In The Last Of Us, Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett prove that true love survives the apocalypse
The Last Of Us' third episode is light on mushroom zombies and heavy on LGBTQ+ romance and Linda Ronstadt
TV Reviews Nick Offerman
The Last Of Us co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann needed to kick the storytelling up a notch in episode three to keep us watching. It’s not that the first two were a snooze; they deliver plenty of tasty world-building, doomy atmospherics, scary action, and worthy heroes. But the culture has churned out a ton of grimdark dystopia in the past twenty years or so, no? Where’s the human quirk, flamboyant characters, and artful dialogue?
I’m not pining for The Walking Dead’s long shuffle into soap opera, just something a little less mechanical (especially needful in a game-based show). Pedro Pascal is a perfectly charismatic leading man. But part of me wishes that Joel had been not a construction worker, but instead, oh, a poetry professor at UT-Austin who also happens to be good at clambering over rubble and shooting zombies in the face. Imagine quoting The Waste Land before he slams a fresh magazine home. Just kidding (kind of). For all its epic sets and cinematic gloss, the series can be quite square and trope-y: the Indonesian mycologist who tells the authorities to nuke the cities, the worn-out Zippo Tess (Anna Torv) desperately flicks, the hardened antiheroes, and the sassy young sidekick.
All of which is cause to celebrate “Long Long Time,” where the tropes are markedly different; it’s a survivalist chic, rom-com, and disease-of-the-week weepie. The episode is essentially an artfully telescoped film sandwiched by Joel and Ellie hiking west of Boston, getting supplies and a truck, and driving out. Joel’s Firefly brother Tommy is in Wyoming, so he can help Ellie (Bella Ramsey) get to the lab that may discover why she’s immune to infection. Our heroes’ story doesn’t actually advance much. Ellie, who has been begging for a gun, finds one, which she stashes in her backpack without telling Joel. That will either be a problem or come in handy soon. Joel lays out the rules (I’m paraphrasing): 1) don’t talk about grief 2) don’t show anyone your bitten arm and 3) do what I say. We’ll see how long before the rebellious Ellie breaks each commandment.
It’s the extended flashback inside the frame that was so touching and refreshingly emotional. Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank’s (Murray Bartlett) funny and tragic love affair didn’t establish new world rules or alter Joel and Ellie’s objective, but it showed a tender, more adult side of the pandemic, and how two men nurtured a tempestuous passion and their version of civilization behind gates and tripwires. Before we get there, let’s recap business with Joel and Ellie.
The first jump scare comes about nine minutes in. Joel searches for stashed supplies in a looted and abandoned Cumberland Farms store as Ellie unwisely descends through a trap door to explore the dusty basement. She hears a telltale raspy groan. A half-Clicker is trapped under a bunch of cinder blocks and rubble straining to get free, its mushroom head sticking out. Ellie inches close to the terror toadstool, shining her flashlight. After the close scrape in the museum in Boston, you’d think the girl would be more circumspect, but hey, she’s immune—and badass. Flicking open her knife, she studies the beast, slices open part of its forehead to reveal white tendrils underneath, then plunges her blade into its brain. It’s a chilling window into Ellie’s strength and cold-bloodedness.
As they continue down the road, Ellie peppers Joel with questions about how the pandemic happened. Apparently, they didn’t get an accurate account in “shitty FEDRA school.” Joel explains that it was a mutated form of Cordyceps that got into the food supply, like flour, which went into products sold globally and thus infected people who started biting and attacking others on September 26, 2003. The two come across a field strewn with human skeletons. Twenty years back, a whole village of people was rounded up and massacred by FEDRA troops, because the Quarantine Zone (Q.Z.) was already full.
Flashback to September 30, 2003, in Lincoln, Massachusetts. A survivalist sits in a shadowy bunker (stuffed with guns, gallons of sulfuric acid, and back issues of Guns & Ammo), watching soldiers round up civilians on his CCTV monitors. Viewed from behind, the doomsday prepper grabs his rifle as he hears soldiers searching the house above. The goons are called away and he relaxes. “Not today, you New World Order jackboot fucks,” the bearded stranger drawls. Wait a minute; we know that voice. Ladies and gentlemen, Ron Swanson has entered the room. And hotelier Armond is not far behind.
Casting inherently comical and likable stars from Parks and Recreation and The White Lotus is a risk that pays off. Their familiarity and sweetness (or, in Offerman’s case, sweet-and-sourness) provide relief from Joel’s 24/7 stone-faced doggedness and the existential dread that characterized the first two episodes. One man’s apocalypse is another man’s paradise.
Bill’s survivalist montage (set to a jangly rockabilly tune) shows him filling barrels with gas, raiding Home Depot, and setting up his own power generator. He’s embracing the breakdown of society with the glee of a teenage kid who throws a party when his parents go on vacation. And hey, Offerman (an accomplished woodworker) sells it. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy a home-cooked steak and a glass of red, then pause to check your surveillance monitor as an infected get a round in the head from the tripwire gun you set up? “Never gets old,” our happy hermit murmurs contentedly.
Four years later, Bill has effectively turned Lincoln into a gated community. One afternoon he detects an intruder along the perimeter and confronts a filthy, bearded but charming man (Murray Bartlett) who has fallen into one of his pit traps. Ascertaining the guy is not armed or infected, Bill lowers a ladder. What then unfolds (over the span of 16 years) is the greatest romance you may ever see in a zombie thriller.
If The Last of Us is about the love that grows between a grieving father and the girl in his care, its parallel is the bond between Frank and Bill, which Mazin’s script traces with tremendous heart and humor. Never lapsing into camp or cheesy softcore, their courtship proceeds with impressive delicacy; even innocence: a sensuous lunch (Bill is an excellent cook), then the touching business around the piano, leading to a kiss and then a hot yet tasteful scene in bed—in which we learn (unsurprisingly) that Bill has limited sexual experience. (Bartlett deserves an Emmy nod just for the look Frank gives the freshly showered Bill after tugging his towel away, a tiramisu of lust and solicitude.)
Three years later, they’re like an old married couple, bickering over Frank’s insistence on mowing lawns and fixing up the local abandoned shops. Frank reveals that he’s been in contact with a woman over the radio, and that he and Bill should cultivate the friendship of other, you know, human beings. Next thing you know, Tess and Joel have slipped out of the Boston Q.Z. and are lunching with Bill and Frank on the lawn, discussing ways to share resources. Ever paranoid Bill remains on high alert, keeping his sidearm on the table pointed at Joel, until Joel insists he put it away. Joel warns Bill that his metal fence is rusting and raiders could easily break in and attack them in a year.
It’s exactly what happens one night. Frank is woken up by explosions and gunshots outside. He grabs a pistol and races downstairs and out the front door. Bill is in the middle of the street with a rifle picking off raiders, some of whom are on fire from incendiary bombs or getting electrocuted on the fence. Bill takes round in his side. Frank drags his bleeding lover inside to dress the wound. Bill passes out and we fade to black.
Ten years later, Bill has recovered; it’s Frank who is dying. The men are now old and gray. Frank, in the final stages of ALS, must use a wheelchair and passes the time painting watercolors. He takes pills to ease the pain, but there’s no doctor or hospital they can turn to. Frank informs Bill one morning that today will be his last day. He’s chosen euthanasia, rather than suffer and be a burden on his partner. Frank outlines the plan: they will put on nice suits, get married, have a delicious meal, and then Bill will dissolve a bag of crushed pills in Frank’s wine. Bill weeps helplessly yet agrees.
Their final dinner (like their first: rabbit, green beans, a Beaujolais) ends with Bill informing Frank that he poisoned both of them. “I do not support this,” Frank says. “But from an objective point of view, it’s incredibly romantic.” Bill wheels Frank to their bedroom. Acted with enormous sensitivity, wit, and nuance, it’s a devastating scene of true love, a model of how one might face the end with dignity, and not alone.
And yet! The Discourse surely will ask: was the whole episode a big tarted-up example of Bury Your Gays? Did our doomsday bears have to die? Compared to the game’s treatment of Bill’s transformation of Lincoln and partnership with Frank, the HBO adaptation is a sexually explicit and emotionally layered portrait of a middle-aged gay relationship. The men get to love, squabble, make a home, and die in relative peace as old men. That’s more than most characters enjoy in this world. In interviews, Mazin has promised to keep “the gay going”—i.e., Ellie will be gay. Her FEDRA schoolmate Riley, whom we’ll meet in flashback (played by Euphoria actor Storm Reid), was more than a bud….although she died before the current story began (naturally).
After Bill and Frank’s swan song, Joel and Ellie return to the narrative. They’ve made it to Lincoln some days or weeks after the final supper. Joel opens Bill’s gate with the code. Bill left a letter and key for Joel, explaining everything and telling him to take whatever weapons or supplies he needs. Bill ends with a special message for Joel, which only he will understand: “I used to hate the world and I was happy when everyone died,” Ellie reads aloud. “But I was wrong because there was one person worth saving. That’s what I did: I saved him…That’s why men like you and me are here: We have a job to do, and God help any motherfucker who stands in the way.” Bill saw his misanthropic double in Joel, the man who didn’t want to let anyone in. Joel is still in the process of giving his heart to this strange, jokey, fierce girl who needs his protection. Although now that Ellie has one of Bill’s gats, she might do some saving.
Stray observations:
- Lincoln is the hometown of the rock band They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh and John Linnell. They named an album after it. Personally, I would have preferred “Birdhouse in Your Soul” over end credits, but the Ronstadt was inevitable.
