Ok so The Last of Us Episode 3 has just dropped and in this video we’re gonna breaking down the new entry, talking about the easter eggs in it and all the changes to the game. Whereas the last two weeks have had us following the footsteps of Joel and Ellie, this one takes a big detour. Not only do we focus on Bill and Frank’s relationship, but they also massively alter the way that things happen in the game.
Bill’s story in The Last of Us (Game)
Now the first thing I wanna do is go through Bills story in the PlayStation classic for everyone who hasn’t played it, just so that they can get an idea of how much things were changed and what we originally had the first time round. As always, we will be saving future spoilers for the end of the video and if you enjoy it then please hit the thumbs up button and don’t forget to subscribe for breakdowns like this every day. With that out the way, huge thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into The Last of Us Episode 3.
Now in the game you arrive in Lincoln having just escaped the state building. This culminated in Tess’s death and Joel and Ellie fled into a subway station after being chased by Fedra agents. You never really got to catch your breath and on the other side of this when you did slow down Joel refused to talk about Tess. This showed how cold he was and even upon reaching Bill you just played along that she was alive without ever correcting him when he asked about her.
Now the way that Joel and Ellie met with him was that they sprung one of his traps which led to Joel being suspended upside down in one of the tensest scenes in the game. Swarmed by infected you had to defend yourself and Ellie as they tried to tear you apart. This is when Bill came in and after making your way to his church you laid low for a bit before mounting up a plan to get a truck battery from a military caravan that had crashed into a nearby school. Bill normally refused to go to this side of town due to it being teaming with infected but because he owed Joel a favour, they headed out there.
Overloaded with infected you found that the battery had already been taken and you had to push through the school before making it to a neighbourhood on the other side. Now after stumbling across a house, you learned who’d taken the battery and this was Bill’s ex Frank who’d made a break for it. Unlike the show he couldn’t stand Bill anymore and he’d devised a plan to take the battery and leave the town. On the way though he’d been bitten, and he ended up unaliving himself before the infection took its toll.
He left a note behind for Bill saying how much he hated him and after finding his truck you popped the clutch and headed out to Pittsburgh.
Now that’s the way the game played it with it being heavily focused on action and a massive deviation from what we get here. I will be going through how stuff compares to the game as we get into it but that’s kind of a bird’s eye view of how the game plays out so you can see instantly how different it is to what we get here.
Now we begin with Joel dipping his hand into a river and there’s attention drawn to the cuts on his knuckles from smashing that guards face in like it was the like button.
Ellie very much represents the daughter that he couldn’t save and these sort of teach him the wrong lesson in thinking that violence is a way to achieve what he wants. I suppose it probably is the right lesson in this world, but he clearly wrestles with losing his cool like that. Now this idea of losing one’s control is juxtaposed by the stone stacking that we see him carrying out.
Typically, you’d see something like this in a spa and stone stacking is carried out because it has a lot of spiritual connections to the earth. It also takes time and effort to create the balance in the pile and thus stone stacking is seen as being something that showcases one’s patience.
However, it goes beyond that, and it’s been a practice that has been carried out in several cultures dating all the way back to Ancient Mongolia. Stone stacks were also used for navigation in rural areas due to there not being signposts or roads out in the woods or by rivers.
I think it’s more the former reason but ey, just thought I’d bring that up too.
Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us Episode 3
They’re now 10 miles outside of Boston out in the woods which is a location that you start off at before travelling into Lincoln. Ellie is now wearing a green coat with a red hoody, and this is something that she donned later on in the game once we hit the winter sections.
Though Joel is pretty shut off from her I like the touch that they’ve added here which is that she’s using his jacket for a blanket. At this point he’s still reeling from the death of Tess but due to being a closed book he refuses to open up. He still clearly cares though, and he tosses her some food and they have a conversation that plays out a bit differently in the game.
They kinda change the positioning of the lines and Joel says to not bring up Tess whereas he does it at the end of the episode in the show.
Either way Joel is completely shut off and they hike for five hours passing through the woodlands. One of the things about the last of us that’s never really touched upon is how much it focuses on the beauty of nature and how once humanity has been whittled down the earth can reclaim the land. Getting all hippy here mate, but the Cordyceps themselves could very much be seen as a defence mechanism for Earth and tying back to the climate changes comments, this could be the planet finding a way to get rid of us without inventing Skynet.
