In The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 5, Ellie has another quiet moment with a guitar, and this time, she starts singing Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” but can’t bring herself to finish it. For fans of the game, this isn’t just a musical Easter egg, so here’s an explainer.
Why Ellie sings ‘Future Days’ but doesn’t finish it in The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5
“Future Days” in The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 5 isn’t just a random choice. It’s deeply tied to Joel and Ellie’s relationship. In The Last of Us Part II, Joel plays this song for Ellie after gifting her a guitar. This moment becomes a cherished memory for her. The lyrics, especially “If I ever were to lose you, I’d surely lose myself,” come to symbolize their complex relationship. It becomes a memory marker, one of the final connective threads between them before Joel’s tragic death.
The HBO series adaptation stays faithful to this emotional core. In Season 2, she finds a guitar in the Valiant Music Shop, the same shop from the game. As she strums those familiar chords, she feels a fleeting connection to Joel. However, the pain cuts too deep, forcing her to stop.
Neil Druckmann, co-creator of The Last of Us, once explained the origin of including “Future Days” in Part II. “It’s actually kind of a weird story,” he said on the Kinda Funny show. “When we finished the first game, Geoff Keighley reached out to us – he wanted to do The Last of Us: One Night Live, where we would bring the actors on stage and they would act out scenes from the game.”
Druckmann continued, “I wrote this scene where Joel brings this guitar to Ellie. There’s this tension between them, and there’s a song… and I am obsessed with Pearl Jam at the time and just in love with the song.”
