With the release of the Tortured Poets 'Stages of Grief' playlists Taylor let me know I had a lot of things wrong.  In particular, the bargaining playlist was eye-opening for me.  Here's what she says about that group of songs:

Am I Allowed To Cry?

“This playlist takes you through the songs that I’ve written when I was in the bargaining stage… times when, you know, you’re trying to make deals with yourself or someone that you care about. You’re trying to make things better, you’re often times feeling really desperate because often times we have a sort of gut intuition that tells us things are not going to go the way we hope which makes us desperate which makes us bargain more.”

• The Great War

• This Is Me Trying

• Peace

• The Archer

• Cornelia Street

• Death By A Thousand Cuts

• Soon You’ll Get Better

• Afterglow

• I Wish You Would

• Say Don’t Go

• Come Back… Be Here

• Better Man

• The Story Of Us

• Haunted

• Come In With The Rain

• The Other Side Of The Door

• If This Was A Movie

• Renegade

Taylor says I was giving too many benefits of doubts to Karlie.  

The Great War?! 

I'm Shook.

Damn her.  I really defended the fuck out of her and it turns out what I was defending was not actual Karlie, but the idealized version of Karlie that was in Taylor's head.

My generous interpretation is shattered with the placement of The Great War on the bargaining list.  Taylor says, "times when, you know, you’re trying to make deals with yourself or someone that you care about. You’re trying to make things better, you’re often times feeling really desperate because often times we have a sort of gut intuition that tells us things are not going to go the way we hope" which changes the meaning of:

punish you for things you never did, sense I was betrayed, and almost lost you

The lines in the song went from nearly breaking up to Taylor's wishful thinking.  That's a 180.

Peace

I had it so wrong:

https://kit10phish.wordpress.com/2020/08/30/peace-analysis-of-taylor-swifts-folklore-from-larger-post/

Here's how I interpreted it before, very generously giving Karlie a lot of grace in the situation.  I took the Karlie parts of the song as showing Taylor a lot of love and loyalty.

And Taylor is hard on herself in the song, basically calling herself a coward afraid to come out, essentially ruining the relationship.  A self-fulfilling prophecy Kaylor will crash and burn because Taylor will always scurry back to the closet when her career/image is threatened.  Since that's how it was written, that's how I saw it too.  But that's also upside-down.  

Parts are able to be from "Karlie's" perspective because it's how Taylor longed for Karlie to have felt.  It's the romanticized scenario that Taylor wished would have happened instead of the truth.  The truth is at the first sign of danger it was Karlie who peaced-out, so to speak.  I mean, it makes perfect sense, because unless Karlie had actually helped pen this one how are her thoughts and words conveyed?!  But I guess I also had just hoped for the best, nicest scenario when Taylor's heart was so invested.

The Archer

We already know this song is Taylor asking her fans if they will stay with her if she comes out.  The fact it's on the 'bargaining' playlist puts an even more depressing spin on this one.  Taylor always knew in her heart that she could never come out and keep her career.  But she dreamed and wished.

Cornelia Street

This song speaks of games and a breakup but ends on a higher note:

But the fact the song is on this list tells me maybe the "showed your hand" part may have never happened outside of Taylor's imagination.  The following has a new spin under this lens, it's Taylor's ideals again.  She wishes her life could be fame and career on the outside with a sexy-secret, hidden, and genuine love behind closed doors.  But the bargaining list tells us otherwise.  It's all a figment.  We thought folklore had aspects of fiction, we DIDN'T KNOW that much of the Lover album was Taylor's dreamy romanticized wishful thoughts of how things should have gone.

This part is more realistic to what actually happened:

Death by a Thousand Cuts

The chandelier is NOT flickering anywhere other than in Taylor's dreamy fantasy.

Afterglow

Here Taylor takes the blame for over-reacting.  But also, we're in the bargaining playlist.  So this taking responsibility is false.  Taylor is searching for justifications for Karlie's betrayals.  

But it's not accurate.  They might hook up after this first wedding, but after this point Karlie never intends for Kaylor to be anything real.  Everything that has any depth is Taylor's fantasy life.  And what a beautiful picture she painted!

Taylor felt foolish for mistrusting Karlie.  But turns out she had every right to feel that way, and was just trying to turn the situation around to make it untrue.  

Renegade

I always thought we were really sleeping on this song and on Exile for the Kaylor story.  And I saw the off and on tumultuousness and masters heist rumors in a very forgiving light and had a charitable interpretation of Karlie's actions regarding the Kaylor situation.

Taylor again takes all responsibility for the failure of Kaylor.  She puts the fault on her own anxieties.  But it's also a justification and wish and bargain.  Karlie has been gone a long time and is not coming back.  It's not the big love story that Taylor wanted.

But if these songs are on 'bargaining' my sympathetic interpretation of the situation turns from both gals to just Taylor.  What a romantic!  In many of these songs she has given Karlie the most benevolent read, thus so did I.  Turns out instead of being problematic, over-reactive, and skittish about the closet, Taylor constantly blamed herself for each transgression.  Overthought and took on all blame.  And dreamed up the most beautiful, sexy, loving outcome.  What a mind, indeed.

The realistic story of 1989 Era through Midnights is the following:

So I used to give a lot of benefits of doubts because closeting is toxic and terrible and how are people supposed to act ethically when constrained like that?  But now I see the Kaylor romance as more transactional.  I think it started as promo to get the media to stop calling Taylor boy crazy.  She was trying to center female friends rather than constant relationships. 

https://kit10phish.wordpress.com/2022/11/28/the-squad-changes-taylors-image-from-boy-crazy-to-friend/

And the models were hired to fulfil that role.  The 4th of July parties staged photo shoots.  Sure, the gals were probably friendly, and some of the friendships blossomed into real relationships (Gigi, for example).  I think there was a chemistry between Taylor and Karlie, and Karlie at one point was just as into it as Taylor.  Things bled from acting and photo shoots and dancing to sexy-times behind the scenes between the pair.  Getaway Car hints that Taylor realized she was not just bi-curious and playing games, while Karlie panicked, didn't want to ruin her hetero relationship/image and had sirens in her heart. 

THIS playlist tells ME that the songs in between that I felt showed hope toward the Kaylor relationship being meaningful, was only Taylor taking all the blame, over-thinking, and wishing things were different.  KissGate further compromised the pair's sexy dalliances and things actually fell totally apart at that point.  Everything after that was strictly contractual (The Squad ^TM) and ended with the era.  The careers, the money, and the politics got too real and Taylor ran to the closet as we knew.  But instead of the tender and humane emotions and actions ascribed to Karlie in the music catalog--she took off emotionally in the getaway car and entirely when there was smoke.  Karlie bailed, and the other narrative was Taylor's mind trying to salvage the situation more to her liking. 

And when Karlie bailed she and Josh also ensured their heteronormative safety by having a hand in the investment group that would take Taylor's masters and foil her coming out plans in the Lover Era.  It would be detrimental to the JosLie brand to have a circus, not a love story.  The rest (Klues, signals, outfits, photos, pointed captions, etc, etc...) was thirst and  pettiness from both sides.

So I have to concede that

'win of your dreams/crook who was caught'

is in fact about Karlie, and IS accurate.  Argh, I went so hard for her, and now she's made a fool of me too.  That's so sad for Taylor.  I hope she finds what she actually craves.