Big theory time for that but Ellie asks Joel how he got a scar on his and he says it’s from the early days when someone shot at him and missed. Though he says that he shot back and missed it’s possible that this could have come from the night Sarah died and it may have been a stray from the soldier’s bullet. The scars up beside his temple and I think it would explain a lot if he was reminded of that night every time, he looked in the mirror.
They travel to a Cumberland farm which apparently is a real store in America, so ey, learn something about our cousins every day.
This is a stash house where Joel has left supplies behind for if he’s ever making big treks and runs short, but the real talking point is the Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet. Ellie mentions her friend who knew everything about this game, and this is likely Riley who was touched upon last week.
Can’t tell you how much money this machine swallowed at amble caravan park when I was a kid and me and my cousin Marc used to spend most of our time there getting our arses kicked by Scorpion. Ellie brings up Mileena and how she used to rip off her mask to reveal her horrendous teeth which is one of the most memorable fatalities from the game.
Now this actually pulls from the game itself but instead of Mortal Kombat 2 we have a cabinet for the in-universe fighter called The Turning.
In that is the character Angel Knives and Ellie describes her fatality much in the same way that she does for Mileena here.
Obviously, Warner Brothers own the rights to Mortal Kombat and with them owning HBO they probably gave them that sweet, sweet licencing deal so we’re not reduced to talking about this. Though the original Last of Us game didn’t contain a poster for the game, the remake did, and they obviously released that fully aware that it would feature in this show.
I will discuss more in our super spoiler section how this arcade cabinet could pop up again down the line so make sure you stay locked until the end if you’ve completed the games.
We learn Joel hasn’t been out this way a couple of years and later on we discover that he only went out there once. In the game Joel had actually never been to Bill’s town personally so him going out there was a bit of a desperate move.
Ellie heads out into the backroom and we can actually spot a safe code up beside the door that reads 109250. I googled to see if this was a code used in either game but unfortunately, it’s not. I think it’s just an easter egg to the codes you’d find dotted about throughout and these would lead to upgrades and extra ammo to see you through if you were in a tight spot.
In the back Ellie discovers her own secret with there being a door that leads into the store’s basement.
In there she finds some things that you’d normally run into in the game like Lockers and filing cabinets with items lying on them. Ellie finds some tampax, but she’s interrupted by the sound of an infected. Here we find someone trapped under rubble with the fungus growing out of the top part of their head. This has completely covered one of their eyes and as the clickers showed the cordyceps attach onto the brain and then grow out from there. The brain of course controls the body so doing this allows them to alter our behaviour and desires.
Once it grew out it ended up eating the eyes and those further along in the infection chain ended up blind like the clickers are.
In our first video we discussed how the creative team wanted the infected to seem almost sympathetic and there were times when you found them in corners sobbing away to themselves. When you think about it, having a parasite bury its way into your brain is a horrifying thing to experience and this idea of them being tortured souls is definitely apparent here.
This guy probably came down here to hide out and either the roof caved in, or he became infected and then it happened. This mirrors the guy in the museum last week who was probably just trying to hide and then something bad happened to him.
Don’t think we can show it, but Ellie cuts him open, and we can see how his flesh has very much become the plant. She takes mercy on him, and Joel stashes his assault rifle. Like I said last week I’ve always thought of him more as a pistol and shotgun guy and with there not being much ammo out in the wild for it it’s pointless carrying it. However, him stashing it here is important and it also ties into why he doesn’t take any of Bill’s guns at the end. Joel believes he’s returning here, and he still sees Ellie as a job rather than a person. This letter at the end could have some effect on him and it may change how he looks at the world.
Now they come across a downed plane which Ellie of course hasn’t been on before. She’s lived her entire life in the QZ and there weren’t exactly Turkish airlines promising flights to Gotham and Metropolis. This reminded me a lot of the scene from Steven Spielberg’s War of The Worlds when the characters came across something similar. Ellie is fascinated by people getting to go up in the sky, but Joel points out the tragedy in it and his life was of course massively changed by planes. The opening of episode 1 had the scientists talking about how disease could travel faster now due to airplanes, and one crashed down taking out Joel, Tommy and Sarah’s ride.
This is a reference to the game but in that they change it up with us seeing an advert on the side of a bus.-
Now the meaning of this is difficult to fully discern but I do think that it gives insight to her character. Ellie thought she was a passenger on a plane and that someone was in control and guiding her. This could be represented by Fedra who raised her, Marlene who was actually looking after her and then Joel who took care of her. These could be representative of the other passengers. The plane goes crashing down and this is mirroring the fall of the world around her. She gets up to see there’s no pilot and then this shows that no one is actually in control and those other passengers are unable to fly the plane because no one really knows what they’re doing. I think growing up I thought that adults had their s**t together and then when I became one, I realised that no one actually knows what’s going on which I think this conversation could be signalling.
Ellie asks about how the entire world came crashing down and she talks about people sitting in restaurants fine and dandy and then the first bite happening.
This was something we sort of seen play out last week with Ibu Ratner being picked up by the government in a restaurant before she was taken to examine a bit victim. Ellie says she bets it was monkeys which might be a nod to 28 days later. Now what I also think they could be setting up here is something coming down the line though which we’ll save for that…you know it…super spoiler section.
Joel talks about the best theory for how they managed to spread so easily, and this is something that was also touched upon last week. He correctly guesses that the cordyceps mutated and got into the food supply. Last week we heard how they changed at a flour and grain factory which acted as the perfect substrate. This in technical terms is something that has specific enzymes that plants can live on and here it changed before spreading. If it got into the processing units in the factory, then it could spread into bread and cereal which would then be eaten by people across the planet.
In episode 1 we discovered that Mrs Adler had been to the hospital, and this was initially put down as where she picked it up. However, we did see her being fed bread on the driveway which could have been enough.
The entire first episode was basically Joel, Sarah and Tommy avoiding contaminated foods and we of course discovered in episode 2 that the outbreak happened at a flour mill. This explains how The Addlers caught it as we had the older one being fed biscuits on the driveway. Later on, the younger Mrs Adler made some Cookies, but Sarah didn’t eat them because they had raisins in them.
Huge shoutouts to Cui Bono on our first video for pointing out that raisins actually have a high contamination for fungus.
Now on the morning, Joel and Sarah had Bacon and Eggs which Tommy was gutted about because he wanted pancakes. He said he was on Atkins.
He also didn’t have a birthday cake either, so he avoided this.
Episode 2 possibly had the scientist avoiding getting contaminated as well as her lunch was interrupted by the military.
Now this all has real life basis as in the 1950s the town of Pont-Saint-Esprit became contaminated with Ergot poisoning. A factory was cutting corners and using flour from the floor and side of the machines whilst also mixing it with Rye fluff it out. All of these are susceptible to Ergot which then infected the people who ate it. 250 people were infected, and it led to cases of vomiting, hallucinations and bouts of insanity. A man believed he was an aeroplane and he leapt to his death whilst an 11-year-old boy strangled his own mother in a fit of rage. 50 people were interned at an asylum after having personality changes and the food eventually got labelled cursed bread.
So, there are examples in the real world where food can be contaminated like this and change someone’s personality.
I really hope this notion carries on throughout the season and I’d love it if we went to a store and saw the shelves picked bear except for the cereal and bread aisle.
Thank God it didn’t infect the toilet paper cos we know how people love to grab that.
Joel remembers the specific date it happened on Friday September 26th. This is because it was of course his birthday but beyond that it’s also the day that Sarah died.
Now further up the path they come across several skeletons. The game would have the odd scene like this with the red and blue clothing standing out amongst the corpses. We never really know what happened at these places in the game, but Joel fills us in. Much like what happened with him and Sarah these were gunned down by soldiers who promised safety at a QZ. If there wasn’t room, they’d take the people into the countryside and fire upon them, and I think this scene could be taking inspiration from the ending of the Great Escape.
This was something that was carried out in the Holocaust and later on Bill even describes the government as all being Nazis.
Also with the Great Escape, I swear if someone is kicking off in the comments about spoilers for that I’m gonna go mental.
Joel says they were killed so that they couldn’t pass on the infection, and I have other theories about why this was done. People rebelled against Fedra and scouring a group like these could potentially lead to an uprising. We take focus on a rainbow blanket and a child’s body which takes us into our flashback for the episode. I love how the series has done this and every episode so far has had a major part of the past that filled in things which weren’t present in the game. We had scientists predicting the rise of the cordyceps which was mirrored by one coming across the discovery of the first captured infected.
