Poll: Was The Last of Us - Episode 3 the Best One Yet?

Easily the best yet just masterful tv and Nick Offerman freaking killed it

No idea... gotta give us time first mate.. some of us work for living

Yeah it was great. Pulled on the heart strings something shocking.

That was such an emotional and heartbreaking episode. I gotta admit, there were actual tears. Most things I watch with scenes like that, yeah I well up a bit. That almost caused a full-on blubber.

I kinda wish we got a little more advancement of the main plot, but with acting that good, I’m not gonna complain.

Not going to bother with this one lol

I’m gonna say it, Bill (and Frank’s) story is FAR superior in the show that in the game, it genuinely had me crying multiple times.

For anyone trying to hate on this over some “woke” BS just remember this was already heavily implied in the game and it’s represented just beautifully in the show, showing once again that this story is about the amazing characters on it, not the zombies.

And we still have left to see Henry and Sam’s storyline 🥲

Don't let anybody tell you that you have to be perfectly represented in media in order to feel connected to the characters. We all share the same emotions of love, hate, joy, sadness, etc.

Bill and Frank were wonderfully portrayed, just a truly great episode. I can't imagine someone watching this episode and not feeling something in their heart.

Haven't watched it yet.
I have to wait until the whole family is ready.
Urgh, family.
Hurry up already!
Daddy wants to watch his new favourite show.😜

I'll edit in my thoughts after we all sit down to watch it.

Edit:
It was good.
A bit sideways rather than forwards and while I love them fleshing out the characters backstory in the show it didn't need to be quite that fleshed out.
Still enjoyed it but it was a little bit slow.

The episode was a good show but not necessarily a good The Last of Us representation. As a gamer and fan of the source material, I continue to struggle with some of the changes.

Like I say, it’s a good show if taken on it’s own and called “Survival Apocalypse” or something besides “The Last of Us.” The performances were great and I enjoyed the characters, but I just can’t help but pick it apart with “I don’t remember that in the game..”. Sorry to be a wet blanket but I hope it gets better.

Call me crazy but I hate the show. Probably just going to give up after this episode and pretend it never happened.

I don’t care at all about the deviations as long as the main plot points are the same which they continue to deliver on. Bill was the reason why you get the battery/car in the game and he still is in the show. What does it matter how they got there. It was the best episode so far. People crying about it not being scene for scene the same can leave.

It was drawn out a bit too much for my liking. They could have easily shaved off 15 minutes and told the same story.

Loved it. Didn't expect that direction and it worked really well as a vignette of what life is like for some during the events.

This is what I hope for Factions game and it's seasonal stories, if they pursue this live service story approach.

However, those hiking paths are WAY too worn down for something that's supposed to rarely be traveled. Weird complaint I know, but first thing I noticed lol.

You guys better lock this thread before the immature people start commenting. Oh boy it's gonna get ugly real quick.

@Zanao i really didn't like the episode simply because the show has no respect for my time. It spends an hour and a half on a side story that didn't impact the plot. Yes, they got a car, but we didn't need an hour and a half backstop on two characters that didn't impact the plot.

Also. I just think the script doesn't respect the viewer at all. We don't need everything spelled out for us. It would have been better if Bill just drank the wine and went to bed and Joel and Ellie found them dead. We didn't need the characters explicitly telling us everything.

And the letter... did we really need a backstory for why Joel decides to care for Ellie? The writers really think the audience is too stupid to figure things out without being explicitly told.

I loved it; fantastic direction to take characters we didn't really get to know in the game. Admittedly did miss the whole high school sequence, but I'm sure there is still plenty of action to come.

@DigimonMonster
I liked it but there wasn't enough Joel and Ellie. It felt like a side story. The whole thing with Bill kinda caught me by surprise. I guess it was implied in the game but somehow i missed that. Nothing wrong with it mind you it just completely flew over my head. Episode 4 looks like it'll be action packed so I'm ready for that!

@Truegamer79
It wasn't even implied, Bill told Joel in the game straight up that Frank was his partner.

Some pretty bold decisions here, especially as the interactions between Bill and Ellie are pretty memorable, and I was looking forward to the banter. But then, watching Bill and Frank grow old and die together on their own terms was an emotional ride I won’t soon forget. Good stuff!

**Spoilers**
@Ambassador_Kong Okay, I'm not crazy. Someone else thought of this too. I just watched this with a few friends and as I was driving home I was like, "...but if that whole episode didn't happen would it have changed the plot?" Yes, the episode was beautiful acted and Nick Offerman absolutely crushed his performance, but it didn't move the plot forward. The letter got to me, too. A little too much tell, not show.

I think what caught me off guard the most was that Bill told Joel to protect the ones he loves, but in the game he told Joel not to get to attached to others. The episode had a beautiful message, but thematically it was kind of off the mark.

