‘Grotesquerie’: Travis Kelce Makes His Acting Debut With Apparent Nod to Taylor Swift

Are you ready for it? After months of anticipation , Travis Kelce finally made his debut in FX’s Grotesquerie last week — and seemingly managed to sneak in a nod to his real-life girlfriend, Taylor Swift , too.

In Grotesquerie Episode 3, “The Bender,” the Kansas City Chiefs tight end appeared on screen for the first time alongside Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash-Betts), portraying male nurse Eddie Lachlan who finds Lois at one of her lowest points. In an almost phantom-like way, Lachlan shows up out of the blue as our protagonist is drunk and reeling from a disturbing interaction with Nurse Redd (Lesley Manville). Playing the role of the knight in shining armor, Eddie lights Lois’ cigarette and unsuccessfully attempts to talk her out of driving home while under the influence.

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After a whiplash-inducing series of scenes in which Lois crashes her car (shocker), wakes up handcuffed in a hospital bed and then coerces nurse Eddie into breaking her out — she’s got a killer to catch, she tells him — Lois flees with Eddie through the hallways of the hospital. The pair run out to Eddie’s suspiciously lit red convertible in the parking lot where he gets behind the wheel and speeds away.

Of course, nothing in a Ryan Murphy show is without a double meaning and fans immediately began to ponder if the episode’s ending was a sweet and subtle nod to Swift and the song “Getaway Car,” off her Reputation album. Swift and Kelce began dating in 2022 and Reputation remains one of the two albums the singer has yet to re-release under the “Taylor’s Version” moniker. Could it be that Swift is teasing the highly-anticipated album, or is it just Murphy and Kelce’s way of paying homage to the record-breaking artist?

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Either way, the professional athlete is making a solid impression on the TV series in just two episodes (he didn’t appear in either of the show’s first two episodes). After his brief appearance in “The Bender,” Kelce returned for Grotesquerie Episode 4 (“Coordinates”) and got a backstory for his too-good-to-be-true character. Eddie, now a nurse (allegedly) at the hospital where Lois’ husband Marshall (Courtney B. Vance) is in a coma, is a recovering alcoholic and gigolo who now spends his life helping others. He just happens to have a sweet spot for Lois and takes a liking to her and her daughter Merritt (Raven Goodwin), out of the kindess of his heart. Sure, Jan.

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Despite it being one of his first roles and facing public pushback after Murphy announced that he had written Kelce’s role specifically for him, the pro baller is a surprisingly natural TV actor — side note: is Taylor going to change the “Karma” lyrics back to “the guy on the screen” now? It seems like the foundation is laid for the novice actor to play the role of the nice guy through the end of the series. That being said, I think Kelce may be the snake in the grass that the show needs.

It’s undeniable that his fascination with Lois — evidenced by his “I am such a sucker for you problem child types, there’s just something about you” line — could mean darker things for his character. Given that Lois is confident her serial killer, nicknamed “Grotesquerie,” is taunting her specifically, it would be unsurprising for Eddie to emerge as a suspect. Not to mention that she and the other detectives on the case have marveled and concluded that the murderer has a medical background as his cuts on each victim indicate surgical precision.

The question remains: Is Eddie a red herring in the hunt to find Grotesesquerie or is he the snake in the grass that Lois is looking for?

Episodes 1-4 of Grotesquerie are currently streaming on Hulu. New episodes release on FX Wednesday nights and stream on Hulu the next day.

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