In 2024, the Los Angeles Times described Taylor Swift as “patient zero for emotional contagion”—a phrase that may have helped inspire “Patient Zero,” a track from Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, due out Sept. 25, 2026.
The song’s music video stars Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell, but its story centers on Taylor connecting with a woman who shares her history with the same ex. The track opens: “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.”
The reference to a man with a halo—or without one—echoes “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” from Tortured Poets, a song widely thought to reference Taylor’s former partner Matty Healy. In that track, she sang, “He had a halo of the highest grade / He just hadn’t met me yet.”
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Now happily married, Taylor appears to turn “Patient Zero” into a word of advice for the new partner of an ex.
“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 sings. “Someone who knows she’s more than just the chase / Someone who had him and walked away.”
That raises the question: who might be the song’s inspiration? One possibility is Taylor’s girls’ night out with Sophie Turner, which took place soon after the actress split from Joe Jonas in 2023. Taylor dated Joe in 2008, and he is also widely believed to have inspired Fearless songs including “Forever & Always” and “Mr. Perfectly Fine.”