With five episodes down, The Summer I Turned Pretty is nearly halfway through its third and final season. And though its stacked soundtrack includes bangers, bops, and ballads from The Cranberries, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead, Fleetwood Mac, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, and more, compared to seasons past, The Summer I Turned Pretty is sorely lacking the signature sounds of Taylor Swift.

When Swift’s “You’re Losing Me” closed out The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s emotional Season 3 premiere, fans thought, “We are so back!” and emotionally prepped for a Swift-heavy soundtrack ahead. In a twist, however, the four episodes that followed were fully Swift-free! And for anyone wondering, yes! There’s a reason behind the soundtrack switch-up…

When confronted about the lack of T. Swift anthems in an Episode 5 post-mort interview, creator Jenny Han told Variety, “I think I’ll say, I guess… keep watching.” Interesting.

Han set Swiftie expectations sky-high ahead of Season 3 by releasing a trailer that featured an iconic mashup of “Daylight” and “Red”. And as Decider noted throughout our deep-dive Easter egg recaps, Season 3’s color symbolism and other details constantly call back to Swift’s lyrics. In a way, her songs have been present in the first half of the season. But since Han has always been incredibly thoughtful about the show’s music choices and Swift’s songs are so close to her and Belly on a personal level, there’s clear meaning behind the lack of her music in Season 3’s early episodes.

“Taylor Swift’s music has always been tied to Belly’s inner emotions in TSITP,” a viral TikTok from @audreymartha reads. “In Season 3, Episode 1, we heard ‘You’re Losing Me” when she confronts Jeremiah. And after that? Nothing. No Taylor…reflects Belly’s emotional numbness. She’s disconnected, confused, and uncertain. No spark, no clarity. No music. Until we hear Taylor again, Belly’s heart is still on pause. The silence is deafening.”

“My TSITP theory is that using ‘you’re losing me’ was symbolic to the fact that jeremiah has lost the taylor swift song privilege. we won’t hear another taylor song until belly starts to reconnect with conrad and they will shift back to bonrad scenes,” another fan wrote on X.

There’s no doubt that the inclusion of “You’re Losing Me” stressed just how major Jeremiah’s betrayal was and how severely it threw Belly off her emotional axis. In the episodes since, she dealt with her brother’s car accident, got unexpectedly engaged, raced to plan a wedding without her groom-to-be by her side, and had a crushing falling out with her mother. Not to mention, we’ve heard far less of her inner monologue/voiceover! So Belly’s emotions are in flux for sure.

Even when we catch glimpses of joy, like we did in Episode 5, she’s more disconnected from her narrative, overall direction in life, and emotions than ever before. And though some fans expected a Taylor needle drop during Conrad’s POV episode, Swift’s music has always functioned as a North Star of sorts for Belly’s inner emotions, so we likely won’t hear new Swift needle drops until Belly starts sharing those intimate parts of herself with viewers again.

While Belly has largely kept her feelings to herself in early Season 3 episodes, Taylor Swift’s songs are still setting the tone for certain scenes on set. I mean, Jenny Han literally had “All Too Well” playing for Lola Tung while filming Episode 2’s crossword puzzle flashback scene! *SCREAMS*

In the past, Han has been open about the importance Swift’s music played while she was writing TSITP books. She’s also shared gratitude for Swift’s relationship with the series. So for all those reasons, plus the fact that she said “keep watching,” we’re confident that Season 3’s second half will deliver a number of highly-anticipated Taylor Swift music moments. And hey, maybe we’ll even get a new song from the 14 time Grammy winner debuted via the series. FINGERS CROSSED!

While we wait for Swift’s return to the series, here’s a look back at every Taylor Swift song in The Summer I Turned Pretty, plus more Season 3 soundtrack info.

While we wait to see which new Taylor songs the rest of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 has in store, be sure to read Decider’s 5 Things You Missed in TSITP Season 3, Episode 1 , Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5 to learn about more exciting TSITP Easter eggs and standout songs.

New episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video.