The Last of Us spoilers follow.
HBO's The Last of Us sure does love to play around with time. The first episode alone jumps from 1968 to 2003, and then another 20 years again to 2023. Throw in some observations on life in a pandemic, plus the the video game's own different timeline, and we're left wondering if Loki's TVA could jump in and lend a hand sorting through all this.
And then, of course, there's that song at the end of episode one. The one that's played ominously over the radio from a bygone era. But whose voice is that? What's the name of the song? And why should we be more worried than ever for Joel, Tess and Ellie?
Grab your headphones and join Digital Spy as we jump back to a happier, more tubular time where shoulder pads and the mullet reigned supreme. But first, some context...
The Last of Us episode 1 ending explained
Once The Last of Us jumps to the present, AKA 2023, a lot of time is spent establishing how Joel and Tess navigate this grim, post-apocalyptic world. We're also introduced to Ellie, a stubborn teenage girl who's harbouring one whopper of a secret.
Joel and Tess's quest for a new battery to help their smuggling trade eventually leads them to Ellie who's being looked after slash held captive by Marlene, leader of the local Firefly resistance group.
Marlene also needs a battery to smuggle Ellie out because this kid is the key to something vitally important, something that gamers will already know and observant viewers might too. But we won't spoil that for you here, just in case.
When things go awry, it's left to Joel and Tess to help Marlene's cause and smuggle Ellie out instead. The trio then regroup at Joel's place where they discuss the best route to take outside in fungal territory.
Meanwhile, Ellie stumbles across something intriguing that will become very important in the future. More on that below.
Jump forward to the evening after Joel's done napping and the pair share a somewhat touching exchange where Ellie's fears quickly become apparent.
"I've never been on the other side of the wall... You guys go out there a lot?" she asks.
It's been about a year since their last mission outside, Joel reveals all-too casually.
"So you know where you need to go?" replies Ellie. "We're going to be okay?"
Bored of this exchange, Joel asks Ellie what her deal is, and why she seems to be so important: "Are you some kind of bigwig's daughter?"
Ellie, in turn, changes the subject again, telling Joel that the radio came on while he was sleeping. Unlike us, Joel's disappointed to learn that the song she heard was Wham's 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go', an '80s classic. And with that, Ellie reckons she's cracked Joel's radio code. More on that later, too.
At this point, Tess arrives, and the trio make their way out towards the fence that separates them from the horrors that lie in wait. "Holy shit! I'm actually outside!" says Ellie just moments before she's almost spotted by guards who patrol the border.
Things go okay until everyone stumbles across a guard pissing against the wall. It's the guy Joel made a deal with earlier on in the episode, so he and Tess figure some bribery is the only way out of this tight spot.
The guard plays hardball though, pointing out that they could all be hanged for this "unauthorised exit". With that, Ellie lashes out and cuts the guard. As negotiating tactics go, it's not an ideal one.
Joel briefly tries to "fix this" with his words, but then the guard's flashlight takes him back to the moment his daughter died, twenty years earlier, and he just loses it. Instead, Joel 'fixes' the situation with his fists, which he pounds on the guard's face over and over again.
As if that wasn't stressful enough, Tess then uses the guard's equipment to discover that Ellie is actually infected. But it's okay, insists Ellie. "I'm not sick. [The wound is] three weeks old... No-one lasts more than a day."
With no choice but to trust her, Joel and Tess take Ellie through the last fence which has a giant FEDRA (Federal Disaster Response Agency) warning slapped on it. You know, just in case you forgot this was kind of dangerous.
With one final shot, the episode ends back in Joel's room, where the radio starts playing a new song. Against that melancholic, rather ominous beat, the camera pans up to a view of skyscrapers that have crashed into each other, overwhelmed by vegetation and the passage of time.
The Last of Us — What does that song really mean?
To understand what's happening at the very end of episode one, we need to jump back a few scenes to Ellie when she first started snooping around Joel's flat.
