The second episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” garnered 5.7 million viewers, and a couple days ago the network announced that the series was renewed for a second season–something to cheer Naughty Dog for, especially going into what was unabashedly the best episode in the series so far.
Entitled “Long Long Time,” Episode 3 puts us into the thick of things right away as we find Joel and Ellie scavenging as they make their trek to Bill’s homebase. Aside from the usual back and forth sarcastic banter people are used to by now, what’s immediately interesting about this episode is we don’t see a flashback to 2003 to start the episode. Instead we get something else, a more extended look at a character not named Joel or Ellie. We get to know Bill (Nick Offerman) in an unexpectedly heartfelt and emotional ride.
In the game, Bill played a crafty yet grumpy middle-aged man who seemed comfortable in his solitude. To get to his base, Joel and Ellie had to carefully make their way through a city suburb avoiding all sorts of booby traps in the community, making sure they don’t set off mines and other dangers that would immediately kill them.
Nick Offerman of “Parks and Recreation” fame absolutely kills it as Bill.
“Long Long Time” shows how Bill became the person that he is in the game with the biggest difference, on the surface, being the fact that he lived in a small farming town rather than in Lincoln’s outskirts. A self-proclaimed survivalist, during the beginning of the pandemic we see Bill mark his own house as infected to keep people away, all while using a radio system to stay on top of the happenings in the area–we also find out that it was Bill’s homebase that used music from different decades as codes to communicate to Joel and company. In the early days, Bill also looted the local Home Depot before anyone thought to, eventually creating a self-thriving “community”–except he didn’t have a community. He was all by himself, until Frank (Murray Bartlett) came along.
We’re gonna go into a little bit of spoiler territory for the game. If you played the game, feel free to read on.If you haven’t played the game and would rather not be spoiled, avoid reading the pull quoted paragraph section below:
GAME SPOILERS AHEAD!
If you played The Last of Us, you’ll likely know that part of the reason why Bill is broken is because he lost his lover Frank. A lot of the more meaningful content within the relationship takes some effort to get into in the game because they’re all left through optional context clues, but if you played attentively, you’d also know that Frank wrote a suicide note after getting infected, and it was essentially hate mail because of constant arguments with Bill. Absolutely none of this happens in “Long Long Time,” and it’s probably what made the episode so captivating in the first place.
Little bit of spoilers for The Last of Us (game)
GAME SPOILERS END HERE!
When it was announced that Nick Offerman would play the role of Bill, I was ecstatic about it–especially as a huge fan of his alpha male, no-nonsense persona of Ron Swanson in “Parks and Recreation.” Of course, having played the game I was also wondering how far HBO would have him go if the series delved into his history, particularly of the romantic sort…
…All the wonder is gone. Offerman knocked it out of the park.
As stated, Bill is a crafty and grumpy dude. Offerman had that down pat, as he’s someone you can easily imagine surviving a zombie apocalypse, and you’ll see in both the series and the game that he’s definitely well equipped. And then as soon as Frank falls into one of his traps, his life changed. The hopeless world of “The Last of Us” takes a back seat to explore the relationship that Bill and Frank have, and it’s absolutely beautiful.
They built a life together in the 20 years since the outbreak, and we’re treated to a lot of good and some bad. One such issue the two had is the fact that Bill was only fending for Frank and himself, while Frank looked forward to building a community, and so a few years later–they eventually meet confidants in Joel and Tess, whom Bill shows right away he didn’t care for, and at the same time, Frank proved more than a proxy.
Bill and Joel talking resources.
There’s one particular scene where Bill and Frank share a moment at a strawberry field that Frank planted and raised (thanks to Tess) where we see Bill really grow as a person because of this relationship. In this scene, Bill takes Frank by the hand and says vulnerably “I was never afraid before you showed up.”
Episode 3 has a runtime of 81 minutes, a few minutes shy of the series pilot and while Bill’s story takes up more than hour, it does bring us back to the plot at hand following Joel and Ellie. That said, a big change from the game takes place once we reach this point, but it’s one that explains itself perfectly and is the main reason why I’d argue that this episode is the best one of the season and will likely be one in the series that’s constantly revisited.
“Long Long Time” is an episode I would recommend to absolutely anyone, including those who have absolutely no interest in The Last of Us. It tells a beautiful love story during a time where you wouldn’t even want to think about anything as trivial, but it just goes to show that it’s absolutely necessary. This episode stands alone and you don’t even need to know what’s going on to appreciate it. Nick Offerman himself deserves an Emmy for his performance as Bill in this episode, as it’s one of the best episodes of any television I’ve seen in years.
Editor’s Note: When we published the review, we incorrectly titled the episode “One More Good Day.” We apologize for that error.
