This story accommodates spoilers for Episode 3 of HBO’s “The Final of Us” and corresponding moments from the 2013 videogame.

The third episode of “The Final of Us” takes viewers again to the start of the world’s fungal apocalypse.

Sunday’s installment, essentially the most intimate of the collection to date, introduces audiences to Invoice (Nick Offerman), a gun-toting, paranoid, self-described survivalist who seems to have been one of many few individuals ready to dwell on this planet following the mysterious mutant cordyceps outbreak. Invoice’s distrust of the federal government meant that as a substitute of being rounded up with the opposite residents of his city, he stayed behind to construct a fortified base round his house, able to dwell out the remainder of his days blissfully alone.

Besides he doesn’t find yourself alone. A couple of years after the outbreak, a weary traveler named Frank (Murray Bartlett) is caught in one in all Invoice’s traps. Towards his higher judgment, Invoice lets Frank into his compound for what is meant to be a momentary respite. The episode goes on to element how the 2 males fall in love and spend the remainder of their lives collectively.

For “The Final of Us” co-creator and govt producer Craig Mazin, Invoice and Frank have been a chance to point out that even in a collection primarily based on a online game, loss of life doesn’t imply failure.

“They attain an finish on their very own phrases,” Mazin stated throughout a current video name. “And like Invoice says, ‘I’m previous, I’m glad, and also you have been my objective.’ That seems like a victory to me.”

However extra essential, their relationship reveals the viewers, in addition to a reluctant Joel (Pedro Pascal), that even on this terrifying, harmful world, love and happiness aren’t solely attainable but in addition price it. Invoice and Frank’s story is integral to the collection and fully authentic from the Invoice and Frank story advised in “The Final of Us” online game.

“For individuals who performed the sport and liked the sport, that is just about all fully new,” stated Mazin. “The story of Invoice and Frank and the letter that Invoice leaves behind [in the show] is such an enormous a part of why Joel decides he’s going to maintain going [on this journey] with Ellie … Their relationship in the end turns into sort of the skeleton key to unlock all of this present, so far as I’m involved.”

Invoice and Frank’s story is way extra tragic within the sport. Very similar to within the present, Joel and Ellie hunt down Invoice as a result of they want a car for his or her cross-country journey. They encounter Invoice alive, and the participant should work along with him to make it throughout city to get crucial gear. Alongside the way in which, Invoice mentions a former “accomplice” named Frank earlier than the group discovers a physique and learns that Frank has hanged himself after being bitten by the contaminated. Some non-compulsory digging round can result in the participant discovering a letter Frank has left for Invoice, telling him, “I hated your guts.”

Neil Druckmann, the collection co-creator and govt producer who additionally wrote the unique sport, credit the preliminary concept of Invoice to “The Final of Us” sport director Bruce Straley. The thought behind Invoice, Druckmann stated, was to introduce “somebody that lives on their very own” who’s “sort of kooky, as a result of what are you surviving for at that time?”

In response to Druckmann, Invoice’s backstory involving a earlier accomplice was one thing thatwas developed up over the course of the sport’s manufacturing. Though he had written Invoice and Frank’s relationship to be romantic — as a result of that might be a better loss — Druckmann left it as much as Invoice’s actor, W. Earl Brown, to interpret whether or not the character was homosexual. And he did. (As Druckmann himself says within the sport’s commentary, Invoice’s sexuality and the character of Invoice and Frank’s “partnership” are by no means explicitly talked about within the sport. However it may be inferred by {a magazine} Ellie finds and reveals Joel.)

In response to Straley, the rationale for Invoice’s existence within the sport is that he’s “an individual who had real emotions for one more human being in that world, and is having a response to that [relationship ending]. That response is being projected onto Joel and Ellie’s relationship.”

Whereas Invoice vocalizes one warning — that getting near somebody is the way you get killed on this planet of the sport — his objective is to function the other. Invoice is a glimpse of the sort of individual Joel may turn into if he continues to keep away from getting near others: eccentric, bitter and alone.

Mazin noticed the TV adaptation as an opportunity for Invoice and Frank to dwell a distinct story. Whereas the sport is restricted, for essentially the most half, to telling its narrative by the attitude of Joel in an effort to give gamers an immersive expertise, tv has extra freedom.

Invoice (Nick Offerman, left) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) attending to know one another in “The Final of Us.”

(Liane Hentscher / HBO)

For Mazin, Invoice and Frank have been a chance to point out Joel and the viewers that “there’s a manner for individuals to attain a sort of peace and happiness and love on this world.”

In addition to being a manner for the collection to point out time elapsing from the start of the pandemic to the present’s current for the primary time, Invoice and Frank supplied the chance to painting “two human beings who’ve been in a dedicated relationship for a extremely very long time,” stated Mazin.

It was an essential alternative to point out a pair of lives well-lived. As a result of for all the risks that exist on this planet of the present, Invoice and Frank discovered one another and lived a life collectively. The care that Mazin and the present’s creatives took in telling their story and depicting their relationship is evident.

“I feel in a present like this, the place the world round our characters is consistently pressuring them … there’s the tendency for endings to be tragic and violent and abrupt and too quickly,” stated Mazin. “And I believed it was essential to point out how a relationship may endure, after which conclude in a pure manner. As a result of loss of life is a superbly pure factor to do.”

“The entire thing is about hope and humanity with the ability to assemble hope and imagine hope,” stated Peter Hoar, the episode’s director. “The rationale we imagine in something is as a result of we predict it’s going to assist us. Religion, or in any other case, it’s one thing that you just assemble round you to go, ‘Yeah, see, it’s price it.’ For that to be a homosexual love story, an LGBTQ love story, was simply the icing on the cake.”

Whereas there have been rumblings that Episode 3 might be divisive amongst current “Final of Us” followers, Hoar believes they deserve extra credit score.

“They know why they like ‘The Final of Us,’” stated Hoar. “Sure, the sport play was good, however they preferred ‘The Final of Us’ due to the way it made them really feel. I feel that’s what we do in Episode 3. We make you’re feeling it.”

“The Final of Us’” Joel (Pedro Pascal, left) and Invoice (Nick Offerman) are reduce from the identical mildew.

(Liane Hentscher / HBO)

Finally, the tragedy of Episode 3 will not be how Invoice and Frank have chosen to die collectively, however the message that Invoice has left for Joel in a letter. As a result of Invoice noticed a kindred spirit in Joel as somebody who protects these they love, he bequeaths all the things he owns to Joel so he can hold Tess protected.

“Invoice doesn’t know that Joel has failed,” stated Mazin. “Not as soon as, thoughts you, however twice. Joel has did not hold his daughter alive. He’s did not hold Tess alive. And now, his solely likelihood to be the individual that Invoice says he’s, is to maintain this child [Ellie] alive.”

Druckmann, for his half, is happy that the sport impressed the emotional story advised in Episode 3.

“I really feel like this sequence is admittedly lovely, and it’s actually lovely for the present in a manner that we couldn’t do within the sport,” stated Druckmann. “Though that episode deviates fairly a bit from the sport, and the destiny of the character is totally different from the sport. It’s so lovely and so transferring that I feel it’s price it.”

Occasions sport critic Todd Martens contributed to this story.