The Last of Us: Long, Long Time Books Included

January 29, 2023 8:01 PM - Season 1, Episode 3

When a stranger approaches his compound, survivalist Bill forges an unlikely connection. Later, Joel and Ellie seek Bill's guidance.

Books included means the playstation games.

posted by dis_integration (19 comments total)

Absolutely love the way they reworked the Bill/Frank storyline, and the freedom they feel to really diverge from the game story, but I would have loved to see Bill meet Ellie. I think it's clear that the show is moving towards the theme of love (in the time of cordyceps) and violence, which is definitely the core of the game even if the game seems much more just about violence. Also: environmental storytelling through a note found in a house! Joel searches for supplies in an abandoned shop! Secret door leads to valueable supplies and an encounter with infected! Put those on your Video Game Bingo card.

Next week: I'm guessing "pittsburgh", which will in fact be Kansas City instead (a choice I'm unhappy about as a former yinzer).
posted by dis_integration at 8:05 PM on January 29, 2023 [6 favorites]

The subversive thing about the game — and something that I keep reminding myself as I relive my initial experience of this story through a new medium — is that the infected are, at best, a secondary antagonist in the present-day of this universe. Cordyceps was the catalyst for the breakdown, but Joel and Ellie should worry less about infected husks than about fully-capable humans with all their faculties and flaws.

We see exactly two infected in this episode, but at least a half-dozen raiders.

Twice now I've noticed that they've dropped hints to fans of the game that the series won't work quite the same way. This works elegantly as mere exposition or color to those who haven't played the game. In episode 2, Ellie asks about a rumor that there's a kind of infected that explodes and spreads spores, giving Joel and Tess an opportunity to explain that that doesn't exist [in the series]. (Works even better when she asks about the rumor of an infected that sees like a bat — and is met with uncomfortable silence.)

This week, Joel got an opportunity to explain to Ellie that gunfire exchanges mostly involve people missing — an important attitude adjustment for people like me used to watching YouTube videos of people who can play the game much, much better than I can.
posted by savetheclocktower at 9:09 PM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

It's pretty funny that they would turn Bill's place into environmental storytelling haha. Though really the letter should have been an audio log. I wonder if they will flip the script by having people in the bunker/sewer settlement (the one with the nursery) into a more interactive place.

The more liberties they take the better, I think.

The subversive thing about the game — and something that I keep reminding myself as I relive my initial experience of this story through a new medium — is that the infected are, at best, a secondary antagonist in the present-day of this universe.

ND is pretty good at pacing and variation. I remember when playing through, each fight vs. humans or zombies was just nasty enough that I was glad to be through it and know it'd be awhile before I had to do it again. So when I'd have to fight humans next I'd be like, "Well good, at least it's not more fucking zombies in their highly bullshit placing and arrangements and terrifyingness!" and when I'd fight zombies it'd be like, "Well phew at least it's not humans w/ guns, this I can manage."
posted by fleacircus at 11:54 PM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

In episode 2, Ellie asks about a rumor that there's a kind of infected that explodes and spreads spores, giving Joel and Tess an opportunity to explain that that doesn't exist [in the series].

I wonder if that's a fake-out. So that if/when we do see zombie spores, it'll have more impact.
posted by ishmael at 2:36 AM on January 30, 2023

When Joel opened the fridge and saw all the battery ingredients, I cracked up that they had slipped in a crafting section into this otherwise incredibly touching emotional sequence.
posted by FatherDagon at 6:02 AM on January 30, 2023 [15 favorites]

I chuckled when Bill mentioned resource management.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:34 AM on January 30, 2023 [9 favorites]

I wonder if they will flip the script by having people in the bunker/sewer settlement (the one with the nursery) into a more interactive place.

That bunker settlement is the reason I'll never replay the game and also what I use to describe to non-gamers what sort of game it is. I've been curious how they'll approach it.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:09 AM on January 30, 2023

I quite enjoyed the story and performances in this episode, but to me it doesn’t fit with the themes of the game. I wonder whether I’ll still feel that way at the end of this season of the show. Without wanting to take away from how well told and lovely this version of Bill and Frank’s story was, I have to say I enjoyed the way the game departed from the notion that love is always such a positive force in the world. This episode definitely felt like a tribute to the power of love in a way that the game did not.
posted by Carmelita Spats at 8:28 AM on January 30, 2023

I quite enjoyed the story and performances in this episode, but to me it doesn’t fit with the themes of the game.

