From the album The Great Divide
This is about someone who needs their ex to fail so badly they've turned cruelty into a waiting game. The narrator claims indifference while keeping the house exactly as it was, says they're glad she left while predicting her inevitable return, wishes her misery while promising to keep it all secret. The contradictions aren't confusion. They're the maintenance work of staying stuck.
You know you never really could quite place when I'm angry and I'm jokin' / I'm cursin' every exit sign and my damn Christ-like devotion
He admits she could never tell when he was serious, then immediately proves why. The devotion he calls Christ-like is actually just spite dressed up as loyalty. He's cursing the road while calling himself a martyr.
Roadkill fawn, you said, 'How sad' / Left to rot alone like that / You state a feelin' like a fact / I'm glad you left, but you'll be back
She felt sorry for something dead on the road. He's now become that thing, rotting in place, stating his feelings like facts the exact way he just accused her of doing. The self-awareness doesn't stop him.
I'm hoping that the view ain't nice, that the streetlights bleed into your bedroom / That you open up to someone kind, and they hold it all against you
This might be the cruelest wish in the whole song. He wants her to find someone good and have them weaponize her vulnerability. Not just failure but betrayal wrapped in kindness.
I don't mind being your dead end / I think it's fine to never move on / Keep my ear up to the doorframe
He calls himself a dead end but won't accept that means she's gone for good. The ear to the doorframe gives it away. This isn't acceptance, it's surveillance. He's performing indifference while listening for her return.
The worst part isn't that he wants her to fail. It's that he needs her to fail and come back so he can prove he was right to never move. The downfall he's rooting for is the only scenario where his paralysis looks like devotion instead of what it is.