The fourth season of Ted Lasso wraps up on a unexpectedly emotional musical note as Grammy Award-winning singer Brandi Carlile takes the reigns of the show’s iconic theme song in the season finale. With a more somber twist on the upbeat tune, Carlile makes the last episode of the season play out much differently than previous installments.

The Season 4 finale, “Being Alive, ” was released on Apple TV on October 7 and marked the end of the latest installment of the Emmy-winning series. With the season focusing more on Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) coaching the AFC Richmond women’s football team, it was a good fit for Carlile to be part of a new crop of football coaches and players.

Marcus Mumford and composer Tom Howe initially wrote the Ted Lasso theme song, with Mumford singing the song we all recognize, and Carlile is just the second alternative to the song played in the series. Jeff Tweedy previously performed an acoustic version of the song for Season 2’s episode “Beard After Hours.”

Carlile’s arrangement came immediately to mind for its mood. Instead of recreating the punchy feel of the show’s opening, hers is slower and despondent, tracking the mindset of the finale, which takes place in the immediate wake of Mae’s death and through several life-changing professional and personal leaps among the characters.

Brendan Hunt, who portrays Coach Beard and also works as an executive producer and writer, stated that the creative team first thought about using Tweedy’s acoustic version after Mae’s death. Carlile became the preferred option when the filmmakers asked her to record a new version. Hunt has called the full recording mainly powerful and hopes that audiences will eventually hear more than the brief version featured in the episode.

Symbolically too, Season 4 has been more overtly focused on women’s football. And Carlile is the first woman to have an alternate version of the show’s theme recorded, making that tie-in even stronger. The season introduced the feminine-settled Tanya Reynolds’s Alice Chilton as a key member of the women’s team, and ended her up in a much larger coaching capacity.

In the final episode, major changes occur at AFC Richmond. Ted steps down from the manager position and becomes assistant manager, while Alice takes over as head coach of the women’s team. Roy Kent accepts an opportunity to manage Chelsea, Keeley reveals that she is pregnant, and Rebecca’s future with AFC Richmond takes another turn following Mae’s death.

So Carlile’s performance is actually much more than a star appearance on the soundtrack. Its placement in the show suggests that it is now a different act. The original song was linked to Ted’s cheer, comedy, and arrival at Richmond; the new version is weighed down by grief, maturity, and adjustment, both for the characters and for the things that defined the earlier seasons.