The Last of Us returned to HBO this weekend with another dramatic installment. Episode 4 of the series, based on the video game of the same name by Naughty Dog, followed Ellie and Joel on the next steps of their journey across the country.
Early on in the episode, Ellie found another of Bill and Frank’s cassette tapes in the car they took from the couple’s compound. Having listened to Linda Ronstadt’s Long Long Time at the start of their drive, Joel played the Hank Williams collection and the song Alone and Forsaken was first up, but why was this the song chosen for this particular moment?
Why was Hank Williams Alone and Forsaken played in The Last of Us Episode 4?
Listening closely to the lyrics of Hank Williams’ Alone and Forsaken, it’s easy to draw some parallels to what is going on in The Last of Us. He sings about a female who “promised to honor, to love, and obey,” which is in part quite similar to one particular promise Ellie made to Joel, about following his every command. What viewers have seen, of course, is that she often tends to break that vow, instead using her instinct, such as when she swiped a gun from Bill and Frank’s house.
“Each vow was a plaything that she threw away,” Williams continues, which could be representative of Ellie’s supposed immaturity. While she is growing to learn the dangers of the world, she is still a child, and there are times that she doesn’t quite seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation both she and Joel are in.
The country song, at its heart, is one about loneliness and desolation. In a barren, post-apocalyptic world, these themes could not be more common, not just in The Last of Us Episode 4, but throughout the entire show. They represent the emotional baggage that much of the surviving population experience, and so, when you break down its inclusion in the HBO series, is it really all that surprising?
