Therapist Reacts To: Exile by Taylor Swift 

Didn't see the signs, Gave so many signs. That's the part that got me. He's confused. He thinks it only took her 5 minutes to pack. It didn't. It took all that time he wasn't seeing her. It only seemed sudden to him because he was so tuned out, so emotionally disconnected from her. He never saw it coming because he wasn't looking. She knew he wasn't looking, wasn't seeing her. She could feel the isolation down to her bones. She kept trying to send him warning flares. But he was looking somewhere else. Into himself, or into someone or something else. Anything but her. So of course he didn't see it coming. He was looking in the wrong direction.

Exile is one of my favourite songs on Folklore and it still just makes me emotional listening to it 🥺

an album reaction on nfr or honeymoon would be EVERYTHING

That is the exact emotion I feel every time I hear this song! Taylor is an amazingly talented songwriter and singer, and pairing up with Bon Iver was just genius! ❤❤

I went through a pandemic divorce with my wife of 10 years a couple years ago. I felt blindsided and have resented her since. She wants to stay friends but the sudden way she ended things is hard to forgive. ...but this song helps remind me that there's two sides to every story. For every thing she did or didn't do wrong leading up to the end, there are things I did or didn't do that made it harder for her to communicate instead of bottling everything up until it exploded. Whether I let her be a part of my life in the future or not, it helps me resent her less. Life is too short to carry so much baggage with you everywhere.

The “like you’d get your knuckles bloody for me” part makes me think that he didn’t fight for it before, and it’s “oh NOW you put on a show of caring, but we know that you won’t.”

The "get your knuckles bloody for me...those eyes add insult to injury" section always makes me think of when someone has been asking and asking for something from their partner and it's brushed off. And then when you decide to leave suddenly they're willing to do everything you were asking for and it's kind of insulting. Like "oh now that this actually affects YOU you want to fight for us" No idea if that makes sense or was just rambling 😂 also what is your lipstick in this video? It's so nice!

this song just hits different after you’re losing me since joe wrote it with her…

I love the "you never give me any signs" part. In my experience I've tried to bring up problems with men and it's dismissed as an overreaction , with a "I don't think it's a problem so therefore it's not" kind of attitude. Then when I leave they wonder what they did wrong.

'i'm not your problem anymore/so who am i offending now' hits HARD. if you've ever been with someone who you've always felt was ashamed of you and treated you like an inconvenience and a liability. oooof. like he sees her affection and her behavior as a problem or takes offense to it, and she's like okay i'm GONE, i'm somebody else's problem, what do you want now?

People have been saying Taylor’s going to be releasing breakup songs about Joe on her next album but I think we’ve had so many about their relationship already. This feels like the sister song to You’re Losing Me.

Now this song is reminding me of Joe and Matty, like how she says “I sent you signals and bit my nails down to the quick” (I gave so many signs) and how she moved on so quickly (in five whole minutes)

this is my favorite folklore song, maybe my favorite of all her songs. so beautiful, so heavy, so haunting, so relatable to me. great analysis, mere

I STILL CRY hearing this song, I thought im fine already but nope, I just cry again and again and having Goosebumps hearing this song 😢

It seems kind of ironic that Joe Allwyn co-wrote this song with Taylor given what she says about the end of their relationship in “You're Losing Me.” Here they write about not seeing the signs that your partner is unhappy or that something is wrong in the relationship, so you'd think Joe would be more aware. Yet Taylor writes that she glared at him with storms in her eyes and that her face was gray, but he wouldn't admit that they were sick.

this song breaks my heart every time because the lyrics are too identical to what I experienced. Watching your reaction brought some waterworks again, and it's made me realize how fortunate I am to be in a healthier place in my journey. Thank you!

I think songs like this and You're losing me are so powerful in helping people to identify patterns like this in our own lives. Very yes.

Do evermore(song) next. It’s more about the pain you feel not necessarily about a relationship. My favorite of the two collaborations with Bon Iver.

I read somewhere that she was his town and he was her crown and a king rules over his town and that meant something to me

My favorite version of Exile is the surprise song version when she sang his part in the bridge and the swifties sang her part it was so cute. Also I just found your channel and i love your view on her songs and side note your pretty.

Mere this one of my fav song of Taylor.. when I listened at first time in Sardinia I cried, when i listened on "You" Netflix I cried e now i'm crying.......... Mere you are the best! ❤Love from Italy 🇮🇹

Masterpiece in songwriting. Love your reaction. Subscribed.

I love how beautifully the song establishes their relationship dynamics. They were not equal partners in the relationship. He saw her as his "town" while she saw him as the "crown". She is the town that he ruled over.

Thank you so much for this! I was waiting for exile❣️... It is one of my favorite songs from folklore along with my tears ricochet.... They both sound so good together.....

