So many secret messages are hidden in Taylor Swift's music video

Yes, it's not a Taylor Swift video without secret messages. Whether you're listening to her music or looking at a photo collection: there are always hints in there. This is of course also the case for her latest music video: ‘The Fate of Ophelia’. In the meantime, we've had four days to analyze it and boy, there are a lot. Taylor herself says there are about 100 in there. Have you spotted them yet? Grab your glitter pen and theory list, because we're going to discuss them.

Easter egg territory

For those who are new, let me explain: secret messages, or easter eggs (because you're looking for Easter eggs), are all kinds of hints about old, personal, and new things about Taylor Swift. She might refer to her cats, her boyfriend, old loves, names of her friends, mention another song – you name it, and they are hints. Okay, are you caught up enough? Great. Then here are all the easter eggs we found:

The opening scene

This is where all the hints start. The museum we are in contains all kinds of ‘references’. Zoom in on this:

1. In the painting on the left, right next to the stairs, you see a poster of Taylor in her swimming cap that she wears during the water ballet, later in the video.

2. In the painting next to it, you see a poster that says ‘Female Rage’. Taylor’s music is sometimes described as ‘female rage’, so this is a hint to that.

3. Next to that hangs a painting of her cat, Meredith.

4. At the top of the stairs, there are two snakes, which is the symbol of Taylor’s album Reputation is.

5. Above the snakes, next to the chandelier, you see ghosts of Taylor and the producers of the album: Max Martin and Shellback. It looks like Lord of the Rings, this.

6. On the right side of the stairs hangs a poster of Taylor with the text ‘Wood’, or her song ‘Wood’ from the album.

7. The large painting on that side is the actual painting of ‘Ophelia‘ by Sir John Everett Millais. This is what the first shot of Ophelia, lying in the water, is based on. You see this when the camera turns left and we zoom in on the painting opposite: Taylor.

8. There is a cleaning cart that the cleaner uses, who incidentally is already listening to the song in his earbuds. The cleaning cart is an inside joke among the Swifties among us. Taylor hid in the ‘cleaning cart’ during the Eras Tour when she had to be brought back to the stage in her new outfit.

Taylor as Ophelia

9. When Taylor clearly stands as a showgirl on the set of ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ you see her posing in front of a painting. On it, you see a sourdough bread. This is a reference to the ‘New Heights’ podcast of her boyfriend Travis and his brother Jason Kelce. Here she announced her new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ during their chit-chat, it came up that Taylor has a new obsession since she is single: baking sourdough bread.

10. Next to the bread lies a peach. This is again a reference to the line “You’re sweeter than a peach” in the song ‘The Life of a Showgirl’.

11. In front of the peach and the bread lie pearls. This is a nod to the line “I took her pearls of wisdom” from the song ‘Elizabeth Taylor’.

12. The bird on her hand has an orange color. This refers to Taylor in her Reputation era, where she was trapped in a cage in the “Look What You Made Me Do”-music video. Here she was of course wearing an orange suit. The fact that the orange bird is now free shows that Taylor ‘is no longer trapped in a cage’, now that she owns all her music.

13. The cat statue is an exact copy of her cat Olivia Benson. How cute.

The dressing room

14. First of all, of course, that Taylor looks just like Marilyn Monroe.

15. In the top left hangs a photo of Travis. This photo comes from an interview in 2016, where he played ‘kiss – marry – kill’ and said he would like to kiss Taylor. (Oh, and this video was released on Travis’ birthday).

16. It's a bit hard to see in this video, but on one of the mirrors also hangs a photo of Marjorie, Taylor’s grandma, about whom she wrote the song ‘Marjorie’. (Who incidentally is also celebrating her birthday on the release date).

The boat scene

17. On the boat set, Taylor is wearing a Paulo Sebastián couture autumn/winter 2024 dress. It features a large heart that looks exactly like that of her Reputation jacket. Does this mean we will get the vault tracks from Reputation get?

