You thought The Final of Us Season 1 was brutal? Season 2 simply delivered one of many most harrowing episodes of TV in historical past. Sunday night time, viewers witnessed the grim occasions that first rocked followers of the online game The Final of Us Half II again in the summertime of 2020.
However amid all of the violence, grief, and ache of episode two, there was a music that performs over the tip that hit like a shotgun blast to the knees. And followers of the sport realize it carries a whole lot of which means.
So, let’s dig into it.
Spoilers forward.
What music performs over the tip of The Final of Us, Season 2, episode 2?
Within the ultimate minutes of this devastating episode, Abby’s crew abandons the mountaintop chalet, forsaking a wounded Ellie, who crawls over to Joel’s physique. As she cradles him, an acoustic guitar begins to play, and a feminine voice sings, “I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”
The voice ought to be acquainted to followers of the sport, because it’s sung by Ashley Johnson, who voiced Ellie in each The Final of Us and The Final of Us Half II. The music is Shawn James’ “Through the Valley,” coated by Johnson for the trailer for the sequel recreation.
Within the trailer, viewable above, Ellie performs the music on her guitar. Within the present, the non-diegetic music performs over the episode’s conclusions for Ellie, Abby, and Tommy.
As Abby’s squad tromps by way of the snow, again to their base in Seattle, the lyrics proceed, “I fear no evil, ’cause I’m blind to it all. And my mind and my gun, they comfort me. Because I know I’ll kill my enemies when they come.”
The carnage wrought on Jackson by the Contaminated is unveiled underneath the lyrics, “Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell on this earth forever more.”
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Then, the ultimate heart-wrenching picture, of Ellie on horseback with Jesse and Dina, as they drag Joel’s physique, swaddled in a sheet, by way of the snow again to Jackson. Johnson’s voice sings over this tragic scene, “‘Cause I walk through the valley of the shadow of death and I fear no evil, ’cause I’m blind. Oh, and I walk beside the still waters, and they restore my soul. But I know when I die, my soul is damned. But I know when I die, my soul is damned.”
Then, the music fades away, and solely the sound of the howling winds and the sluggish progress of horses and their cargo will be heard over the credit.
What is the significance of “Through the Valley” in The Final of Us?
Bella Ramsey performs Ellie in “The Last of Us.”
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
On a floor stage, the lyrics appear to replicate on Joel’s life, taking part in as a eulogy of kinds.
He was a person who relied on his wits and his gun, seeming fearless within the face of the evils of the Contaminated world. However one thing modified him when he met Ellie. She grew to become greater than cargo, greater than a miracle treatment. She grew to become his daughter. When he made the fateful choice to annihilate the Fireflies to avoid wasting her, he sealed his destiny. He was damned.
Alternatively, viewers might additionally look to the music as a warning from Joel to Ellie, melodically entreating a grieving woman to not comply with within the path of Joel’s violence or Abby’s vengeance. However Ellie’s by no means been a lot for listening to Joel.
“Through the Valley” is greater than an Easter egg.
Ashley Johnson in “The Last of Us.”
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
The observe will be discovered on the album The Final of Us Half II: Covers and Rarities. Johnson not solely voiced Ellie within the video games, but additionally performed Ellie’s mother in Season 1 of the TV present. However there is a better which means at play behind why Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann picked Johnson’s cowl of “Through the Valley” for this TV second. And it pertains to how the music confirmed up within the recreation.
The one technique to hear “Through the Valley” in The Final of Us: Half II was to beat the sport on Permadeath mode. That is a setting which means in case your character dies, you are not booted again to the beginning of the extent or your final save level to attempt once more. You lose. In Permadeath setting, loss of life will not be a setback, it is the tip.
Thus, this music taking part in over this sequence underscores the chilly new actuality: Joel is useless, for good.
There is no going again to do issues in a different way. He was doomed to die as quickly as he killed the Fireflies. Even within the recreation, there was nothing you might do to avoid wasting him.
However does that imply that is the final of Pedro Pascal we’ll see in The Final of Us? Effectively, the present’s carried out flashbacks earlier than, and flashbacks popped up within the recreation. So whereas Joel is useless, Pascal may not be gone from this collection simply but.
The Final of Us Season 2 airs weekly, Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, on HBO and Max.
