If you were one of the thousands of fans who tuned in for The Last of Us Episode 6, there is little doubt that the last few minutes of Kin were an emotional watch. After all, it featured a haunting cover of Depeche Mode's Never Let Me Down Again, which was first played in the series premiere. So who covered the song and why was it featured in the sixth episode? Co-showrunner Craig Mazin shared the story of how the track came to be.
In The Last of Us Episode 6, Joel and Ellie left the settlement in Jackson to find the Firefly base in Colorado. But when they get there, the base has been vacated and they end up facing a group of raiders. One man attacks Joel and stabs him with a broken baseball bat. Although Joel kills the raider, he later faints from blood loss and falls from the horse, leaving Ellie tearfully begging him to wake up. That's when the cover of Never Let Me Down Again begins to play.
It was certainly an emotional callback to the series premiere and Craig Mazin revealed that it was his idea to bring back the song. In fact, the co-showrunner confirmed during this week's The Last of Us podcast that the song is performed by his own daughter, 18-year-old musician Jessica Mazin, who he had asked to cover the track.
"I had this idea that, at the end of this episode, when Ellie is looking down at Joel, and this is the person — she was taking a ride with him, and he has let her down, even though it's 'never let me down again.' This is how it comes around," Mazin said.
"I wanted to re-present that song, but in this point of view of just sadness and loss. And I also wanted to hear a female voice singing it to echo Ellie," he continued. "You can spend months reaching out to various people of all levels of fame trying to do it, but the problem I had was that there was this kid down the hall from me in my house who I knew could crush it. So I sent her the song and I said, 'Jessie, can you do a cover of this that is haunting and slow and about a daughter mourning the loss of her father? Just have that in your mind as you do it.'"
Not surprisingly, Mazin is proud of what his daughter has done for the song.
"The version that we put together for the end, I think, it feels like an echo of Ellie. And to the extent that Jessie is my daughter, and I think of Bella [Ramsey] as kind of an adopted daughter, it's this gorgeous moment for me personally where it's like my two daughters are together in this moment at the end of the episode," he said.
The Last of Us Episode 6 is now streaming on HBO Max.
Related: The Last of Us: Bella Ramsey Got A Black Eye During Chaotic Episode 5 Scene
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