First, I found this post about this song very interesting. The idea of Taylor relating herself to the Truman show, and having all of her actions calculated by others. Ideas of thinking things were her choice but really she wasn’t given any other options. This post was made for Florida, BUT Fortnight does mention Florida as a prelude to the album.
This person points out how people start pointing out to Truman that he is in this ever lasting loop that although he believes his choices are his, they aren’t. It creates a situation of being used and as a money maker rather than thinking about the wellbeing of a character. This comparison is quite loud… and heartbreaking.
The next comparison this person brings up that is important is the eras tour final song Karma, in which it’s… pretty side by side. I think about how that tour ends, or the whole thing. Especially with I can do it with a broken heart… the idea of performance, masking, hitting your marks despite how you feel.
Pain
Some other comparisons that I found interesting:
I was having a severely hard time separating WHO from WHAT and breaking up with those real life concepts when I listened to this album the first 13 times. But as I listened more I began to divorce the thoughts of who these songs are about and rather the stories they tell with other songs. So I’m going to leave out names with these posts and leave it up to you to connect dots, just as she has.
With the lyrics and the intel of the music video – there are a lot of things to discuss on this song.
Stand alone, this first paragraph made me think of Hits Different.
I heard your key turn in the door down the hallway
Is that your key in the door?
Is it okay? Is it you?
Or have they come to take me away?
To take me away
I was supposed to be sent away
But they forgot to come and get me
I was a functioning alcoholic
‘Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic
The music video opens up with her being chained to the bed.
In the song Im gonna get you back, she mentions being in handcuffs but making her love be handcuffed to her. Except in this scene, she is alone, telling us that it never did happen.
This song is also a huge prelude to the entire album. The psych ward feeling, the DRESS that looks just like the one she wore to the grammy’s, the psychological locked up space she felt in her mind and also physically for years. The pills that helped her get through the heartbreak. All of these concepts are seen in this video and in the songs following on the album.
All of this to say
I hope you’re okay but you’re the reason
And no one here’s to blame
But what about your quiet treason?
And for a fortnight there we were
Forever running to you
Sometimes ask about the weather
Now you’re in my backyard
This song definitely could be applicable to someone who lost ‘the one’ due to timing or situations that came up, however, I am not that person- lol – so I cannot relate completely, but I do love the stories woven into this song.
What I find interesting in the video is her uncovering her face full of ‘tattoos’
She uncovers her face and its very similar to Posty’s [Austin] real face.
However in the music video he has no tattoos – and when they are together – both of them are free of the ink.
In down bad, she mentions losing a twin
I might stay down bad
Like I lost my twin
What if I can’t have him
This to me, again, is proceeding the album. Her twin, lost, held on to for only a second. The make up covers her face so we can’t see she’s just like him.
Turned into good neighbors
Your wife waters flowers
I want to kill her
The I want to kill her line is just my favorite from an artistic point of view lol
The following line of turned into good neighbors, is kind of like watching someone you want to be with love someone else. The person is just existing, watering ‘flowers’, watering their relationship that Taylor wants to be in.
All my mornings are Mondays
Stuck in an endless February
I took the miracle move on drug
The effects were temporary
I thought about these lines a lot. I was thinking it was that something happened in February that made her feel dread – especially with tour amping up. But I also think about the movie Groundhog day and this endless cycle of misery that you don’t know will end. However, timeline would make sense for the official quits that day, and the temporary drug being the fortnight relationship that helped the hurt for only a little bit of time. The relationship she points out is 14 days, but most likely it was only in public for 14 days. A notion we see later in the album.
In the next scene she has changed to black. Everything is black and white, a funeral attire. She’s lost her wedding gown, she is grieving the past relationship, she has entered the poet’s department with her twin. She gazes up at him and catches his eyes. She is repeating over and over that this hurt – current and past – is ruining her life. The fan speculation is something to be noted here, that we see in But Daddy I love him. The amount of fame, eyes, and desire to be with someone who people vocally do not like, is too much for one person.
And I love you, it’s ruining my life
I love you, it’s ruining my life
I touched you for only a fortnight
I touched you, but I touched you
Someone had mentioned the same color palette being in Karma – ft Ice Spice and the music video. The colors are opposite – however this album could be the Karma for leaving her. He did his research he knew the price of speculation from dating her dating her. TTPD is the album created from the abandonment.
