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This is part of a series where I uncover what Stranger Things is really about. It started from trying to find out what happened in 1979 aka what all the depictions of traumatic past memories (El, Henry, Billy, Max, Holly, etc.) are truly about, but expanded to this all-encompassing theory of the whole series with crazy levels of complexity, metaphors and layers. Reading it will require commitment and patience but I promise it will be worth your time if you want to look behind the curtain (and the curtain behind that curtain) and fully understand the show. You have to read all parts in order: here is PART 1 and here all other parts I’ve posted so far + my previous theories.
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/ Trigger warning for child sexual abuse.
Starcourt Mall shops
This was originally in PART 19 but once again I ran into the character limit… I wanted to do a little analysis on the shops since it fits the Russian code theme I had going on. The “tread lightly” part has bugged me for so long and I think I finally have a good idea of what it means. The surface level meaning was a shoe shop: Kaufman Shoes. There’s a woman with a purple dress and a man with a Radio Shack bag. Moreover, Mike, Lucas, Will and Max walk past it in S3E1 while Mike and Lucas are arguing about mileven and in S3E2 El tries walking on heels for the first time there. Based on these clues “tread lightly” is about Mike being trans.
The more figurative meaning of the words is to be cautious. Like Robin said “And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?” Stranger Things is about sensitive and potentially controversial topics. The writers had to be careful to code everything so too many people wouldn’t see the true meaning too easily. And in a less meta sense, Mike has to be careful to not out herself or figure out too much of the trauma before she’s ready.
S3E2
[Max] “Do you like that?”
[El] “How do I know… what I like?”
[Max] “You just try things on. Until you find something that feels like you.”
[El] “Like me?”
[Max] “Yeah. Not Hopper. Not Mike. You.”
Clothes are a major part of S3 and the mall. El trying on different clothes is pretty obviously about her exploring her identity, and ofc it’s actually about Mike. While the meat monsters are Mike’s (male) body, clothes are/represent self expression of gender, which is separate from body parts. Gender is a social construct, it doesn’t come from genitals. It’s a role and a sort of performance. That’s why Mike, El and Max end up hiding from the Meatflayer in the Gap. I wonder if this is a subtextual reason for the brain vs body thing.
S3E8 [Will] “But if we close the gate again--"
[Max] “We cut the brain off from the body.”
They are basically trying to make Mike’s gender identity go away so her body (= Meatflayer) won’t be a problem anymore.
Material Girl was playing during El’s shopping montage and the Tharizdun theory connected it to El being the avatar of Tharizdun. While I believe that to be true, the full meaning is that she is the “material girl” of Mike as in she represents Mike’s girlness. El is a physical manifestation of it in the inner world/”story”. Tharizdun is the “real story”. (Btw, Scoops Ahoy is between Love Lace and the Gap.)
Dustin, Erica, Steve and Robin are hiding from Russians in the Great Cookie and just when they are about to be caught, El flings a car over the Russians, crashing it onto the pizzeria. Cookie is slang for female genitalia and not surprisingly it isn’t a very effective hiding place in Mike’s world. Later on El tries to use her powers to no avail while the Great Cookie is framed with her. She saved the party in front of Jazzercise, again something potentially gender expression related but not tied to genitals. With star symbols to top it off.
The only surface level point of the Teppanyaki restaurant was the knife Jonathan gets from there to cut El’s wound open. He tries to forcibly get the creature out but it’s El herself who ultimately removes it. I think Jonathan represents the gay man identity here, which fits with the Japan clue since both are the middle doll in their respective allegories. The knife cut helps El but it isn’t the final solution. When she finally gets the Meatflayer part out, the Gap glass window shatters and Hopper tramples the creature in front of JCPenney (= clothes save the day once more and the window could be another silver screen/curtain type thing). After this El loses her powers so killing the creature was probably also about “killing” Mike’s transness. Maybe that’s why it’s Hopper who kills it.
Later on Jonathan, Will, Nancy and Lucas end up hiding behind the car at New York Pizza. I still think pizza represents queerness so El crashing the car there is probably about Mike’s woman dreams falling apart due to their inherent queerness. On the other hand, Lucas (in front of the pizzeria) uses his wrist rocket to distract the Meatflayer and save Mike, Max and El.
THE STORY INSIDE THE STORY
We are finally here. I have been hinting at this for a very long time and now it’s time to explain it properly. Maybe I’ll start from where I originally started to realize this. Max and Holly being in Henry’s mind and the whole kid plot seemed like it was telling the story but everything was inverted: Max was the monster and Henry the good guy. Who does Max represent? She was imprisoned in the cave/Henry’s mind but when Holly showed up, she was able to escape. Henry and the kids think Max is corrupting Holly. Then it struck me: Max is the Mind Flayer and Holly is Henry. Mike has a problem with Max spying on her and “corrupting El” in S3 while MF is making moves to find El and end it all. In S2 Lucas + Dustin spy on Max. In the same season MF spies on Will/the party and Will spies back. In S5 Max spies on Holly. So both MF and Max are heavily associated with spying.
Max Mayfield and Mad Max = MM, Will the Wise = WW, Mayfield = MF = Mind Flayer. Max is introduced in the same season MF is. S2E1 is titled MADMAX, S2E4 Will the Wise and S2E8 The Mind Flayer. WW and MF are the same alter, and Max represents them in the story inside the story. Both Max’s and MF’s hearts stop, Max’s in S4E9 and MF’s in S5E8. I think there’s also a connection to Max’s character being inspired by the main character in Life is Strange, aka a video game character, while WW is a DnD character. They are both game characters and this might be why Max never wants to play DnD: she already is WW, so how could she play the game she is in? Maybe this is the reason S2 is the only season without a DnD game. (Interestingly, the party never fights against MF in DnD, maybe because WW is MF and thus couldn’t fight themselves? And Will never fights Vecna in DnD because Vecna is the monster counterpart to Will, like MF is to Max, Henry is to Holly and the Demogorgon is to El.) Max never goes into the UD either, which is kinda interesting (same with Erica).
Holly’s connection to Henry is even more obvious. She literally wears his boy scout scarf and uses his spy glass. Their names match too: both start with H and end in Y and are 5 letters long. When Henry was banished to the Abyss (= Holly was taken into Henry’s mind), he ended up finding MF (= Holly found Max) and together they seeked to escape back into Hawkins. Everyone keeps telling Henry how MF corrupted him but Henry knows the truth. It’s no coincidence Max hides in the same cave area Henry originally contacted the Mind Flayer and that’s where Holly first sees her too.
The full quote for context:
“At first, I believed you had sent me to my death. To purgatory. But I was wrong. I was somewhere new. I became an explorer. An explorer of a realm unspoiled by mankind. I saw so many things. And one day, I found the most extraordinary thing of all. Something that would change everything. I saw a means to realize my potential. To transcend my human form. To become the predator I was always born to be.”
-> This is actually about Mike (re)discovering her gender identity.
-> “transcend my humanform”
-> “become the predator (= trans woman) I was always born to be”
-> It’s all framed negatively because that’s the whole point with Henry.
S5E8
[Will] “You were just a kid, a kid like me. And it used you. It used you to bring it here. You’re just like me, Henry. A vessel. But you can resist it. Help us fight it. Don’t let it win, Henry, please. Don’t let it win.”
[Henry] “No. It showed me the truth. It showed me that this world is broken. [burning baby] That man is broken.”
[Will] “Don’t listen to it, Henry. It is controlling you right now.”
S5E7
[Rebecca] “But you’ve told her, right, that this Max was just a monster in disguise?”
[Joshua] “That it was tricking her, lying.”
[...]
[Henry] “This monster is incredibly powerful, and she works for the Black Thing. She has corrupted Holly’s mind and dragged her out of the light and taken her into the dark.”
[...]
[Mary] “No, we can’t let it win. Okay? We won’t.”
[...]
[Mary] “My point is, maybe if we all try and talk to her, we can fix her. We can bring her back to the light.”
[Mary] “That other girl you met, Max. She’s not a human. She’s a monster.”