- Those searching for stereotypes in Bill’s house will be confused. There’s evidence of weekend antiquing and decent taste in crystal, but no framed Sondheim posters.
- “Arby’s didn’t have free lunch; it was a restaurant.” First legit LOL line of the season.
- The scrupulous porting of details from game to series continues to impress. Note the one-eyed, double-horned purple monster head that dangles from Ellie’s backpack.
- Some in the commentariat keep shouting that those infected are NOT ZOMBIES, dammit. They are victims of a fungal pathogen that colonizes human bodies, effectively turning them into hybrid organisms. Joel points out the dead can’t get infected. So, new nomenclature: Fungbies? Shroombies? Mushbies? Cordycepticons?
- Surprised when Nick Offerman started crooning Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time”? You shouldn’t be.
- Cute meta gag: Ellie gushes over the Mortal Kombat arcade game.
- Fifty minutes in, Bill helps Frank to bed, and director Peter Hoar uses the same medium-close framing as when Frank and Bill made love, but with reversed blocking: Frank in the foreground, Bill behind. The circle of their lives is closing.
- Caymus Vineyards, which Bill stocks up on, is real.
- “This isn’t the tragic suicide at the end of the play.” Bill could be referring to many well-known dramas: Hedda Gabler, The Seagull, Death of a Salesman, ‘Night, Mother, and the list goes on.
262 Comments
Frank, in the final stages of cancer
Seemed more like ALS. It would explain the wheelchair and hand tremors.Nick Offerman crushed that.
With his line about their being no cure even before the apocalypse, and I think you’re right.
This was my interpretation as well — Frank is suffering from a terminal disease that had no effective treatments in 2003, when modern medicine collapsed. The line about “we didn’t know how to treat it even before the world went to shit” suggests that it’s not cancer, because we had treatments for most cancers in 2003.
I didn’t see it as ALS at all.
By the time of those scenes where Frank is clearly symptomatic, he’s both in their late-40s/early-50s. By that age, ALS has either rendered the sufferer almost completely infirm (think Stephen Hawking), or they’re long dead (think Lou Gehrig, who died within 2 years of being symptomatic, and he was a premier athlete). Not only that, but someone with late-stage ALS almost always loses the most necessary physiological abilities to survive, particularly breathing and swallowing (hence the need for interventions such as a ventilator and/or a feeding tube).
My read was Huntington’s Disease. Usually presents at a later age than ALS, and unlike ALS, doesn’t usually result in the rather rapid death that ALS can (1/3 of people die within a year of symptoms/diagnoses).
Lastly, and this is a bit of head-canon, but Woody Guthrie, the famous country singer (his most famous song being “This Land Is Your Land”, died of Huntington’s Disease. He was a noted anti-fascist/anti-Nazi. Bill spoke about his distaste of Nazi/fascist implementations by FEDRA so that would certainly be a bit of cruel irony.
Also, if it was cancer, a cancer that presents in the spinal column could easily present with the symptoms that we see, without the issues that either ALS or Huntington’s would raise (particularly the fact that with either one of those, most patients are long dead before they hit age 50, an age Frank almost certainly had reached by 2023). Lastly, to follow the classic idiom (and I paraphrase) “When hearing hoofbeats, think horses not zebras”, multiple scleroris is exponentially more prevalent than either ALS (which is rather rare at roughly 3 cases per 100,000 people) or Hungtinton’s (less rare, but still betwene 4-16 cases per 100,000), while MS is between 150-400 cases per 100,000 people.
This. When I watched it I immediately though MS or chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
“By the scenes where Frank is symptomatic they are in their late 40s”Um, no… This is 20 years beyond when they were both greying men. They are supposed to be about 70 by 2023.
They’re definitely not in their 70s in 2023. That would mean both of them were 50 during the outbreak in 2003, and it’s clear both were roughly the same age, or maybe a bit older, than Tess and Joel when they met in 2013.
Also, people can go gray much earlier than you seem to imply. I have friends who are greying in their 30s, and considering that stress can play a major role, either one of them going grey in their 30s/40s makes absolutely perfect sense.
They still weren’t freakin 20-something in the start of the outbreak, because that is absurd.
In 2003, they seemed to be the age the actors are now (early 50s), and it wasn’t just the gray or Frank ‘s illness that made them seem to be in their 70s (older tbh) in 2023. It was also the makeup and Offerman’s physicality.
“ it’s clear both were roughly the same age, or maybe a bit older, than Tess and Joel when they met in 2013.’
There is nothing “clear” about that. The only thing “clear” is that Nick Offerman in 2003 looked EXACTLY like Nick Offerman does in 2023. At the ABSOLUTE minimum, Offerman’s character is in his 60s at the end.
Only issue with thinking Huntington’s was no tremors and no neurological issues.
Frank said something like “who will come? a roaming MRI salesman?” or something. I (thankfully) do not know what kind of ailment you’d have that an MRI would actually help with at that seemingly late stage.
MS patients get regular MRIs to track the growth and spread of lesions.But I expect the real answer is that it’s a nonspecific “long illness” that is narratively convenient. Not a hard and fast medical diagnosis.
Also, Linda Ronstadt has a Parkinson’s like illness – progressive supranuclear palsy- which has of some of the same symptoms, has talked about her inability sing, yet her legacy still touched both of these people, I think there’s some beautiful meta-commentary on art and love overcoming adversity.What a spectacular episode of television, the wife and I BOTH had something in our eyes the whole time 😀
I read ALS as a strong possibility , which it’s true it could also be something else , but not out of bounds to read ALS. Source : watched my father die of ALS — also obsessively read about ALS and the stories of people with ALS which there are many and the onset/age/progression vary quite a bit.
The curled hands were a big trigger with me. ALS can certainly disable your legs and your hands before it gets your ability to breathe, he could’ve wanted to go on his own terms before that part set in (wouldn’t blame him.) You are right about usually rapid progression but off about age, my dad was diagnosed at 59 and died at 60 and I recall he was in a typical range for onset. His was actually more rapid than typical because it was bulbar onset ( got his breathing/speaking /eating before his legs) but it would actually be more common to be wheelchair bound before those things went. Sad detour to say, read ALS to me. I’ve never taken care of someone dying with cancer so maybe that’s all consistent there too idk.
It’s ALS. He showed no cognitive, emotional, or other neurological distress associated with Huntington’s.
My dad was diagnosed with ALS at 81. No prior symptoms. He was dead 6 months later. While it’s not commonly contracted later in life, it happens. It’s not clear to me from the episode how long Frank was sick.
Yeah, they confirmed on the podcast that while they left it intentionally vague, it was supposed to be ALS or something similar.
Having watched West Wing (also with Nick Offerman in one episode), it seemed possible Frank could have had relapsing remitting MLS.
ALS is what my mind immediately went to.
If someone had said 20 years a go, that one could tear up for episode of middle aged gay couple in zombie series based on video game, I would have thought that person was high. But man this was both beautifully shot, written and especially acted. God damn Offerman can really get nuance out of the grumpyness! And Bartlett was also good, but I think Offerman really stole the episode.
ALS is what I thought too, though I read an interview with Bartlett and Offerman (and some Mazin and Druckman and the director of the episode) last night, and the article said it was cancer. Now, it wasn’t a quote from any of the above mentioned, but still. I guess it doesn’t really matter; it was a disease that didn’t have a cure before the apocalypse.
My guess was MS, but I get that they were being vague on purpose because it doesn’t matter.
It ways ALS in the article – did they fix that?
My dad died from ALS 3 years ago. The symptoms and progression were spot on. Those scenes were tough to watch.
Yeah if he had HIV that would have turned into AIDS and he would have succumbed to that long before 2023.
that strawberry scene totally smacked me back of the head with some emotions.there’s definitely a message about the dangers of globalization, that we’re connected in a grotesque way similar to the mycelium network. And I think this episode gave us its counter thesis by highlighting pure and real connection in the most natural way (and with two men who might be unfairly deemed unnatural in the previous world). no matter how dire things are, there will always be glimmers of humanity. *also this felt like such a tender call in to us Queers who have been burnt too many times by the bury your gay trope in sci-fi/fantasy. this was not that trope, and it gave so much dignity to these gay men and to its Queer audience.
I loved when Bill giggles in pure joy at the taste of the strawberry.
Nick Offerman giggling is always a pure dopamine hit.
They couldn’t have Nick Offerman not do a perfectly delightful, Ron Swanson-type giggle
I was just begging my tv not to give us a betrayal. When they wheeled off into the bedroom I wanted to say thank you through all the tears.
I feel you, idk, last night really meant a lot as a queer. I never saw a Queer storyline like that on tv before. I was emotional even at work today lol
I was worried that trading the gun for seeds would come back to haunt them somehow. I also can’t help but wonder if Frank actually traded the gun for the seeds or if he took the gun for some unknown reason and used the seed story as a cover and that it is the same gun Ellie found in a desk drawer and not with the rest of their arsenal.
The saving grace of this episode is this is the first one so far where I wasn’t suffering from rampant tachycardia for 60 min. Loved a little respite with these two charming actors; Nick’s soulful eyes and Murray’s smile… Nice to know there are a few cases of Napa Valley Beauj out there to be had even with a fungal pathogen taking over the globe.
