Culture

‘The Last Of Us’ Made Everyone Ugly Cry Last Night

by Charles Rushforth  31 January 2023
Actor Murray Bartlett sits at a piano while Nick Offerman looks on with his arms on his hips

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The latest episode of the fungus zombie thriller The Last Of Us has left viewers ugly-crying after a highly emotional episode that has set the bar for post-apocalyptic fiction seriously high. 

— Warning: Much like the cars at Summernats, this story contains spoilers. — 

Since the very inception of HBO’s The Last Of Us, fans of the video game series have been eagerly anticipating how showrunners would approach Ellie and Joel’s encounter with grizzled survivalist Bill, a character that notably helps the pair survive one of the greatest high-stakes shoot-outs in PlayStation history.

But those expecting another by-the-numbers fan service adaption of the videogame to TV would be sorely disappointed after writer Craig Mazin delivered audiences a poignant and moving episode that turns the idea of post-apocalyptic ‘survival’ on its head.

Strapping the gruff Parks and Rec star Nick Offerman into the doomsday-prepped boots of Bill, the episode quickly pivots into a love story after a chance encounter with fellow survivor Frank, played by the excellent Murray Bartlett.

Begrudgingly offering the weary survivor a hot meal and a shower, the pair quickly realise they have a lot in common after Bill stuns an appreciative Frank with a heartfelt piano rendition of Linda Ronstadt’s ‘Long Long Time’.

“Who’s the girl, the girl in the song?” Frank asks, discerning the charged emotion behind the ballad. Oh but viewers, there was no girl.

Across the next hour and several time jumps, audiences were treated to a brave love story that remained content to avoid the usual toolbox of “apocalyptic television writing”, driving Spotify streams for Ronstadt up by 4900 percent in the process.

Understandably, viewers have taken to Twitter en mass to express how unexpectedly rocked they were by the episode.

Despite our earlier fears that this episode would cause homophobes already burnt by The Last Of Us Part Two‘s inclusion of queer characters to flip the fuck out, so far this happily has not come to pass. Instead, critics have overwhelmingly praised the episode as a contender for the best television writing of 2023. And you know, it’s sometimes really great to be proven wrong.