Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the third episode of “The Last of Us,” which premieres January 29 on HBO.
CNN
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If “The Last of Us” was overheard in the first two episodes, the third season of the HBO series lives up to the weight of all the talk, making an earlier claim that it’s inevitable to talk about it as one. The best TV hours of 2023.
A self-contained story unfolding in this dystopian, zombie-ravaged world, the show unfolds a tale of love and compassion amid chaos and violence, making good use of Linda Ronstadt’s haunting ballad “Long, Long Time.” Just to punctuate things.
Feeling like an episode of an anthology series – think “The Last Tales” – it centered on Bill (Nick Offerman), a weary traveler Frank (The White Lotus) Murray Bartlett, who somehow seems to be everywhere these days).
After they share a meal, Frank plays Bill’s piano, kisses him, and, well, inspires him to stay for the rest of his life. That ends when Frank falls ill, chooses to take his own life after one last wonderful dinner, and Bill decides to join him in saying goodbye to this cruel world.
“I am satisfied. And you were my target,” Bill tells Frank. “I don’t support that. … But objectively, it’s incredibly romantic.
That was it, and the strain of Ronstadt’s voice should have sparked renewed interest in her 1970 hit “Better Than You Can Run That Hill.” Kate Bush enjoyed an unexpected revival with her 1985 hit “Stranger Things.” (HBO, like CNN, is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery.)
The real emotional cliffhanger comes at the end when the couple’s acquaintance Joel (Pedro Pascal) and fellow traveler Ellie (Bella Ramsay) find Bill’s suicide note, which talks about “saving” Frank and how he loves him. He changed his cruel and sly attitude.
“I hated the world,” he wrote, “and I was happy when everybody died.” “But I was wrong.”
The final shot, through the window where they sit together, represents the closest thing to a perfect hour of television.
Thanks to its association with the award-winning game, “The Last of Us” was burdened with expectations that would either inevitably lead to disappointment or react once the media machinery went into overdrive. However, the show meets that challenge, and while the third episode is probably the best of the nine, at least it has company to offer before the season ends.
Joel and Ellie are about to face new dangers, and the story continues with the announcement that HBO has renewed it for a second season. Both by itself and in that wider context, a defining episode like this is worth savoring for now, and perhaps, for a long, long time.
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