THE LAST OF US 1x3 Spoiler Review | HBO Max

[Music] [Music] thank you hello everybody and welcome to this spoiler review episode for episode 3 of The Last of Us from the geek buddies [Laughter] [Applause] oh man oh God we have ahead of us today long long time episode three directed by Peter Orr um what an incredible episode we're going to break it on down here for you guys and uh talk about everything that happened here in one of just right off the bat let me just say one of the most incredible episodes of Television I've ever seen uh and I've lived a long time so you know I'm saying something there but we're gonna break it all down here as the geek buddy so thank you very much for joining us let's introduce ourselves first I am the outlaw John Rocco writer producer and host here on the geekbuddies I am Michael Vogel I'm a writer and producer of animated TV shows and movies and this is Shannon McClung I'm an animation writer and a television actor where you're going to get to see me in this February on the season premiere of party down and also I can tell you guys this I'm pinned for a nice little episode of another TV show so fingers crossed maybe I'll cross your fingers everybody crossing fingers from a clown maybe I'll celebrate in the middle of this maybe I'll start crying for a whole together different reasons it's good I like that I like that and of course we are powered and sponsored by the great folks over at Carbon Health go and get checked out today if you've got any health care questions concerns or needs they've got virtual care in person care all of it available for you 100 Post locations all over Cal all over the states rather 80 plus locations in California alone if you don't want to go uh you know go on the web or whatever then just download the app if you like doing that living the app life go and download the app for carbon health and find a place maybe um maybe things would have been a little bit different for Bill and Frank carbon health myself you know like Frank said you know this stuff couldn't be cured before the pandemic how would it be cured after so yeah anyway but yes please go get checked out at Carbon Health the way we're gonna jump into this thing I'm gonna break it into sections this is a spoiler review so if you have not seen the episode especially in this episode we cannot encourage you enough to go and watch it first and then come back and hang out with us Michael we got to start with you and I think for for many reasons we got to start with you what did you think of this episode overall here long long time from The Last of Us well I agree with you that I think it maybe is one of the best hours of Television I've seen in quite some time and a lot of you are probably thinking that I think that just because I'm gay and you are correct I think that because I am gay and this was a [ __ ] amazing story of some gay romance in a way that I had never seen it before on TV and it was beautiful and it was touching and it was very different from the game um which is really really interesting and I think that that you know there's I've seen some debate about whether um making the changes they did was good and bad by making both of them again spoiler review having both of them uh passed away by the time that Joel and Ellie get there people were feeling well then what was the point what was it necessary I think it was great I think it was beautiful I think it actually underscored a lot of the themes that are going on with Joel and Ellie and with the game as a as a on the whole and really it was just one of those magical hours of Television you know I was unprepared like I knew a little bit um from having played parts of the game and kind of knowing what happened to the game I knew a little bit of what we were gonna get but I don't think anybody was expecting to get fully what we got in this episode uh and I was unprepared and then I went to Twitter and was happy to find out that most of the world was equally as unprepared as I was uh and it's always fun when you have an episode like this that when you do go to social media afterwards yeah everybody kind of shares in that experience of like holy [ __ ] what the hell just happened I'm a broken mess and that is where I was last evening okay Shannon McClung your thoughts on this uh episode that we got from The Last of Us I mean I would agree like this this is one of the better hours of television in I mean you could say ever I mean this was just so incredibly well done um the changes because I also in general I don't look up a whole lot about the game because I am going in so blind to this this was something I looked up afterwards because I wanted to see what a Frank had I'm like I think this is Parkinson's um but but I just I just want to check and then I found out how much had actually changed yeah and I think one of the things I think where Walking Dead kind of started to go off the tracks a little bit is there was just zero hope it was almost like torture porn like what else can we put these people through and I feel like when you have a character in Joel's situation who is coming off the loss of Tess who whose status they elevated in terms of his relationship I guess in the game she's she's they know each other but it never really um specifically laid out that the Romantic partners and even in this that's still a little fuzzy like you know we're getting it like yeah they were they were involved but to sort of um remind Joel of his failure one with his daughter now with Tess but you see it's not a light at the end of the tunnel but you see how in this dark dark World there are still those moments of light and how Bill and Frank found each other and just the performances of Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett were just so so good and it yeah I mean this was I had heard going in zero context that this that this might be the best episode of the season and thus far and that's that's no shade on one or two because I thought one and two were fantastic but this one this one was really it was really something else like really really enjoyed it what's the Mantra I always say give time to these other characters in your show to flesh them out because they will be an effective much more satisfying overall show that being said this was just brilliant stuff from Craig Mason and Neil druckman especially in your druckman because you know he said very clearly we might not go forward with the show uh if we don't have the material Source or the material to use as the foundation we don't want to pull a Game of Thrones well this episode essentially kind of counters that because almost everything in here is not in the game there are certain things that are connected to the game with Bill and Frank Frank has gone off bill doesn't know where Frank is Frank we find Frank in the game you find Frank and you I don't want to ruin that for people who haven't seen the game of things happen and you find the note in all of that so it's part of the game but what they did here was flesh out this story in a way to make a commentary about how you need to have hope you need to have love what you do for love and I think that final letter when he says to him like I didn't care but if anybody died