The second episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” garnered 5.7 million viewers, and a couple days ago the network announced that the series was renewed for a second season–something to cheer Naughty Dog for, especially going into what was…
The second episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” garnered 5.7 million viewers, and a couple days ago the network announced that the series was renewed for a second season–something to cheer Naughty Dog for, especially going into what was unabashedly the best episode in the series so far.
Entitled “Long Long Time,” Episode 3 puts us into the thick of things right away as we find Joel and Ellie scavenging as they make their trek to Bill’s homebase. Aside from the usual back and forth sarcastic banter people are used to by now, what’s immediately interesting about this episode is we don’t see a flashback to 2003 to start the episode. Instead we get something else, a more extended look at a character not named Joel or Ellie. We get to know Bill (Nick Offerman) in an unexpectedly heartfelt and emotional ride.
In the game, Bill played a crafty yet grumpy middle-aged man who seemed comfortable in his solitude. To get to his base, Joel and Ellie had to carefully make their way through a city suburb avoiding all sorts of booby traps in the community, making sure they don’t set off mines and other dangers that would immediately kill them.
Nick Offerman of “Parks and Recreation” fame absolutely kills it as Bill.
“Long Long Time” shows how Bill became the person that he is in the game with the biggest difference, on the surface, being the fact that he lived in a small farming town rather than in Lincoln’s outskirts. A self-proclaimed survivalist, during the beginning of the pandemic we see Bill mark his own house as infected to keep people away, all while using a radio system to stay on top of the happenings in the area–we also find out that it was Bill’s homebase that used music from different decades as codes to communicate to Joel and company. In the early days, Bill also looted the local Home Depot before anyone thought to, eventually creating a self-thriving “community”–except he didn’t have a community. He was all by himself, until Frank (Murray Bartlett) came along.
We’re gonna go into a little bit of spoiler territory for the game. If you played the game, feel free to read on.If you haven’t played the game and would rather not be spoiled, avoid reading the pull quoted paragraph section below:
GAME SPOILERS AHEAD!
If you played The Last of Us, you’ll likely know that part of the reason why Bill is broken is because he lost his lover Frank. A lot of the more meaningful content within the relationship takes some effort to get into in the game because they’re all left through optional context clues, but if you played attentively, you’d also know that Frank wrote a suicide note after getting infected, and it was essentially hate mail because of constant arguments with Bill. Absolutely none of this happens in “Long Long Time,” and it’s probably what made the episode so captivating in the first place.
Little bit of spoilers for The Last of Us (game)
GAME SPOILERS END HERE!
When it was announced that Nick Offerman would play the role of Bill, I was ecstatic about it–especially as a huge fan of his alpha male, no-nonsense persona of Ron Swanson in “Parks and Recreation.” Of course, having played the game I was also wondering how far HBO would have him go if the series delved into his history, particularly of the romantic sort…
…All the wonder is gone. Offerman knocked it out of the park.
As stated, Bill is a crafty and grumpy dude. Offerman had that down pat, as he’s someone you can easily imagine surviving a zombie apocalypse, and you’ll see in both the series and the game that he’s definitely well equipped. And then as soon as Frank falls into one of his traps, his life changed. The hopeless world of “The Last of Us” takes a back seat to explore the relationship that Bill and Frank have, and it’s absolutely beautiful.
They built a life together in the 20 years since the outbreak, and we’re treated to a lot of good and some bad. One such issue the two had is the fact that Bill was only fending for Frank and himself, while Frank looked forward to building a community, and so a few years later–they eventually meet confidants in Joel and Tess, whom Bill shows right away he didn’t care for, and at the same time, Frank proved more than a proxy.
Bill and Joel talking resources.
There’s one particular scene where Bill and Frank share a moment at a strawberry field that Frank planted and raised (thanks to Tess) where we see Bill really grow as a person because of this relationship. In this scene, Bill takes Frank by the hand and says vulnerably “I was never afraid before you showed up.”
Episode 3 has a runtime of 81 minutes, a few minutes shy of the series pilot and while Bill’s story takes up more than hour, it does bring us back to the plot at hand following Joel and Ellie. That said, a big change from the game takes place once we reach this point, but it’s one that explains itself perfectly and is the main reason why I’d argue that this episode is the best one of the season and will likely be one in the series that’s constantly revisited.
“Long Long Time” is an episode I would recommend to absolutely anyone, including those who have absolutely no interest in The Last of Us. It tells a beautiful love story during a time where you wouldn’t even want to think about anything as trivial, but it just goes to show that it’s absolutely necessary. This episode stands alone and you don’t even need to know what’s going on to appreciate it. Nick Offerman himself deserves an Emmy for his performance as Bill in this episode, as it’s one of the best episodes of any television I’ve seen in years.
Editor’s Note: When we published the review, we incorrectly titled the episode “One More Good Day.” We apologize for that error.
by Danreb Victorio
