We're just three weeks into The Last of Us on HBO, but it's already become clear that the writers aren't afraid to go off-script from the video game's version of events. This latest episode focuses mostly on the relationship between Bill and Frank, characters we never actually see interacting together in the game despite an implied long and somewhat tumultuous history.

　　Those pieces of the episode are its best bits, but before we experience the elongated flashback of their time together in Lincoln, Massachusetts, a scene between Ellie and Joel confirms a popular fan theory regarding how the outbreak of the cordyceps fungi began.

　　You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

　　Click To Unmute

　　Resident Evil 4 Is A Perfect Remake

　　How Alan Wake II Made Me Face My Fear of Horror GamesGameSpot's Top 10 Games of 2023Thompson: The Pop Culture Icon’s Strange Legacy - LoadoutFirearms Expert’s FAVORITE Weapons Of 2023State Of Gaming Handhelds In 2023Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Ichiban Kasuga Character Spotlight TrailerHow Lies of P Cracked the Souls GenreLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Saeko Mukoda Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Chitose Fujinomiya Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Eric Tomizawa Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Kazuma Kiryu Character Spotlight Trailer

　　Share

　　LinkEmbed

　　Size:640 × 360480 × 270

　　Start at: End at: Autoplay Loop

　　Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

　　Sign up or Sign in now!

　　Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

　　This video has an invalid file format.

　　00:00:00

　　HTML5

　　Auto HD High Low

　　Report a problem

　　Sorry, but you can't access this content!

Please enter your date of birth to view this video

　　By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

　　Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

　　enter

　　Now Playing: The Last of Us Episode 3 Breakdown: Frank & Bill’s Love Story, Social Reactions

　　Ellie asks Joel about how it started, essentially wondering who Patient Zero was, and how it spread so fast. According to Joel, who provides a history lesson for both Ellie and the audience, the cordyceps fungus mutated, and he adds that the best guess is it "got into the food supply."

　　He continues, "Probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. There were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere, all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal...pancake mix. You eat enough of it, it'll get you infected."

　　As tainted food hit shelves on Thursday and people ate it, by Friday, Joel says, people got sick and things quickly got worse. "Then they started biting," he added dramatically.

　　In explaining the outbreak's origins to Ellie, fans are able to connect some interesting dots of their own.Though Joel says no one knows for sure, it seems like this is the writers' way of delivering this information as canon, which happens to support the "flour theory" fans have posited all over subreddits, Twitter, and Discord for the last two weeks. Last week's episode further solidifies this theory in the opening scene in Jakarta, during which time the mycologist learns that there was an incident at a flour and grain facility in her area.

　　But the most interesting part of all this is not just that the fans got it right. It's that, if you recall the season premiere, it seems Joel and Sarah, and to a lesser extent Tommy, narrowly dodged infection four times on that fateful day: once when Joel and Sarah decided not to make pancakes that morning, soon after when the pair declined their neighbors' invite to eat some biscuits with them on their way to work and school, later when Sarah took home a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies from her neighbors' house but never ended up eating them, and last of all when Joel forgot to pick up his own birthday cake after a long work day.

　　Of course, Sarah does not survive that night anyway, but the subtle suggestion, which only makes sense two episodes later, is that Joel wouldn't even be alive 20 years later to guide Ellie across the US if he'd stuck to his original breakfast plans way back in 2003. In this way, his Atkins diet may have actually saved his life.

　　Mark Delaney on Google+