Though he’s only in the game for a small but memorable part, I always loved Bill. Having him played by Deadwood star W Earl Brown was definitely a way to successfully have him make an immediate impression. I’m happy to hear the character got expanded for the show and casting Nick Offerman is a brilliant way to make their version distinctive.
I loved that character as well and was hoping Brown would reprise the role, but Offerman was so fucking great that I can’t be mad. This episode had multiple time jumps and still managed to KILL it. That’s no easy feat. What a beautiful little tale of love, in all its complexity.
Someone should be fired for suggesting “10 miles west of Boston” looks like the Pacific Northwest. I mean, that’s like downtown Newton FFS.
Yeah, that caused some laughs while we were watching. The proceeding shots could have conceivably been Concord, although the town they ended up in was supposed to be Lincoln. Whatever. It just seems strange that they felt they needed to the hassle of getting an “idyllic mountain stream” shot for this series when neither the story or the location would seem to call for it.
Yup, there was no narrative reason for them to be in a wilderness. Indeed, it would have played a lot better if they were walking through abandoned suburbs (which is what metro Boston area really looks like).
During that scene I was thinking “wow, the fungus radically reshaped the topography of Waltham”It’s too bad. I would have loved to have those majestic peaks and ski slopes within a ten mile drive when I lived in Boston.
Because it was.I grew up in Mass and went to school in Concord next to Lincoln.Clearly that was not Mass.Never mind 10 miles west of Boston is basically still Brookline
“Arby’s didn’t have free lunch; it was a restaurant.” First legit LOL line of the season.Aye, but lets not ignore the other amazingly hilarious exchange:“You just live in your own world where 9/11 was an inside job and the government are Nazis!”“The government are Nazis!”“Now! But not back then!” You could really feel the love between those two, even in the bickering, and it was so wonderful…
I rewound both those exchanges multiple times. I rewound the Arbys line last week when I saw it in the previews. Just top notch.
I was kinda bummed I saw the Arby’s line in the previews because I think it would have been delightful to not know it was coming.
That Nazi exchange was beautiful.
While I was a bit taken aback the detour with this romance, I couldn’t believe how solidly it was written, directed and most certainly acted. The entire setting of a near complete small town fenced off from the catastrophe outside a was akin to the strawberries that brought them so much joy. But you could see in that one outburst there were still differences in their make-up but still found a beautiful common ground that lasted years. Just lovely. And all in a span of 40 minutes.And that last best day was gloriously moving. I swear, seeing Offerman in tears was a heartbreaker. He really put himself in the moments
Not sure if you missed it or not, but this romance was in the game. It’s just in letters of the areas with Bill.
It has a very different ending in the game. This was more beautiful. Though I loved the game letters too.
While Bill and Frank are a couple in the game, there is definitely no “romance”. We get Bill’s version of their relationship – that he used to take care of his partner (Frank) but he “wisend the fuck up” and sent Frank packing. Then you find Frank’s body – Bill appears sad but does not show any remorse for how he treated Frank. And finally you can find Frank’s suicide note saying that he hated Bill’s guts and would rather risk his life to escape this town than stay here with Bill (you can show this to Bill but he is more annoyed than sad).
I got something completely different out of the same scenes in the game. This is my interpretation of the same scenes.
Reading his expressions, Bill’s hard exterior and what he says always came off as half-truths. Like it’s a front. He put up a wall to block off his emotions, and seeing his dead lover is bringing back emotions he had bottled away. To make it worse the letter you give him, forces him to relive past fights. He loved Bill, they had a fight/breakup and Bill left. He had hoped Bill survived but hoped to never find the truth and move on.
His reaction to showing him the letter is less of an annoyance and more him being angry with the situation and his own emotions.
I can see how someone can see this differently but this is exactly how I always saw those scenes.
Bill definitely has the hard exterior. The story he tells Joel about having “a partner” and kicking them to the curb does come across as a “half-truth” the first time you hear it, but by this point, Bill has told himself this version of the story so many times that he’s convinced himself that’s what actually happened.Bill is obviously affected when he sees Frank’s body, but he quickly gets over it when Joel offers his condolences. “Well, fuck him!” Then he’s back to not caring about Frank when he realizes that Frank stole his battery and some other stuff he finds in the garage.Finally, when you show Frank the suicide note there is no sign that Frank is upset at all. He is only annoyed here. He is disgusted by Frank’s final words to him and throws the note away. There is no love expressed for Frank here.
The last paragraph should say “Finally, when you show Bill the suicide note there is no sign that Bill is upset at all.”
Murray Bartlett isn’t a bear, he’s a daddy.
This episode was perfection. I love both Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. God damn them for making me feel. I was almost weeping by the time Joel and Ellie showed back up.
Their final dinner (like their first: roast duck, green beans, a Beaujolais)
It was rabbit, not duck
It took me a while to remember that in 2003, people ranting about the “New World Order” tended to be hardcore liberal 9/11 truthers rather than Qanon freaks.
That wasn’t my experience. I live in Austin, TX, and Alex Jones was the main conduit for the 9/11 truther nonsense in this neck of the woods, and he and his partners in crime were right-wing bullshit artists back then too.
I also lived adjacent to Austin, and nah – Alex Jones was absolutely embraced by a ton of far-left types, including most of the members of the young democrat club that I was in. Mainly because his main argument was “Bush did 9/11″ which was extremely popular with all the folks who hated the fuck out of George Bush.
Live there too, and totally agree
Yeah no, NWO was always a wingnut conspiracy. Truthers may have been mostly on the left but their theory was the attacks were a false flag to justify US imperialism. NWO was more on the Tim McVeigh end of things.
You are all wrong, NWO was a Hulk Hogan/Scott Hall/Kevin Nash thing.
This gave me a nice chuckle. Thank you!
N.W.O. is a great Ministry song.
Some goddamn Syxx erasure happening here.
1.)I was talking about the original formation. 2)Syxx couldn’t “cut the mustard”.
Nah. Back then “New World Order” types were exclusively on the right/far-right and they were all about the “black helicopters,” the US ceding control to the “world government” UN/Bilderberg Group/WTO, coming to take our guns and rights away, etc. They tended to be more aligned and intersected with Christian Fundamentalists. Pat Robertson wrote a book literally called New World Order, and then you had the Left Behind books and movies which all came out and peaked around the early to mid 2000s.
That’s not really accurate
I noticed this shift although by 2003 it was already in full swing to the right. For me, it was the early 90s when I was in college, all the New World Order / Lizard People conspiracy people were far left nuts. Fascinating to see all that stuff be absorbed by the far right over time.
“You think 9/11 was an inside job and the goverment are all Nazis!” “But the government is all Nazis!”“Well now they are. But not then!”
I got a good laugh when the couple were arguing in the street, and the exchange was something like:Frank: “…and you always say the government is all Nazis-”Bill: “The government IS ALL NAZIS”
“It took me a while to remember that in 2003, people ranting about the “New World Order” tended to be hardcore liberal 9/11 truthers rather than Qanon freaks.”I’m afraid notNot by a longshot
NWO/Alex Jones types have always been radically conservative the difference is back in 2003 mainstream Republicans didn’t embrace or pander to them as they do now and so all of their anti-elite stuff came across as anti-Bush.
The bit with the Mortal Kombat game was also a fun nod to the Left Behind DLC, where Ellie finds a broken fighting game, and Riley guides her through an imaginary playthrough of it.
I assume that’s still to come! In the original game Ellie stumbles upon a video game during this same sequence heading into Bill’s town and she has a similar exchange with Joel about it. So it’s truly lifted straight from that, but I always wondered if they already had the plan for Left Behind and seeded that there, or connected it afterwards.
It is also actually almost line for line an optional conversation that can occur in, appropriately enough, the chapter ‘Bill’s Town’
While it was overwhelmed by the Bill and Frank arc, they did a nice job of having Ellie-as-teen show up in ways bad (the trip to the Cumberland basement and pushing Joel’s patience) but also relatable (the excited comments of someone who has never seen an airplane, the video game, and the seatbelt.) It’s far better than standard YA trope of the incredibly competent 14 year old protagonist with the emotional maturity of a 40 year old, and I’m glad they’re taking that path with her.
In the game not only is she familiar with vehicles and a seatbelt, she knows how to drive. Bill tries to tell her how to work the clutch and she says “I know how to pop a clutch!”
I think my favorite Ellie moment from the episode was her genuine glee at finding a box of tampons. Like, that would be me. And those tampons would be my prized possessions. So often mundane stuff like that never features in dystopian narratives. It gets sort of glossed over, but I’m always the person out there thinking, “Oh, this lady has survived in the wilderness for four months after her plane crashed. She’s had four periods without products. In real life, that would be a major inconvenience. But it def won’t ever show up in this narrative.” I fucking love it when dystopian shit doesn’t forget the basic luxuries of society that wouldn’t be available if an apocalyptic event happened (remember runs on toilet paper circa 2020 everyone?). If I survived the zombie apocalypse and found a pristine box of tampons 20 years later, I would be psyched.
I was a bit disappointed that they used the real-world Mortal Kombat game and didn’t make a fake arcade game of The Turning (the one from the video game).I doubt we’re going to get the scene from the DLC where Ellie “plays” that game, but I really liked playing the DLC for the first time and I saw it. I was the personification of the Leo-pointing meme – “That’s the video game from the main game!”