While going through his things, Ellie stumbled upon a book named The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. Yes, it's a real book, and yes, it is now available to buy at all good retailers.
But why is this book so special to Joel? And what connection does it have to that old radio by the window? Well, inside lies a piece of paper with a code on it, which has been recreated below for your perusal:
B/F
60 - nothing in
70 - new stock
80 - X
"So who's Bill and Frank?" asks Ellie after she realises what "B" and "F" stand for. "The radio's a smuggling code, right?"
Ellie's sort of right. Yes, this code does involve trading of some kind. And sure, "60 means they don't have anything new, and 70's they've got new stuff..." But Ellie's a bit stumped when it comes to that red cross by the number "80".
Joel isn't in the mood to discuss this, but after a nap helps calm his grouchiness somewhat, Ellie reveals that the radio came on while he was asleep. The song in question? Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." When Joel says "shit" in response, it confirms what Ellie suspected all along, that the "X" and therefore the number "80" means trouble.
Given the contents of this book, it turns out that the code corresponds to a specific decade of music. So if anything is played from the '60s, Bill and Frank don't have new stock to share or trade with Joel. If a '70s bop comes on, they're good to go. And an '80s anthem like anything from Wham's enviable discography – that spells trouble, but of what kind?
Without spoiling too much, we will say that this brief scene and its connection to Bill and Frank will become much clearer by the time you've watched episode three. Unfortunately, we can't really go there at this stage, so that just leaves the question of that very last song.
Before the episode ends, a synth beat kicks in on the radio in Joel's room, but no one is there to hear it. Our fave trio are already off on their mission. And then, as the credits start to roll, the words "I'm taking a ride with my best friend/I hope he never lets me down again," can be heard beyond the storm.
The song in question is called 'Never Let Me Down Again' and that voice you hear is coming from Dave Gahan, the lead singer of a legendary English band named Depeche Mode. If you don't know them already, you should probably change that.
Surprise, surprise. The song was released on 24th August, 1987, which spells trouble for Bill and Frank. It must be a lot of trouble too if they're playing more than one '80s anthem in a row, but we can't give away much more than that.
What we can do, though, is explain why this is such a perfect song choice for this particular moment. While many associate the lyrics with being high and the euphoria that comes with it, not to mention the lows that come after, these words also touch on friendship and what it means to go on a journey with someone you're closely connected to.
That obviously parallels the bond which will gradually be forged between Joel and Ellie, especially at the end when Gahan sings "Never let me down" as a refrain. Ellie needs Joel to survive, but as fans of the game already know, Joel will come to need Ellie just as much in the coming weeks.
Curiously enough, Anton Corbijn's music video for 'Never Let Me Down Again' includes a pair of shoes walking without anyone wearing them, which speaks again to the journey Joel and Ellie are undertaking, as well as the surreal reality of the world they live in.
It's also been suggested that the song might be about gay sex (via SongFacts.com), which is particularly interesting when you consider who is sending this message out in the first place. In the games, it's strongly hinted that Bill and Frank were gay lovers, and conversations around the show already suggest that this will be true of their story here as well.
Regardless of all that though, the key takeaway here is trouble. In fact, things are looking anything but tubular for pretty much everyone involved from this point forth.
Since the episode aired, co-showrunner Craig Mazin has opened up about the decision behind this particular song during a chat for HBO's The Last of Us Podcast (via Collider).
"There is a grand tradition of '80s music in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II, and '80s means trouble," he said.
Mazin then noted a connection to Neil Druckmann's work on the games. "I love that line, because one of the things that Neil has done so beautifully at Naughty Dog is hurt you for the things you love and taking things that are bright and beautiful and cheery and optimistic, and giving them this dark undertone," he said.
"A lot of '80s music is chipper and fun but with this, I was looking for an up-tempo '80s song that had a darkness to it lyrically."
The Last of Us airs on HBO in the US, and on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in the UK.
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