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kylieswift31 · 2 months ago

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A secret love story

"I don't want you like a best friend"

Taylor Swift has been singing about being in love with her best friend over and over again for years. There are many people who might fit this description, but perhaps the person she has been referring to all along is her childhood best friend Abigail Anderson?

This is going to be a gentle exploration of a loving relationship hidden in the shadows. 🐈🐈‍⬛

And just a big disclaimer before we get started: this post is akin to laying all of my cards out on the table at the end of a round of Cluedo as I announce my prediction of who the suspect is after considering the evidence along the way. Please keep in mind that Abigail does not hold the same celebrity status as Taylor does so this is presented as a theory or form of fan fiction until proven otherwise. With the exception of a couple of references to pride day celebrations Abigail has not come out publicly and her romantic involvement with Taylor is based on a variety of subtle comments and references. I've sat with this concept over the last couple of months trying to decide if sharing it was the right thing to do, but ultimately decided to acknowledge the trail of breadcrumbs that keep building up instead of tiptoeing around it. And just to reiterate, this is a strategy based discussion involving a multitude of subtle hints and connections. Generalised statements about performative relationships and behaviours have implied nuance and to avoid repeating myself this disclaimer is implied going forward. Please try to consider the details with an open mind as this is an exploration focused on the pieces of a puzzle that intersect to create a bigger picture. This going to be a really long post but it’s worth sticking around until the end. 🧡

"And so I enter into evidence

My tarnished coat of arms"

After zooming out to consider Taylor’s story through the lens of the Truman show with a completely museless perspective I began to recognise the strategic moves and countermoves that slowly but deliberately contributed to the bigger picture like an ongoing game of chess. In the process I began to see how revealing a long term relationship that began in high school would blow up the narrative of the “boy crazy” version of Taylor™, highlight the struggles that artists face when they're forced to keep their queer relationships hidden from the public to protect their career and how it would be the ideal relationship that could help reunite the majority of her fanbase following the aftermath of coming out publicly.

Unreliable narrator

“What if I told you I’m a mastermind?”

It's becoming apparent that when Taylor refers to herself as a mastermind that what she is alluding to is her role as the unreliable narrator of her own story. This type of narrator intentionally misleads the audience by obscuring the truth along the way to encourage them to engage with the story on a deeper level by forming their own opinions. Many of us have experienced this when we discovered that Taylor's male relationships were a facade to conceal her female relationships, but what if the female relationships were also a facade to conceal a long term relationship with Abigail? Perhaps it’s Abigail that we’ll be meeting at midnight(s)? 🕰

"I'm having his baby... 💙" -Abigail

"When the internet says 'MOTHER' I feel like this pic is actually what they mean" -Taylor

Abigail's pregnancy announcement was the first post I saw after discovering that she could be the red headed muse Taylor has been alluding to within her music videos. My eye was immediately drawn to the colour combination of the green and blue in the background and the red and yellow on the box of crackers. The green and blue is very similar to the canopy of trees seen at the start of the 'all too well' short film and Abigail had previously posted a very similar shot from a trip she took to Big Sur with her husband last year. I was a little confused by the box of crackers in the photo until I saw that there was a picture of Zarah at Questlove's "GMNGHT6" game night holding a family size box of crackers, which just left me feeling even more perplexed. Abigail has since announced that they have named the baby Bennett, a possible nod to Taylor's SNL 'roomies' skit or potentially a reference to the Bennett family in pride and prejudice. The birth announcement also had 'skinny love' by Bon Iver playing in the background. Add in the caption referencing ‘but daddy I love him’ and that’s four references to Taylor in one pregnancy announcement. I understand that this could just be a Taylor themed announcement considering that the majority of her followers are swifties, but there’s something about Taylor’s comment that feels like there’s a deeper message about karma being expressed here considering her latest post ended with “Childless Cat Lady”.

The (wo)man you script

"He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night. I said, "that's a lie"."

The first line of Taylor's first song on her first album starts with a lie. And Taylor's not the only one with blue eyes. During the 'Me!' music video Taylor adopted a kitten and named him Benjamin Button. This is based on the character from the movie 'the curious case of Benjamin Button' and his love interest also had red hair and blue eyes. “I’ll never forget her blue eyes” was Benjamin's first impression when he saw her for the first time.

