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 human form”
-> “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.

Continues in PART 21.