The Last of Us recap: Bill and Frank get the kind of love story the game denied them
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An awkward tension fills the air between Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they navigate the woods outside Boston. Joel's grief over the loss of Tess (Anna Torv) is manifesting as a cruel coldness towards Ellie. Ellie isn't having it. "Nobody made you or Tess take me. Nobody made you go along with this plan," she says. "Don't blame me for something that isn't my fault."
Joel appreciates her candor. Furthermore, he knows she's right. He gives her a curt nod, one that dissolves the tension as they head towards the home of Bill and Frank, the pair Tess said they should seek out before heading west. Along the way, they stop at an old convenience store where Joel stashed some gear. Ellie geeks out over a Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet before heading into the basement in search of goodies.
There, she finds a dusty box of tampons. She also finds an immobile Infected, buried up to its shoulders in tumbled debris. Fascinated, she takes a closer look, taking her knife and cutting into its forehead to reveal the writhing fungus beneath. She's never seen one this clearly, and she's disgusted. She stabs it in the head, putting it out of its misery.
Further down the road, the pair spot the ruins of a fallen plane. Ellie, who was born into an infected world, marvels at the idea of flying in the sky. This leads her to ask how the fungus first took hold: "If you have to be bit to be infected, who bit the first person?" Joel explains that, after the Cordyceps genus mutated, it found its way into the food supply (recall: the Jakarta incident occurred in a factory producing flour and grains) and spread quickly from there. "Then they started biting," Joel says. It began on a Friday, and by Monday "everything was gone."
Liane Hentscher/HBO Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal
It gets worse. When they see a burnt-out pit off the road filled with skulls, bones, and scraps of fabric, Joel explains that, when the quarantine zones hit their capacity, evacuated survivors were killed. "Dead people can't be infected," says Joel.
In the pit we see two skeletons, one adult and one child, bearing the rotted vestiges of a floral dress and rainbow blanket. This is our portal into the past: It's now September 30, 2003, a few days after the outbreak, and the woman in that dress is led onto an evacuation truck with her blanket-wrapped baby, clearly unaware of the fate that awaits them.
One Lincoln resident, however, did foresee such a fate. A bearded, middle-aged man, Bill (Nick Offerman), hides alone in a basement he's outfitted with monitors, weapons, survival tools, and much more. He cradles a shotgun in his lap, prepared to go down fighting should the soldiers searching his house above find him. But they don't. When he emerges from his house, it's not horror that lights up his face, but relief. The end of the world came and he's a survivor. And, if Lincoln is the only world he knows, then he is the sole survivor.
In a montage, he loads up on gasoline, raids the Home Depot, sets up a generator, and turns on the gas. He puts up fencing and builds traps to keep out intruders. He raises chickens and grows his own vegetables. And, at the end of the day, he sits down to a gourmet meal and a glass of wine. Some nights, he gets to watch an Infected wander into one of his traps and get its head blown off. "It doesn't get old," he says with satisfaction.
Everything changes four years later. That's when Frank (Murray Bartlett) arrives, muddy and starving, on his way to the Boston quarantine zone. Bill is hesitant to help him, but Bill relents after Frank begs him for a meal. Suspicious as he is, he's charmed by Frank. He offers him a fresh change of clothes and a hot meal. He even pours him a glass of wine, allowing the two to bond over their love of the finer things.
Liane Hentscher/HBO Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett
But what really wins Bill over is Frank's love for music. Frank admires Bill's vintage piano and digs up a Linda Ronstadt songbook. After he tries pecking out "Long Long Time," Bill steps in and offers his own practiced rendition. Frank is moved. Bill is, too. When they kiss, it's urgent and emotional. And when they retire to the bedroom, it's sweet and awkward. Bill's never been with a man, so Frank says they'll start with the "simple things." He also says he'd like to stay a few more days, so long as that's okay with Bill.
Three years later, they're still together. Bill, though his heart has been reanimated by Frank, is still suspicious of the world outside his home. Frank wants to change that. He has plans to fix up the street — mow the grass, paint the houses. He'd also like to renovate a few shops, like the wine shop and clothing boutique. "We are gonna have friends," he tells Bill, who replies that "there are no friends to be had."