"The professor said to write what you know. Lookin' backwards might be the only way to move forward."

What's curious about Benjamin Button's character is that he ages differently to everyone else. He was born as an old man and slowly became younger over time until he eventually died as a baby. Taylor has made a few subtle comments in interviews over the years that suggest that she has been doing more than just going back in time to rerecord her old music, implying that she has also been retelling her story with all of her new music too. Naming her cat after Benjamin Button symbolises the journey of reliving the past over and over and over again. And if Abigail is Taylor's muse then it's not just Taylor's story that she's been retelling. It’s “ours”. Or perhaps the time reference is more of a metaphor for predictability and repetition because it's 12 o'clock two times a day? ✌🏼

Best friends

“Tell me ‘bout the first time you saw me”

Taylor first met Abigail when they sat next to each other at her new high school. She was Taylor's partner in crime for the 'picture to burn' music video and then featured on both the song and music video for 'fifteen'. "You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail" made her role as Taylor's best friend famous, and then tying their friendship together with "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind" cemented their connection in the public eye as a purely platonic friendship.

"And the school that used to be ours"

So many of the high school references make a lot more sense if Taylor is singing about someone she knew while they were both in high school. Taylor has mentioned a few times that they were often dressing up together and doing their own thing in high school because they didn't fit in with the majority of their peers. And then in a Jimmy Fallon interview Taylor alluded to wanting to throw a party for all of the cowriters from the lover album, implying that it was a bit because everyone knows that she wrote the album alone. But it’s the way she followed it up with a comment about how she was writing songs alone in high school too that hinted at Abigail’s presence throughout the song writing process.

Love story

"I'm invisible and everyone knows who you are"

In an interview Taylor mentioned how she didn't receive any advice before hosting SNL when she was 19. This implied that she may not have been given advise about that topic specifically, but instead received advice about how to protect her work and queer relationship while still being honest about her story along the way. In the Miss Americana documentary Taylor talks about how she was "falling in love with someone who had a wonderfully normal, balanced life". So much of what was said about Taylor and Joe's relationship in this way was indirectly referencing the beauty and fragility of her private relationship with Abigail. The difference between protecting a relationship with a celebrity and protecting their long term queer relationship is vastly different when you consider that cementing Abigail's role as Taylor's straight best friend gave her time to live her own life out of the public eye.

“Skipping the prom just to piss off your mom”

Taylor and Abigail never had a chance to go to prom together, so when MTV organised for Taylor to be a surprise prom date for the ‘once upon a prom’ show Taylor invited Abigail to tag along with her. They were able to get dressed up together and their mission was to find Abigail a date for the night. The prom photo of the four of them makes it seem like they're on a double date together, and if you're assuming that they're a heteronormative couple then you're not going to question the dynamics between Taylor and Abigail.

A is for Abigail

"Hey kids, spelling is fun!"

“Girl, there ain't no I in "team".

But you know there is a "me".”

The letters M and E are in the word TEAM, which leaves the letters T and A for Taylor and Abigail. Taylor posted a video of her being a copycat with the haim sisters as she put on the same outfit that they were wearing while the song 'copycat' was playing. I can't help but wonder if this was supposed to be an Easter egg for their appearance on Sesame Street. They sang an alphabet song together which started with "A is for Abby!" The pink fairy named Abby Cadabby first appeared on Sesame Street in 2006, adding a more colourful and feminine character to the cast of muppets. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that her name was mentioned in the song when she shares the same name as Abigail.

"We show off our different scarlet letters.

Trust me, mine is better."

The scarlet letter reference in the ‘new romantics’ song was one of the first blatantly queer references in Taylor’s discography. But what if the “trust me, mine is better” line is supposed to be from Abigail’s point of view because her initials contain the symbol for the scarlet letter? Or perhaps it’s a reference to Taylor because it represents both her queerness as well as her lover? To emphasise this connection between the two, Abigail and Taylor can be seen dancing together in the Spotify banner for this song. There’s also a moment during the ‘new romantics’ music video where you can see Abigail waiting backstage for Taylor too.