Oh, I loved this analysis so much! If you haven't done them already, it would be amazing if you reacted to "Coney Island" and "Alcott". Both are duets with the National.

I’ve been waiting for this!!!

I really like your lyrical analysis it’s an amazing experience to get to watch your videos ❤❤❤

Leaving out the side door makes it seem like she just left inconspicuously and that's why he feels it was abrupt and she left without giving him any signs

This is my favourite Taylor song by far... so many emotions 😢 thanks for reacting to it I really enjoyed your take on the songs meaning.

Oh man I had been waiting for exile since you said you already reacted to it in another video, I like it so much, sending love to you ~

your commentaries are the best

Omg I've been awaiting for this one 🥰

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) is a contemporary of Lana del Rey's for lyric writing. Boy goes deep. 8 (circle) with it's heartbeat and Dante reflections

“Holding all this love out here in the hall” the heartbreaking rejection

love your reacts!!!

I would love a reaction to My Tears Ricochet from the Long Pond Sessions. You could also experience this one live vocally, which is far superior to this version, and one of the most powerful duets I've ever seen. Love your reactions. Thank you.

Would you please do a follow up looking at this song from a parent/child perspective? This song always reminds me of my relationship with my parents 😢

This song feels like a future relationship I'm still not over yet.

Great song that brilliantly shows both sides of a dying (dead) relationship and gives you space to empathize with both sides. But I also agree that the Scott Borchetta/Scooter Braun masters situation might be at least part of the inspiration behind so many of the songs that Swift’s written in recent years revolving around themes of betrayal.

Love your work girl. Keep on goin ❤

LOVE the TATTOO! That’s commitment!

omg i love your reaction vids to folkloree, im surprised you still havent done a reaction to mirrorball though! im sure there will be a lot of reflective (no pun intended) reads we can hear from you in this song!

Definitely one of my favourites of of the album

This song has always reminded me of The Last Time.

You’re losing me reaction has 105 k views!!!! You’re killing it mere.

I love your reactions and your channel🩷you're great

Sometimes everything can seem perfect until the slightest thing changes, and everything crumbles down

I've just subscribed. It appears by your eyes that this song really hit you. I'm Australian and 71yrs old, and only subscribe to a few and add a comment. I love this song. ❤❤❤❤😊

Yes

That’s a beautiful song.

this song is sooooo haunting

basically 99% of all kind of relationship's would work and be better if people just communicated

Them together r perfect

I am looking at all these songs differently now after You're losing me. Especially with this one, I think Taylor gave so many signs that something was wrong, but Joe was oblivious to it. He didn't want to see them.

Had so much fun at her show in Detroit that I bought second row seats for NoLa! Cannot wait to see her in my homeland

"like you'd get your knuckles blood for me..." reads to me sarcasm, because he can't and won't fight for her by being an active partner but still looks at her new man 'understudy' as secondary to him thinking he is still king to her regardless of his lack of commitment.

Not you posting this right after I got my eras tour ticket ❤😂

Exile is one of my favorite songs from that Album

Waiting all day to finally finish studying for today to watch this after bedtime

This song made me love Folklore.

If you decide to do an album reaction, NFR ( Norman Fucking Rockwell ) would be a great #1 choice to start with for Lana.

bon iver is one of my fav artist. he's amazing. check his previews albums, like 2014 or something. xxxxx

Thank you

Oh dear.. I loved your breakdown. Perfection. ☆New sub.

This song cuts so deep

When I first listened to this song I thought it was her way of leaving a relationship before she got hurt.. it sounded like to me that she was trying to protect herself like because he didn't see the "signs" or wasn't able to "read her mind" she took that as he doesn't care about me, he doesn't want me etc etc, so I'm going to leave this situation before I get my heart broken. But then from his point of view it's like he's saying I always loved you, I always wanted you and all those things that you were seeing or perceiving as me going to leave you or hurt you weren't actually there.. it sounded a lot like miscommunication to me. I think I saw it this way because of my own anxiety which always throws me all these irrational, often negative thoughts like: "he doesn't love me", "he doesn't want me", "he doesn't care about me" and then my mind offers me examples of how this might be true when in reality it isn't. With anxiety it's so hard to see sometimes what is "real" and what is just going on inside your own head; what's just your anxiety and what is actually happening. So that's how I interpreted the song initially, but it was nice to hear your perspective on it and look at it in a different way. I love how songs can be interpreted and understood in so many different ways depending on what you're going through and what personally resonates with you. That's why music is so important and why Taylor Swift's music is important too because no matter what she sings, I always feel something or it always resonates with me in some way that may or may not have been the way she intended. Thank you for your reaction

The thing I have realized paying more attention to TSwift over the past NFL season is that she really does stay in these relationships way past when she should, or way past when I would. That has allowed me to contextualize this myth that she moves on too quick. Its not that, to me its that by the time the public hears about it, these relationships have been long dead.

