HBO’s The Last of Us season 2 is here and it wastes no time in raising the stakes. Alongside the return of beloved characters like Joel and Ellie, the new season goes deeper into the post-apocalyptic world fans have come to love. But what really has everyone talking isn’t just the emotional reunions or fresh faces like Dina and Jesse it’s the chilling introduction of a brand-new type of infected.
Who Are The New Infected In The Last Of Us Season 2?
In episode 1 of season 2, Ellie and Dina set out on a routine patrol with other members of the Jackson settlement. What starts as a standard sweep turns into a heart-pounding moment when Ellie falls through the ceiling of an abandoned store. Alone and disoriented, she quickly realises she isn’t by herself and what she’s facing is unlike any infected she’s seen before. Creeping eerily in the shadows and barely visible at first, the creature is shown crawling between shelves and hiding behind debris. Unlike the frantic aggression of Runners or the terrifying sound-based attacks of Clickers, this infected is calculating. It moves with a strange, deliberate intelligence stalking, waiting, and seemingly planning its next move.
The infected is eventually shot by Dina, but the real shock comes afterward when the pair report their encounter. Describing the encounter to Tommy and the town council, Ellie emphasizes how different this infected was. “It didn’t run at me,” she says. “It took cover, planned, waited, lured me in stalking.”
Fans of the video game may have recognised this chilling new foe as the Stalker. While not featured prominently in the show’s first season, Stalkers were present in the original The Last of Us game. In terms of timeline, they’re infected hosts that have been under the Cordyceps virus’s influence for two weeks to a year making them a disturbing blend of Runners and Clickers. They retain a degree of stealth and speed, making them dangerously unpredictable and hard to detect.
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Stalkers don’t just charge at their victims they hunt. They’re often found hiding, waiting in dark corners, and attacking when least expected. Their unsettling behaviour and erratic movement patterns make them one of the most unnerving threats in the franchise.