The Truman show

"People often greatly underestimate me on how much I'll inconvenience myself to prove a point…"

The director of the Truman show was pleading right up until the very end as he tried to convince Truman to stay. "You've never had a camera in my head!" was Truman's only response, pointing out that the director was so focused on the show that he never realised that Truman had been unhappy long before he started trying to escape. It felt like Taylor was referencing this scene in the 'Me!' music video when Brendon Urie opened a heart shaped door that revealed what was inside his heart. In the Miss Americana documentary Taylor described this music video as a compilation of who she is on the inside. "When it's like, "me-ee-ee," it's like dancers, cats, gay pride, people in country western boots. I start riding a unicorn, like just everything that makes me me." This implies that when we see inside Brendon’s heart that he’s also replicating what’s inside Abigail’s heart. When Truman concealed his truth behind a facade he created a play within a play by putting on a show of his own that distracted the director from seeing how he really felt while he was planning his escape. It’s likely that at some point Taylor and Abigail encountered a situation where they realised what they were up against and had taken the reigns by keeping their relationship private. This would have begun with creating their own play within a play with Taylor™ as the star of the show, and they have been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that explain their side of the story ever since. And just like the couple in Taylor’s eye on the Spotify wrapped video have a birds eye view of the bigger picture, they’ve been playing the long game all along. Taylor’s end game isn’t necessarily to leave or come out formerly, but to prove a point that they can’t sabotage her plans when she has already came out in subtle ways over and over again from the very beginning.

“You never gave a warning sign.

(I gave so many signs)

All the time.”

"And then all I started thinking of was how do I hint at things, like, how far is too far in advance? Can I hint at something three years in advance? Can I even plan things out that far? I think I'm gonna try to do it!"

Sure Taylor could easily hint at something three years in advance when her schedule is already planned that far in advance already, so why not mention something fourteen years in advance instead? 🦄 In the behind the scenes episode for the 'fifteen' music video Taylor started a bit about how you don't want to see inside a woman's head. The director Roman White then repeated this sentiment as he demonstrated how the green screen works, implying that he was demonstrating what's inside both Taylor and Abigail's head. There was a rainbow, a cowboy riding a dolphin, a unicorn, a cat riding a bike and an obscure wrestling mascot. Referencing this scene from the Truman show during the fearless era and again in the lover era is a great example of how referencing the Truman show over and over again leaves a trail of invisible string that exposes the facade of Truman™ regardless of how far back you look.

Hidden in plain sight

“And not caring when people make fun of pumpkin flavoured stuff cause you LOVE IT”

To understand why Taylor keeps referencing the Truman show we need to consider that the performance art is designed to draw our attention to what's occurring beyond the view of the camera. Who was taking the photos when Taylor was with her friends? Who's spending the night backstage while Taylor's performing? Who is Taylor spending time with when she's not photographed? There are so many moments that we're not aware of because we're only seeing what she wants us to see. As Taylor's popularity increased and her friendship group expanded Abigail’s presence became less noticeable. Dressing up as posh spice for Halloween revealed the anonymity she possesses by demonstrating how unrecognisable she can be when you can’t identify her by searching for her iconic red hair. The spice girls are a band made up of posh spice, baby spice, scary spice, ginger spice and sporty spice. And pumpkin spice is known as the unofficial sixth member of the spice girls. 🎃

"When you're young they assume you know nothing"

Many assume that finding out that his father is still alive is what makes Truman aware that his life isn't what it seems, but what they don't take into account is that they're seeing Truman's story for the first time. It takes further exploration to realise that Truman has been living in an endless loop over and over and over again. 🕰 Truman began recreating scenarios of what he had experienced in the past to draw attention to the reality of his daily life and the director's influence that prevented him from leaving. Taylor and her friends have been recreating scenarios like this to demonstrate publicly what has been occurring privately over the years. For example, Abigail’s presence at Taylor’s concerts have oftentimes been overshadowed by other celebrities. Taylor's behaviour at the VMA's replicated this scenario by mimicking her friends having a blast and dancing along, meanwhile Jack and Margaret recreated Abigail and her husband watching quietly alongside the other celebrities. There's also the fire that Taylor and Gracie extinguished while working together which replicated how Abigail's hair caught on fire at her birthday party last year. Examples like this are really difficult to find unless you’re purposely looking for it, but the benefit is that they have plausible deniability because there’s no proof when they're recreating a similar scenario without being seen together. The tablecloth that Taylor’s security guard was seen carrying out of a restaurant was exposing the elaborate scheming that has been going on for years. “It’s all part of the fucking story” was just letting us in on their game plan. 🔥

