This Linda Ronstadt Song Plays a Pivotal Role in HBO’s The Last of Us
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The post This Linda Ronstadt Song Plays a Pivotal Role in HBO’s The Last of Us appeared first on Consequence.
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us, Season 1 Episode 3, “Long, Long Time.”]
Episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us took an unexpected beat from its Lone Wolf and Cub story by offering a look into the unlikely romance of self-described “survivalist” Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), a fellow survivor who unexpectedly stumbles into his life. At the center of their love story is their shared love for Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time,” which plays a crucial part in establishing their relationship.
When the episode begins, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) attempt to shake off the horrifying death of Tess and start to form a bond when they realize there is at least a five-hour journey to reach Bill, who will know what they should do next. It’s not too long until the show moves back in time and shifts focus over to Bill.
A short time after the fungal infection that ravaged globe, Bill appears to be living his best life. The misanthrope has a whole town to himself thanks to a doomsday bunker and cache of weapons that kept him alive while the world was going to hell. Entirely self-sufficient, Bill grows his own food and enjoys eating gourmet dinners while watching infected get killed in the various traps he’s set around town.
One night, Frank gets caught in one such trap, but is able to convince Bill to give him a hot meal. After being charmed by Bill’s cooking skills and knowledge of wine, Frank sits down at the piano and finds a book of Linda Ronstadt songs. He turns the page and proceeds to butcher “Long Long Time” until Bill can’t take it anymore. With the caveat he isn’t a professional, Bill sits down and performs a bittersweet rendition of the 1970 hit.
Clearly hearing pain in Bill’s voice, Frank asks whether a girl caused the heartbreak. Receiving confirmation there was none, he moves in for a kiss, and the two of them begin a romance that lasts until they are both elderly.
Released as a single from Linda Ronstadt’s 1970 album Silk Purse, “Long, Long Time” spent a dozen weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at No. 25 in the chart. It also earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance.
On HBO’s official The Last of Us podcast, Mazin shared his interpretation of the song, saying, “Talking with Nick about the lyrics, [I emphasized] how important it was to understand that the lyrics were someone saying everything tells me that it’s okay, that love will find me, that the pain of heartache and loss and disconnection will heal. No, it doesn’t. No, it’s not, and the person that I long for from afar, I’m gonna love them basically forever in the most unrequited manner. To me, I just thought, what a beautiful notion that you can’t get ever get there — the closer you get, the further that light gets away from you.”
Besides himself, Frank eventually convinces Bill to open up to outside people. After meeting Tess over the radio, Frank invites her and Joel over for a shared dinner. Given a moment alone, Joel recognizes another protector and bonds with Bill by pointing out deficiencies in the defenses around his house.
By 2023, however, Frank is suffering from a degenerative disease that can’t be cured even with the help of pills from Joel’s smuggling network. One morning, Frank decides he wants to spend a perfect last day on earth with Bill before dying in his sleep from an overdose of pills crushed into his wine. The day goes as planned, with the twist that Bill decided it could only be a happy ending if it was a double suicide.
Bill and Frank are long dead by the time Joel and Ellie reach their house, but Bill leaves him a note giving him the motivation to keep pushing on, along with keys to a truck and plenty of weapons at his disposal. In that truck’s glovebox, Ellie finds a tape labeled “mix for Bill,” and puts it into the stereo despite Joel’s objections. When he hears the original version of “Long Long Time,” however, Joel decides they should leave the music on, saying, “This is good, this is Linda Ronstadt.”
In an interview with Consequence, series co-creator Craig Mazin described the biggest departure from the source material thus far as “an opportunity to just explore theme and the passage of time.” He added it was an opportunity to take “a breath” after the “incredibly tense” action of the first two episodes.
“One of the things that I remember from the game was that Bill was safe, and I love that concept, that he had built this oasis of safety,” Mazin said. “There was an allusion to his relationship with Frank, and I just started thinking that there was an opportunity there, that there was an opportunity to first of all help people understand how the passage of time functioned between the outbreak to now. But also to really dig into the point of the show, which is the nature of love, two very different kinds of love, and how those two kinds of love need each other.”
Joel and Ellie’s story will continue as new episodes of The Last of Us premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max. For more coverage, learn the significance of Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” and keep up with our running list of all the music used in each episode. Be sure to read about the other changes Mazin and co-creator Neil Druckmann made during the adaptation process here.
This Linda Ronstadt Song Plays a Pivotal Role in HBO’s The Last of Us
Eddie Fu
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