THE LAST OF US showrunner explains that Bill and Frank’s new story is ‘the key to unlocking this whole show’

The latest episode of The Last of Us it’s getting a lot of praise from the fans, many saying it’s the best episode so far. Fans are even asking for award nominations Nick Offermanwho played the character of Bill in an incredible way.

This episode, titled “Long Long Time” after the 1970 Linda Ronstadt song, expands on Bill and Frank’s story in the game in a big way. In a recent interview with EW, Offerman said, “It’s a completely amazing, beautiful love story.”

The episode traces Bill’s story since the outbreak began and his survival over several years in Lincoln. During that time he meets a jaded traveler named Frank (Murray Bartlett) who finds himself stuck in one of Bill’s traps. The two begin a relationship with each other and their social circle comes to include Joel (Peter Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv).

Craig Mazin says, “I had a gut feeling that we probably needed to catch our breath as an audience after the first couple of episodes. I wanted a way to show some of the passage of time between Outbreak Day and the current day of the show without doing anything else of the same, world falling apart.”

Discussing the character of Bill, Mazin continued, “The character of Bill is fascinating. I love the idea of ​​a guy who was actively preparing for the end of the world, and when it happened he was like, ‘Good!’ Bill in the game is a dark prediction of where Joel might end up if he doesn’t open his heart again: alone in a fortress of his own creation, paranoid and grumpy, which is different, which is to say, there is a harbinger of hope. in this world, you can still find someone to share your life with. No one lives forever, but the goal we all should have is to have a good life. And when the end comes, we’re satisfied.”

“After spending 16 years together, Frank suffers from a terminal illness and Frank wants to end his life, but before he does, he wants to spend his last day choosing outfits, getting married and sharing one last dinner with Bill. It is at this dinner that Bill mixes Frank’s many medicines into a glass of wine so that he can die peacefully in her husband’s arms. But Bill doesn’t want to live without Frank and he too drinks the lethal brew. He says, “I’m old, I’m satisfied, and you were my purpose.”

In the end, Bill and Frank die together. They sort of have a happier ending to the series because in the game Frank ends up killing himself to avoid succumbing to the Cordyceps infection, leaving behind a note: “I want you to know I hated your insides… I think you were right . Trying to leave this city is going to kill me. Even better than spending another day with you.”

At the end of the series episode, Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) travel to Lincoln where they find Bill and Frank dead. Ellie reads the letter Bill left for Joel, telling him to help with his supplies and gun cache to “keep Tess safe.”

Discussing this in an interview with the LA Times, Mazin explains why this story of the series is the key that unlocks the rest of the show: “For people who have played and loved the game, this is pretty much all new. The story of Bill and Frank and the letter that Bill leaves [in the show] it’s such a big part of why Joel decides he’ll continue [on this journey] with Ellie… Their relationship eventually becomes kind of a skeleton key to unlocking this whole show, as far as I’m concerned.”

Mazin expanded on that comment, telling EW, “The idea was to show these two people functioning in a relationship, two very different people who have different concepts of how to love, and in their relationship and their two different ways of loving , both outward and inward, we create a kind of thematic code for the whole show. Every relationship that we see from that point forward, you can feel like a kind of Bill and Frank lurking inside everyone.”

He also said that Bill and Frank’s romance was a way of expressing to Joel and the audience that “there is a way for people to achieve some kind of peace and happiness and love in this world.” Mazin went on to say, “I think in a show like this, where the world around our characters is constantly putting them under pressure… it’s important to show how a relationship could last, and then end naturally. Because death is a thing perfectly natural to do.”

What do you think of the third episode of The Last of Us?