Examining the integral role that rock legends Pearl Jam played in shaping the storyline of The Last Of Us Season 2...
Audiences around the world have been glued to their TV screens for The Last Of Us Season 2 this year. For both devoted fans of the video game (on which the series is based) and new viewers of the show, two episodes stood out for their use of music – Episode 5: Feel Her Love and Episode 6: The Price. Notably, both feature connections to rock legends Pearl Jam, whose catalogue had a significant influence on the narrative.
Warning: huge spoilers ahead. At one point in The Last Of Us Season 2’s storyline, Joel (Pedro Pascal) teaches Ellie (Bella Ramsey) Pearl Jam’s Future Days, from the band’s 2013 album Lightning Bolt, on the guitar. This is first suggested in Episode 5 where Ellie is trying to play it after Joel’s death. Then, in Episode 6, the series circles back to the importance of Future Days through a flashback, which depicts Joel performing the song for Ellie. Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready confirmed that he actually played the guitar parts for this scene.
Initially, the inclusion of Future Days in the series posed a challenge due to the narrative timeline. The game’s creator, Episode 6 director and long-time Pearl Jam fan Neil Druckmann, admitted that he initially wasn’t sure if the track would fit – a sentiment that was shared by Scott Greer of the Pearl Jam team.
“We toyed around with the idea of using a different Pearl Jam song,” Greer tells Music Week. “But at some point, Neil decided Future Days was too important to the story and relationship between Ellie and Joel.”
The track – which stands on 40 million streams and counting on Spotify alone – was also teased in the season’s trailer which, Greer proudly notes, actually became HBO’s most-viewed trailer of all time.
“More breadcrumbs came with the appearance of a Pearl Jam poster on a wall as it did in the game, early in Season 2,” Greer adds.
We toyed around with the idea of using a different Pearl Jam song, but Future Days was too important to the story
Scott Greer
Another notable sync moment in Episode 5 occurs in the closing scene, when Joel reappears and says to Ellie, “Hey, kiddo”. The original track for this scene wasn’t working, so Druckmann and Greer discussed the idea of Mike McCready going back to some acoustic ideas he had worked on years prior. That led to him crafting an introduction for a new ‘Redux’ version of the band’s classic track Present Tense, from their 1996 album No Code.
As a tie-in, Pearl Jam have also dropped an EP of songs from The Last Of Us, which includes the original Future Days, a new live version of the song from the 2024 Ohana Festival, Present Tense (Redux) and All Or None on the tracklist.
Spot: The Last Of Us
Episode: Season 2, Episodes 5 & 6: Feel Her Love & The Price
Artist: Pearl Jam
Published by: Universal Music Publishing
Master: Monkeywrench licensed to Universal Music/Republic
Directors: Stephen Williams/Neil Druckmann
Production company: HBO, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog
Distributed by: HBO/Max
Air dates: 11.05.25 & 18.05.25
PHOTOS: Liane Hentscher/HBO, Danny Clinch
