Movies and TV shows wouldn’t be the same without music to enhance them. Several iconic moments come to mind when thinking of needle-drops, including the training sequence from Rocky III set to “Eye of the Tiger” and the fight scenes in Thor: Ragnarok that feature Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” However, as fun as it is when a catchy song takes a scene to another level, it’s even better when one is part of the narrative. HBO’s The Last of Us is a big proponent of that practice, with Ellie singing A-ha’s “Take On Me” in Season 2 to help her connect with Dina.
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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II
“Take On Me” isn’t the most important song in The Last of Us, though, as there’s another tune that appears multiple times in the source material. At one point, it felt like there was no chance it would survive the jump to live-action, but Season 2, Episode 5 puts that theory to bed for good.
HBO’s The Last of Us Painted Itself Into a Corner At the Start
When a game becomes a TV show, there’s little chance that every detail survives the transition. With that being the case, HBO chooses to lean into the differences between its The Last of Us show and the two games it’s based on. It starts all the way at the beginning, with the outbreak starting in 2003, not 2013, like in the game. The new timeline opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities, including placing the events of the show closer to the year it’s being broadcast. However, as soon as it becomes clear in Season 1 that the 2013 outbreak is off the table, bringing a massive moment from the second game to life no longer feels like a possibility.
At the start of The Last of Us Part II video game, Joel sings Pearl Jam’s “Future Days,” which focuses on the singer speaking to someone about their fear of losing them, to Ellie. The lyrics feel poignant because, while Ellie doesn’t know it at the time, she will lose Joel in the future, having to live the very nightmare that he fights to avoid in the first game. “Future Days” sticks with Ellie, and she sings the song a few times in Part II to reinforce its significance. But Pearl Jam released the song in 2013, and the game’s creators already had to do legwork to make Joel having it in his arsenal make sense. That fact left its status in The Last of Us Season 2 up in the air, but Episode 5 threw caution to the wind in the name of great storytelling.
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Joel Will Let Ellie Know How He Feels in The Last of Us Season 2
Things didn’t look good when The Last of Us returned without the “Future Days” moment and named the first episode of Season 2 after the song. However, in “Episode 5,” Ellie confirms that she knows the tune while she and Dina are in Seattle. As Dina works to triangulate the Washington Liberation Front’s position, Ellie starts to look around the theater they’re calling home. She eventually stumbles upon a stage with a good-looking guitar sitting on it and can’t resist the opportunity to try it out. Ellie begins to play “Future Days,” seemingly revealing that, at some point, Joel taught her the song. Sure, there’s a slim chance that Ellie discovered Pearl Jam’s hit on her own in the five years since the last season, but removing Joel’s moment while keeping the song would be a step too far, even for HBO.
The more likely scenario is that a whole bunch of Joel flashbacks are on the way. After all, Episode 5 ends with Joel showing up, teasing that there’s more to his story in Season 2. Whether it’s an entire episode or a few minutes, The Last of Us is gearing up to reveal more about Joel and Ellie’s relationship, and while there are plenty of great game moments that don’t involve Pearl Jam, all signs point to Joel picking up his guitar and breaking hearts all over again.
The Last of Us Season 2 is streaming on Max.
Are you looking forward to seeing the “Future Days” moment come to life in The Last of Us Season 2? What other Joel flashbacks would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below!
