Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us, Season 1, Episode 2: “Infected"Only two episodes of HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation have aired so far, but fans are already raving about the live-action series and its faithfulness to the 2013 video game.

While many of the show’s scenes are shot-for-shot replica of cut scenes from the post-apocalyptic shooter, series creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have taken some creative liberties while adapting The Last of Us—sometimes resulting in even more horrifying scenarios.

One such scene closed out Sunday’s episode, appropriately titled “Infected,” which saw Tess (Anna Torv) sacrifice herself to save her smuggling partner Joel (Pablo Pascal) and their precious cargo Ellie (Bella Ramsey).

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Though the video game saw her shot down by U.S. soldiers to buy Joel and Ellie time, The Last of Us series had a more grotesque ending in mind for Tess—the heroine is subjected to a horrific kiss from a Cordyceps-infected “Clicker,” leaving audiences watching in horror as his fungal tendrils stretch curiously into her mouth just before Tess blows the remnants of the U.S. Capitol to smithereens.

Speaking to Variety about the creepy kiss, Druckmann shared that it seemed more “thematically appropriate” than Tess’ sacrifice via soldier.

“Part of it was the deviation from the game, where Tess is killed by soldiers. We had a long conversation about what’s more thematically appropriate for this episode, which is called ‘Infected’ and is about the threat of the outside. We’ve left the quarantine zone and that led to this other version where she’s giving an opening to escape to Joel and Ellie by blowing up a bunch of infected,” he said, adding that the “cruel” co-creators had to take the already-wounded Tess to the edge before finally letting her go.

“Because we’re cruel to the characters we love so much, it felt like she knows she’s done for, and then the lighter doesn’t work, and we take her all the way to the edge of horror before we finally give her an out.”

The Last of Us Co-Creator Says Clicker Kiss was Inspired by Fan Art

     HBO Max

Though Mazin and Druckmann had reworked the circumstances of Tess’ death, the revolting kiss of death itself has roots in macabre fan art.

“I found this image that an artist had created of somebody that had become subsumed by fungus and in their mouth there were mushrooms,” Mazin said, sharing that the art led to more questions about how a person infected with fungus would act in real life.

“We were already talking about tendrils coming out and we were asking these philosophical questions, ‘Why are infected people violent? If the point is to spread the fungus, why do they need to be violent?’ We landed on that they don’t. They’re violent because we resist, but what if you don’t? What does it look like if you just stand perfectly still and let them do this to you?”

“Then we landed on this nightmare fuel. It’s disturbing and it’s violative. I think it’s very primal in the way it invades your own body. To use an overused word, it’s triggering. It’s [a] remarkable combination of Neil’s direction, Anna Torv’s acting when there isn’t obviously anything there and our visual effects department doing this gorgeous work to make it all come together and feel real and terrible.”

If that wasn’t enough nightmare fuel for you, new episodes of The Last of Us air on HBO and HBO Max every Sunday at 9 p.m. EST.