A very good episode. The only misstep was playing Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight, which has become an overused cliche to signal the waterworks in shows and movies. But very lovely and tender scenes with two fantastic actors. I was blown away by Offerman, showing Bill’s longing, trepidation, and vulnerability. I didn’t even recognize Bartlett at first (I wildly thought for a second it was Ted McGinley), and I’d go gay for how great he looked with that head and facial hair. Plus his more open and compassionate personality teaching the misanthropic Bill the beauty of the world (like a theme from another lovely dystopian series, Station Eleven). It honestly took me a second to wonder why they were getting married in 2023 instead of earlier, then I remembered gay marriage legality came after 2003 and so wouldn’t have existed in their world and timeline. What a brilliant stroke of writing.
I’ve seen Bella Ramsey only in Game of Thrones. Seeing her here—she’s a terrific kid actor. On the page, Ellie could be a cliched and annoying precocious, sarcastic kid, but Ramsey makes all of that funny while also showing her vulnerability and charm. I really like Ellie’s kid-like enthusiasm and playfulness for things.
I wildly thought for a second it was Ted McGinleySo did I!
Ha! Even though he’d look pretty older I think. I haven’t seen him in a while.
Funny that you mention him.Ted McGinley is currently on the AppleTV Harrison Ford show Shrinking.
So that show’s not going to last I guess. Poor ol Ted.
I thought it was Michael O’Keefe, though he’s probably too old to have been Frank at the beginning of the episode.
How much O’Keefe is in this movie?
Nah show wasn’t canceled
Ted McG does show up on Shrinking, though!
He’s busy being sarcastic over on Shrinking.
Murray Bartlett is such a chameleon, he looks totally different in seemingly every role. No way you can convince me this guy, the White Lotus guy, and the Chippendales guy are all the same actor.
And there’s his guest role on Physical, which is somewhere between Armond and Nick De Noia.
Ha, I just wrote a comment on how I loved the inclusion of “On the Nature of Daylight” because it really does induce the waterworks, different strokes for different folks I guess. To be fair though, per Wikipedia the song has only been used 23 times in film and TV since 2006 so I wouldn’t call it overused.
“ To be fair though, per Wikipedia the song has only been used 23 times in film and TV since 2006 so I wouldn’t call it overused.”That IS the definition of overused, jesus fucking christ.
Really? Of the thousands and thousands of TV episodes and movies that have been produced in the past 17 years, you think a song being used 23 times is the DEFINITION of overused? I’d bet most people haven’t even heard it more than four times (likely in Arrival, Shutter Island, Stranger than Fiction, and now TLoU). Jeebus freakin christmas right?
I’d ignore them, they tried and failed to start an argument with OP of this thread recently over stuff that wasn’t worth even batting an eyelash at, looks like the troll is trying to draw you in too
OR you can suck my balls.
You don’t have any to suck, not that any living person on this planet would ever want to.
If this episode only merits an A, I’d like to see what an A+ episode would be.
This was a perfect, perfect hour of television.
They put a moratorium on A+’s a long time ago for whatever reason, I think the last one was Over the Garden Wall (which I mean- well deserved)
If that’s the swansong of the A+, I think that’s fair.
The Ron Swansong, you mean.
Me and my kids watch Over the Garden Wall together every Fall. It is so wonderful.My oldest son, who is heading to college soon, is watching and enjoying The Last of Us with his parents. My youngest is not quite old enough yet, but the game and the show will be a treat for the future!
It was rabbit, not duck.
I cried
I’m using “doomsday bears” at every opportunity.
So I take it these reviews are only for people who have played the games? Because several plot points were just laid out there, like Ellie’s sexuality, her schoolmate Riley who is a romantic partner… who definitely dies? Thanks for all those plot points.
Yeah — Hell, the headline itself totally gives away the first twist, even if you don’t read the article and only see the headline, with no intentions of going into it and spoiling it for yourself. Nice, right?If I hadn’t already seen the episode, I’d be annoyed as hell that the buildup of their meeting and what happens coming out of left field initiallyis all evaporated with a single headline.
It never ceases to amaze me the people who read reviews before watching the episode and then complain about being spoiled.Or even when they don’t read the review, they complain that the headline gave it away. SPOILER: the internet is going to spoil stuff when a new episode comes out. If you don’t want to know what happens in an episode, don’t go online the couple of days after it airs to websites that will be discussing it.I’m sure there were lots of people who didn’t watch episode 2 immediately but went on Twitter the next day and saw that “Tess” and “RIPTess” were trending, and then complained for days that they were spoiled. You only have yourself to blame.
LOL.#1 — I already saw the episode. I wasn’t complaining that this spoiled it for me.#2 — Again, I was quite clear in my comment (which you seemed to only skim, yet felt obliged to respond) that one didn’t even need to be reading the actual review. It’s right there in the headline. And while you can easily not go anywhere on Gizmodo sites to avoid it, I’m not sure that’s the effect their bean counters are looking for (there’s some real talk, edgelord), and also — you can’t avoid the headline at all on Facebook, it just comes up in your timeline, duh.
So yeah, I don’t have “only myself to blame”, because I don’t give a fuck personally, I already saw the show when it aired. I’m suggesting a way to be considerate of other people, “Hornacek”. Yet another way the world “never ceases to amaze you”, I guess.
#1 – If you already saw the episode then you shouldn’t be complaining about this.#2 – Don’t worry, I didn’t skim your original comment, I read all of it. But apparently you are the one who only skimmed my comment. I said that if one didn’t watch a new episode then they shouldn’t go online to any site that discusses that episode at all. If you had to wait to watch this episode but for some reason went onto Twitter or any entertainment website that reviews TV and skimmed the headlines *before* you watched the episode, and you happened to see a headline that spoiled part of the episode, then you only have yourself to blame.Don’t go to websites that are going to be discussing the episode if you haven’t watched it yet – wait until *after* you watch the episode if you don’t want to be spoiled.If you weren’t able to watch the Superbowl live and recorded it planning to watch it the next day, and you went online before you watched the recording, would you blame all of the websites for spoiling who won the game? No, of course not, because that would be ridiculous, just like this argument about this episode.Seriously, this is not that difficult and people should have learned this long ago. So once again, “sui_generis”, if anyone does this then they only have themselves to blame.
Yes, you would only have yourself to blame, “sui_generis”.If someone hasn’t watched a new episode yet and they know that it will be talked about online, then why go online where they will likely be spoiled? Especially going to a website that discusses TV.This is like not watching the Superbowl when it airs but recording it and planning to watch it the following morning, but before watching it you go on Twitter and see all the tweets and hashtags spoiling who won, and complaining that everyone else did something wrong when really it was your own fault.
I think the reviewer hasn’t played the games. I think the reviewer saw some episodes in advance. Could be wrong.
Absolutely beautiful *and* guaranteed to piss off all the right assholes.
Loved it (and so glad they took this route instead of the game version).
Also I wouldn’t say that Ellie killing the infected man was her being ‘cold-blooded’ in the least. In fact I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be the opposite – her venting her grief and anger at Tess dying in her name. She might not have the same bond to Tess that Joel does but that’s still something that needs catharsis.
Ellie’s reaction is probably a little about Tess-but it is also (probably) largely about something else if the series continues to follow the game. I assume they will, since there have been small hints about it in the first three episodes………..The story will just keep getting richer!
You could even read it as merciful: that guy clearly was in some sort of pain and had some consciousness left, and we know from earlier in the show that some can live 20 years after infection.
Agreed. As well as her, perhaps, relieving the misery for this creature that used to be human.
I thought it was meant to show that she has a deeply fucked up side to her, she reminded me of a weird kid pulling the legs of a fly in that scene.
This was in the game. It was in one of Bill’s letters that you can collect.
I’m guessing he means this version of their story, in that Bill and Frank’s love ended happily, whereas in the game, it very much did not. I’m very, very glad they didn’t have it end in the same way as the game, because sometimes you need a “happy” ending in stories like this.
I think Bill and Frank’s happy ending in episode three is exactly the dose of hope needed to make the rest of the show have stakes. Otherwise, if the world is just 100% grimdark and everyone meets a gory violent death soon enough – what would be the the point in watching Joel try to survive another day?A vision of what’s possible, and what’s worth surviving for, and that happiness is still achievable, makes the rest of the show that much more engrossing.
It’s funny you say that, because that’s exactly what Craig Mazin was quoted as noting in an EW article that came out last night after the episode aired. Essentially, he said that if all you’re watching is people constantly losing, why would an audience hold out even the slightest bit of hope that our main characters could possibly win?
Oh! I hadn’t read that, but I’m glad I picked up what he was laying down 😀
Yes, it was a smart choice by Mazin and co. The game does something the show can’t do, which is keep you in Joel’s head the whole time, as an active participant, while going through action sections and Ellie’s reactions to them, which beautifully sets up what comes. What the show has very smartly done is to realize the difference in the mediums, a viewer rather than a player, while staying true to how the game made a player feel.
This is why I mostly brush off/get only mildly annoyed by commentary that dwells on how the series differs from the game. Different mediums require different treatments. So in the series you change something, like the outcome of Bill and Frank’s relationship, in service of the larger objective—to successfully adapt the ideas of the game. A good adaptation is going to realize this and work within the constraints of the new medium to make something new from the source material. I don’t know much about the game, so I can’t comment on how well Mazin and Co. are doing that. But I do know that as a stand alone piece, the series is working really well so far. The third episode was a much-needed contemplative detour from the more methodical, forward momentum of the first two episodes. We built the world in episodes 1 and 2. Episode 3 let us live in it for a little while, and it was a hell of a ride.
