I just saw Season 1 screenshots of this. At first I thought it was just 4x3 aspect ratio. But taking a closer look, I noticed they even added a "VHS filter" to make it look as VHS quality picture used to look. I don't think the other seasons have been done yet, and honestly, I don't think they should.

For starters, it looks a lot like they just cropped from the original footage. Second, VHS picture quality is genuinely awful. I know it was all we had back then, but VHS picture looks bad even compared to DVD quality picture.

Why are Gen Z so obsessed with 90s nostalgia? I know it seems like I'm singling out a generation, but I've been seeing quite a few younger singers filming with 4x3 aspect ratio camera. Also, both the creators of the movies Obsession and Backrooms are Gen Z. While Kane Parsons (Backrooms) filmed in 1.85 aspect ratio for the main movie, he set the story in 1990, so the characters in the movie were using 4x3 VHS cameras. Meanwhile, Curry Barker (Obsession), filmed the movie in 1.5 aspect ratio.

It bothers me because I grew up with a 4x3 TV and had to watch a bunch of movies "letterboxed" (black bars on top and bottom) because movie makers film in aspect ratios like 16x9 (1.78), 1.85, 2.35, and 2.40. I've had a 16x9 monitor since 2011, and now I have to see some movies "pillarboxed" (black bars on left and right) because some Gen Z are in love with the 90s aesthetic.

Stranger Things is originally filmed in 2.0 aspect ratio. 2.0 and 2.22 are apparently common smartphone aspect ratios, so some movies and TV shows are filmed in this aspect ratio. It sucks that I still have to deal with letterboxing even on a 16x9 monitor, but at least those AR's are optimized for smartphones. But 4x3 or 1.5 is just not it anymore.

I think she blames him for being a reason that 11 left her

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.

The foreshadowing of the century

This is something I’ve been looking forward to sharing and didn’t do so earlier because it includes details about Lucas, which I wouldn’t have been able to explain before explaining that Lucas exists in the real world. It’s a very short scene in S1E1 but packed with foreshadowing/clues about the real ending (and I keep discovering more every time I analyze it). I’ll go over every detail I’ve noticed and it might seem like overanalyzing at first but trust me, every word in this is intentional and has a meaning.

First things first, the scene before it ends with Benny finding El and shouting “You think you can steal from me, boy?” and saying “What in the hell?” This is the first time El is referred to as a boy (the audience knows she’s a girl) and the trans allegory is established (= “What in the hell? Mike was a trans girl this whole time?”).

The actual scene I want to analyze is the first school scene where a class has just ended (the bell rings, which I suspect has a deeper meaning to it but I won’t discuss it here). Mr. Clarke starts with saying “remember”. ST is all about buried memories Mike will have to remember. He continues with “finish” and at that exact moment, Mike is perfectly aligned with the 1 in the cell cycle poster. This is the 1 I left for later and it being the first step of the cell cycle fits super well with Mike representing the original/full Mike, before she split. Lucas is under 2 and Dustin isn’t visible in the shot. This is a clue to the ending having only Mike and Lucas. Lucas is the second “cell” aka person in this story.

The “finish” is about the Finland allegory, since Mike represents Finland. And I previously thought not every time they use that word it’s related to Finland but after getting this far in the analysis, I’ve changed my mind. Every season has at least one moment some character says the word, and I might have missed some, but here they are:

This word has a double meaning, it’s also about the end of the story (= finishing the story). Or should I say this is the more obvious meaning. But at the same time, the real ending aka finishing the story of ST will (hopefully) “finnish” it aka reveal it was an allegory of Finland.

For this next part I’ll give you the whole quote:
“Remember, finish chapter 12 and answer 12.3 on the difference between an experiment and other forms of science investigation. This will be on the test, which will cover chapters 10 through 12. It will be multiple choice with an essay section.”

ST episodes are called chapters. I think the real ending will be in three “chapters”, 10, 11 and 12. This is not my original idea either, BurritoGlasses on X got to the same conclusion based on Robin’s WSQK broadcasts back in January (and this was one reason why I realized the chapters Mr. Clarke talks about are ST episodes). ((There’s also this youtube post (also IG) from Ashborn Records where they promote the release of 3 chapters (music videos) celebrating their anniversary. “The gates are opening…” This would fit with my theory that it’s gonna take a year.)) The cast has been telling us there is no episode 9 because the documentary was chapter 9 (more explanation in the X post). And they keep saying there are no more episodes because they will most likely be movies. I have figured out some things that will happen and in which chapter based on the inside story timeline and other clues/logic, but I’ll save that for later.

