Warning: spoilers ahead for The Last of Us episode 3.
Even fans of The Last of Us video game franchise would have had no idea of the emotional gut punch that was in store for them while watching episode 3 of the TV series.
It’s already being heralded as one of the best episodes of television ever by fans, with many left sobbing and moved beyond measure by the tender love story shared between Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett).
In a world where there should be no hope, where a fungal, parasitic infection has caused a seemingly unstoppable pandemic that turns human beings into monsters, Bill and Frank build a home against all odds, vowing to protect one another and successfully doing so until they share their final breaths as old men who’ve lived a satisfying life together.
Their story is greatly expanded upon for the TV adaptation, with Frank not taking his own life after being infected, nor distanced from Bill, but left weakened by an incurable illness and dedicated to his partner until the end.
With the episode directed by It’s A Sin’s Peter Hoar, several viewers pointed out how much more meaningful the scene is when Bill and Frank exchange their vows, given gay marriage in real life was legalised in the US in 2015, but the outbreak happening in 2003 would mean that it wasn’t legal in the lore of The Last of Us.
With others comparing their relationship to the montage in Pixar movie Up, which showed Ellie and Carl’s relationship from childhood to the former’s funeral in old age, we have a feeling the rawness of Bill and Frank’s tale, the beauty of Nick and Murray’s performances, the poignancy of the script and its impeccable execution is going to stay with us all for a long time.
Their first meeting occurs shortly after the outbreak when Frank is stuck in a trap laid by Bill for anyone who tries to approach his town, falling into a deep hole in the ground.
Rather than shoot Frank, Bill brings him into his house, letting him shower and treating him to a hot, gourmet meal paired perfectly with a smooth wine, demonstrating his taste for the finer things.
After dinner, Frank is desperate to have a tinker on Bill’s piano, before the homeowner takes over, playing a sweet rendition of Linda Ronstadt’s Long Long Time, which was released in 1970.
Stirred by Bill’s performance, Frank kisses him, before the pair sleep together for the first time, with Bill admitting that he’s never had a sexual relationship with a man before.
Cut to several years later, and the couple are now living together and caught up in a heated argument over Frank wanting to spruce up their neighbourhood, before he reveals – much to Bill’s fury – that he’s been in contact with a woman via the radio, Tess (Anna Torv), who is shortly welcomed for a meal on their property alongside her partner, Joel (Pedro Pascal).
The years continue to pass, with Bill sustaining a gunshot wound when raiders try and fail to infiltrate the heavily-guarded perimeter around the town, and Frank managing to save his life.
Further down the line, Frank is in a wheelchair and suffering from a debilitating health condition, spending his days painting while Bill cares for his every need.
After everything that they go through in their lives, the strength of Bill and Frank’s relationship is summarised in a single line that the former says to his partner: ‘I was never afraid until you showed up.’
With the planet ravaged beyond recognition, swarmed by people infected by Cordyceps and human beings willing to pillage and inflict violence to get what they want, Bill has no fear until he has someone who he’s terrified of losing.
The Last of Us may centre on Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they travel across the US in the hope that the teenager’s immunity to the infection could be the key to a cure, with the continuation of their story bookending the third episode.
Nonetheless, audiences around the world have been left so utterly transfixed by the power of love demonstrated between Bill and Frank, that it’s been an overwhelmingly welcome decision for an appropriate amount of time to be given to their tale.
After all, in the land of The Last of Us, many people’s stories and the connections that they made in life – both before the pandemic and during it – would have been forgotten.
So to take a moment to celebrate the joy and purity of love feels extraordinarily special indeed.
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The Last of Us is available to watch on Sky and NOW, with new episodes released on Mondays.
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