The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 3 Recap

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

Charles and Van share their instant reactions to the third episode of ‘The Last of Us.’ They explain what makes this standout episode so special and why it immediately deserves a place in the pantheon of great TV episodes. Next, the guys discuss the significance of Bill and Frank’s love story and how it mirrors Joel and Ellie’s relationship. Later, they talk about the brilliant casting choices of Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. Finally, Charles closes by asking Van what his fruit and video game of choice would be during the apocalypse. Hosts: Charles Holmes and Van Lathan Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a new year and I have a new podcast here at the Ringer, Offguard, hosted by me and my guide, Pasha Higigi. Austin and I go way back and talk so much hoop already that we figure those time to fire up the mics and let you in on all of these conversations. Every week, Pasha and I will hit on the biggest stories happening in the league.

And get Austin's perspective of someone currently hooping in the NBA. Tap into Offguard every Friday on the Ringer NBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, everyone, this is Charles. I just wanted to let you know before we start the episode that this show contains discussion about suicide. So if you're in crisis or if someone who knows in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8-2-5-5. Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast, a show where we're survivalists, not doomsday preppers. I'm Charles Holmes.

He's Van Lathen. Together, we're known as the Midnight Boys, Poo-Pew! And we're back to discuss the last of us. And Van, I got to be real with you, man. I'm going to let you in on a little bit of a secret. Sure. Coke baby Chuck, the 24-carat closer is a fucking wreck. All right?

It's tough. I'm with you, brother. I was not ready for this hour of fucking television. You watched this before me and you did not warn me. Like, you did not warn me that this was like... That's not true. You said it was good. You didn't say it was like make you kind of like reevaluate. your existence and purpose.

I got to tell people something real quick. There are a couple of episodes of television out there that inside the walls of narrative managed to do something so phenomenally beautiful with the articulation of the human experience, what it means to live, why we live, how we live, and what we're living for. And I can think of them.

I think of San Junipero, the Black Mirror. episode. Think of episodes. My favorite shows like six feet under. Osmond Deas, Pine Barrens, the suitcase, Teddy Perkins, all, yeah. I mean, and I think about this episode, Bill and Frank,

and what hope and purpose really mean. God damn it, bro. You spoiling it. My last question, but fuck it. We're getting into it. This is going to be my last question. I apologize, guys. I'm off the mites.

Van, I have to ask you, does long, long time immediately go into the TV episode Pantheon? To me, yes. I agree. I'm sorry. To me, yes. It's in the Hall of Fame.

To me, yes. I never played the game. I never played it. So I'm listening to Kai. And Kai's talking about, like, what Bill meant and how it was different. There's so many things I didn't understand, didn't know what was going on. I did see the chemistry between these two characters. Kai, can you vouch for this?

Can you vouch for the fact that I had stopped it? But, like, before things got off. And I was like, yeah, bro, like, they're like, They're like, it seems like there's something between them. Yeah, last week, you were just like, there's, there's something there. I don't know if it's, you didn't know if it was like something, some aggressive tension or. If Frank was like working with Fedra or if he was like a firefly, but I'm like, there's, there's something that's happening. And what happened was one of the most beautiful and affecting doomed love stories that we've seen, Charles.

I'm sorry. Oh, I can't agree more with that. Let's get into the, into the episode. So this episode title is called Long, Long Time, directed by Peter Hoare, written by Craig Mason. This week's episode features two guest stars, Nick Offerman from Parks and Rec, playing Bill, and Murray Bartlett from White Lotus playing Frank. We start 10 miles west of Boston, where Joel and Ellie stop at a convenience store so Joel can pick up supplies.

He stashed there on previous runs. Ellie wanders until she finds a basement where she finds a box of tampons before a living infected that she decides to kill. The duo is still struggling with Tess's. death while Joel reluctantly tries to guide a naive Ellie through this world. Then we flash back to September 30th, 2003, where we see Bill a survivalist, not doomsday prepper, who hides in his underground bunker while Fedra agents evacuate his town. Bill builds a fortress to protect himself, but one day Frank falls into a trap. He's set. After feeding Frank, the two start up a relationship.

We flashed forth through their years-long romance where they experience ups and downs. They become friends with Joel and Tess, grow old together. But when Frank starts dying of a mysterious illness, he asks Bill to give him one perfect day where they'll get married before Bill assists Frank with suicide. Bill decides to die alongside Frank, telling his partner that he was his purpose. When Joel and Ellie show up, they find a letter left to Joel where Bill describes what happens and leaves everything to him. And then Joel and Ellie stock up before departing to find Joel's brother. We've already gotten into a van, but like travel back in time. Give me your first reaction to this episode. I just kind of want to know emotionally where to leave you. Well, this is what they're trying to get better at doing and at stopping what I'm saying made away while I go. This is what and then I go to a different thing.

