HBO’s The Last of Us didn’t just make a good show. It redefined what we expect from a video game adaptation. But one hour stands alone. Episode 3. "Long, Long Time." You know the one. It’s the episode that broke the internet, caused a million tears, and somehow made a song from 1970 top the charts again. Honestly, it’s arguably the best hour of television produced in the last decade.
When The Last of Us Episode 3 aired, it felt like a collective exhale. In a world of clickers, spores, and constant adrenaline, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann took a massive gamble. They stepped away from the main quest. They left Joel and Ellie behind for a bit. Instead, they gave us Bill and Frank.
It wasn’t just a "gay love story" in the apocalypse. It was a study on why we bother living when the world ends.
The Massive Departure from the Game
If you played the 2013 Naughty Dog game, you remember Bill. He was a paranoid, prickly survivalist living in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He was a "curmudgeon" dialed up to eleven. In the game, Frank is already dead by the time you meet Bill. You find his body swinging from a ceiling. He left a bitter, hateful suicide note saying he hated Bill's guts. It’s dark. It’s cynical. It fits the "dog-eat-dog" vibe of the original PlayStation title.
The show flipped the script.
Instead of a story about how isolation turns you into a monster, Mazin and Druckmann gave us a story about how love makes you a protector. Nick Offerman was cast as Bill. Perfect choice. He brought that Ron Swanson-esque capability but layered it with a terrifying vulnerability. Then you have Murray Bartlett as Frank. He’s the color in Bill’s grayscale world.
The timeline shifts are subtle but effective. We start in 2003. Bill hides in his basement while the FEDRA soldiers evacuate (and eventually execute) the townspeople. He’s fine. He’s got generators. He’s got wine. He’s got enough ammunition to start a small war. He’s a "prepper" whose wildest fantasies just came true.
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But then Frank falls into a pit.
Why That Piano Scene Works
Twenty minutes into The Last of Us Episode 3, we get the piano scene. It’s the heart of the episode. Frank finds a book of Linda Ronstadt songs. He tries to play "Long, Long Time." He’s bad at it. Bill takes over.
When Nick Offerman starts singing, the atmosphere shifts. His voice isn't polished. It’s shaky. It sounds like a man who hasn't spoken to another human in four years, let alone expressed an emotion. That’s the moment the audience realizes this isn't a zombie show anymore. It’s a domestic drama set against the backdrop of the end of the world.
They stay together for twenty years. Twenty.
We see the evolution. The first fight about painting the house. The dinner parties with Joel and Tess. The strawberry patch. That strawberry scene? Pure genius. In a world where people are eating 20-year-old Chef Boyardee, the simple act of tasting a fresh strawberry is a miracle. It highlights the stakes. They aren't fighting for "humanity" in a global sense. They are fighting for the person sitting across the table.
The Controversy and the Backlash
We have to talk about it. The episode was "review bombed" on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Some fans of the game were furious. They wanted more bloater fights. They wanted Joel and Bill to bicker while dodging traps. They called it "filler."
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But was it?
Narratively, it serves a massive purpose. Bill’s letter to Joel at the end of the episode is the catalyst for the rest of the season. Bill tells Joel that men like them have one job: to protect the one person they love. Without this episode, Joel’s decision to save Ellie in the finale lacks a certain weight. Bill is the "ghost of Christmas future" for Joel. He shows Joel that you can’t just survive; you have to have something to survive for.
The technical mastery here is also insane. The cinematography by Eben Bolter uses light to tell the story of their aging. The house gets warmer, more cluttered, more "lived in." It contrasts sharply with the cold, sterile world outside the fence.
Real-World Impact: The Linda Ronstadt Revival
Let’s look at the numbers. After The Last of Us Episode 3 aired, Spotify reported a 4,900% increase in streams for Linda Ronstadt's "Long, Long Time." People were googling the lyrics. They were buying the vinyl.
It’s rare for a TV show to have that kind of immediate, measurable cultural impact. It reminds me of what Stranger Things did for Kate Bush. It proves that when you marry a great story with the right piece of music, it sticks in the brain like a burr.
Dealing with the Ending
The final act of the episode is a gut punch. Frank is sick. It’s never explicitly named, but it looks like a degenerative neurological condition, possibly Parkinson’s or ALS. There are no hospitals. No doctors. Just Bill.
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Frank decides he wants his "last day." He wants to go to the boutique, get married, and have a nice dinner. He asks Bill to crush up his pills and put them in his wine.
The twist? Bill drinks the wine too.
"I'm old. I'm satisfied. And you were my purpose," Bill says. It’s a complete reversal of the game’s cynical ending. It’s beautiful, tragic, and incredibly brave for a high-budget action series. They go to sleep and they don't wake up. The camera pans away from their bedroom window, out into the garden they built together. It’s a closed loop. A perfect life in an imperfect world.
Why it Ranks as the Series Best
Most TV shows struggle with pacing. They have "bottle episodes" that feel like they’re just treading water because the budget ran out. This didn't feel like that. It felt like a short film.
- The Casting: Offerman and Bartlett had zero chemistry on paper and infinite chemistry on screen.
- The Script: Mazin wrote a dialogue-heavy script that trusted the audience's intelligence.
- The Score: Gustavo Santaolalla’s acoustic guitar work is hauntingly sparse.
- The Stakes: It raised the emotional stakes for Joel and Ellie without them even being on screen for most of it.
Critics from The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and Variety all pegged this as the standout. It’s the episode that moved The Last of Us from "good video game show" to "prestige television."
Actionable Takeaways for Fans and Creators
If you’re a storyteller or just a hardcore fan, there are lessons to be learned from why this specific episode worked so well.
- Subvert Expectations: If you’re adapting something, don't just copy-paste. The game's version of Bill was fine, but the show's version was unforgettable because it took a risk.
- Focus on the Mundane: The most moving parts of the episode weren't the raider attacks. They were the strawberries, the wine, and the piano. In high-stakes environments, the small things become huge.
- Silence is Power: There are long stretches of this episode with almost no dialogue. Let the actors' faces do the work.
- Music as a Character: Pick a song that means something. Don't just use it as background noise; make it the center of the scene.
If you haven't rewatched The Last of Us Episode 3 since it premiered, do it. You'll catch things you missed the first time. The way Bill’s hands shake when he first eats. The way the garden grows over the years. The way Joel looks when he reads that letter. It’s a masterclass.
The next step? Go listen to the original 1970 recording of "Long, Long Time." It hits different now. Then, go back and play the Lincoln chapter in the game. You'll realize just how much of a miracle this episode really was. It took a story about hate and turned it into a story about the only thing that matters: not being alone at the end.