Long Long Time
Season 1 • Episode 3
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 3.]
Adapting any work for the display screen is like strolling on a rope stretched between two skyscrapers. It’s a balancing act—understanding which components of the supply materials should be stored and, however, which items of that supply materials gained’t work, or want reworked. The Last of Us proved itself proficient at first (severely, how freaky have been the Clickers final week?), and in its third episode, it reveals it is aware of how, the place, and why to diverge.
The surprising (and stellar) reworking includes Bill and Frank. In the sport, Bill and Frank’s story isn’t essentially one in all enduring romance. While they have been collectively earlier than the world ended, issues ended badly—like, “Frank hung himself and left a note saying that death was better than remaining with Bill” badly. (Yikes.) We don’t see their romance blossom; we all know it existed and went bitter. In retaining with its methodology of discovering magnificence on the finish of the world, that’s not the strategy The Last of Us takes.
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The Post-Apocalyptic Meet-Cute
In 2003, Nick Offerman’s Bill was a survivalist/doomsday-prepper residing in a small city in Massachusetts. He’s the man with a passed-down-for-generations farmhouse, cabinets, and cabinets of weapons, plus a “Don’t Tread On Me” flag hanging in his basement. Yeah, it’s no shock the apocalypse barely rattled him. Having evaded the federal government’s roundups (and executions) of civilians, Bill spends his days getting provides from dilapidated shops, placing up elaborate programs of fences and traps round his home, and watching Infected strive—and fail—to interrupt by way of his defenses. It’s not a foul life. He has loads of meals, and heck, he even has wine. It all appears to be going fairly effectively… after which in the future, an alarm goes off.
When Bill ventures out to test the entice, he finds not an Infected however a person. The intruder—Frank (Murray Bartlett)—hurriedly explains that he is not going to rob Bill or take over his residence. Frank was a member of a QZ, but it surely fell. In fleeing it, he stumbled into Bill’s entice. He makes a honest plea for Bill’s assist, and reluctantly, Bill permits him to come back inside, use his bathe, and eat the primary respectable meal Frank had in a really very long time. But Bill additionally insists that within the morning, Frank has to go. It’s a basic romantic setup, and The Last of Us pays it off effectively.
Before he’s set to go away, Frank notices a piano in Bill’s front room. Excited, he rifles by way of the songbooks—most of which belonged to Bill’s mom—till he finds a group of Linda Ronstadt preparations. With joyous abandon, he begins an upbeat rendition of “Long, Long Time,”… and clearly unsettled, Bill orders him to cease. When he takes over, he performs a mournful, somber tackle the piece, and when he’s executed, Frank is moved. “So, who’s the girl?” he asks. A beat passes. “There is no girl,” Bill solutions, his voice heavy. “I know,” Frank responds. They share a young first kiss by the piano, and The Last of Us commits to telling Frank and Bill’s love story in full—the great and the unhealthy, the blissful and unhappy.
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One Perfect Day
Bill and Frank keep collectively for the subsequent 20 years. It’s not all sunshine and roses (though they do plant a beautiful backyard), however far most of the time, they’re ideally suited to one another. Frank sands down Bill’s tough edges—he fixes up the boutique and some different shops on the town, although they’re not getting used—and Bill lends his imaginative, warm-hearted companion a sensible aspect. Frank’s conversations over the radio finally join them with Joel and Tess (Anna Torv), and we see them meet to debate organising a buying and selling system for weapons and drugs. Frank and Tess get alongside straight away, whereas Bill and Joel are extra reserved, if not outright hostile. “I don’t need you or your friend complicating our lives,” Bill tells Joel.
That’s nearly true. They’re in a position to stand up to challenges from the skin—raiders, as an example, simply as Joel warned—however time presents a far much less conquerable impediment. After a bounce ahead of a number of years, Frank, who has grown sickly, depends on Bill to assist him get round their residence in a wheelchair. He can not paint or play the piano with a tremor in his fingers. The present by no means outright names Frank’s situation, though he does say that even earlier than the apocalypse, it ‘wasn’t one thing [doctors] may treatment.”
One morning, Bill awakens to seek out Frank already off the bed. He’s upset along with his companion at first for not asking for assist, but it surely’s nothing in comparison with what Frank has in retailer: “Today is my last day,” he tells Bill. Frank has determined he’s executed residing and solely desires one final “perfect day” along with his companion earlier than he dies.
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A Long, Long Time
What follows is a shifting, heart-shattering sequence wherein Bill and Frank gown in fancy garments from the boutique and put on wedding ceremony rings, thus marrying one another. They spend the entire day collectively in contentment, however dinner is coming… and Bill is aware of he’ll want to combine all of Frank’s capsules into his wine, as he requested. When the second comes, nonetheless, Bill throws them each for a loop: not solely does he adhere to Frank’s needs and provides him the pill-dissolved wine, however he drinks it himself, too. “I’m old,” Bill tells his companion. “I’m satisfied. And you were my purpose.” Various feelings flit throughout Frank’s face, and he tells Bill that he disapproves of what he’s doing… after which he holds out his hand and smiles. “From an objective point of view, it’s incredibly romantic,” he says. We see them stroll collectively to their bed room, and it’s implied that they drew their final breaths in one another’s arms.
After touring by way of the forest, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) arrive on the home in spite of everything of this has occurred (however not too lengthy after, contemplating the meals from Bill and Frank’s final meal remains to be sitting on the desk). Ellie finds a observe from Bill addressed to “Whomever, But Probably Joel.” The observe explains that they’re useless, and all the pieces in the home is his to take to “keep Tess safe.” Extra-heartbreaking, contemplating what occurred to Tess within the final episode.
In the tip, Joel and Ellie wind up taking a few of Bill and Frank’s weapons and provides and their blue truck. (After asking for one for the previous two episodes, Ellie secretly steals a gun—we’re fairly certain that may come again later.) As they drive away, the digital camera pulls again to the bed room window the place Frank and Bill lay right down to everlasting relaxation… and “Long, Long Time” performs to deliver their fantastically tragic love story to an in depth.
The Last of Us, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO