Neil Druckmann Shuts Down Those Who Oppose Bill and Frank’s “filler” by Cleverly Making a Connection to the Finale of ‘The Last of Us’

Now that the first season of The Last of Us has come to an end, it’s time for us to reflect on its outstanding success. Every episode was a home run and we eagerly anticipate showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin doing it all over again with Season Two!

Although this remarkable streak of episodes wasn’t trouble-free, we still managed to power through the hateful homophobia from disgruntled trolls. We stood tall in our commitment to providing poignant stories based on queer love with stunningly meaningful pieces like “Long, Long Time” and “Left Behind.”

The Last of Us fans were enthralled with the emotional love story between Bill and Frank, two allies of Joel in the episode “Long, Long Time”. Despite this standalone installment appearing early on in the season, it still served an important narrative purpose to tie up loose ends. As showcased during the heart-stopping finale that brought everything full circle – something which showrunner Neil Druckmann discussed further on The Last Of Us podcast – “Long, Long Time” was much more relevant than originally anticipated.

During the ninth episode of the podcast, Druckmann presented how Bill’s statement to Frank in Episode 3–“you are my purpose”– creates a thematic backbone for the season finale. This really captures all of emotions that surrounded Joel and Ellie in this moment; she had become his entire reason for living, sending him into an extraordinary mission to keep her safe.

The notion that there is no such thing as life without you, that I don’t understand what life would be without you, that it’s a pointless life without you, is set up in episode three. If Bill doesn’t go through this life with Frank, he’s not gonna write that letter and leave the letter behind. And the letter is not going to say to Joel… “This is why we’re here; we are here to protect the person we love, and God help any m*********ers that get in our way.” All roads lead to this moment, and so maybe the least filler-y thing we did across this entire season was the Bill and Frank story; it’s the skeleton key for everything that happens.

Let this be a reminder to never underestimate the power of storytellers, especially when your perspective is rooted in homophobia. Most viewers had full faith in Druckmann’s storytelling capabilities and “Long, Long Time” was an example of his masterful display of love that would have been more than warmly welcomed without any extra setup for the season finale.

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