We’re officially at the end of an era, as Taylor Swift‘s six-part Disney+ docuseries on the biggest concert tour of all time wrapped this week with episodes five and six dropping at midnight Tuesday.
Episode five is titled “Marjorie” in honor of Swift’s maternal grandmother, who’s also the namesake of the song from Swift’s 2020 album Evermore. The episode begins with a home video of baby Taylor beside Marjorie at a piano, slamming away on keys as Marjorie has her hand behind Swift’s back in approval.
“Part of the Eras Tour is a celebration of my family,” Swift says early in the episode. Taylor’s mother Andrea teared up later in the episode as she spoke about her daughter performing “Marjorie” each night, immortalizing her mother before thousands of fans in stadiums.
“It began with my mother, and that prepared me better than anything could’ve for having a child like Taylor, who pretty much wanted to follow in my mother’s footsteps,” Andrea Swift said.
While last week’s drop gave a deeper look at Sabrina Carpenter’s surprise performance with Swift in New Orleans, this week focuses on another Eras Tour opener, pulling back the curtain on Swift planning a duet with Gracie Abrams after their song “Us” was nominated for a Grammy.
“She and I went out to celebrate in between shows, we ended up having a lot of drinks, and then we ended up writing a song we were really proud of and just got nominated for a Grammy,” Swift recalled. “I just thought, wouldn’t it be cool to do that song in Toronto, kind of create a special moment, mash it up with one of the other songs the fans really love.”
“Marjorie” also gives viewers extensive behind-the-scenes footage of Swift in Sweden alongside producers Max Martin and Shellback, where Swift was secretly working on her latest album The Life of a Showgirl between Eras Tour shows, including during Christmas.
Making the album while I was on the Eras Tour, I was in a place in my life where life felt so full of possibility,” Swift said. “And it felt like I was figuring things out and it felt so romantic and magical and passionate.”
In the sixth and final episode, Swift and her crew go on a well deserved victory lap as they head into their final weekend on the Eras Tour in Vancouver. Opener Gracie Abrams joins Swift in practicing a duet.
One of the highlights of the episode—Swift’s apparently encyclopedic knowledge of football. “I never thought you and I would talk about sports, ever,” Swift joked to her dad as they watched boyfriend Travis Kelce ahead of her last show. Swift might just be a football expert now—something she and lifelong fans probably never saw coming.
However, the thing that sticks out the most in the finale is Swift grappling with who she is without the tour. She speaks of getting her personality and hobbies back now that the tour is coming to an end because she’s never had time to even consider “optional” events in her life due to the exhaustion of being on the road.
Heading into the final Eras Tour show, the docuseries takes fans back to Swift’s trailer speech about pieces falling back into place. We also get a view of Swift inside her famed cart.
The episode, which is certainly a teary affair, finds its most emotional moment in Swift’s final surprise mashup, weaving together “Long Live,” “New Year’s Day,” and “The Manuscript,” where the dancers, singers, band, Swift’s parents, and her team look on as she belts out that the story isn’t hers anymore — a fitting end to the Eras Tour journey.
Swift wants at least one more teary moment, however, ending the docuseries with videos of Swift growing up and performing interwoven with moments from the Eras Tour set to (her best) Evermore track, “Happiness.” On theme with the rest of the series, and one of the best parts of it, Swift also pays homage to the singers, band and dancers who make the tour happen every night, showing videos of them as children and teens and them currently. It’s a genuinely sweet moment.
The series ends with some updates about Swift—she’s bought her masters, got engaged and The Life of Showgirl became her biggest album to-date. And with that, to quote Swift, it’s officially “the end of an era and the start of an age.”
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