiple shots with their brains still intact.
Why Clickers Make That Sound (& How Their Echolocation Works)
The Last of Us' Clickers are named for the clicking sounds they make, which are different from the regular screams and groans of Runners. As the Cordyceps fungus begins to spread over the host's face and blinds them, Clickers develop this sound as a form of echolocation. Echolocation is used by many real-world animals to make sound waves that bounce off objects and provide echoes to determine an object's distance, size, and location.
Clickers echolocation effectively allows them to use sound as a form of sight to create a differently enhanced result from the fungi Cordyceps of The Last of Us. While Clickers predominantly use sound to locate their prey, it has its limitations, as seen with The Last of Us episode 2 when a Clicker standing extremely close to Joel, Tess, and Ellie cannot tell they are there despite the echolocation until Ellie breathes sharply and reveals them as being alive, and not merely corpses.
As well as locating prey, the Clickers' echolocation is used to navigate their surroundings. Without it, Clickers would likely wander aimlessly into walls and objects. However, as showcased by The Last of Us episode 2, Clickers can navigate dense, confined areas seamlessly through the clicking sounds they make.
How Powerful The Last Of Us' Clickers Really Are
A key thing that differentiates Clickers from the Runners of both The Last of Us show and the game is their strength. HBO's The Last of Us episode 2 showcases this in both their physical power and their ability to withstand damage. The first Clicker encountered by the trio is initially shot by Joel with multiple bullets. This same Clicker is then shown grappling with Joel and having the strength to disarm him. Later in the scene, a Clicker pins Joel down which Joel shoots two more times. The Clicker then takes four more shots to the head before finally dying, showing just how strong and durable they are.
The second Clicker also showcases incredible strength even after Tess hits it with an axe. After this, the Clicker is able to continue searching for the trio before Joel eventually shoots it twice in the head to kill it. The Last of Us episode 2 demonstrates that the Clickrs ar much more advanced than the Runners in the tragic opening that saw Sarah's death in The Last of Us episode 1. In that sequence, Joel kills the Millers' neighbor with one hit, truly highlighting how much stronger and more powerful Clickers are to the regular infected inhabitants of The Last of Us' post-apocalyptic USA.
Do All Infected Become Clickers In The Last Of Us?
The Clickers in The Last of Us episode 2 raise the question of whether all infected hosts turn into this same type of monster. The answer to that question depends entirely on how long the human host lives after becoming infected by the Cordyceps parasite. The Last of Us establishes that people infected by Cordyceps begin to turn within 24-48 hours of being bitten, which turns them into the first stage of infected - Runners. After a few weeks, the infection turns the hosts into Stalkers, much stealthier versions of Runners. A year sees them turn into Clickers, which means only infected humans who survive a year after infection become Clickers.
As evident by The Last of Us episode 1's dead guy on the wall in the subway, not all hosts survive the infection. Some of them can be killed early which results in their bodies decaying while the Cordyceps infection begins to spread around them. Only infected hosts that survive the infection longer than a year become Clickers, meaning they are fairly rare within the world. The stage after Clickers is even more terrifying, something hinted at by Ellie in The Last of Us episode 2 and seen in the show's official trailer: Bloaters.
Bloaters are only created after the host survives a decade after infection, in which the Clickers' fungal growth spreads across their entire body. This coats them in almost impenetrable fungal armor, making them much more difficult to defeat. In the game, Bloaters can also emit fungal spores which can damage non-infected humans, and the first is encountered in Bill's town, potentially linking to The Last of Us episode 1's radio message. While Clickers are the main focus of The Last of Us episode 2, they serve to build up to the revelation of Bloaters somewhere down in the line in The Last of Us season 1.
New episodes of The Last of Us release every Sunday on HBO.