Keeping the momentum of Caprisongs going strong, FKA Twigs has already released a third video (following “Tears in the Club” and “Ride the Dragon”) for a song from the enrapturing mixtape. As with most videos in a post-pandemic filming climate, the premise is quite simple, and yet, saturated with meaning based on the lyrical content of “Meta Angel.”
Honoring her “Sagi moon” side in this particular narrative, Archer Twigs wields a bow and arrow to help “throw it in the fire/Ego in the fire” (and yes, fire is the element associated with Sagittarians). More plainly, her meta angel (dressed in something like a neo-Britney Spears [also a Sag, by the way] schoolgirl outfit) seeks to kill Human Twigs’ ego by piercing her heart with this arrow that will cause a certain death. Specifically (and hopefully), the death of that aforementioned ego.
Directed by Aidan Zamiri, we open with a scene of FKA looking both particularly serene and defeated at the same time. Because yes, a kind of serenity does come with allowing oneself to surrender to their own emotional vanquishment caused by another. The case could also be made that Twigs looks merely as though she’s tripping balls…while probably sober, as it’s pretty easy to be on a “bad trip” just by living in the current state of existence. A close-up on her face reveals a disoriented mindset before Zamiri gives us a wide shot of Greenwich Park, with Twigs looking lost in the fray.
A cut to the Archer “alter ego” (because again, this song is all about ego) version of FKA shows her in white fishnets with black stilettos and a plaid skirt with a white, stomach-baring top (as already mentioned, it has a decidedly “…Baby One More Time” feel). She runs urgently along a platform and then up some stairs (in a shot with a disjointed, slow motion effect that would be right at home in an episode of Twin Peaks) where a bow and arrow conveniently await her on one of the steps. At the summit of the rooftop, the background of London’s iconic Financial District (or “The City of London,” if you must) looms behind Archer Twigs, who, incidentally, should probably be pointing her weapon in that direction instead.
Alas, it is the Human Twigs down below that she’s after—and for her own good. As she proceeds to draw back the string and take aim at the woman she’s meant to be “guarding,” a drone shot of the arrow’s perspective in flight heightens the dramatic flair of what would otherwise not be a long enough concept to film for an almost three-minute video. Archer Twigs watches expectedly as Human Twigs looks up as though ready to accept whatever fate might have in store for her next. After all, as she says in the song, “I’ve got a love for desire/I’ve got a pain for desire (I need a meta angel).”
So no wonder said pain for desire manifests in the form of the arrow piercing her right in the heart, which we see from an interior perspective beating briefly to the rhythm of the track. A defiant and vindicated Archer Twigs stares with satisfaction from her perch, and yes, the entire scene echoes the lyrics in Taylor Swift’s “The Archer,” when she says, “I’ve been the archer, I’ve been the prey/Who could ever leave me, darling?/But who could stay?/Dark side, I search for your dark side/But what if I’m alright, right, right, right here?” Just as is the case with the Human Twigs, Swift also admits, “And I cut off my nose just to spite my face/Then I hate my reflection for years and years.” Ergo the need for a meta angel. As a Sagittarian, Swift’s affinity for the sign’s symbol of the centaur with bow and arrow in hand is affirmed by her own constant need to have some kind of higher aim in life, whether artistically or in another form of ambition (like, say, ensuring that Joe Alwyn never leaves her). Twigs’ own Sagi moon is likely a contributing factor to her success as well—even though being a Capricorn so often seems to all but assure financial security. Or, at the very least, financial savvy.
Another line from “The Archer” is, “Combat, I’m ready for combat/I say I don’t want that, but what if I do?” The same actually seems to go for Human Twigs in this video, who has more fight in her than we initially believe as she proceeds to stave off the natural reaction of death as a result of this “shot fired.” In this regard, it represents the difficulty of truly being able to kill off one’s precious ego and shed a former self that is no longer conducive or healthy. After all, the word “meta” doesn’t only apply to FKA referencing herself as her own earthly guardian angel, but also the notion of transcending from one thing into another (e.g. metamorphosis). In order to achieve that, Twigs must metaphorically endure the kind of literal suffering we see her struggling with when the arrow strikes her in the chest. For it is only after this level of pain that we can truly come out the other side as something or someone “changed.”
Granted, this might not always mean being changed for the better, for “innocence lost” can turn many a person jaded and, as Olivia Rodrigo would say, sour. Even plucky Taylor, who, before Lover (on which “The Archer” appears), declared on her Reputation album, “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because she’s dead.” As is the case for most people who must die many deaths throughout their lifetime in order to reinvent and rise from the ashes of a traumatic period. It just so happens that Twigs is the current Sagi (moon) spokeswoman for this phenomenon over Taylor. So no, Robin Hood really isn’t the only archery game in town anymore.