I really liked it. Definitely my favorite of the series, so far. I don't mind the huge changes in this case at all.

I was also very dubious about Nick Offerman as Bill, but he was excellent.

@PhantomMenace84 is this sarcasm?

This was hands down the worst ep so far. They had done such a good job of capturing the game then we get this. The section of the game where you enter Bills town is filled with alot of really cool moments. I was really looking forward to the dialogue between Ellie and Bill. I really do not understand why they felt a story that is so dark needed something like this. The reason the more light parts of the game hit so hard was because everything was so grim , that made the player really appreciate those few moments. i truly believe the the viewers would have had the same experience the payers had ,had they stuck to the same story line.

The first good episode of the show. Glad I went back to it, the show finally has a reason to exist. Games are limited through requiring the perspective of a playable character, so this extended vignette just wouldn’t be viable in the game. This is the sort of story that warrants a TV show, not the 1/1 recreations of scenes from the game. Rather glad there wasn’t even a hint of Ellie making dumb jokes about Bill being gay literally 5 minutes after finding out about his partner hanging himself, that was one of the most mean-spirited moments in a game I’ve ever played.

i thought this episode was easily the best so far, each one has been better than the last. the way this episode tackled this love story over such a long span of time was honestly beautiful, and its gonna stick with me for a long time. i honestly don't care that its really different from the game because i think it succeeds in adapting the material (and honestly surpasses it), it brought the story into a new medium in a way that fit the medium better.

It was a great episode on its own, but I am somewhat disappointed that Joel and Ellie didn’t meet up with Bill while he was alive. I feel like they could have had an extra episode to follow up on this one to cover that section of the game. It was still a beautiful reimagining, and I did love how Bill’s purpose in life is being passed onto Joel by finding purpose in protecting someone in this world. At the end of the day, we still have the game. And we have the show. They don’t have to be exactly the same. They can rhyme with each other.

@LN78 The entire part where they joke about finding gay porn in his car?

They continue to outdo themselves. This was wonderful. I don’t even know where to begin. I love being the sole person in my watch group who’s played through the game and can still be pleasantly surprised by deviations like this. I know the main beats and the inevitable fates of many of these characters, sure, but they’re doing a fantastic job of keeping all audiences on their toes. And the exploration of the relationship on display here, just wow. I’ll be surprised if this particular episode doesn’t win any awards.

@nessisonett i'll always be mixed on that part because on the one hand its a ridiculously mean joke given the context of what just happened, but on the other hand i think its a really iconic ellie moment (for lack of a better term), i wonder if it'll work better tonally with the one week gap between the release of each episode

Loved the first 2 episodes, particular the 2nd. But this third episode was just too slow moving — to excess — featuring seemingly really dragged-out scenes. Seems like they needed to fit a love story in here, so they altered Bill's story fairly drastically to get it in there... Looking forward to next week's ep.

Some of the best television I’ve seen in years. I liked the deviation from the game - it was well needed, I think. I’m looking forward to more.

Maybe stop putting spoiler thumbnails for each episode? Here in Sweden this episode dropped today so me and my wife will see it this evening. But every monday I'm bombarded with a spoilerpicture on your start page. Use more generic pictures and not those with people that not been on the show last week please...

Decent episode. I didn't like Frank at all. I could see why they changed Bill's ending. I'm sure they would have been inundated with "when's Bill coming back" dm's, otherwise. Ellie's proper psycho, bless her.

I didn't like this episode at all. It just didn't do it for me.

I've not watched it yet but I'll have an opinion once I watch it.

But I'll keep banging the drum, for it should of been a longer season and we should of got more back story for both Joel and Tess.
I'm one who already knows the outcome and enjoyed the story, but the show for me is being a little rushed to get to the beat to beat story plots without exploring key aspects so non gamers who don't know the story can get a connection with the characters, who matter.

As much as it seems like this episode is amazing, it's still only bill, and he's such a small part of it and has 0 involvement once they get the battery, so to deep dive Bill but not Tess or Joel seems strange to me.

I still would of liked an episode to know Joel and Tess and the struggles they went through in the 20 years.

@kyleforrester87 Yes lol, just woke up so I was grasping for words lol ;P But still, I don't like the spoilers, bombarded or not

I liked the episode even if I can see the argument that it didn’t progress the story lots. It felt like fan service to me and to that end I think it did a good job of changing up what happens in the game while not changing Bill in anyway that’s inconceivable compared to what we saw in game.

Very much changes the dynamic between Frank and Bills relationship though so far as the last period of Franks life is concerned. Also think it changes how Frank is presented, however light it is in the original off screen presence in the game. I can’t imagine the character we saw on screen would ever write the note that Frank leaves for Bill in game. Also wasn’t prepared for Bill going with Frank and had assumed that Joel would arrive to a bitter and alone Bill. Worked well anyway I think.

