u/movienerd7042

I have no idea if I’m overthinking this. But I was thinking about how much I appreciate the back and forth structure of Wishbone and find it incredibly clever. Then I started to think about how the beginning and end of the album link together and I started to think that the standard and deluxe edition link together in two different ways.

First of all, the standard edition of the album obviously starts with Actor and “nobody saw us in the hotel lobby” and ends with Care and“but I care, I care care care”. My theory is that there’s two layers to this: the two lines are linked together because he says “nobody saw us, but I care”. As in the relationship was a secret but he still cares about it. But then if you play the album from the beginning to the end and loop back once you’re finished, he says “but I care nobody saw us”, as in it hurts that the relationship was a secret.

Then if you listen to the deluxe version from beginning to end it’s a whole different thing. Now it begins with “nobody saw us in the hotel lobby” and ends with “finally wish you the –“

He wants to be able to wish his ex the best but he can’t even finish the sentence, so he goes back to the start instead. And then I started thinking about another layer. Earlier on in the chorus he says “I’ll take back the shit that I said, when I was so pissed that you left”. But he can’t take back what he said when his ex left. This is track 17 on a whole album about the guy. This shows that he’s lying to himself and he knows it. And then if you play the album again after he fails to even say “I wish you the best”, the next thing you’ll hear is “nobody saw us in the hotel lobby”. So now that line has another layer where he’s trying to take it all back and say nobody saw us, but all that
does is start the whole album all over again.

Again no idea if I’m talking rubbish or if I’m overthinking it but I just thought this was such an interesting layer when you listen to the whole thing and then play it again from the start, in both versions.