Want You Gone

"Want You Gone" is the song that goes along with the ending credits of Portal 2. It is played after the player leaves Aperture Science and receives the Weighted Companion Cube.

Want You Gone by Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory [2:21] | Download | Play

Lyrics

Well here we are again
It's always such a pleasure
Remember when you tried
to kill me twice?

Oh how we laughed and laughed
Except I wasn't laughing
Under the circumstances
I've been shockingly nice

You want your freedom?
Take it
That's what I'm counting on
I used to want you dead
but
Now I only want you gone

She was a lot like you
(Maybe not quite as heavy)
Now little Caroline is in here too

One day they woke me up
So I could live forever
It's such a shame the same
will never happen to you

You've got your
short sad life left
That's what I'm counting on
I'll let you get right to it
Now I only want you gone

Goodbye my only friend
Oh, did you think I meant you?
That would be funny
if it weren't so sad

Well you have been replaced
I don't need anyone now
When I delete you maybe
I'll stop feeling so bad

Go make some new disaster
That's what I'm counting on
You're someone else's problem
Now I only want you gone
Now I only want you gone
Now I only want you gone

Connection to game/GLaDOS

• Well, here we are again - Portal 2 being the sequel to Portal.

• Remember when you tried to kill me twice? - The events of Portal.

• Now I only want you gone - GLaDOS deciding not to kill Chell and letting her go.

• Now little Caroline is in here too - Caroline is the personality GLaDOS was based on.

• Goodbye my only friend - GLaDOS deleting Caroline's personality from her memory.

• Well you have been replaced // I don't need anyone now // When I delete you maybe // I'll stop feeling so bad - Chell being replaced by Atlas and P-Body as GLaDOS's main test subject. Another interpretation might be that GLaDOS is referring to Caroline rather than Chell meaning deleting Caroline will free GLaDOS of emotions. This interpretation is less consistent with the concept of replacement in this lyric since Caroline is not being replaced at all, Chell is. It is likely this series of lyrics is a blended reference to both Chell and Caroline.

• You're someone else's problem - GLaDOS being fed up by Chell by destroying her, putting Wheatley in command and other mistakes. She then tells Chell that she is no longer her problem.

• Oh how we laughed and laughed. Except I wasn't laughing - In the first line, GLaDOS is being sarcastic. On the second line she breaks the sarcasm back to the serious climate.

• You've got your short sad life left - GLaDOS is eternal, Chell the human is not.

• That would be funny if it weren't so sad - GLaDOS being sarcastic again.

• (Maybe not quite as heavy) - {An indirect insult to Chell, a comedic reference to how GLaDOS discouraged Chell by telling her she is "fat".

• Under the circumstances. I've been shockingly nice - GLaDOS usually attempts to kill Chell directly and indirectly, but on the second half of Portal 2, she helps Chell defeat Wheatley and, surprisingly nice.

• One day they woke me up. So I could live forever - GLaDOS is a well sustained and maintained AI computer, so she is unsurprisingly immortal.

• It's such a shame the same will never happen to you - Chell will never be uploaded to a computer, respectively.

Composition

"Want You Gone" was written by Jonathan Coulton, who also wrote "Still Alive", and sung by Ellen McLain, the Voice actor for GLaDOS, an opera singer and also the singer of "Still Alive" in Portal.

Trivia

• After the song concludes, the screen that the song was shown on is shown floating into space, and a clip of Wheatley wishing that he could apologize to Chell is shown.
• The line "I'll stop feeling so bad," while sung, is replaced by the word "[REDACTED]" during the cinematic credits. Prior to Portal 2's release, "[REDACTED]" was also the description of the Aperture Labs Hard Hat in Team Fortress 2.