18. This entire scene is a recreation of ‘The Odyssey’, a melodrama theater scene that again shows that Taylor is a ‘showgirl’.

19. The dancer Jan – yes, all dancers from the Eras Tour are participating, including Jan – is standing on a ladder in this scene. Just like his dance in Lavender Haze during the Eras Tour, where all the fans went wild for his ‘sexy-ladder-dance’.

20. The fact that Taylor falls into the water is also a reference to the dive she made ‘in the water’ during the Eras Tour. After the Folklore-Evermore set, she dove into a hole in the stage to be hoisted up in a new outfit.

Scene sign

20. On the scene sign at 4:29, we see again that Taylor and everyone in the clip are acting in a show. We see the phrase “sequins are forever” from ‘The Life of a Showgirl’.

21. ‘Take 100’ is a direct line from the song in the clip: “Keep it 100 on the land, the sea, the sky…”

22. ‘Kitty Finlay’ is the name of her grandmother and her mother’s dog. Yes, they have the same name. Taylor is known for the ‘war’ with that dog. Inside joke.

Backstage photoshoot

23. Behind brunette Taylor, you see 12 boxes. On them are, very coincidentally, the abbreviations of each song on the album. (1. TOO, 2. ET, 3. O, 4. FF, 5. ED, 6. RTF, 7. AR, 8. WL, 9. W, 10. C, 11. H, 12. TLOAS)

24. Additionally, you see a poster with the text ‘Sequins are forever’ and a photo from the promo shoot. At the bottom of the poster, it says “Sabrina Carpenter dazzles, Taylor Swift bejewels”, and “Sleepless in an Onyx night”, which is again a line from the song ‘Opalite’.

Hotel corridor

25. Just like a real showgirl, she goes to her hotel after the show. We see her being pushed down a corridor on a serving cart. Here she is wearing a coat, just like the one she wears during her ‘Lavender Haze’-music video.

26. Next to her, on the left, you see a woman with a small pink bag from which a chihuahua is sticking out. This is a reference to the line ‘But it’s precious, adorable. Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse’ from the song ‘Actually Romantic’.

27. Above her, you see an ‘EXIT’ sign. These appear continuously in various music videos and photos.

28. Just before she rushes into the hotel room, she catches an American football, which she throws away. This is of course a reference to her boyfriend Travis, who plays American football for the NFL.

The hotel room

29. It’s not entirely clear, but on the door, it shows that Taylor is renting hotel room 87. 87 is her boyfriend Travis’s football jersey number. So you can see that this number is about him. He saved her from ‘the fate of Ophelia’.

After-party

30. It’s time for the after-party after the show. All the hotel staff are again the dancers who danced in her Eras Tour and the band. No ordinary actors or dancers, but her Eras Tour family.

Bathroom scene

31. During the party, flashes suddenly come from outside. The paparazzi have followed her. Taylor rushes into the bathroom. There is also a window, from which the orange bird we saw earlier now flies out. Taylor is now ‘truly’ free.

32. From that window, you see a Ferris wheel. Of course, this is again a reference to a line. How could it be otherwise. “Ferris, wheels, kisses and lilacs” is a line in the song ‘Eldest Daughter’.

33. On the floor next to the bath, we see an Oscar lying. This is a line from ‘Wi$h Li$t’, where she sings: “They want that… And an Oscar on their bathroom floor.”

Taylor ‘drowning’ in the bath

34. The last shot of the music video is a direct reference to the album cover. Here she is exactly in this scene: in the bath with her hair up, in the glitter bikini. It symbolizes the life of a showgirl, where you always end up in the bath.

35. That last shot is also a reference to the original painting of Ophelia, who drowns in a lake. The legend says that Ophelia committed suicide by drowning due to her depression.

Okay okay, these weren’t a hundred like Taylor said, but still a lot. This was everything we detectives found. Did you spot any more?