The Last of Us: the ending of the third episode explained in detail
The Last of Us
Due to its sweetness and intensity, many already define the third episode of The Last of Us as the best seen so far. A difficult label to attach, after the success of the previous episodes of the HBO adaptation. Here's our explanation of the myriad details and questions the finale raised.
The Last of Us series WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us
The ending of the third episode of The Last of Us
Episode 3 of The Last of Us, as always aired exclusively on Sky and streamed only on NOW, absolutely simultaneously with HBO, picks up on the journey of Joel and Ellie after the death of Tess , as we witness the two survivors travel from the city through the countryside, ending up in Lincoln .After getting acquainted with the story of Bill , played by Nick Offerman , in a rich sequence that reveals his past as it never was not even seen in the original video game, we also discover his relationship with Frank (Murray Bartlett).
At the end of the episode, entirely dedicated to showing (literally) the meaning of life of Bill and Frank, we discover that, unlike the game, Bill will commit suicide together with her husband. This is a big change from the original game, as in Naughty Dog's title, Bill is still alive when Joel ( Pedro Pascal ) and Ellie ( Bella Ramsey ) leave Lincoln. The writers have already expressed themselves on the motivation of a similar and significant narrative distortion: according to Craig Mazin, co-creator of the series, the reason why Bill wants to die together with the person he loves, destined to perish due to a degenerative disease, is it connects to the true intrinsic meaning of the entire The Last of Us lore. Bill and Frank's love for each other was so strong that Bill saw no reason to continue living in a world without her husband. If Frank died and Bill was alone, Bill's purpose for survival would have gone with him. Because, contrary to what was perceived from the game, love would push people not to save themselves, but to live. Message further strengthened by Bill's letter that Ellie will read to Joel towards the end of the third episode.
The death of Bill and Frank at the end of episode 3 of The Last of Us also asked the question of why the bodies of the two spouses have not been seen during the series. After Joel and Ellie leave Lincoln, the camera pans slowly back through an open window in Bill's house as the two of them walk away; It's easy to assume that what we see is the bedroom where the bodies of Frank and Bill are found, but why not show them? Also according to Mazin, both men were at the center of such a beautiful love story in such a gloomy world: they left on their own terms, together, in peace.
The series of The Last of Us Showing the corpses of Bill and Frank would have compromised the final message, which would really be attributable to a discourse of dignity. The entire series is about death, about men who fight, survive and try to give meaning to their lives, tearing others apart. At least Bill and Frank, thanks to the beauty they have managed to bring to this "last part of humanity", are saved from "ugliness", decomposition and death.
As for the story of Joel and Ellie, one of the most important elements that leaves many questions about the end of the episode is Frank's gun that the girl takes with her. In addition to linking up with the survivor's requests, during episodes 1 and 2 of The Last of Us , to have a gun too, it suggests a famous law of writing, or Chekhov's assumption: "if a gun appears in a novel , I need to shoot”.
The entire final scene, with Ellie and Joel moving away from Lincoln in a series of shots that explicitly recall the sequence of the first episode, the letter that reveals the meaning of Bill and the real, authentic, touching sense of the (surviving) lived, further strengthen the belief that Joel is already now beginning his emotional journey towards Ellie as a daughter. And this, as those who played the original title well know, is only the beginning.
