Why HBO's The Last Of Us Expanded Frank And Bill's Relationship

This post contains spoilers for episode three of "The Last of Us."

So, how about that last episode of "The Last of Us," huh? Yeah, we knew that it was going to be a rough one, and yet, we were pretty damn under-prepared for how the series would divert from the original game. A lot of this had to do with the changes they made to two characters, survivors Frank (Murray Bartlett) and Bill (Nick Offerman), fleshing out their previous relationship and changing their fates in a sad, yet oddly happy way.

According to co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, those changes were necessary given the nature of the way they're telling this story. During a roundtable press event attended by /Film, the two discussed why they decided to change the two characters and their fates. 

"There's just certain changes that have to happen as we go from one medium to another," explained Druckmann. One of these changes was Bill's initial introduction, which, in the game, happens when Joel gets stuck in one of Bill's traps. That wasn't necessarily the scene-setter shown in the episode, which was relatively more low key and focused on Bill's solitary life turning upside down with Frank's unexpected arrival. Druckmann explained that Mazin was the one who had the idea for that big change:

"Craig very smartly — and I think this was indicative of the philosophy we took on the show — said, 'What if we don't do any of that action stuff and instead focus on this relationship that's hinted at over here?'"

Mazin elaborated further on the decision, explaining that the idea of not having the couple separate before Joel and Ellie's arrival came from a few existential questions inspired by Bill's original story: What actually is safety in an inherently unsafe world? Who can you allow in your bubble of safety, and why are they allowed in and not others? These questions caused him to look beyond the storytelling parameters set by the original game.

"What we could do [in the show] is something that they couldn't do in the game because they were on Joel and Ellie's perspective," Mazin said. "But we can do different perspectives, and the promise of what happened with Frank was so interesting to me, and we did take it in a very different direction."

In the case of Bill, the original game planted the seeds of a very compelling story that, sadly, began and ended with tragedy. When the ragtag duo meets up with him in the game, Frank had since left him, and even more sadly, committed suicide after getting infected. It's clear that this tragedy loomed over Bill throughout the players' time with him. By letting us see their relationship unfold and conclude in the show, "The Last of Us" brings closure to the original story threads left hanging in the game. 

"It just felt like the right thing to do," Mazin said of these changes. "Sometimes all you have are your instincts, and this is where they led us."

New episodes of "The Last of Us" arrive Sunday nights on HBO and HBO Max.