Taylor Swift’s ‘The End of an Era’: 13 Things We’ve Learned From the Docuseries So Far

Swift explains how the confluence of her fight for her masters and the beginning of the pandemic at the beginning of the 2020s resulted in a re-examination of her back catalog and the dreams of a sprawling tour at a moment when live shows were shut down. That inspiration is common knowledge among fans, but the footage of Swift hatching the first Eras ideas — beat by beat, moment by moment, unpacking her approach to a crew of future tour mates — is fresh, and thrilling to witness.

Not surprisingly, the Eras dancers, band members and overall brain trust provide plenty of straight-to-camera commentary, both of Swift’s work ethic and of various touring details. Yet The End of an Era also digs deep into their pathways toward the biggest stage show of their lives, with their backstories — from the bassist Amos Heller, who’s been alongside Swift since her teens, and the fan-favorite dancer Kam Saunders, who was always told “no” until Swift told him “absolutely” — providing levity at some points, and producing tears at others. (Notice Kam’s sweet interaction with his mom, and how his brother, NFLer Khalen Saunders, paid for Kam’s ticket to the Eras audition.)

The thwarted terrorist plot that led to the cancellation of a full weekend of Eras tour dates created an understandable sense of unease, and the docuseries showcases how Swift picked up the pieces both practically (with heightened security at the following shows in London) and personally (refusing to buckle to her nerves in the immediate aftermath). The docuseries makes space for the complicated feelings around the incident, from the disappointment of fans in Austria who missed out on the tour to Swift figuring out how to avoid a breakdown as the leader of a positive communal space.

The episodes of the docuseries feature several guest stars — including Ed Sheeran, Florence Welch and Sabrina Carpenter — and their appearances are not treated as an enviable co-sign by Swift on her biggest stage yet, but as a means of support, elevating the tour’s artistic value and contributing to its overall vision. Aside from the onstage fireworks, the behind-the-scenes interactions between Swift and her fellow artists are gentle and authentic, with A-list personalities rendered as old friends bouncing ideas off of each other.

If you’re a pop nerd, with a curiosity for how something with the scale of the Eras Tour is orchestrated, the docuseries illustrates several elaborate processes that help a mega-tour come together (and evolve) seamlessly. From on-the-fly staging ideas to custom choreography to top-secret rehearsal requirements to stripped-down vocal arrangements, The End of an Era painstakingly explains how it all comes together, and some of the best moments play out like a step-by-step guide to something that’s never been accomplished before.

Yes, we get to hear some conversations between Swift and Travis Kelce and their rehearsal before his London stage moment. Yes, they are as encouraging and adorable as you’d expect. More than anything, though, those moments ground Swift in the middle of a whirlwind, a larger-than-life idol for millions of concertgoers with the same hopes, fears, need for reassurance and desire to revel in good news as the rest of us.

“Relationships on tour has always been something I’ve really struggled with because it always felt like the tour was taking away from the relationship. Somehow, I was not able to do both and feel like I was nurturing both at the same time. Even though I would try and try and try and try. Somehow, there’s been this dynamic shift with Travis,” Swift said. “I’ve realized that with this person in my life that just was the right fit for me, you can have the two passions co-exist and they actually fuel each other.”

During a New York fitting, Taylor and stylist Joseph Cassell realized the new Reputation costume didn’t fit, leaving Swift feeling frustrated. Once in Miami to begin the remainder of the leg, Swift’s mom, Andrea, and publicist Tree Paine were excited to see it. And luckily, her seamstress had fixed the issue and the gold made its debut to rapturous screams.

Backup singer Jeslyn Gorman — who joined Taylor on the Reputation tour — revealed the reason for her absence during six months of Eras: She had breast cancer. “When Jeslyn got sick, it was the first blow the tour family experienced emotionally. It was completely unfathomable,” Taylor explained.

“I was diagnosed with breast cancer and obviously it was devastating. But every weekend, we had a show so I still flew to the next city, did a show with everyone and, like, in the middle week when we weren’t doing shows, I would fly back to L.A. and just have biopsies and poked and prodded,” Gorman said. “Learned really what I had to do treatment wise and then hopped back on stage and pretended like nothing was happening.”

She took off six months to go through surgery and chemotherapy. But when she finished treatment, she came back to the tour. “The will to come back and do the hardest show ever, none of us could believe it. I still can’t,” Taylor added.

Upon arrival in Miami, Taylor wanted to do a video with her cat Olivia Benson for social media. Set to GloRilla and Sexyy Red’s “WHATCU KNOW ABOUT ME,” the reel shows Taylor entering the stadium with her pet perched in her arms. “I’ve got my most well-behaved cat for it,” Taylor said. “She is my best one.”

With a series of quick change rooms — four to be exact — constructed under the stage, getting Taylor from fit to fit was an art and a science. “There were moments when I didn’t know if these costume changes were going to happen in time,” she said. And once, she even shredded the skin off her palm after tripping — but she still made it with seconds to spare.

“I definitely think that writing music is some kind of therapy. Every record represents something different. The Tortured Poets album is like this purge of just, like, everything … everything bad that I felt for two years,” Swift said. “It was a really rough time in my life, so the songs reflect that. Feeling like I’m not a person, I’m just this big conglomerate that no one sees as a real human being and, like, especially not men that I date. And in the whole process just being like, ‘Nothing works. There is no one for me in the world.’”

But the tour kept her going. “Men will let you down, the Eras tour never will.” (And clearly, things were about to change in the romantic department.)

Taylor asks her mom to tell Tree the story of how the singer ended up with Travis. Andrea recounts seeing the news after Travis shouted out Taylor on New Heights: “I’m looking at the headlines and perusing around what’s on the Internet and I see that this guy came to your show and he brought a friendship bracelet and wants to meet you. And so of course I call up my resident expert on the Kansas City Chiefs — my cousin Robyn — and I go, ‘Tell me about this guy named Travis Kelce,’ and she goes, ‘Oh my God, he’s the nicest guy. And you know what? He really loves his mom.’ And I went, ‘ding ding ding ding.’ And then I said, ‘Now how in the world am I get her to meet him?’”

Well, she just called up Taylor. “You said something to the effect of like, ‘You’ve got to start doing something different,’” Taylor said. After years of speculation, now we know it was her mom playing matchmaker.

Once the New Orleans shows came around, a few of the swing dancers — ones who can do another part they usually don’t — were given the opportunity to appear in other eras of the show. And one in particular, Whyley Yoshimura, really wanted to do “Ready for It?” But, it’s usually just the female dancers on stage at that point. However, dance captain Amanda Belan encouraged him — as long as Taylor allowed it and Belan’s costume fit him. (Taylor did, and it did).

“I was always told, ‘Whyley, you’re great, but you flip your hair too much.’ Or ‘You’re too feminine,” Yoshimura said. But that changed when he started working for Swift. “This job, no one told me I needed to be buff. Taylor never made me cut my hair. I wear different colored eyeshadows in different nights. It’s been almost 150 shows and Taylor has not once said, ‘Whyley, please stop doing that.’ Never,” he added. “I’ve never been filtered as a person of who I present myself as who I present myself on stage with her, and neither has any of my coworkers. And that may seem so small, but as a dancer who has been told to change, to filter himself for almost 20 years, it is one of the most meaningful things to me. It is so empowering. It is so loving. It is so enriching and so much fun.”