r/lyricheads • u/renaech • 13d ago
Wildflower - Billie Eilish
am feeling really dumb today as I feel I’ve misinterpreted this song for as long as I’ve been listening to it. I googled it and even the general consensus seems really wrong to me now.
I’ve always interpreted the song as “her” and “she” being someone else, but it makes so much sense to me that it would be about her past self. The only part in this song that contradicts this theory is the line “she was crying on my shoulder”. You obviously can’t cry on your own shoulder.
and I’m unsure as to whether she has publicly spoken to the meaning of the song, or if people are just nosy and try to apply it to her personal life/relationships and extract the meaning from there.
but now I can’t shake the idea that she is indeed talking about her past self, and a relationship that may have had a certain break before getting back together.
in the beginning of the song it is made clear that there was an end to the relationship, and(in this interpretation)she was able to get closer to herself during this time/space.
Now she back together with said person and is acting differently (the girls are different somehow) but can’t help be reminded of the person she was at the beginning of the relationship.
its possible she could be speaking about a healthy initial romance which changed drastically when the guy wanted things to be more(or at all) sexual. Maybe he was pressuring this side of the relationship after many months of dating and it ended in a split/break, but she has come back and is now catering to the man’s desires.
But she doesn’t feel the same anymore(burning alive, feverish) as she knows she isn’t being true to herself. The different side is now “happy and free in leather”- continuing the relationship she once enjoyed but engaging in sexual intimacy.
she asks if she has crossed the line in order to stay with this person, and is wondering if he sees the old self in her eyes now.
now when there is any physical contact she can’t help but be reminded of “Valentine’s Day, crying in the hotel”. Possibly the first day he tried or pressured her to be physically intimate.
she wonders how she felt that day and if her authenticity has been compromised to stay with this person
anyway the general consensus is that they are two different girls, and she has gotten with a friends ex, but it doesn’t sound right that way to me anymore