I didn't care that the whole world died but I met someone that I did want to keep alive I met someone I wanted to predict I met someone I wanted to live for and that was really powerful and I think connecting as Janet just said to where Joel is right now with having lost tests and now having to take care of Ellie and going after his brother there's a lot going on with his Natural Instincts um and I thought the show did a beautiful job of not um shirking it not giving you just cursory implications you know like some other Studios like to do with their gay romances in their in their shows or in their TV or in their movies they fully dove into it you know exactly what this was and what they were talking about and it was a beautiful love story and I think they did a better job with this story for this context of the show than they did for the game in my opinion and so I liked seeing that here in this for sure so we're going to break this thing down and go Section by section so essentially just going to go right off the bat here with the opening Joel is building a rock structure clearly still recovering or dealing or processing with the loss of tests here they're 10 miles west of Boston in the forest they're both and Ellie is kind of you know sitting huddled up by the tree offers her jacket Joel says no I don't need my jacket back um but then um Joel cuts off Ellie when she's trying to talk and it's because and Joel thinks Ellie's gonna apologize or or say she's sorry and she's like no I'm not saying I'm sorry no one made you do this you chose to do this her death isn't my fault and I wrote here it echoes how some fathers blame their children when the mother dies in childbirth so I like that they kind of made a little bit of a commentary here they go on a five hour hike we'll hear about Joe's scar in his face Ellie is turned down for a gun again we arrive at Cumberland Farms Ellie talks about playing Mortal Kombat 2 in front of the game she goes down into this uh hatch and we see her grab I think her some tampons I'm not too knowledgeable about this kind of stuff and then looks at yeah okay all right and then we hear the sounds of an infected person there and she walks up and she investigated takes her knife out cuts his forehead open and we see the fungus start to come out and then in a quick moment just kills him and stabs him in the brain there maybe as a reaction to Tess's death as kind of a little bit of Revenge but also maybe a little bit of fear there but showing this the strength of Ellie as well the steel in her spine that she's not afraid of this kind of stuff and she is willing to kill if necessary she climbs back up because Joel has finally found his stuff they have a conversation they head on out here they and they come up on a wrecked plane and then Joel and Ellie have a really interesting conversation about how this all started and kind of I feel like the show's making a commentary because Ellie's like was it monkeys which we always hear about whenever there's any kind of virus in our world so it undercuts it completely uncuts that with Joel talking about a kind of food supply and all of this and this it just happened kind of overnight and then we hear about the federal school not teaching her the real story about what happened and how they messed this all up then they come upon this graveyard which Joel was saying was trying to stop Ali from going towards but in the graveyard that had in my opinion and I may be speaking out of turn here a little bit of the Holocaust Vibe seeing the skeletons seeing the what's left of the clothes seeing what's left of of uh these people who we hear and we find out from Joel that um the government had grabbed a bunch of people got them out of the towns evacuated the small towns told them they were going to a uh a uh demilitarized zone a DZ but uh eventually killed them because there when there wasn't space they just killed these people just to be safe because they couldn't tell who was infected and who wasn't infected at that time so that's where we stopped because we're about to go into the flashback so let's go back to you to I'll go to this channel on this one Shannon your thoughts on this opening here uh for this uh for this show yeah I mean you you see sort of the the beauty of nature in this and how you kind of get the idea that maybe the world would be better without people I mean like it's it's so much more peaceful it's so much more beautiful without people in there you know mucking everything up um uh and you know awesome moment for Ellie where you know obviously uh kids in this in this world have to kind of be mature beyond their years they are still kids but her sort of uh rationalizing with him to be like look you were getting something out of this like this isn't my fault like don't don't punish me for something that's not my fault and you know you can tell that that strikes a chord with Joel and again just a solid moment um despite not playing the game uh I I did think it was a a funny nod of the game when he's like you know we stash things along the way and it's just like oh that sort of justifies like if you're you know you're walking along a street and in the last oh here's a shotgun you know what luck um but I did like the moment where she goes down and again this is a kid who's learning like you know she's never been out of the qz she's you know she's seen you know the woods for the first time a lot more bugs than she thought but that moment where it was almost like dissecting a frog it's like I've got you here you can't do anything what does what does this look like you see that Curiosity and yeah as you said John like I don't know if it was for tests or or if this is just a a you know over 10 years of just this you know rage being built up of what her life is and you just see her plunge that knife into the infected skull um I I you know I love the chat that they had like when she said are Bill and Frank nice and he said Frank is and even again going in so blind not really knowing knowing the story and then getting you know having everything laid out it's just really nice like I wouldn't watch the episode again this morning and that was one of those lines that is very kind of a throwaway like it's just sort of like oh yeah he's just talking about this guy but now having seen their relationship you know who bill is and I'm like oh yeah that's that's fantastically that's just fantastically done and yeah then coming to that uh Mass grave site and you know thinking about what their their government did it's this is tantamount to you know an army retreating and setting their own supplies on fire because it's like if you know we can't take them but we don't want to let them fall into the hands of the enemy right um and it's a just a grim Grim reminder of what this of what this world is and so just really really great setup yeah what a fascinating piece of Darkness to start this episode right Mike before we get into this incredibly glorious and Beautiful Love Story We have this Darkness uh in the beginning here with Tess's death still hanging over both of them obviously because it's just happened they're trying to figure out if they can work together and then we see her confront an infected