Any die-hard swiftie will know that Taylor Swift is not shy about putting Easter eggs and symbolic messages into her videos. It’s practically her second language. Taylor Swift fans, also known as swifties can always count on getting to go on an Easter egg hunt anytime Swift releases a new video, and the video for “I Can See You” was no exception.
“I Can See You” was originally an unreleased track from the album “Speak Now,” and premiered as a vault track with the re-release of the album also known as Taylor’s Version. Any swiftie will tell you that when Taylor re-releases an album and now has a copy that she herself owns, it’s practically a world event for us. Swifties celebrate re-releases like they’re a loved one returning from war, so as you can imagine the re-release of Speak Now was a very festive day for swifties.
The video opens up with a van pulling up outside of a museum at night. Inside the van and hacking into the museum’s security cameras is Presley Cash, who was in the video for the Speak Now track “Mean” as a child. Joey King, who was also in that video as a kid, steps out of the van and goes to break into the museum. Once inside, she is met with a hall of purple lasers representing the Speak Now purple color. The way in which she navigates these lasers mirrors a video campaign that Swift did for Target during the 1989 era, which Swifties now know was hinting at the fact that 1989 Taylor’s Version will be released next in October 2023.
Throughout this whole sequence we see clips of Swift trapped in a large Vault wearing Speak Now era attire, and with the number 13 written on her hand, something that she did during the Speak Now world tour.
King then enters a large room that is filled with costumes from the Speak Now era, all being kept in large glass cases. Suddenly in from the ceiling falls Taylor Lautner, whom Swift dated during the Fearless era, the era that came right before Speak Now. And when I tell you that the stadium completely erupted during this part when Swift premiered the video on Speak Now Taylor’s Version release day during the eras tour. Now, you might be wondering why this was such a big deal to swifties, or why Swift would even allow one of her exes to be in her video. Well, unlike many of her exes, Swift does not have a single negative song about Lautner. Instead, he has a Speak Now track called “Back To December,” in which Swift describes how amazingly he treated her and how bad she felt for breaking his heart. Now swifties, we have a tendency to like and appreciate anyone who we know has treated our queen well, so ever since Lautner confirmed that “Back To December” was written about him we have loved him as if he and Swift are our divorced parents. Yes I know, we’re a little obsessive, but that’s the fun of it.
Out of nowhere a bunch of security guards come running out and King and Lautner fight them off. At one point during this sequence, Lautner uses moves on the guards that he used during his SNL Monologue over a decade ago, when he talked about and demonstrated how he supposedly could have defended Swift during her 2009 VMAs incident. While doing this he is also in front of the piano that Swift played and the costume that she wore while singing “Back To December” on the Speak Now tour. King also grabs the banjo that Swift played while singing “Mean” on the Speak Now tour and fights off some of the guards with it.
Once that’s finished King and Lautner go to the giant vault that Swift is trapped in and break her out. As they run out of the building the whole thing comes crashing down, and when they get in the van and drive off they go over a bridge that has a sign reading 1989 tv. I think at this point you can figure out what that meant.