Now we’re seeing what happened to the survivors’ days after the outbreak and this is all new stuff to show us what it was like.
Xs are painted on doors and in the game, you’d often come across these houses warning you to not enter.
In the game you actually found a note to a secret stash hidden by hunters that was marked with an X so if you’re playing through the game then look out for that one.
Every single person has been given a mandatory evacuation notice and we see this in front of a civil war monument. Along with fighting against the infected, The Last of Us is also about man vs man and this brother vs brother could be hinting towards that.
This sign also popped up in the game and when you entered Lincoln, you could spot it in the middle of the street.
The irony is they’d actually be safer in the town as they end up being killed when they could’ve lived out the rest of their lives here. In the game you could see how dangerous it was due to it being overrun by infected and here I was kinda thinking I don’t know why Joel and Tess didn’t just live the rest of their lives here instead of going back to the QZ. Bill does kinda shut down the idea and they end up trading with them later on.
Bill and Frank’s Story in The Last of Us (HBO)
Anyway, at this point we’re introduced to Bill played by Nick Offerman. We see him surveilling the town through CCTV and he’s very much an end of the worlder. I actually used to work with a woman whose son thought doomsday was coming and he apparently had spent years collecting tins of beans.
Little did he know it was the toilet roll, toilet roll you needed to hoard as they’re bloody taking it all from the shelves.
They’ve really recaptured the look of Bill and along with his trusted shotgun he also looks identical to the game. He’s got weapons lining the wall and collections of guns and ammo along with a machete. This weapon is how he’s introduced in the game with him cutting off the head of an infected that’s got Joel on the ground. He ends up donning his gas mask which he also wore in that, and we see his bunker is cleverly located between a chest of draws. Loved seeing the gasmask back which is something he too wore in the PlayStation counterpart. As we know though spores have been removed from the series due to the creative team worrying that everyone would be asking why they aren’t constantly donning gasmasks.
Again, I don’t think people would’ve cared but it could have also been for the budget or to see the actors faces as they’re terrified by that infected.
Now Bills room also has some really cool details in it. We have his computer and can tell by the blue background that this is running windows 2000. I had to double check whether this was windows XP but that had those luscious…luscious green hills and blue sky whereas this is more…let’s say plain. It shows Bills focus and how he’s not interested in frills. I think anyway.
Later on, we see that this room also has a work bench in it. These pull directly from the game and they’re what players use to upgrade their weapons. Also forgot to mention last week that we actually had another nod to the games when Tess and Joel went into their backpack. They swung them off their shoulders and got on the ground just like how Joel does every time he wants to craft something.
There are also the magazines that we see throughout. In the game these were used for upgrade trees to unlock special skills.
As bill comes out the ground, we can also see that he has a wire rack and he raids a wine store, showing how much it means to him when he serves bottles to Frank. Frank is played by Murray Bartlett, and you might recognise him as playing Armond in The White Lotus. He’s a complete opposite to Bill and we see this in many ways. Bill is kinda out of shape and this is seen later on when the pair go jogging together. This actually speaks to their time in the apocalypse as Bill has been kicking his feet up and living it up whereas Frank has been fighting to survive. Out there it’s pretty much survival of the fittest and I like this little touch that they add in their relationship.
Now we see that Bill’s Door has an x on it with markings around it. These are pulled from both the game and real life and during Hurricane Katrina they could be found on doors. They denote how many are inside, which team searched it and the date they did. We can also see that Bills house was built circa 1793 which makes it pre-civil war era. This further adds to his old school persona and how he doesn’t trust the government. He’s a regular old Ron Swanson who loves guns and hates the New World Order.
Anyway, the town is completely empty now and we get a sort of last man on Earth situation with him basically being able to do what he wants. Montages like this are a staple of post-apocalyptic movies and most famously I remember the one from Dawn of The Dead when they went on a shopping spree in the mall.
This is to the backdrop of the song Yes, I’m Coming Home by Fleetwood Mac. It makes it really upbeat, and I think that the entire point of Bills story is that it shows you can have fun and find love even in the apocalypse. Tess and Joel were a couple, but they never really seemed like they were in love. Joel is completely shut off from himself and stuff with Bill and Frank could be a reflection of how he needs to open up.
