Past The Mission

this song... well, they say this is Tori singing from May Magdalene's perspective. The "he" in this song would be Jesus, "She said they all think they know him well. she knew him better" "and she gave him shelter and somewhere I know she knows somewhere I know she knows somethings only she knows" Only Mary, whom they said Jesus had an intimate relationship with (it's history, so don't get ticked off, Fundamentalists), would know him better than a bunch of sandaled guys following him around. Besides, Tori seems to have a fascination with this feminist Mary Magdalene figure in more than one song. See also Talula and Mary.

An interesting point: some pagan groups believe that Jesus and Mary Magdalene represent the balance of male and female, yin-yang, ect. There are also Gospels that were not included in the Bible, due to conspiracy within the Church, the which I will not delve into because my controversialtopic!senses are tingling. But, yeah... from another point of view, it could be Tori talking about trying to achieve a spiritual connection with the sacred feminine. Also, "roses" are commonly linked as a symbol for Mary Magdalene. ("I smell the roses...") I suppose "past the mission" (mission being where people are being taught christianity) and "she said she knew what my books did not, i thought she knew what's up" could mean that she was going outside the teachings of the Book to go into the story of Mary and Jesus that is so widely disputed, hearing the voice of Mary telling her "some things only she knows." Then again, I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code. So don't mind me.

From what I could gather, there are 3 viewpoints in this song: 1) I = anyone really but I prefer to think it is an apostle or someone who is a scholar of the time period. Actually though, I think Tori meant this role for us or herself. Thjink about it. It's her way of placing us within the conflict. 2) She = Mary Magdelene 3) He = Jesus Thanks to previous posters for explaining the Mary angle. The last lines seem to talk about the finding of Jesus' body and the doubt if it is his body. With this line of reasoning, I think Tori is saying that the apostles just continued using HIS name as if he were still alive AND with them in body and philosophy but that Mary took HIM in and really knows where he is. It sets up a doubt on the institutional aspect of Christianity. There is a difference between the faith of Christianity and the institution of Christianity. A definite conflict? Peace

or maybe i was wrong and it is trent. i know maynard sings something live with tori...

I'm not entirely sure what this is about, but my impression was always that it was a story of two girls (the "hot girl", bold and brave; plus the narrator, a shy and/or younger girl whom the hot girl has taken under her wing.The close female friendship is sort of an echo of the one in "Bells for Her" from the same album) and some lovely, callow guy. The hot girl took him as a lover, and the narrator had a secret crush on him. The guy took advantage of/raped the narrator, and the hot girl killed him in revenge.

This is from an interview about hers and Trent Reznors relationship and such. When asked why she chose him for this song this was her answer. ``The choice for (`Past The Mission') had to be somebody that represented rage and anger because this is all about a girl trying so hard to work through being a victim,'' she said. ``I felt like for a guy to be supporting her, it had to be a guy that could rage, because then it would really mean something if he could be tender. Trent is--well, you can't be in all that much rage and pain unless you have a very big heart.'' From just that I am going to have to say its a case of abuse sexual or not. I don't think she would write about something that specific. But the reference to the guy there I'm thinking was the guy who did abuse the character in this story. So prob from a relationship, maybe they were friends before this happened. It's a common reality.

I agree that the Mary Magdalyn/Christ interpretation makes a lot of sense, and a lot of posters have interpreted it well in that way. I've always seen it another way, however. The beauty of Tori's work is that it's often open to multiple interpretations. Anyway, the melody always seemed spooky and sinister to me, so I always put a dark interpretation on the lyrics. My take is that the singer is a woman who had fallen into the clutches of a femme fatale ("she" and "hot girl" in the song). The first stanza describes the seduction. I picture the singer as somewhat innocent and inexperienced. A man has also fallen for the femme fatale, and she has killed him. She is definitely a psychopath, perhaps a serial killer (very unlikely in real life, of course, most serial killers are men). The singer strongly suspects the femme fatale is guilty of the murder. As for "the mission", I'm not sure about that; it could be where the man was buried by the murderess. Note that there's also a reference to prison, perhaps a foreshadowing of what's going to happen to one or both of the women. If you're the type who enjoys a sad ending, you could imagine that the crime has been discovered, and the singer has been framed by the seductress, and the former is awaiting her execution in prison, remembering the passionate relationship with her lover ("I smell the roses"). Or maybe I've just overdosed on film noir:)

My ex boyfriend used to play this song in his band with him singing the chorous. SOOO amazing. Fall completely oin love eith him all over when I hear this song.

I think this is one of the only Tori songs I honestly don't understand. Anyone have any quotes or their own input?

I was never actually sure about the true meaning of the song, but Trent Reznor's backup singing is great!