Bill’s Big Decision In The Last Of Us Episode 3 Explained By Creators

The Last of Us creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann break down Bill’s major heart-wrenching decision in the critically-acclaimed episode 3.

Spoilers of The Last of Us episode 3 below!HBO’s The Last of Us creators explain Bill’s big decision in episode 3. After narrowly escaping the Boston Quarantine Zone, the series’ lead protagonists, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), make their way to Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank’s (Murray Bartlett) heavily-fortified sanctuary for supplies and a vehicle. Through a series of flashbacks, The Last of Us episode 3 depicts the full breadth of Bill and Frank’s partnership, starting with the day they found each other through the 16 years they survived in the compound, and concluding with their decision to peacefully pass away together in each other’s arms.

During HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast, Mazin and Druckmann break down Bill’s decision to die by suicide alongside Frank in episode 3.

Mazin details when Bill finally decides to end his life and how a quote from The Boys in the Band helped inform the scene. Druckmann further discusses how Bill’s death informs Joel’s journey for the remainder of the season. Read what the creative partners say below:

Mazin: My feeling is that, somewhere around the middle of the day when Bill decided, “All right, I’m going to go along with this plan. I will go to the boutique. I’ll put on what he wanted me to wear. We’ll get married. We’ll do all that stuff. I’ll make him dinner.” Somewhere in there, once he decided, “All right. I’m going to do this.” Then he very quickly decided, “And then this is what I’m also going to do because there’s no fucking way.” This is a tricky one because there’s a line that Bill says here that I lifted almost directly from the playwright Mark Crowley who wrote The Boys in the Band, which is this wonderful play from the ’60s about gay men navigating their lives and their relationships. One of them in that play says to the other, “This isn’t that tragic suicide at the end of the play.” Not all gay men have to die at the end of the play, because there is a tradition of essentially equating homosexuality with tragedy, and that a gay man couldn’t possibly just age and be happy and live long. It was important for me to have Bill literally say that’s not what this is.

Druckmann: What I love about all that, besides how beautiful and moving it is when you watch it, is that in a way Bill is very, very lucky that the person he loves the most is going out at the end of his own life. Bill doesn’t have a lot left either. So the choice is relatively easier. But it kind of reflects outwards, or it pulses outwards to say, what happens when you lose someone you love so much and there is a lot of life left in front of you. Because that’s kind of what we saw happening at the beginning of the story with Joel. And that’s the thing that Joel is doing his best to avoid ever living again. And slowly but surely what the universe is saying, we’re coming back to that moment in time.

Related: What Happened To Bill & Frank In The Last Of Us Episode 3

How The Last of Us Changed Bill From the Game

Prior to The Last of Us’ series premiere, Mazin and Druckmann repeatedly assured viewers that the HBO adaptation will honor the source material and adhere to the story beats of the original beloved video game. However, the two also promised that the show will feature mind-blowing additions to the story and the world of The Last of Us. On top of the significant changes to nature of the Cordyceps fungal mutation as well as the inclusion of its origins and propagation, Bill and Frank’s story has so far seen the biggest deviations from the game.

Similar to The Last of Us series, the original video game has Joel and Ellie trek to Bill’s on foot following Tess’ tragic death. However, the two find Bill very much alive and living alone in a town-sized sanctuary constantly under siege by infected. The group then traverse an uncleared section of the town to locate a usable car battery, only to find it missing. With a horde of infected on their tail, they wind up in a house to discover Frank hanging from the rafters. In a suicide note left behind, Frank reveals that he grew to resent Bill and his isolationist ways, so he snuck away one night and stole the car battery for himself, but wound up infected in the process.

As opposed to the lauded romantic partnership depicted in The Last of Us episode 3, the original game alluded to a far bitterer relationship between Bill and Frank. Audiences have praised the change, calling the episode the best of the series so far. With The Last of Us episode 4 set to return the narrative focus back to Joel and Ellie’s journey, there still may be some unexpected narrative surprises ahead.

Source: HBO Max