He takes a speedboat, fills up several barrels of petrol and goes wild at Home Depot. This is to build his traps which we encountered in the game. Normally you’d be walking along and would notice a trip wire which you’d then have to set off either luring an infected in or throwing a brick at it.
Bill eventually gave these traps and a shotgun to Joel when you entered his home which was a church in the source material. An infected sets one off later by pulling a trap wire.
First thing he does is secure the area, get some alcohol and build a generator to power the town. He’s built a nice little life for himself and it’s during this time that he meets Frank.
Now Bill really was someone who was used to being alone and people who prepare for the apocalypse tend to do so for themselves. It’s rare it’s a group effort because it requires paranoia and shutting oneself off in order to survive. Frank shows that he should open up to people though and if it wasn’t for him, they’d never know about Tess and Joel.
Four years later we hear the song White Room by Cream which has a lot of meaning that applies to the show.
The song is about someone stuck in a white room by themselves and here they face depression and loneliness. Bill of course has a white house which is mirrored in most of the buildings. He has walled himself off from everything and though he’s alive he’s not really living for anything. This reminds me a lot of Alexandria from The Walking Dead but there’s no other people around and therefore it’s not really the restarting of civilisation.
In his home he has a posted for Don’t tread on me which brings a lot with it. Not only was it a Metallica song but it was also a political slogan used in the American revolution. It dates all the way back to the bible and in Latin the phrase is Noli Me Tangere. This means do not touch me and it was said by Jesus to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. The bond between physical and spiritual was at its highest during this point and it was a warning to her. I think it’s more in line with the Metallica song as it’s the same as the cover that was used, and it had lyrics like “give me liberty or give me death.”
The Rattlesnake imagery was inspired by Benjamin Franklin who said that animal was a great symbol for the American spirit.
Anyway, a trap is triggered and out in the hole he dug before Bill finds Frank.
Believing it’s a trap Bill is immediately suspicious and, in the game, it was difficult to not immediately have paranoia when you came across someone new. He says that he set out from Baltimore QZ which is no more. We never visit this location in the game with the characters instead heading in a more northern direction to Pittsburgh.
According to Google Maps it’s a 6 day walk no stop between Baltimore and Boston so we can see why Franks lost so many out on the road.
Bill takes him in after using a scanner to get all clear. They have dinner together and Bill feeds him Rabbit. These were animals’ characters had to hunt in the game because obviously yeah, the farm industry is gone.
It’s the complete opposite to what he’s just gone through, and man has been out on the road facing certain death to now sitting sipping wine and eating Rabbit. He takes to the piano and here he plays the song Long Long Time by Linda Ronstadt. This contains lyrics like ‘I can see I’m gonna love you for a long, long time’ which he sounds terrible doing…sound terrible mate.
He’s all over the place, singing off key and Bill takes to it instead and sings it perfectly. Kinda sums up the pair with one being chaotic whereas the other is highly ordered and controlled.
The lyrics of course sum up the relationship that they’re about to begin and for the next 45 minutes we see the rest of their lives play out…with a bit in the bedroom before. Bill is different to the game I think because he’s way more open whereas in the Last of Us he even looks down on Joel for caring about things.
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We never really see his relationship in the game and honestly you could probably play it without even picking up on it. Frank wasn’t ever someone we actually met, and this completely develops their relationship. Now he does of course share similarities with him and just like how he kicks off about Resource Management.
He does that in his final letter too.
He’s reached out to Tess and Joel to come over for a garden party and Bill sees this as a bad idea further diving into how closed he is from humanity.
He brings a gun to the dinner table and Joel says.
I’m the same way.
This goes beyond just being cautious and the pair are of course both ready to flip at moment’s notice if the situation calls for it. The pair are left alone, and Joel offers to get more material to make the fence last the rest of their lifetime.
In the game it was clear that Tess was more the point of contact which is why Joel had never visited Lincoln personally.
Tess and Frank talk about using the radio again but they decide to use a code in case anyone is listening which as we know becomes the 60s, 70s and 80s music.
