Warning: This article contains spoilers for HBO Max’s The Last of Us episode three.
After episode two’s intense ending, we knew episode three of HBO Max’s The Last of Us was bound to be a good one. And the new episode is more than good; already, it’s being praised as one of the best episodes aired on television just moments after airing.
Episode three of The Last of Us begins with Joel and Ellie having an awkward conversation after losing Tess, who sacrificed herself in order to help the two escape. While we’ve already grown use to following the pair, this episode is not about Joel and Ellie; rather, this episode introduces us to two new characters, Bill (played by the ever-hilarious Nick Offerman) and Frank (played by Murray Bartlett of White Lotus season one) who meet in an initially tense situation after Frank trips a booby trap Bill set up to catch the infected.
As viewers of this show, we’ve been conditioned to fear for anyone who appears on screen because we know, as mentioned time and time again, the humans are the real monsters in The Last of Us. It was with a sigh of relief that we realized Frank and Bill’s meeting was the start of something beautiful and not another tragedy. Watching the couple’s love story was some of the best television we’ve seen in years (and we’re not alone in thinking this if social media’s anything to go by) and we can’t wait to see where The Last of Us takes us next in both plot and location, as Ellie and Joel continue their journey.
Where does episode three of The Last of Us take place?
Early in episode three of The Last of Us, a location stamp helpfully pops up on the screen, telling us Joel and Ellie have made it 10 miles outside of Boston. The duo are in route to Bill and Frank’s home for some help acquiring a car so Joel can reach his brother (and inevitably transport Ellie to her final destination). Even before meeting Frank, Bill had commandeered his entire town after refusing to evacuate with the rest of the residents and transformed it into a zombie-proof zone.
It’s never explicitly mentioned in the episode, but in the 2013 The Last of Us game, Bill lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Just like in the HBO series, Lincoln is a small New England town in Middlesex County about 15 miles from Boston. In The Last of Us series, we see a monument listing the dates of Lincoln’s presidency, ostensibly as a nod to the small Massachussets town.