My brain works weird. So I'll finish that. This is what struck me by the episode. The episode, if you listen to the last of us podcast over on the HB. YouTube. They talk about what they feel like the show is about. And they feel like the show is about love. And in the situation that Joel, Ellie, the fireflies, and the rest of people are in, love seems like a daunting task. Do you know what sort of a crater's love sometimes, especially for us now? Love seems sometimes Charles like, I don't know, like a comfort of, of function.

And what I mean is it seems like love is sometimes a privilege. It seems like when people get desperate, when people are in a survival matrix, when people have, you know, challenges to overcome, the first thing that goes is the love. So when people are placed in no situations, what you realize is that the love is the most important thing. The most important thing is not trying to survive.

The most important thing is why? Are you trying to live just so that you can live for the fear of dying? Or are you trying to live because love, happiness, experience, connection, creativity, and all of those things are things that are promised to you in the future that you can't see if you do live. Are you living for the possibility of one day being happier? Or you just live and just live? And that question is asked throughout this episode. You see Bill, it was a doomsday prep.

He's waiting for the moment that things go left. And then they do go left. And while everybody else in the world is eating the scraps left over in society, he's eating for layman young. the question is even though he's got clean water good food protection

does he have anything that makes that life worth living and he didn't even know that the answer was no and watching that question get answered for him by his beautiful relationship

with Frank who brings all kinds of things into their life risk a little danger life what life is yeah friendship you know

like beauty and then watching them have to come to terms with losing it it got to me man it did it to me it's you know come on last of us

if you don't stop cooking like this I'll take this fucking rock in my hand I'll throw it through my own window that's how good this episode of television is I'll destroy my own property Charles

that's what I'll do I'll take this rock you guys think I'm lying I have a rock vouch for the fact that I'm holding a rock he is holding a rock is that quartz

what is it quartz rock for my mother who I love who I love who taught me love. I'll take this rock and I'll throw it through my own window. That's how good this episode was. I mean, I think the

beautiful thing about this episode is that it portrays how difficult it is to learn how to love someone. I think Frank says it when he's asking Bill to help him,

to assist him with this suicide, to take him out of his pain. He says, quote, then love me the way I want you to. And that, like, it just, that line just hurt me so much in, because it was so eloquent the way it was said, because I think if you ever have the ability or, you know, you're lucky enough to be in love, the thing that you understand the more years that you're with someone is how truly difficult is to love somebody on their terms, how difficult it is to like understand or

be willing to hear what somebody needs from you. And it was just so interesting watching within an hour them show this relationship that is not just all ups. It's not all beautiful. It's like tough. And you're kind of watching this immovable object in Bill, learn to love something besides himself and learn to open himself up to a world that he had shut himself off.

And I was not expecting that. And the thing I want to ask you is how much of a risk do we feel like this is? Because this is the third episode of this series. It stops dead in its tracks. We go away from Joel and Ellie for 45 minutes. And the show was asking us to not only trust the creators like, this is an important story to tell. But it's a risk because if it fails, you're just like,

why do we spend so much time with these two men? What was the purpose of it? But the reward of it is almost this opening up of the world of showing you what people are still fighting for. And I wanted to know from you of like, did you, have you ever thought of like, damn, like, if this episode didn't work, the show is now operating on it on the backflip. Yeah, it is a risk. It's a risk for myriad reasons. One, it's a risk because it's the same-sex love story. It's a risk because it's a love story between two people that aren't classically beautiful, you know?

There's no Brad Pitt's in here. I mean, I'm serious. I'm being honest with you. I compare it this to San Junipero when I was taking my notes, which is a goddamn fantastic love story, Black Mirror show that we desperately need back. Just bring it back. We know that things are fucked up, but we just need Black Mirror back, even if we're watching it as the ship is going down.

And just like that episode, this episode asked the questions like, you know, what is connection? And does connection have any limitation? Is it limited by metaphysics in the case of black mirror? Where people are loving each other throughout these weird understandings of life and death and what consciousness is or what it's not, right? In this situation, it's like, can you connect through desperation, survival, trust, all those things? For the people that come to this and think that it's a departure from what the central story is,

to your question, being if it's a risk, I would say that this fortifies what the central story is here, because it establishes stakes. In this zombie post-apocalyptic fair, the stakes seem obvious. Will humanity be able to survive? That's not really what the stakes are. The stakes are, what do we do now?

That's really what it's about. And this is a story that's right in line with this. What do you do now? The two women in Sanjianapiro, Google and Bathara, And the other lady who's been in many things, she was in the Martian. I can't remember her name right now, Kai, in her name.

