Having worked with Ariana Grande on some of her biggest videos of the past few years—including “yes, and?,” “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” “the boy is mine” and the Brighter Days Ahead short film—it’s only natural that Christian Breslauer should usher in the next era of Grande visuals for Petal. The first being “Hate That I Made You Love Me.” The initial “teases” for which suggested a heavy “homage” to 1986’s The Hitcher, particularly the shot of Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) looking in his rearview mirror at the silhouette of John Ryder (Rutger Hauer).
But, by and large, it seems the concept is fairly original, though an opening scene of Justin Long burying a body might initially read as cliché to any horror movie enthusiast. Indeed, it’s as if Grande and Breslauer opted to cast Long solely because of his recent string of horror movies, including Barbarian, It’s a Wonderful Knife, V/H/S/Beyond and Weapons. Whether or not that’s the case, Long fulfills the role of both villain and victim quite nicely. Starting out as the former while digging a hole in the middle of nowhere and smoking a cigarette (and yes, smoking a cigarette is how The Hitcher starts, too), a tormented-looking Long finishes the job as he takes a final drag of the cig and tosses it onto the dirt. The opening notes to the song then begin as Breslauer cuts to a shot of that still-smoking cigarette on the ground, the camera panning down to show an entire “basement room” that appears to be an abandoned morgue, with Grande, dressed in a simple but chic yellow frock, turning on the light to reveal—surprise!—she’s not dead yet (how very Tales From the Crypt…just as another recent pop culture offering, Obsession, seems to be emulating).
Meanwhile, Long, who has driven away in his car, eyeballs a picture of Grande (especially resembling Audrey Hepburn [who she should have played over Lily Collins]) on the dashboard before tossing it aside. Ready to move on now that he thinks he’s “buried” her. But, lo and behold, there is that The Hitcher sort of moment when he casually glances in his rearview mirror expecting to see nothing at all, only to find the woman he thought he just buried. When he whips around to confirm what he’s seeing, there’s no one there. But the horror continues to amplify when he looks in front of him again, only to find that Grande is standing right in the middle of the road, prompting him to panic even more as he thinks he’s crashing into her. The car then swerves and tips over, rolling and rolling until it finally stops long enough for Long to crawl out of its burning wreckage and start limping away.
Alas, when he turns around again, there she is, still following—lurking, lying in wait. Her unshakeable presence a commentary on the metaphorical haunting that can endure for ages after the end of a relationship. Even when one truly believed they had long ago “buried” it. But when something remains fundamentally unresolved or unsettling, the haunting continues…regardless of how hard somebody tries to suppress the past. And the feelings that come with it.
While a large bulk of the “hot takes” on the song are that it’s Grande shading the fans and general observers who criticize her actions (and her body) all the time, the tone and narrative of the video is centered on a romantic dynamic—as the song itself does largely suggest. Though, of course, the parasocial relationship element is there as well, albeit to a lesser extent. And it mostly applies to Grande’s disdain for having her various romances picked apart by the media—not to mention her body. Hence, the lyrics, “You studied my crown and borrowed my body” (quite reminiscent of the line from “yes, and?” that goes, “Don’t comment on my body, do not reply/Your business is yours and mine is mine”).
As Long makes his way back to his house, he soon enters the living room with some suitcases and boxes to get rid of any other “reminders” he has of the ex he just can’t quite get rid of. At this time, intercut scenes of Grande back in the “morgue” amidst stacks of Composition notebooks echo the look of her encountering the various mementos of an abandoned house during the “twilight zone” portion of Brighter Days Ahead.
Long, meanwhile, is determined to purge the house of everything that signified they were ever together. Thus, going through a box with a “Happy 8th Anniversary” plate, which he heaves into the fireplace in front of him (and, by the way, eight years is very specific—and also a long time to be with someone…for a millennial).
Unfortunately, some of the fire ends up out of the fireplace, with one of the flames then catching on Long’s sleeve so that his entire body ends up “alighting” as Grande watches (with more than a faint expression of shrugging bemusement) from behind the wall that leads into the living room. And after Long endures this, Breslauer cuts to the exterior of the Bunny Hop Diner (which, yes, really stands out for being a miniature) before showing Long, charred and generally busted) hobbling in to sit down at the lunch counter (on a side note: The Hitcher also has a diner scene). At first, everyone in there, including the waitress, looks “normal.” Until Long glances up again and sees that the old woman who was supposed to take his order is now Grande (wearing a name tag that says “Petal”—not far off from “Peaches”). Not to mention every other patron in the place. Panicking and continuing to lose his grip (in this regard, there’s also a certain “The Tell-Tale Heart” quality to the video), Long absconds from the diner so he can return to the scene of his crime.
Laughing with delight when he unearths the “morgue,” an aura of relief appears to wash over Long as he mills through the sea of Composition notebooks and boxes, only to have the sudden revelation that he might not be alone at this “site.” Running back toward the ladder that leads to aboveground territory, Long sees Grande hovering over the dug-up hole with a shovel, pausing only briefly before throwing dirt onto it. Breslauer’s camera effect, of course, also allows the viewer to feel as if they’re being buried too. For, in the end, the final message is two-fold depending on one’s interpretation of the song. In short, for those who believe it’s about an ex, the message is that the memory of them will consume/suffocate/bury you if you let it. For those who believe it’s about Grande’s relationship with her fans, the message is that she will always come out as the one on top against those that would try to bury her. Either way, the overall tone and aesthetic of the video is decidedly Sabrina Carpenter-esque (think: her homage to The Rocky Horror Picture Show via “Tears”).
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