Consider this your spoiler alert, because while the episode basically gets Joel and Ellie their car, it was Bill's huge backstory that really got people rolling tears.
The flashbacks show how Bill (Offerman) survived the zombie apocalypse as a doomsday prepper with a bunker, only to eventually let a lost artist named Frank into his life.
Bill and Frank (Murray Bartlett) quickly strike up a romance, and the show runs through all the ways in which they help each other live a better life than they ever had before the apocalypse.
"Was not prepared for the last of us or nick offerman to grab me by the throat and destroy me with one of the most beautiful gay storylines I've ever seen, but here we are," tweeted one fan.
And the best part is, you don't even need to watch the entire The Last Of Us series to enjoy it!
Here's what you need to know about the show's big standout episode, Long, Long Time.
Was Bill gay in The Last Of Us video game?
The 2013 video game The Last Of Us includes a doomsday prepper named Bill, although unlike in the show, Bill is still alive when Joel and Ellie show up.
The same is not true for his "partner," Frank, who is shown hanging from a noose in one scene from the game. Bill never describes the nature of his partnership with the late Frank in the game.
Show creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin said in a recent feature that the love story was something they came up with that was not in the game.
"My philosophy on this show has always been, when she would deviate and when should we come back? If it's kind of the same or worse, we stay where the game is," said Druckmann. "If it's better, we deviate."
"We knew from the game that Bill had a partner, his partner is Frank," Mazin said. "In the game, Frank is already dead, and I thought that there was an opportunity to go a different way."
Who is Nick Offerman?
The character Bill is played by Nick Offerman, a comedian and actor who is best-known for his long-running role as Ron Swanson, the libertarian boss in Parks And Recreation. Offerman also gives off doomsday prepper vibes in that show, and fans have been resharing many Ron clips in response to Bill from The Last Of Us.
Offerman revealed in a recent HBO interview that he didn't even have to audition for his part.
"There's plenty of tape available on me," he said. "They just offered me the role."
Murray Bartlett, who plays Frank, says he did have to audition for his role because his previous show, The White Lotus, hadn't blown up yet.
Is Nick Offerman gay?
Nick Offerman is currently in a heterosexual relationship with his wife, Megan Mullally. The two have been together for decades and she made several cameo appearances as his ex-wife on Parks & Rec.
Although some have questioned the casting of a straight man as a gay character, others have come to Offerman's defence.
“The tremendous performances by [Nick Offerman] & Murray [Bartlett] are SO MOVING!” tweeted voice actor John Glover, who identifies as gay. “I do not want to see anyone shaming a straight man in a gay role. No one could have done this better.”
Although Offerman is not gay, there is another element of his character that's 100% authentic. His giggle, which comes out in one scene and is even written into a letter later in the episode, is absolutely real. In fact, the Parks And Recreation Twitter account recently shared a supercut of Offerman giggling hysterically, just to show that it's legit.
What are the songs in The Last Of Us Episode 3?
Bill reveals to Frank that he's gay after sitting down at the piano and playing Long Long Time by Linda Rondstadt.
Spotify says U.S. streams for Long, Long Time by Linda Rondstadt absolutely blew up after the episode aired, with numbers spiking by 4,900% over the previous week.
The episode also includes Max Richter's On The Nature Of Daylight.
What disease does Frank have in The Last Of Us?
Frank and Bill spend nearly two decades together before Frank's health begins to decline and he becomes unable to walk or paint the way he used to. This leads to one final, heartbreaking dinner scene involving the pair.
Although no doctor ever shows up to diagnose Frank, The Last Of Us co-creator Craig Mazin did shed some light on it during an appearance on the show's podcast.
Mazin says the "didn't necessarily want to specify" exactly what Frank had, but "it was either MS or early ALS."
"We thought it was really interesting to think, ‘Look, Bill is older and Frank can literally run circles around him, he’s healthier," Mazin said. "And then we jump ahead a number of years and it’s Frank who’s been brought low by this disease and there’s nothing they can do about it."
The Last Of Us airs on HBO at 9 p.m. on Sunday nights. The first three episodes are available to stream on HBO Max in the U.S. and Crave in Canada.