They're beautiful women and it's easy to watch them go through this sort of love affair together. These are two men who are longing for each other, who are intertwined with one another. And that's going to be challenging for a lot of people as challenging still in 2022 as getting away from what Joel and Ellie are going through. but it's worth it and it's necessary for people to see what the stakes of this world are. And it's also necessary for what happens at the end of this, last thing I'll say, when Bill makes the very deliberate decision to say,

if my purpose leaves this earth, so will I. That, my friends, is one of the most beautiful deaths in television history. Street. Not a dramatic one. Not a TV stopper. It's not Walter White laying down and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's not all of that. But it's one of the most beautiful and one of the most powerful Indians

to a character's arc. And it was only one episode. I love it. I'm going to throw this rock through the window. Please don't. But the thing that I think is genius actually about what this story does is that we start with Ellie. And Ellie, I'm sorry. she got the sociopath vibes early in this episode.

A little bit. Because she pulls out the knife. She kills the infected. I'm like, ooh, okay. And then when she's talking to Joel, she doesn't take responsibility for Tess's death. She's grieving, but she does not, in that moment, what's so genius about it,

is that you realize that Ellie does not understand the concept of death yet. She's still young. Yeah. And you have somebody on the other side in Joel, who, because he shut himself off after his daughter's death, he's not even allowing himself to feel anything with Tess, or at least he's not allowing to share in it. What I think is so brilliant about this journey is that because the episode starts with Ellie, so young not understanding what death really means, and then you immediately go to Bill, he's also someone who, in the beginning, of the episode seems thrilled. We learned later in his note that this is his dream.

He's happy. He hated humanity to such a degree that he was like, this is not only what I've been preparing for, but this is a version of the world that I want. And that is what I love seeing in this because Bill and Frank almost mirror Joel and Ellie in a way.

Even though Joe and Ellie's connection is a different type of love, it's a father and daughter. It is through the story of Bill and Frank, the show was telling us, this is where we need these characters to go. This is actually what this world needs more of. Connection, trust,

learning how to love someone, finding your purpose in life through connection. I thought that that was brilliant of how they even start the episode. Because did you remember when Joel is warning Ellie, he's just like, don't go over there. And like a child, she's like, why not? And he's like, just don't go over there.

Trust me. And she sees all of these, this, like, all of these dead people who are killed by Fedra. You're realizing how much this child has been sheltered. Even though she's grown up in this doomsday world, you're like, oh, she does not have

the normal things that kids in a non-apal fact. But even if we weren't at that age, that's still an age where kids think they know everything, but they don't know shit. Now that you've said that, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but like, when there's a death, especially like a death in the family, like, I'm now at the age where I have nieces and nephews who are younger. And it's interesting seeing how they deal with death because it's something so foreign to them.

Like they don't understand it. Like, and it takes days and it takes weeks. And you see kind of like their little minds, even as teenagers, you see it dawning on someone what it means when somebody leaves. What does grief mean? What does it mean to grow with it? What does it mean to change?

And I kind of actually thought it was brilliant how even though Ellie's not in this a lot, by the end of the episode, seeing her soften almost and realizing what Joel is going through, I kind of thought was brilliant from that actress. I was just like, okay, like this episode weirdly

made me buy into Joel and Ellie so much fucking more. So I call this the forever phase, what you're talking about. And there's a sweet spot. See, when you get a little bit older, you start to realize what life actually has in store for you. You get like 18, 19, 20. You still might do stupid things, but by that time, you've experienced, or at least people around my way, enough loss to know that you're eventually going to lose. that loss is a part of life.

Before, when you're a kid, somebody passes away. It's very easy to explain. Hey, your grandmother's in heaven now. She's going to look out for you forever. Oh, well, that's great. I don't see her anymore, but she's in heaven.

I even met kids before to go, hey, I don't know if you know, my granny's in heaven now. And they're like saying that as a badge of honor. Then you get to that middle phase to where they're old enough to understand death, but they don't think they're going to die. I think that that's something that happens to somebody else.

Remember, we're talking about people whose bones never creak. I was on a basketball court today, and I'm like, I'm going to do 12 left-hand layups jumping off my right foot before I leave after my workout. And my body said, no, you're not. You're not doing it. My body laughs.

My body's like, what you're going to do? She's going to get in your goddamn car. and you're going to drive home, and you're going to ice your knees because we've had enough today. Okay? But that's not happening to you. So you're still trying to put death

and the eventual breakdown of the things that you love and loss. You're still trying to put them on trial. You still think that you know when you don't. And part of growing up is understanding what loss connection and letting go really is. And so to see Ellie in that position where she thinks she knows, where her, and she even has it more so, you know why? Because she's immune to this deadly disease. Think about what it must be like for Ellie.

Think about the fact that other kids, you can't tell that they don't put a jacket on because it's cold. But what if they couldn't get a cold? They're like, fuck you. Do you think she has a Messiah complex a little bit in terms of even the way she's talking about Tess in the beginning? Like, I was like a little like, ugh. Because the way she's talking about Tess and her situation is almost like, but I'm worth it, though. Like, that's the subtext of like, I potentially might save humanity.