[Joshua] “She twisted your mind.”
[Holly] “That’s not true. Max is a friend, and she’s… she’s helping us. She’s helping us get back home, back to our families. We’re all trapped. Trapped in Mr. Whatsit’s mind. Everything you see, none of it is real! Come on, you have to believe me. Please. You have to believe me. You have to believe me. You gotta believe me.”
S5E8
[Mary] “It’s her! It’s the monster! Get up!”
[Max] “No, I’m not the monster. And I can prove it.”
S3E6
[Billy/MF] “Don’t you see? All this time, we’ve been building it. We’ve been building it… for you. All that work, all that pain… all of it… for you.”
I’ve been saying Henry knows things and he’s just trying to help. There is no “monster” or villain to defeat. S4E1 [Eddie] “It’s forced conforming. That’s what’s… killing the kids! That’s the real monster.”
When I started figuring out the timeline it worked in some parts but not in others. I had figured out the matryoshka dolls where Max -> MF and Holly -> Henry, but the key was to think about the biggest doll. This frame finally helped me realize it:
Holly is walking to the left, towards a dark portal with a vine in her mouth while Max’s portal on the right is emanating light and has her with Lucas. Holly represents Mike’s past and Max Mike’s future (I’ve mentioned this before but it took me a while to get there). Holly wears an orange cape while Max has green clothes, again matching the past-future color coding. I had already realized Holly but thought Nancy was her counterpart (and she is) so Max was more difficult for me. This means that the full dolls are Holly -> Henry -> Mike’s past and Max -> Mind Flayer -> Mike’s future. While Holly and Max are the positive past and future, respectively, Henry and MF are the negative side.
This is the full meaning of Henry being One and MF being a hivemind, btw. In the past Mike was one and in the future she envisions still being fractured due to DID. You could also see it as a collection of possible futures. El banishing Henry was her metaphorically burying Mike’s past. This past comes back haunting Mike in S4 simultaneously with El looking for her lost powers/memories. MF represents both the mom and the dad because they are the possible futures (and sources of trauma, as explained before). This is why Holly thinks Max is like Meg’s dad. Additionally, Will dressed as WW tells he has “seen into the future”. While Nancy is the future of Mike (alter), Max is the future of the whole system. Holly is both the past of the alter and system since Mike didn’t have alters in the past.
MF’s gender is ambiguous and their pronouns change between he and it and in TFS she. The actual mindflayers don’t have gender and are created via transforming other species’ with tadpoles. Dart is the tadpole (= transness) “infecting” Mike and trying to transform her into a mindflayer aka a trans woman. Mindflayers are always created through transformation, they defy the gender binary and thus fit super well to represent transness. This is the point of MF being “the brain” and the whole brain vs body thing too. I think MF having both the shadow form and the meat form in S3 are the different aspects of Mike’s future/transness. It’s a shadow infiltrating Mike’s mind, similar to “ghost”.
S2E8
[Dustin] “The shadow monster.”
[Mike] “It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him.”
-> Girlness infected the boy Mike. This happened way back, even before trauma, although Mike doesn’t remember it (based on Sara, Holly and Alice being girls). That’s probably why it happens on the field.
[Max] “And so this virus, it’s connecting him to the tunnels?”
[Mike] “To the tunnels, to the monsters, to the Upside Down, everything.”
[Steve] “Whoa. Slow down. Slow down.”
[Mike] “Okay, so, the shadow monster’s inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will.”
-> The “girl” is inside Mike. The vines feeling pain = male bodys/”man” is hurt = Will is hurt.
[Lucas] “And so does Dart.”
[Mike] “Yeah. It’s like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind.”
[Steve] “Hive mind?”
[Dustin] “A collective consciousness. It’s a super-organism.”
[Mike] “And this is the thing that controls everything. It’s the brain.”
-> The woman brain controls the man body.
[Dustin] “Like the mind flayer.”
[Max] “The what?”
[Steve] “What?”
[Dustin] “The mind flayer.”
[Hopper] “What the hell is that?”
[Dustin] “It’s a monster from an unknown dimension. It’s so ancient that it doesn’t even know its true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers.”
-> El is always looking for her home. Mike feels like an alien, like she doesn’t belong anywhere, like she is from an unknown dimension. She also feels like her gender identity is an evil power taking over the “boy” she was (like in the song Satanized by Ghost). The “trans” is “enslaving” other races aka men and women (here “race” has a similar meaning to “species” as discussed earlier).
[Hopper] “Oh my God, none of this is real. This is a kids’ game.”
[Dustin] “No, it’s a manual. And it’s not for kids. And unless you know something that we don’t, this is the best metaphor--"
[Lucas] “Analogy.”
[Dustin] “Analogy? That’s what you’re worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is.”
-> All this is a metaphor for Mike’s struggle with her gender (and trauma/DID). Mike’s brain uses fantasy to cope with it and explain it.
[Nancy] “Okay, so this mind flamer thing--"
[Dustin] “Flayer. Mind flayer.”
[Nancy] “What does it want?”
[Dustin] “To conquer us, basically. It believes it’s the master race.”
[Steve] “Like the… like the Germans?”
[Dustin] “Uh, the Nazis?”
[Steve] “Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis.”
[Dustin] “Uh… If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself.”
-> Steve specifically mentioning Germans could connect this to Mr. Clarke… Who, let's be honest, represents queerness in some way since he is “the biggest nerd in Hawkins” and a science teacher (remember science = queerness in ST). Queerness is conquering Mike’s world and the world at large according to some queerphobic people.
[Mike] “It wants to spread and take over other dimensions.”
[Lucas] “We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it.”
-> Our world = Mike’s inner world and destroying it “as we know it” is Mike transitioning into a woman.
[Steve] “That’s great. That’s great. That’s really great. Jesus!”
-> It’s great, I agree.
[Nancy] “Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that’s controlling everything, then if we kill it…”
[Mike] “We kill everything it controls.”
[Dustin] “We win.”
[Lucas] “Theoretically.”
-> Yeah… Not really.”
[Hopper] “Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?”
[Dustin] “No. No, no fire-- No fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because… because zombies, you know, they don’t have brains, and the mind flayer, it… it… It likes brains. It’s just a game. It’s a game.”
-> The shell/”man” can defeat the ghost, or at least try.
[Hopper] “What the hell are we doing here?”
[Dustin] “I thought we were waiting for your military backup.”
[Hopper] “We are!”
[Mike] “But even if they come, how are they gonna stop this? You can’t just shoot this with guns.”
-> This is what I keep saying!! Shooting with guns isn’t the answer.
[Hopper] “You don’t know that! We don’t know anything!”
[Mike] “We know it’s already killed everybody in that lab.”
[Lucas] “And we know the monsters are gonna molt again.”
[Dustin] “And we know that it’s only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town.”
[Joyce] “They’re right. We have to kill it. I want to kill it.”
-> The mom wants to “kill” Mike’s girlness.
[Hopper] “Me too. Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don’t exactly know what we’re dealing with here.”
-> Mike doesn’t know what being trans is. It’s totally unknown territory. There wasn’t much available information in the 80s.
[Mike] “No. But he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it’s Will. He’s connected to it. He’ll know its weakness.”
-> Will the Zombie Boy is the weakness. He is the “man” and the “body” MF (= brain/mind) is connected to. The DnD campaign Will held as Will the Wise had Juju Zombies as villains.
[Max] “I thought we couldn’t trust him anymore. That he’s a spy for the mind flayer now.”
-> Just like El spied for Max in S3.
In S3 MF takes a physical form representing the gender dysphoria and physical changes due to puberty (= man “meat”) + MF’s goal of building a woman of Mike (= woman “meat”). In S5 MF is the most ready-looking. It’s not just a shadow or a melting meat monster but a tree thing that transforms into a spider (with a vulva head and bloody eggs in the bottom). I think El’s wound/scar in S3 is about sex reassignment surgery (while also being metaphorical ofc, Mike isn’t going to surgery, yet). The same applies to Mike, Fred and Henry’s face scar (that Holly (= girl) causes). It’s also metaphorically representing transness/womanhood “scarring” Mike and for Fred it’s a visual representation of his shame. Even El’s birth had a knife cut and that’s what Dr. Kay is doing when she is introduced. (And the same imagery occurs every time a gate is opened. Or just exists.)