person and then we hear about the origins of how this all happened which is so simple and scary because it could legitimately happen in our world in that way as well so what did you think ending in that graveyard what did you think of this opening well I like I mean I love you know I think we even talked about this last week like it seems like the show was going down this road of like each week we're gonna get sort of a little prologue that's going to be a flashback and it's gonna like fill things out in a way that we didn't see in the game and this week sort of flipped it all on its head like Joel and Ellie are the framing device like we get them at the beginning and we get them at the end but the flashback is the entirety of the episode so it was kind of like an inverse of what we've seen in episodes one and two um I was also struck by what Shannon said in the very first shot I mean you know Shannon was talking earlier about how this entire storyline does what Walking Dead sometimes didn't do which is it gives us hope it shows us that Humanity it can still have Beauty and I think that in the production design of this show they're also making that choice because yeah this world is horrible and this world is scary and this world is harsh but it is gorgeous I mean they are 10 what they are 10 miles west of Boston east of Boston whatever uh it's beautiful like it it's like breathtakingly beautiful so like it's not just like oh they happen to get a really nice shot like it is intentionally gorgeous um and with everything with Joel and Ellie I really love how again I didn't play all of the game but I played enough and then as I've been looking at things and reading some things online like they do this really wonderful job of weaving in and out of like taking cut scenes from the game and doing them almost word for word but then adding more or tweaking things to be a little bit different and even this whole opening scene like there's stuff that's from the game but the part where Ellie kind of stands up to Joel and says I wasn't going to apologize that's this is not my fault that's new um and I think they're doing a really interesting thing with Ellie that plays a lot through all of this opening sequence which is I love that there allowed that she is tough and she is assertive and she is clearly someone who's grown up in this world and she's also clearly a kid yeah like it would be so easy to do a story where either I'm a hardened I'm a hardened person and this world has made me hard and I've lost all vestiges of childhood or I am just this innocent child who needs to be protected and she gets to play both which is really really great um so we get to see uh the thrill and wonder that she has about an airplane or how fascinating she finds nature and she gets to or or how excited she is about Mortal Kombat too um and how how into that she is but then we get to see her look at this adult and be like I'm not the one that killed your friend and when she does go down into the cellar she's not an idiot like she because like I was like she she opened that thing and it was dark and I grabbed my friend Tony and I'm like don't go in there like I was like I was like no but like she shined her light down there she dropped in she picked up that garbage can she set up her exit like she handled it smart um and then I think yeah I think examining um the infected it was really interesting because I think it's a little bit of everything that you guys said I think that if you grew up in this world you would be fascinated by these Boogeyman that you've heard about and maybe never saw and I think that you would want to sort of examine it and especially if you're her and she is somehow immune to some of this and she doesn't know why there's probably extra Fascination but also this thing is the reason that your life sucks I mean like a year and a half ago if any of us could have gone and stab covered in the eye we certainly would have done it so you know I think that there's so much and then we talk a lot Shannon talks a lot about this we all talk about this about Exposition and how to make it feel natural and them walking along and her very naturally wanting to know about how this happened just allows Joel to sort of just lay out in like stuff that we've hinted at and kind of talked about but this is exactly how it went down and this is how fast it happened um and then yeah getting to that mass grave I know John you were saying you thought it was because they didn't know who was infected and who wasn't but I think it's actually worse than that they knew all those people weren't infected but they also knew that they couldn't protect everybody in these small towns yeah so they they didn't say oh maybe some of you are sick and maybe you aren't they knew that these people were okay at the time but they still represented a threat because if you can't protect everybody these people one one infected person gets into this town that the government doesn't have the bandwidth to protect and all of a sudden you have an army of infected oh wow wouldn't it be easier to just kill all these people and dump them in a grave yeah so it represents something that's actually even more uh just cold and clinical and scary um so yeah like so even before we get to the meat of this episode which obviously we all have a lot to talk about they just did so much Exposition and character stuff and I thought it was just really all lovely and well done yeah yeah I agree with that as well and I agree with you the exposition was done naturally and it's the third episode we're not getting it in the first episode it's the third episode we've spent time with Ellie and Joel now Tess is out of the way unfortunately because she passed in the last episode so they have no choice but to talk to each other right and so Joel isn't going to give up too much but this basic stuff he will give up just because he's got a natural inclination to protect but also to Dole out information only when he deems it appropriate or it's necessary right other stuff about himself as he says at the end of the episode let's keep our stories to ourselves he's not ready yet to open up an Elliot to Ellie and give him give himself more of uh give her more of himself and this is more basic stuff as you would to a teenager expand explain the world for uh because she's asking so many damn questions anyway which it makes a comment on which I think is great as well and you're right Shannon to point out the Joel of the uh the bill thing because later on when he gets the letter and he reads it he goes Joel it was never I never really liked you but I understood you and we were fine so clearly that that relationship from the from what we're going to see we're going to talk about here at the table with the gun pointed at Joel by Bill that stays the relationship going forward for the rest of their interaction so very interesting stuff all right let's take a quick break and we'll jump into the meats of the episode as Michael just said right after this do do do do do do do do that's good is that is that the song that's the song all right let's get it going we go to the flashback here September 30 2003. I'm not gonna spend too much time I'm just gonna hit all