So, of course, these things are going to happen. It's not my fault. And that's a weird place for Joel to be in because he's like, we don't even know if you're, like, if you could do shit. But it's like, this episode is weirdly about, it's not up front. but about Ellie kind of peeling back those players of like, even if I might save humanity, I still have to be in this world and I still have to know how to connect with people

and honor people and their life and their sacrifices and what they're doing for me. You know, I think they've actually done a good job of playing that part of her down. I never played the game, so I don't know how it is in the game. But I think she is a self-aware enough little plucky character to where these moments really paralyze her. Like the point that I was making to that was driving to was when she sees the mass grave, the communal grave,

these are little breadcrumbs for her to understand the shit that she's in. These are the little breadcrumbs to let her understand that like, and I'm wondering, because I haven't played the game, what kind of effect, I'm wondering if she's going to have more of a Messiah complex later than she does now because the more of that type of stuff that she sees,

and I really want to get back to Bill and Frank, because I love, I love Plucky Ellie, but the more of that stuff she sees, it's almost like the more important she might believe that she is, because her purpose in a way is saving the world. well, I don't even know how that happens yet. I don't know what they have to do. I don't know how, like, what it means to reverse engineer a virus or anything like that. Like, at some point, she has to unlearn what kids in that age go through, the recklessness that they show with their bodies, the, I'm never going to die attitude.

At some point, the Messiah complex is going to be necessary for Ellie to really embrace if she is going to ever give the proper importance to her existence. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptitide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off.

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nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99-9 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. Let's go back because Bill and Frank, I want to talk about both actors, both characters. First, Nick Offerman's performance, I think this was brilliant casting. Have you ever watched Parks and Recmen? No.

So Nick Offerman, why I think it's kind of genius that they cast him as Bill, is that in that show, he is like a libertarian curmudgeon with a heart of gold who like builds canoes on the weekend and wants people to leave him alone. He is this character almost,

just in a comedy. So you have who we know Nick Offerman to be, but then you reverse it, this rugged man, and you're just like, okay, but he's hiding something. And what he's hiding, is that he's been closeted for years.

And what I think was so beautiful about that moment is that he melts. He melts at that piano when he stops Frank from playing the song, from playing a long, long time. And in his face, you almost see this history of what it was to be a closeted gay man, what it was to have to hide,

what it's been like to never have been loved before. And you see him like letting someone, in and I'm just like, oh, okay, this is why you cast him. Because he's like a lovable person that we love in this world, but you rarely get to see him as an emotional baby, as someone who kind of gets to crumble into somebody's arms and allow himself to be taken care of. And I just thought it was one of the most beautiful acting performances

I've seen in years, possibly ever. I thought so as well. And I also thought that he's probably looking at it like a complete, role reversal of society. It used to be the society was this place that told him when he could love, where he could love, where he could hold hands, what he could do. And now, guess what? There's nobody around to judge him for any of the ways that he expresses his love for his partner, for any of the things that he does, for any of the ways that he is outwardly, you know, sort of expressing his connection to another person. So,

he's probably in a utopia. The world that was there before for him was probably way more constricting than the world he lives. And now, this character is free. He feels free. He is useful to a world that threw him away before. He is important in a place that told him he had to hide before. And watching him do this and watching him still, like watching the wall fall, and then connect with somebody else who's beautiful.

I'll tell you, I got two Nick Offerman things to tell you. Number one, I watch them in devs. I still haven't seen deaths. Charles, let me tell you something. Let me tell everybody out there something right now that's listening to this. Start devs. But when you start devs, make sure that your life is going properly. Okay, so this isn't something I can watch now.

No. Hell no. No way, bro. Like, Kaleika and I started watching devs at the beginning of the pandemic, and it was a mistake. walk around nobody on the street. We come back and we're watching devs. Devs is very, very tough to watch for a lot of reasons.

Okay, ask a lot of questions. You know, all of garland stuff is like that. Ask a lot of questions. Another story I have about Nick Offerman is the way I realized who he was. I was a tour guide on the TMZ tour, and we had seen Slaughterhouse, which is Joe Budden, my man Royce, dear friend of mine, Royce, the 5'9,

and Crooked I and Joel Ortiz, four of the finest lyricists ever to join a group together, Slaughterhouse. We saw them at the saddle range on sunset, okay? And I stopped. This is in no way, first of all, this is in no way a slight to one of my favorite rap groups ever. And Royce is one of my friends. We saw them at the saddle range.

I go nuts. I don't know if they're going to believe this. I stop. I get off the bus. Oh, shit. It's slaughterhouse. It's Joe Crooked. Joel is all of that stuff.

I get back on the bus. And people, they didn't. This bus was all white. I mean, there are plenty of TMZ tours that I would have done that would have known everybody. But this one wasn't one of them. They did know who slaughterhouse was. Wait, what year was this? I can't remember, bro.