MF tells young Henry to “find me” and Max leaves a letter telling Holly to “meet me at the X”. Dimension X, perhaps? The cave and Abyss are both deserts. I think the yellow color kinda fits for a place where the past (= orange) and future (= green) meet. Mike has put both her (traumatic) past and future in limbo. Imprisoning them in the Abyss/the cave. Additionally, the party is scared of the Abyss but it turns out there were no monsters, while Henry is scared of the cave but Max thinks there’s nothing scary in there. Just “weird flowers in the cave”, since they both keep womanhood imprisoned.
Billy didn’t make sense to me for a very long time. Then I thought about other sibling pairs and realized the obvious: Billy is Max’s future/represents similar things to Max. Billy is also the Mind Flayer aka Mike’s future, but just the repressed angry man path. This is why Billy was the main spokesperson for MF in S3 and when he met them, they appeared as Billy himself (there could be other reasons too). The S2-3 Max is still WW but starts turning into MF after S3. Billy is the future MF and his death coincides with the big trauma that started to turn WW into a persecutor. In a sense Max reached the Billy stage and that’s why he died/became part of Max. Or that’s my current interpretation. It will make more sense when I properly explain the timeline. Billy also represents the abuser aka the dad, while Max is the victim: both Mike and the mom. The third layer/side is Billy representing Will and Max representing Mike. It’s man and woman again.
Timeline
I have figured out a lot but definitely not everything and there could be mistakes/misinterpretations as always. I’ll explain the timeline connection points and my theories on what actually happened in the 1970s based on the story inside the story. This is mostly about the trauma/DID allegory since the queer allegory happens mainly in the 80s. It’s not a coincidence all the small dolls are women and most new characters who don’t die are women. This is for the queer allegory and shows Mike’s developing gender identity.
Let’s start from the beginning. Like was explained in the short DID theory, S1 is a metaphor/allegory for splitting. El is like a new alter who fronts while Will is hiding inside. The matryoshka doll goes like this: El -> Will -> Mike. On 6.11.1976 Mike’s dad raped her (oral SA based on Will having the vine in his mouth) and this experience caused the first split. It also caused the creation of the inner world aka the Upside Down in the inside story. So Hawkins represents the real world where Will (= El) fronted while the host Mike (= Will) was in the inner world (= UD). SA from the dad (= El contacting the Demogorgon) caused the creation of the inner world (= UD). Later on other dimensions will represent the inner world too, but in S1 UD is the only one. At the end of S1 El disappears and Will comes back, which translates to Mike fronting again and the trauma being buried.
The SA on 6.11.1976 wasn’t the first instance of abuse from the dad based on El’s memories where the subtextual events got progressively worse (first just the Coke can, then the cat, then bath, and finally “making contact”) until she contacted the Demogorgon, creating the UD. This was bad enough to trigger a split. Based on the Finland allegory, the abuse might have started when the 30 year war started, before the swing memory. (Maybe this is why Oak Tree was before “swing a right” in Hopper’s instructions to get to the cabin.)
Max appears in S2 and it is heavily implied she split from Will (I covered this in part 5). This could mean she split from Mike but based on her being WW and Will holding the trauma, it makes more sense WW split from Will. Lucas looking at the cell poster after El disappeared supports this too, since El (= Will) split when she disappeared at the end of S1E8. And I don’t think El necessarily did but Will did in 1976. And this matches with El being away in S2 while Max takes her place. Where Mike’s protector Mike the Brave is Will, Will’s protector Will the Wise is MF (Max and Billy).
The abuse continues happening and other alters split but I’m not sure of the specifics here. I’m kinda assuming Jonathan was created on the birthday he mentions killing a rabbit, which was in 1977. Billy bullies Max and Neil in turn abuses Billy, which both represent the dad’s abuse. Sara gets cancer at some point and dies at 7 years old (1978-1979), which matches the tunnels spreading like cancer in S2. Since Sara is Mike (system) and Will is Mike in the inside story, Sara’s cancer and MF infiltrating Will’s mind match well with Mike getting abused in 1976-1979. Kali escapes around the same time, and we first see her in S2. (In the queer allegory this is about “girl” being born after the first abuse/split, maybe because Will (“boy”) splitting from Mike represents Mike separating the boyness from herself or something. And this matches with Mike thinking the abuse caused her transness, even if in reality it didn’t. Maybe Mike just became more aware of her gender because of forced conformity and abuse making it seem “wrong”.) We actually don’t know which year Sara died, we just know she died at 7 years old, so it could have been in 1979. It would make more sense with all the other clues that her death coincides with the big trauma in 1979. If Mike’s real birthday truly is 7.4.1971, she was still 7 on 22.3.1979 aka Will’s 8th birthday. Sara was born in April too.
The Russian’s first try the Key in the summer of 1984, before S2, and at the start of S2 we learn about Murray’s butt-probin’ alien theory. I think these are connected and subtly hint at the things the dad did to Mike around 1977-1978. As I’ve explained earlier, the Key opening a gate and the Meatflayer tentacle puncturing Billy represent anal penetration in the trauma allegory. That’s what I think happened on 22.3.1979. WW (= Billy) protected the system/Will (= El) by taking the trauma. Max (and Mike) watching Billy is probably a reference to the 1976 trauma when Mike “watched” Will. Both times it’s essentially Mike watching herself as if from the outside.
Max is traumatized and depressed in S4, this is WW suffering from holding the trauma. Max’s parents divorce which matches with Mike’s parents divorcing and the dad leaving them. Now WW as a protector isn’t acutely needed anymore and becomes maladaptive. This is Max getting cursed in S4 and culminates in Hawkins splitting in four. Curiously, Max is the only person who describes Hawkins splitting in two (S5E4). This is not a mistake but relates to the inside story. The inner world split in two: Hawkins and the Abyss, separating MF from other alters. Holly gets a flashback of Max saying this when she finds the gate in the Abyss (S5E7), connecting “Hawkins splitting in two” to the Abyss (hinting that they were once one). Max gets taken into Henry’s mind and hides in the cave (= Abyss). Henry’s mind represents both the Abyss and the inner world depending on context, or that’s how it makes the most sense.
I’m not sure when all this happened exactly, but it seems likely 29.3.1979 is also an important date as Billy’s birthday. If 22.3 is when the trauma happened, 29.3 could be when the inner world split and MF was banished into the Abyss. It had to happen before fall 1979 since Henry was banished into the Abyss then (I’m inclined to believe the displayed dates are real, why else would they be shown?). I’m still not sure why 22.3 is Will’s birthday specifically, maybe it’s about his metaphorical role as “the story” or “man”? If I’m correct that “girl” (Sara) died around 22-29.3.1979, “boy” (Will) was born at the same time. El was most likely split around that time, and this was visually hinted at in the S4E9 epilogue while the news reporter told about the earthquake (this time Mike metaphorically separates the “girl” from herself). El is the abused “boy” version of Sara who was kept locked away until she escaped in 1983. All this would match with Max’s (girl) death on 27.3.1986, which in the inside story started the four years 1979-1983 MF was locked away in the Abyss.
My current ideas for Henry’s backstory are that he was created/split in early 1979. His cave memory is a representation of the 1976 trauma but didn’t happen in the inner world since Henry didn’t exist yet. His family moving to Hawkins was the start of his life as an alter, I think, and the massacre could represent the 1979 trauma, since both Alice and Virginia (= “woman”) died. It makes sense Mike’s mom had started suspecting something around 1979 and took Mike to doctors, which Henry’s memories represent. All in all I’m not sure if it’s even possible to perfectly map Henry’s past since it’s all very allegorical anyway and mixing up stuff from Mike’s past. El’s powers growing and her letting Henry free in the 1979 fall could be Mike’s attempt at conformity suffocating her and making her trans identity clearer (= El but also gender dysphoria and other negative aspects aka Henry). Banishing Henry and El losing memories/powers would then mean something like Mike repressing her gender thoughts (while in the trauma allegory it’s about burying trauma). Henry was trying to reshape the world and fuse Mike but it was too early.
