This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us TV series. Please do not read unless you have seen episodes one to three …
Wow. Where to start? I’ll just come out and say it – I think that’s the single best episode of TV that will be broadcast all year.
A big call, I know, considering it’s still January, we’re only three episodes into this (excellent) series and Happy Valley hasn’t finished yet. But unless the Mandalorian and Logan Roy show up in Hebden Bridge to help Catherine take care of Tommy Lee Royce, I struggle to see how this will be topped.
Whatever you might want from television was here – high-stakes drama, wit, emotional depth, romance and tons of heart. And the bravery of these writers, to all but abandon their lead characters and main plot just three episodes in to dedicate a feature-length episode to a poignant, moving character study such as this. Hats off. Even without the apocalyptic aspect, Bill and Frank’s tale would have made for special viewing, but given the context, it was all the more impressive. And who knew Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett were made for playing such low-key heartbreak? Anyone else getting shades of Up’s devastating opening montage, with a full relationship deftly captured in just a few scenes?
The other two
Bookending the episode, we opened with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in the woods, on their way to Bill and Frank’s place. Joel, still nursing a fractured hand, was also dealing with a broken heart after Tess’s death. Ellie, meanwhile, absolved herself of all blame – “I didn’t ask you to help me” was about the size of her argument. And maybe she was right? Not sure I believe that’s what she thinks, though. And regardless, a few kind words and a bit of gratitude might have been nice.
Bill and Frank’s excellent adventure
Back to 2003 and the meat of the episode. As the outbreak began and normal folk were being rounded up by the military and taken to quarantine zones, Bill (Nick Offerman) was just a regular doomsday prepper with a gas mask, a sophisticated CCTV system and a basement full of food and weapons. It’s the kind of behaviour that would see you mocked in normal times, but come the apocalypse, once you’ve reinstated your gas supply, got a generator working and raided the off-licence, means you can live like a king, isolated from the hell going on in the rest of the world.
Four years into his rule, he met Frank (The White Lotus’s Murray Bartlett), who had been walking for two days and fallen into one of Bill’s traps. Initially suspicious of the intruder, Bill softened enough to offer Frank a meal – rabbit, paired with beaujolais! – and a decent rendition of Linda Rondstadt’s Long Long Time. How apt.
Frank, taken aback by the emotion, sensed Bill was singing the song for someone special and asked: “Who’s the girl? The girl you’re singing about.” Of course, Frank knew there was no girl involved, then tenderly, reassuringly took Bill to bed.
His promise of staying for a few days turned into three years within the duration of a fade to black, and the pair were now a couple, lovingly taking care of their town, totally self-sufficient and entertaining friends. It also looked as if Bill was showering regularly, not just when Frank told him to. Naturally, we recognised their visitors – Joel and the nice lady Frank had been chatting to on the radio, Tess (Anna Torv). They chatted, they ate and then, while Frank showed Tess around the house, Bill and Joel danced around each other in the garden before the visitors were on their way back to Boston, radio code and supply line established.
If Joel’s words about armed raiders showing up in the middle of night didn’t stick with Bill at the time, they were probably ringing in his ears a few years later when those predictions came true and he took a bullet to the body. Another skip forward in time, to 2023, and we saw that Bill had survived that attack but Frank was now terminally ill and using a wheelchair.
That final day left a lump in my throat, as Bill carried out Frank’s final wishes with a fatal twist of his own. “I was never afraid before you showed up,” he had said when they were picking strawberries, and here he was, opting not to live alone after his partner’s death. Amid such horror, such beauty. Absolutely magical television.
Back to Lincoln
The episode closed with Joel and Ellie arriving at the now rundown town. Bill’s letter to Joel contained a few jibes and just enough motivation for him to continue with his mission (Ellie being the one person out there worth living for now Tess is gone), while some of those words will hopefully have reminded Ellie that there’s more to surviving than a plucky attitude and endless wisecracks. It was sweet to see her in a car for the first time – “It’s like a spaceship!” – and it was a reminder to us that while she might not think twice about stabbing an infected in the head, she’s still a wet-behind-the-ears teenager with barely any of the experiences we take for granted.
Flour power
I’d say we got proof of the infection’s origins from the conversation Joel and Ellie had about how it all started. Cordyceps mutated and got into a common foodstuff, said Joel. Probably flour – “bread, cereal, pancake mix” – and infected those who had eaten enough of it. (Joel, remember from episode one, was on the Atkins diet at the time of the outbreak, so no carbs; he forgot to pick up his birthday cake and didn’t eat the pancakes Sarah was making. His neighbours, meanwhile, were eating biscuits.) That certainly explains how cordyceps spread so widely so quickly, and why even people on planes weren’t safe. Don’t eat aeroplane food is the moral of this story. Or maybe, just maybe, The Last of Us is a psyops experiment by the gluten-free industry? Wheels within wheels …
Notes and observations
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Last week, I referred to the “virus”. Of course, this is a fungal infection we’re dealing with, not a virus. I knew that – honest – but still made the silly mistake. Apologies. Similarly, some commenters objected to my use of the term zombie, as these monsters are not the undead (cordyceps can’t revive the already deceased), but the infected. I would argue I was using the term in a more generic sense, as the infected behave almost exactly as zombies do: infected by bites, eager to murder, killed by headshots/decapitation, etc. But I understand and accept the objection. From here on in, no zombies.
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Great news everybody – HBO has commissioned The Last of Us for a second season. I’m going to assume there’ll be a third season, too, but whether Part III of the video game arrives is up in the air.
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After Frank and Bill gave us their renditions of the song, we were played out with Linda Ronstadt’s version of Long Long Time. Is every adult in this story a Linda Ronstadt fan?
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It had been announced that Con O’Neill, most recently seen as Neil in Happy Valley, would be playing Bill but he had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict. Having seen the final result, it’s now hard to imagine anyone other than Offerman in that role.
What did you make of that? Stunning TV or diversion from the plot? Which shops would you loot if you found yourself alone in an apocalypse? Have your say below, but please, no spoilers from the games …