The Last Of Us Season 2 Briefly Features Rarer Infected From the Game

The Last of Us Season 2 premiere didn’t waste any time introducing the new characters from The Last of Us Part II. It also debuted a terrifying new version of the infected that was only briefly seen in the game.

There are spoilers ahead for the premiere of The Last of Us Season 2.

During the episode, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) has a close encounter with a stalker–an infected that can sneak up on its victims. It’s smarter than the average infected as well. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin spoke with IGN about the introduction of the stalkers and hinted that they will play a larger role in Season 2.

“It feels like they should [have a larger role],” said Mazin. “I mean, if you meet a single infected that is that tricky, that smart… And by the way, this comes from my experience playing the game and being absolutely terrified by the stalker. The stalkers freaked me out so much, and I loved how they presented this new kind of challenge, which, I assume, came partly from the desire to expand gameplay. But what it did was it also had this pretty serious emotional impact on me. So, as we travel from game to show, we go, ‘well, let’s focus in, and let’s focus in on one of them. And if we are scared by one of them, well, do the math and see where this goes.'”

In this week’s behind-the-scenes video, Ramsey noted that “the stalker really freaks Ellie out because she’s never seen anything like this. She doesn’t know how to handle it. And so, Ellie is going into this completely blind. She has the benefit of being immune, but I think she’s just really thrown by the whole experience.”

The other co-showrunner, Neil Druckmann, recently explained why Joel (Pedro Pascal) is in therapy this season. As seen in the trailer for the episodes to come, Joel may not be the only character who needs therapy.

The Last of Us Season 2 will continue on Sunday, April 20 on HBO and Max.