Beyoncé doesn’t take second swings at her targets, she seems to have no particular animus for anything she smashes. In fact, when she knocks the top off of a fire hydrant, children rush forward to play in the spray; a perfect realization of ‘My wounds are fertile!’ from Leslie Jamison’s ‘Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain.’ But her wounds won’t actually be transfigured for at least five more songs.
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She draws on Shire’s poetry to ask for something more than just a restoration to where they were before her husband’s betrayal, praying ‘If we’re gonna heal, let it be glorious.’ The next title card offers ‘Resurrection’ and the video for next, soft song ‘Sandcastles’ is the first time that Jay-Z, Beyoncé’s husband, appears on screen. Beyoncé sings ‘Show me your scars and I won’t walk away.’ Neither of them knows exactly what to do next, but the immediate task in front of them is simply to see each other.
‘Resurrection’ is followed by title cards for ‘Hope’ and ‘Redemption,’ suggesting that Beyoncé is telling a kind of Lazarus story about marriage, a small resurrection that still leaves us to live the rest of our restored life.”