Their relationship in the game had a *very* different outcome.
As a queer person, I didn’t read it as a Bury Your Gays at all – they didn’t die because of homophobic brutality or tragedy, they died because they were old and content, it’s really the most beautiful, sweet, and sad episode of TV I’ve seen in a long time.
I brought this up here with House of the Dragon and the discourse around, anyone who thinks gay characters dying = the “bury your gays” trope needs to read The Celluloid Closet or watch the equaling good documentary based on it.
While “bury your gays” exists as far back as works of 18th Century literature, it was coined in reference to a very specific time in Hollywood when gay characters were either viewed as monsters who needed to be punished or tragic figures who needed to suffer. Often with the added twist of the knife that the surviving partner in the relationship would suddenly be freed from the influence of the evil homosexual or realize what a sad empty existence they were leading and run to the arms of a heterosexual partner.
To paraphrase one of the interviewees from The Celluloid Closet documentary, there was a point in time when Hollywood was telling gay audiences that they would be leading a sad, bitter short life. That’s not what this was. In fact, this was the complete opposite of the “bury your gays” trope because it showed two gay men in a long and happy committed relationship and, at no point, are their deaths portrayed as some kind of punishment for being gay.
It actively drives me crazy how misused Bury Your Gays gets used by wokescolds online, especially as someone who makes and consumes a lot of queer-themed horror work.
“wokescolds”.. I like that. Defines what is rotting the Progressive Left as a whole movement.
It drove me nuts when people started that shit with The Walking Dead when Denise was killed. Denise died in the books. She wasn’t gay in the books, but she died, nonetheless. In the show, she was killed the way Abraham was supposed to originally die. In the books, attacked by walkers in the clinic. But because her character was gay, it was all, “They killed her because she was gay!”
Unpopular opinion, but I don’t even like when people use it for really famous examples like Tara from Buffy. Not a single member of the main cast gets a love interest that is both alive and present at the end of the show (unless you’re very generous and consider Faith as main cast) – Tara didn’t die because she was gay, she died because she had the bad sense to date one of these jinxed-as-hell teens.
It drives me crazy how half the population seems to use woke to describe anything they don’t like
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wokescold#:~:text=wokescold%20(plural%20wokescolds),quotations%20%E2%96%BC
Not really sure how a wiki entry that says Ben Shaprio made the term up a few years ago helps your case.
Just demonstrating that it’s a known term in circulation for multiple years. And that it identifies an extremely real that that even I, a queer communist, have experienced by spending more then ten minutes on Twitter.
it is a term that existed and had meaning for years until recently when conservative media, like Ben Shaprio, started using it to mean whatever they want, whenever they want the past few years.
Yeah, this was basically an entire movie-length examination of two men finding love at the end of the world. It took Bill meeting basically the last man on earth to find happiness. My only problem with it is that we saw a lot of development in Bill, and almost zero with Frank, who showed up fully formed and basically maintained that character the whole time. I get that there was less to work with since he doesn’t actually appear in the game, but maybe SOME kind of details about Frank’s life before the apocalypse woulda been nice.
Exactly. In the context of the show, Bill and Frank had the happiest possible ending: dying on their own terms, in their own bed, at an old age, in eachother’s arms, after one last perfect day together. Compare that to the fate of that half-buried but still-conscious mushroom man in the basement of the general store or the all those people in the mass grave outside of Boston.
Yeah it seemed more like the reviewer was saying this as more of a “woke culture is so dumb I bet a bunch of people will backlash about Bury Your Gays” when this wasn’t really that. I thought an element of Bury Your Gays was that their gayness wasn’t on screen before their death. That’s not what this is..
I figure assuming SJW will riot over stuff is the new veiled homophobia “we could have gotten away with saying that 5 years ago” people etc.
Seriously. I’m trying to think of a better way to die, and I’m having trouble coming up with anything. Your life’s purpose if fulfilled. You don’t leave anyone behind to suffer on without you, nor do you have to suffer on alone. Just go to sleep with your best friend at the end of a long life.
I thought it was sweet, but a distraction from the plot.
It’s hilarious that there’s probably a whole generation that mostly knows her from that Simpsons episode.
Too true. I remember feeling like I really got the joke on that episode because I had been introduced to Lind from this segment on Sesame Street.
I am “she’s the lady who sings the song from Fievel” years old
My husband literally turned to me while watching the episode and said in his best Barney Gumble voice “Wow! Linda Ronstadt!” and this image came right into my mind. We had a good, long laugh 🙂
But part of me wishes that Joel had been not a construction worker, but instead, oh, a poetry professor at UT-Austin who also happens to be good at clambering over rubble and shooting zombies in the face.Have I got the post-apocalyptic show for you:Anyway, this episode felt like something I might see from The Leftovers. It was that good, and I watched it with a sort of awe. I would be surprised if there’s an episode this season that’s better than this one was.
I enjoyed Falling Skies, but people shouldn’t go into it expecting it to be on the same level as The Last Of Us (so far anyway). And yes, this episode was as beautifully crafted and performed as one from The Leftovers.
I remember enjoying that show but also thinking it looked incredibly cheap at pretty much every turn.
It was on TNT and it’s big bads were spider aliens and mechs, so very CGI heavy. They spent their money pretty well all things considered. I really enjoyed Falling Skies (mostly cuz I really like Noah Wyle); it did the alien invasion thing pretty damn well with a nice twist (taking place after the invasion) and is actually a complete story which isn’t the case for a ton of genre shows, especially ones during that era.
I legit cried for almost the whole 10 minute sequence on the last day. Murray Bartlett was great, but Nick Offerman’s acting just wrecked me. And totally didn’t expect Bill to die too, since he was still alive in the game. It was such a beautiful story. Could have easily worked as a standalone short film.I haven’t cried that much over a show or movie since the finale of Six Feet Under, and that was the result of five seasons of affection for those characters. These were characters who’s relationship only had 40 minutes of screen time.
A+
Bartlett was quoted in an EW interview that was posted after the episode aired that it was (I’m paraphrasing a bit) like having this big, sprawling, incredible horror/sci-fi story and then just dropping a beautiful Sundance film in the middle of it. Highly accurate.
So much of prestige TV has trained me to suspect the worst, so when Frank was invited in I kept thinking how is this stranger going to destroy Bill’s life?I didn’t expect to be bawling my eyes out by the end. Things ended tragically, but only after 20 good years. 10/10, maybe one of the best episodes of TV I’ve seen in years.
Yeah, if I hadn’t heard rumblings about how good this ep was, I would’ve expected Frank to grab Bill’s gun at the piano, or signal his camp while Bill was in the shower, etc. Thankfully, this isn’t the Walking Dead.
My Walking Dead brain kicked in when we said “You know I’m a bad liar” and tilted his head down peered over his nose. I was waiting for the evil gang to jump out of the treeline then.
This was the rare case where some sort-of-spoilers I read about this ep really helped and I could just enjoy the ep without waiting for the TWIST at every moment. I assumed they were doomed (my wife saw Nick Offerman and was like “Oh, he’s in this?” and I said “Probably not for long…”) but I at least knew that they weren’t going to turn on each other. At the worst, I thought maybe Frank would confess that he was supposed to signal his group if he found anything of value, but glad they didn’t even do that.
Actually, when Tess and Joel showed up, I thought they were going to be the ones to betray Bill and Frank because as they said more than once: “We’ve done some bad things…”
But Tess tells Joel to take Ellie to Bill and Frank at the end of episode 2, so they’re obviously working together.
This is true, but I was still nervous.
I think Ellie reading his farewell letter was something special, especially with that imitation of his laugh “hehehehehehehehe”
I genuinely thought Frank was going to get too greedy and try something too cute and get ventilated because I totally forgot about Frank’s off-screen partnership with Bill in the game. I should replay those games…
Maybe one of the best episodes of TV I’ve seen in years. Said exactly the same to my wife after it was over (she refuses to watch it; hates anything to do with horror). It’s going to stick with for a long, long time. Like the demons in a diner episode of Millennium (come at me Millennium haters!).
Millennium!!!!
His kid and wife ruined the whole vibe, but I cherish my millennium DVD set.
This is who we are.
I had the same experience which is why I’m glad I came here after viewing. This article mentions LGBTQ+ romance in the title. Woof.
I’m so late to the party on this, but I totally agree. One of the best episodes of TV I’ve seen in years, for sure. It had so many little moments that, in and of themselves, told a story. The way Bill adjusts the plates to get the presentation just right. The way both Bill and Frank are taken aback by the first bite of strawberry. Just perfect, quiet moments that build so much while saying very little. I was reminded of Mazin’s other HBO mega-hit Chernobyl, and how many of those small moments it had—in episode 4 when Pavel discovers the dog with the litter of puppies, in episode 5 when Shcherbina pauses to examine the small caterpillar and muses on the beauty that exists even among the ruin. Bartlett and Offerman were sublime in this episode. I fought back tears from the moment that daybreak broke and we say Frank in the wheelchair beside the bed. I was so sad when Bill confirmed his choice to die with Frank, but it also felt earned, felt justifiable. I could see myself in that same position doing that same thing, for the same reasons—I’ve lived a good life with and for you. This was the best I could have gotten. I’m content. Damn.
Same. Who would have expected that the best episode so far of HBO’s prestige zombie show would have been the one with almost no zombies?Bonus points for playing “One the Nature of Daylight” during their last day. I was a mess.
