Based on the 2013 video game, the HBO Max series The Last of Us follows a leading male character as he survives a viral outbreak and, years later, is tasked to smuggle a girl to safety. Pedro Pascal plays the leading role of Joel, a single father haunted by the events of his past when the outbreak occurred. A theory for The Last of Us suggests how Joel and his daughter, Sarah, played by Nico Parker, almost got infected in the first episode.
[WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us.]
‘The Last of Us’ Episode 1 begins with a normal day that turns into chaos
Like most apocalyptic series, a typical day turns into the worst. His daughter wakes Joel up on his birthday. Sarah is well aware of her father’s habit of forgetting things, like pancake ingredients. After a quick breakfast, Joel’s brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), arrived to take him to work at a construction job. They hear on the news about turmoil in Jakarta, Indonesia. Hoping to salvage his birthday, Joel promises his daughter to come home with a cake.
The day goes on as normal, and Sarah goes to a local repair shop to fix her father’s watch with the money she “borrowed” from her father’s dresser. While there, the shop owner’s wife is frantic and speaks to him in Arabic. She tells him to close the shop early and tells Sarah she must go home immediately.
Sarah returns home and goes to her elderly neighbor’s as promised. She is offered cookies to take home but does not eat them as they have raisins, not chocolate chips. But fans noticed that while she looks at a DVD, her neighbor’s mother begins to jerk with odd movements behind her. Unaware, she goes home with the cookies. Later that night, her father comes home and forgot to bring a cake.
Instead, Sarah gives him the fixed watch as a gift and the DVD she took from her neighbor. They watch it until Sarah falls asleep when Joel gets a call from Tommy saying he was arrested. With no other choice, he tucks Sarah into bed and goes to bail out Tommy. Sarah wakes up to explosions and her neighbor’s dog at her door. She soon learns the infected older woman has eaten her neighbors. Sarah is rescued by her father and Tommy and discovers there is a viral outbreak.
The theory for ‘The Last of Us’ speculates flour is the probable cause of the outbreak
The Last of Us is based on the popular game. The viral outbreak is called Cordyceps and is likely due to a fungus. The series opens with two scientists discussing the possibility of viral infections, with one talking about a fungal infection being the most deadly. IGN posted a TikTok video revealing a theory as to how Joel, Sarah, and Tommy escaped infection in The Last of Us.
The theory is based on a Reddit thread that explains all the events that led to them not getting infected, and it has to do with flour. According to the theory, it has to do with the character learning there is trouble in Jakarta, Indonesia. It just so happens that it is the home to the largest mill factory in real-life that produces flour. It is crucial to how Joel, Sarah, and Tommy do not get infected.
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Sarah does not find flour for her father’s pancakes and settles for scrambled eggs. When the neighbors offer them biscuits, they also refuse. Fans may notice the older woman is being fed the biscuits for breakfast. Joel also says he is on the Atkins diet, meaning no flour-based carbs.
When Sarah is at her neighbor’s, she also does not eat the cookies because they have raisins. The last clue is when Joel returns home and forgets to buy a birthday cake, which is made with flour. The Last of Us theory suggests the viral outbreak is caused by contaminated flour.
Is the flour theory consistent with the video game?
It is no surprise that details in The Last of Us parallel the game’s story. But some fans believe the contamination theory is canon and not necessarily a theory. The series has not confirmed how the viral infection was caused. In the games, the infection is explained due to contaminated crops from South America.
But fans see a few loopholes in the contaminated flour theory. Many find it hard to believe as the series fast forwards years into the future, where the infection has already whipped out a good portion of the population. Did they discover how the infection spread and avoid all flour-based products? It is only natural that survivors would take and consume any ration of food during a pandemic.
In the series, fans do not see what the characters eat in the aftermath of the pandemic. The flour theory for The Last of Us is still plausible and keeps some ties to the video games.
