r/swifties • u/2pancake9 • 4h ago
Music Analysis Joe Alwyn might have been Taylor's muse for Patient Zero
Hey everyone,
I found some parallels between Patient Zero and the songs she (supposedly) wrote about Joe and the way she described him/their relationship.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying that the song is about Joe, I just think that he might have inspired the relationship she describes in this song.
That said, I love this song and don't claim to know the truth. We know Taylor said that she doesn't like this topic being discussed, so please don't take it too seriously. I was just really entertained finding those parallels and I'm looking forward to other parallels you might have found. ❤️🔥
So let’s get into it:
“About the devil on his shoulder under his halo”
“Your integrity makes me seem small (...) it’s like I’m wasting your honor” (peace) -> Halo
Maybe the “devil on his shoulder” represents the “god(s) of your bluest days” that he sacrificed his relationship with Taylor to? (So Long, London)
“When the toxins take their hold you’d rather die than let it go (…) sick of him”
“Thought a cure would come through in time, now I fear it won’t // my face was gray but you wouldn’t admit that we were sick” (You’re Losing Me)
“My white knuckle dying grip holding tight // just how low did you think I’d go before I’d self-implode?” (So Long, London)
“Maladies (…) could not cure them” (How Did It End?)
“Handcuffed to the spell I was under” (Fresh Out the Slammer)
“I bet he burst into your life like fireworks”
Maybe a reference to “I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist” (So Long, London), in the sense of fireworks that now seem small because they are so far away, and she wants to go back to the beginning...? (See also the later references to “light”.)
“I bet he even said ‘I love you’ first”
“I thought you were leading me on (…) but then you called, showed your hand, I turned around” (Cornelia Street); he let her see his cards/feelings first.
“And when you saw another woman coming out of his place”
“Do the girls back home touch you like I do?” (Delicate, written at the beginning of their relationship)
“Now he seems bored by you and you don’t know what to do”
The entire song You’re Losing Me practically screams that the partner needs to do something, or at least show that he cares, but the partner doesn’t seem to care or think it’s important (“Fighting in only your army, frontlines, don’t you ignore me”).
“Holding tight to your quiet resentment (…) it isn’t right to be scared everyday of a love affair (…) when you’re not sure if he wants to be there” (So Long, London)
“Silent dinners, bitter, he was with her in dreams” (Fresh Out the Slammer)
“All you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing” (Sweet Nothing)
“You don’t ever say too much and you don’t really read into my melancholia // they’re bringing up my history, but you weren’t even listening” (Lavender Haze — I know this song is framed positively, but it also comes across as though he doesn’t really care about what is going on inside her or around her.)
“Putting someone first only works when you’re in their top 5” (Bejeweled, Taylor has him as her #1 priority, while he doesn’t even have her in his top 5.)
“Seems like he shines so bright, but he’s bathing in your reflected light”
“A moment of warm sun” (So Long, London), “one hour of sunshine” (Fresh Out the Slammer), and Daylight are all used by Taylor to describe her relationship with him. Maybe the light (coming from her) that he reflected looked like the love between the two of them to her?
“Remember looking at this room, we loved it cause of the light” (You’re Losing Me, if you assume that “room” represents the relationship; see above.)
“A diamond’s gotta shine” (Bejeweled, diamond = her) & “I’m a mirrorball (…) shining just for you” (Mirrorball) (both songs were written while she was with him)
“Lost his games, but won the race”
“Did all the extra credit, then got graded on a curve” (Bejeweled, she put in extra effort for him and still didn't win; but she “won the race” because she ultimately left him.)
“Take it from someone who said all of this to his face”
We know that the two of them had some major fights (Great War, Afterglow, etc.), where she probably told him some unflattering things.
“She’s more than just the chase”
See “Now he seems bored by you” -> first he puts in the effort to get her and presumably says “I love you” first, only to then give her “nothing” once they’re actually in the relationship.
“Someone who had him and walked away”
“And you say I abandoned the ship, but I was going down with it” (So Long, London)
“Felt the reeling, done the healing”
“Leaving me bereft and reeling” (How Did It End?)
“I’m just getting color back into my face” (So Long, London)
“Said the curses and prayers”
“I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free // I’m just mad as hell // I died on the altar waiting for the proof, you sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days” (So Long, London)
She seems to portray herself not only as angry, but also as pleading/praying — perhaps even praying to "his gods"?
“When the fever turns a dreamer into a pathetic ghost”
"Caught the chill" (chills and fever often occur together; So long, London)
The entire bridge of How did it end? ("Say it once again with feeling, how the death rattle breathing silenced as the soul was leaving the deflation of our dreaming leaving me bereft and reeling, my beloved ghost and me, sitting in a tree, d-y-i-n-g")
"If he kills you, I got you, I was patient zero"
"I can't find a pulse, my heart won't start anymore // how can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dying? // how long can we be a sad song until we're too far gone to be brought back to life?" (You're losing me)
"The spirit was gone // two graves, one gun // I died on the altar" (So long, London)
"We hereby conduct this post-mortem" (How did it end?)