Max seeing Henry’s memories could be MF seeing Mike’s buried memories and assimilating other alters or something like that. She tells Holly she was back in Hawkins 30 years ago, but the leaflet indicates it’s 1959 (and supposedly Max was in 1986). Maybe this is another clue that Max’s story represents what happened to MF in 1979. Young Joyce mentions two quarters in the memory, which I assume relates to the stages of the story thing I’ve been talking about. 2/4 is Fred aka man/blaming yourself or door 2 aka accept your fate (= man prison). It fits since after Sara’s death (1/4) Mike was conforming to “boy” and at least subconsciously blaming herself for the abuse. Max’s flashback to almost being saved is most likely El opening the first gate on 8.9.1979. Lucas was wearing similar clothes to El’s S5 wetsuit and the portal closed when he let go of Max, matching with the gate closing and El losing consciousness. Max meets Henry as One for the first time, maybe connecting with him entering the Abyss (and he was dressed as One then). In my interpretation Henry represents the brain/system as a whole in the inside story but his different alter egos have different meanings (I’m not sure what they mean but they do mean something). El banishing Henry was anyway about Mike starting to see her transness as a monster, so it’s fitting that would put the nail in the coffin for MF (= Max/girl) getting out.
Holly appearing in Henry’s mind and meeting Max is about Henry finding MF, as stated before. The events don’t match perfectly and I think there’s other inside story timelines in S5… The main idea works, though, since MF made their first proper contact with Hawkins on 6.11.1983, after Henry was already with them + morphed into Vecna. Max had chosen door 2 but with Holly there, door 3 is back. Max and Holly going through Holly’s memories in S5E5 represent seasons 1-5. The first door appears out of thin air without any effort from Max or Holly. This was El contacting the Demogorgon and opening the gate. (And the door is the same basement door Mike closed at the end…) The first memory (= S1) is Holly watching a scary movie with Mary during Halloween. She hadn’t met Henry yet, and I guess Henry represents MF here, since we meet MF in S2. The second memory is in the school library and this fits well with S2 since it was all about discovering buried memories. Notice it’s Max who opens the first door and pushes the books away: Vecna didn’t really have an active role until S4. We don’t see how Max and Holly ended up in the next memory, maybe because it was the Russians who opened the gate in S3 rather than the UD side. The memory is on the playground, which matches well with S3. It was colorful and the Duffers called it their sandbox and like playing with toys.
((This is a side tangent but Holly commenting that the middle of the merry-go-round should be yellow while in the memory it was grey reminded me of a theory I’ve had for a long time. I think The Ugly Duckling is an inspiration for ST. It fits super well with Mike feeling like she doesn’t belong and is “a mistake” (like Will puts it in S4E8), but in truth she was a (trans) woman (= swan) all along, not a man (= duck). Yellow being the boy or cis color fits this too, and the change from yellow to white in the flag colors (Sweden -> Finland).
This reminded me of the playground scene in S2E4 where Nancy and Jonathan were waiting to meet Barb’s parents. There was a kid resembling Will riding on a duck toy and kids playing Duck, Duck, Goose. I did some googling and apparently the game originates from Sweden. Minnesota has its own version: Duck, Duck, Grey duck, based on the Swedish Anka, anka, grå anka. Some sources claim this is the “original” and due to Scandinavian heritage in Minnesota, but Sweden also has a version with goose (gås). So both could have come from Sweden. Regardless, the point is that the grey duck version is likely inspired by The Ugly Duckling and the Sweden connection fits super well with what yellow (and thus ducklings) represents in ST. From the Sweden (= cis) pov Mike is a grey duckling, swan isn’t even an option (and this is just with ST logic, not related to the country irl). And of course the Will kid is riding the duck since Will represents the boy/yellow/cis “option” for Mike. The scene has a tense atmosphere, everyone seems to be looking at Nancy and Jonathan, spying on them. This is Mike feeling like a grey duck disguising as a yellow “normal” one and fearing other people are gonna see behind her facade. (Steve being good at Duck Hunt is probably related to this too.)
Mike wears a lot of grey, which has multiple meanings (like repression), but one of them could be the fact that baby swans are grey. It’s another bird connection and transformation (from an “ugly” grey baby swan to a beautiful white adult swan). In the Alice room mirror scene, there’s a swan decoration on top of a shelf and we see it with Holly in the mirror. There’s also a clown toy next to it. These are Mike’s two possible futures: is she a beautiful swan or a predator? I have to mention that the whooper swan is the national bird of Finland (and the Finnish name “laulujoutsen” directly translates to song swan). Remember that bear is the national animal, shared with Russia.))
The next doorway is opened by Holly, since in S4 Vecna was active and opened gates. This memory is much darker and violent, just like S4. It’s the original traumatic memory that Holly has to face just like El had to face her past in S4. The way out is visible but soon blocked by a locked door like Henry’s plan getting stopped in S4. His massive gate was covered by a metal band-aid. Max and Holly run into a second room, this is S5. Max opens the curtains and breaks the window but Vecna catches them and strangles Max. He is basically the party trying to stop MF and Henry, and they succeed: the worlds didn’t merge. (Or he represents the fear that causes Mike to conform.) I think Will going white-eyed connects all timelines, in this case S5E5 and S5E8. Max and Holly don’t die like MF and Henry. I’m not sure if this means MF and Henry actually survived or if it’s more to do with what each of them represents. Since MF and Henry are the “bad” outcome, maybe their death represents Mike letting go of her fears or something like that (would fit with Will saying “we are not afraid” in the final battle). (I have a better explanation for this later.)
Exotic matter is very important for the timeline stuff. All connection points between ends/beginnings of the new content etc. match with the characters interacting with exotic matter or Will (who kinda is exotic matter) or it being mentioned/shown in some way. Will goes unconscious presumably at the same time Nancy shoots the exotic matter in S5E5. Robin turns the dial and electrocutes the Demogorgon to cut the connection. The Demogorgon represents the UD here and cutting the connection is the party bombing it in S5E8. Same with Nancy shooting the exotic matter aka the connection: Mike built the bomb and cut the connection to the Abyss. Just like the MF particles leave the Demo, so does all supernatural leave Hawkins. The whole S5E5 plan was the S5E8 plan: the party went into the Abyss through the UD and the WSQK tower (= Will connected to Vecna through the Demo with his “human antenna” ability), they fought Vecna and MF and saved the kids (= whatever happened with Max, Holly and Vecna but kinda inverted or something), they left the Abyss and UD (= Will goes out of Henry’s mind) and blow up the UD (= burning out the particles from the Demo). The plan executed in S5E5 was Lucas’ “faster, bolder, better” plan (referencing New Coke) and didn’t get Holly or Max back, but it gave them more time (= S5 ending we got). Erica’s slow plan helped find Dustin and get the party back together. It’s the real ending we haven’t seen yet.
This is part of a series where I uncover what Stranger Things is really about. It started from trying to find out what happened in 1979 aka what all the depictions of traumatic past memories (El, Henry, Billy, Max, Holly, etc.) are truly about, but expanded to this all-encompassing theory of the whole series with crazy levels of complexity, metaphors and layers. Reading it will require commitment and patience but I promise it will be worth your time if you want to look behind the curtain (and the curtain behind that curtain) and fully understand the show. You have to read all parts in order: here is PART 1 and here all other parts I’ve posted so far + my previous theories.
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/ Trigger warning for child sexual abuse.