Colour symbolism

"So scarlet it was maroon”

I recently made a post about the sequel to the original version of the parent trap and how the best friends tried to take a shortcut by sharing their homework. "What if we each read half a book? You can read the first part and I'll read the second. And then we can get together and tell each other what happens!" ❤️💙 This backfired on them because it's only when you view both sides of the story at once that you can see the bigger picture. And just like putting on a set of 3D glasses with one red lens and one blue lens, viewing a blurry image through the correct combination of lenses is like deciphering a puzzle. Perhaps the pairs Taylor has created tell two sides of the same story, with one half revealing the story she's shown to the public and the other to reveal the true story experienced in private. There may be many misconstrued details within Taylor’s music if you’re only viewing one side of the story, but the essence within her music is nothing short of authentic.

“Karma takes all my friends to the summit”

Just like the unreliable narrator, Taylor has been encouraging us to find the truth hidden underneath the facade. The techniques that have been used to conceal Taylor and Abigail's relationship really is a testament to how effective they have been with making Abigail Taylor's 'straight best friend'. And it all started with Karlie Kloss. She acted as a lighthouse drawing attention towards Taylor's queer relationships for those willing to see it, and with Abigail acting as the director Karlie and Taylor recreated moments that reflected experiences Abigail and Taylor had shared in private. This also meant that Karlie became the Trojan horse that concealed the trail of breadcrumbs leading all the way back to Abigail. Fast forward to now and Taylor and Travis are in the midst of retelling the story so that more people can see for themselves how performative relationships work. And it feels like the swifties being invested in their relationship is a necessary step to be able to recognise the pattern for themselves once they’re really to accept that Taylor is in a queer relationship.

The one worth fighting for

“I’ve still got you all over me”

When Truman left Seahaven all he took with him was the scrapbook picture he had created to represent what he was fighting for. As I was searching for Taylor’s version of this picture it took my breath away when I stumbled upon this one with the butterfly wings. 🦋 But it was the leopard print around the perimeter that left me speechless. 🐾 So many of Taylor's music videos have featured leopard print outfits, including 'shake it off', 'blank space' and 'look what you made me do'. In the 'look what you made me do' music video it's only after Taylor had crashed the car that a leopard had appeared in the seat next to her while she was holding a grammys award. Abigail posted a picture of herself at the beach at Martha's Vineyard, she was wearing a leopard print jacket and the caption described the song 'snow on the beach'. Referencing Abigail with the leopard in the passenger seat seems to imply that "look what you made me do" is karma for whoever instigated their decision to change their plans. And the leopard print on the butterfly implies that karma orange isn’t an impending album or a new era aesthetic, it’s the trail of invisible string woven throughout Taylor’s career to symbolise Abigail’s presence in her life. Karma is the fact that nobody is going to understand that connection before they understand that Taylor is queer. 🧡

"You don't know what you don't know"

"You think you could be happy here?"

"Can anybody be happy if they aren't free?"