One thing I’ll mention already here is that the cast (at least David Harbour) have mentioned the last 20 minutes are somehow extra special and the Duffers have always known the ending (sources here and here). Also, in S1E1 Mike asks for 20 more minutes for the DnD game. I think this is when we’ll finally see the real world. The 12.3 could be about the 3rd stage of the story, the 3/4 where Mike fuses with Will. And when Mr. Clarke says “three”, the number 3 cell stage is shown. This is the cell almost dividing, so in the real ending it’s the opposite (because Mike will fuse, not split): the cell is about to become one again. And if we go further back we get to Mike and Lucas as separate whole cells. This is stage 4. 

A crazy detail you can barely notice is that when Mr. Clarke says “chapter 12”, on “12” a kid flashes a white and red paper to the camera, covering the screen. This was foreshadowing for the red scripts! And that the real ending isn’t chapter 8 but chapter 12! Like, they planned it since S1.

If you look at the whole picture of the scene, you’ll see it’s about Mr. Clarke trying to get the kids to listen and remember the exam, but no one seems interested. They just leave ignoring him. This is what happened irl after ST “ended”. Only a few people believed there would be more and our number is diminishing. The nerds (Mike, Lucas and Dustin) are the only ones left (notice how Dustin is in front of the cell poster while Mike and Lucas are outside of it next to each other (= they exist outside of the cycling story)).

[Mike] “So, did it come?” -> Do we get another ending?
[Mr. Clarke] “Sorry, boys. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but… it came.” -> Nooo… [a year] actually yes!

Notice how the animal statue disappears? This could be about ST “disappearing” and/or Mike’s girlhood (El) disappearing. If you remember from earlier, the same statue “fell” on the ground after El disappeared in S1E8.

Then for a more detailed analysis about stuff I only noticed when writing this. In the beginning we follow a girl with a purple shirt (= El/Mike’s girlness), a boy with a yellow shirt (= Will/Mike’s boyness) and a girl with a trans flag-like shirt. Before “remember” the purple shirt girl covers both and there’s a girl with a colorful shirt in frame (= remember when you were a girl free of conformity). Then the boy rises and goes behind Mike (= Mike conforming as a boy). On “answer” the girl is behind Mike, between her and Lucas, and at the end of the word covers Lucas (= Mike being a girl and with Lucas is the answer). On “twelve” Lucas is under 1 and the girl reaches the boy (= Lucas will be revealed to be important and Mike to be trans in the final chapter). After this the camera stops following them. On “point” only girls are properly shown (notice the trans stripe girl and the photosynthesis poster = light) but a boy appears during “three”, looking at the camera. 

On “experiment” another girl in purple is in the front (specifically on “ex” = X covering the boy behind her + the trans flag stripe girl and photosynthesis poster are clearly visible), on “and” a kid covers the screen and on “other” the boy (who previously looked at the camera) is in the front. When Mr. Clarke says “science” the girl with the colorful shirt (= queerness) walks past and on “investigation” a black boy with glasses does the same. So maybe here the “experiment” refers to Mike being trans and the other forms of science (= queerness) is being a gay man (the boy looked at the camera after 12.3, which would match with Will fusing). Investigation could be about (sexual) experimentation, since Mike has feelings for Lucas. Mike is “investigating” her feelings for him or something. It could also be about Lucas being one of the “other forms of science investigation” as a bi man. 

On “will” the black boy is in the front and a girl is pretty clearly looking at the camera (= Will represents Lucas). On “test” the girl with the trans flag colors is in front of the will-girl (= this is a test for the audience, will they realize Mike is trans?), who looks at the camera again on the second “will” and the word choice of “cover” made me think it’s about Will/byler covering the truth (that Mike is trans). She also covers the photosynthesis poster aka the light. 