the beats we see soldiers being put on trucks uh a man is watching it all on multiple cameras this is Bill he says not today you New World Order Jack boot F's I'm sure a lot of people have thought that in different iterations he comes up into his house we see that he's alone and we see this Montage of him essentially uh taking care of himself turning on the gas going get Home Depot stuff basically becoming a self-sufficient person he's eating when an alarm goes off and an infected person has shot one of his traps but then we cut to four years later he has a gate set up here an alarm goes off heads out into the to look at this pit and inside is Frank and he says I'm not infected they have an exchange about where he's from how he got here for uh Bill gets him out and then says you can go Frank doesn't want to go says he's hungry so he Bill lets him in lets him shower make some food serves him and pairs rabbit with boys let me tell you something nothing makes me feel more like a straight man like not understanding how to pair wine with food I'll tell you that right now okay they finished but Frank wants to play a song on his piano they start to play a long long time from Linda Ronstadt uh Bill stops him and takes over and then uh he's Bill uh Frank asks Bill who you who you're singing this for what girl and of course he says no girl and Bill and Frank says yeah I knew that then they they kept this wonderful kiss here they end up in bed it's really sweet tender moment there between them he's said I'm going to take it slow if you've never done this before I'm gonna take it so so very sweet stuff that we cut to three years later they're fighting with each other it's all because Frank wants to decorate the place he wants to bring friends in he wants to clean up the town a little bit because Bill just wants to kind of hide out in his bunker and protect his own and not mess with anything else here then we cut to them having dinner with the Tess and Joel here and as I said Joel has or bill has the gun on Joel Tess and Frank are clearly getting along they pitch an arrangement here they come up with some danger codes we hear about the 80s danger codes um then Joel tells bill that listen I can help you you need that fence is going to go down in a year you need all this kind of stuff the federal is not going to come after you and you're going to ward off the infected but people will come at night in in quiet we cut to three years later bill and Frank are jogging Frank shows Bill is garden they're growing strawberries they share a beautiful one with the strawberries um Bill apologizes for getting old faster than him it's a beautiful woman I was never afraid before you showed up uh that's such a great line we cut to a rain tonight these Raiders blow these Raiders come they get killed by Bill's fence but Bill gets shot Frank takes care of Bill then we cut to some time later and we clearly see that uh Frank is sick he's in a wheelchair they're much older now Frank is painting bills taking care of him and then we get to this scene where Bill tells Frank that or Frank tells Bill rather this is my last day which of course devastates bill but they go through these Beautiful Moments together uh from the couch on this Montage they get married he makes him food which reminds you of the first time they met the dinner and the wine they're even having the same wine crushes up the uh the pills there to essentially kill um Frank and Bill takes a drink as well they head upstairs and we go to Black frame which in essence applies that they implies that they both died even though Frank initially would have resisted it he appreciates the Romantic nature of it Michael please take it away um about this whole meat of the episode here between Bill and Frank well I mean it's all just so well done also casting Ron Swanson as bill is just the most brilliant thing I could possibly do in the history like it is it is brilliant but like the whole opening I was just laughing because all I could think of the whole opening with him with Bill like in his bunker he's been preparing for this he's got his guns oh he doesn't trust the government he's a conspiracy guy and all I could think of is that there are some poor poor poor people right now poor right wing uh conservatives watching this show going now this is what I want this is a representation of me and I was like oh these guys gonna have some real hard things to deal with in about 10-15 minutes but uh but it was great I mean and also I I will say that like I loved seeing I I love seeing a portrayal of a queer person who wasn't a liberal uh Progressive grew up and break like like Bill is such an interesting character because he does represent these two extremes he was a survivalist he didn't trust the government he was a conspiracy guy he was prepared for all the [ __ ] to come down he thought 911 was an inside job like he was this very very different person to what most people on the left would uh would think of um and then watching him sort of go through them go through his plan like he you know the the the soldiers left he was on his own and he went through it and it was methodical and it was smart and it was great and so just seeing all that and then when he's having dinner by himself I have to believe that this was straight up somebody was like hey we love Parks and Rec because he's literally doing the Ron Swanson birthday dinner like every year on Parks and Rec Ron Swanson got to be alone in his chair eating a steak and watching Bridge on the River Kwai and Bill is sitting alone in his chair eating his steak watching infected get fried on his fence and just going that's nice and I'm like that's Ron Swanson it's Ron Swanson he says it never gets old [Laughter] um the minute that Frank shows up it's so wonderful like this is a guy that can't even lie are you armed yeah there's like that big pause and he's like no wait why did you pause trying to think of a reason why I should pretend that I I don't know and then like I think as an audience even if you know nothing about anything you watch this game the second that Frank corrects Bill about Arby's yeah like he's like you don't get a free meal here this isn't Arby's and he's like uh Arby's been getting a free meal it was a restaurant um it's just all that we kind of in the midst of in the midst of this like show about infected and the survivalist and everything that's going on you're automatically put on edge if you don't know anything because you expect like Shannon said we've all watched Walking Dead we've watched those shows where you don't trust anybody and someone pretends to be nice but then they really turn their back on you so you're a little bit on edge but Frank is just chipping away at that to the audience and to bill because you're like he seems nice I kind of want to trust him and then the entire meal it's just really nice because Bill is this he's so awkward but he and this is where I think um you just like like it just all the credit um to the performances to the from both of these guys but yeah bill as a character playing someone who is gay but has never really admitted that or dealt with it and you are watching him struggle with that in real time so like when Frank is in