in celebration of the folktale in folklore pt.3 (and how taylor swift inexplicably wrote a musical in my head) As james spends his summer in his childhood home, he is reminded of growing up with betty in seven. He reminisces about their adventures in the woods and afternoon tea parties with betty’s late father. I liked the idea of this song being a tribute to the time they spent with him because it also pointedly references james’ abusive father. seven also has the lyric that I misheard right from my first listen that ended up perfectly fitting the narrative. I always heard “any time I wanted” as “betty’s all I wanted.” The song closes with betty and james’ final time together before reuniting later in high school, “Our love lasts so long” foreshadowing their reunion. august continues to try and distract james, but as summer draws to a close, he slips away. In august, james has to say goodbye. In the first chorus, august compels james to recall all the time they spent together in hopes it would make him stay. But when james takes over in the second chorus, he shows that that’s all he can do, recall. Their time together was just something to look back on now. The bridge in august becomes a duet that parallels the one in exile. Having james himself say “meet me behind the mall” is so much more devastating. It further shows how complicit both of them are in their summer romance even if james thought that it was all he wanted. With fall semester beginning, james returns home. It becomes clear to him that rumors of his summer affair has circulated around the school. But in this is me trying, all he wants to do is get back with betty. Here we also get another allusion to the porch scene that will play out later…