This may have been 2012, maybe. I would guess that this had to have been 2012. Because I was going to say, some white, like I would say the coastal elites would know Slaughterhouse, some of them at least. This might have been 2011, but it could have been 2012. It had to be either 2011 or 2012. But whenever this Slaughterhouse trip was,

I bet they'll remember it. They were all together at the Sattle Ranch. And I was like, yo, Slaughterhouse. And I'm on the bus, right? And I'm on the bus. And I'm on the bus. And I'm telling the people, yo, these guys are signed the M&M.

So the shady deal had already happened. I'm like, so maybe it was later. I don't know. These guys signed the M&M. These are a big rap group. This is, that's Joe Button, pump it up. I play Pump It Up and they go, oh, yeah, I know that's all right. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You played Pump It Up. That's a little disrespectful. How is it disrespectful? I was trying to make them know, I played Puppet Up. I played the Willa Ford. I played the Willa Ford song. Willa, Willa, Willa, Willa, what you want. what you want and told them that this is

Roster 5'9. It became a thing to where things got contentious between me and the bus because they were acting like I was lying that Slaughterhouse was a real rap group and I started to fail play like you don't know you don't know Slaughter House?

Oh fuck y'all, y'all. Y'all don't know Slaughterhouse. Later on the tour we're coming up Melrose. They were like, hey there goes Nick Offerman. And I was like who? Because I I never watched Farson Rec. They go, there goes Nick Offerman from Parts and Rec.

Let's stop. I said, never heard of him. And the whole bus laughed because I was so pissed at them at this point. I was like, never heard of him. Don't know who that is. They were like, hey, it's for Pards and Rec. And the driver of the bus is like, no, Van, seriously, that guy's on like, I was like, don't know who he is, never heard of him, not stopping.

Keep the tour going. Really quick before we go off this digression, I want to ask you as a former TMZ tour guide, were you ever surprised about the celebrities that white people didn't know, but black people would know, like, within a second? Oh, my God. We can't even get into it on this

because it's going to be too long of attention. I knew it. Fucking do it. We can't even, bro, B&T Awards weekend was such, because B&T Awards weekend, it is, the city is crawled, with black celebrities.

The city is crawling with, they're everywhere. You pass outside of the Beverly Center. You see people walking around, right? You pass restaurants outside of toast back in the day. And you see people outside and they're eating. And like, you're telling them, you're like, yo, that's fucking Shirley Ralph.

Or like, yo, yo, that's Monique. Wait, they didn't know who Monique is. Stop. Well, no, I'm not saying Monique. They knew who Monique is by this point. Monique went out. But they know who, like, a Marion is. Yeah, because of B2K, they did know people.

Like, we saw Marion before. They did know Amarion. But, like, it would be other people that they just wouldn't know, like, Countess Vaughn from the Parkers one time. Nobody knew who Countess Vaughn was. You know what I mean? And I'm like... This fucking one.

I'm like, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, come on. Yeah, nobody ever... Nobody on this bus has seen the Parkers. And then I would get pissed off. I'm like, fuck y'all. Y'all never watched the Parker's before. How many time you?

me, I ain't watched the Parker's one time. I watch y'all shit at least one time. You know, and it would be all kinds of people like that that I would see. We walk by, we see Terrence Jay. I'm like, hey, that's fucking Terrence J. You know what? Get on the bus. And then I would just be like, hey, you know what I'm saying?

And so that would happen throughout the thing. Okay, this is, we're way off the last of us now. But the Nick Offerman, that's how I realized who Nick Offerman was. And I'm glad that I knew who Nick Offerman was because the reality of situation as I watch Nick Offerman. Now, I know that his career has taken many twists and turns, but I really feel like this episode of television, Charles, is going to move people. And I feel like it deepens the stakes for the show The Last of Us. And I feel like it also sets the terms for the universe. I think the writers of the show, I've never played the game. So I don't know how this

goes in the game. We'll have to talk to Kai. But I think the writers of the show were incredibly smart to snatch us into somebody else's story here in episode three. What we've talked about, Nick Offerman, I want to also give shoutouts to Marais Barclay, who honestly did the

fucking Lord's work on season one of White Lotus. Fucking killed that shit. And I wanted to add, have you seen White Lotus yet? No. Never watch. Man. Ben. Come on, bro. Come on. I tried it, bro.

I don't know. I don't get it, bro. I'm going to honest, which I didn't get it. Was it white people shit? No, it's not. Don't put, don't pay me in the corner like that. I was asking, you can deny it. I'm just asking. I watched Glass Onion.

