When The Last of Us goes for its quieter scenes, it tends to bring its most gut-wrenching emotions. In Season 2, Episode 4, viewers were given one such scene. It was a quiet, intimate moment between Ellie and Dina that was taken straight from The Last of Us Part II video game.
Just 15 minutes into the episode, we watch Ellie strum and softly sing A-ha’s “Take On Me” in an abandoned music shop. If you’re a fan of the game, this was THE moment—a scene so iconic and so personal it almost didn’t need dialogue.
This rendition of “Take On Me” is a near shot-for-shot recreation of the video game. Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, finds an intact acoustic guitar in Seattle’s Valiant Music Shop. As Dina (Isabela Merced) watches from across the room, Ellie delivers a hauntingly tender version of the 1985 A-ha hit.
And just like that, the room fills with everything they aren’t saying aloud.
This moment was pulled straight from The Last of Us game and from the heart
This “Take On Me” moment isn’t just fan service. It’s touching canon.
In The Last of Us Part II, this side scene only appears if players explore a music store off the main path.
But what they encounter is priceless: Having Ellie play exactly the same song to Dina, which evokes the silent love and loss that connects them.
The series recreates the lighting, setting, and atmosphere to dead-on precision and treats OG gamers with an offering that they never even realized they needed.
In the game, Ellie first strums the opening chords of Pearl Jam’s “Future Days”—a song Joel once played for her. She stops when Dina enters, pivoting to “Take On Me” instead. The show omits “Future Days,” likely because the TV adaptation has made different choices about Joel’s musical moments.
Still, Ellie’s song carries Joel’s ghost.
After the performance, Ellie says Joel’s lessons “paid off”—a quiet nod to the man who once promised to teach her guitar. And in that beat, the show confirms something fans have suspected all season: Joel DID teach her. It’s all she has left of him.
“Take On Me” hits hard for Ellie and Dina
The lyrics of “Take On Me” have always hit a certain way, but in the hands of Ellie (acoustic, vulnerable, wrecked by grief), they feel newly profound. Lines like “I’m odds and ends / but I’ll be stumblin’ away” reflect Ellie’s emotional state.
The song selection is a reference to her still-holding-on affection for Joel while hinting at the increasing love for Dina. That guitar isn’t just an instrument, but it is also a bridge to the father figure she lost and the romantic love she’s hesitantly finding.
This session is one of the first times since Joel died that Ellie really appears to be at peace. Playing guitar is her tribute to his memory, but it’s also an escape: a brief moment to feel happy and connected in a world constructed on loss.
Dina’s tears aren’t solely about the music either; it’s about seeing someone mourn and love simultaneously.
You can watch The Last of Us Season 2 on Max. New episodes air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