When you think of redheads that Taylor is close with I assume you're thinking of Ed Sheeran, Diana Agron, Hayley Williams, Natalie Reid, Abigail Anderson, Sadie Sink, Ice Spice or perhaps Tree Paine to name a few. There have been so many red headed people in Taylor’s music videos too. I’d picked up on this pattern long before I first considered that they could be a reference to Abigail and the first occurrence just happens to be in 'picture to burn'. Many songs like this reference a third person that creates a love triangle. But what if Taylor was being honest when she said that she's been writing about a fictional love triangle? And the lie is that James ended up with August and not Betty? The way Taylor mentioned this tidbit is suddenly sounding a lot like the way she said "my boyfriend Travis" during her VMA's speech. Tayliar indeed. What if the story Taylor has been telling us over and over again is actually a fictional love triangle between Taylor, Abigail and Taylor™? Perhaps they've been using the main characters from the remake of the 'beauty and the beast' movie to explain their love story. There's the duplicity of Belle and Belle™ who felt torn between two worlds. 💙💛 The beast lived in exile, frozen in an endless winter as he watched the petals of the rose slowly wilt and die. ❄️ 🥀 And Gaston who made it his life's mission to convince Belle to be his wife and the mother of his children. 💍🤰🏼 Belle and the Beast reflect the beauty of the hidden love story between Taylor and Abigail. But in public it's a battle of wills between Belle™ and Gaston, who represent the facade of Taylor™ and her muse. When we see Taylor with Travis they're showing us the queer love story between Taylor and Abigail as Belle and the Beast, while pretending that they're in a real relationship as Belle™ and Gaston. The dynamics in the love triangle between Belle, Belle ™, Beast and Gaston remain the same regardless of who's playing which character. For example the 'bejewelled' music video ended with Taylor playing the role of Belle, and Jack playing the role of Gaston. She turned down his proposal and kept the castle. It's implied that she ended up alone but the reference to the Beast's castle suggests otherwise. Just like Taylor turned off the yellow light at the end of the 'all too well' short film and kept the blue light on, she's choosing Abigail over and over again in private. It ends with Abigail's character outside in the snow looking in because the spell keeping the beast frozen in time isn't broken until the very end. In the meantime Taylor has had to get clever with using other symbols to represent Abigail's presence in the shadows of the west wing.

"This castle is your home now, so you can go anywhere you like, except the West Wing."

"But there's robbers to the east, clowns to the west"

"The joker and the queen" 🃏👸🏼

Mascots

"I come back stronger than a 90's trend"

I've been viewing Taylor's story through a queer lens, a millennial lens and even a Truman show lens. Eventually I began viewing other forms of media through a Taylor Swift lens too, but more specifically late 90's and early 00's movies. I recently watched the 2003 movie 'stuck on you' which coincides with how Abigail has remained hidden in plain sight over the years. Bob and Walt are conjoined twins who spend their days working in a burger shop and at night Bob struggles with panic attacks due to accompanying Walt on stage while he performs in a play. Eventually they leave their small town of Martha's Vineyard and travel to Hollywood together so that Walt can pursue an acting career. Once he lands a role on a TV show it becomes clear that they've found many ways to conceal Bob's presence as he's barely visible on the edge of the screen. Meanwhile Bob meets up with his long distance girlfriend who doesn’t know that they’re conjoined twins. Bob is hesitant to tell her the truth so their roles become reversed as Walt tries to disguise himself and blend into the background.

"You know how to ball, I know Aristotle"

With this in mind, we can begin to see how certain mascots and items might be a subtle reference to Abigail when it would be too obvious if she was always present. And Chewbacca in particular is a mascot worth paying attention to. Not only is there a 'stuck on you' burger and fries reference in Taylor’s box of lies skit with Jimmy Fallon, there’s also a scene with Chewbacca walking a black beetle through Central Park. In Jenna Ortega’s box of lies skit was the above picture of cousin Itt with a picture of Jimmy and Chewbacca recreating the ‘stuck on you’ scene. I also pointed out recently that there was a hidden connection to the golden egg on the Stephen Colbert skit. In the video linked to that picture is a clip of Chewbacca catching a football. And guess who dressed up as Chewbacca for Halloween? Abigail and Taylor. Just like they've found ways to tell their story over and over again, mascots like Chewbacca who looks like the Beast is an indirect reference to Abigail living in exile without being a direct link to the story of Belle and the Beast.

Cats

“I don’t dress for friends.

Lately, I’ve been dressing for revenge.”

I mentioned earlier that Taylor's newest cat Benjamin Button seemed to be a codename for Abigail, but this concept began with Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey. Taylor has three cats but Meredith was the only cat included in the Midnights Mayhem with Me when 'Vigilante Shit' was announced. On the tortured poets department bulletin board there were three photos from the album variant announcements, a timetable and one personal photo which was a selfie of Taylor with Meredith. This seems like a typical photo for Taylor to include in her videos but when you compare it to the original photo it's apparent that the one on the bulletin board has been mirrored with Taylor on the left instead of on the right. This implies that Merideth is the cat that represents Abigail and mirroring the picture reveals that they’ve been sharing the story from Abigail’s perspective all along. And guess what date Taylor adopted Meredith? October 31st 2011, just shy of 13 years go.