And I was like, this is as White Lotus as it can get from me. That's the limit. Like anything, I just wasn't into it. Well, White Lotus is great. I will say, this is a call to Hollywood. We're good with the satires on rich white people. What we need are rich black people. Like, honestly,

the next season of White Lotus should just be rich black people. Rich black people in Japan. That's all I'm saying. Now, going back to Marie Bartlett, he fucking killed it. As Frank, when he comes into the show, what I think he brings is, I think the way he acts in this, he has to channel something about the human experience that you rarely get to see as an adult, which is someone experiencing pure joy. for something that they thought was lost,

the way he lights up when he drinks wine for the first time, something that he thought he would be deprived of, probably for the rest of his life, having a warm shower, eating dinner. He was doing these little things with his faces and emotions where you're seeing him

in the same way that Bill is opening himself up to love. It's almost like Frank is re-learning, what love is, what it means to love something as simple as a shower, something as simple as someone cooking dinner for you, something like a piano. I thought, when he comes into the show, I was just like, oh, no, this is electric. Their chemistry together, their relationship felt real. And probably one of my favorite parts of the episode was the strawberries. Because it calls back to the beginning of the episode, which is, you have to think

this is probably Bill's first time cooking for someone in this way and to see the favor return years later with the strawberries and seeing these two men enjoy something so much that they probably

thought that they would never eat again I was just like floored by what did you kind of think about just the intricacies and the details of the relationship any good relationships is given takes And what we saw was Bill being both the strength and the weakness in the relationship is first,

first, you know. Bill is so strong, so capable, but he's unwilling to trust and unwilling to give in. After a while, we see Frank as the one who is maybe a little stronger, more willing to take chances, more willing to live a life. And we see why they needed one another. We see why that was divine. pairing. Hey, you are the one who might set the charges to keep the marauders from coming into our shit. I am the one that reminds you that this place needs to be a little beautiful.

And we might need a coat of paint. And we might need some friends. They might be good to have dinner with someone. It might be good to have a boutique, like a boutique. We're not even, there's no one to even sell the goods. But that was such a beautiful moment where he's like, he's telling him in this world we need to have the capacity to love things everything can't just be mission accomplishment

there has to be things that make us want to get up in the morning I was like this is such a beautiful sentiment for a post-apocalyptic show and it's something let me tell you something where you move in with somebody right

and they're giving you shit right they're giving you shit right they're giving you shit hey start the washing machine. Don't leave this around. Take you and you're like, God damn, what's wrong with you?

Get off me, I'm a man. And then you get it put to you very eloquently. You know what? My world and my life, I like things to be a little bit beautiful, a little bit in order. So you show me that you love me just by making space for me

in the ways that I need you to so that I can experience certain things. my dad once told me that about my mom rinse in peace my father my father was like son your room is disgusting he's like he's like for me it's your room

I want it to be better I want you to understand it but I don't care you want to live like a god damn haul and go ahead it's your choice but it's like your mother

like she needs this home to have a little bit of pizzazz to it so for her she comes home and she sees your shit everywhere, be it here or somewhere else, it bothers her. So if you love her, you'll take a little bit of extra time

and make sure that her house is. And that's what love is. It's work. It's submission. That's what we see. We see two people pulling at each other in the most loving ways. We're seeing one guy who's afraid

to let somebody out of the pit. We see one guy who's afraid to let the other guy play the piano. We see one guy who's afraid of this. It's afraid to let them stay, afraid to give in. And we see another guy who's afraid to live in a world that doesn't have a functioning boutique, who is as brave in their emotions as anything else. And they make something really beautiful and affecting.

And that's why it's actually even, you know, so much more devastating when it is Frank, who, you know, is befallen by illness. when it's Frank who can no longer live life out loud in the way that he could before. And to watch Bill in his life still understand his purpose is to protect Frank and make sure that he's okay.

And watch him take that purpose into a time where neither one of them is in their physical prime anymore to where there are no more adventures to be had to where the purpose is you. And then to watch him come to terms with that, I don't know, man. I don't know last of us. They're like, I was tearing up, but the moment it hit me was we meet them together with that first dinner.

And at the last dinner, when you realize Bill has also put the drugs in his wine, and he's telling him essentially that you're my purpose. And we learn when Bill's like, I used to hate the world and I was happy when everyone died, what I was wrong, because there was. was one person worth saving. That's what I did. I saved him. Then I protected him.

I was just like, what a beautiful sentiment that did not need to be said. This could have been just an action show. And it would have been fun. We would have loved it. But I was seriously, like, not okay emotionally,

just thinking about what it means to find purpose in life. Because I think, I don't know about you. I think when you're younger and, like, you think that,

there's so many years ahead, the thing that gives you purpose is your career or your ambitions or all of these other things and then as you grow up and you start losing people, you lose your parents,

you lose friends, you're like, all that other stuff is important, but at the end of the day, it's bullshit. Like, the only thing that you really have in this world are other people

and sharing the things with them. And I was like, this is, this sentiment is just something I just wasn't, I just wasn't prepared for. It just like, it kind of kicked me back on my on my ass.