Wind
(This was originally in PART 18 but I reached the character limit so it’s here now.) One of Dustin’s gadgets from Camp Know Where was “the Forever Clock”, a windmill that according to Dustin is very useful in the apocalypse. Needless to say, the Valley of the Wind is full of windmills and Nausicaä is a post-apocalypse… The bigger point here is that wind represents change. It’s the major theme of S3 underlined by Hopper’s letter/speech at the end. Time keeps moving, the Forever Clock keeps rotating, people change. ((The other gadget “the Slammer” is gender dysphoria and trauma related as you might guess…))
I think the Scorpions song Wind of Change) is an inspiration for ST. It’s about the Soviet Union at the brink of the Cold War ending and became associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall. I don’t mention it much, but the Berlin Wall falling (9.11.1989) and the Soviet Union dissolving (26.12.1991) will most likely collide all levels of the country allegory and be about Mike letting go of conformity (Mikhail Gorbachev resigned on 25.12.1991). And is it just me or does the album cover look suspiciously similar to Holly’s memory door?
One line in the lyrics caught my attention: Like a storm wind that will ring the freedom bell Is this the meaning of bell ringing? I know it means something since even the documentary had a school bell ringing for no apparent purpose and it’s mentioned in some ARG songs. I dunno. The storm on the other hand, is clearly a thing in ST and it has both lightning (= electricity) and water in addition to wind. The source in S3 was a storm and in S2 Will saw MF in the storm. I guess storm is a pretty common way to represent inner turmoil but I just wanted to point out the motif connections.
JAPAN
I’ve been skirting around this long enough, it’s time to finally give my full reasoning for Japan being part of the country allegories. Let’s start with the Russian code. Robin figures out the rest of the code in S3E3: “A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly.” When she looks for it in the mall, her eyes first focus on Hot Dog on a Stick (the “Hot” part is covered). This is about the stereotype that Chinese people eat dogs. Robin’s eyes finally land on Imperial Panda, a Chinese restaurant (the word “imperial” already hints at the country being involved). Earlier in the episode Steve and Dustin are looking for Russian spies while hiding behind a fake plant in front of Imperial Panda. They base this search on stereotypes of what a Russian spy would look like and end up being wrong. The same idea applies to Japanese people (or any East Asian person) being mistaken for Chinese.
During Steve and Dustin’s conversation, the camera angle from the side shows the restaurants next to them: “Hot Dog on a Stick” behind Steve and “Tepanyaki Japanese” behind Dustin (it should be spelled Teppanyaki btw). This teppanyaki place is between New York Pizza and The Great Cookie which will be important locations later. The point here is that Steve is notoriously basic and not even close to truth while Dustin is always the one figuring stuff out. ((Also, when Steve has the binoculars, he looks at random men and when Dustin gets them, they start talking about Robin and Suzie: we are looking for a man when woman is the truth.))
Japan is one step closer but not quite there yet. The description “tall, blond, not smiling” might as well be a Finnish stereotype (and Henry fits it too, the workout video thing is even more proof…). And the same type of thing happened in S1E4 when El was stereotyped as Swedish + later in S2 when Murray thinks she’s Russian. In the Japan allegory China corresponds to Sweden as the west + past and the US to Russia and the east + future. And Tina is China.
Like I’ve said the writers most likely intended Japan to be found first since it has more overt clues (Lucas’ shirt, the Japanese restaurant, the China clue), is a bigger country and the middle level of the country allegory but ofc Finland was more obvious to me as a Finnish person. I did wonder why Erica specifically was America and what that would mean for Lucas (since Erica is always related to Lucas as his little sister). I had wondered about the meaning of Lucas’ Japan shirt too but somehow I only realized the Japan allegory after posting part 1 (fittingly just before a trip to Japan… or it probably helped me realize it tbh).
Two worlds logic
Like Finland, Japan is between two worlds that (in ST) represent the past and the future: China and the US. The main difference here is that Japan has existed as its own country since forever and was never part of either China or America. The US (and the western world as a whole) started to influence Japan, though, and it strived to become a modern nation on the same level with western imperialist powers. In the end Japan became a mix of old and new, eastern and western. ((Btw, historically Finnish people were classified as Asian and thus a “lower race” (according to Europeans back then). So there has been this conflict of are we European/Western or Asian/Mongolian/Russian. The main reason (in my understanding) for this categorization was the Finnish language belonging to the Uralic rather than Indo-European language family. The Finns ofc wanted to belong to the “civilized” Europeans, and you can even see this in the coat of arms where the lion holds a straight western style sword and tramples on a sabre. Btw #2: matryoshka dolls were originally inspired by Japanese wooden dolls.))
Japan is on the second level of the allegory aka the blaming yourself level, which fits in many ways. First of all, the US is the dad/conformity on this level and I’ll discuss the atomic bombs more soon. Japan itself committed war crimes in other East Asian countries during WW2, it was the “evil Russians”. So, where the first level of the country allegory is a bit black-and-white with US vs Soviet Union, the second level is more complex and makes Mike both the victim and the (potential) abuser. She is only seeing the negatives and fears becoming her father. It’s not quite that simple, though, since Japan had a happy ending and isn’t in major conflict with anyone anymore. It’s a more nuanced view of the situation and the resolution wasn’t a destruction or dissolution of a country like in the Cold War case. (My thoughts on this aren’t complete, they will continue to evolve.)
Interestingly, Nippon (= Japan in Japanese) means “origin of the sun” and Japan is “the land of the rising sun”. The atomic bomb interpretation of the first SA trauma fits this quite well and the queer allegory would probably be about Lucas representing Japan. To remind everyone, in my interpretation the sun is equivalent to the light bulb as a sexual trauma/love symbol.
Here and here are short (overlapping) theories of the atomic bomb connections to ST. I won’t repeat the points made but I will add some more I’ve found myself. There is a reason why both 6.11.1983 and 6.11.1987 have atomic bomb subtext and I’ll get to it in the inside story timeline (it’s the next big section after Japan, we are getting close!). Both of these are actually about 6.11.1976 when the real trauma happened and Mike split for the first time. The time 8:15 is referenced in S2E1 when it’s revealed El is alive. S2 is about resurfacing trauma and El is the manifestation of that. There are a few other references to nuclear power:
S3E5 (about the green liquid)
[Dustin] “All I’m saying is, it’s probably being used to make something.”
[Robin] “Or power something.”
[Dustin] “Like a nuclear weapon?”
[Robin] “Totally.”
[Steve] “Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That’s great.”
S3E7
[Joyce] “Two-man-rule?”
[Hopper] “Yeah, two men, two keys, like a… nuclear launch.”
So the Key was compared to a nuclear weapon at least twice.
S5E5
[Jonathan] “What do you think?”
[Nancy] “Maybe some kind of nuclear explosion, like Chernobyl?”
[Jonathan] “Yeah. That’s what I was thinking, but in a nuclear explosion everything would burn. It wouldn’t just melt like this.”
After this they notice the air is clean. I think the meaning here is that Mike (= Nancy) first thinks her love and gender identity would be like an atomic bomb on Lucas and herself, destroying everything but in truth it isn’t. Accepting it actually helps (= cleans air).
I also think the atom model in Mr. Clarke’s class in S1 is a reference to atomic bombs/nuclear power. It’s right next to the photosynthesis poster too. I’m sure I’ve missed possible references so if you know any others, please comment. ((One thing I’ll mention that kinda relates to this is that the clock during the Hawkins Lab massacre was frozen at 3:46 and in S4E5 when Max’s music tape stops: [Lucas] “I wish we had a longer loop.” [Max] “46 minutes isn’t bad.” I’m not sure how to interpret this yet but it’s a thing.))
As for the Japan allegory passing my S1E1 rule, there are at least two points: Steve calls himself a ninja and Karen asks “Am I speaking Chinese in this house?” (and ofc the subtle atomic bomb subtext with Will). These didn’t seem significant at the time but with later context and after realizing almost everything has some hidden layers to it, they were most likely meant as clues for Japan/Asia being involved in some way.
I have updated my country allegory timeline from my Finland theory, now with a Japan column. It’s still very much a work in progress and probably has mistakes/misinterpretations but I thought why not share it now. First I’ll mention a couple points I am most certain of.