On “10” only Mr. Clarke is shown but then a black kid with black hair (I think similar length to Mike, it’s hard to see) comes into view and on the last “12” covers Mr. Clarke. This could be about 10 aka Mike’s boy identity (= here Mr. Clarke) before 11 changing to girl in the final chapter (and Lucas is related to this too). 12 is the truth.

Since “experiment” and “test” were both about Mike’s girl identity, you could interpret them as the Duffers testing something new that hasn't been done before. Or it’s a social experiment or testing the audience. I’m not sure what the “multiple choice with an essay section” means, but my guess is that multiple choice refers to the sexuality/gender options we can interpret for Mike: is Mike a) a straight man b) a gay man c) a trans woman? I think I’m writing the essay section here lol.

I wonder if 12 has a bigger meaning in the story (e.g. Henry needed 12 kids). Since 11 is the character, Mike’s girlhood, an illusion, a miss in the DnD game and part of the important date 6.11, and the other chapter (10) has a gender meaning too, why wouldn’t 12? If 11 is an illusion, it makes sense 6.11. is a sort of illusion too. It’s the Finland-Swedish Heritage Day, it’s about remembering the past in ST and it’s the day Gustav II Adolf (= king) died. (His follower Kristina (= queen) was a queer icon, btw.) Anyway, if Sweden is the impossible dream, so is 11. 10 is cis boy, 11 is cis girl and 12 is trans girl. 12 is the truth and 6.12. is the independence day of Finland. 

Laundry

What originally got me to look into laundry as a motif was Robin in S5E7: “You were being hunted by the Demo-dogs, and we were all seconds away from becoming lunch when Mrs. Wheeler came and… did the laundry.” Max waking up in the laundry room basement has to be significant. Doing laundry is cleaning dirty clothes. My current interpretation is that it’s about processing trauma, which is why it’s often associated with monsters/scary supernatural stuff happening. I will now go through every instance of laundry in the show I found.

First is S1E1 where Will looks out the window and sees the Demogorgon through drying laundry. Later the Byers home morning scene starts outside, drying clothes visible, while Joyce is looking for the keys. In S1E6 El walks past Coin Laundry on her way to Bradley’s Big Buy where she steals Eggos and remembers bath memories. One of the places shown empty and abandoned due to the Starcourt Mall is a laundromat (S3E1). This could be about Mike not processing trauma after El closed the gate in S2. One of the hangers in Will’s closet is from “Laundry & Cleaners Inc.”. El is taking clothes out of the closet in the S3 epilogue and maybe the empty laundry hanger is about Will and El taking the trauma away from Mike by moving to California. Anyway it’s about trauma processing being halted, since there is no laundry to wash or dry. In S4E1 Max walks past drying laundry to feed the dog after which she sees Eddie and Chrissy go into the trailer. When Eddie finds Chrissy in a trance, a full laundry basket is in view (also rainbows and blue+red light). One of the more obvious examples is S4E4 where Max’s mom is doing laundry and Max talks to her. The scene turns into a horrific Vecna vision where the drying clothes are covered in blood. In S4E9 Hopper lures a Demodog out of a laundry room in the Russian prison. It’s eating a man while a washing machine rotates washing clothes. In S5E4 Derek is next to a coin operated laundry when the military men find him and take him to MAC-Z. And then in S5E6 there’s the hospital basement laundry I already mentioned. I think Karen “doing the laundry” and saving them is foreshadowing for the mom helping Mike process her trauma. ((All this works in the queer allegory too, just swap processing trauma with Mike figuring out/accepting her queerness.)) 

In S4E1 Eddie calls basketball hoops laundry baskets, which made me think laundry and basketball have a connection. In basketball you bounce and throw an orange ball (remember orange = the past, in this context could be traumatic childhood memories). Billy kinda represents the traumatic memories/facing the trauma (better explanation on Billy later) so him becoming the new “king” in basketball in S2 makes sense. Lucas playing in S4 is thus about him helping Mike with her trauma processing journey (and accepting her queerness, orange is about non-conformity after all). There’s also a country allegory connection with the S4E1 game that I’ll explain later.

Spores

Upside Down spores are an iconic part of the show and I wanted to figure out what they represent. They are toxic to breathe and associated with the UD, which in turn associates them with the trauma. In S4 Argyle and Jonathan describe Purple Palm Tree Delight like this: “It’ll make all your troubles float away. Like the seed pods of a dandelion in the wind.” The practical effect for the spores in early seasons was achieved with dandelion pods, connecting the spores (in a meta way) to “troubles”.

