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The Tortured Poets Department looks different than expected. On Friday evening, Taylor Swift released the music video for “Fortnight,” giving fans the first visual glimpse of her new album. And naturally, the collaboration with Post Malone is chock-full of Easter eggs from eras past and present.
The video, written and directed by Swift, begins with the singer chained to a bed frame in what appears to be a psychiatric institution. After being freed, she enters the offices of the Tortured Poets Department, where Post Malone is working away on a typewriter. Before long, the two are revealed as some type of star-crossed lovers, both trying to forget about each other — but doing terribly.
On social media, Swift explained her intentions behind the video, saying she wanted to show fans “the worlds I saw in my head” while creating The Tortured Poets Department. “Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another,” she wrote. “For me, this video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the stories I tell in it.”
Read on to discover the Tortured Poets references and Easter eggs within the video.
The Face Tattoos
As she washes her face at the psychiatric institution, Swift unveils face tattoos that match Post Malone’s.
The Pill Bottle Numbers
Swift is handed “forget him” pills while chained to her bed. The prescription number on the bottle, which is listed at its bottom, shows a range starting at her birthday, December 13, 1989, and ending on the release date of Tortured Poets, April 19, 2024.
The Grammys Dress
Swift starts out by wearing a very similar gown to the one she wore to the 2024 Grammys, but in the video, it’s been torn up and worn out. As a reminder, that was where she announced the album. Rather than pair it with black gloves, as she did at the awards ceremony, she opts for white gloves here. (She’ll switch from the wedding-day look to mourning attire in a second.) In both cases, she also wears a similar chocker necklace.
In true Swiftian fashion, she’s been giving us Easter eggs all along.
An “Illicit Affairs” Reference
Colored rays of light beam from Swift and Post’s desks, which many fans think is a nod to Folklore’s “Illicit Affairs,” which includes the lyric, “You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else.” The two tracks have similar messages, telling stories of infidelity and the resentment that builds from it.
The Missing Typewriter Key
When Swift is working away in the office setting, her typewriter is missing a “1” key. This could be a reference to Folklore’s “The 1,” or to the fact that Part 2 of Tortured Poets was released at 2 a.m.ET. (i.e., it started at two). It could also be a nod to the fact that “the one” in the character’s life is missing. Regardless, the detail is conspicuous enough that it must imply something.
“The Story Of Us”
As she and Post lay on top of loose papers, she’s reading a book simply titled “Us,” likely nodding to her deep cut “The Story Of Us” from the 2010 album Speak Now.
The Dead Poets Society Stars
Swift enlisted stars from the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, for the music video, in a nod to the inspiration of her album title. The actors play two researchers who perform electro-shock therapy on Swift, much to Post Malone’s heartbreak. “Tortured poets, meet your colleagues from down the hall, the dead poets,” Swift wrote on social media. Their names, which are stitched onto their white coats, refer to their characters in the film.
Clara Bow’s Therapy
By including electro-shock therapy in the video, Swift is subtly nodding to 1920s actor Clara Bow, the titular subject of a song on the album. In 1944, Bow checked into a psychiatric facility where she received the treatment.
Hidden Lyrics
In what appears to be a heart monitor or lie detector test — either would be thematically fitting — the results spell out lyrics from “Fortnight”: “I love you, it’s ruining my life,” a line that Swift also types out on the typewriter earlier in the video.
The Poor Things Nods
When Swift is strapped onto a Frankenstein table with wires attached to her head, fans were immediately reminded of her close friend Emma Stone’s movie Poor Things, for which Stone won the Oscar for Best Actress. Swift attended the movie’s premiere, which has similar greyscale aesthetics to the music video. Plus, Stone contributed to the album on “Florida!!!”
The Black Dog
While Post, Hawke, and Charles might be present, there’s another important creature in Swift’s operating room: the black dog, who’s present as the experiment descends into chaos. This is a nod to “The Black Dog,” the first song from Swift’s surprise second part of Tortured Poets, entitled The Anthology.
The Cats
The title card at the end of the video is designed with cats hidden in the corners, because it’s not a Swift music video without some sort of feline reference.