And for a fortnight there we were
Forever running to you
Sometimes ask about the weather
Now you’re in my backyard
Turned into good neighbors
Your wife waters flowers
I want to kill her
So the chorus is the same, but in the music video Swift is holding a book called US [hello the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now] and looks a lot like the Lover music video, the difference is the new image of them, is in her head. Physically and metaphorically. The story that didn’t have the ending she wanted – but the story she plays out in her head with multiple songs on this album, as we see throughout the songs.
And for a fortnight there we were
Together running to you
Sometimes come and tug my sweater
Now you’re at the mailbox
Turned into good neighbors
My husband is cheating
I want to kill him
My husband is cheating, I want to kill him. She didn’t end up with her good neighbor, for what? The husband didn’t fulfill his loyalty as promised, and she didn’t date her touch-and-go lover for what? She could have risked it all and tried this relationship in the first place.
I just know this is referencing something else but I cannot find anything. At first glance I would say this is the noise from people, media, fans, managers, parents that surround them, engulf them. They cannot focus on each other because of it. I would say this makes sense because they reach out to touch each other but never do – as he almost grabs her hand its goes into the psych ward where she is strapped to a table – convincing the viewer this never happened, again, it was all in her head.
I love you, it’s ruining my life
I love you, it’s ruining my life
I touched you for only a fortnight
I touched you, I touched you
Through this scene we see her strapped with a ton of doctors analyzing her. The doctors are definitely metaphorical for other people, fans, managers, etc. We even see A Black Dog, showing this album will be a mix of the past and not just one person. It also tells the story that although her fortnight may have felt like the loml [love of her life], it’s also a huge projection of the deep loss she felt with her longest relationship. Our rebounds always take the pain from our previous long relationships.
I love you, it’s ruining my life
I love you, it’s ruining my life
I touched you for only a fortnight
I touched you, I touched you
There is a part where Taylor is being electrocuted and her man comes and saves her and unplugs it. He at first just watched it happen [hey chloe, sam, sophia or marcus] and saves her in the knick of time – this person could be different, however. I kind of see this as the one who watched her burn first, but also the one that saved her. OR when the public dragged them, he tried to make it work, tried to make amends, but in the end it was too late.
I’ve been calling ya but you won’t pick up
‘Nother fortnight lost in America
Move to Florida, buy the car you want
But it won’t start up ’til you touch, touch, touch me
This is a very dangerous situation and I see this definitely as the albatross. So many old sailboat stories about the Albatross coming to warn them about droughts – surrounded by water but not a drop to drink.
What does ‘Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink’ mean? This is from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and is used to suggest that despite being surrounded by something, you cannot benefit from it.
The end they do touch but the stand in of the telephone booth may have been the reference to Maroon. She references Maroon again in Chloe, Sam, Sophie or Marcus. The phone booth could be him not being able to reach her; the “rust that grew between telephones” in Maroon which was a past problem that had come up.
The storm is high, the obstacles for this relationship are loaded and dangerous.
I’ve been calling ya but you won’t pick up
Another fortnight lost in America
Move to Florida, buy the car you want
But it won’t start up ’til I touch, touch, touch you
The end of this song references Florida!!!, another song later in the album. She goes there, maybe something was promised there during her tour? But nothing happens. Nothing happens until she makes the first move, but again, short lived.
The end of this video shows her on top of the telephone booth, rain soaked, just as we see in the lyrics The Black Dog. The Nashville show, that this fortnight relationship presented at, was a rain show. So I interpret those lyrics as that.
How you don’t miss me
In the shower
And remember
How my rain-soaked body
Was shaking
The end has her in the middle, poetically, staring at the camera with ambers of fire blazing around her, presumingly burning up the story of us. In a cold white room, embers fly around her, presenting she is mad as hell. She’s burning the past and moving forward. She then, opens the story to the album.
P.s. This is a sweet mix [lol]
Image Interpretation
by me 🙂
Your wife waters flowers; I want to kill her
When the flowers that we’d grown together died of thirst