The Last of Us: 8 biggest changes from the video game in season 1

6. Bill and Frank

The third episode of the HBO show introduces us to Bill and Frank. In Naughty Dog’s video game, Bill is a jaded survivalist who helps Joel and Ellie on their way before going back to his own little lonely world to live out his days. We find out that he had a partner named Frank who killed himself after being bitten by an infected. But we never actually meet Frank beyond seeing his dangling corpse, and Bill is a very different character.

The show’s version of Bill and Frank feels like it happens in an alternate universe. Unlike in the game, their show versions of Bill and Frank share a post-apocalyptic love story that ends bittersweetly as they commit suicide together as old men. In many ways, Bill and Frank’s episode is the happiest of the season.

Showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin revealed on The Last of Us Podcast that this change was made in order to show how people could actually beat the apocalypse and live good lives, to give viewers something to hope for when it came to Joel and Ellie’s future. In the game, Bill is meant to be a cautionary tale; if Joel keeps cutting himself off from other people, he could end up just as isolated and bitter. In the show, it’s the opposite; Bill and Frank serve as a positive example for how to live a good life even after the fall of soeciety.

The one downside to this change is that we never got to actually see Bill and Ellie onscreen together; in the game they have a caustic dynamic that’s fun to watch. But considering how powerful “Long, Long Time” was, the show made the right choice.