In “Long, Long Time,” the newest episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us,” we enter Bill’s never-before-seen romantic life. Fans of the sport might discover some large deviations from the supply materials, as characters are given reimagined lives.
In the sport, we meet Bill solely briefly, as protagonists Joel and Ellie cross by means of his city in hopes of scrounging collectively a working car for his or her journey throughout a post-apocalyptic America. We uncover Bill wasn’t all the time solo — his romantic associate, Frank, died by suicide after changing into contaminated. The sport doesn’t linger on these particulars lengthy, with solely small nudges and insinuations by means of dialogue and textual content, however there’s a way that the relationship ended bitterly.
In comparability, we meet a extra susceptible Bill (performed by Nick Offerman) in the TV present, who spends almost 20 years alongside Frank (Murray Bartlett) as they construct a peaceable life collectively whereas the outdoors world fights for survival throughout a zombie apocalypse. This peek into their largely tranquil life, which the sport by no means supplied, is greater than welcome, particularly when prolonged happiness — not to mention between a queer couple — is so uncommon on this universe.
It’s a change showrunner Craig Mazin mentioned he got here up with to “go deeper” with Bill and Frank, and to supply a “breather” after two quick-moving, action-oriented episodes. It’s additionally an answer to translate a gameplay-heavy part of the sport to the large display screen. During the writing course of, Mazin advised Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the present and sport, that he was “about to write something [Druckmann] would not recognize.”
“As much as I loved playing it, I thought maybe we would do something wildly different,” Mazin advised The Washington Post in a current interview. He recalled feeling impressed by the sport’s revelation of Bill having a associate, explaining the way it’s sudden, particularly as a result of of Bill’s presentation as a “paranoid nutter” and a “cranky, very straight-acting, annoying guy.” He’s not somebody you’d essentially anticipate to have a romantic backstory, Mazin mentioned.
“There was this tragedy to the way it ended,” he mentioned. “And I thought, ‘well, what if we actually go really deep into that? And it doesn’t necessarily have to end the same way as it ended in the game. It can end quite differently.’”
The change to Bill’s story provides us new context for who he’s, who he turns into, and the constructive impact he’s had on others. But it additionally brings us to a brand new conclusion, with Bill and Frank rising aged and Frank ultimately falling ailing. Unable to look after himself, his high quality of life wanes, and he requests a marriage ceremony the two can have a good time collectively that ends with Frank taking his personal life. To Frank’s shock — and maybe to the viewers’s as properly — Bill consumes sufficient tablets “to kill a horse” alongside him.
The story is heartbreaking, however Mazin considers it nonetheless hopeful.
“We had a chance to ask: what happens when a character in this world is actually, relatively safe?” Mazin mentioned. “What do they do? What do they need? Can we give somebody a happy ending? And I think they have a happy ending. I do. They win. They get this whole life together. And when it ends, it ends on their terms as they desire. It’s also important to show to the audience that there was a chance for things to be okay, and for love to flourish, and to conclude well.”
Rather than having to battle for his or her love, Bill and Frank merely exist collectively. For Mazin, it was a possibility to delve deeper into extra views of how love can manifest in the post-apocalypse.
“I wanted to explore this fundamental thematic dichotomy that comes up over and over as we watch the series, and that is that there are two very different kinds of love,” Mazin mentioned.
Mazin defined that the means Frank reveals love is, as the character says in the episode, by “paying attention to things,” as he performs renovations on the city, vegetation stunning gardens, and sometimes surprises Bill with these to point out affection. Bill, on the different hand, reveals love by means of safety. As they develop nearer, a profound concern of loss is felt, significantly by Bill, one that’s reminiscent of how Joel cares for Ellie. “I was never afraid before you showed up,” he tells Frank in a second of vulnerability.
Exploring these new views grew to become attainable as Mazin, Druckmann, and the relaxation of the crew labored to construct a cinematic expertise that expands the fictional world of the video games. Mazin noticed this episode as one other probability to “give context to the time that happened between outbreak day and where we are now in the story.” These tales past Joel and Ellie give viewers an opportunity to expertise “The Last of Us” in a reimagined gentle. In some instances this has labored properly, whereas others are extra closely debated. Perhaps we’ll see extra of these sorts of tales as the collection continues in the months forward, and past in its second season.