Hard disagree. The theme of this episode wasn't just that love endures, it was - as made expressly clear in Bill's letter - that Joel's job in this world is to protect people, "and God help any motherfuckers who stand in our way." It deftly tees up Joel's change in attitude toward Ellie, which is the driving force of the game.
posted by schoolgirl report at 11:23 AM on January 30, 2023 [8 favorites]

Some location notes:

-unfortunately, there is no discussion of the opening scene "10 miles west of Boston", but I believe it to be the Sheep River falls area based on talking with some other people
-the external part of Bill's house is in a neighbourhood of High River - that area has been abandoned since 2013 due to high flood risk;
-the bridge Joel and Ellie hike across is in Fish Creek Park, a provincial park located inside Calgary, the second largest urban park in Canada;
-the store where Joel had items stashed was in Priddis, Alberta;
-Joel and Ellie's hike took them through the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation area, just southwest of Calgary.

So they didn't come as far south and east in the province as I thought in this episode, but in the trailers for next week, they will be near Lethbridge as I'm sure I saw the High Level Bridge in the background.
posted by nubs at 12:26 PM on January 30, 2023 [5 favorites]

As someone who only made it halfway through the first game, the companion podcast has been incredibly helpful in picking up things I would otherwise have missed. I know I made it to Bill’s town, but I don’t remember how Frank was handled beyond what’s on Wikipedia.

If I remember the first two podcast episodes correctly, transmission via spores was something they intentionally did not bring over to the show; it’s all tendrils or bites.

I haven’t listened to the podcast episode for last night’s show yet, but schoolgirl report’s take on Bill’s letter aligns with the showrunners’ description of their intended overall theme, which is “love, including the ways it can be a destructive force”.
posted by FallibleHuman at 3:11 PM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

It deftly tees up Joel's change in attitude toward Ellie, which is the driving force of the game.

For sure, but I disagree with “deftly” - at least, at this stage. I am happy to be proven wrong depending on where the show goes in the future, though.
posted by Carmelita Spats at 3:43 PM on January 30, 2023

Oh no, my tiny little heart!!!!

A filmlength interlude of domestic gayness in *my* Last of Us? It's more likely than you think!
posted by Iteki at 7:06 AM on January 31, 2023 [6 favorites]

Btw, and apropos of noooothing, is "books included" also including TLoU:Part 2?
posted by Iteki at 7:24 AM on January 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

Btw, and apropos of noooothing, is "books included" also including TLoU:Part 2?

sure why not. it looks to me like this season is going to encompass the whole story of part 1, and they’ve been renewed for another season, so i’m really wondering if that’s going to be the ellie/abby story or if they will go in a whole new direction with it. i hope they stick with it and kill joel off, with some flashbacks for out weekly dose of pedro pascal, but who knows
posted by dis_integration at 2:02 PM on January 31, 2023

If you're looking to remember Bill & Frank from the game, here's 30 minutes of gameplay video. The key scene starts about 19:30 in although it's confusing because they've blurred out the image of Frank having committed suicide. The other key scene is about 23:20.

I don't think I ever got this far in the game, at least none of this looks familar. It's clear in the game script Bill and Frank were lovers but pretty much everything else is different from the show. Frank's suicide note in 23:57 is cruel, just about the exact opposite of the love we saw in this episode.

(I posted a long comment in the other thread about how moving I found the TV depiction of the relationship. I'm gonna stop reading these books-included threads.)
posted by Nelson at 7:35 AM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wow, that plays through really drives home how much small stuff gets plucked in, the “better than nothing” response to the cassette, Joel trying to stop her looking at nasty things, etc. I am 100% fine with this divergence from the source, I think any positive queer rep we can get right now is needed, and while the cruelty of their lives works in the game, it would have been horridly dark and bitter to inflict on us here and now.

So since part-two spoilers are ok, I wanted to say how much this ep reminded me of the absolutely glorious domestic sections of the game with Ellie and Dina and the potato in that game. The amount of time I spent just idling round the farm with JJ is ridiculous.
posted by Iteki at 1:59 PM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

I only played the game once, and quit before I had to kill everyone in the clinic. So I don't remember Bill much at all, but I don't remember him being sympathetic.

If the next ep or one after is another extended flashback of how the jerks in PGH got that way and what led them to be such weapons-grade assholes, that's going to be good but probably hard to watch.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:40 AM on February 5, 2023

I have no knowledge of the game. I felt like this was a really powerful episode, better than any Walking Dead episode I can remember before I gave up on it. I’m always a sucker for Nick Offerman. Really hit me in the feels.
posted by jzb at 2:52 PM on February 11, 2023