Now Joel warns that Raiders will eventually swarm the town and after Frank makes a strawberry garden for them, we see this playing out in the night. Reminded me a lot of I Am Legend and keeping out raiders is something that’s too mirrored in the game. When moving through Lincoln you only ever encounter the infected because Bill has such a tight leash on everything.
After being shot Bill tells Frank to call Joel as he’s someone like him who is able to take care of weaker people. This is of course why he was entrusted with Ellie, and we very much have this dynamic of a strong survivor protecting a weaker less equipped one.
Bill survives though and in a twist of fate Frank is left in the wheelchair.
We jump to 2023 to catch up to the present. Both are in their winter years now and we can see that Frank has spent a lot of time painting. This is important too as it shows that the better sides of humanity like art and agriculture haven’t died out in the desperation.
He’s trying to paint Bill but due to losing his motor functions he can’t do it. However, we do close out with a painting of him which pretty much sums up the love of his life.
They just have these really subtle moments like Bill giving a little wink to frank as he paints him, him watering the flowers for the first time and at this point you could be forgiven for thinking that we’re even in a zombie apocalypse show.
Bill wakes up to find that Frank has decided this will be his last day but rather than wallowing in it they decide to make the most of it. The pair get married and have dinner and Frank wants to take his pills so he can fade silently into the night.
We hear the song on the nature of daylight and having just covered Shutter Island and Arrival for the channel I think the creative team were inspired by those two films. Both use the piece with I think probably the latter lending itself better to what’s going on here. I don’t wanna get too spoilery on it, but the end of the movie is about embracing the beauty in life no matter how heart-breaking it is which is also reflected in this scene as well. The pair have what could be a very painful day ahead of them but instead they’re using it as a way to celebrate their life without dwelling on the sadness of death that we’re all gonna face one day.
Together they share a rabbit and drink the same wine that they had one the first day they met.
Bill reveals that he’d rather go out with Frank than continue living. It’s a complete 180 on his original feelings when the outbreak first happened. Whereas originally, he wanted to survive by himself here we see that he’s grown to the point he would rather not survive if it meant he lost Frank.
Now at this point we hear a song from the game that also happens at an emotional moment in it. We’ll talk about this later, but it’s very much used in that context to show that not everything is bleak. I think you kinda needed this moment to breathe in a show like this as it can be pretty depressing.
The Last of Us Episode 3 Ending Explained
Ellie and Joel arrive at Lincoln to find the flowers starting to die and the food starting to mould. She plays some notes on the piano echoing the earlier scene and finds a letter which mirrors the one from the game. Here though it’s a lot more positive with it outlining their lives together. We learn they lay down and went to sleep together and again I got some flashes of 28 days later. In that Jim goes home to discover his parents have done something similar but they showed it here whereas the letter warns them not to go into the bedroom.
The letter tells Joel that though Bill hated the world that there was one person worth saving. He’s talking about Tess here but now that position has of course shifted to Ellie who he’ll go on protecting. We get a focus on the sentence about keeping Tess Safe which is pretty devastating because Joel has of course failed to do this. Instead of confronting the grief though he immediately leaves and takes his mind off it by crumpling up the letter.
Just in the same way that this part of the game ends we get a scene in which they discover the truck, and they lift up the front.
Joel checks the fridge which also has sulfuric acid in it. Joel asks to see her arm, and this could be teasing at something that we’ll dis… sorry guys no spoiler’s cos I get tonnes of comments.
Now in the basement we discover why there was 80s music playing on the radio at the end of episode 1. Bill had it set up so that if he didn’t reset the countdown that it would play 80s music on a loop. This would signal that they were in danger, and it would get Tess and Joel to come out there. It’s possible that he knows this will happen anyway which is why the letter is addressed to Joel.
I do have a quick theory time theory time theory time theory time.
So, Joel and Tess had been searching desperately for a car battery so that they could get to Tommy. Originally in the game they sold guns to Robert but in the whole thing with him revolved around getting a battery for a truck. Bill of course has one and I think he might have had the 80s music loop set up so that they would come looking for him. He left them the keys for the truck because he possibly knew they needed on and thus it’s very much his last Bill and testament to gift them with the ride they’d be looking for.
Anyway, that’s the end of theory time and we can see Ellie….theory time…sorry have to le…theory time…. theory time. sorry have to let that play out…. theory time…. theory time………………………
Right as I was saying…. theory time…….
