1x03 Long, Long Time

@martlet would have missed a great episode of TV that speaks to the themes of the show if not advancing the plot.

@gazoo69 How did that speak to the theme of the show or advance the plot?

@martlet the show, not inly in the text but also in interviews with the show-runners, is about love and the things we do for love (good and terrible) and to protect the ones we love.

Bill is a paralel to joel and frank to ellie. Opening up the others hearts and letting love in. On closed off by his own closeted homophobia and paranoia and the other from trauma and loss of his child. Both pragmatic and overly serious not letting others in (joel didn’t even let tess in for all the years they where together)

The episode shows also how post apocalypse we don’t have to sacrifice our humanity. To do more that just surviving but to actually live and care for the things around us. And for art, and beauty.

The letter at the end really activate joel in the quest to protect ellie. He has failed to protect his daughter and as reminded, tess. It tells him that life with purpose is possible and it’s mostly someone else. And that they, both, would do anything to protect the ones they care about… and i pity the fool who stand on their way (foreshadowing what joel is going to do in the end)

There are many more reasons why this episode matters in the context of the show but a not unimportant one is that it was beautiful and a good story and telling it was something they wanted to do and was worth it… maybe not to you but for many others, apparently.

@martlet Agree. Completely utter waste of time.

Ignoring the ignorance for a moment, imagine if this episode had just been Joel and Ellie arriving at an abandoned town that just happened to have a truck with a working battery, supplies, and guns (things they need to move forward). That would have been unearned and confusing. Even if Joel had said “these guys have lots of stuff oh good they’re dead so they don’t need it anymore” that would have simply been boring. Show, don’t tell, is a fundamental rule in TV and movies.