"Karma is a cat, purring in my lap 'cause it loves me"

In the parent trap movie Allie and Hallie grew up apart and they both had two halves of the same photo, which lead them to discover that they were related. Taylor and Abigail have recreated this concept by showing the swifties the love story and the gaylors the queer story. This is why the swifties don’t recognise that Taylor could be queer and why the gaylors don’t recognise that the male love interest represents a real relationship. The key to understanding the bigger story being told is to understand that it's not one or the other, it's both. Taylor and Abigail are both telling a queer love story. And Jack was the key to understanding that all of the male muses represent both Taylor and Abigail’s relationship, mixed in with the story of Taylor™. His portrait in the 'bejewelled' music video is just like the photo in the 'anti hero' music video and the proposal is just like the one in the 'Me!' music video. These all tell two sides of the same story. In the 'lover' music video Taylor is eating spaghetti with her muse. This reflects the only scene that features Abigail in the 'Miss Americana' documentary where she seems to be a guest as Taylor cooks spaghetti for their dinner. And would it be a stretch to suggest that Abigail is also the mysterious masqueraded character who floats down with the orange umbrella in the 'Me!' music video too? Just like the picture of Jack with his round glasses, all of these references to Abigail have been hidden in plain sight to create an ongoing scavenger hunt much like trying to find the hidden characters in a "Where's Wally?" book. Each page tells a slightly different story, but the main characters remain the same. And what happens when you combine Taylor and Abigail's names together? The name abigaylor sounds pretty good. Or perhaps tabby cat is a little more accurate? 🐈🧡

Lover house

"You two are dancing in a snow globe, 'round and 'round"

Taylor had an interview on her 21st birthday where she described her plans to sit at home pretending that she lived inside a snow globe for the rest of the day. ❄️ This sounds anticlimactic in theory, but what she's alluding to is the imagery of the lover snow globe. Each room reflects a different aspect of Taylor and Abigail's relationship. The fishbowl is a reference to Abigail stepping into the public view during the fearless era. The games room shows their scheming, while the attic represents their long term plans and recording music at electric lady studios. The pink room shows the duality of Taylor's public and private relationships. 🪞 The red room shows the performance they put on when they're seen together. And the green room with the picture of Benjamin Button is the only room where Taylor wasn’t wearing any shoes, implying that this is the space they share in private where they feel comfortable enough to be themselves. This suggests that the types of shoes Taylor wears hold a deeper meaning. I’ve been wondering if the red bottom soles on all of Taylor’s eras tour shoes are supposed to be another reference to Abigail, just like the toys in the toy story movie have Andy's name scrawled on the bottom of their shoes to indicate who they belong to. The scene in the ‘Me!’ music video where Brendon Urie is tapping on the soles of Taylor’s cowboy boots has always felt a little too random to not be a reference to something meaningful. The drum kit has always felt out of place too because Taylor mostly plays the guitar and piano, but Taylor's comment about Dylan O'Brien playing the drums while they were hanging out implies that this was another reference to Abigail having a go at playing the drums earlier in Taylor's career. Despite pretending to just be best friends in public, this scene represents the quality time they get to share in private.

"I'm out of sight, I'm out of mind"

It seems like we haven't been looking far enough into the past to find parallels to Taylor and Abigail's story, especially the artists Taylor has collaborated with. There are a couple of Ed Sheeran songs that seem to match their story, especially 'Lego house'. "I'm gonna paint you by numbers and colour you in. If things go right we can frame it and put you on a wall." The song describes a house similar to the lover house, and yet the music video feels like it could have been the music video for 'exile'. This combination reveals the dichotomy between the privacy Taylor and Abigail gained by having an authentic relationship in private in contrast to the loss of not being able to be together as a couple in public. And the music video deals with the repercussions that come from being hidden from view. Just like the 'anti hero' music video, Rupert Grint is living in exile with the ghosts of Ed Sheeran. He repeatedly tries to find Ed Sheeran, just like the concierge guy in red trying to reach Taylor in the 'delicate' music video, which is yet another reference to the Truman show. Does this reference to another version of the lover house imply that the lover house on the eras tour is where the shadow of Abigail resides? That sounds an awful lot like a mirrored version of the giant Taylor screaming for help...🪞

Music partners

"And will you still want me when I'm nothing new?"

