Do Bill and Frank die on ‚The Last of Us‘ on HBO? And how do Bill and Frank die in ‚The Last of Us‘ game? Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann explain why Bill and Frank die differently on HBO and in the game in this interview.
So far, The Last of Us has spent a lot of time introducing us to Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). But they’re far from the only noteworthy survivors in this story. Ever since the HBO series announced that Nick Offerman would be playing Bill, fans have been desperate to see how the beloved Parks and Recreation star captured this survivalist. And true to everything he does, Offerman did not disappoint. Spoilers for The Last of Us on HBO past this point.
“Long Long Time” picks up directly after the events of “Infected.” In the wake of Tess’ (Anna Torv) death, Joel and Ellie decide to continue on in their quest to bring Ellie to the Fireflies. And that means gathering supplies from Joel’s old friends, Bill and Frank (Murray Bartlett).
In a way, Bill and Frank have already appeared in this series. At the end of “When You’re Lost in the Darkness”, Joel’s radio played an ’80s song (Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again”). As Ellie correctly deduced, that’s the signal for danger, and the person on the other side of that signal was none other than Bill, the duo’s smuggling connection. As they hike to Bill and Frank’s town, Joel tries to hide a pile of burnt skeletons from his young companion, but it’s too late. Ellie sees the horrible proof of the first days of the outbreak. Joel is forced to tell her the truth: After the initial infection, the military rounded up people from smaller towns, claiming they would take them to quarantine zones. That was a lie. Many people were shot on sight, and most weren’t infected (yet).
The camera then zooms in on a blanket with rainbows, which triggers a flashback. As a woman cuddles her baby wrapped in that same blanket, soldiers force her to get into their truck, and Bill (Offerman) watches the scene from his bunker. This transition from the mass grave is more than just an interesting segue. It speaks to the care with which series co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin approached every element of this show.
“It gives a little bit of added resonance later when we see Ellie walking around. We were with those people. We saw the genesis of it. It means something more to us,” Druckmann told Decider on the scene. “She has that luxury of being a 14-year-old kid and never knowing a world that was not like this. It’s a strange idea to describe it as a luxury, but she’s not carrying that pain and nostalgia and loss because she’s never known any of those things.