Right as I was saying the pair get some clothes and Ellie slips into the red T-shirt that she wore throughout the game. She also finds a handgun and I believe it’s the same model as the one she carries in the source material. Joel gifts it to her in that but here she doesn’t it behind his back which might cause issues later on.
Joel comes out finally wearing the green checkered shirt that he dons throughout the majority of the story, and you might have noticed Frank wearing this earlier in the episode.
They get in the car together and originally in the game you had a much tenser scene in which you had to jump start it. Joel and Bill had to push it as infected swarmed them whilst Ellie sat in the ride attempting to pop the clutch. Love the little touch of her not knowing to wear a seatbelt and together they head out after she discovers a tape in the glove box.
No points for guessing what the song is and we watch them ride out to Linda Ronstadt Long Long Time.
We close out to an open window with a picture of Bill hanging up which takes us into our Super super super spoiler section.
Now for this bit I will be talking about elements that appear in both games. They aren’t ending ruiners but there are some moments and easter eggs in the episode that will possibly ruin things for you down the line.
If you’re out at this point, I’d really love you guys if you hit the thumbs up on the way out and make sure you subscribe to not miss our breakdown of Episode 4 next week.
Thanks.
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Right, what a f**king s**t. Not played the games. What’s wrong with ya.
Anyway, the open window has a lot of big moments in the game. It’s the menu screen for the first one and in part 2 it’s also the last shot as Ellie walks away. That summed up the end of her story and here it’s very much summing up the end of bill and franks.
Anyway, the Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet that appears is something I think is gonna return in the series later on. It ties in massively with the Riley storyline and in the DLC left behind you played on The Turning cabinet with Riley. My guess is that they will do something similar in the Riley flashback and have them imagining what it’s like to play Mortal Kombat 2, wasting money, getting their arses kicked by Scorpion.
On the road Ellie also discusses Monkeys and how she bets that they spread the virus.
Monkeys actually show up in the game and we encounter them at the university. Turns out that the Fireflies were experimenting on them to find a cure due to them being so close to us on a DNA level. Might not have been a connection to that but with monkeys potentially appearing down the line I thought I’d bring it up.
Now the Sulfuric acid could also be something as well that we see being administered in the series.
In part 2 when Ellie and Dina bunker down early on she shows Dina her arm. We discover that Ellie did a chemical burn on the bite using sulfuric acid and then this was covered up with a Tattoo once it healed.
Ellie got sick of constantly having to hide her arm, so she carried this out once it became clear that the cure thing wasn’t gonna pan out.
Now also tying in with Part 2 we get what could be a nod to the spaceship scene.
Ellie talks about the car being like a spaceship and in part 2 Joel takes Ellie to a museum for her birthday. Here they climb inside an apollo ship and then Ellie imagines what it’s like travelling into space. Anyway, that wraps up the breakdown and I think this episode kinda transcended the apocalypse to tell a love story.
This is something that has been at the heart of the show and in the official podcast for episode 1 they said that the show was very much going to be discovering the positives and negatives of love. Here it’s a more wholesome outlook but in the case of Joel and Ellie we see how dangerous it is. Joel begins to love Ellie like she’s his own daughter and because of this he dooms humanity by killing the fireflies in order to save her. So, we have this idea that love can be a good thing but also that it has it’s negatives as well especially if someone stands in the way of it. I think this was important to explore with Bill and Frank and it will probably massively influence the future episodes even if it’s not obvious.
Now it’s a big deviation from the game so whether people prefer that or not is gonna be something I think people are gonna be going back and forth over. I think the stuff in the game works better as a sort of…level. You travel through a graveyard, the school, and it’s got a bloater in it. Kinda ramps up to a boss which works in a game. The show really needs to focus on character development, and I felt that Bill became way more fleshed out.
I enjoyed it and so far, I think we’ve had 3 really strong episodes.
Let me know your thoughts below and thanks again for rocking with me.
We’re running a competition right now and giving away Wakanda Forever to 3 Subscribers on The 15th Of February. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is like the video, make sure you subscribe with notifications on and drop a comment below with your thoughts on the episode. We pick the comments at random at the end of the month and the winners of the last one is on screen right now so message me @heavySpoilers if that’s you.
If you want something else to watch, then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it’s definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace.
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