Beware SPOILERS for The Last of Us season 2, Episode 2 below!
The latest episode of The Last of Us ends in a way that left viewers curled up into little balls of sadness on the floor: new character Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) brutally tortured Joel (Pedro Pascal) before finally killing him, all while Joel's surrogate daughter Ellie (Bella Ramsey) watched. It ends up that Abby's father was the doctor who was going to operate on Ellie in the season 1 finale. That operation would have killed Ellie, but it also might have resulted in a cure for the zombie plague that has destroyed society. Joel killed Abby's dad, along with a lot of people, to prevent them from killing Ellie. Abby wanted revenge, and she got it.
As the credits roll, we hear a cover of mournful song called "Through the Valley," written by the musician Shawn James. Here's his version:
We also hear the song in The Last of Us Part II video game, where it's covered by Ashley Johnson, who voices Ellie. Here's her version from the game:
The version of the song we hear on TV also sounds like it's sung by Johnson, but it sounds like a slightly different version of the song than we got in the game. So Johnson may have re-recorded it for TV.
The song is pretty bleak. "Essentially it’s about a character I created who has been wronged so many times that he sets off to live life on his own in solitude," James has said on his composition. "I fear no evil because I'm blind to it all," read the lyrics. "I can't walk on the path of the right, because I'm wrong...I know when I die my soul is damned." The singer is not okay.
If you've played The Last of Us video games, you know that the song could describe either Abby, who killed Joel; or Ellie, who is going to be out for revenge. We have a dour season ahead of us. Yee-hah.
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