Over the closing credits of “Please Hold to My Hand”, The Last of Us‘ wandering fourth hour, plays Lotte Kestner’s cover of New Order’s “True Faith” – a song that, though explicitly about lost childhood and the indulgences of fame, is a song about the danger of getting lost in the darkness. In New Order’s version, that metaphor is often around drug use; translated into TLoU‘s macabre world of nihilistic determinism, the song’s lyrics clearly speak to the three characters central to the episode’s narrative: Joel, Ellie, and the new addition to the fray, Kansas City’s Kathleen.
It begins with a remarkably strong set of scenes tracing Joel and Ellie’s path to Kansas City (replacing Pittsburgh from The Last of Us Part I), their growing familiarity with each other giving voice to the hundreds of miles they’ve driven since we last saw them. Though some of the devices are rather simplistic – Ellie’s book of puns for humor – they’re quite effective channeled through the performances of Pascal and Ramsay, as she slowly begins to encroach on the many defenses Joel’s built up between his heart and mind.