Frank proves him wrong. He's met a "lovely woman" over the radio who turns out to be Tess. In 2007, she and Joel aren't nearly so grizzled. Still, as they enjoy lunch on the front lawn, Bill keeps a loaded gun on the table. Joel gets it. "If mine brought strangers into our situation I wouldn't be happy, either," he says. But a partnership could be beneficial for both parties. They have stuff in the Boston QZ that could benefit Bill and Frank, including machine parts, books, and aluminum, the latter of which could be used to fortify Bill's gate, which is on its last legs.
Joel is impressed with Bill's setup, but warns him that, though he's safe from FEDRA and the Infected, he'll no doubt have to deal with marauding raiders at some point. "We'll be fine," Bill says.
When we jump ahead three years, everything does appear to be fine. Bill and Frank's trading with Joel and Tess has allowed him to strengthen security. It's also netted them other things, like strawberry seeds. The taste of fresh strawberries enlivens both of them. Bill admits that before Frank showed up, he was "never afraid." But this is his sacrifice: With love comes fear.
But the raiders do come. On a stormy night, a band of faceless invaders trigger Bill's traps. Flamethrowers light them up, as does the electric fence. But it's not enough for Bill to allow his traps to do the work. Frank finds him trading shots with the distant raiders, then pulls him back inside once a bullet punctures Bill's gut.
As Frank tends to his wound, Bill tells Frank he can't be alone, that Joel can take care of him. He's prepared to die, but death isn't in the cards for him. Not yet.
When we jump forward 10 years, Bill's not the one who's hurting. Frank, on the other hand, is resigned to a wheelchair. He's not infected, but he's dying. Pills can't save him, and there isn't a doctor in sight with the equipment necessary to stem whatever's eating at his insides. He decides he's ready to go, and wants Bill to give him one last good day. Bill is distraught, but he gives Frank what he wants, which includes a trip to the boutique, a wedding, and dinner. Then, he explains, Bill will crush up all of Frank's pills, stir them into Frank's wine, and Frank will fall asleep in Bill's arms.
But, though it was once all he desired, Bill no longer wants to be alone. He's spiked his wine, too. "This isnt the tragic suicide at the end of the play," he says. "I'm old, I'm satisfied, and you were my purpose." Frank is initially angry, but concedes that, "from an objective point of view, it's incredibly romantic." They share a laugh, then go upstairs, where they'll fall asleep and never wake up.
Liane Hentscher/HBO Nick Offerman
Fans will recognize this as a radical departure from the game, which is ambiguous about the true nature of Bill and Frank's relationship. In it, Frank hangs himself after being bitten by the Infected. He writes in his parting note that he hated Bill and "grew tired of this s----- town and your set-in-your-ways attitude." Not quite the love story depicted in the show.
By the time Joel and Ellie arrive, the flowers outside Bill's home have begun to wilt. That's all it takes for Joel to know something is wrong. Inside, flies buzz around the remnants of their final meal. Ellie finds a note, which is addressed "to whomever, but probably Joel." In it, Bill says he and Frank's bodies are in the bedroom and that they should be left alone. He left a window open, he writes, so the house wouldn't smell.
"I never liked you but, still, it's like we're friends. Almost. And I respect you," he writes. "I used to hate the world and I was happy when everyone died, but I was wrong because there was one person worth saving and that's what I did. I saved him and I protected him. That's why men like me and you are here. We have a job to do."
After saying Joel is welcome to anything in the house, the letter ends with Bill urging Joel to "keep Tess safe," which cuts into Joel like a knife.
Joel and Ellie gather supplies and discover both a car and a battery. As it charges, Joel asks Ellie to show him her wound. It's healing nicely. He tells her not to let anyone else know about her "condition," lest they kill her. He also tells her to never bring up Tess again. "We can keep our histories to ourselves," he says.
The plan is this: Find Tommy, Joel's missing brother, in Wyoming. He used to be a Firefly and might be able to help them find the lab where Ellie is needed.
Ellie's never ridden in a car. "It's like a spaceship," she says with wonder. She pops in one of Bill's mixtapes and Linda Ronstadt's "Long Long Time" plays. It's an old favorite of Joel's, and he's swept back in time for a brief moment. They drive off.
Back at Bill's house, wind flutters the curtains of the open bedroom window where he and Frank will spend eternity.
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