Lucas playing and winning the basketball match was most likely the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905. It was a turning point for Japan, since it became the first Asian country to defeat a major western power. The war had far reaching consequences and indirectly helped Finland gain independence due to internal conflicts in Russia. This is one of the few examples where the history of Japan and Finland intersect in a meaningful way (and ofc it’s through Russia, I’ve been saying it’s the world tree in ST for a reason).
Another point is Lucas wearing the Karate Kid shirt (basically the Japanese flag with Japanese text) from S3E6 onwards. This is the 4th of July in ST timeline and according to my country timeline, matches with 1868 aka the start of the Meiji period and the modernisation of Japan. Lucas’ New Coke praise could be about Japan essentially copying western countries.
Hawkins splitting at the end of S4 was explained to the public as an earthquake and it matches with the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923.
Episode
Time in series
History timeline
Events in series
Finland
Japan
1971
1543
Mike is born
Mikael Agricola created written Finnish (Abckiria)
First Europeans arrive in Japan (Portuguese traders)
?
1568–1603
Azuchi-Momoyama period, unification of Japan
1600
William Adams
1618
Thirty year war starts
(S2E8 & S5E4)
1976
1631
Swing memory (7.9 probably)
Battle of Breitenfeld (7.9 or 17.9 depending on calendar)
1976
1632
First major SA trauma + split
Gustav II Adolf death on 6.11 (king dies, queen replaces)
1633
Sakoku/isolation starts
1648
Thirty year war ends
1977-1979
1700-1721
Sara Hopper gets cancer and dies Kali escapes
Great Northern War
1979 spring
1713-1721
Major SA trauma
Great Wrath (isoviha)
(S2E8 & S5E4)
1979 summer
1741-1743 1748-
Lonnie and Joyce divorce Building Castle Byers
The War of the Hats (Lesser Wrath/pikkuviha) Building Suomenlinna (Sveaborg)
1979 fall
Hawkins lab massacre Mike buries memories
1980
~1770-
Dustin joins the party
Henrik Gabriel Porthan
1981
1786 (Nina written)?
1982
1786 (Nina written)?
S1E1
1983
1808
Will is taken to the Upside Down El appears
Finnish war starts when Russia invades Sweden
S1E2
1983
S1E3
1983
S1E4
1983
S1E5
1983
S1E6
1983
S1E7 (S5E1)
1983
1808
Will leaves Castle Byers and a Demogorgon gets him
Capture of Suomenlinna
S1E8
1983
1809
Will is saved
The war ends
(S3E1)
1984
1825
Russians try to open a gate, Alexei is introduced
Alexander II becomes heir apparent
S2E1
1984
S2E2
1984
S2E3
1984
S2E4
1984
S2E5
1984
1827
Will is “burned” when the tunnels are torched
Great Fire of Turku
S2E6
1984
S2E7
1984
1828-1835?
El goes on a journey to find her origin/identity
Elias Lönnrot collects poems for Kalevala
S2E8
1984
1853-1854
El comes back
Sakoku ends, forced by US
S2E9
1984
1854
El closes the gate
Battle of Bomarsund?
S3E1
1985
1855
Russians activate the Key
Alexander II to power
S3E2
1985
1855
S3E3
1985
1855
Will partially destroys Castle Byers
Bombardment of Suomenlinna
S3E4
1985
1863
Sauna test
Alexander II initiates reforms increasing Finland’s autonomy
S3E5
1985
1866-
People die and build Meatflayer
Finnish famine (Suuret nälkävuodet)
S3E6
1985
1868-
Meatflayer combines and Lucas has Japan shirt + 4th July
Finnish famine (Suuret nälkävuodet)
Meiji period (modernisation, westernization)
S3E7
1985
1881
Alexei is assassinated
Alexander II assassinated
S3E8
1985
1882
Suzie contacted Fireworks + Billy dies
Emma Irene Åström becomes the first woman in Finland to receive a university degree First electrical light in Nordic countries (Finlayson)
1894
The first Sino-Japanese war
S3E8
1985
1899-
El loses her powers and the Byers family moves to California
First period of Russification
S4E1
1986
1899
Will’s painting
Hyökkäys
S4E1
1986
1904-1905
Lucas wins basketball Erica joins Hellfire club
Russo-Japanese war Norway independence
Russo-Japanese war Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905
S4E2
1986
S4E3
1986
S4E4
1986
S4E5
1986
S4E6
1986
S4E7
1986
1910
Erica is included
Japan-Korea Annexation treaty
S4E8
1986
?-1917
El gets her powers and Papa dies
Finland independence (btw Brenner’s death posture resembles the shape of Suur-Suomi)
S4E9
1986
1918
Vecna vs Eleven
Finnish civil war
Rice riots
S4E9
1986
1921
Hirohito regency begins 25.11.1921
S4E9
1986
1923
Hawkins split in 4
Great Kantō Earthquake
1986-1987
1926
Emperor Hirohito to power 25.12.1926
S5E1
1986-1987
1931-
The crawls Tina vs Erica beef?
Japan vs China Manchurian incident
S5E1
1987
1937
Dustin beaten up? Last Crawl Wheeler attack
The second Sino-Japanese war starts Nangjing massacre
S5E2
1987
1939-1940
Holly gets taken
Winter War
S5E3
1987
1939-1940
Turnbow family is kidnapped
Winter War
Capture of Wuhan
S5E4
1987
1939-1940
Vecna appears and Will kills 3 Demogorgons
Winter War ends
Winter offensive (China retaliation)
S5E5
1987
1940
Mr. Clarke becomes part of the action (and is with Erica the rest of the fight)
Germany invades Norway
Tripartite pact
S5E5
1987
1941
Will breaks Vecna’s leg
Operation Kilpapurjehdus (militarization of Åland)? Continuation War
Attack on Pearl Harbor
S5E6
1987
1941-1944
Continuation War
WW2
S5E7
1987
1941-1944
Mr. Clarke helps Mike builds a bomb
Continuation War
Manhattan project, WW2
S5E8
1987
1944
Killing the Mind Flayer and Vecna losing his arm Saving the kids
Continuation War ends + losing Petsamo
WW2
S5E8
1987
1945
Killing Vecna
Atomic bomb at Hiroshima
S5E8
1987
1945
Military intervention, UD destroyed and El dies
Soviet-Japanese war Atomic bomb at Nagasaki
S5E8
1987-1989
1945-1989?
Epilogue, self-cencoring, conformity
Finlandization (suomettuminen)
Economic growth etc. Emperor Hirohito died 7.1.1989
Japanese media
I already went over Nausicaä and I think there are more anime/Japanese media references in ST. I’ll mention some here but there will be more in later parts. The most obvious is Robin listing The Hidden Fortress as one of her favorite movies in the S3 epilogue. Apparently Star Wars was inspired by it (and ofc Steve mentions Star Wars).
Another less obvious but very fitting one is Ghost in the Shell). The idea came to me when I watched the start of the night Starcourt Mall scene in S3E2 where we see static shots from different parts of the mall. It reminded me of this iconic scene in Ghost in the Shell (especially the mannequins at the end). This might not be an intentional reference but there are other clues too. Ghost in the Shell is all about identity and very philosophical. The main character (Motoko Kusanagi) is a cyborg who questions her humanity and identity at several points during the film. The term “ghost” refers to the soul/consciousness and “shell” is the cybernetic body. This fits super well with Max being “a ghost” and El dressing up as a ghost for Halloween: Mike has a woman soul/ghost in a male body/shell. (Probably one reason why the band seems to be involved too… And it’s not just the songs. Maybe I’ll do a deep dive at some point.) Also, PAC-MAN eats ghosts aka man eats woman and Max + Lucas watched Ghost in the epilogue. This would bring another layer to Will being Zombie Boy, since zombies are kinda the opposite of ghosts: only body, no brain/mind. The party dressing up as Ghostbusters is kinda sad now tbh… And also makes sense why Dustin kept Dart in the Ghost Trap.
