music video / Rock

A video and lyric analysis of “Never Too Late” by Three Days Grace

by
January 22, 2021

Trigger Warning: This essay talks in depth about topics such death, suicide, sexual abuse, mental illness and trauma. Reader discretion is advised. 

 Monarch Wings
How Powerful Symbols were Used to Portray an Overlooked Reality in “Never Too Late.” 
Video and Lyric Analysis by Sierra Walsh

Three Days Grace has never shied away from taboo topics. Their breakout hit, “I Hate Everything About You,” exploded onto the scene in 2003 with raging lyrics exploring the vicious cycle of a toxic relationship. From there, one could argue how Three Days Grace would become one of the most prominent bands exploring intense feelings surrounding experiences with abuse, self-harm, and, substance abuse. For example, former front man Adam Gontier detailed how his addiction to OxyContin was the fuel behind the fire of the band’s 2006 single “Animal I Have Become” off of their album One X. Nightmarish details seep into the scenes of the single’s music video such as camera angels triggering claustrophobia and how the people Gonteir encounters steadily morph into hollow-eyed monsters. Granted, intense imagery is an expectation with a song depicting addiction, and their subsequent music videos would follow the same standards.

Off that same album, the single “Never Too Late,” was also released in 2006. Upon first listen, the song sounds like an emotional letter to a loved one battling suicidal thoughts and encouraging them to claw their way out of a dark state of mind. A band like Three Days Grace would be no stranger to this topic. There are hundreds of songs undertaking this subject matter; however, the music video to “Never Too Late” throws a curveball at the expectations. In turn, the symbolism and message deserve a deep dive on how it explores a story that is often overlooked. One may argue the “Never Too Late” video is one of the most powerful pieces of visual art from the 2000s with its symbolic portrayal of a reality thousands of children face while still bringing a message of hope because people are not defined by their past abuse but their choice to survive.

The video unravels the story of a young woman suffering with PTSD due to childhood sexual abuse. She represents roughly 81% of women who suffer from PTSD because of sexual violence while also being a potential example of another victim turned survivor. Symbols throughout the video, such as monarch butterfly wings, beds, and hands further develop how the viewer comes to understand her state of mind, what caused an implied psychotic break—as shown in the first shot of her as an adult fighting against three nurses—and then healing from the trauma that caused it. While all of these have significance and will be analyzed later, the most prominent symbol is the white dress.

Traditionally in literature and movies, women in white dresses are depicted as innocent and angelic. While this holds true in the very beginning of “Never Too Late” with the little girl wearing a white dress, a more sinister meaning is introduced when the woman comes on screen. She is still wearing a white dress, which can highlight how she is still trying to hold onto some of her childhood innocence. She’s wearing it when the abuse first starts, as depicted by the little girl and the man putting his hand on her shoulder. The way the dress still perfectly fits her as an adult shows how she never outgrew her trauma. An alternative way to show how the woman never truly let go of her trauma would be to show that she still owns the little white dress she had as a child. Instead, the dress seems to grow with her, which shows how her trauma has become a part of her.

Opening with the little girl joining hands with her parents with the lyrics, “This world will never be/what I expected” foreshadows lost innocence. Despite how much the family in the opening scene wanted to believe that no harm would ever come to them, the lyrics sung during their first appearance foretell how reality does not accommodate to expectations. As a child, the girl believed that her parents would always be around to protect her from dangerous people and situations. When she reaches out, they are there to take her hands while they dance. The lively colors and toys in her bedroom indicate they provided for her as best they could and created a sanctuary for her. Her mother’s yellow jacket could be seen as a representation of that joy; however, yellow is often the chosen color to represent cowardice and, in some cases, sickness. This is emphasized with the greenish tint of the room the family is in. Despite their dancing and smiling, there is an implied sickness in their household. The dancing is supposed to encompass the happiness of the girl’s childhood but the green tint shows how this memory—and the entirety of her childhood—becomes ruined because of the abuse she is subjected to later. As an adult, she potentially feels sick looking back on even the happiest memories from her childhood because of how much the abuse affected her. 

The first time the little girl is shown in her adult life is the moment she is fighting against three nurses. Pairing this scene with the lyrics “even if I say/it’ll be alright/still I hear you say/you want to end your life,” implies the concerned tone is the combined voices of the caretakers that want her to overcome her suicidal thoughts and trauma. Another interpretation can be the lyrics are a message from her adult self to her younger self. The first time she is shown as an adult, she is looking back on her childhood when she was dancing with her parents. Her expression as she is pulled away by the nurses gives the sense that she dreads what is to come and knowing that her happy bubble is going to be destroyed. With this implication, she becomes a representation of the one in four girls who experience sexual violence before they turn eighteen.

Juxtaposing the perpetrator’s first appearance with the lyrics “if there’s something wrong/who would have guessed” implies that her abuser was a family member, or, a close family friend. There is a lingering sense that the little girl and her family would never detect any sort of danger when he was around because he was good at hiding his true intentions. As reported by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 90% of children who endure this abuse do so at the hands of someone they know. As later shown in the video, preestablished trust with the child and family makes the grooming process much easier. Around the one minute and fifteen seconds mark, the abuser’s shadow appears on the wall next to Gontier and waves his finger in a “Don’t tell anyone” manner at the little girl. This shot is a simple yet effective way to symbolize grooming, a tactic many abusers utilize in order to gain the trust of their victims and the victim’s family. According to the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), child grooming can look like special attention, frequently isolating the child/children from other people, and/or filling the role of a missing family member such as a father, mother, or older sibling. While the “Never Too Late” video does not outright show what the abuser’s relationship with the girl and her family is, he does exemplify grooming behaviors such as isolating the girl from her parents, and it is implied that the secrecy tactic is used in order for him to feel in control.