the shower and he brings the clothes in and he just stands there awkwardly because there is a attractive naked man in the shower but he's all like he just had he he ends up this guy who we saw as this badass survivalist looks like a scared little boy and that is so beautiful and then leading up to like the playing of the piano and the Linda Ronstadt song and the way that bill plays it versus Frank and that Frank understands it and then the entire time like Frank's sort of taking charge and taking Bill upstairs and even like Bill taking a shower where that when there is still like a stranger in his room shows this level of sort of like trust uh and the whole thing like just the entire thing was beautiful and from that point on like the audience you're just [ __ ] as an audience member because like everything from that point on is just the beauty of all of it like their fight as a couple oh yeah and the fight the fight is great because when he is like you think all the government are Nazis and he's like the government are not he's like well they are now like everything about their fight is so great and it represents again the entire episode is what Shannon said is that bill was all about surviving in the worst possible climate imaginable and Frank is like that's not enough like we need to live and and then that you know and that brings in Joel and Tess and then you see that like there's just the parallels between the two of them as these couples and that Joel and Bill sort of size each other up and get each other but it all sort of makes sense the strawberry moment is just it it's this unexpected moment of beauty and again I think that's what this show is doing so well it's giving us all the scares and the horror but it's giving us these moments of like this is what we're fighting for this is why things are worth living um and then they just pull a fast one on you because once we're off the reservation of the game doesn't do any of this we don't really know what's gonna happen so in all of the Invaders do attack and we get to see just how effective all of the stuff that bill did uh to protect them really is it really looks like Bill's going down you're like oh well so is Bill gonna die and then Frank is there like we don't really know what's gonna happen and then they switch so you're like okay Bill's gonna then they flip it on you again and you see that Frank is really old and Frank is sick and then the moment that Frank is like this is my last day it is like okay well I'm I'm I'm just done like I was just a sobbing mess for the rest of I had to go back and watch that stuff twice for this review because I was and I was mad that I had to because I was like man don't make me do this I I can't I don't have it in me um and yeah it's just like the it it was just so unexpectedly beautiful uh it was it was hard it was hard it was hard to process at the end like the end I was just a puddle on the floor yeah uh all right Shannon your thoughts on this one uh on this meat of the episode here the relationship between Bill and Frank fleshing out much more than what we got in the in the game between these two uh I'm gonna try to keep my [ __ ] bottled up uh yeah be forewarned as you were just going through the recap I'm like oh here it comes um yeah two uh vogel's point about the casting of Nick Offerman look man he he's he's people don't know that before Parks and Rec he wasn't really a comedy guy like he he right he was a dramatic he's a dramatically trained actor so to see him come into this role and play it so straight you know not not really but be able to add those little bits of Comedy that he fine-tuned over seven years in parks and rec was just so much fun and there's nothing more cathartic to me than watching Nick Offerman enjoy a steak I mean it's just like just the way he cuts it like you I mean Vogel is right I mean this guy did everything correctly and then Flash Forward what four years and you see what he has been able to do in that moment that he meets Marie Bartlett and again I I figured I didn't know these two were going to be we're going to be partners I didn't know it was going to be a romantic relationship or just a friendship um but the moment that Murray Bartlett shows up because as Vogel said we've been so conditioned to not trust anyone the whole time they're eating I'm like oh my God is this business when it happens is this when Murray Bartlett takes a swing at him um but the moment that like I love the fact that inside that house I mean this is this is a lot of my head Canon I'm like that is Bill's mom's house that he has not changed at 100 everything that he did is beneath the surface it's in that bunker it's in the fence and so as Murray Bartlett is going over there looking at that piano and he's already you know made the comment about pairing Beaujolais with rabbit um and then he sees the the pieces of music and when he says no this is yours pointing out Linda Ronstadt and Bill even though he's this tough survivalist he can't listen to someone butcher that song I thought was just so beautiful and and you know probably prior to 2003 he probably never came out of the closet I mean this is something that he kept he kept bottled up this whole time and you see with with uh Frank um he's a people person and in this world of surviving it's the people people that are going to bring things back uh because you see the way he talks about Tess he's like you know we need to have friends we need to do this we need to have people over and even though there is a lot not to trust in the world as Joel points out um trust is what bring trust is what will bring civilization back if everyone's out for themselves it's never it's never gonna work and I love the conversation between uh Joel and Bill I thought that was so awesome and how Pedro Pascal is 100 on Bill's side he's like yeah I unders I'm right there with you and we can help you and get that gun out of my face the the the the transition of that line was so great and then watching as they get older together the whole strawberry moment even though Frank is all about living he still grew those strawberries don't lay on the strawberries I thought that was such a great moment and when you see what the fence can actually do I mean the whole reason of like the the the buzz saw is to create a spark that this gas will then fry P like oh my gosh and you like more than likely bill has taught Frank how to use a gun like he he has fine-tuned his abilities but that's not what Frank that's not what Frank is thinking about Frank is thinking I have to go get I gotta go get I gotta go get them and seeing seeing how they grew old and sorry guys a break here to get under control I it it I will say like one thing that occurred to me as he is talking about where they're about to get to and it occurred to a lot of people I saw a lot of people on Twitter saying this but like yeah I think Shannon is 100 correct that that is Bill's mom's house bill grew up there Bill never left there he never had a relationship that would require him to leave there his mom passed away he got the house um but also the timeline wise gay marriage is not legal in the world all right 2003 yeah good point so even if he had come out of the closet