Re-record hints and symbolic 'keys': All the Easter eggs in Taylor Swift's 'Bejeweled' music video.

Taylor Swift said she put a lot of Easter eggs in her video for 'Bejeweled', the second video from her new album Midnights. And look, she wasn't lying.

"I was like, 'I want to make a video that is just for the fans who like certain things, like glitter and Easter eggs and lots of little cameos'," Taylor told Jimmy Fallon.

Sooo... she stuffed so many in she needed to create a PDF file to keep track of them all.

The 'Bejeweled' video is essentially Cinderella (Taylor's Version). It's her take on the classic fairytale, in which she plays the Cinderella-type character. But instead of searching for magic and marrying a prince, Cinderswift (I just made that up) knows she's "magic" enough as she is... and she just wants the castle, not the husband.

With cameos from people across the Swift universe, like Jack Antonoff and Zoe Kravitz, to legends of entertainment like Laura Dern and Pat McGrath.

Like the song says, it polished up real nice.

Here's everything we've found, and what we think it all means.

The stepmother and stepsister dialogue.

In the beginning of the video, (Oscar winner) Laura Dern and the Haim sisters, Danielle, Este and Alana, star as the stepmother and stepsisters of Taylor.

In the video, Dern says "Speak not, tired tacky wench, clean", which is absolutely a nod to Taylor's third album, Speak Now and the song 'Clean', from her fifth, 1989.

Oscar winner Laura Dern. Image: Taylor Swift/Republic Records.

The characters then make some classic Swift references, including puns like "swiftly" and insults like "snake", which she was called during her 2016 drama with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West before she made them part of her brand with 2017's reputation.

Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is coming.

'Sparks Fly' girlies, rejoice. 'Dear John' fans, scream. 'Better Than Revenge' apologists, go stand in the corner and think about what you did.

IT'S ALMOST OUR MOMENT.

Because Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is absolutely the next re-recorded album. The 'Bejeweled' video is essentially screaming that in our faces.

The fact that 'Speak Now', the title song, is a fictional account of interrupting a wedding makes this whole thing even funnier. Now, in this music video and throughout songs on Midnights, Taylor sings about how unimpressed she is by the idea of marriage.

The music video release date.

The 'Bejeweled' video - from her 12th album, if you count two re-records - was released on October 25, 2022.

Speak Now was released on October 25, 2010.

Which was... 12 years ago.

The string arrangements of very familiar songs.

In the opening scene, a string arrangement of 'Enchanted' plays in the background.

Then at the end, another string arrangement of 'Long Live' plays as three dragons fly around the castle. Three because it's her third album, and dragons because of the line 'I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you'.

i love that there’s an instrumental of long live at the end of the bejeweled music video right when the dragons appear because “i’ve had the time of my life fighting dragons with you” 🥲 pic.twitter.com/XjGFShJ9s1

— jessica (@enchantedjess13) October 25, 2022

The elevator.

The elevator itself is a Speak Now reference: the song 'Ours' begins with the line "Elevator buttons and morning air", and Taylor also rides an elevator in that song's music video.

In 'Bejeweled', Taylor hits level 3, which is coloured purple just like the Speak Now cover. 

The 13th button is also purple, which is perhaps the most in our faces reference of them all.

Image: Taylor Swift/Republic Records.

The sparkling jewels.

On the third floor, Taylor is dressed in a bodysuit covered in gems representing the different colours of her albums, just like the elevator buttons.

As she leaves that room to go up to another, her earrings - which are red on top and purple below - sparkle.

Image: Taylor Swift/Republic Records.

Purple, of course, represents the Speak Now cover, but the red could also represent the deluxe version of that album's cover which switched her purple dress for red.

Or, it could represent the end of the Red (Taylor's Version) re-recording era before we head into Speak Now (TV).

I'm already starting to understand why she needed that PDF.

The 13th floor talent show.

When Cinderswift goes to the 13th floor, she performs on stage like this:

Image: Taylor Swift/Republic Records.

That clock is pointing to THREE.

The sky is also... purple.

There's also a rep Easter egg here: she's dressed like Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, which also starred her then-husband Richard Burton. The "Burton to this Taylor," lyric from '...Ready For It' says hi!