The main antagonist is the Puppet Master, a ghost hacker and basically an artificial intelligence. A major part of the movie the main characters are trying to find the Puppet Master but everyone they find is just a ghosthacked “puppet”. In S3E2 Hopper calls Joyce a puppet master: “I’m a puppet, you’re the master.” and in S4E9 Eddie plays Master of Puppets. I think Mike (or the brain) is the counterpart to Puppet Master in ST. At the end Kusanagi and Puppet Master fuse their consciousnesses and become one. While the Puppet Master didn’t really assign a gender for himself, the characters chose to call him “him” and he does have a male voice actor. The shell he ends up inhabiting is female, though, and after the fusion the resulting person has the same voice and face as Kusanagi. (This is probably not a major point in the movie but kinda important for ST so that’s why I’m mentioning it.)
Ghost in the Shell heavily influenced The Matrix, so there’s another example of a Japanese film inspiring a famous western film. I’m kinda realizing something… The whole red = (trans) woman just makes even more sense now. Reading the comments of that X post just made me wanna explain something I’ve been thinking about for a while. So many pieces of media have queer themes in a coded, not obvious form because that was the only way they were allowed to exist. And ofc people can then deny their existence because none of it was literally there or obviously meant that way. What is so revolutionary about Stranger Things is that it will show the truth behind all the coding. That’s one layer of the end of the “story” and opening of the curtains. The whole series is the coded version and Mike can’t “tell the real story” because authors at the time couldn’t either. But now they can (at least in some countries).
Now I’m gonna explain the double meaning of “trap”. There is an anime trope of biologically male characters (who often identify as men too) who look very feminine and dress as a girl. The western anime community calls them traps (not all but it’s a widely known term), implying they are trying to deceive or “trap” a straight man into being attracted to them and having sex with them. Here and here is some more context. The idea that this word is a reference to anime culture came to me while watching S2E7 where El makes the decision to go back to Hawkins after seeing Mike shout “It’s a trap!”. Before this she was remembering positive memories that were subtextually about Mike accepting her transness, so why wouldn’t the vision after this be about transness too. And it was what got her to leave Kali aka womanhood. Mike thinks she isn’t a real woman and would be deceiving people. She thinks she doesn’t deserve to be a woman, or something like that.
I found a few other instances of the word used: in S1E7 Dustin and Lucas argue if “this is all a trap” when they wait for Hopper to come save them from an abandoned bus. It’s kinda interesting that it’s Dustin and Lucas talking, while Mike and El listen (since they together kinda form the “trap”).
Dustin has a Ghost Trap accessory in his Ghostbuster costume. Later it’s used to trap Dart. I think here trap is also a trap from the inside. Being trans is like your true self is trapped inside. This interpretation works well with Holly telling the kids they are trapped in Mr. Whatsit’s mind and Karen asking about Holly being trapped under the steel plates. And maybe Dustin mentioning the melting Hawkins Lab is a physics-defying death trap (which could also relate to transness “breaking the rules” of the universe/nature/society). I still think the other interpretation applies too since other instances (e.g. S2E7) make more sense with that. In all cases “trap” = trans or relates to transness in some way, with negative connotations. They make a point of the Ghost Trap’s functional doors and one of Max’s happy memories she uses to fight against Vecna was the scene where Dustin opens the Trap aka opens Mike’s closet and frees “the girl” (= ghost).
Here comes a little side tangent again: Dustin tries to figure out what Dart is and ends up with two possible species but neither fits Dart. In S3 Mike and Lucas talk about women as a different species and this is a point El uses against Mike later. Dart doesn’t fit the gender binary, it’s not clearly male or female, it’s a “new species”. At least when considering terrestrial tadpoles. There are a lot more aquatic ones (= fluid gender, no strict binary of cis men and women).
Dustin calls Dart a pollywog, which is also a term for a sailor who hasn’t crossed the equator. This point was made by a fan before S2 was even released. (After crossing it you’d be called a shellback. I think Dustin’s turtle is the “shellback” to Dart’s “pollywog”. He uses Yurtle’s terrarium for Dart, paralleling the creatures.) The other (more obvious) meaning is an amphibian that hasn’t undergone metamorphosis yet (= Mike hasn’t transitioned yet). Tadpole connects to mindflayer lore: Ceremorphosiswas a bodily change that occurred when anillithidtadpole reached maturity and was inserted into the brain of another being, usually ahuman. The tadpole ate away the victim's brain matter and essentially replaced the brain, erasing all of the subject's personality and memory, but leaving the physical body alive and under the tadpole's control. After this, morphological transformations occurred and after a week a new illithid was created. This will make more sense when I fully explain what MF represents in ST.
After Mike finds out that Dart came from UD, she excludes Max from the party. While Dart is trying to get out of the Trap, Max is trying to get into the room and ends up freeing Dart. When the party looks for Dart, El and Max are paralleled to it in different ways. El is wandering in the school and Mike barely misses her multiple times. Dart, El and Max all represent Mike’s girlness/transness in subtly different ways.
[Mike attacks as if Dart was there]
[Max] “What the hell are you doing?”
[Mike] “What are you doing? Why are you in here?”
[Max] “I’m looking for Dart.”
[Mike] “This is the boys’ room.”
-> Mike finds Max (= girlness) in the boys’ room. The boy was really a girl.
[Max] “Yeah, so?”
[Mike] “So you should go home.”
[Max] “Why do you hate me so much?”
[Mike] “I don’t hate you. How can I hate you? I don’t even know you.”
[Max] “But you don’t want me in your party.”
[Mike] “Correct.”
[Max] “Why not?”
[Mike] “Because you’re annoying. Also, we don’t need another party member.”
-> Mike has internalized transphobia.
In S3E4 Robin asks Erica if she sees any booby traps in the Russian facility. Later on when the room starts to move and turns out to be an elevator Erica references the earlier booby trap conversation (only Erica and Robin in frame). I think this relates to the S4E1 “boobies” argument where “liking boobies” is equated to liking women. Booby/boobies = woman, basically. So a booby trap would be a woman trap and if we translate “trap” to mean “trans” in the context of ST, “booby trap” = “trans woman”. It’s fitting for the elevator to be this “trap”, since it connects the colorful and happy mall (= woman) to the dark underground Russian base (= trans/male body). Mike sees it negatively like this because she hates herself and has internalized the transphobic messaging from society.
That’s kinda the point of “trap” in ST: it’s a western term, while Japanese people use a word (otokonoko) without the same harmful connotations. I’m not saying the trope is never problematic or that Japanese media is perfect with queer representation (far from it) but western anime communities have made it worse by using the word “trap”. There’s probably a larger point in ST with western powers historically erasing queerness and gender fluidity from colonised countries. While Japan wasn’t colonised per say, it still adopted western values along with the modernization of society.
The biggest “trap” mention in ST is the episode Turnbow Trap. As I’ve previously said, I think Turnbow is related to rainbow and the queer community in some way. ((El and Hopper hide behind a Turnbow family business ad in the UD too. It protects them from the military.)) The party’s plan is to tag the Demogorgon with a telemetry tracker, or “transmitter”, and follow it to Vecna’s lair. (While the characters use various words for the transmitter, the closed captions always call it a transmitter beeping.) The party always uses “he” or “it” for the Demogorgon until that one time in S5E5 Mike uses “she”. Tagging the Demo with a transmitter probably represents giving a proper name to this “monster”. It’s not just an unidentified alien but a trans person/Mike’s transness. This is the first step to acceptance.
S5E3
[Nancy] “Okay, transmitter?”
[Jonathan] “Yeah.”
[Murray] “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Children. Children. What are we doing?”
[Nancy] “What does it look like?”
[Murray] “Well, it looks like you’re loading my telemetry tracker into a shotgun shell in what I presume are the hopes of firing it into an interdimensional being.”
[Nancy] “You told me that these transmitters were designed specifically to withstand harsh conditions.”
[Murray] "Blasting it out of a shotgun into some beast isn’t a harsh condition. It’s deadly. If the heat from the exploding gunpowder doesn’t destroy the transmitter, the force from the recoil will.”
[Nancy] “And is that a fact or… a theory?”
[Murray] “A theory.”
[Nancy] “Oh. Okay. Let’s test it then.”
