Viewers of The Last of Us got to know Bill and Frank, but fans of the franchise were in for an unexpected plot twist.
The first episodes were enough for The Last of Us (or The Last of Us) to become an incredible success. Ratings are high, there are more and more viewers, sales of the game have jumped. But the third series was not so unambiguous. What is it about?
Where can I watch The Last of Us?
In the world of The Last of Us, HBO broadcasts. There is still no news about the official premiere in Russia.
What happened in the third series of The Last of Us?
In the beginning, Joel and Ellie are shown resting in the woods in front of the road to Bill. The girl discusses Tess’s death. She says the smugglers weren’t forced to take on the mission, so don’t blame her for everything. Joel silently agrees.
The heroes go to the store where the stash is hidden. While Joel is looking for something important, Ellie is examining the shelves. She climbs into the basement and finds the infected there, who was filled up with stones. The girl examines and kills the monster.
The couple walks on and notices the plane that crashed at the beginning of the pandemic. Joel once again confirms that the fungus mutated and infected people through a basic product like flour. The goods were taken to the shops, and a few days later civilization died.
Then Ellie sees the skeletons of people. The partner explains that the military was picking up civilians and taking them to checkpoints. But there was not enough space there, so the extra people were shot. The reason is simple – “the dead cannot be infected.”
The story then jumps to 2003. The military forcibly evacuate the population of a small town. Only the prepper Bill hides from the soldiers in the basement and watches everything through the cameras. When everyone leaves, he goes out and arranges life: erects electric fences, sets traps, stocks up on food and alcohol. As a result, he creates an oasis in a world full of dangers.
One day he falls into one of the traps Frank. Together with 10 people, he escaped from the destroyed shelter, but the rest died. Bill tells the unwanted guest to leave, but he asks for food. The owner cautiously agrees: he shows Frank a shower, tasty food and pours wine.
After dinner, Frank goes to the piano and plays Linda Ronstadt’s Long Long Time awfully. This is Bill’s favorite track, so he drives the guest away from the instrument, puts his hands on the keys and sings. Relationships develop between the characters.
Three years later, they continued to live in the town. Frank even persuades Bill to open a boutique and invite his friends to dinner. He already has nice guys in mind – they turn out to be Tess and Joel. After a pleasant conversation, the characters agree on an exchange of goods. After all, Bill’s fence will leak soon, and there are materials in Joel’s hideout. Frank also negotiates a musical cipher (from the first episode).
Over time, the survivors become more aggressive. One night, raiders attack Bill’s territory. The villains were stopped by the traps, but Bill himself is injured. Frank barely saves him.
The plot then returns to our time. The characters have already grown old, and Frank cannot walk on his own. He lived a great life, but now he’s asking for an easy death from pills. But first he wants to have another great day.
During the last meal, Bill agrees to die with Frank. The characters get drunk on sleeping pills and fall asleep.
Joel and Ellie get to the place and immediately notice the strangeness. No one meets, the flowers have not been watered for a long time, there is a mess on the table. Ellie finds a letter intended for Joel and reads it aloud. Bill writes that he hated almost all people, but one was still worth saving. Joel should follow suit: take weapons, supplies and protect Tess at all costs.
But Tess died in the last episode, so the letter almost brings the characters to tears. Then everyone pulls themselves together, showers, grabs supplies, charges Bill’s car, and continues on their way.
The road leads to Tommy, Joel’s brother. Once he was with the Cicadas, so he may know about their camp. Ellie inserts a cassette into the radio: the same Long Long Time that Bill and Frank played on the piano sounds.
Differences from the original game
In general, after watching the series, it becomes clear why a separate series was dedicated to Bill, because his plot is currently the biggest departure from the game. There he was left alone after the death of Frank, while in the series they died together, and Ellie would never meet Bill again.
Impressions from the third series
The first two episodes were intense. The authors revealed the characters, talked about the world and the infection, pushed the heroes against the monsters, threw up difficult choices and forced them to shed tears for the dead. There is nothing like this in the third episode: it is a drama about two survivors in love, which has little effect on the plot.
Of course, the series answers many questions. With whom did Joel and Tess exchange goods? Who sent radio signals with music from the 80s? What was the life of gamer-adored Bill like? But the answers took 75 minutes – and for some, the figure will seem too large.
However, the episode can’t be called frankly bad: it’s not for nothing that it has 9.4 points out of 10 on IMDb. But only viewers who don’t mind long stories about the relationship of secondary characters will appreciate it. The relationship between Bill and Frank turned out to be unusual. They didn’t get much attention in the original game.
Trailer of the fourth series The Last of Us
In the next series, the authors will again focus on Joel and Ellie, who will face the raiders and make sure that there are things worse than the infected. The sequel will release on February 6th.