Episode 3 of the TV blockbuster The Last Of Us was officially aired on January 30, bringing the audience to follow Joel and Ellie out of Boston and into the town of Lincoln. This is where Joel will meet his two partners, Bill and Frank, and collect the necessary supplies to prepare for his journey to find Tommy and find a way to complete the contract with the Fireflies.

Most of the time of the 3rd episode focuses on the love story of Bill and Frank, from the time they accidentally met during the outbreak of the pandemic until the last day, when they both peacefully left the world. calm. This can be considered the gentlest and most emotional episode of The Last Of Us up to the present time, but not so that it lacks many interesting details and interesting details.

Decoding Frank’s illness

Episode 3 of The Last Of Us offers a lot of transitions in time, with the final stop being in August 2023, when Frank has a strange illness and spends most of his time in a wheelchair. This disease has greatly affected his daily life and gradually eroded Frank’s desire to continue living. In the end, Frank decided to kill himself with poison, after getting married and spending a full day with his partner Bill.

Based on what has been brought to the small screen, it can be confirmed that Frank has Parkinson’s, a slow-growing degenerative disorder that directly affects the brain and many other organs in the body. The main symptoms of Parkinson’s, as shown by the character Frank, are uncontrollable tremors, limited movement, muscle stiffness, and insomnia.

Frank once mentioned that the disease had no cure even before the Cordyceps pandemic. Therefore, it is not necessary to find a doctor. In fact, Parkinson’s disease cannot be cured, but can only be controlled and alleviated by measures such as medication or surgery.

Why did Bill decide to commit suicide with Frank?

As mentioned above, because he didn’t want to live in suffering with a terrible disease, Frank decided to take his own life with a dose of poison. While enjoying his last dinner, Frank asked Bill to mix drugs into his wine glass, but what he didn’t expect was that his partner put all the drugs in the bottle. This means that Bill will also suffer the same fate as Frank instead of still surviving when Joel and Ellie find Lincoln as in the original game series.

As stated above, the third episode focuses on the deep love story between Frank and Bill in a post-apocalyptic setting. And the ending that the production team chose is to let this story have the most complete ending. The love between the two is so great that Bill feels he has no motivation, no reason to continue living after Frank’s departure.

There are several theories that Bill is still alive, and that is why HBO did not bring the scene of this character’s body to the small screen. However, based on the emotional circuit that has been maintained throughout this episode, we can understand why they decided to hide that part. Even before he left, Bill told Joel not to go to the bedroom – where the couple spent the last minutes of their lives together. It is simply a detail to maintain and end the emotional circuit completely, bringing the most emotional and impressive love story in the world. The Last Of Us.

Why did Ellie sneak away Frank’s gun?

After leaving, Bill decided to leave all his precious survival possessions to Joel, in the hope that he could continue to survive and protect Tess. However, Joel only takes away what is necessary for the journey to find Tommy, and maintains the same stance of not allowing Ellie to use guns, similar to in the first two episodes of The Last Of Us.

However, during a search of the town of Lincoln, Ellie suddenly found the gun that Frank kept in a drawer and decided to take it without telling Joel. This can be seen as a sign for future stories, when things get tougher and worse.

Based on the game series The Last Of Us, Joel and Ellie’s next journey will involve a group of bandits in a strictly controlled city. In the original, it was the city of Pittsburgh, but HBO changed it to Kansas. Although not keeping the same context, it is likely that the script here will not change much, and Ellie will soon have to use Frank’s gun to escape the most dangerous situations – situations situation not caused by zombies.

Tommy’s connection to the Fireflies

After the deaths of Bill and Frank, Joel’s plan to give Ellie back to the couple could not be completed. Instead, he decided to take Ellie to the territory of Tommy, who was a member of the rebel Fireflies. Joel himself also wants to make sure that his brother is safe. Therefore, this plan can be considered as one arrow hitting two targets.

The connection between Tommy and Fireflies was once “teased” in the first episode of The Last Of Us, when Joel and Tess confront Marlene in the city of Boston. It seems that shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic, Tommy decided to join the Fireflies and leave the Boston quarantine to move to another location, despite Joel’s objections. Marlene was probably the one who drew Tommy to the Fireflies and betrayed his brother.

Bill’s suicide letter and Joel’s future journey

Before leaving with Frank, Bill left a suicide note.for anyone, but probably Joel“. In it, Bill said that he used to hate the world and felt very happy when everyone died (because of the pandemic). However, the appearance of a person helped Bill change his mind, change his mind and realize that there are still people in the world who deserve to be saved. That person was Frank. Bill considers himself, like Joel, on a mission to help, protect and fight for others.

In the letter, Bill warned Joel to wholeheartedly protect Tess, but in fact this detail “teases” the future journey of Joel and Ellie. Similar to Bill, Joel’s world fell 20 years ago, after the death of his daughter Sarah. Since then, Joel has become a taciturn, cold and almost emotionless smuggler. Until now, Joel still only considers Ellie as an item that he needs to deliver to the Fireflies to fulfill the previous contract.

However, like in the original series, this will soon change in the future, as Joel realizes that there is still one person in the world who deserves to be saved and protected. And that’s Ellie.

The scene where Joel and Ellie leave the town of Lincoln

After being immersed in Frank and Bill’s love story, The Last Of Us immediately pulls the audience back to reality, with Joel and Ellie’s journey as they leave Lincoln town in the truck that Bill left behind. With a camera angle from the back of the car, this scene is reminiscent of the series’ opening episode, when Joel, Tommy and Sarah try to escape their home town in chaos due to a zombie pandemic.

However, this time, everything is portrayed in a much more peaceful and calm way, like the clear sky before the storm hits in the upcoming episodes. Also, the background song in that segmentLong Long Time by Linda Ronstadt, also partly shows the emotional development of Joel and Ellie, when between the two will soon form a kind of affection like fatherhood in the future.