The Last of Us: Love in the End of the World

[Warning: The following post will contain spoilers for HBO's The Last of Us TV series up through season 1, episode 3.]

The Last of Us has me--someone who has never played The Last of Us--hooked.

I wasn't so sure about the series at first. Episode 1 was interesting, but the back half made me feel like protagonist Joel Miller was being treated too much like a video game character. We didn't know much about his feelings or his outlook or anything much about him aside from his deadpan voice and worry for Tommy. That was until the end of the premiere, when Joel charged the FEDRA patrol officer and beat him to death. And then in Episode 2, when I began to understand his character more. He's closed off from the audience because he's closed off to everyone around him, not wanting to lose more people by growing too attached.

Which is exactly what happens with his smuggling partner, Tess, at the end of Episode 2. Despite no direct indications that the pair are romantically involved, Joel still cares a great deal for her. When she decides to sacrifice herself on account of being bitten and to buy Joel and Ellie more time as the horde of infected approach, Joel reacts coldly. He drags Ellie away, who is kicking and screaming, not wanting to leave Tess behind to die in the explosion she's about to create. But, without a proper goodbye to her despite being together in the apocalypse for over a decade (something we learn in Episode 3), Joel leaves, taking Ellie with him.

Episode 3 sees Joel trying to move on as quick as he can from Tess' death. His main concern at the beginning is keeping Ellie safe so he can get her to Bill and Frank's. Despite his seemingly unfeeling nature toward her, however, the pair do begin to bond at the start of the episode. As Ellie asks Joel a number of questions regarding how the world ended, Joel begins opening up about the theories people had surrounding how Cordyceps jumped from ants to humans. Before approaching the pit of bodies and bones on the road, Joel warns Ellie that they should go around them. He doesn't want Ellie to see what soldiers did to people who wouldn't fit in the quarantine zones (QZ). While it's not much, it does show that, despite his cold, uncaring exterior, Joel can't help but care for the people around him. He may not even want to feel for others, but he does, a natural part of himself that he's suppressing to ensure he doesn't get too attached to anyone and lose them in this unpredictable, apocalyptic world.

Then the episode takes a risk.

For the next 48 minutes, viewers are shown a vignette of sorts. A short story within the larger story of The Last of Us. This episode's major focus is on Bill and Frank, the couple who Joel is taking Ellie to in the present day. Following Bill from the first day of the apocalypse, viewers learn that he's a survivalist and conspiracy theorist who, after an early version of FEDRA took the people of his town to the Boston QZ, fortified his home with traps, fences, gardens, and enough gasoline to continue powering his generator for years to come. Four years after the world falls apart, a survivor, Frank, happens upon Bill's residence by falling into a hole in the ground--one of Bill's infamous traps. Bill takes him in and feeds him some rabbit and wine, slightly reluctant, but clearly lonely, and looking for human interaction after years without company. It doesn't take long for the emotionally walled-off Bill to take a liking to Frank, even though he's not keen on showing it. The two form a relationship, with the rest of the episode showing snapshots of their 16 years together up through the present day.

This episode is emotional. With Bill and Frank at the helm for two-thirds of the experience, it's easy to grow attached to them. Writer Craig Mazin and director Peter Hoar do a wonderful job at creating scenes that get me to quickly care about these two characters I've only met near the start of the episode. Nick Offerman as Bill and Murray Bartlett as Frank become the most well-developed characters in the series so far in such a short amount of time. You can feel the way they care for one another, especially in ways that highlight who they are as people. During their third year together, Frank decides that he wants to meet more people beyond their walls, clearly believing it will benefit him and Bill both socially and with resources they can't easily get their hands on. But Bill doesn't want to, as he believes the only way to keep Frank safe is by staying away from other people. They want to protect and help one another in their own ways, with both paths reflecting how each of their characters think and feel.

Of course Frank gets his way, because Bill cares about him and wants him to be happy. But there's another, stronger theme going on here too. Bill takes Frank in, then allows Frank to open his community up to more people, namely Joel and Tess. While it's rather surface-level, the idea of Bill--a tough survivor who doesn't trust anyone--letting people like Joel, Tess, and especially Frank into his life despite initially not wanting to, shows him that not everything in the world is bad despite the world being over.

A time jump of two years confirms this. Now 10 years into the apocalypse, Frank takes Bill to see a surprise within their little garden. It's strawberries, which Frank traded with Joel and Tess to get. The pair bond over eating the fruits for the first time in a decade. It's a small scene, yet revelatory, when Bill apologizes to Frank for getting older than him quicker. He then says a line that, to me, was the defining quote for the entire episode. The line that made me realize just what the creators of The Last of Us were going for by switching over to Bill and Frank's perspective for the entire episode:

"I was never afraid before you showed up."

