At this point, it goes without saying that even the “untrained” ear can detect more than a mere “hint” of Dolly Parton on Sabrina Carpenter’s original version of “Please Please Please.” So “Dolly-coded” (read: full-on Dolly) as the twang she uses in it is (one that gives country-era Taylor Swift a run for her money—not that this is a difficult feat). Which is why, obviously, Parton signed on to record a feature on the revamped version of the hit that has now been added to the new-and-improved a.k.a. deluxe edition of Short n’ Sweet.
To further celebrate this collaboration, Carpenter and Parton have brought audiences a decidedly “Telephone”-inspired video (co-directed by Carpenter and Sean Price Williams, who also directed the first “Please Please Please,” as well as the videos for Addison Rae’s recent singles “Diet Pepsi” and “Aquamarine”). Though, to be fair, pretty much any imagery of two women on the run with an “illegal air” about them can be traced less to Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, and more to the majesty that is 1991’s Thelma & Louise. Carpenter and Parton seek to emulate that same kind of “outlaw-based female friendship” dynamic here, complete with a black and white filter that adds to the “throwback feel” of two women forced to take matters into their own hands during an era when men still oppressed them and their rights…oh wait, that remains an ongoing thing that doesn’t need a black and white filter to get such a point across. ‘Cause it ain’t a throwback at all. Nor is the idea that a woman needs her bestie to “bury the body,” so to speak, when the shit hits the (ceiling) fan. Or at least tie one up for kidnapping. Which serves as the big “twist” of the limited-in-plot video.
Even bigger still, the fact that the body being shown is very clearly meant to be Barry Keoghan’s “character” from the “Part 1” iteration of the video. Underscored by the clothes Keoghan had on in the first “Please Please Please”—the very same ensemble worn by whoever is hiding underneath the “head bag” now, in this “redux” video. Whoever it is, they look as though they were tossed into the back of their truck like a sack of potatoes. Though, probably, even a sack of potatoes might have been handled with more care.
But before that “reveal,” the video already gives one a sense of the “outlaw duo” direction that it wants to go in, starting with Carpenter in the driver’s seat looking in her rearview mirror with an all-too-delighted expression—a knowing gleam in her eye (one that the viewer of course later learns is due to the semi-moving male body in the truck bed). Next to her is Parton reading a newspaper. Specifically, the Nashville Banner (which, by the way, is a publication once known for being conservative). Carpenter and Williams then cut to various snatches of headlines like, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Killed in a Blaze,” “Frank and Jesse James: Outlaw Brothers-in-Arms,” “Thelma and Louise: One Car, Two Women and…” and “Starkweather and Fugate: Bloody Trail.” There’s even a mention of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg among the headlines (a couple very much up Carpenter’s alley). Naturally, this subliminally sets the tone for the “crime sisters”/“crime couple” narrative of the video.
Granted, at first, what they’re doing appears innocent enough…nothing more than a harmless singalong in the car. And Dolly, as best as her tautly-pulled skin will allow, smiles happily along with Carpenter as she sings the lyrics to a song she might have written herself in the time of “Jolene” (1973). In between this primary extended scene of them driving, Carpenter and Williams intersperse other “little moments” of the duo engaging in various “road trip things” (albeit crime-related “road trip things”). Whether it’s stopping to check out the truck bed, ignoring the money flying out of the back of it or Dolly helping her pal light a cigarette as they take another break by sitting in the back of the truck. At one point, even Dolly—now wearing “glitzed-out” sunglasses—is in the driver’s seat.
But during the instant when the pair hears the unmistakable sound of a police siren behind them, it’s Carpenter who is once again driving, with both glancing over their shoulders, bearing countenances that say, “Little old us?” And this is the part where Carpenter and Williams at last pan to the back of the truck to unveil the Barry Keoghan “character” from the original video, making those watching wonder—as much as them—could this be the end of the line for the blonde bandits?
Certainly not, for these are still two white ladies, after all. And likely with that in mind, Carpenter turns off the road to find that the cop car mercifully keeps barreling down it. Perhaps in pursuit of some other pair of criminals. Which means there’s no hope for the poor sod they’ve kidnapped. But Carpenter and Parton sure do make it difficult to feel sorry for him—for he’s at the center of all the fun they seem to be having. Because, as Carpenter has made perfectly clear in her oeuvre, the most fun a girl can have these days (without taking her clothes off) is showing and telling boys (posing as men) how to act right.