An interesting style choice is the way the abuser’s angles are shot. Only his torso and lower half of his body are shown which highlights two possibilities. First, the viewer is supposed to be seeing everything from the little girl’s perspective. This gives the abuser a more domineering aura because the girl–and by proxy, the viewer–never sees his face except for when he kneels down to smirk at her. Even then, his eyes are never shown. Dehumanizing him creates an expressionless monster that she wants to escape, but somehow he always finds her.  The childhood sanctuary of her bedroom is violated when he flips her bed over after she runs away and tries to hide.

Second, the abuser’s face is never shown relates to how small he causes the woman to feel, even in adulthood. Often, a sign that a protagonist is healing from trauma is the ability to look their abusers in the eye and literally face everything they feared. However, the only time she is able to look up at his face is just before the Angel of Death appears, which leads to the possibility she never got over her fear of him, rather, took comfort in the fact that he would one day die. Until then, she felt like she could never feel safe. In the scene of her being restrained in the hospital bed, the persistent flashbacks result in the straps taking the form of his hands trapping her against the mattress. Similar to how her bedroom was seen as a place she could seek refuge in childhood, the hospital bed is yet another place she feels her abuser can victimize her, despite how hospitals are meant to be a place for healing. Overall, the feature shown the most are the abusers hands, which is possibly a play at how she suffered at the hands of this man, which is further shown by the black handprints all over her as a child and her bedroom walls. Regardless of where she goes, she feels like he will always have a grasp on her until the day he dies.

After the flashback to the family dancing, the woman’s parents are not shown again until about a minute and a half into the video. They have band aids over their eyes, which at first glance looks as though it symbolizes how they were blind to the situation. However, band aids are not hard to remove, and pairing this with the family still dancing even though the background changed to a hospital setting, signifies that her parents preferred to pretend their lives would return to normal. Also, showing them with the second chorus “even if I say/it’ll be alright” hints at the possibility that her parents saw the signs of her abuse, but, remained in denial about how long their daughter’s trauma would affect their lives. Should that implication be the route the video wanted to take, it would reflect the reality that only 12% of child sex abuse cases are ever reported to the authorities. In the context of the video, this statistic creates a more chilling atmosphere through the symbolism of the woman being alone in adulthood and her parents depicted “blindness” to her abuse earlier in the video.

As an adult, the girl is shown by herself except for the first appearance of her fighting the nurses. Most of her time on screen is spent restrained on a bed, signifying she is still haunted by her past. One can deduce this signifies how abandoned she felt while trying to heal, especially because she is left alone. However, the viewer sees the beginning of her healing process when the memory of the first time her abuser touched her freezes with his hand on her shoulder and black feathers begin to cascade from the ceiling. Acceptance that  “the world we knew/won’t come back/the time we lost/can’t get it back” calls attention to the fact that she’s unable to give herself the childhood she deserved, but she can step into the adulthood she deserves. 

From a classic symbolism standpoint, black feathers indicate that a person is being protected by an angel or deceased loved one. In the video’s case, the black feathers are from the Angel of Death as he appears in her room. The angel fights the perpetrator, as if to show how the abuser was attempting to ward off his inevitable death. The viewer does not see what happens, and the little girl is completely calm during the whole fight. After a few moments, both the abuser and the angel disappear. While no solid explanation is given, the angel’s appearance and the way the girl calmly watches the battle happening in front of her implies her tormentor died. The angel’s feathers continue falling on her in the hospital bed which causes the abuser’s hands (thus the restraints) to whither back and release her, which symbolizes how the news of his death gave her closure. The monarch butterfly landing near her medicine indicates that she is being reborn into a stronger woman. This new world where her perpetrator will never be able to touch her again will allow her to begin a new chapter. She can’t change the past but she can make sure she defies as many odds as possible and lets herself lead a happy life, hence her young self going back to bed safely, and she smiles once she is off the hospital bed.

Safety and happiness are virtues every child should have growing up. Of course, there are many adults that take their responsibility of protecting children seriously. However, this fact should not be a reason that kids such as the one portrayed in the “Never Too Late” video are overlooked. As previously mentioned, only 12% of child sexual abuse cases are reported to the authorities but making a generalization as to why that is would be a huge disservice to survivors and their families. An important perspective to keep in mind is situations of abuse like these need to be analyzed and handled on a case-by-case level with the utmost professionalism, respect, and, compassion. Educating oneself about where to find accurate information, resources, and, support is another surefire way to contribute to the security of survivors. Music videos and analysis such as “Never Too Late” are intended to raise awareness and are not supposed to replace the trained professionals that serve their communities. Hopefully, art and music such as this song and video will continue to help raise awareness to dire situations and inspire those in need to reach out to the network of people dedicated to improving their quality of life. As said before, it is never too late to ensure one’s future happiness and healing.

Please never be afraid to reach out for help. You deserve to feel safe. 

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