We already have a contender for best TV episode of 2023.
Here’s how Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett, and The Last of Us team pulled it off.
Warning: This article contains spoilers fromThe Last of Usepisode 3.
Nick Offerman’s Bill compared to the character in ‘The Last of Us’ video game.Liane Hentscher/HBO; Naughty Dog
The third episode of HBO’sThe Last of Usis a declaration.
EvenMurray Bartlett, a gaming novice, says he was “flabbergasted by the entire production.”
“It’s an incredible series of which we were cast in a Sundance movie that was dropped in.
Murray Bartlett’s Frank in ‘The Last of Us’.Liane Hentscher/HBO
We’re completely in our own world.”
He resides in the town of Lincoln, where he booby-trapped the entire deserted community against the ravenous Infected.
Still, they have history and for one reason or another, Bill owes Joel a favor or two.
Nick Offerman’s Bill and Murray Bartlett’s Frank fall in love in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us.'.Liane Hentscher/HBO
Peter Hoar, who directed episode 3 of the series adaptation, associates this moment with gamer rage.
“I was playing that section forever,” he says, laughing.
and throwing the controller around."
Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) meet Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett).Liane Hentscher/HBO
Frank, however, never fully shows up.
A single shot sees Frank’s legs dangling from the ceiling and nothing more.
“The word ‘partner’ is used and it’s in a limited emotional sense,” Hoar recollects.
Murray Bartlett says he had to learn how to play piano badly for ‘The Last of Us’ Linda Ronstadt moment.Liane Hentscher/HBO
“You’re like, ‘Business partner maybe?’
“The character Bill is fascinating,” Mazin says.
Nobody lives forever, but the goal that we should all have is to have a good life.
An older Bill and Frank celebrate their last day together in ‘The Last of Us.'.HBO
And when the end comes, we are satisfied.”
Inquisitive players can discover a note in the game that Frank leaves behind for Bill before his hanging.
He explains that he couldn’t stand living with Bill any longer.
“I think Craig from the get-go had the right instinct,” he explains.
There was stuff to draw from that note.
“We need to know that there’s a chance that things can go right.”
It was quite the departure from the source material.
To pull this off, Mazin and Druckmann turned to Hoar.
When can you start?'"
It’s so good.’
Kudos to HBO because a lot of networks wouldn’t have done that.
I really don’t think we would be here having this conversation if that had happened.
The story takes place in flashbacks.
As Joel says in the present day, “Dead people can’t be infected.”
With everyone gone, Bill goes to work.
“If anyone was gonna survive, it would be Bill,” Hoar says.
Offerman was eyed for the role of Bill, but he initially couldn’t make it work.
I didn’t even wanna read it."
Once he did read it, he felt a kinship to Bill.
“He can weld and build and fabricate anything.
I’m like that to a much lesser degree.
I love to make things,” Offerman says.
“Part of that competence, that sensibility, I think, is fear-based.
I can never die because I can build a roof.
It was very gratifying.”
That was Bartlett’s starting point for building the character.
The two seem like stark opposites.
Frank’s a chatterbox.
Bill’s quiet, reserved.
Yet both men feel a connection to each other.
They squabble about how “the government are all Nazis.”
Another moment from another year shows Frank surprise Bill with the strawberries he grew in secret as a surprise.
(That Bill giggle is the same laugh Offerman gives in our interview.)
“He appears, he reacts to his situation, he’s led into the world of Bill.
when you think Frank’s a bit fiery.
That’s a good thing.
it’s possible for you to see his influence on Bill.
He starts trimming his beard and wearing nicer stuff and all that sort of thing.
All of those little details I loved.”
Bartlett also praises the details in Mazin’s writing.
“The script was so beautifully drawn in terms of these characters.
There weren’t a lot of spaces to fill in,” he says.
I was blessed to have an amazing actor to work with.
I had some ideas about Frank and some clearly-drawn things in the script that make you feel very supported.
And then I felt like the character was revealed to me in the interactions with Nick as Bill."
He helps his injured love hobble into the house as fire from the traps illuminate a rain-drenched night.
Hoar calls that scene a “gear shift.”
“Oh wait a minute, this isn’t an indie film anymore.
This is something crazy,” the director remarks.
I think I’d go and get another job if felt it was too much of a challenge."
The final cut takes us to the present year, Offerman and Bartlett decked out in full elderly prosthetics.
A wheelchair-bound Frank is dying of cancer.
He numbs the pain with drugs, presumably ones they got from Joel and Tess.
But first, he plans one last happy day with Bill.
He wants to finally marry the love of his life, the man who saved him years earlier.
What he doesn’t plan for is Bill’s decision to die with him.
Offerman doesn’t believe Bill takes much for granted or leaves most things to chance.
“He generally is a planner and an organizer,” he says.
“I think when Frank makes the decision, Bill has to take a deep breath.
He knows that he’s not gonna win this argument if he fights.
I think in doing so, he’s making a grocery list in his head.
Somewhere making that checklist, he’s like, ‘I’ll do the drink too.
I think he’s a pragmatist, so it’s perfectly prudent.”
The song “Long Long Time” bookends the couple’s entire saga.
The actors remember learning to play the song for that earlier scene.
Offerman also chuckles when he thinks of those rehearsals.
“Craig’s got a lovely voice actually.
I want Nick Offerman as Bill to just be singing his heart out.
That’s what will really matter at the end of the day.
Just be gentle with it and love it for what it is.”
Viewers are left with this needle drop as a final offering as the credits roll.
In a similar way, Mazin hopes Bill and Frank resonate throughout the whole season.