I loved the nuance of Bill showing his feelings for Frank in really vulnerable way in the bed. You can tell his is utterly terrified not about the sex but the fact he is really opening his heart for the first time. And for some, it would take an apocalypse that removes everyone around you in order to do it.
Nick Offerman in sad face is such a special thing to behold.
It can almost seem a little bit comical, but maybe that’s because it looks so huge on him and just makes this tough guy seem like just an old crying child
🙁
Offerman was so good! That scared look on his face when he says he’s never done this (“…once… w-with a woman..”) was amazing.I’m not surprised that he’s a good actor, I’ve always like his work. But he really was incredible in this,
If they were going to deviate from the source material, this was a hell of a beautiful way to do it. Also, they snuck in the giraffe music from the game after the final meal 😭.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to recognize that giraffe music.
Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight sure gets played a lot but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t get me almost every time.
Max Richter can’t keep getting away with it!
> So, new nomenclature: Fungbies? Shroombies? Mushbies? Cordycepticons?Funguys! Does reduce the horror slightly.
For the most part, I enjoyed this recap/review. But what is it about the writers on this site and their desire to review a different show than the one that aired?He wants something “less mechanical” and a more poetic lead character. He wants the show to not be so slow, but not be a soap. So many things that he wishes were different about the show, but if those things were different it wouldn’t be this show. And this show is really good.Why not relinquish your control issues and just enjoy what so many people worked hard to create to try and entertain you? The things you wish to change wouldn’t make it better—it would make it different.
i always find this kind of take on a review interesting, because in many ways your criticism of the review itself is the same as what you’re saying the reviewer is doing about the show.if they did what you said it wouldn’t necessarily make the review better – it would make it different, 😉.
You both get a star each
What control do you imagine critics have over TV production?
That was a beautifully crafted episode, right up there with some of the best TV I’ve seen over the last decade. I must admit I rolled my eyes when Nick Offerman showed up as a prepper, but they subverted my expectations in the most wonderful way.If the rest of the season comes close to matching it, it will be one of the top shows of the year without a doubt.
While I, a 51 y.o. guy, was wiping tears at the end of the episode, it came to me: it’s just the end of the first month of the year, but I guarantee you all that every single other show on air right now or yet to come ‘til the end of the year will pass 2023 trying to top this. And it’s very likely none of them will succeed.If this episode AND Nick Offerman don’t get goddamn Emmys AND Golden Globes, it will be a travesty!
While I, a 51 y.o. guy, was wiping tears at the end of the episode, it came to me: it’s just the end of the first month of the year, but I guarantee you all that every single other show on air right now or yet to come ‘til the end of the year will pass 2023 trying to top this. And it’s very likely none of them will succeed.If this episode AND Nick Offerman don’t get goddamn Emmys AND Golden Globes, it will be a travesty!
I absolutely love the games and am adoring the show so far, but man, this episode just destroyed me. Complete and frankly welcome departure from the game, where the only takeaway from Bill and Frank’s relationship is anger and bitterness, whereas this was… beautiful. Melancholy, sad, wonderful. Cried some ugly tears.
Hey – just a reminder that some of us haven’t played the game, and also don’t watch the show the minute it comes out. Maybe be a bit more careful with the titles of your reviews?
Yeah, there’s a point where you have no idea if the guy he’s trapped in his pit is dangerous or not, if he’s going to kill him, or be killed by him. Then he lets him in the house and you slowly figure out what’s up. Not if you saw this first! 🙃
Why are you reading the recap of an episode you haven’t seen?Plus, “true love survives the apocalypse” is only a spoiler in hindsight – if you haven’t seen the episode, it could mean anything.
If you haven’t watched the episode yet, why are you going to a website that reviews this show and will be discussing it before you watch it?This is like people who don’t watch a show but go onto Twitter before watching it and complain when they see what hashtags are trending (i.e. “Tess” and “RIPTess” after episode 2 aired).
Thanks for that hot take, similar to “why did you wear a skirt so short?”FYI – there are many ways to get info. I don’t go to the website, I have what the kids call an RSS FEED. Multiple places I follow are all lumped together, and you guessed it – the title of the article is there. I’m just asking not to fucking spoil things in the title because other time zones exist, no matter what the US believes.
Yeah I played the game but I watch the show on Monday or tuesday due to my schedule. The utter carelessness with the headlines in 6 hours of the show airing speaks to some serious lack of awareness.
– I’m glad they moved on from showing Sarah’s death in the “previously on”. I was worried they’d show Sarah’s AND Tess’, and then we’d just have a progressively more morbid recap every week.- I was super bummed they didn’t do a prologue like the last two showing something about the world, but I suppose the entire episode ended up being one until the end. It was fantastic seeing time progress in such a personal way. I also really appreciated the way they incorporated more of the world-building with Joel telling Ellie about how they think it started, and the mass graves.- The banter between Joel and Ellie at the beginning and end is just spot-on. I catch myself smiling wide because the jokes are on point and the acting is phenomenal.- Could not be more pitch-perfect casting for Bill. It’s literally Ron Swanson but Bill.- I loved every time Bill and Frank argued. You could tell Bill knew Frank was going to win right away every single time.- Seeing Tess again is a dream but now I need to put that band-aid back on. This is going to force me into another Fringe rewatch, she’s just the bee’s knees.- The music in this episode was absolutely incredible. ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ was perfectly placed, as was all the original music. TLOU already had one of my all-time favorite soundtracks, but having it set to episodes and scenes like these is just a whole new level. As an aside, was one of those tracks from TLOU2? I think it was when they were eating strawberries?- We should be running financial compensation ads for the emotional damage being inflicted on us. I was not in any way prepared for any part of this episode. I can’t even pick a part that hurt most. “And you were my purpose.” probably, but “use them to keep Tess safe” was pretty bad.- Bill’s letter and the way Ellie read it was superb. The “hehehehehe” made me laugh out loud.I continue to be shocked every week at what they’re doing here. It was easy to call the pilot the best videogame adaptation ever made, but now it’s no contest. I am so excited/horrified/unprepared for everything that’s coming.
I was worried they’d show Sarah’s AND Tess’, and then we’d just have a progressively more morbid recap every week.Like, I don’t necessarily want it in this show, but this is a very good idea and I want to see it in some show in the near future.
The Chucky show sort of does that in certain episodes.
The “hehehehehe” made me laugh out loud.
Inspired by the Nick Offerman giggle, not doubt.
– Bill’s letter and the way Ellie read it was superb. The “hehehehehe” made me laugh out loud.And Bella Ramsey’s subtle change in facial expression as she got deeper into the letter and to the “Tess” line. Really superb performance.
I saw that headline and subtext on AVClub before watching the episode and thought, “argh, they’re doing that tough libertarian american guy trope again, who turns out to be gay, despite being a mad homophobic right wing conspiracy theorist”. It happens often in shows now and I wasn’t keen to drop out into a love story during the thrust of the main plot of the season.
But I loved it. They did it such a good service. Just a few snapshots and vignettes but the little details in them in so short a time was so great. Best episode so far.
And just like that I pity the next video game adaptation.
This wasn’t just excellent adaptation, this was excellent TV.
Can we talk about pianos? This is the second episode where they were used, in episode 2 there is a piano in the lobby of the flooded hotel with a frog pressing down on some of the keys making music, then the piano in this episode is used to show how Frank and Bill first fall in love. There may have been one in the flashback in episode one too, I’m not sure. It seems intentional, what do you think? For me they seem to symbolize humanity and empathy, and they are being used to show us the contrast between the harshness of the new world they are in, and the humanity and empathy from that old world that has been lost.I may be overthinking it, IDK what are your thoughts?
Seems like a reasonable idea. Now just to need to see how they are used in the rest of the season.
It’s definitely intentional, for the reasons you listed and more. There’s a clear contrast between the ruin of the lobby piano and the upkeep of Bill’s piano. Pianos can be finicky instruments, requiring consistent use and upkeep to stay functional (SOB at my family piano that my parents let get so badly out of tune that it needs basically a whole new soundboard to work again). With the hotel piano, we see how quickly a society that has abandoned its humanity deteriorates. Bill’s in-tune piano suggests an attention to detail and a duty of care that the outside world has long-since abandoned—it’s this sense of care that radiates from Bill and reflects onto Joel, giving the viewer a greater understanding of his character through the ways he parallels Bill. And I’m sure there’s something to Ellie’s desire to play both of them, but we’ll have to wait to see if/how that plays out throughout the rest of the series. Each piano’s location determines its fate, much like humanity in 2003. If you were in the right place, you survived by sheer luck. The hotel lobby piano never stood a chance. Hotel lobbies are (warning, literary theory nerd rant approaching), spaces of un-belonging. They are conspicuously “not home.” Hotel lobbies are places of transcience that people pass through on their way to almost anywhere else. And yet many hotels try to make them feel homey with couches and pianos and the like, but they always feel more like a simulacrum than a real domestic space. When society crumbles, the facade of lobby-as-home falls away quickly. It is reclaimed by nature and the things that make it homey, like the piano, decay, because there is no one there to care for it. But within the domestic space that Bill maintains, the piano can endure. And when Frank arrives, the dynamic reverses, and instead of the hotel lobby serving as a domestic space, the domestic space of the home expands to also constitute a new “society” built together by Bill and Frank. The two are able to more authentically meld the domestic and the societal in ways that a hotel lobby cannot. (And this has been a completely unnecessary moment of literary criticism about two pianos in a zombie show adapted from a video game).
