Songfacts®:

• This song was inspired by an event that usually doesn't make its way into song: euthanizing a beloved dog. Michelle Zauner, the artist behind Japanese Breakfast, had to put down her childhood pooch around 2017. The line, "And I can't unsee it, the two shots it took," refers to the two shots the vet administered to end its suffering.
  
  "It was so sad because I was the one who had to say, OK, it's time for the shot," she explained to Stereogum. "It's heartbreaking to see it. It's just two syringes and it's your call."
• The song raises a question: If we can end the life of dogs who are suffering in a dignified, peaceful way, why can't we do it for humans (assisted suicide isn't legal in most places). In 2014, Michelle Zauner had to deal with the death of her mother from pancreatic cancer. At the end of her life she was in a coma, putting Zauner in the painful position of just waiting for her to die. She details this experience in her 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart; much of the first two Japanese Breakfast albums (Psychopomp, 2016; Soft Sounds from Another Planet, 2017) deal with her mom.
• Japanese Breakfast has a song with the related title "In Heaven" on their 2016 debut album Psychopomp. "In Hell" is related to that one, as they both deal with the death of a loved one.
• The song was written for the 2017 Soft Sounds from Another Planet album but didn't make the cut. It had to wait for the next Japanese Breakfast album, Jubilee, which wasn't released until 2021, as it was delayed by the pandemic. That song launched Japanese Breakfast to a new level, with the song "Be Sweet" getting a lot of attention.