Taylor created a studio in her home during lockdown, but this subtly implied that she's had one long before everyone else went into lockdown because they had already been living in an endless version lockdown. When it was announced that Taylor was going to have a duet on Gracie Abram’s album I was intrigued because it’s usually newer artists collaborating on Taylor’s album, not the other way around. It now seems like this was intentional to draw attention to how Gracie collaborated with her best friend Audrey as well as her role directing the music videos. It’s difficult to prove connections like these when Taylor isn’t directly involved, but having others sharing details of her story allow her to get closer to sharing the truth without drawing attention to the fact that the story is being repeated over and over again. When Truman finally leaves he ends with repeating his infamous catchphrase to demonstrate that he's been putting on a play within a play by mimicking everyone else's repetitive behaviour. The director is left with a look of disgust as he realises that Truman has been telling him the same story over and over and over again since the very beginning. Taylor has been doing the same thing, except the repetitiveness is harder to find.

"I've had to learn to say different versions of common phrases like "shake it off", "you need to calm down". Like, I've had to figure out how to not say puns of my own songs in conversation. I've gotten *sort of* good at it."

"Speak not tired tacky wench. Clean!"

Abigail's participation in Taylor's music videos and shows was a big step, but it was her surprise appearance during Taylor's interview with Ellen that really cemented her role as Taylor's best friend. It's likely that Abigail has been credited as a ghost writer over the years, if not all along. And perhaps the story about Dylan O’Brian playing the drum kit and William Bowery was the beginning of divulging Abigail’s involvement in the songwriting process. Acknowledging Joe using a pseudonym and thanking her boyfriends on stage are all part of the process of drawing attention to Taylor and Abigail's experience so that it's easier to understand when the truth is revealed. During an interview with Drew Barrymore and Jack Antonoff were discussing the Grammys. They were implying that they both felt shy around other artists in the same way that Abigail might have felt or appeared to be when she first went to the Grammys as Taylor’s date. They have so many people involved with describing Abigail's presence now, and they’ll keep repeating the story until it becomes obvious enough that the majority start to pick up on their behaviour. It's likely that any restrictions on Abigail being a collaborator ended when Taylor moved to her new record label and instead of revealing their experience to the public straight away, they've been sharing the pieces of the puzzle with us instead so they can dedicate their time to sharing their secrets and the lessons they've learned over the years with the new generation of artists.

Lucky numbers

"And she's laughing drawin' aces"

It's well known that 13 is Taylor’s lucky number. At one point she mentioned that it was the highlight of her life when she turned 31 on the 13th. But what if the numerology surrounding that number also reflects her love for Abigail? I’ve mentioned before that Taylor wearing this number on her hand could be a reference to W vs M muses and perhaps the 1 is also a reference to Abigail. There are two 13's on the wedding cake in the 'I bet you think about me' that add up to 26. If the number 26 is a red herring then it would actually be 13 + 31 = 44. 4/4 is Abigail's birthday and 4 + 4 = 8, which creates an infinity symbol. During the bejewelled music video the shell shaped watch said that “exile ends in 3, 2”. It was missing was the 1, but why? Number 1 is often associated with the letter A, which is often associated with the ace card. Taylor had an ace of spades in her hat during the 'I knew you were trouble' music video. This is typically seen as the highest ranking card in a standard 52 pack of cards, which suggests that Taylor is saving hers for the very end. ♠️ The number 1 is also known as uno in Spanish. UNO cards and products with the letter A are heavily featured at Questlove’s game nights. When you play a game of UNO you're supposed to yell out "knock, knock UNO!" when you're playing your second last card to let everyone else know that you're about to win. This gives the other players a chance to play their best hand in an attempt to prevent you from winning the game. This is exactly what happened every time Truman talked about wanting to go to Fiji ('Florida!!!'). The director was forced to respond by trying harder and harder to prevent Truman from leaving and unwittingly revealed his best hand each time he did so, allowing Truman to successfully plan his escape. So many of us have picked up on the signs that Taylor had plans to come out several times over the years and it's possible that she's been using this strategy to force her opponents to reveal their best hand, just like they did during the lover era. For lack of a better word, it's edging someone over and over again by saying "I'm going to do it! I'm going to do xyz!" over and over again and pulling out at the last minute. Counting down with "3,2" is implying that the next time it will be "3,2,1 blast off!" but never following through. And just like Truman left at the very end, Taylor and Abigail's story is going to end in the same way the 'Me!' music video did, with an explosion of rainbows. 🌋🌈

