This song really just expresses a deep desire to be wanted.
The song begins with the depressive image of a house in which the narrator is watching TV. The role of the “TV'' here is really important to the fantasy because it essentially sets it up by acting as a reality check. Television not only shows us the outside world, but an idealized one too. It shows him what it looks like to be loved. Whatever the narrator saw on the TV made him realize that he “has nothing”, meaning ‘no one’, and his hunger for affection awakens. The first line either says “I think I found hell” or “help”; neither changes the idea that the narrator has come to the realization that their current state of neglect is unbearable and that he believes there’s only one solution for it.
He may have said “I have nothing in this place for me” to alternatively mean that he knows that he has no redeeming qualities that would be deserving of love. He feels undeserving and knows that he cannot earn the affection of another person because that would require him to create something in his character that is not there to begin with.
The narrator now believes that there is no realistic way he could ever be wanted. So he imagines a fantasy (“I watched it all in my head”) where someone defies the rules of logical attraction and desires him anyway. They are depicted as a thief because, like stealing, to want him is to break the rules of common sense. This is why they leave all of the valuable things in his house and go straight for him. They have no other ulterior motives. Later it says “they know just about everything” because the criminal knows about all of these negative qualities that the narrator has, and still chooses to desire him unconditionally.
The chorus, “please don’t let the police know anything”, is his cry of desperation. The TV has shown him an ideal world, and now that he’s had a taste of it, he could never go back to his lonely state. This is why he gets on his knees and prays for the impossible - someone (a “felon”) to want him.
Then the next stanzas are a continuation of his fantasy. In it, the criminal is obsessive over him. They knew he “would never run” from their affection. The bit about them not shooting him additionally shows that the criminal needs him just as much as he needs them.
The last line, “I think I found love” parallels the first line because it shows how the narrator has finally found love in this fantasy where he both desires and is desired.
Note: I haven’t seen the music video, so this is just my interpretation based on the lyrics and the song alone. Also I explained it with male pronouns only because the singer is male. The narrator could actually be a woman, as suggested by the title.
This song really just expresses a deep desire to be wanted.
The song begins with the depressive image of a house in which the narrator is watching TV. The role of the “TV'' here is really important to the fantasy because it essentially sets it up by acting as a reality check. Television not only shows us the outside world, but an idealized one too. It shows him what it looks like to be loved. Whatever the narrator saw on the TV made him realize that he “has nothing”, meaning ‘no one’, and his hunger for affection awakens. The first line either says “I think I found hell” or “help”; neither changes the idea that the narrator has come to the realization that their current state of neglect is unbearable and that he believes there’s only one solution for it.
He may have said “I have nothing in this place for me” to alternatively mean that he knows that he has no redeeming qualities that would be deserving of love. He feels undeserving and knows that he cannot earn the affection of another person because that would require him to create something in his character that is not there to begin with.
The narrator now believes that there is no realistic way he could ever be wanted. So he imagines a fantasy (“I watched it all in my head”) where someone defies the rules of logical attraction and desires him anyway. They are depicted as a thief because, like stealing, to want him is to break the rules of common sense. This is why they leave all of the valuable things in his house and go straight for him. They have no other ulterior motives. Later it says “they know just about everything” because the criminal knows about all of these negative qualities that the narrator has, and still chooses to desire him unconditionally.
The chorus, “please don’t let the police know anything”, is his cry of desperation. The TV has shown him an ideal world, and now that he’s had a taste of it, he could never go back to his lonely state. This is why he gets on his knees and prays for the impossible - someone (a “felon”) to want him.
Then the next stanzas are a continuation of his fantasy. In it, the criminal is obsessive over him. They knew he “would never run” from their affection. The bit about them not shooting him additionally shows that the criminal needs him just as much as he needs them.
The last line, “I think I found love” parallels the first line because it shows how the narrator has finally found love in this fantasy where he both desires and is desired.
Note: I haven’t seen the music video, so this is just my interpretation based on the lyrics and the song alone. Also I explained it with male pronouns only because the singer is male. The narrator could actually be a woman, as suggested by the title.