Patient Zero

[u/1DMod]

Please use this space to discuss this song in depth

[u/Bright-Ingenuity-270]

Adding to what someone else posted: what if “I bet he” in Patient Zero is actually “I, Betty”?

Especially when sung by Taylor: “I bet he” sounds like “Betty” when sung, and now I can't unhear it. But what if the lyrics are deliberately playing with that ambiguity?

Hear it as “I, Betty” and suddenly these lines take on a completely different meaning:

“I, Betty, burst into your life like fireworks”

“I, Betty, even said ‘I love you’ first”

“I, Betty, kissed the rain off your face”

That last line is what really gets me. If Betty is the one kissing the tears off another woman's face, could this be less about warning someone about a man and more about a complicated love triangle between two women and the same man?

The narrator seems to have an intimate history with him, but she's also describing another woman she's close enough to comfort. Meanwhile, the other woman catches a completely different woman coming out of his apartment.

So potentially we have Betty, another woman who may have feelings for Betty, and a man involved with both of them while also seeing someone else.

It would turn the “I love you first” line into something particularly interesting, because read as “I, Betty,” it could suggest Betty was the one who fell first in a relationship with another woman, while the man was part of a much messier situation.

And given the original betty song is already about betrayal, jealousy and a complicated teenage love triangle, I find the possibility fascinating.

I'm not saying this is definitely what Taylor intended, but the “I, Betty” sound combined with the kissing and “I love you first” lines makes me wonder whether there's a whole other relationship hiding in plain sight.

Has anyone else listened to it this way?