What song plays in ‘The Last of Us’ episode 4 credits?

The Last of Us has made a habit of using music to really underscore the weight and symbolism of any given scene, as well using songs as clever narrative devices to keep the audience guessing. 

Episode four, ‘Please Hold My Hand’, continues on with this trend, kicking proceedings off with Ellie finding a cassette tape featuring “Alone and Forsaken” by Hank Williams. Granted, there’s no huge Linda Ronstadt or Depeche Mode moments, but at the very least, the Hank Williams scene did get many fans of the original The Last of Us video game giddy, seeing as the entire sequence may as well have been lifted from the 2013 title. 

What was an uncharacteristic move in The Last of Us show’s run, so far, was ending on one heck of a cliffhanger, with two strangers getting the drop on our leading duo and then being played off into the credits by a soothing acoustic tune. 

What song plays at the end of The Last of Us episode 4?

At the end of ‘Please Hold My Hand’ (incidentally, named after a lyric in the Hank Williams song we heard earlier in the episode), Joel manages to get some well-earned shuteye after being lulled to sleep by Ellie’s awful (but excellent) book of puns. Our leading man is then rudely awakened by Ellie, who is being held at gunpoint by two strangers. What happens next?!

We’ll have to find out next week – because we’re then greeted to the credits sequence, accompanied by a cover of New Order’s “True Faith” by Lotte Kestner.

Interestingly, this cover was used in promotional materials for video game The Last of Us Part II, but it was performed by the game version of Ellie. Kestner wasn’t credited for the rendition, for which Neil Druckmann later apologized. It would seem that Naughty Dog and Kestner, along with HBO, have buried the hatchet about the licensing snafu, with her music now featured in The Last of Us television series.