Annotations for Stockholm Syndrome

Lyric: Look to the stars
Annotation:
Have dreams that you and your captor might one day live a happy life, like they would want you to do

Lyric: And she’ll scream, and she’ll shout, and she’ll pray
Annotation:
Usually when someone is taken hostage, they cry out for help and might do some irrational, out of character behaviors, even pray if they don’t. It’s because nobody wants to be taken hostage and everyone wants let out as soon as they can be

Lyric: Let hope burn in your eyes
Annotation:
The victim here, she had hope, she still clung to the last vestices of hope that shje may be realeased, much to the ironic nature of this song, as here Matt sings about killing her, and losing her,

Lyric: I won’t hold you back
 Let your anger rise
Annotation:
The captor here wants his abduct to lose her mind with all the torture  anguish and hatred in his experiment to have her love him. He wants her to have a mental breakdown ,thus not holding her back, so she can think more of her survival and start to develop feeling of alliance with the him.

Lyric: All to no avail, all to no avail
Annotation:
But in the end it was all to no avail because she never experienced Stockholm syndrome and the hostage either got killed by the captor or killed herself (this is also referring to the ‘'And she had a name’‘ line)

Lyric: And we’ll love, and we’ll hate, and we’ll die
Annotation:
After she finally experiences Stockholm syndrome the captor expects of them to end up together and die together  and the ‘'And we’ll love and we’ll hate’‘ lines could allude to the ups and downs of any relationship.

Lyric: And no one will recall, no one will recall
Annotation:
The captor still has hopes and thinks that Stockholm syndrome will take effect so when they run away together ‘'no one will recall’‘ because the captor expects that the hostage would fall in love with him/her and son’t tell anyone what she had been through.

Lyric: Let your hatred grow
Annotation:
Again,the captor is most likely aware of the Stockholm syndrome and s/he’s letting it take effect by doing nothing (as stated in the previous line) and let’s her hatred to grow because the captor is aware that when someone experiences Stockholm Syndrome it starts with hate and gradually grows into love/obsession.

Lyric: And we’ll fly, and we’ll fall, and we’ll burn
Annotation:
It’s implying that the captor wants to run away with their hostage, but knows that they can’t because the captor most likely knows it could never last. In this sense the line is suggesting that the captor might also have feelings for the hostage. The line also alludes to the  Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. The son (Icarus) and father (Daedalus) used wings constructed with wax to escape the Labyrinth. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high because the sun would melt the wax off the wings. Of course, Icarus did not heed to the advice, and died: he literally  flew,  fell, and  burned.

Lyric: I wish I could!
Annotation:
This line in the first verse implies that he’ll forget and abandon her whether he likes it or not, and is emphasised here with repetition.

Lyric: And she had a name, yeah, she had a name
Annotation:
This most likely talks about the captor regretting he ever took her as hostage: “she HAD a name” indicates that the captor killed her because she was resisting too much and Stockholm syndrome never took effect.

Lyric: I won’t stand in your way
Annotation:
This first line is very important, and it clears up much confusion about the song lyrics. The song is about Stockholm syndrome, a psychological condition where a hostage begins to sympathize for their captor. This line sets the perspective, it is written in the point of view of the captor. Here the captor tells the hostage that they will not stand in the hostage’s way because the captor might be aware of Stockholm Syndrome themself.

Lyric: This is the last time I’ll
 Abandon you
 And this is the last time I’ll
 Forget you
 I wish I could!
Annotation:
Matt is referring to the captor not wanting to let go of the victim, but knowing he will without much remorse. He doesn’t want to forget her but he will nonetheless. It’s the constant wanting of being with the victim but also understanding their time together is going to be cut short.