It hurts me more now because I think, if I remember correctly, she (Taylor) wrote it with Joe (a.k.a. William Bowery) . . . 😢 So did she know even then that they were already falling apart, maybe . . . ??

The therapist is Mere came out. So passionate about her work ❤❤😂😅😊🎉😢

Exile is such a greatttt song, I would love it if you did nothing new by Taylor swift and Phoebe bridge, and Melanie Martinez’s crybaby album! 🩷🩷🩷💜💜💜

This is my absolute favorite song by Taylor Swift.❤

It's Justin Vernon. Bon Iver is one of his bands. Would be awesome to see your interpretation of their song "Skinny Love".

This reminds me most of YOURE LOSING ME.I hope you’ve heard this song, it’s heartbreaking.

I would love for you to do a react to Sad Beautiful Tragic by Taylor.

31 M here and I’m not a swiftie but this song is beautiful

You got some of it right.

mer - i would die for you to react to mitski’s i bet on losing dogs, specifically the acoustic AEA sessions version here on youtube. you’ll absolutely lose it.

Cheese and rice . . . I've heard this song a hundred times or more and it tears me up.

I agree about the mind reading thing BUT it kinda depends how strong those signs were. Did she put her feelings up to read on her forehead? Or did he have to look inside her mind to find it?

I also feel like taylor , lana, etc. Would be so impressed watching your analysis of their music , spot on.🩵

This song for me is so hard For me exile is kinda a small tid bit of our relationship My ex husband was a narcissist so his part is a perfect example of him And Taylor’s part (me) was me expressing my point of view and the cops being called countless times and nothing happened 😢😢😢😢

My interpretation of the line " you never learn to read my mind" differently. I see it as you just didn't really get me. My way of thinking, my dreams, my hopes etc. Not necessarily mind reading, just you just didn't get me.

You say 'I don't understand' and I say 'I know you don't'

currently going through a very similar scenario with my partner, I'll let y'all know if I ever learn to read her mind

Please react to “Taylor Swift- you’re losing me (from the vault)” and “Big Red Machine (ft Taylor Swift) - Renegade” Great video! I feel like there is a connection between “excile, the alcott, Big Red Machine (ft Taylor Swift) - Renegade, champagne problems & you’re loosing me” I would love to hear what you think

I love this song 💔. I picture a divorced couple for years that has grown apart after many years of marriage

pleaseeeee a song from MELODRAMA by Lorde

Pls do Paul by big thief ❤️ hope you have a great day and that you are doing well🩵 Hannah xx

Can you make a video about carmen by lana del rey

😢

TO BE LOVED REACTION BY ADELE PLS!!!!!

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I took the song a little differently (and still sobbed through the whole thing.) Bon Iver's first verse: "it took you five whole minutes to pack US up and leave ME with it" --> SHE decided to leave, and left HIM with some burden as yet to be described. Why did she pack up so quickly? For a song that merits so much emotion, this seems like an indicator that her departure was rushed. Taylor's first verse: "Like he's just your understudy, like you'd get your knuckles you'd get your knuckles bloody for me" indicates both jealousy, which has no foundation here --if anything, the opposite-- and a propensity for violence. Yes, "bloody knuckles" is a figure of speech. No, I don't think that Taylor uses figurative language accidentally. "So I'm leaving out the side door" -- I didn't take this as "I'm ghosting you," I took it as "I'm leaving however I have to leave, because you equate me with so much of your identity and stability that I can't just walk out the front." The language in Bon Iver and Taylor's refrains are also interesting: BI: "You're not my homeland anymore [...] you were my town" --> Both of these are native. Perhaps one's "town" can be changed at will, but "home" can't be changed. TS: "I"m not your problem anymore [...] you were my crown" --> Neither of these are native. Either can be changed at will. The grammatical change between "You're not" and "I'm not," in my opinion, speaks to the difficulty that women may encounter even in distancing themselves from toxic partners -- as easily as BI disavows his homeland, TS' equivalent statement is merely "I'm not your problem anymore." Distancing herself from him is presented as the emotional equivalent of BI leaving his homeland. They are both in exile, but in very different ways. I was a Bon Iver fan before I got into TS, and he's an amazing performer, as she is. I think this song runs deeper than people give it credit for, particularly at this stage of Justin Vernon's musical career. Either way... chills and sobs every time.

More lana please

I don’t know if I’m ready for this reaction tho 💔

i will never forgive taylor for not calling lana to participate on this album

This song now weirdly reminds me of Joe Goldberg's bloody scene of cutting his toe

oh gosh just found my therapy....

it's just always so hurtful to try and be understood by the other side.

I never thought that one of the parties was right or wrong in this situation. They both made mistakes and didn't know how to communicate.

You're kind of lovely, just saying.