In just 10 days, Swifties were given an iconic Law and Order SVU skit to decode, 4 new tracks titled “The Encore” to celebrate The Life of a Showgirl album-versary, and a premiere of the "Patient Zero” music video at the MTV VMA Awards! (does this girl ever sleep?!) While I obviously stayed up until midnight to listen to the new songs, I was staying up for other reasons too. It’s a practice I know all too well- that as soon as a countdown clock begins on Taylor’s website, I transform into a full fledged conspiracy theorist. But that’s what I love about being a Swiftie, the shared connection across the fandom of hunting for clues and hanging on to every cryptic update from Taylor. She is truly a masterclass in building a brand universe where her work lives and fans get to play.

In a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Taylor dives into her motivation, saying, “I've trained them to be that way, I love that they like the cryptic hint-dropping.” And she’s right. It’s a training that only decades of being a Swiftie can bring. The second Taylor posts to Instagram, we pull out the red string and spot patterns we’ve seen from her time and time again. Specific numbers, colors, symbols, and sayings become clues. In a 2021 interview with Jimmy Fallon, Taylor says “I started to realize it wasn’t just me that had fun with this…then all I started thinking of was how do I hint at things? How far is too far in advance? Can I hint at something three years in advance?…I think I’m gonna try to do it!”

Years of this decoding has given us some of the best shared moments as a fandom. The Bejeweled elevator. Karma the lost album. The “Red Herring” glitch. Patterns and references that span years in the making are calculated in comment sections across social media, all to try to uncover what’s next for Taylor.

1. Karma the lost album

The story goes that Taylor’s sixth album was originally supposed to be called Karma before she scrapped it and released Reputation in 2017 instead, following the fallout with Kanye West and the proceeding public backlash in 2016. Signified by an orange aesthetic and made famous by the 2019 music video for The Man, this theory remains unsolved. “Karma Truthers” claim Karma’s songs will be released as vault tracks when Reputation is re-recorded, or released as it’s own album for TS13. What do you think? Check out the full theory here.

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2. Female Rage: The Musical

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‍Taylor nicknamed the addition of “The Tortured Poets Department” to the Eras Tour as being called, “Female Rage: The Musical” in a 2024 Instagram post. However, fans quickly grew suspicious when shortly after a trademark for the title was processed on Taylor’s behalf by her management team. As we know Taylor has been exploring her craft in directed works and put on the Tour of the Century, could she secretly be crafting a live musical theater project? For now, all we have is an easter egg of a “Female Rage” poster in the 2025 music video for The Fate of Ophelia. Considering Taylor stated there were over 100 easter eggs in this music video alone, I don’t think we should knock a Broadway musical out of the cards just yet.

3. Seeing…Triple?‍

Based on the 2022 Midnights music video for Anti-Hero, fans believe there is a trilogy storyline at play between the albums that followed: The Tortured Poets Department (2024), The Life of a Showgirl (2025), and eventually the release of TS13. In the music video, we see three versions of Taylor: an anxious “Poet” Taylor, a reckless “Showgirl” Taylor, and a giant, towering Taylor who seemingly doesn’t fit in with the others. Many believe that rather than these being eras of her actual life, Taylor is playing characters that tell the story of three sides of stardom, each with a completely different persona and songwriting style. While I don’t know for certain if this is performance art, I do believe that TS13 will grapple with the expectations set upon her as public figure, and dealing with the criticism that comes with fame.