Taylor Swift: We hereby conduct this post-mortem meaning, explained

On April 17, Spotify hosted a pop-up event in Los Angeles, California themed after Taylor Swift‘s forthcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department. With a series of clues being hidden throughout the exhibit, Easter eggs were everywhere!

The most notable Easter egg was a scroll that read, “The Last Will and Testament of Taylor Swift,” which Swifties interpreted as the old Taylor being “dead” — a cheeky nod to the lyric in “Look What You Made Me Do” — as she has moved on from her former relationship with Joe Alwyn to her current relationship with Travis Kelce.

After dating for a whopping six years — with Alwyn even serving as the inspiration for her Lover album — a source close to Swift told PEOPLE that they had officially broken up in May of 2023. While things seemed to be smooth sailing between the two lovebirds at the time, their split was largely due to “differences in their personalities” that became “harder to ignore after years together.”

Seemingly not on speaking terms with her ex-lover (no pun intended), fans have used the scroll featured at the pop-up event — as well as a series of words teased via Apple Music — to theorize that The Tortured Poets Department will be a deep dive into her relationship with Alwyn, AKA a “post-mortem” to explain why the relationship came to a close (for better or for worse).

Naturally, these theories came about on X (formerly known as Twitter). One fan shared via the social media platform:

@everaishamore: “If the post-mortem theory is true, then it all makes sense: we have a murder case. The victim is the relationship. the album is the autopsy which should reveal the evidence of how it died. And Taylor, as the chairman of the tortured poets department, is presenting it in court.”

Another Swiftie speculated:

@space_femalien: “All I can think of is this post-mortem idea. If we are really doing an investigation, the victim is the old Taylor, right? And the evidence that’s being entered into question is the cause of her death? And we’ll uncover it as we publicly perform an autopsy of her work.”

A third theorized:

@tweetsrichochet: “Terrifying thought: Hereby conduct this post mortem… AKA, an autopsy of the destroyed relationship.”

With these themes of darkness and death drawing quite a few similarities to Reputation — referencing the lyrics “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now
Why? Oh, ’cause she’s dead” in “Look What You Made Me Do” once again — several Swifties speculate that The Tortured Poets Department will come with a special announcement as well, believing that she will shock individuals all across the globe by dropping Reputation (Taylor’s Version) as a double release, or simply announcing it.

Will this theory end up being true? Well, only time will tell, but expect The Tortured Poets Department to be a juicy “post-mortem” nonetheless…