Yeah, no, I'm glad that you feel like the only thing in life that you have is other people. I'm trying to get a Ferrari. I want to go to Dubai. Because obviously the point that you made is obviously true. But here's the scary part of the point that you made. And I don't mean to frighten anyone. The scary part is you're lucky in life if you find your purpose. Yeah.

You're my people who don't in the society that we've built, that is dependent on commerce, that is depending on conformity, that's depending on all of those things, you're lucky if you find your purpose. And in order to find your purpose, you have to be brave. You have to be brave to find the thing. There are people that love their children so much. They still feel unfulfilled. There are people out there that are great parents. said, great. What your purpose is, you're lucky if you get to it, if you're open enough to recognize

it when you see it. And the reason why Bill was totally okay, going on to the sweet buy and by, as was said in Django, y'all going to see Calvin in the sweet buy and buy, all right? So a little sooner than you think, it was like he shoots everybody with the guns. It's a great scene. I'll watch it after this. It's because he got a gift that a lot of people, people don't recognize and never get, which is to be able to identify and spend a lot of time with his purpose. And when he says that at the end of this episode, you fucking know he's telling the truth, brilliantly done by both actors and a fantastic episode of television.

One step further, what I think is actually brilliant is that when I was talking about the risk of this episode, if it doesn't work, the reward of it when it does is that when you see Joel come into the picture in the flashbacks and Joel is to like Bill is just like we're the same person you realize in that final note that Bill knew it Bill knew that test they were supposed to be together he knew that like it was even to someone who was like as

emotionally immature at times as someone like Bill he could see it and it was interesting to me that I'm just like in this episode what it actually does to the narrative is that Joel is getting another chance. Joel is getting a chance with Ellie to find his purpose again. He ignored it the last time. To your point,

you're lucky in life if you can find your purpose. I would say you're even more lucky if you get a second chance at it when you missed it the first time around, when you ignored it the first time around. And that's what I think narratively this episode does is like, Joel, this is your chance.

Do not miss out on it. Yeah, you're right, brother. You're right. Now, before we wrap up, I want to go to Kai's video game corner. The story of Bill is wildly different in the video games. And I was actually surprised how much of a departure this is. So, Kai, for our listeners, can you just walk us through what Bill is like in the game and how his story is so much different?

Yeah, no, of course. There's like three major differences. First one being the flashbacks, like the time jumps that we have. It's like you jump around in the show, whereas, like, in the game, it's just, it's just a linear story. It's just straight from Joel and Ellie, and you go and find just Bill, which is the next thing. It's like, we meet Frank in the show, whereas in the game, when you come to Bill, Frank's already dead. Like, Frank's been infected and he actually hangs himself, which is super depressing, and you actually don't see it. Doesn't he leave a suicide note saying that he hated?

Yeah, that he hated his guts. And that's the thing is, like, it's not explicitly shown. or stated that they had a relationship, but it's heavily hinted at in the game. So it's like to take just a few lines of dialogue and that suicide note and spin it into this beautiful hour of television, which you guys have talked about,

is really incredible. And then the other major difference is Bill is dead in this show. Bill dies. Joel and Ellie don't come across him together. In the game, Ellie and Bill have like a contentious back and forth. There's a whole section, maybe an hour or so,

maybe longer, that you play as Joe and Ellie with Bill. A pipe in the game. Yeah, exactly. And like none of that stuff. Wait, wait, wait. Well, you just said that. So Bill dies in the show, but in the game, Bill survives? Bill's alive.

Frank is dead. It's flipped. And obviously, like, in the show, they're both dead. But in the game, you come across just Bill. Frank's already dead. He was infected. And they've been apart for some time at that point. Infected, Frank gets infected.

Yeah, he gets infected. And he instead of, like, he hangs himself because he doesn't want to become infected. So the story is completely different. I wanted to point out a line from. from Bill in the game, because it's kind of a direct echo of the line that Charles had mentioned. Once upon a time, I had somebody that I cared about. A partner. Somebody I had to look after.

And in this world, that sort of shit's good for one thing. Getting you killed. So it's the complete opposite of what they end up writing in the show, where it's like he's trying to move Joel in a place where if you find something, if you find that purpose, you have to care about it. In the game, do Bill and Joel have a friendship from before? When he comes up to Bill in the game, he's, like, Bill is not happy to see Joel. He's like, why are you here? Like, he has an area of town that he kind of owns.

And, like, those trip wires that you see in the beginning of the episode, that's plucked straight from the game. And Bill owes him a favor, doesn't he? Like, Joel is coming into cash-in on, like, a favor. Because, correct me if I'm wrong, I remember, Bill almost being more of a like smuggler instead of him being so just in one place he actually has a much more fruitful back and forth helping Joel and Tess.

Yeah, no, I definitely think that's a big thing and it's they're going to get that car battery. That's the thing that's most similar, I'd say, from the two is like both end with Joel and Ellie in a truck headed to Tommy's trying to find the fireflies. Damn, well, before we wrap up video game corner in this episode, I have two important questions for you.