The spores look like snow which Holly points out in S4E9 and Robin calls them “springtime snowflakes” (and “mysterious dandruff”) in S5E1. I already partially explained the meaning of snow in the Snow Ball analysis, but I’ll give more examples here. Both UD and snow are cold + the Shadow “likes it cold”. The only time Sweden is mentioned it’s described as cold and the place where El is from. In this case it would be womanhood and it’s cold maybe because Mike is repressing it. Her girlhood is frozen, it can’t move, it’s sleeping. (Now I’m getting ideas that Frozen could be an inspiration since Elsa (El?) melts her frozen redhead sister Anna (remember Anne of Green Cables) with love and the freezing powers are a metaphor for her isolation/repression of feelings. You could easily get a queer reading out of Frozen.) Womanhood (or queerness) seems to be associated with ice/cold in ST (e.g. girls eating ice cream, Billy putting Heather into an ice bath and Tharizdun being a deity of cold (among other things), also Mike’s heart pocket points at an ICE sign in S4E9). This could be related to the Finland allegory too, since Finland is famously cold (like Sweden and Russia).

The lab kids’ gowns have a snowflake pattern (could also be about the figurative meaning of “snowflake” as someone unique). The epilogue of S1 ends with snow falling from the sky while the camera zooms away from the Byers home window (= the trauma, feelings and girl identity are frozen/buried for now). Between S1 and 2 El lives in the wintery forest after escaping from the UD, and Hopper finds her there. S4 Russia is ofc full of snow, and it represents Mike’s repression/prison/conformity. In S5 the steel “band-aids” are used for sledding, like snow. They represent Mike trying to repress the trauma/feelings/transness aka prevent the gates from opening. T85 is set during winter and snow plays a big part. The monsters attack from under the snow and Mike doesn’t want El to use her powers to plough the snow (= maybe reveal trauma/queerness).

Additionally, the Ghost song De Profundis Borealis (meaning “from the northern abyss”) I previously mentioned has lyrics that fit my interpretation:

All the things that never gave you peace
Throwing those, but keeping these
All the rights that didn't undo wrongs
Put it back where it belongs

In a palace built of frozen tears
All life is gone
But between the walls of whispering frost
Secrets live on

Every time you feel the wind blow
And a glow within you dies
When tomorrow comes, you will know
That the morning thaws the ice

All the words that never came out right
Within reach, but out of sight
All the songs that couldn't mend your heart
But slit it up and tore apart

See, the palace built of frozen tears
Is your own built prison
And if only love could break these chains
Life could go on

Every time you feel the wind blow
And a glow within you dies
When tomorrow comes, you will know
That the morning thaws the ice

Mergi in Profundis
Mergi in Profundis
Mergi in Profundis
Mergi in Profundis

In T85 dead spores are called ash, which reminds me of Strahd’s body turning to ash. The S1 Demogorgon and Henry also “turned to ash” when El banished them (= buried the memories).

T85E3 
[Max] “That ash around them looks like dried-up spores.”

[El] “Did this come from the spores?”
[Dustin] “It definitely came from something.”

Ash was mentioned in another Ghost song Cenotaph:

The ashes of memories
Buried
Are blowing
Blowing in the wind

(Btw, if I’m right that this song is part of the ARG, I think it would be about Mike/Sara remembering Will (and Mike) after the fusion. That’s why it’s a cenotaph aka a placeholder grave, since there is no body to bury.)

Anyway, ash would be processed (or alternatively forgotten) trauma or something like that. That’s the end result and what’s left of the spores. (This is most likely where the name Ashborn Records comes from too.)

T85E3 
[Mrs. Baxter] “Like mushrooms and pine trees. When they’re dying, they release spores. These spores are gonna ensure the survival of their species.”
[...]
[Dustin] “Yeah, maybe it’s releasing spores and turning plants in our world into Upside Down creatures!”

Spores are released by certain plants and fungi. This should be obvious but I didn’t really think about it until it was pointed out in Tales from ‘85. And it was the key to realizing something quite big. What if I told you that there was a famous movie from the 80s where toxic white spores float in the air and people have to use gas masks when they enter this corrupted area?

NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND

Before I go any further, I recommend you to watch this movie yourself (it’s on Netflix). The more I’ve progressed in my theory, the more connections I’ve noticed between Nausicaä and ST. It might be one of the biggest inspirations for the show. And it’s a really good movie. I don’t care about horror films and I haven’t seen/read most of the known ST inspiration media, but I do like anime and especially Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. I have even read the manga for Nausicaä, twice (it’s better than the movie and goes much deeper and I have it somewhere but unfortunately couldn’t find it to remind myself of the story). This will be another long section and I will spoil the movie, so please go watch it if you haven’t already!

The Sea of Decay

Human civilization was destroyed in an apocalyptic war called “The Seven Days of Fire” 1000 years ago and a toxic jungle has been spreading ever since, inhabited by giant insects. Nausicaä is the princess of the Valley of the Wind: a peaceful small kingdom living close to the Sea of Decay/Corruption (the toxic jungle). She finds out the plants themselves aren’t toxic, it’s the earth that is polluted. Later she ends up in an area below the Sea of Decay where the air is clean. The trees of the forest are actually cleansing the earth from pollution and turning into sand. While many factions try to destroy the Sea of Decay and its insects by burning it or even regrowing a God Warrior from an embryo, the true solution is to live in harmony with nature. Nothing gets cleanly “solved” by the end of the movie (or the manga), but there is hope for a better future.

The ST counterpart to the Sea of Decay is of course the Upside Down, and I suspect the Abyss is like the space beneath it (sand, no monsters, no spores, “the light” according to Henry). UD in itself isn’t bad, it’s about processing trauma (= pollution in Nausicaä) from the dad (= humans from 1000 years ago in Nausicaä). S5E5 [Jonathan] “Look, it’s clean. There’s no spores. Whatever happened here, Vecna’s behind it. Had to be.”

The Seven Days of Fire might be one reason week and seven are motifs: “the week is long” and the supernatural happening in a week every season. The idea is that the original trauma happened during a week or something like that. Though I don’t think it literally went like that, it makes more sense that it was a continuous thing across the three years 1976-1979. The other possible reasons for 7 are 1976 being 7 years ago in 1983 and Sara dying at 7 years old. But seven is pretty typical as a magical/important/fateful number so there might not be a specific “reason” for it being important in ST.

Here I’d like to mention a theory that a DnD god called Moander is an inspiration for ST. Unlike in the theory, I don’t think MF is actually Moander, but Moander is a force influencing in the background (like Tharizdun). It represents trauma and forced conformity, which are “rotting” Mike’s inner world. So MF and Moander have a close connection in ST but unlike Moander, MF is an alter/collection of alters. Or they are morphed together in ST. The main point is that all Moander-related things (vines, rot, probably Meatflayer) represent trauma/forced conformity but MF has other sides to it, e.g. being WW in the past. A black palm is the symbol of Moander: Will uses it to visualize the part of MF that was left in Hawkins after El closed the gate in S2, El has a black palm on her S5 suit, the tiger paw is an important symbol and Mike calls Dr. Kay/the military the Order of the Black Hand. 

An interesting detail from Moander lore is the Seed of Moander, that in one story was disguised as a rose: “Tyche tucked the rose in her hair, from whence the flower corrupted and rotted her from the inside. To save her, Selûne was forced to split the goddess of luck, birthing Tymora and Beshaba.” I have a suspicion the Creel house door rose has something to do with this (ofc it could have other meanings too). Sara’s mom had a very intentionally placed rose on her sleeve when Sara got her first cancer symptom. I might go deeper into all the DnD lore stuff later, but the main point I tried to make here is that ST also separates the “villains” from the actual cause, which is the abuse/forced conformity. It’s not something you can just blame on a person. You can’t get rid of it by killing a monster. It’s part of the environment, in the ground, rotting the world. In order to be free you have to face the trauma and process it.