Nick Offerman as Bill is such an inspired bit of casting.
The funny thing is after last week’s teaser for this episode, I thought the story would be that Joel and Ellie visit Bill & Frank, on their way out Joel warns Bill about bandit attacks (in the teaser I assumed Tess was actually Ellie) and then they get attacked and Bill tells Frank to get Joel to come back and help them.So for most of the episode I was thinking “this is incredibly sweet and I love stories where people claw back some normalcy after an apocalypse, but it’s a bummer that it’s going to inevitably end in tragedy just so we can see how horrible the world is” and then… that’s not at all what happened? I was so pleasantly surprised.Honestly I’m not even sure I’d agree to some of the suggestions that Bill and Frank’s story was tragic. They met each other, lived a (mostly) peaceful and happy life, grew old together, and then died together. Sure, there are sad details mixed in there, but overall it’s honestly a surprisingly lovely and happy story amidst all the misery that Last of Us has shown us (and based on the game, will continue to show us in the future).
Yeah I fully agree it’s not a tragedy (other than taking place in an apocalypse).
Yes Bill *could* have kept living and it wouldn’t have cheapened things if he did. But if I was in his shoes I strongly suspect I would have made the same choice and died content and happy with it.
Yeah if I was living in a zombie apocalypse and I was near the end of my life with no other family and my spouse was dying I could think of worse ways to go than dying in your sleep with the person you love, y’know?Especially when the alternative is probably getting attacked by bandits or infected at some point.
Yeah, even without Frank’s disease I think ultimately that would have always been their fate – carry on until you can’t anymore (because age and other health issues would’ve caught up with them eventually) and then they’d go out together on their own terms. Because what else are you going to do?
I see people say at least Bill should have survived but from the character’s perspective why would he want to? He’d be spending the rest of his days mourning the loss of Frank and waiting for death. And what for? So that he can have an afternoon where he’s bickering with a teenager, I guess? Yeah, let him rest in peace!
Agreed. I mean, uncurbable illness is always tragic in a sense. It will always seems unfair. I went through that with my father three years ago. What makes it part of truly living though, is how that person and everyone who cares about them deals with it, and this episode was brilliant about that. There was an openness in the love and respect between the characters that stops a shitty hand you were dealt by chance from being wholly tragic. Instead it becomes an expression of love through acceptance of what you can’t control.
“Honestly I’m not even sure I’d agree to some of the suggestions that Bill and Frank’s story was tragic.”
Good, because it wasn’t. At ALL.
Agreed. Just seeing what we’ve seen so far of the world outside of Lincoln, it seems clear to me that Bill and Frank “won” the apocalypse. They got to live out their lives in relative normalcy, with someone they loved who helped them to be their best, authentic selves. It’s hard to see that as tragic.
Had a lightbulb moment this morning when Joel was sharing the timeline of infection events, harking back to Ep1. He said the cordyceps were likely spread via globally distributed/consumed food stuffs. He was supposed to pick up a birthday cake on his way home from work, but forgot. Joel & Family easily could’ve been Mushbies had he been more focused on his daughter…though she’d be dead all the same I suppose.
He specifically mentions pancake mix. Sarah was going to make pancakes for breakfast on Joel’s birthday, but they were out of mix. Tommy even mentions no pancakes a few minutes later. They all narrowly avoided infection that very morning.
Yeah, there are a few lines in the flashback part of episode 1 that showed that Joel/Sarah/Tommy narrowly avoided becoming infected – no pancake mix in the house, Sarah not eating the neighbor’s cookies (because they have raisins), Joel saying he’s on Atkins, Joel forgetting to pick up the cake, etc.
I noticed the music that plays when they go to bed to die is the music that plays in the game when they see the Giraffes, that really changes the tone of that scene and makes it less sad and more calming I think. Has to be something intentional from them that they knew they could use the music in that way.
The one casting choice I questioned before the show came out was not bringing W. Earl Brown back to play Bill. He did such a great job in the game, and he is such a great actor (The regular cast of Deadwood may be the best cast assembled for anything anywhere).I was totally wrong. Offerman was perfect for the direction they went with the story, and the whole episode was just beautifully acted and beautifully told. I was watching with two non-gamers, and they were completely enthralled by the entire hour.I was looking forward to an action packed romp through Bill’s town, but last night was just fantastic television without it. Cannot wait for episode 4.Also: Sorry for being so out of it this morning, I am probably just missing the gag (“Cute meta gag: Ellie gushes over the Mortal Kombat arcade game”). But isn’t Mortal Kombat just being used as a stand in for The Turning arcade game from the Left Behind DLC?
Don’t forget, Offerman’s in the first season of Deadwood too!
Oh, I am well aware! I almost put it in my post. Second episode I believe-he did not last long but he made an impression! I actually put “regular cast” in my post because I knew Offerman had appeared in Deadwood.Like every other part of Deadwood, the guest stars and recurring characters were also superb.I know Offerman is a good actor-I just really liked the game version of Bill and what Brown did with the character. But the third episode of TLOU was just outstanding television, and all involved deserve a huge amount of credit. Fantastic show.
Yeah, I don’t know why they put the real-world Mortal Kombat arcade game in here instead of the (fake) game The Turning. In the game it’s a great callback when it reappears in the DLC. But they couldn’t have had the prop department make up a fake version of The Turning?
Same. In an episode that was fantastic in every way, it actually bothered me that they threw Mortal Kombat in there instead of just putting in a version of The Turning. Since that is clearly what they are going off of there. Very minor gripe in a great episode!
W. Earl Brown is a great character actor. He’s been in so many things, Scream, Something About Mary to name a few.
Absolutely. He also has a really excellent guest turn in the first season of Justified.He also has one of my favorite line deliveries of all time. In response to a greeting from Hearst on Deadwood: “Mornin! Best time of the day to go %^*^$ yourself!”My wife and I still often greet each other that way on Monday mornings (all in good fun of course) all these years later………
Is this show supposed to be scary??
Good recap – but did this have to be in it – “FEDRA schoolmate Riley, whom we’ll meet in flashback (played by Euphoria actor Storm Reid), was more than a bud….although she died before the current story began (naturally).”It’s not a whole spoiler but some of us haven’t played the game and are purposely not reading too much about the game and plot, etc. Just enjoying the show. And this is a recap about last night’s episode – not future ones.
Riley isn’t even in the first game. She’s in an expansion. So it could even potentially be a spoiler for people who have played the game too.
It did not have to be in it at all, and was just plain stupid to include any info about upcoming episodes.
-It’s amazing to me that an episode like this would be so well executed on a show adapted from a survival horror video game.-Favorite line: “Never gets old.” When the walking mushroom trips his trap.
It’s amazing to me that an episode like this would be so well executed on a show adapted from a survival horror video game.Their job was made much easier by the fact that the source material is widely regarded as having one of the best storylines in video game history.
Will watch it tonight, busy weekend but… really? Was this necessary? And understand I’m a gay man, OK? Another pander? A weepy romance episode just jammed into all that good, repulsive fungal creep? I can personally do without that. It’s getting tiresome, feels very forced and honestly, the gay community doesn’t have to be indulged in every freaking show out there.
I started the game after the first episode aired, but this episode (and the previous two, to some degree) made me understand that playing the game is pretty much pointless now, because this show is a far superior way to experience basically the same main story. Yeah, some details or character fates might be different, but here I can enjoy this story – which I like a lot – without the janky fight system or moving crates or ladders or whatever.This is one of the best episodes of TV I’ve seen in a long time.
Wait, you’re not excited about spending 10 hours throwing pebbles into corners and pressing X to root through a drawer for bandages?
I got to the middle of the game, I think – I’ve met the two brothers after a riveting part where I had to hide from a machine gun truck. I think I’ll get the rest of the story from the show.
One huge benefit the game now has over the show is that it has all of the Bill/Ellie interactions, which are all gold.
I appreciated that this episode gave us a quick review (through two people’s eyes) of the time that elapsed between the infection flare up and present day. The pilot necessarily fast forwarded through that, so it was nice to get that retroactive world building.My favorite part of this episode was that Frank was objecting to Bill’s anti-government mindset only to catch himself at the last moment. OK, so maybe TODAY’S government is fascist, but they weren’t BACK THEN. Nothing better than obsolete arguments.
Love me a bottle of Caymus, Bill knew what he was doing plundering that liquor store.
I met my boyfriend during the pandemic, took a sandwich too him on his work break after chatting with him online. Just two big nerds sharing spicy chicken sandwiches, looking for some warmth in a cold world. This episode of television I was already getting misty at the wine pairing, by the time we bid Bill and Frank a peaceful rest I was out and out bawling. I’ve never felt so seen by TV or movies before. Disease may have had the final say but love won.
My loathing for this reviewer continues to increase. Stop putting spoilers in your recaps! Not everyone has played the game and knows what happened to Ellie’s friend.
Seriously. I just noted that above. I love and know the games well, but there’s literally millions of viewers who don’t even know it’s based on a game, let alone the games’ plots. This is all new for the vast majority of viewers and dropping spoilers like that is bullshit.
I wouldn’t expect any better from someone who recaps plot points with zero insightful commentary and then calls it a day. The only reason I keep coming back here week after week is the amazing community in the comments section.
Most people in TLOU are fucked, being gay doesnt give em a pass.
