Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us episode eight, “When We Are in Need.”
The Last of Us traumatized its audience for the second-to-last time (at least for its first season) with the nail-biting conclusion to its eighth episode, “When We Are in Need.”
After Ellie manages to escape from the literal chopping block, she has a tense showdown with David in a steakhouse that is going up in flames. The episode’s antagonist overpowers Bella Ramsey’s character, and in his final moments, he shows his true colors and the bone-chilling evil at his core.
Thankfully, Ellie manages to get away with her life, stabbing his face over and over in a frenzied state, reducing David’s head to a pulpy mess. Joel catches up to Ellie in the aftermath of the horrifying conclusion, and the pair embrace, with the now-healed smuggler calling his “cargo” his “baby girl.”
Both injured and shaken, the pair walk away and the credits start to roll with a score that appears to bear the trademark melancholy guitar progression of the original game’s soundtrack. However, it’s the episode’s closing tune that is drawing attention.
The song at the end of episode eight
The music swelling up as Ellie and Joel walk away from the burning wreckage is unmistakably “Unbound” by Gustavo Santaolalla from the soundtrack of The Last of Us Part II videogame, however, we’re yet to find a version of this song with the added layers of electric guitar we hear as the episode cuts to credits.
We have an inkling that the song may currently be unlisted in Sony’s official YouTube playlist of the HBO show’s soundtrack . This may perhaps be the best place to find it if you’re yearning for a melancholy and solemn electric guitar tune to add to an ethereal playlist, or wherever it may fit in your music library.