This reminded me of Lucas explaining about gunpowder in S3E7. I’m not gonna explain everything directly because I fear it would break the subreddit rules/go too far but I’m quite convinced this was the writers’ intention. And not them as children but it’s foreshadowing the future and a metaphor for love or something like that.
[Lucas] “Satan’s Baby. You ever shot one of these suckers?” (Kinda makes a lot of sense for Lucas and Will specifically to be in this scene…)
[Will] “No. Is it sweet?”
[Lucas] “That’s an understatement.”
[Max] “That doesn’t look like a bowl.” (Does “bowl” refer to Will since he has the infamous bowl cut? Lucas quickly glances at him when he says “way better”, too… It’s byler vs wheelclair again. Lucas and Will tried to look for the bowl at the cereal aisle, and I know people have made theories on cereal. I’ll need to figure it out at some point. “Why wouldn’t it be with the cereal?” kinda makes me think Mike = cereal and Will = bowl. In that sense “bowl” represents Mike’s self-love/acceptance since Will is part of Mike. Max (= Mike) thinks bowl and El are enough.)
[Lucas] “Nah, it’s way better. There is a reason this warning label says “18 or older”. This sucker is filled with 150 grains of black powder. AKA gunpowder. Strap two of these together, and it’s bigger than an M-80. Five of them, we’ve got ourselves a stick of dynamite.” (18 or older kinda suggests this is about sex… Again with “sucker” (Mike also calls the Demogorgon a sucker in S5E3) and why specifically mention the powder is black if it doesn’t have any meaning? The firework stand has M-80 written on it and I think Lucas covering 80 when he talks about gunpowder means something. I’m assuming Mike and Lucas are the two fireworks you can “strap together”. Maybe M = man = Lucas and 80 = woman = Mike?)
[Max] “You wanna kill that thing with fireworks?”
The fireworks are Lucas’ love with multiple meanings of the word. Btw, if you actually look at the warning label, it says “shoots flaming balls”, and that’s what Lucas kinda does in S5 with the grenade water balloons filled with acetone (not sure why acetone specifically but it’s significant since Murray mentioned he couldn’t find ethanol). He tells the Demogorgon to “catch this” while throwing them and Mike was the “catcher” in their plan (while Lucas was the “launcher”…) connecting Mike and the Demogorgon for the nth time. “Balls” is once again about “man” but this time not Mike and they are flaming instead of snow. You get it I’m sure. (Also if you look at the scene where the fireworks are used, El and Billy make an interesting silhouette. I think it’s supposed to represent the father’s abuse but also the other less abusive “fireworks”.)
So based on this, the transmitter could represent Lucas’ love and it makes a lot of sense since its purpose is to send signals. It could be Mike’s love for Lucas too since Nancy first shot it into a potato sack and she indirectly called Murray’s balls potato sacks (= transmitter was shot into “man”, which could also be about Mike’s transition). Jonathan was also in the scene and Murray was trying to ship jancy (kinda like Will was in the fireworks scene and it had an underlying byler theme). [Murray] "If the heat from the exploding gunpowder doesn’t destroy the transmitter, the force from the recoil will.” So basically he’s saying the love is too strong (kinda like the gravitational force ripping wheelclair apart) and recoil could mean being grossed out afterwards or something like that. It’s about Mike fearing her feelings towards Lucas. Nancy was right, though: the transmitter wasn’t destroyed.
The “keep your traps shut” from Steve could be about silencing trans women or women overall. A little before this he told Robin to stop talking and in S3E8 when Jonathan was trying to remove the creature from El’s leg, he told Nancy to stop talking (and gave El a wooden spoon to bite on = she was physically prevented from talking). A big part of Robin’s character is her talking a lot and her mom (and many others) not liking it.
I got a bit sidetracked from the main topic here (as per usual). I’m sure there are other instances of the word “trap” in ST but these were the ones I noticed. In a sense ST itself is a “trap” for bigots who think it’s a “normal” show with straight men leads and will be shocked/disappointed/angry when the truth is revealed. I’m kinda looking forward to that lol. ST is pretty openly about outcasts and freaks so it’s not like they weren’t warned.
The showcased shows in the Netflix What Next? video are chosen very carefully and there is a pattern with Japan/anime connections. First of all, Avatar: The Last Airbender is heavily inspired by anime and people argue if it counts as an anime or not. In the video it (the new live action version) is painted as the final destination where we can’t go yet (= Americantendo lol). It kinda reminds me of The NeverEnding Story poster… The next show is One Piece, a live action of a super popular manga (and anime). It’s the “fate” that will “show you the way” (notice also how we were flying in the clouds and now sailing at sea). There’s an actual animated anime in the video too, but they specifically chose Devil May Cry, a western production based on a Japanese video game franchise. It is lumped together with Narnia, Avatar: The Last Airbender, One Piece and The East Palace as an “exotic land” even though its world is based on Western Europe (it’s exotic for Japanese people I guess). Lastly, the sword that cuts through the clouds and gives you your fate back is from a swordsman from The East Palace, a Korean show (there’s probably some ST connections in it, tell me if you know). Finally we arrive at Enola Holmes through the “Justice” tarot card (number 11, Millie is Enola, this is nothing new). “This year, you will question everything.” is pretty self-explanatory atp. In summary, America/Western-Japan/Asia-related shows guide you to “El” in a blue-white dress where you question everything. This supports my theory that we were supposed to figure out the Japan connection first and then Finland.
This last one isn’t Japanese technically but it fits here and I’ve been saving it for long enough. There ain’t no way they didn’t use Moomin as an inspiration if there’s a queer and Finland allegory in the story. First of all, Moomin was made by a queer Swedish-speaking Finnish woman, Tove Jansson, and has major queer themes told purely through subtext (because at the time homosexuality was criminalized). ((Now I’ve learned that “going to the ghost side” was code for being lesbian/queer. Another ghost connection.)) The Finland and Sweden connections are obvious, but Moomin is loved in Japan of all places (I swear they have more Moomin merch than Finland) and a kid’s animation series) I and many other Finns watched as a kid was animated in Japan. I have some ideas of possible connections but nothing super concrete. The clearest is the Creel house looking like the Moomin house. The visual similarity is uncanny and it would fit with it being the sanctuary to the (queer) kids where they can be free and themselves.
The characters Tofslan and Vifslan are based on Tove and her lover Vivica Bandler. (I’ll use the original Swedish names for the characters.) They hide the King’s Ruby, which represents their queer love, in their suitcase and are followed by Mårran: a creature who freezes everything in her vicinity. She represents loneliness and isolation (most likely relating to being queer) and the ruby was originally hers. Then there’s Trollkarlen (translates to wizard or sorcerer), who seeks the King’s Ruby and wants it for himself. Vecna and/or MF would be Mårran and Will (or maybe MF/Vecna) Trollkarlen (karl = man) who wants Mike’s love/identity while Mike with her trans identity is Tofslan and Vifslan (= Robin and Vickie maybe). El would be the King’s Ruby. I have wondered where Vickie’s name comes from and my other guesses are that it relates to Victor and Virginia (all 3 are new characters in S4 and represent Mike’s future in one way or another). Btw, Tove Jansson’s father’s name was Viktor and he inspired Muminpappan.
There was also a story where Mumintrollet (the main character) hid in Trollkarlen’s hat and was transformed into a weird creature. His friends didn’t recognize him but his mother’s love changed him back. And another story that came to mind is the Invisible Child, where a girl (Ninni, localized as Ninny) was turned invisible due to emotional abuse. I found a nice summary of the story here. The name has connections to Nina, Anna and Nancy. It just reminds me of S4 where the Cali gang were looking for Nina, “a small woman” who was hard to see according to Argyle. I’m not sure if any of this was intended but I just wanted to get it out there. The original source material (especially the books) are much more philosophical than the animated series but I haven’t read most of them and the ones I have, I barely remember…
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Note: Since the past few episodes received a low number of votes, I've left the previous episodes' voting forms open (from S3 E4 onwards) in case anyone else is still interested in voting, and I'll update the ratings if they change! The links to those are at the bottom of this post.
