By now, we’ve all had the opportunity to listen (and re-listen) to Red (Taylor’s Version), the singer-songwriter’s re-recording of her 2013 pop album. Whether you were dancing to the ever-iconic anthem of youth, 22, or going through the motions of heartbreak as you listened to ‘All Too Well’ on repeat after sobbing through the emotional 14-minute short film for the song it is more than safe to say that Taylor Swift has us right in the palm of her hand. Still, the world shook when the artist took to social media to drop teasers for a new music video, this time for ‘I Bet You Think About Me’, another track on the Red album.
The music video which features a man (portrayed by Miles Teller) at his wedding, haunted by red-clad wedding crasher Taylor as he marries another woman, garnered more than six million views in its first 12 hours since premiering on YouTube with the numbers steadily climbing. In the caption under Taylor’s Instagram teaser of a hand grabbing at a wedding cake to reveal red layers under the white frosting, she takes a moment to write a shoutout to her close friend, actress Blake Lively, who co-wrote and directed the music video: “I finally got to work with the brilliant, brave, & wickedly funny @blakelively on her directorial debut. Join us as we raise a toast, and a little hell.”
With this song rumored to be one of many songs on the album that are about Taylor’s brief 2013 romance with Jake Gyllenhaal (yes, the same Jake that the All Too Well film is allegedly about), fans all over the Internet are abuzz with theories and Easter egg sightings, and we all know how much Taylor loves a good Easter egg. Did you catch everything worth taking note of in the video? Here’s our list of six things you may have missed!
1) The red dress
The red dress Taylor is seen wearing as she smashes the wedding cake has been spotted before. Approximately three weeks prior to the release date for the music video, Taylor posted a teaser video on her Instagram featuring a montage of the many red accessories and props seen in the video with the words “It’s Red Season” splashed across the screen. Needless to say, the same dress we see her wearing in the first clip of the teaser lives up to its bold and dramatic colour as we watch Taylor first topple the groom’s cake topper and then have her cake and eat it too (quite literally).
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2) The rings
The first Easter egg ring is the bedazzled “Red” ring, seen in both the music video and in the same teaser we first saw the red dress in. This is the same ring we see on Taylor’s hand on the album cover for Red (Taylor’s Version). While writing the original Red album, Taylor reportedly wore a “Love” ring, and one alike in design was later gifted to pop singer Olivia Rodrigo. The “Red” ring is seen as a nod to its predecessor, cementing Taylor’s re-recorded album as a hallmark of her evolution through the years.
The second ring is the red heart ring Taylor wears as she defaces the wedding cake, which Blake Lively wore to the launch of her premium drink mixers in the US lounges of British Airways. A close-up shot of the ring on the actress’s hand was posted to her Instagram just days before the music video’s release:
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3) The top hat
While sitting at the kid’s table at the music video wedding, Taylor pulls out a black top hat with a glittery red band. Fans were quick to notice that Taylor sported an identical top hat while performing We Are Never Getting Back Together on her Red Tour. The song is yet another breakup track on the album that is rumoured to be about Jake Gyllenhaal, further fueling theories that the music video is a jab at the star’s former beau.
4) The red gift box and red scarf
In one scene of the music video, Taylor raises a wedding toast before passing a red gift box (yet another prop that was spied along with the dress and ring) to the bride (who, fun fact, is played by Miles Teller’s real-life wife, Kaleigh). The present turns out to be a red scarf, identical to the one seen in the All Too Well short film. The alleged story behind the imagery of the red scarf is that it directly refers to a scarf Taylor was seen wearing while dating Jake Gyllenhaal in 2013. What seemed to be the exact same scarf was later spotted around Jake’s neck years after their whirlwind romance.
5) Blake Lively’s teaser
While this Easter egg is not from the music video itself, Blake Lively’s twitter teaser for the music video had ignited much speculation among fans. In the tweet’s caption, Blake sneaked in the Joker card emoji between two hearts. Fans think this could be a hint at another Taylor and Ed Sheeran collaboration. Both the original and Taylor’s version of Red include the song ‘Everything Has Changed’ featuring Ed. On his recent album = is a track titled The Joker and the Queen, and his music video for his song ‘Bad Habits’ showed him channelling Heath Ledger’s Joker.
Tomorrow 10am ET pic.twitter.com/CAhuqysnGJ
— Blake Lively (@blakelively) November 14, 2021
Furthermore, the clip of the wedding cake in the teaser in Blake’s Twitter post shows two parallel gashes on the cake forming an equal sign, perfectly resembling Ed’s album name and cover. Are we going to be surprised with another Taylor x Ed collab soon?
6) The white birds on the wedding cake
Last but certainly not least, the design of the wedding cake Taylor destroys includes a border of white birds. It’s theorized that this is a clue for what’s to come next: A re-recorded version of 1989. While nothing has been confirmed yet, the original 1989 album was released after the original Red album, and some fans believe the white birds on the cake are a reference to the ones on Taylor’s sweater on the original album cover. With the original version of 1989 allegedly being heavily influenced by Taylor’s relationship and break-up with pop star and now-budding actor Harry Styles, fans are already highly anticipating what Taylor has in the works.
Regardless of what happens next, all eyes are surely on Taylor Swift as she continues to prove why she’s one of the music industry’s smartest artists to date.
| “I gotta go with Taylor, the world needs more Taylor, I need more Taylor.” — Blake Lively on who she would clone [@BuzzFeed] pic.twitter.com/Yipr1dR5au
— Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNZ) January 31, 2020
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