In “Lengthy Lengthy Time,” the third episode of HBO’s The Final of Us, viewers are launched to Invoice (Nick Offerman), a survivor who took over a whole city after the present’s zombie outbreak pressured the remainder of humanity to relocate to fortified zones. From there, Episode 3 charts the whole thing of Invoice’s bittersweet love story with a fellow survivor named Frank (Murray Bartlett). Spoilers forward.
By the point Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) lastly attain their settlement within the episode’s epilogue, Invoice and Frank are lifeless. Nonetheless, Invoice took the time to bequeath all his weapons and gear to Joel.
The episode then culminates in a shot that may seemingly appear very acquainted to followers of Naughty Canine’s unique video video games.
Wanting Via a Window — After Joel and Ellie replenish on provides, the pair drive out of Invoice and Frank’s settlement in Frank’s outdated truck. Moderately than staying within the automobile with Joel and Ellie, although, director Peter Hoar cuts again to Invoice and Frank’s home.
In its final shot, Episode 3 seems out of their open window because the truck drives away. The shot then slowly pulls again, revealing the total body of Invoice and Frank’s window and a pot of the latter’s now-dead flowers. Above the flowers, an impressionistic sketch of Offerman’s Frank hangs in a body on the wall.
The shot clearly carries loads of emotional weight throughout the context of Episode 3’s story, but it surely additionally bears a placing resemblance to 2 pictures from the video games that impressed the sequence.
Avid gamers will inevitably be reminded of Half 1’s haunting menu display screen. Nonetheless, the ultimate shot in Episode 3 can also be harking back to the poignant final picture of The Final of Us Half 2. Once more, Spoilers forward.
Half 2 ends with Ellie returning to the deserted farmhouse she and her girlfriend, Dina, used to share. As soon as there, Ellie picks up the guitar Joel gave her a few years prior and tries, unsuccessfully, to play it once more. After taking a second to recollect her last dialog with Joel, Ellie then units his guitar down and leaves the farmhouse.
The sport’s digicam slowly drifts towards the window body that Ellie’s guitar rests on. It then pushes in till the neck of Ellie’s guitar, the windowsill, and the curtains are within the foreground. From this angle, gamers watch as Ellie leaves her former life behind.
The Inverse Evaluation — There’s a transparent visible connection between the ultimate pictures of Episode 3 of HBO’s sequence and The Final of Us Half 2. Within the latter, Ellie’s journey towards a brand new life is visually juxtaposed by the guitar Joel gave her and the home she as soon as shared with Dina. By visually foregrounding the relics of Ellie’s previous relationships, the sport makes the picture of her strolling away from all of them the extra impactful.
In “Lengthy Lengthy Time,” Joel and Ellie’s journey west is visually framed by symbols of Invoice and Frank’s love. The picture foreshadows how Joel and Ellie will, like Invoice and Frank, type a surprisingly sturdy connection even within the face of a largely hopeless world.
Very similar to Half 2, “Lengthy Lengthy Time” ends by reminding us of how new lives can develop within the wake of outdated ones. That’s a becoming last observe for the episode to strike, particularly given its place in a present about how love has the ability to each save and destroy us.
New episodes of The Final of Us air Sundays on HBO.