Unless you’ve been living under a pop culture rock, you’ll know that Taylor Swift has just dropped her first single as a married woman.
Earlier this week, the 36-year-old shared an Instagram post announcing her new song, ‘Patient Zero,’ and Swifties immediately put their Sherlock Holmes caps on.
While trying to decode Tay’s classic Easter Eggs, they became convinced the track would be a love song about her husband, Travis Kelce, and ‘being cured’ by him.
Others agreed, suggesting that Patient Zero is Taylor ‘calling Travis the first real person in her life.’
However, now that the song is officially out in the world, some Swifties are casting doubts on their initial detective skills.
Rather than it being about Travis — who she tied the knot with in a $20 million wedding at New York’s Madison Square Garden this summer — Swifties now believe Patient Zero refers to an ex.
Specifically, actor Joe Alwyn, who Taylor was with for just over six years, from autumn 2016 to early 2023.
Joe was Taylor’s longest relationship, and there were even engagement rumours during their time together.
However, the pair called it quits, with rumours that the break-up was to do with them having personality differences and differing life paths.
As for the track, fans think Taylor is ‘dissing’ her ex, much like her other songs, ‘Cruel Summer’ and ‘You’re Losing Me,’ which used medical imagery and the realisation that someone wasn’t who they seemed — or so Swifties believe.
Some of the lyrics include phrases like ‘devil on his shoulder under his halo,’ and ‘when the toxins take their hold, you’d rather die than let it go.’
According to Swifties on X, this means that Taylor is ‘calling Joe Alwyn a devil disguised as an angel,’ and ‘an emotional parasite who uses women’s shine to climb socially’.
They continued: ‘And yet she presents herself as patient zero, the first victim of that disease. Patient zero got emotional.’
Of course, this is all just speculation. The song is cryptic, the lyrics are subjective, and it could be about anyone or anything.
This couldn’t be more true over on X, as other Swifties later suggested the song could actually be about Joe Jonas and his divorce from Sophie Turner.
Here’s the logic for Joe theory number two: Taylor dated Joe first back in the day, and later became close with Sophie during her breakup with the Jonas brother in 2023.
The song’s potential storyline of a woman talking to another woman about a man she has already been with feels like it could fit their situation.
Taylor hasn’t confirmed that interpretation, just like she hasn’t shed light on the Joe Alwyn theory.
Alongside Patient Zero, Taylor also surprised fans by dropping three other brand-new songs as part of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. The extended album features the other three tracks: Cleveland!, Pink Clouding, and Babylon.
And of course, Swifties have their own theories about these, too.
While they currently think Patient Zero is a diss track to Joe, they’ve been kinder about Pink Clouding.
On social media, it seems like Swifties are interpreting the regret and ‘good person’ imagery as referring to Joe, particularly because of their long-term relationship and the song’s retrospective tone.
At its core, it seems to be a song about regret after a relationship that started with an intense, almost euphoric rush.
As for Travis, fans are convinced Cleveland! is about Tay’s new Kansas City Chiefs husband. The most obvious take is that he grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, so immediately, fans are connecting the dots.
But whether Taylor is making digs at exes or not, there’s one thing that’s perfectly clear in her personal life right now: she’s happy, living in her newlywed bubble, and screaming, ‘That’s my husband!’ while celebrating Travis on the football field.
Case closed.