The Last Of Us Fans Are Freaked Out But Also Completely Intrigued By The Floor In Episode 4

Warning: This article contains spoilers for "The Last of Us" Season 1, Episode 4, "Please Hold to My Hand."

"Please Hold to My Hand," the most recent episode of HBO's "The Last of Us," pivoted away from the intimate, self-contained emotional storytelling of "Long Long Time," and got back to the overarching plot business, with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) hitting the road on their way to Wyoming. It was a momentous installment for the duo, one that saw Ellie finally make use of the gun she picked up at Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank's (Murray Bartlett), while Joel came around more and more to his newfound role as a father-ish figure to her. It was also an important moment in "The Last of Us" because it introduced us to the local revolutionary faction led by the ruthless Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey).

While the long-term aims of this new militia group are not yet fully clear, the episode has already offered plenty of reasons to be intrigued by their intense modus operandi, as well as by the single-minded personal agenda of Kathleen — who is dead-set on a vendetta against Henry Burrell (Lamar Johnson), a well-known character to fans of the game. 

One of the most intriguing elements of that portion of the episode involves a rather odd bit of interior design. The storage room floor shown to Kathleen by her lieutenant Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) has got fans wondering just what the heck is going on down there.

The clearest tell that Kathleen has no time for anything else until she finds Henry is that, when Perry points out to her that the floor of the storage room is literally breathing, she instructs him to leave it be and not tell anyone for now. As Twitter reactions make clear, this left fans of "The Last of Us" utterly puzzled and properly disturbed, and, given the way some are speculating about it, Kathleen's refusal to deal with it may be coming back to bite the Kansas City militia big time.

On the Reddit post-episode discussion thread, two of the most-liked comments, by u/zsteve9 and u/ApatheticFinsFan, were ones expressing confusion at the floor scene. Most of the replies to those comments agreed that the moving floor was probably a result of some kind of subterranean fungus growth that was causing the room to slowly cave in — an architectural occurrence which Redditors aptly dubbed a "mush room." Some replies, however, went even further and speculated that the basement in question may be holding something "The Last of Us" fans have long been eager to see: a bloater, a.k.a. the last, most powerful and horrifying infection stage.

Posters like u/TylerNY315_ and u/AchillesGRK noted that, since a bloater appears in the preview for the next episode, all signs would seem to point to the mysterious underground area being its current hiding place. We'll have to wait and see — which, incidentally, is exactly what Kathleen shouldn't be doing.