which he did not the idea of even legally marrying someone so the fact that like they kind of live their lives together living their thing and then on the last day of the two of them together uh they're like let's get married yeah and that they like like to there's something about uh having the best thing in your life and the worst thing in your life happen at the exact same on the exact same day that like it wasn't like oh remember when we got married let's look at our album like they spent that day together getting married um having the exact same meal that they had on the day that they met like it was just such a beautiful uh microcosm of all the things that were worth it and and you know and that's kind of what bill says like that that it's all like he was his life he said like what the words he says to him to Frank at the end he goes I'm satisfied yeah like and I don't think that bill ever was satisfied and there's something so strange about somebody like you know Joel is somebody as a character who was living a life but like had a daughter he like Joel had a life that he lost and so Joel is dealing with all of the loss during all of this but to have a character like Bill who was ready to survive but didn't really have anything to survive for and then in the worst possible time found this thing that made everything worth it yeah like that that that's what really got me all right uh no uh okay hey well I'll see I thought it was beautiful it was gorgeous um I was so caught up in this relationship Murray Bartlett deserves just as much love as Nick Offerman for what he brought to Franken I'm not a White Lotus person so I have very little uh exposure to Murray Bartlett and he was incredible here so this episode might make me go back and try White Lotus again uh because I quit after the first episode really was annoyed after the first episode but seeing seeing what he writing that's okay it's okay to have different opinions seeing what he brought to the wall here I thought was incredible the chemistry worked really well um the conversations they both had aft in the uh post um post show document or they do a little five minute documentary they do I thought what really encapsulated and the understanding they had for this relationship that being said this needs to happen more and I loved it as a straight guy watching a gay romance play out this is natural this is normal this needs to happen on all kinds of fronts so we can get rid of the stigma of it and it's then people stop saying shove down we have so many heterosexual love stories in all of these [ __ ] shows even the post-apocalyptic shows even more so in the post-apocalyptic shows it's nice to have something like this as a change of pace it was well written well directed well acted it was paced out perfectly the time jumps made so much sense where you were able to go along with the changes in the relationship and I'm telling you that scene by the garden that scene is me by the strawberries with with with Lindley is that idea of I didn't care about anybody else I wasn't afraid until you came along and that's the truth you know I the other day I just kind of was alone crying thinking about what happens if she passes before I do how am I going to function in the world now that I've become so accustomed to having her by my side to deal with everything so it was so real in how it showed you love and I think Neil druckman said that really well in the post show Doc as well when he said this is the different ways that you show love and look Frank was an idiot to run out there bill was handling it bill was handling it but that's Love sometimes Frank ran out because he loves Bill he wanted to take bill from danger but it was Bill turning around to tell Frank to get back in the house they got him shot in the stomach so those are those things that happened with love there's things happen those are the sacrifices that's part of it it's not all Rosy and even bill or Frank saying to Bill I had some really bad days and yes some bad days with you just those are honest [ __ ] that was going on I loved that and then so we got to by the time we got to the after the couch and we got to that beautiful Montage of them spending the day together I was so just in love with this these two as a couple that when Frank made the decision that he made I'm sorry and then bill made the decision that he made it was Bill's decision that broke me Offerman saying like you know I don't I like you just said Michael you know I I didn't I just I you know I'm satisfied there's not much more to let and you know what that's that makes so much sense to me as survivalist and a guy who enjoys the world both making their own decisions about their lives you know um there's there's just operating underneath this whole episode are points of views about some hot button issues in our world how the idea of this stuff can of a virus can spread spreading the conspiracy theories that go along with that a guy who has conspiracy theories about the government and all this kind of stuff and then here this idea of whether you're allowed to take your own life or not which is always a big battle in the world as well I thought all of it was handled so perfectly so deftly so honestly that this is just one of the greatest greatest episodes of Television we've ever seen you know well and I think on the subject of representation I do think one thing that's important to point out is I think a lot of times when we talk about representation particularly the queer representation it's like well queer people should see themselves represented as well which is true like that's it is 100 True like we all want to see ourselves represented on the screen and certain groups are represented have have classically been represented more often than others but I think the other thing is and I think the bigger thing to think about is as my two crybaby co-hosts here are outgoing no it's it's a good thing um I prefer emotional go ahead yes a great relationship is a great relationship yeah I I I I will cry my face off uh when I watch a bunch of movies that we've all grown up watching with straight relationships because I completely fall in love with those people as a couple and this queer couple it's not like this is just for queer people to enjoy this is such a well done relationship period it doesn't matter like the details of it are a little bit different because it's two guys um but this relationship of these two humans coming together as different as they are and falling in love and giving each people giving each other a reason to live it affects everybody it's not a oh well that was great that was great for the lgbtq community it's great for everybody we all see ourselves reflected in this John sees him and Lindley Shannon sees him and Cheney I see me and somebody who uh maybe uh I'm gonna meet at some point I don't well now I just depressed myself so I have to go but Bill is out there your bill is out um yeah so I like that so I think it's like it shows that a really well done relationship is universal which I think is also really important agreed agreed anything more to say on this before we jump into the next section the last section of the show um I will say that I I also