In the game, spores are one of the main ways the disease that eradicated most of humanity is communicated. In the show, this was downplayed, replaced by tendrils. Spores are obviously tricky to shoot, as they obscure vision and dirty the lens, while they also force the actors to wear gas masks, making it harder to emote. However, we now know that in season two, spores will play a much bigger role. Series creator Neil Druckmann says it's because "there had to be a dramatic reason of introducing it now," and I suspect there is one scene in particular these spores have been brought back for.
The Outbreak Is Less Important In Season One
While you can argue the botanical sense of tendrils over spores, they don't really change the narrative. There's less crouching for Pedro Pascal to do, but the plot is the same. This plant-based disease turns you into not-zombies, and you don't want it getting close to you. What and how you avoid it doesn't matter, because often, the cordyceps virus is just a roadblock for no-go zones so the characters can encounter the worst of humanity brought forth by the end of the world.
Very little of the first game is actually about surviving the outbreak. Though the TV show plays up its impact for the grotesque visuals, most of the dangers Joel and Ellie face, and most of the deaths they cause and witness, are the result of violent human beings. Even the finale, though motivated by a desire to find the cure, sees Joel saving Ellie from other humans, not from any danger directly caused by the disease.
This changes in the second game. There are still human enemies - Ellie is forced to explore hostile WLF territory, while avoiding Seraphites, and Abby is forced to explore hostile Seraphite territory, while avoiding the WLF. It's almost as if their stories mirror each other or something. And yet they both face very obvious disease-based danger. Ellie must navigate the spore-filled subway tunnels and rotten arcade, while Abby must make her way through a disease-ridden hotel and fight the Rat King in the depths of the hospital. But it's the subway tunnels that cannot have the same impact without spores.
Ellie's Biggest Choice Is Caused By Spores
While in the tunnels fleeing from infected, Ellie gets a crack in her mask. Since she's immune, this doesn't matter - she only wears the mask to avoid drawing suspicion. However, she's travelling with Dina, who does not know this. Dina immediately tries to remove her mask and offers to share it, so they both get some protection, and Ellie has a split second, heart-breaking decision to make.
Ellie stops Dina and chooses to tell her she is immune, but this isn't the straightforward decision it seems. Joel knowing that about her led to his death, and the seemingly irreparable fracture in their relationship that Ellie will never be able to heal. And her immunity also caused her to lose her last girlfriend, Riley, after the two seemed to be set for a poetic death. Ellie choosing to reveal it to Dina is a necessity to save Dina's life, but there is still an emotional weight to that decision. In that moment, she decides that opening herself up to hurt, betrayal, judgement, and estrangement is preferable to hoping Dina's plan works, which she knows it will for her anyway.
Sharing her secret with Dina rather than sharing her mask is the moment Ellie and Dina go from young kids in love to something deeper... which only makes what comes later even harder. And while I trust the show to adapt rather than reshoot the game, this moment is a crucial part of their shared arc, and it seems unlikely the tendrils could offer a similar moment of sacrifice. The spores are needed for this scene to exist, and this scene needs to exist. Long live the spores.