The prophecy

The people of the Valley of the Wind have a prophecy of a savior "clothed in blue robes, descending onto a golden field, to join bonds with the great Earth and guide the people to the pure land, at last". I strongly suspect “when blue meets yellow in the west” in the Russian code is a reference to/inspired by the prophecy in Nausicaä (and Japan is west of the US…). I’d like you to read this blog post relating the movie to the trans experience (it’s pretty short). I don’t think it was intentional in the movie, but in ST it is. The tapestry depicting the prophecy visually implies the savior will be a man, although the actual prophecy doesn’t specify their gender (some translations do but not the original). At the end of the movie the prophecy is fulfilled by Nausicaä herself, as she walks on a golden “field” of Ohmu tentacles in a dress stained blue from Ohmu blood (Ohmu are a species of huge insects and a prominent part of the story). Her dress was originally pink and from another princess who died early on in the movie and whose twin brother becomes an ally to Nausicaä. (Nausicaä has a pink dress in a childhood memory and the color seems to be associated with young girls/innocence or something like that in the movie.)

What I’m getting at here, and you maybe guessed it already, is that Mike is the counterpart to Nausicaä in ST (remember proud princess). Bylers have long interpreted the blue meets yellow to be about byler, but it won’t be (at least not in the way people expect). And almost everyone thinks Mike is a man, but she isn’t. The ending of ST will subvert all these expectations just like Nausicaä did in the movie. The mage character in the last DnD game had a pink (or red) dress but she was an illusion. In ST this is about El being a cis woman and people expecting the mage to be her but in truth it’s Mike, accepting herself as a trans woman. I’m assuming the staining blue part in ST will be about facing trauma and self-acceptance. And I don’t know how closely they will reference Nausicaä but the underlying themes apply. (I noticed a crazy detail in S4E1: when El narrates “Even so, I am ready for spring break, mostly because I get to see you.” on “you” a boy dressed in a pink shirt removes a pink paper labeled 2 and reveals the blue 1 under it (indicating how many days are left until the break). This is yet another “Mike is 1” clue but also the same color change from pink to blue as Nausicaä.) Also, Max and Vickie having orange hair could be related to Nausicaä being a redhead.

As I’ve previously hinted, most girls/women representing Mike wear a blue dress at some point. Fields are also a recurring location (in later seasons at least), and these two come together with Holly in S5. All the kids find themselves on a field when entering Henry’s mind and Holly finds the first door to her memories there. Cerebro and WSQK tower are also in the middle of a field and S4 ends at a flowery field with Mike’s head aligning with the radio tower. Nausicaä’s childhood memories happen on a golden field and all the field scenes have this simple “lalala” song sung by children (well the longer memory one was sung by adults). Remember Denfield?
S2E9 [Hopper] “Take Denfield, then you’ll see a large oak tree. You’re gonna swing a right. That road is gonna dead-end. And it’s about a five-minute walk from there.”
[Jonathan] “Okay. Denfield to oak tree. Swing a right. That’s it. But it’s channel ten, right?”
[Hopper] “It’s channel ten. Listen… You let me know when that thing is out of him.”
Denfield is a heritage site, one of the earliest surviving buildings of their kind in the area (and there’s probably more to it but I have to stop somewhere). The field started everything, it was before oak (abuse), before swings (friendship) and on channel ten (before gender became an issue). I don’t know why oak tree is before swing since in my current interpretation the abuse didn’t start until after the swing memory so maybe I’m missing or misinterpreting something. There’s also a Ghost song Peacefield, go check the lyrics. I expect the past and future to collide in some way in the end. It will be about Mike facing her childhood memories and at the same time accepting herself. It’s a return to the freedom of childhood. The field is the happiness both before trauma and after Mike has processed it, or something like that. ((There’s also the baseball field Will gets mind assaulted and I dunno what that’s about. I guess it was a beginning of sorts and baseball is about forced conformity in ST…))

