As the sister song to "Bandaids," the "Watch It Burn" music video picks up from after the gas station explosion
NEED TO KNOW
- Katy Perry’s “Watch It Burn” explores themes of anger as a healthy release and letting go of past pain
- The scorpion tail symbolizes self-acceptance and embracing darker sides without letting them take control
- Easter eggs in the video reference media manipulation and Perry’s astrological Scorpio placements
Katy Perry embraces her darker side (and no, not "Dark Horse") in the new "Watch It Burn" music video, where she mysteriously grows a scorpion tail that sends her on a destructive, fiery rampage.
The video opens with Perry being rushed into a hospital, filmed almost entirely from a point-of-view perspective that places viewers in the middle of the emergency. Dressed in hazmat suits, nurses wheel her through the halls as mysterious markings cover her body.
Things quickly take a terrifying turn during surgery when a scorpion tail suddenly bursts through Perry’s back, attacking one of the surgeons mid-operation.
As the chaos unfolds, a priest wearing his own protective gear arrives to perform what appears to be an exorcism as Perry drifts in and out of consciousness.
When she fully awakens, Perry checks herself in a shattered mirror. At first the tail appears to be gone, but it soon begins to emerge again, prompting her to flee the hospital just as the song kicks on.
Credit: @cynthiaparkhurst
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Perry speeds away in a red Jeep Wrangler as she declares, "Don't wanna cause a scene / But give me the gasoline." She then pulls into a car wash in hopes of washing everything away. The sequence turns into a playful montage, but once the wash is over, the scorpion tail returns and tears apart the vehicle from the inside.
After trading the Jeep for some clothes, Perry, now dressed in a black suit, wanders through town while struggling to control her newfound appendage. The tail develops a mind of its own, shattering windows, keying car doors and literally setting buildings aflame, echoing the chorus as she prepares to "light a match" and "watch it burn."
Credit: @cynthiaparkhurst
One of the video’s biggest Easter eggs is when the tail burns down a newsstand stocked with Gaslight Magazine and Slop Times. Elsewhere, an antique store bears the name Time Will Tell Shoppe, while television screens flash messages reading "Breaking News: Don't Believe Everything You Hear" alongside a sign that says, "Read Between the Headlines."
The destruction eventually leads Perry to a church, where her powers finally disappear. She collapses and crawls down the aisle before members of the congregation lift her onto the altar. The same priest from earlier baptizes her, and the video ends with Perry sitting upright in the baptismal bath, silently staring ahead.
Credit: @cynthiaparkhurst
The ending mirrors the song's emotional arc. After spending the track acknowledging past hurt, Perry ultimately arrives at acceptance, singing, "Thank you / For showing me the pain / This was not a mistake / The mistake would be to stay." Rather than seeking revenge, the lyrics—and the video—suggest that letting go is the real act of liberation.
According to the song's creative notes, "Watch It Burn' explores the moment when years of restraint, people-pleasing and silence are finally replaced with honesty. Rather than celebrating destruction, the song frames anger as a healthy release that allows someone to stop minimizing their pain and let go of toxic relationships and old wounds.
The symbolic act of lighting a match isn't aimed at a specific person but at the past itself, representing the conscious decision to release what no longer serves you. The result, the notes explain, is freedom rather than bitterness.
Credit: @cynthiaparkhurst
The scorpion tail carries its own meaning as well. Perry has seven Scorpio placements in her astrological chart, but beyond astrology, the tail symbolizes accepting every part of yourself, including the darker sides, without allowing them to take control.
Perry's new single, "Watch It Burn," is out now.
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