The third episode of The Last of Us, which explores a gay love story, is being hailed as one of the greatest TV episodes in recent memory.

Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett play Bill & Frank, lovers in the series’ first major departure from the original video game, with the story focusing on the pair’s relationship before and during the outbreak of the deadly fungal infection that triggered the fall of civilization.

Director Peter Hoar told Inverse, he had to “trick” straight audiences into becoming invested in a gay love story,

Sometimes you have to sort of trick the rest of the world into watching these things before they’re like, ‘

Oh, my God, it was two guys. I just realised,’

I think then they might understand that it’s all real. It’s just the same love.”

Hoar, who is gay, also touched on the character development of Bill throughout the course of the episode,

[Bill] was never going to naturally discover who he was to fall in love with or who he found attractive until Frank came along. And even then, it wasn’t just about being a man, it was because he was Frank. It was because Frank is Frank. It was about making sure to keep reminding them all of that.

It’s not as complicated as it sounds. It’s about heart and love and truth. They are kind and gentle to each other.

Middle-aged men falling in love, you don’t get that all the time, so I think that was nice.”

Yes, nice and gut-wrenching. Ask any fan of the show and you can bet they’ll tell you that Offerman and Bartlett ripped their heart out.

The Last of Us airs on Sundays on HBO.

(Photo, HBO; via PinkNews)