Taylor Swift’s “Fate Of Ophelia” Music Video Has So Many Easter Eggs

Taylor Swift may no longer be in her Tortured Poets era, but she’s still our English teacher. On Oct. 3, to celebrate her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, the singer premiered the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia” exclusively in movie theaters. Not only was it fittingly cinematic, but it also included numerous Easter eggs.

As Swift said in a behind-the-scenes featurette, she envisioned the music video as a historical journey through different iterations of showgirl. “Like, how you would be in the public eye back during the 1800s when you’d sit for a pre-Raphaelite painting,” she explained. “Or you could be a showgirl by being a cabaret burlesque club performer, you could be a theatrical actor putting on a performance, you could be a Vegas showgirl. You could be one of the girls in the Busby Berkeley screen-siren era of the ’30s and ’40s.”

Of course, she concluded, “You could be a pop singer on the Eras Tour.”

Indeed, “The Fate of Ophelia” includes several Swiftie nods. Here are the Easter eggs you’ll want to look out for on a rewatch now that the music video is streaming.

Her Getaway Cleaning Cart?

The video begins in the after-hours setting of a theater, which is being vacuumed, and a cleaning cart hangs off to the side. This wouldn’t raise any eyebrows if Swift hadn’t been open about using a similar cart to get around her concert venues. How very Showgirl of her!

An Orange Bird

You might have noticed an orange bird flying throughout the music video. In addition to representing the thematic hue of Showgirl, several Redditors theorized that it could specifically reference the “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, where Swift wore an orange outfit in a birdcage. As one fan put it: “I think she is finally free of her cage in this video now [that] she has been rescued from the fate of Ophelia.”

All The Eras Tour Dancers

In a delightfully meta casting move, Swift paid homage to her Showgirl-iest era by recruiting her Eras Tour dancers for her latest video, which she wrote and directed, working alongside choreographer Mandy Moore and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.

A Delicious Treat

Swift poses next to a loaf of bread and a peach toward the beginning of the video — an apparent nod to her passion for sourdough and the “sweeter than a peach” line from The Life of a Showgirl’s title track.

Meow

Swift’s love for her cats is well-documented, and an adorable feline appears in statue form in the same painting.

“Sequins Are Forever”

This playful lyric from “The Life of a Showgirl” appears on the clapperboard for Swift’s fictional, in-video production.

Kitty Finlay

Swift’s on-screen starlet is named “Kitty Finlay. A Kitty is also name-dropped in “Showgirl,” and Swift’s grandmother is named Marjorie Finlay.

A Sweet Nod

Speaking of Marjorie, fans spotted what they believe to be photos of Swift’s grandmother — a fellow musician — in the dressing-room scene.

Good Catch

Swift catches a football toward the end of the video as she sings, “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes” — an apparent shoutout to her fiancé, NFL player Travis Kelce.

An Adorable Puppy

During the same sequence, a neighbor pokes her head out into the hallway to observe the commotion surrounding Swift and her dancers. The neighbor has a tiny dog in her bag, much like the “toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse” in “Actually Romantic.”

Room No. 87

Door imagery has been a significant part of The Life of a Showgirl rollout, beginning with fans speculating about the use of an orange door at the Eras Tour more than two (!!) years ago. Showgirl videos also feature an orange door as their playhead on YouTube. And at the end of her “Fate of Ophelia” music video, Swift enters through a door marked 87, which just so happens to be Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs jersey number.

Where It All Began...

Swift ends the video in a glamorous bathtub moment — just like The Life of a Showgirl album cover. Behind the scenes, she explained that she purposely wanted to end the video with a shot that echoed the cover art.

A Curiously Placed Trophy

While the focus is obviously on Swift in the tub, you can spot a trophy on the floor beside her: an apparent wink to the “Wi$h Li$t” lyric, “An Oscar on their bathroom floor.”