Where the Story Ends

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

For Jim's Song Lyric Sunday today, he asks for songs about leaving, departing, exiting, etc., and of course I thought of a scene from Mamma Mia Here We Go Again. Donna and Sam are spending an idyllic week together falling in love on a paradisical Greek island before Sam has to return to his "short-hair life" as a respectable architect. Then Donna finds a photo of Sam with his fiancée (obvious because they're in the classic engagement pose with her left hand displaying a ring). Donna freaks, runs out of Sam's rented "shack," and returns to the farmhouse she'd been staying in when they met.

No more carefree laughter

Silence ever after

Walking through an empty house

Tears in my eyes

Here is where the story ends

This is goodbye

Sam chases Donna back to the farmhouse where he begs her to talk to him. She asks him if the woman in the photo is his fiancée, and he admits she is. Then Donna asks if he told her about being engaged, and he says no. That's a little unfair because Sam tried to tell her the night they met, but Donna interrupted him to talk to the band leader. He also probably would have said something when they were canoeing to a picnic, but she went on about how they should commit to live forever on the island (after spending only one night together!), and he had to deal with that conversation instead. Of course, he probably had other chances off-screen to tell her and didn't.

Knowing me, knowing you (Ah-haa)

There is nothing we can do

Knowing me, knowing you (Ah-haa)

We just have to face it

This time we're through

(This time we're through, we're really through)

These ABBA lyrics don't fit the scene perfectly because the song is really about people who have been together a long time and have had other breakups, but it mostly works for the situation between Sam and Donna. As we know, Sam leaves the island, and Donna is heartbroken, but when he comes back for her a few weeks later, she has gone off with Bill on his boat. Donna and Sam don’t see each other again until Sophie invites him to her wedding 21 years later. (Remember that Donna slept with Harry right before she met Sam, which is why there are three possible fathers.)

Breaking up is never easy, I know

But I have to go (This time, I know)

Knowing me, knowing you

It's the best I can do

Watch the scene and hear the whole song here.

Lyrics source is Musixmatch. Songwriting credits go to Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K. Ulvaeus / Stig Erik Leopold Anderson. The original song is from the 1977 Arrival album by ABBA.