enjoyed the fact that uh Frank underscored the reason that I will survive in the pandemic because I cannot shoot and I cannot build a generator nor a battery and I will probably not be handy with a weapon but I will be the really nice guy that plants flowers and makes friends so I am very excited that I have a role in the coming apocalypse yes yes it will paint all the shops absolutely okay let's take a quick break and we'll be right back right after this [Music] all right let's get into the ending here uh would Joel and Ellie show up at the at uh Bill and Frank's Place um and I just wrote [ __ ] he's gonna find them uh Ellie finds a letter and a key addressed to Joel Ellie reads the letter uh Joel goes to try to open the bedroom upstairs but it's locked um and then we come downstairs as I said Ellie has the letter she reads the letter and it's a great explanation of the men that Joel and Bill are you know the people rather I should say regardless of gender that Joel and Bill are they're the protectors and Bill in a way giving one final gift to Joel or one final exchange to Joel hey you're gonna get all my stuff but here is something you need to understand about who you are as a person and reminds him that he's a protector here uh Ellie gets to the test part and stops reading Joel takes the letter the letter and walks outside and listen I know we've been praising Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman men and rightfully so but Pedro Pascal does a fantastic job in this episode in the first section talking to Ellie and all the stuff he's dealing with with Tess and in this moment when he walks out he doesn't break down he doesn't go crazy he just lets the emotion of the loss of test wash over him but he needs to be outside of the house so he can do it in private and I thought that was brilliant and he keeps it together because he needs to because he's hardened from 20 years of pain and hardship in this world and then uses the key goes and sees what bill is left for him he walks back in and offers of to Ellie and makes an offer to Ellie to come with him to go find Tommy but she's got to follow his three rules don't bring up tests don't question me and do what I say she agrees they grab what they can they shower and then Ellie goes snooping finds a gun puts it in her backpack they get in the truck and Ellie is enamored with a car she's never been in the car just like when she was looking at a plane and going you were in the sky he puts her seat belt on which is a really sweet kind of moment of taking care of her they take off Ellie puts on a cassette it's Linda ronstadt's version of the song from earlier so Shannon uh what do you think about this ending for this particular episode I mean as as you wrote in your notes I was like oh no he's gonna find him but then the fact that you know Bill locked the door left the window open because dead bodies decomposed and how we put that I love that it said to Joel or whoever he's like this is probably Joel because otherwise you would have been killed or or you would have you know uh follow you know Fallen victim in one of my traps like there are a couple of great Nick Offerman moments like when he tries a strawberry and he has this gleeful laugh that apparently is the laugh of Nick off that is actually how he laughs like he he like you can hear it in your head yeah I like the fact that uh it was sort of uh game recognizing game like Bill's just like you know what I I didn't really like you but I respected you I I understood you so I guess that makes us friends like that's such a great way for you know it's just such a great way to encapsulate that relationship um and you when you think about the changes that they made from the game because again I read about it afterwards yeah um the the as far as I understand the point of uh Joel and Ellie meeting up with bill is so they can get more stuff so but as they're going through and they see where where uh what has happened to Frank in the game um that it is a change in the fact that they gave them kind of a happy ending like I was like oh my gosh that's what happened what needed to happen in the game happened like Joel and Ellie got to restock all of their you know all your ammunition all your supplies but you got it was just done in a different way so it doesn't betray the game like it gives us this other story that was just so well done um and watching how Ellie is like fascinated with Firearms um but as you said John that moment where as he's reading like use use these to protect tests and Joel knows he's already failed at that and how can he protect Tess he can protect her by doing the last thing that she asked him to do was to take care of this kid it's just so so well done um yeah and then watching the coming you know the the preview for next week's episode is filling me with Dread already um yeah but yeah everything invest everything in the conclusion of this episode everything leading up to it was just fantastic and some people pointed out how the episode pulls back and we see the curtain billowing uh there through the window of Bill and Frank's Place that that mirrors what the home page is in The Last of Us Part Two so we don't know what that means or what that might be inferring but very interesting and also as we saw I mean the Linda Ronstadt song plays for Bill and Frank and we know how Bill and Frank end up little Ronstadt playing at the end with Joel and Ellie makes me worried about where Joel and Ellie are going to end up in this series Michael your thoughts about the end of this uh particular episode I think Shannon hit on a lot of it but I think that um you know starting the shot with the clothes on the flowers that are dead yes and then Joel and then Joel sees those flowers and automatically knows like what's interesting he walks into the house and he's uh he asks he's he's asking for Bill he's calling out for bill because his automatic assumption is Frank is dead yes Bill's not going to take care of the flowers so he must I mean Frank's not yeah yeah Frank Frank's the one that would have done the flowers so I think just an understanding of who these two guys are as he goes in and then yeah just the um everything about the letter and the way this is all handled it's to the point of the changes from the game and I know people like well this this inherently changes the vibe of Bill and Frank and like it's that in the game it's more tragic and this is a world of tragedy but like all the pieces are there to Shannon's Point like Joel and Ellie come to a place where a survivalist has set a bunch of traps and there is a bill there is a Frank there is a death there is a letter and they get to get a bunch of supplies all the boxes are checked the fact that those boxes have been reordered to tell a much more subtle nuanced and uh emotionally fulfilling story I think it's great it's what they said in the closing in the post-credits sort of uh behind the scenes thing they say when we're looking at deviating from the game if it's going to be the same or a negative we don't we stick with the game but if it's going to be a positive if we're gonna make a stronger more powerful more interesting story we're gonna do it and they did um and so even the