Then there's this hint at the Speak Now CD art:

Image: Taylor Swift/Republic Records.

The hair clips.

TS and SN? Suspicious.

Image: Taylor Swift/Republic Records.

The Speak Now tour hints.

Let me present you these two images, one from the end of the 'Bejeweled' video, and one from the encore performance of 'Love Story' during the Speak Now tour:

Image: Taylor/Republic Records/Getty.

But here's where things really jump the shark (oh, you thought that'd already happened? Ha!)

Taylor's new castle has stained glass windows, that feature the same koi fish design as the guitar she used to perform 'Last Kiss' during the Speak Now tour.

Image: Getty/Taylor Swift/Republic Records.

The stained glass windows also hint at this re-record, because of the lyrics in Midnights track 'Would've, Could've, Should've'. In this, she sings "Stained glass windows in my mind, I regret you all the time" (and that song is older Taylor reflecting on the same relationship as in Speak Now's track 5, 'Dear John').

Anyone still with me?

In short: Speak Now is coming, I'm excited as hell, and John Mayer is quaking.

The outfit choices nod to her past eras.

I can't believe we just analysed a guitar pattern. Let's ground ourselves with something a little more entry level:

folklore / evermore / reputation / 1989 pic.twitter.com/CQmjnhJbEj

— blank neto (@folkloration) October 25, 2022

The 1989 floor.

Between floor 3 and 13, Taylor takes a brief stop to the 5th floor - which is shown as light blue, the colour she considers representative of her juggernaut 2014 album, 1989.

She visits it second, which points to that re-recording coming after Speak Now.

A few other possible hints:

• The fur she's wearing out of the elevator looks straight out of the 'Wildest Dreams' music video
• She literally SHAKES OFF the fur
• Dita Von Teese looks very much like 'Wildest Dreams' Taylor, who wore a dark wig and red lipstick
• The two of them, dancing in the martini glasses, could represent the fact that we already have two 1989 song re-records: 'Wildest Dreams (TV)' and 'This Love (TV)'

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A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

Taylor's return to pop.

In the video, Taylor receives a shell necklace which counts down to the end of her 'exile'.

Firstly, 'exile' is a song on her first pandemic album folklore.

She has described the 'Bejeweled' lyric 'I can still make the whole place shimmer' as having a subtle message to herself, hyping herself up to return to pop after a couple of years in the folklore and evermore woods and her re-records vault.

writing bejeweled helped taylor to go back to pop music and i think thats the reason why she’s holding a watch with “exile expires” because with that song she became back to her pop music with “midnights” after folklore and evermore pic.twitter.com/p3YQZ9SVlc

— hi i’m the problem (@ThrowbackTaylor) October 24, 2022

At the end of the video, Taylor ghosts Prince Jack but keeps the keys to the castle - which tie into this idea.

In reputation's lead single 'Look What You Made Me Do', Taylor sung "I don't like your kingdom keys, they once belonged to me", which is widely considered a reference to 2016's '#TaylorSwiftIsOverParty' drama.

In 'Bejeweled', she's grabbing back the kingdom keys.

And it could also reference her vault of material, which she has unlocked with each re-recording to share previously unheard songs written in each era.

The castle, the woods, and the witchy fire.

At the end of the music video, Taylor's in her castle, surrounded by the woods - which for fans represent her pandemic era folk albums. 

In the corner of the woods, collaborator Aaron Dessner's Long Pond Studio is visible, which fans know is where she filmed folklore's Disney+ special (and have long hoped she's do the same for evermore). May the clowning on that continue.

AM I INSANE OR IS THIS LONG POND STUDIO #TSmidnighTS pic.twitter.com/HylLc6G0a3

— liz 🌙 (@AstoundingSwift) October 25, 2022

There's also a glow of light that looks very much like the ceremonial witch circle from the willow music video.

Are we out of the woods yet? Yes, but also no.

And with that, the 'Bejeweled' video comes to a storybook ending, with Taylor ghosting the prince and keeping the castle.

Next chapter.

Chelsea McLaughlin is Mamamia's Senior Entertainment Writer and co-host of The Spill. For more pop culture takes, recommendations and sarcasm, you can follow her on Instagram.

Feature image: Taylor Swift/Republic Records.