The Last of Us episode 3 spoilers follow.
Picture it: it's been a week since Tess sacrificed herself in The Last of Us and the tear tracks are still fresh on your face, glistening in the light of your TV or laptop as the HBO logo appears. "Finally," you say to yourself. "Finally, we can get back to the zombie-killing, action-packed mission at hand, free of soul-destroying pain and loss."
You can see that Joel and Ellie are sad still, trying to recover from the death of Tess. But we also learn more about the Cordyceps infection and how it started, plus we meet that gross mushroom guy who's trapped under the rubble of a deserted gas station. We're back on track then, it seems.
And then suddenly we cut to September 30th, 2003, just a few days after the outbreak first began. A doomsday prepper named Bill is doing his utmost to survive, and a four-year jump confirms that things are going okay for him, all things considered. And then we meet Frank.
They fall in love, and then so do we, with their story as Linda Ronstadt's aching ballad 'Long, Long Time' soundtracks their lives together. Through wine and raids and tiny little strawberries, we follow Bill and Frank through two decades of love in post-apocalyptic Massachusetts.
We've not known them for long, but it's obvious to anyone watching that Bill and Frank are soulmates. That much is clear. And that's why it hurts so much when Frank, who's getting more and more ill, suddenly tells Bill that "This is my last day."
If tears didn't flood from your eyes earlier when Bill said, "I was never afraid before you showed up," then they must be pouring out of your face by now. Go get a drink. Rehydrate. We'll wait.
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Still with us? How about when Frank tells Bill that his death isn't tragic because, "You were my purpose"?
Just when you thought this show couldn't get more emotional, Last of Us makes us watch as our new favourite couple help each other to bed so they can die in their sleep together.
"It's incredibly romantic," says Frank when he realises that Bill took the sleeping pills to join him in death, but it's also devastating and agonising in the most gut-wrenching way possible. We will never recover.
And then there's that one final scene where Joel finds the letter that Bill left for him. Where he tells Joel to keep Tess safe...
With nary a clicker in sight, this so-called zombie show has once again destroyed millions of lives with just one simple line of dialogue (if HBO's ratings are anything to go by). But that's not enough. Because then we watch Joel and Ellie drive away through an open window. Their open window.
This shot very deliberately avoids showing what became of Bill and Frank, swerving round the usual gruesome tendencies of this genre. We know they've died, so we don't need to see their bodies, and the passage of time since their demise can clearly be seen in the form of flowers that have now wilted in Frank's absence.
It's a beautiful moment designed to wrap up their story and tug on the heartstrings one last time, and by "tug" we mean violently tear at our hearts and souls until we no longer know peace.
But it's not just the story itself that makes this so sad. It's not just how the show gave Bill and Frank the love story they were so cruelly denied in the video games either. Or even that same-sex marriage wasn't legal in Massachusetts until 2004, which means the wedding they gave themselves would never have been recognised by the state they lived in.
No, what makes this so sad and beautiful and all those things is the window itself.
Following the episode's air date, director Peter Hoar (of It's a Sin fame) told Inverse that he felt it was important to include this shot simply because he didn't want to let go of Bill and Frank's story:
"Obviously, we see Joel and Ellie disappear off into the sunset. But I wanted a last moment with Bill and Frank, and I didn't know how else to do it. But if we pull back through their window, see the flowers that have died, which is also heartbreaking, and one of Frank's pictures on the wall. I just thought that was our last moment. We're actually coming back into the world of Frank and Bill for that one last shot because I didn’t want to go."
As poignant and relatable as that is, the window also holds a lot of significance for fans of the games as well. In case you haven't played the first one since 2013, or not at all, now's a good time to point out that the main loading screen for The Last of Us is yep, an open window, much like the one in Bill and Frank's bedroom.
When you complete the game, Ellie's switchblade appears on the sill, but the window itself stays the same. And that stillness is important.
There's always been a melancholy of sorts attached to that image which might seem contrary to the game itself, and specifically, the horrors that lurk within. But there's a reason for that, which series co-creator Craig Mazin explains in a new interview with Deadline:
"As a player, I just always loved the start screen in The Last of Us, looking at this window and how peaceful it was, even though the world is not peaceful, and what happens to these characters isn’t peaceful."
"And it seemed like a good place for us to go," adds Mazin. "There’s an opportunity to show both the idea of this permanent love that’s always going to be there in that building, in their home, but also just the theme of that window being the epitome of peace in the world of The Last of Us."
Bill and Frank lived in a world where true peace eluded them, and we're not just talking about the fungal apocalypse.
Even before that, life clearly wasn't easy for them living as gay men in the early noughties. As mentioned earlier, same-sex marriage wasn't even an option for them back then, so knowing that they carved out a safe space for each other amidst all this horror is so special to see.
And knowing that they have found peace with each other even now, in death, is almost too much for our tear ducts to bear.
The Last of Us is available on HBO in US. In the UK, The Last of Us is available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW with an Entertainment Membership for just £9.99.