letter which has a lot of the same elements uh even like when bill says to Joel I never really liked you you're yeah you're you know like uh that is actually pulled from the letter in the game but contextually given who wrote the letter and who the letters to is just very different so they kept a lot of those elements but made them a lot more powerful and then yeah when Ellie is reading that letter out loud and gets to the word Tess and has to stop I thought I was done crying and then I wasn't so I cried some more so that was good and I completely agree like when Pedro Pascal goes outside and has that moment alone you're so powerful um I love that Ellie gets the t-shirt that she wears in the game um and then I also loved the detail of I was wondering as they were resupplying they pulled all those boxes out and there was like boxes for like women's clothes this clothes that clothes and I was like why the [ __ ] would they have clothes for all these different people and then I realized that Frank probably did that so that if strangers did wander in who needed help he would have clothes for them at the ready and I got upset again and I got emotional again because Bill wouldn't do that he wouldn't have thought to do it but friends would have been like you know I'm gonna collect all these clothes and I'm gonna keep them so if we do meet people and they need to be resupplied or they need this and then I was like ah Frank you're so great it just it was upsetting all over again um and yeah just in general uh oh the one more detail that I loved is and this is different from the game too in the game Ellie knows how to drive a car and in the show Ellie is as Amazed by a car as she is uh with um an airplane and just the the wonderment that she had like this is like a spaceship again it's a small change but I think it's a really great change that makes us love Ellie Moore which is probably going to be tragic for all of us in the long run yeah probably uh let's wrap up here uh final thoughts we got like five minutes left this one Shannon your final thoughts on this episode I mean the show continues to just hit home run after home run um I I I I don't want to say they have nowhere to go but down at this point because everything has just been so good um but this definitely seems like uh this is gonna be the first uh video game property that will probably be up for some shiny statues oh yeah I think I mean this I I tweeted that this is the episode that would win them the Emmy for the series if they do win one but certainly Nick often Murray Bartlett should be nominated Mike your thoughts final thoughts on this episode um well it's exactly kind of what you said earlier on uh now every time that uh a Marvel movie or a Star Wars movie or any other big franchise has two characters kissing in the background for 0.3 seconds and says hey look at how much representation we have we can all point to this episode and say shut the [ __ ] up because this is how this is how you do it correctly please see what Last of Us did and don't be stupid anymore um and then in addition to that I think what the show is doing even whether when it deviates or when it doesn't why last of us is such a beloved game is because it packs an emotional punch in between all of the great gameplay and fighting and collecting of things and all of the fun stuff that last of us gives you as a game the reason people love it is because it is a intensely emotional story so the fact that they are finding the ways to take that emotional story directly to the series and in the ways that they're deviating and creating even a more powerful emotional story is like Shannon said why this is probably the preeminent video game adaptation that we have out there uh and one that is gonna win a ton of awards yeah I think once again much credit to Craig Mason and Neil druckman for finding a way to weave elements of the game mixed in with a new approach to telling that story for this medium it is working incredibly well so much so that I've already ordered Last of Us Part One for the PS5 because I'm like I've got to play this game now and then I didn't think I was going to play this game now I really need to play this game in this episode even though it deviated from the game play necessarily just cements the love that you feel that people have for this franchise uh and including Craig Mason and Neil druckman and everybody involved in this one so fantastic fantastic this is one of those seminal episodes you know it when you see it this is one of those seminal episodes of Television that people are going to refer to all the time this Rivals lot their Lost episode the constant for me it really does which I never thought anything would come close to that and it did that for sure all right let's wrap it up there thank you all so much for watching this spoiler reviewer episode of episode three of The Last of Us Shannon what do we have to tell them yeah if you'd like to follow us on social media on Twitter it's at geek underscore buddies on Instagram at the underscore geek underscore buddies if you'd like to follow me on social media where you can't see when I'm getting emotional it's at Shannon underscore mcclong at Twitter at Shannon underscore or at shannonthegeek buddy on Instagram if you'd like to follow Mr Vogel it is at MK tune if you would like to follow Mr Rocha it is at the Roka says monkey if you like hot salty man's ears here's what you can do to make sure that we keep giving them to you uh you can hit that like button below uh you can subscribe to Johnny's Outlaw Nation page leave your comments below what did you think of the game uh what do you think of this episode how do you think it stops up Stacks up to the game what are you excited about what are you scared about um as always if you have played the game don't spoil things too much for other people in the comments if you are listening to us on a podcast go ahead and leave us uh some Stars leave us some comments helps us go up in the rankings and as always the best thing that you can do is retweet this video post it to your socials send it to your friends and tell them to hang out with your buddies the geek buddies there you go and once again big shout out to carbon ethyl continues to power and sponsors here on the geek buddies head over to cardboardhealth.com to go get checked out today or download the app to have a doc in your Pock all right take care of yourselves everybody go recover go rest goes what go wipe those tears and we'll talk to you next time with another brand new episode of the geek Buddies [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: John Rocha

Views: 11,079

Keywords: the last of us, the last of us hbo, the last of us episode 3, last of us, the last of us explained, the last of us episode 3 breakdown, pedro pascal, the last of us breakdown, episode 3 breakdown, the last of us hbo max, bella ramsey, the last of us review, the last of us episode 3 review, joel and ellie, the last of us episode 3 explained, bill and frank last of us, bill and frank death, john rocha, michael vogel, shannon mcclung, the geek buddies, the outlaw nation, ign

Id: TdQKHRRUkJs

Length: 57min 23sec (3443 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2023