What's interesting to me about this episode is that they sort of flipped Bill's purpose in the narrative. In the game, he was a cautionary tale for Joel. Joel was keeping everyone at arms' length, especially Ellie, because he was afraid that if he started to care about anyone, it would be a weakness and he'd die. Bill encouraged that mindset and told Joel to cut her loose. Then Joel had to see how Bill's strategy of shutting everyone out just left him alone and miserable and hated by the one person he loved. Yes, he survived, but Joel had to wonder if death was really worse than that.
Now in the show, Bill is almost an aspirational figure. He opened up, cared about someone, successfully protected that person, and then died when that person didn't need him anymore. And Joel is on the path to following in his footsteps.
Shout by BLAQKVIP 7BlockedParentSpoilers2023-02-02T00:38:30Z
What's interesting to me about this episode is that they sort of flipped Bill's purpose in the narrative. In the game, he was a cautionary tale for Joel. Joel was keeping everyone at arms' length, especially Ellie, because he was afraid that if he started to care about anyone, it would be a weakness and he'd die. Bill encouraged that mindset and told Joel to cut her loose. Then Joel had to see how Bill's strategy of shutting everyone out just left him alone and miserable and hated by the one person he loved. Yes, he survived, but Joel had to wonder if death was really worse than that.
Now in the show, Bill is almost an aspirational figure. He opened up, cared about someone, successfully protected that person, and then died when that person didn't need him anymore. And Joel is on the path to following in his footsteps.