"Don’t you love a good puzzle?"

The black cat is one of the most notorious talismans associated with both the numbers 13 and 31. 🐈‍⬛ We already know how much Taylor loves Christmas and I wouldn't be surprised if Abigail loves halloween just as much. 'The nightmare before Christmas' is a combination of both seasonal celebrations in a halloween movie, just like 'how the grinch stole Christmas' is a combination of both seasonal celebrations in a Christmas movie. Taylor and Abigail's story is an amalgamation of millennial coded references but it always felt like there was one big piece of the puzzle missing. If it's a puzzle then what sort of puzzle is it? A jigsaw puzzle. 🧩 And if the Halloween theme is the missing link, then the missing piece of the puzzle is the jigsaw killer from the saw movies! 🪚 "I want to play a game. The rules are simple." The first movie features Adam and Dr Lawrence who wake up to find they've been chained up in a grungy bathroom. They're both given simple rules to follow that are designed to help them escape, but straying from the rules doesn't end well. "The jigsaw piece that I cut from my subjects was only ever meant to be a symbol that that subject was missing something. A vital piece of the human puzzle. The survival instinct." Following the rules and not straying from the directions sounds simple in theory, but it's proves to be a challenge when his victims stray from the directions thinking they can outsmart him. ☠️ The Truman show begins with the director describing his reasons for creating a show with Truman as the star 24/7. "We've become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects." Taylor and Abigail have combined the elaborate puzzles and cryptic clues that the jigsaw killer had created with the strategy and facade that Truman had used to conceal his plan to escape into an extensive web of Easter eggs, pop culture references and cryptic riddles that span all the way back to the very beginning. 🕸 And just like the jigsaw killer was a mastermind and included himself in the game, Abigail’s reticent presence in a room full of celebrities as the ‘straight best friend’ automatically eliminated her as a possible suspect when searching for Taylor’s partner in crime. ♟

The key

“I wanna be your A team”

The woman behind the curtain may not be so hidden after all. Someone once called me a "Hidden Mickey Gaylor" and I couldn't think of a more accurate description to explain how I managed to follow the trail of breadcrumbs leading towards the gingerbread house. But the truth is that I relate to Taylor's music so much because I relate to Abigail's experience living in exile. I just reached the six month mark of being bed bound with severe ME and have felt exiled from my own life while I haven't been well enough to leave the house. It's impossible to comprehend the fact that I haven't left the house at all for half a year. The gaylor community, Taylor's music and the lore that surrounds it has been a source of comfort and respite from the loneliness at a time where I've never felt more alone.

"This way to the (Tennessee) whiskey?"

I understand that if I'm right about Taylor and Abigail's love story then everyone else has been wrong about Taylor's muse, but if I'm wrong then all of this has been wildly inappropriate. I'd highly recommend going back to the start and rereading this post again to get a better understanding of how all of these pieces of the puzzle fit together with more context. The benefit of putting together a puzzle that contains a cypher is that the message is unlocked when the pieces fit together correctly. The 'folklore long pond studio sessions' ends with a subtle joke about whiskey, but more specifically it felt like they were talking about Tennessee whiskey. Also, Taylor has used this combination of emojis with a black cat following the tabby cat a few times over the years. Together it feels like the Tennessee whiskey is a codename that is referencing the orange whiskers on a cat who lives in Tennessee. 🐈🐈‍⬛

Taylor is the tabby cat wearing her scarlet letter. 🧡

Abigail is the black cat hiding in the shadows. 🖤

And in private they're just two cowgirls. 🌈