We got to see how different Bill is from Frank. Yes, Frank is nicer than Bill. But Bill is also mechanically a genius. He rebuilt the whole town to work with wired fences, electricity, traps. He is practical. Frank is so artistic: painting, rebuilding shops, a lover of music and piano. There was just enough put into the show that characterized and differentiated them. But not too much that the story would’ve felt forced, or overtly stereotypically romantic. We got to see how they showed love for each other; Bill cooked, built a literal stronghold to protect Frank from outsiders and infected. Bill’s goal was to KEEP FRANK ALIVE and loved inwardly. Frank grew strawberries and created artwork, wanted to rebuild the bare bones of a town into something flourishing with life and friends. Frank wanted to nurture and love outwardly. Ultimately, it was a testament of the fact that the work, energy, time, efforts you put into loving a person is worth the pain of losing them. Which is why Bill’s greatest fear was dying and leaving Frank alone.
It was a perfect amount of romance, beats, action, connection to Joel and Tess. It revealed the truth of love. There are arguments, but they resolved them in a healthy manner. Like the scene when Frank busts out of the house and Bill takes a deep breath and recollects himself. This is television PEOPLE!!!
I keep crying because. because. they gave these two old gay men not only sixteen years unequivocally in love with each other, but also gave them just about the happiest ending anyone could hope for in a world like the one in tlou: dying on their own terms, in each others arms. a lesser show could have easily ended their story when bill was shot, he could have bled out in frank’s arms, and it would have even been understandable in a show like this, but no. like bill said, this is not a tragedy. frank didn’t have to keep living alone without bill. they chose to die together, locked away safe together for the rest of time. its so unbelievably beautiful and so much more than any of us could have hoped for from a show of this genre, any show really, that I don’t even know what to do with myself about it
The last of us: we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to give you an iconic short film about two gay men growing old together in the apocalypse.
something something joel and ellie interpret the radio transmission from bill and frank - an 80s song - as a call for help, and so does the audience. but then by the time we get to see what bill and frank have been up to, we understand that the 80s music playing on joel’s radio wasn’t a call for help but was instead bill’s playlist auto-shuffling after he died with frank. that this thing that the audience interpreted first as a sign of fear was actually a marker of love persisting past death. what we first thought would be scary was instead deeply tragic but also beautiful, kind of like the last of us as a whole… something something