Don’t see why a lot of what happens in Bills town in the game can’t still happen in later episodes, without Bill being there of course for banter.

I feel like the school of thought of not moving the plot forward = bad is ruinous for a TV show of this quality. The whole thing made a connection (explicitly) to our MC with his moral need to find a purpose other than survive, while fleshing out more of the world during the initial outbreak, turned something that is regular seen as a joke (people who prep for the end of the world) as an unexpected asset, had some of the best acting for characters that only exist for one episode, and still ended with a forward motion towards why the season can continue (car). I am glad the show deviated, and hope it continues to do so in slight ways specifically because the game's gameplay aspects will translate to boring horror if the clickers are shown as often as they are in the source material.

Also, the letter was not for the audience, the letter was for Joel who did not see any of the growth in Bill. You could argue that Joel would have taken Ellie with him anyway without the letter, but there is no explicit change/reason for him to do so without the encouragement of his gruff counterpart.

A ton of people loved this apparently but it felt like a completely different show to me and a bad one at that. I thought the acting was weak, particularly the guy who played Frank, and the pacing was all over the place. Not well made at all in my opinion but I will keep watching of course as the first two episodes nailed it for me

Is this the episode that the previewers were all raving about? It sucked, it deviated from the real story for quite a bit, everything was hammered in (no nuance in the storytelling at all) and it skipped some of the best action parts from the original.

@Ambassador_Kong

Not everyone has a Ph.D. in "how to make TV shows good" as you do. Believe it or not, some people have never heard of The Last of Us games.

Besides, this is Television, which sometimes needs to spell things out for those that don't understand the plot and character. If you want your show to be accessible you sometimes need to explain in very explicit ways what is happening so your average Sunday night viewer understands

Thought it was awful. Boring AF.

On it’s own merits, it’s a fantastic episode.

But at the same time, it was the largest deviation from the game so far and it didn’t really move the main plot along much.

So I rate it as very good. In another setting I would consider it fantastic. But in the case of the main story I consider it very good.

@nessisonett

I thought the scene in the game made sense, despite how distasteful it was.

Ellie starts out as a bit of a wench in the game with very little consideration for other people’s feelings. Like Joel she’s not very sympathetic at first and I think that was on purpose.

Over the course of the game she becomes more empathetic. It was good character development for her.

That’s just my opinion though.

@eagletrippin

The game didn’t really give the show’s writers much to work with in regards to Bill and Frank.

Bill mentions to Joel that Frank was his partner. There is a pile of gay porn magazines that Ellie digs through. It’s mentioned that Frank hung himself.

Other than that, the relationship wasn’t focused on very much in the game.

They wanted to expand it out since it gave them a chance to tell a romantic love story. TLOU1 is ultimately a love story in and of itself, but it’s a parent/child/humanity love story. Not romantic except for the hints we got about Tess and Joel before some fallout, which were easy for most players to miss.

I do like this episode a lot. But I also feel like they could have cut 40% of Bill and Frank’s love story with more Joel and Ellie. Have Joel’s standoffish behavior towards Ellie contrast with Bill’s acceptance of Frank.

@OrtadragoonX Yes, after replaying Part 1 last week, I knew that Bill was gay --- to be very clear, I have zero problem with this. The drastic changes I was referring to was how Frank died, and that Bill even dies in the first place. (And of course, the show veered far away from the game's storyline of Bill helping Joel & Ellie work their way through Bill's town filled with infecteds...and how much of an a-hole Bill was.)

Be that as it may, most of the scenes were just long & drawn out featuring lots of silence & very little dialogue. The sad love story just didn't land with me as much...

@Gamer_Guy get an awkward semi on did ya??? 🍆😧😧😧😂😂😂😂

Just watched the first 20 mins and not quite nailing it yet.

I assume if must have a great second half. Will get to that later this evening.

tbh - not sure the flashbacks are helping. Much preferred the first 2 so far.

It was okay, but for me the weakest of the 3 episodes so far. I’m still not completely on board with the show tbh. Pedro Pascal is smashing it, but I’m still not convinced Bella Ramsey was the best option for Ellie. There’s still 6 episodes to go so we’ll see how it goes.

@grapetrap I just reread my comment and couldn't find the part where I said anything about anyone needing to have knowledge of the game to understand the episode.

What I did say was that in an 9 episode series, a complete departure from the plot to tell a backstory that had nothing to do with the main story, was a waste of the viewers time. If they needed a car, the plot could have dropped one from the sky. Same with bullets and supplies. The episode served no purpose other than Neil trying to get himself an Emmy.

I also refuse to think that the audience is so stupid that they have to be told things explicitly. The final scene could have had Bill return to the dinner table with two glasses of wine. They both drink the wine, go to bed, and we cut to Joel and Ellie arriving at their door to find the letter explaining that Bill killed himself as well. Instead we got that ham fisted conversation with Frank saying, "I should be mad."

