Neil Druckmann shoots down Bill and Frank ‘filler’ naysayers with an apt thematic link to ‘The Last of Us’ finale

Warning: Light spoilers for The Last of Us to follow.

With The Last of Us having wrapped its first season last night, now is the perfect time for retrospection, and it’s safe to say that HBO Max’s sci-fi darling delivered nine home runs over the nine weeks we were looking forward to the next episode, and we can’t wait for showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to do it again with season two.

Of course, this near-perfect run of episodes didn’t come without a few bumps in the road, namely in the form of some hobbyless homophobic trolls who did everything in their laughable power to throw as much libel and slander at episodes such as “Long, Long Time” and “Left Behind,” both of which were anchored by painstakingly beautiful queer love.

“Long, Long Time,” which told the love story of Bill and Frank, two survivors and allies of Joel, was perhaps the more high-profile target of the two, having come out earlier in the season and seemingly only working as a standalone episode with hardly any connection to the wider story. But, now that the season finale has brought the show full circle, Druckmann was happy to divulge the episode’s narrative importance on the official The Last of Us podcast.

During the ninth episode of the podcast, Druckmann pointed out the thematic throughline that Bill sets up in the third episode of the show when he tells Frank that he is his purpose. An ethos that very much encapsulates the emotions at play in the season finale, given that Ellie had become Joel’s purpose for living at that point, and subsequently went to some marked extremes 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.

All of this to say, never doubt the acute mind of a storyteller, especially if the flimsy leg you’re standing on is rooted in homophobia. Luckily, the overwhelming majority of viewers didn’t doubt Druckmann’s ability for a second, and even without going the extra mile in setting up the season finale, “Long, Long Time”‘s masterclass display of love would have made it more than welcome nevertheless.

The first season of The Last of Us is available to stream on HBO Max.