The Last of Us Writer Explains Telling Bill and Frank’s “Lasting” Love Story in “Long Long Time”

“I think I’m gonna love you for a long, long time” isn’t just a lyric from Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time”: it’s the start of an enduring love story between Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) on HBO’s The Last of Us. Episode 3 of the live-action adaptation of the Naughty Dog and PlayStation video game, titled “Long, Long Time,” took a detour from Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) post-apocalyptic road trip to tell a decades-spanning love story over its 75-minute runtime, ending with newlyweds Bill and Frank dying together by suicide. 

“The Last of Us is a love story, and that’s not always good news. Love can blind us, move us to violence, harden our hearts to strangers, or paralyze us with grief,” show co-creator Craig Mazin, who penned the episode, wrote in a new introduction to his script for Episode 3 (via Deadline). “But in the world Neil Druckmann and I built for this show, it was just as important to show how love could still flourish in a positive way. I wanted to explore how two very different kinds of love— the nurturing, generous and beautifying, as well as the protective and possessive— could exist in balance.” 

Mazin’s introduction continues: “Bill and Frank embodied these two kinds of love. And for me, as someone who has been married for over 25 years, it was just as important to portray that kind of love… the lasting, well-worn love that is a product not merely of attraction or chemistry, but of commitment.

“My hope was that people would see in Bill and Frank’s relationship the victory of honest, achievable, realistic love… even in Bill and Frank’s ending. After all, each of us will end. That’s not failure for any life well-lived, or for any love we share. It’s simply the final act of what was hopefully a beautiful play. And if we’re lucky, as Bill is, we leave behind a lesson that inspires others to live as we did. Frank changes Bill for the better. Bill changes Joel for the better. Joel changes Ellie for the better. This is what love can do.

“I was lucky enough to have a brilliant director in Peter Hoar and the perfect cast in Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. They all had the greatest respect for the text I wrote, and in turn, I have the greatest respect for the way they brought it to life. And as I said to Nick when I sent him the script, ‘I don’t know how to write better than this, so I sure hope you like it.’

“I say the same to you, and I thank you so much for reading and watching our show.”

Mazin’s script for “Long, Long Time” is available to read online. All episodes of HBO’s The Last of Us are streaming on Max.