That fear is followed up with a 10-year time jump, showing Bill and Frank in 2023. Frank is dying of a degenerative illness, something that has kept him wheelchair-bound for a time. Unable to enjoy life with Bill the way he wants to and yearning to go out on his own terms instead of letting his illness eat him up any more, Frank decides to take his own life. Or, rather, he asks Bill to poison his wine during their final dinner that night so he can fall asleep in his arms one last time. The emotional highs of this episode are bottled in a heart-wrenching sequence of Bill and Frank dressing in their Sunday best, getting married, and having one last dinner together--the same rabbit and wine Bill fed to Frank on their first day together 16 years ago. After Bill poisons Frank's wine and watches him drink it, he gulps down his own. Frank realizes that there were already pills in the bottle, something Bill confirms: "Enough to kill a horse." The pair then go into their bedroom, where they are presumed to have fallen asleep in one another's arms one final time.

Despite Episode 3 of The Last of Us being praised by critics and audiences alike, there are some naysayers who believe the episode deviated too far from the main storyline with Joel and Ellie. Of course, there are others who didn't like the episode because Bill and Frank were a gay couple, but let's not allow people who are angry about Bill and Frank's relationship muddy the waters of genuine criticism people have. To some extent I understand. Bill and Frank aren't the main characters of the show. Their story doesn't add anything to the main plot and would have been just as relevant if they had been alive when Joel and Ellie arrived in Bill's town. They even die together at the end, meaning they aren't characters we'll be seeing at any point in the future.

I hate to sound like a snobby know-it-all when I say this, but it's the truth, so I'm going to be honest: People who didn't like this episode because they felt it was irrelevant, didn't get this episode. They missed the forest for the trees, if they hit any trees at all.

The final act of the episode sees Joel and Ellie arrive in Bill's town, weeks after Bill and Frank have ended their lives. While searching their home, they find a note that Bill left for Joel, saying Joel will likely be the one to find it because anyone else would "get blown up by one of my traps hehehehehehehehe." He then tells Joel about his mindset, the one reflects in the large-scale flashback that made up most of this episode. Despite hating the world and being glad everyone died, Bill found Frank and, through him, realized there were still people beyond his walls that were worth saving. He tells Joel that men like them are supposed to protect the people they love, "And God help any motherfuckers who stand in our way."

Bill and Frank's love story is emotional, tragic, and yet so sweet, all at once. But it's also very, very relevant to The Last of Us as a whole. While Bill's note is rather on the nose, it wouldn't have hit as hard if we hadn't been shown everything Frank and Bill went through leading up to Bill writing that note and dying with the love of his life. With his romantic relationship with Frank, Bill has already gone through the story that The Last of Us appears to be setting up for Joel. He opened up to the world, even though he didn't want to, and found someone worth protecting. For Joel, that character seems like it will be Ellie. While he's still trying to see her as nothing but cargo he needs to deliver to the Fireflies for a reward, the little smile he flashes at her reaction to Linda Ronstadt's "Long, Long Time" shows that he is growing attached. He's starting to see her less like a delivery and more like a daughter.

The Last of Us made a bold decision to turn Bill and Frank's section of the tale into a tragic yet sweet love story where a grizzled survivor learns to let people in. By showing audiences the entirety of their lives together, I felt like it tugged on the heartstrings in the way they were supposed to. But it wasn't just a sweet love story between Bill and Frank. It was also a vehicle to address the kind of life Joel has been keeping from himself for the last 20 years. While he cared for Tess, it was clear through their conversations and presentation that he never let her get as close to him as Bill let Frank get to him. Joel denied himself the love he probably felt for Tess. Which is why, when Bill's note tells him to "keep Tess safe," it breaks him. He has to go outside to process everything that's just happened, knowing there's no way to go back in time and make those last moments with her count.

Joel will never have with Tess what Bill had with Frank. Maybe that's why he smiled at the end of the episode when Ellie tells him "Long, Long Time" is an okay song. Because he feels that human connection with Ellie now. Because Bill's letter truly did hit him in a way that will inspire change. If the episode hadn't shown us Bill's life with Frank, his words wouldn't have rung as true as they do now that we've seen their lives together play out. As the final shot of the episode shows the open window of Bill and Frank's bedroom, we're reminded of Bill's willingness to let people in. Seeing Joel and Ellie through that open window, driving off in search of Tommy across the country, we're given a hint at the kind of future ahead for the duo.

Maybe, like Bill, Joel can learn to let people in again.

***

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