The emotional third episode of The Last of Us, centering on the characters Bill and Frank, is important for the series adaptation of the video game. Here’s why.
Warning, spoilers. It is advisable to have seen episode 3 of The Last of Us before continuing to read this article.
Highly anticipated adaptation of the famous video game, The Last of Us is the hit of the moment. A real success in the United States on HBO and in France on Amazon Prime Video, the phenomenal series convinced a large audience, from fans of the video game franchise to neophytes, from the first two episodes.
But the third chapter, now available, marks a turning point in The Last of Us. This episode allows to raise the series to a higher rank and to stand out with intensity from the source material by exploring even more in depth the past of its characters, here Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett).
An episode of great emotional power
Still affected by the death of Tess (Anna Torv), Joel (Pedro Pascal) wants to find former allies, Bill and Frank. He thinks they can be of great help with his mission, which is to bring Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to the Fireflies. Very quickly, this third episode The Last of Us turns to a succession of flashbacks, which reveals a moving and tragic love story.
That of Bill and Frank, and this over twenty years. In “Long, long time”, we discover their meeting, the beginning of their rapprochement and idyll, the birth of a true love, their fights to protect their home, their joys, their sorrows, their disputes, their moments of sharing, but also their “happy” endings.
HBO
Because when we return to the present, we understand that Joel and Ellie will not find Bill and Frank alive. Frank became paralyzed from a degenerative disease and asked Bill to help him end his life after getting married, which Bill does for love. He will follow his spouse in death by committing suicide too, because he knew he would not bear life without Frank.
Thanks to performances by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, direction by Peter Hoar (It’s A Sin) and writing by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), The Last of Us gives us one of the best episodes of the series, ever. a great emotional power, which should be one of the must-see episodes of the television year.
Neil Druckmann, creator of the video game franchise and co-showrunner of the series, trusted his partner Craig Mazin to flesh out the characters of Bill, much loved by fans of the game, and Frank, whose corpse we only see in the game, and write them a real untold story.
“We don’t have to stay with our two heroes for the whole trip, nor to focus on a single timeline and a single place”explained Neil Druckmann to Deadline, “So when Craig presented me with the full story [de Bill et Frank]although it evolved over time, it was all there.”
“It was so beautiful and moving and it kind of connected and enhanced the themes and issues of Joel and Ellie’s story in an interesting way. Even though we were going in a different direction, I found myself said it was a good idea”he added.
HBO
And the result is as sublime as it is heartbreaking. Craig Mazin was very moved to find out what director Peter Hoar and editor Tim Good have concocted, especially when he saw the first two-hour version of the episode:
“I cried so hard that at one point I said out loud, ‘Ouch’. I mean, it hurt. I cried so hard it hurt. And I I figured if guys can do this to me and I wrote this fucking script, then I think it could work very well on other people.”
From Implicit Clues to a Great Upsetting Gay Romance
This third episode of The Last of Us could disconcert the fans since it is an unpublished story but also the neophyte spectators because the time is not for the “great” main action. But that is precisely what makes the beauty and value of this chapter. The public takes the full brunt of another point of view – optimistic! – on this apocalyptic context and gives a glimmer of hope in a world where death reigns.
The beautiful love story between Bill and Frank comes as a suspended moment in the series, a breath of fresh air before returning to the oppressive and dangerous atmosphere of the adventures of Joel and Ellie. Above all, it does not come from nowhere. Video game fans know very well that Bill is gay and that he had an affair with Frank.
Although this is never explicitly mentioned in The Last of Us Part I, there were indications that Bill was homosexual. He is greatly affected by the death of Frank, who he was living with, when he and Joel discover his dead body and Ellie had found adult male magazines in Bill’s van.
HBO
Bill’s sexuality was even confirmed by game director and series co-creator Neil Druckmann in a 2014 interview for gay gamerin which he explained that he would have liked to incorporate her more openly into the game but, in the end, her sexuality was treated in an ambiguous way.
With the series, the co-showrunners can thus stage this gay romance, which contributes even more to LGBTQIA+ representation on television. A major challenge for the director of this episode 3, Peter Hoar, himself a homosexual.
He confided in an interview to Reverse that it was an honor for him to be able to tell this poignant, intimate and just love story between Bill and Frank in The Last of Us:
“I had just finished the series It’s a Sin, where five boys go through the AIDS crisis in the UK. I hadn’t realized how much of a voice I could be, a representative and how many people listened.
The community was so wonderful towards the show. Now it’s happening again, not just with the LGBTQ community, but also with The Last of Us community, which I now belong to.”
An important new plot for the series that remains in phase with the game
This exploration of the romantic relationship between Bill and Frank in no way alters the canon of the video game and even enriches it by bringing an additional layer of emotion and depth to the plot of The Last of Us. an even stronger narrative spring to Joel and Ellie’s relationship, even if the latter does not ultimately meet Bill.
HBO
Already in the game, Bill explained to Joel that it was difficult to separate from Frank, because they did not have the same vision of the future: “A long time ago, I got attached to someone quite a bit. He was a partner. Someone I had to protect. But in this world, that kind of bullshit only does one thing “Getting shot. So you know what I did? I thought it through. And I decided to stay on my own.”
This cutscene foreshadowed Joel’s future: he will become attached to Ellie and feel a certain paternal love for her to the point of seeing his life turned upside down. The fact of deepening the romance between Bill and Frank brings grain to grind with the feeling which will be born in Joel.
In the series, this is much more explicit, since Joel discovers the letter left by Bill after their suicide in which he explains that protecting Frank is what gave meaning to his life after the epidemic. And he unwittingly left him the necessary tools so he could continue his story with Ellie.
Unlike their alter egos in the video game, Bill and Frank were able to fully experience a love story, grow old together and die together in a chaotic context and become a source of hope for Joel. Even though he has lost Tess, he will open up to Ellie and allow himself to become attached to her – who reminds him of his own daughter Sarah who died tragically – with the desire to live such a banal and normal existence, in a context as dangerous as Bill and Frank.
Not only does episode 3 of The Last of Us bring emotional depth to the series, but it also pays homage to the very essence of video games. Despite its violence and its post-apocalyptic context, The Last of Us remains a love story, a story full of humanity, like that of Bill and Frank.
HBO
And the end shot of the episode is even a nice nod to the game since it’s a shot on the window of Bill and Frank’s house. This plan is reminiscent of the start menu of the video game work, which is also a window, when you want to launch the game. A nice way to conclude this episode, as explained by Craig Mazin:
“As a gamer, I’ve always loved The Last of Us splash screen. Looking at that window and seeing how peaceful it was, even though the world isn’t peaceful and even though what happens to these characters is not peaceful.
And that seemed like a good idea to us. There is an opportunity to show both the idea of this permanent love that will always be there in this building, in their house, but also just the theme of this window which is the embodiment of peace in the world of The Last of Us.”
The Last of Us series is broadcast in US+24 on Amazon Prime Video in France.