By Nicole DeVincentis

Episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us premiered Sunday, January 29th, and shocked fans of the original video game source material with a heartfelt alteration to the ‘Bill and Frank’ storyline.

In an apocalyptic zombie-ridden world, the adaptation offered a beautiful rendition of the inspiring love story between its side characters ‘Bill & Frank’ that the video game merely alludes to. Original fans of the video game have expressed varied reactions to the show’s decision to change the source material as this choice unequivocally eliminated the possibility for further development for its characters Bill and Ellie.

Spoiler Alert:

this change was illustrated in the episode’s finale with both characters, Bill & Frank, choosing to take their lives, unlike the video game which only saw Frank’s untimely death. Some distressed fans felt the decision to change this storyline will hinder the show’s ability to display the progression of the relationship between its main characters Ellie and Joel.

Executive producer Neil Druckmann said in Episode 3’s Inside the Episode, “When should we deviate and when should we come back? If it’s kind of the same or worse, we stay where the game is. If it’s better we deviate.” According to Warner Bros. Discovery, this third episode brought the series to a whopping 21.3 million viewers, tying it with other renowned HBO productions including House of the Dragon and Euphoria. HBO’s Inside the Episode also featured Australian actor, Murray Bartlett, playing the character of Frank. Bartlett said in response to a question regarding his reaction to the episode, “My first reaction to the episode was surprise. It was this unexpected, beautiful love story in this bleak world.”

Among new fans of the adaptation, some have been quoted dubbing the series’ third episode as HBO’s magnum opus. The show used a full 80 minutes, longer than its second episode but shorter than the first, to depict the heart-wrenching love story from the couple’s wary first encounter to their bittersweet final moments. Between the episode’s first and final acts, Druckmann displayed a blossoming and utterly real relationship that saw Bill’s character grow from paranoid and asocial to a loving, protective husband.

Lehman student and (non-game player) avid show-watcher Angela Williams commented, “I really did enjoy the episode. I think it did a good job at highlighting the difference between the show and the game. For game players, the beauty of the game is survival and winning, but for people watching the show, there has to be more. There can’t just be meaningless violence every episode. What episode 3 accomplished was providing hope to a hopeless situation.”

While opposition to the series’ decision remains valid, it is quite clear that an overwhelming majority of fans embraced Druckmann’s radical choice to embellish the already existing storyline and resolve it in a fashion that stood true to Bill’s ‘new’ character. Now it is up to showrunners to continue demonstrating the virtue of their choice in further episodes.