If there is one thing that I already noticed when I first saw the series, it is that it gave me the impression that when ‘The Last of Us’ worked best was when it did not appear that they were directly adapting the roadmap of the video game and moved away from a certain linearity in the course of Joel and Ellie’s survival adventure. A great example is in this week’s episode of the HBO Max drama.
Without neglecting our protagonists, Craig Mazin dedicates the third episode to getting to know one of the video game’s characters better: Bill, played for the occasion by nickofferman —it’s as if we were seeing Ron Swanson from ‘Parks & Recreation’ in maximum survival mode— and his partner Frank (whom we don’t see in the game), played by Murray Bartlett.
By the way, from here spoilers for ‘A long, long time’, episode 1×03 of ‘The Last of Us’
But before we get to Lincoln, Massachusetts, we have a moment to see where the characters of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are. After the tragedy that has taken the life of our beloved Tess (Anna Torv), Joel tries to pull himself together and move on. His destination is precisely the house of Bill and Frank, who we know are, in some way, his partners (or friends).
long long time
Along the way we are exploring and learning a little more about the origins of the pandemic, which Joel recounts to Ellie, confirming the flour theory (although he is not sure if it is that or the sugar) and the chaos that occurred in just a few days. A story that is reinforced when they come across an ossuary full of innocent people massacred those first moments. “The dead do not infect.”
With that image of old corpses we traveled twenty years ago to put a face to the owners of those clothes while they are transferred by the army to their fatal destination. In a dark, underground room, someone watches everything with their security cameras. Hello Bill.
With this presentation, the second act of these 75-minute episodes begins, watching as a lonely Bill begins to set up his own individual refuge encompassing the entire town. His life will only be interrupted a few years later with the arrival of Frank. With the suspicion typical of a paranoid, the reticent survivor opens the door of his house to the stranger without imagining that in a few hours his life will change forever.
Mazin’s script has a clear purpose: show that in dark times there is still a chance to find happiness, to find love, to have a full life. This note is, perhaps, what makes the episode have that tragic background as we move forward through the years and see a tremendous decline in Frank’s health due to a degenerative disease – not named, but Mazin talks about sclerosis (multiple or lateral).
Winners
A detail that can even be considered as a nod to linda ronstadt, the author of the song that gives the episode its name, who died of a degenerative disease. There is also another interesting nuance in Long Long Time. Bill and Frank’s song about a lonely heart yearning for love is from the 70s. Something new is coming. That new thing that gives hope.
‘Long, long time’ it deals, above all, with that hope. Of that something or someone that encourages you to move on. But, above all, it is the story of a couple who, despite the tragic ending, has won the game to this apocalyptic world. This lesson, this conception that there is happiness, is what comes to Joel in the last moments of the episode. Suddenly, Ellie isn’t just cargo anymore.
Thus, the episode sets course for our protagonists again. This time aboard a vehicle bound for Wyoming. But before, as we see in the promo, tWe have a stop that will put them in danger again.