What Taylor Swift's Mysterious Snake Post (Probably) Means

Update: As predicted, Taylor Swift announced that her new single will drop on Thursday night and her next album, Reputation, will be released on Nov. 10. We'll see about the VMAs . . .

Original post: Another day, another snake video. After wiping her social media accounts clean last week, Taylor Swift has returned with some very mysterious, captionless posts of a snake — first of its tail, then of its body, and now, a terrifying look at its head. Remember when Taylor's Instagram account was flooded with the snake emoji in the wake of her feuds with Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian? Something tells us that probably has a little something to do with it. Now that we finally have the third piece to the puzzle, does this mean we can expect an official announcement as early as Thursday? In case you're freaking out just as much as we are, here are a few possibilities for what Taylor has in store:

  1. New music is imminent. Based on Taylor's typical album-release schedule, it's likely that she'll be releasing new music very soon — possibly with a darker tone and possibly during or leading up to Sunday's MTV VMAs. Which brings us to our next theory . . .
  2. Taylor will perform with Katy Perry at the VMAs. Along with hosting the show, Katy is also among the confirmed performers for this year's VMAs. And what could possibly make more headlines than Taylor and Katy pairing up and putting their longtime feud to rest onstage?
  3. Taylor will appear in Katy Perry's new video. On Monday, Katy posted a clip of her upcoming "Swish Swish" music video — the song she allegedly wrote about Taylor, writing, "COUNTDOWN TO CATASTROPHE." Is it a coincidence that Taylor "starred as Catastrophe" in her "Bad Blood" music video? Hmm . . .

The First Clip

The Second Clip

The Third Clip