Kai, please stay on. The first is, I want all of us to share if we were in the last of this universe and your partner was planting fruit. Which fruit would you want it to be? You haven't had fruit in years. What would you choose? Then you can go first.

Apple. That is the most boring-ass troll. An apple, bro? Can I? I mean, I didn't know that I was going to be scorriated. apples are good for a meal. You can eat all the strawberries you want. It's not going to fill you up.

Guys right now, if you're awake up in the morning, you don't feel like just eat an apple, you'll be straight. So apples have utility. By the way, you can make an apple pie. Okay? You can make apples sauce. Where are you getting all the sugar?

All the sugar and flour is infected. We heard about this episode. That's true. I ain't eating that shit? I feel about the flour. You can't even make like a, you know, you can still cook the apples now. Shut up, Charles. Fine, wait, you have to give me the type of apple.

I like the, I like the Fuji apples. It was kind of hard to. I like the Fuji apples. I don't like the Granny Smith. I can't eat the greens anymore. All right. So, Kai. Mm-hmm.

Give me what fruit? Well, okay. So I would go strawberries first and then apple second. But I'm in the spirit of the. pot, I'll go, I'll go something different. Green grapes. Ooh. That's a good answer.

You get a lot of them. Okay? So you can be snacking on them all day. Strawberries, it's like, that's what I'm thinking. Wanting done. Noom says that green grapes is the best snack food you could eat. It says on Noom. I didn't know that. I would go blueberries. I think blueberries

they're small, nice. They would be candy in this world. What are wrong with fucking blueberries? Do you have someone to get to blueberries? I'm just joking. You could dry. I'm out and then you can have dry blueberries. That's very true.

Yeah. All right. Now, last question of the spot, most important. Ellie finds a broken mortal combat game. Two crazy things about this. Ellie has never played a video game. Like when she's like pointing to like a play, she's like, I've been to a plane. I haven't been in a car.

I'm like, oh, so cute. But when I'm like, oh, she has to play video game. She knows nothing about Smash Bros. Nothing about Pokemon, nothing. So we're going to start in reverse order. If you had one video game that you could bring into the apocalypse, What would it be, Kai? I got to go with Uncharted 2.

Stay in the naughty dog world. I love the last bus. But I think it's a little too dark if it's the only game I'm playing all the time. And Uncharted 2 has some levity. It's still as fun. The gameplay's great. Uncharted 2, that's what I got to go with.

Uncharted 2, really? What happens? What should finish the fucking main adventure? You just run it back. No. I mean, any game that we're going to play in this situation is going to get old, I would say that for me,

it would be Mario Kart. Mario Kart's a great apocalypse game. Like Mario Kart, you have everybody around. You could lure people in. You can have a whole Mario Kart-based society where only people at the top run of society get to play Mario Kart. Can you think about that?

Think about the Mario Kart revolution that would happen. Like, you have to have a certain amount of standing to play Mario Kart with those. You can make people act right for an hour of Mario Kart. So I would say Mario Kart for me. The Fedra agents are definitely. playing Mario Kart not sharing it with the populace. Mario Kart's good.

What fucking game? I want to say Slay the Spire, but that's too nerdy. Ooh, you know what? I'm going to choose a very, very difficult game that I know. Breath of the Wild. If I'm playing Breath of the Wild, that shit's so hard, it's going to take me at least fucking 10, 15 years to fucking beat it. I'll be so happy the whole time.

Breath of the Wild? Is that a good guy? I've never heard of that. Zelda? Oh, Zelda. Oh, I don't know that game. I was only Zelda. So it's a Zelda, Breath of the Wild.

Oh, no, I've played Zelda before. I don't know about Breath of the Wild, though. What happens there? I was like, Kai looked at me. He's like, what's Breath of the Wild? Kai, do you know, do you know Breath of the Wild? It's on the Switch. Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild.

It's like an open world Zelda game. It's hard as smoke. Came out in 2017. I was off Zelda. No, I never played it. Bafta Game for Award for Innovation, the Game Award for Game of the Year. But what is this on?

The Switch. Oh, okay. I'll play Breath of the Wild. Hey, man, get off me. I was 37 when that shit came out. You have no Jesus, bro. I've been over your house, fucking Van. You'll be playing flight simulators and shit.

I don't want, like, come on, bro. Breath of the Wild, okay. I guess I got to play this. Is this Link on a horse? Is Link riding on horse? You got to ride a fucking horse? It's great. All right, cool.

I'll play Breath of the Wild. That has been. The Prestige TV podcast, thanks to our video game connoisseur and producer extraordinaire Kai. Thank you to the Mai Tai Mahti Mastro himself, Van Lathen. I've been Charles Holmes. Make sure you walk in next week for more Last of Us. We'll see you later.