That said, Bella Ramsey is still the absolute worst thing about this show. She acts as if she is in an entirely different series. Pedro Pascal is doing all the heavy lifting.

@Ambassador_Kong

Well, I guess you can't please everyone. There will always be outliers and contrarians. To each their own.

@Ambassador_Kong I wasn't too bothered by this episode, but I agree that leaving some stuff up to the viewer's imagination would've been good. Like if they left out that part where Bill said he put the pills in the bottle, it may have hit harder when Joel and Ellie read the letter. I don't know. But it felt like they had to spell everything out. I think one or the other would've been enough.

And yeah, Bella's acting wasn't as good as the first episode IMO. Hopefully it improves.

The most glaring thing still is the grey beards IMO. The characters don't look old, they look like middle aged people with dyed beards

This was a killer episode of TV. Dare I say that the show is improving a lot of areas of the story. I know a game needs to be a game and you need to kill stuff and walk places, and the show only needs to be the narrative, but still, great stuff.

Loved it when Ellie asked Joel if he remembered where his stuff was and he said he was 'zeroing in on it'. I was like, I remember searching all those cupboards for loot mate, leave no stone unturned!

First off. Excellent television.

Second off, the main comment theme to people not loving it would seem to be "it doesn't move the plot"

My gripe with this would be, and so what? Joel and Ellie walked to get a car and guns. And we get a beautiful self contained story about how to REALLY survive in this world. To make a connection. To love. To share a life with someone. Plot Schmott. Give me character arcs, character development and future influence on the other characters over action or twists.

Patience is a virtue

How these lives have influenced Joel and Ellie will grow throughout the show, I feel. The fact Ellie read the letter is a huge moment, and you can already see the way they interact with eachother and the world slowly changing.

Granted, I feel I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd played the games through properly myself, I think, and if my dog didn't decide to roll around upsidedown and try to fall off the chair during the more emotional scenes, but that's just what happens when you try to watch a drama with a mad animal in the room 😅

I get the idea behind this episode, and I know that TLoU is more about the characters and less about the infected.
But it was just too much drama, it went on for a bit too long.
I know the length is what makes it a good story, it just wouldn't have had the same impact if all the "fat" was trimmed down to make it shorter.... but in my opinion it was just too much of it for this kind of show. Like a filler episode that doesn't really fit in a season that only has 9 of them...

Decent episode for a TV show. But for Last of Us itself, I didn't feel like it did the game justice by deviating so much from the actual story. Bloating the show with a filler episode.

Great episode, silly question asking if it's the best yet though..it was great but you obviously wouldn't want every episode to be like that. Good to see them injecting some originality into the show.

@Ambassador_Kong I'm tending to agree about Bella, I'm going to reserve my judgement until I've watched it all but so far she just doesn't seem to work as Ellie. From day one I was worried about that bit of casting and unfortunately it seems warranted.

This one didn't quite hit the mark for me personally. It wasn't a bad episode by any means but I preferred the way the game portrayed Bill's section. Frank didn't really add much to the story as a fully casted character and I preferred Bill more as a "It's gotta be just me" kind of guy. Plus we missed the banter between Joel, Ellie, and Bill which I really liked in the game. Still, I gave it an okay. Really looking forward to next week's episode though.

I thought the episode was excellent. I don't remember all the specifics from the game but I can guarantee an hour of Joel and Ellie throwing bricks at tripwires and land mines would not have been as moving.

This is exactly what I want out of the show. Expand the world and lore in new directions that fit the overall story.

Finally sat down with the Mrs to watch it and my opinion.....

Absolutely bloody loved it, what fantastic TV, well written. Honestly don't understand some of the comments about cringe or would it be masterful tv if it was a male and female.

Your problem is your not looking at the whole picture.
Bill was a person who hated people and wanted them all to die but he opened his heart to 1 person and spent his days looking after him, a true love story with a great and fitting end.

But this fits so well into the last of us, your missing the point. He made his own little town for just him, while Tommy on the other hand builds a town to rebuild normality. It's a great opposite view, and the letter spelled it out so well to.Joel as they were very much alike and this is also represented in the game when Tommy and Joel talk about their different views on the world.

which my Mrs pointed out, which I think os going to be a delight when we get to the point of Tommy and their town. And she sees how different people think.

Was it a little far fetched he rigged a town up for himself a little. I dont believe it was a full town, I think it was just a small part of town we don't get to see the entire place. Ill go with it. Enjoyed it very much.

Ill still say I'd of liked more episodes like this. Maybe a hard hitting one and then a back story one and then a hard hitting one so on and so on. Would be good.

All in all I'm actually looking forward to see where it goes in different ways.

An incredibly stupid and pointless episode. Not for me at all. Doesn't serve the story either. The game's story line of this was far superior.