Back in 2024, the Los Angeles Times called Taylor Swift “patient zero for emotional contagion,” which may have inspired her lyrics from this single off Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, out Sept. 25, 2026.
But it turns out “Patient Zero”—which features Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell in the music video—is about Taylor bonding with a woman over a mutual ex, beginning with, “If you wanna party with somebody who might know / About the devil on his shoulder under his halo / When the toxins take their hold, you’d rather die than let it go / But if you’re sick of him, I got you, I was patient zero.”
If an ex having a halo (or lack thereof) sounds familiar, she also touched on that theme in “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” from Tortured Poets, which seemingly alluded to her ex Matty Healy. Taylor sang at the time, “He had a halo of the highest grade/ He just hadn’t met me yet.”
Now that Taylor is happily married, she is imparting wisdom on her ex’s new partner in “Patient Zero.”
“Take it from somebody who lost his games but won the race / Take it from someone who said all of this to his face,” she says. “Someone who knows she’s more than just the chase / Someone who had him and walked away.”
So, who could she be singing about? It could have been inspired by her girls’ night out with Sophie Turner shortly after the actress’ 2023 split with Joe Jonas, who Taylor dated in 2008. (He is also believed to have inspired Fearless‘ “Forever & Always” and “Mr. Perfectly Fine.”)
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