Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Last of Us episode 3.The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin does not see Bill and Frank's deaths in episode 3 as tragic. Altering the series' story from the game it's based on, The Last of Us episode 3 featured a heartfelt love story between survivalist Bill and his partner, Frank, who he comes across four years after the apocalypse. When the pair is 20 years into the apocalypse, Frank suffers from an unknown terminal illness that makes him decide to die on his own terms. Bill decides to follow suit, poisoning the pair so they can fall asleep together one last time.
Speaking with Variety, Mazin said that he did not want to portray Bill and Frank's deaths as a tragic end for the latest The Last of Us episode. Instead, he wanted to portray their relationship in full, underscoring some level of beauty in their decision to die in one another's arms. Check out what Mazin had to say below:
"You can’t always present death as this failure. Sometimes, it’s just the natural conclusion. That is part of growing old. It was important to me to show the span of a relationship accounting for that. And it not being presented as a tragic loss, but rather the culmination of something beautiful."
How Frank & Bill's Deaths Will Impact The Last Of Us
The portrayal of Bill and Frank's final moments together acts as a bittersweet finale to their 16-year relationship. Not only does it underscore the loyalty that Bill has toward Frank by assisting in his wish to die, but it also shows how Bill is willing to follow him into death because Frank had become his world. Bill and Frank die together, a scenario that seems unlikely for couples who are surviving in a world full of the infected, FEDRA, and other hardened survivors. The Last of Us is a world full of tragic, unintended ends, which is why - despite poisoning themselves - Bill and Frank's purposeful deaths have a level of beauty to them.
In The Last of Us game, however, Bill does not die but meets Joel and Ellie when they arrive at his heavily-protected town in search of supplies. Frank's death is also different, having been bitten by an infected and leaving a suicide note for Bill near his corpse. Because of the changes made in HBO's television adaptation, Bill and Frank's deaths are likely to have a major impact on Joel, who can now add them alongside Sarah and Tess to the list of people he was close to that he lost. It's likely that having lost Tess, Bill, and Frank in one to two days after starting the journey, Joel's budding father-daughter relationship with Ellie will develop into his new anchor.
Bill and Frank's deaths in The Last of Us also display how the series may be able to structure future episodes around different characters within the periphery of the main plot. Despite not having a direct importance on Joel and Ellie's journey, Bill and Frank's post-apocalyptic love story has been critically praised as one of the show's best episodes. If Mazin and other co-creator Neil Druckmann were to continue making similar episodes in the future, they would be able to creatively explore other characters in the series, such as Joel's brother Tommy. Bill and Frank's story both have a heart within their sadness and opens the door for The Last of Us to explore more creatively its world and the survivors within it.
Source: Variety