Building on the themes of “Relationships” (Haim’s lead single from what has now been officially branded as I Quit), their third single (following “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out”), “Down to Be Wrong,” dares to be even more cynical about the inevitable end of a romance. While Danielle Haim might have been able to maintain a more “wistful” outlook about relationships on the song of the same name, that’s patently not the case here. As such, the Bradley & Pablo-directed video (the duo also recently had a hand in JENNIE’s “Love Hangover”) finds the Haim sisters haunting a no-good ex…played by Logan Lerman—perhaps cast for being a fellow Jew and Paul Thomas Anderson fan (either way, he’s sort of like their version of Nat Wolff in Billie Eilish’s “Chihiro” video). More precisely, haunting him inside the hotel where he’s staying.
At first, however, the video starts out in such a way as to briefly make the viewer think that a “flesh and blood” Danielle is in bed next to Logan. However, the “trick device” wielded is that she’s already awake, watching him as he sleeps. When he opens his eyes and makes no acknowledgement of the fully-dressed person next to him, it’s immediately clear that Danielle is in “ghost mode” (this likely a poetic nod to the way that men metaphorically ghost women all the time). As are her trusty sisters, Este and Alana. But before they appear in the mix, it’s evident that Logan can sense a “presence” next to him (much like in the Steven Soderbergh movie, Presence). Still, it’s not enough to really creep him out until Este turns on the TV in front of the bed, doing so from her perch on the window seat as the lyrics, “From the window seat/I can see the street/Where we used to sleep” make the scene more literal. The unexplained “glitch” undoubtedly leads Logan to wonder, “Who the fuck did that?”
Yet, he’s only lightly disturbed by the supernatural tomfoolery thus far, going into the other room for a moment as the sisters—all outfitted in what appears to be 2000s-inspired club wear—take the opportunity to fuck with his shit/generally muss up the hotel room. When he reenters the bedroom area, he’s flummoxed to see the disarray (including his torn-through wallet). All the while, the song maintains its 90s alt-rock quality in the style of Liz Phair. Indeed, this is exactly the kind of “fuck you for fucking me over” anthem that Phair has been known to come up with. As for the meaning of the phrase “down to be wrong,” it’s worth nothing that it originally stemmed from what Alana described during an interview with Zane Lowe as follows: “Danielle just sang, like, an ad-lib, it wasn’t ‘down to be wrong,’ but it sounded to me like ‘down to be wrong’ and we were like, ‘Wait…’ It was one of those moments where, like, ‘Say that again.’” And so, a song (and title) was born.
Yet what Danielle seems to be saying with the phrase (despite it arising without any true intentionalness behind it) is that she’s willing to be “wrong” about a relationship. No longer interested in investing time and energy into it to prove that she was “right” in choosing to devote her months and years to this person in the first place. So although, initially, the phrase “down to be wrong” was more about how it “sounded good,” it truly does work for the overarching motif of the track, which is to protect oneself from further emotional damage. So it is that the single opens with the verse, “Down to be wrong/Don’t need to be right/I left you the keys/I left on the lights/I locked myself out/Of the house/I’m on the next flight/You can’t talk me out of it, yeah.”
In essence, no further attempts at trying to “crush her whole heart trying to fit her soul into his arms” will be made. However, that doesn’t stop the Haim sisters from getting their revenge as spritely poltergeists. Continuing their hijinks by knocking on the door of his room. When he opens it to find that there’s nobody in the hallway (indeed, the entire hotel is eerily abandoned), he ventures further out to try and investigate only to have the door close behind him and get locked out (at least he’s dressed though). Meanwhile, the Haim specters have started playing their instruments in the hallways, appearing wherever Logan walks by.
Later, when he does get back into the room and we see that night has fallen, the most shocking part of the video becomes the notion that Logan was unfazed enough by the blatant hauntedness of the hotel to continue sleeping there. Though he doesn’t get too much shuteye as Alana turns the desk lamp on and off repeatedly to brighten the dark space (not to mention the TV is also turned on again). With all three continuing to do their part to give him a hard time (not a hard-on), their antics pair seamlessly with the lyrics, “I bet you wish it could be easy/But it’s not this time/Oh, did you think it would keep me busy/Holding the line?/Oh, I didn’t think it would be so easy/‘Til I left it behind.”
It’s at this apex of “hucksterdom” on their part that the camera work gets especially 90s (think: the “circular” nature of a CK One commercial). And speaking of referencing decades past, it is, as usual, the 00s that the Haim sisters have favored for I Quit’s promotional rollout. To be sure, their single covers have been among the most unique offerings in recent cover art memory in terms of establishing a “leitmotif” for building the narrative world of I Quit (which is also reportedly rooted in “Sex and the City-but-in-L.A.” vibes).
Specifically, each single cover has riffed on a famed paparazzi photo from the 00s while also correlating to the theme of that single. For “Relationships,” the trio imitated Nicole Kidman joyfully leaving her lawyer’s office after her divorce from Tom Cruise was finalized in 2001; for “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out,” Danielle imitated Kate Moss’ similarly “soaking up the sun” pose while standing against a car with an open back door (also in 2001). In contrast to Moss’ photo, Danielle has some passengers in her backseat—Este and Alana, obviously (though only Alana’s leg is visible).
To incorporate them in the single cover for “Down to Be Wrong,” Danielle takes on the role of the aloof Jared Leto looking at his phone while disinterestedly “letting” Scarlett Johansson kiss him, as immortalized by a 2004 paparazzi shot. And yes, it’s the perfect image to encapsulate the exact kind of fuckboy that the Haim sisters are reckoning with on this song, further adding, “It was all a dream [no doubt a Biggie reference, based on the sisters’ love of references]/You thought I would fall/Back in your arms/But I lost my heart/And the future’s gone with it.” And if the future’s gone, it not only assumes a kind of “death” (hence, the spectral aspect of the video), but also a “fuck it, I’ve got nothing left to lose” mentality. So might as well torture an “unsuspecting” ex. Though, truth be told, they should all be anticipating a haunting, in whatever form that might take.
For Logan, it’s a more “playful” haunt. But by the end of the video, he’s been sufficiently annoyed and sleep-deprived enough to happily leave the hotel, nearly forgetting his wallet and mini bar-sized bottle of alcohol in the process. The Haim sisters’ job done, and officially declarable as a success.
