Thinking more about this (it's just that kind of song that gets under your skin) it could also be read as a song about the futility of always looking to the afterlife. The bomber and the mourner wasting their present life in two very different ways, in the hope of a paradise that never comes...hence the emphasis on waiting. The final character looks into the eyes of the person they're trying to save and realises the finality of death and the emptyness of the promise of paradise and chooses to live on,hence breaking back through the water's surface and feeling the warmth of the sun in this world. The water in the final act seems to also act as a metaphor for death,or at least the enveloping and consuming idea of paradise beyond. The powerful imagery of the suicide bomber is also very poignant and it appears that his focus solely on joining his loved one in the afterlife through violence has actually distanced him from their memory in the line "Plastics, wire, and your kiss". So much imagery and emotion in such a simple song. Pure genius.
Thinking more about this (it's just that kind of song that gets under your skin) it could also be read as a song about the futility of always looking to the afterlife. The bomber and the mourner wasting their present life in two very different ways, in the hope of a paradise that never comes...hence the emphasis on waiting. The final character looks into the eyes of the person they're trying to save and realises the finality of death and the emptyness of the promise of paradise and chooses to live on,hence breaking back through the water's surface and feeling the warmth of the sun in this world. The water in the final act seems to also act as a metaphor for death,or at least the enveloping and consuming idea of paradise beyond. The powerful imagery of the suicide bomber is also very poignant and it appears that his focus solely on joining his loved one in the afterlife through violence has actually distanced him from their memory in the line "Plastics, wire, and your kiss". So much imagery and emotion in such a simple song. Pure genius.