“Willow” is the very first song on Taylor Swift’s second surprise album of 2020, Evermore, and she sets the tone early on this stunning story ballad. In the song’s new video, Taylor starts off in a white flowing dress with a headpiece that had fans wondering if the video was going to portray a wedding — but typical Taylor, it was a bait and switch and she was simply a magical nymph stuck inside a glass box. Even as she meets eyes across the room with her love interest, played by Taeok Lee, their story is already starcrossed due to her position.
Luckily, she finds a magical trapdoor in the bottom of the glass box, and emerges out in some wild and dark woods, where a magical ritual seems to be taking place. The dancers, cleverly, are masked as they perform the ritual — a clever way to incorporate pandemic safety — and eventually Taylor wanders off into the snowy wood following a golden string. Not quite invisible, but you get the gist. Once she steps through yet another portal, she ends up in a quiet cabin, where, eventually, Lee appears as well, and the two grab hands and step back out into the world, together.
There are plenty of visual callbacks to the “Cardigan” video in this one, so watch it above.