Absolutely stunning episode. That’s how you take inspiration from source material and adapt to a different medium while remaining true to the original’s themes. It deftly gets the characters to roughly the same emotional space they are at this point in the game plot, particularly Joel, while changing the particulars in a way that gets the audience there too. Honestly, I think it does it much better than the game (which I adore) by reversing the Frank and Bill relationship. In the game, their relationship ends bitterly. Game Bill is basically Joel’s future if he continues to push everyone around him away. The show instead starts with Bill closer to what Joel is now and reverses Bill’s arc entirely. Which makes his letter to Joel such a gut punch when it gets to the point about doing anything to protect Tess. Rather than Bill being a sort of cautionary tale of where Joel is headed, he and Frank become examples of what Joel and Tess likely could have had if Joel wasn’t so shut off to his emotions.Also, just give Offerman and Bartlett all the awards now, because that shit was masterful. Obviously, Mazin deserves a ton of credit for writing it too, as does Hoar’s direction, but holy crap those performances. When actors are doing what is essentially 40 minutes of time jumping vignettes, it’s not easy to sustain the complexities of a relationship, let alone build on them, without being rote or cloying. Here Offerman and Bartlett were just amazing at all the little moments that are indicative of years together in love. While I’d love to keep it all positive, Dave Cote, what the fuck is this? Her FEDRA schoolmate Riley, whom we’ll meet in flashback (played by Euphoria actor Storm Reid), was more than a bud….although she died before the current story began (naturally).Why would you put this a “review” for people who have not played the game? Which is the vast, vast majority of the people watching this show?
So how lucky is Bill? For all intents and purposes, he’s the last gay man on earth and he manages to trap another gay man who manages to fall in a hole in the ground.Of all the gin joints….
That’s one way to meet someone. Beats phone apps, I guess.
Elle asked the same question I was asking, how did the shit hit the fan all at once. Now I have my answer.
Just saw the episode, woof I’m glad I hadn’t been on here the headline and subheading are pretty spoiler-y. A good amount of suspense for me in the beginning of the episode came from genuinely wondering whether or not the stranger could be trusted by Nick Offerman.
“This isn’t the tragic suicide at the end of the play.” Bill could be referring to many well-known dramas: Hedda Gabler, The Seagull, Death of a Salesman, ‘Night, Mother, and the list goes on.”This most definitely Romeo and Juliet….what the fuck are you smoking?
This was lovely. Also, Nick Offerman was wonderful in a gorgeous and way underrated movie a few years ago. Check out Hearts Beat Loud. You won’t regret it. “Personally, I would have preferred “Birdhouse in Your Soul” over end credits, but the Ronstadt was inevitable.” That is the single stupidest thing I have read in a week (and I’ve been on twitter). That insufferably twee song would have been so out of place and horrible. Not only was the awesome Linda Ronstadt perfect in that moment, your suggestion would have been wildly off-mood. Seriously can’t fathom how bad that would have been.Now, go watch Hearts Beat Loud if you haven’t yet.
“The Last Of Us’ third episode is light on mushroom zombies and heavy on LGBTQ+ romance and Linda Ronstadt”I’m sorry this is a blatant spoiler. The episode mines suspense from wondering whether Frank is a friend or foe at first.
There’s literally even a SPOILER SPACE article for THIS episode and this is not that one. What the hell?
I stopped reading the reviews and I’d just been coming here for the letter grade but if your just going to slap an A on every episode this season anyway then why bother?
“Cute meta gag: Ellie gushes over the Mortal Kombat arcade game.”That interaction is right out of the video game, although I was a bit disappointed that it was the real-world Mortal Kombat game and not The Turning (the fake arcade game created for the video game).The Turning does come back in the flashback with Riley in the DLC. We know we’re getting the Riley flashback later this season, so maybe MK will be mentioned in that episode?
I’ve started watching the cutscene game movies on Youtube (Gamer’s Little Playground does excellent editing work) and had just gotten past the part with Bill. It’s a lot different from the game, but they got the pick up truck right. Frank had disappeared some time ago and Bill only referred to him as “his partner.” Joel seemed to not have known about Frank. The way it seemed, in the game, Frank was going behind Bill’s back and leaving. They found the truck in a garage, with Frank’s body. He’d committed suicide because he’d been infected. He left a note, but I couldn’t see what was written. On the show, I thought they were putting in a twist that Bill was going to die instead. The only real indications in the game that Bill may be gay are how he referenced Frank and Ellie finding a gay magazine at Bill’s.
The episode was sweet and a huge contrast from the game. I am watching Left Behind right now.
I recommend watching the game movies, too. If you like The Walking Dead, then definately watch Telltale’s The Walking Dead. It’s actually better than the show. Different characters (although, some from the comics make an appearance).
“He’d committed suicide because he’d been infected. He left a note, but I couldn’t see what was written.”You can read that note in the game. Frank tells Bill that he hated his guts (LOL) and couldn’t stand living in this town anymore, and that he would rather risk his life trying to escape it than stay one more day with Bill.
This article is all well and good, but it barely counts as a review. This is mostly just a recap of the episode.Smh, I used to come to AV Club for analysis and insights I hadn’t had myself.
The episode was simply a beautiful piece of art, and should be seen as such. I haven’t seen a remotely compelling argument to the contrary. Oh, it isn’t a frame-by-frame remake of the video game? Then don’t watch it and play the fucking game! It’s woke? Get fucked, losers. It was great, and if you can’t see it, then that is a you problem.
I have been on her saying not great things about the show, but wow. What a beautiful episode. I was engaged and emotional the whole time Bill and Frank were on screen. In tears by the end. I haven’t seen TV that good in a long time.I am still not that interested in the Joel and Ellie stuff, including at the beginning and end of the episode, or the zombies, but for the core of this ep blew me away.
A half-Clicker is trapped under a bunch of cinder blocks and rubble straining to get free, its mushroom head sticking out.
Everyone else is saying everything to be said about Bill and Frank’s storyline much better than I could, so I’d just like to call attention to one line delivery elsewhere in the episode that I loved. Ellie gushing over Mortal Kombat II was the first time I’ve really felt like Bella Ramsay was the same character that we’d played through two games with. It’s not to say she isn’t doing fine work elsewhere, but in that particular line I heard video game Ellie and really warmed to her in the role.
Okay, so. When the trailer for this show came out there was some discussion on here about who the show was for – if you didn’t play the game would it work? I don’t play the game, or any video games, and …
I just watched the first three episodes and I conclude that the show is for me. Seriously – really well written, plotted and acted, and although I do recognize the various game-related shots and scenes, it doesn’t detract at all. I don’t know anything about the game or how it ends or if it ends (for some context, the last video game I was interested in was Joust….) but I’m really looking forward to the next episodes, as many as they can do.
This episode was amazing.But …In this show Ellie never meets Bill. Which means we miss out on all of the hilarious interactions they have in the game. That makes me kind of sad.For me, Ellie’s personality in the game really starts to shine when she meets Bill.Bill: “Sure, take my car. Take all my food while you’re at it.”
Ellie: “By the looks of it, you could lose some of that food.”(Ellie climbs up onto a bus)
Bill: (sarcastically) “Don’t get killed up there.”
Ellie: “Thanks, Bill.”
What a tender and beautiful episode. Growing old and loving another only die in your sleep is probably the best way anyone could ever ask. Its what my mom wanted. She didn’t get it sadly. Damn… what an episode.
Also, the songs code was devised by them.
Can reviewers PLEASE stop using the tired, over-used “Bury your Gays” complaint? It’s the APOCALYPSE, for crying out loud! Are the gay characters the only ones who AREN’T supposed to die like everyone else?
Bill’s survivalist montage (set to a jangly rockabilly tune)Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac’s “I’m Coming Home to Stay” is British blues, my friend.
Some thoughts…Just curious, what’s the combination of buttons on the game controller one has to push to get Bill and Frank to bone each others’ incredibly hairy (given the hair on their respective chests) butt-holes?Along those same lines, the recapper “wishes that Joel had been not a construction worker, but instead, oh, a poetry professor at UT-Austin who also happens to be good at clambering over rubble and shooting zombies in the face.” These are the ridiculous wishes of a naive child. We’re social creatures, longing for connection. It’s not that anyone CAN’T be any THING, but that we mindlessly drift toward the things that will bring us closer to our tribe. Therefore, is Bill, a gay male, more likely to be a gun enthusiast with a library-like knowledge of rugged male survivalist skills, or get involved with his local musical theater troupe? And exactly how did Frank, not-so-surprisingly another gay male (when you’re forcing such woke indoctrination into a story) manage to survive with no discernible skills whatsoever (other than turning-out other closeted gay males), when 9 others in his original party didn’t make it? It’s completely ludicrous. Why must liberal ideologues destroy everything they touch?I half expected Joel, when asked what caused the pandemic to reply, “There was this little fucking criminal weasel named Dr. Fauci who half the country deified as some sort of God, who it turned-out funded gain-of-function research, thus creating the virus, letting it escape from a lab, and nearly destroying humanity as we know it.” Instead, it’s because of global warming (naturally) and that people ate actual food, rather than the crickets that the oligarchs at the WEF would prefer us all to eat. There was even some mocking of conspiracy-theorists, which is hilarious considering the so-called conspiracy-theorists are batting 1.000, while the government, the media, and the “science” has lied to us at every turn.A great 30 minute opening to this series has now devolved into a giant #BlueAnon cult recruiting tool.Sad.