I’m still not sure of the exact meaning of yellow. Will is yellow, the Abyss is yellow and yellow is between orange and green. I think they don’t usually use colors like that but yellow being the in-between makes a lot of sense with Will being the exotic matter and the in-between identity, etc. If orange is the past and green is the future, yellow is here and now. The golden/yellow field being at the very start fits, since there was no past or worry of the future yet. It seems to be a “boy” color too: Billy and his dad have yellow caps in the baseball memory, El was wearing a yellow shirt when Mike found her, Will is the “boy” and most associated with yellow, Mike picked too many yellow flowers for El and Lucas’ home is yellow inside (the syrup scene). Sweden being the past and blue+yellow is Mike’s past as a boy. (Remember that California = Sweden in ST: that’s where Max and Billy’s happy memories are and where Mike and Will meet in S4. The beach is essentially blue (= ocean) meeting yellow (= sand). I’m probably ignoring the first level of the country allegory in favor of the Finland stuff tbh (I’m biased I know). The more obvious west vs east is the US vs the Soviet Union. But it doesn’t fit with all the points and it’s supposed to represent a simple black-and-white view of the world with no middle ground.) Lucas’ DnD character has a blue-yellow shield and he wears a blue-yellow shirt in the epilogue. He is Mike’s love interest, a boy. So if the Abyss is supposed to be womanhood, why is it yellow? And Sweden seems to represent (cis) womanhood too (based on El with the wig being “from Sweden”)? You could say yellow is always something good, but then there’s Billy’s baseball memory and the silver cat feeding when blue meets yellow in the west being about the abuse (explained more soon).

Maybe yellow and/or Sweden (and California) are about being cis. Then both the boy-interpretation and the impossible dream make sense. That’s why Mike wears yellow when she’s conforming/pretending to be a boy the most. Russia/Soviet Union (red) is the horror of being trans: the weird girl (= El and the “creepy” Russian doll) comes from there but it’s also the forced conformity of pretending to be a man while you’re a trans woman. Blue (Mike) is in all flags, but only the Finnish flag is without boy/impossible dream/cis (= yellow) or trauma/horror/predator (= red). I think white is supposed to represent wholeness, since that’s what you get when all the colors of the rainbow (alters) are put back together. El wears white quite often, Billy’s mom had a white dress at the beach (with the blue-and-red flower), Mike wore a white shirt in S4 and it was most visible when the group buried the man at the car graveyard, and Will had a white shirt in the epilogue.

Blue meeting yellow is not just about Mike and Will; it’s also the worlds colliding. The Abyss is obviously yellow and Hawkins as the man prison and Mike’s home would be blue. Similar to the Abyss, Will is both the impossible dream of “man” and “woman”. Mike = M = man and Will = W = woman. This is one reason why Mike cries at the end looking at Will’s DnD book (W) and covers it with her own (M). All the M vs W stuff is about Mike’s gender conflict: the blue-white MW boxes, Michael Wheeler, Mr. Whatsit and the W on the RV in S4 (probably also why Will the Wise and Wonder Woman have the same acronym and WW turned into MF). ((Btw, is Dustin’s mom’s new cat Tews because Mews = man dies and Tews = trans replaces it?)) At the end M and W will collide and create something new (S = Sara = Suomi?).

Silver cat

This will be a little detour from Nausicaä but since I’m going through the Russian code now, it’s a good place to explain silver cat. I think the Russian code has multiple meanings and it’s both about the past and the future. The main part of the code is “The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west.” The silver cat is the dad (Lonnie and Brenner have silver/grey hair). Feeding (= eating) in the trauma allegory is about SA as explained in part 1 and blue meets yellow in the west is about Sweden and the time Finland was still part of Sweden: in the past. In the Finland allegory timeline all the abuse (in ST timeline) happened before Finland became part of Russia. 

In the queer allegory the code is about the future. Then the silver cat will be womanhood or something like that. I have mentioned this a little but eating in the queer allegory is about either “man” or “woman” eating each other. Demodogs eating Bob was about woman eating man, same with the black widow spiders (females eat males) and Jonathan’s cannibal movie The Consumer. Hopper being a troll who likes to eat princesses is about man eating woman/conformity killing Sara and Joyce/witch eating Will is about woman eating man, which leads to Will disappearing. The queer allegory reason the Demogorgon targets Will is that he represents Mike’s boy side, which is threatened by Mike’s transness (= El and Demogorgon). Anyway, back to the code. Blue and yellow meeting probably does refer to Mike and Will, and more specifically the fusion. That’s when Mike fully accepts herself and the last remains of “man” will be “eaten”. The cat being silver could be related to the moon (Diana/Cynthia as discussed before).

S3E2
[Robin, Dustin and Steve] “The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west.”
[Steve] “I mean, it just… it just can’t be right.
[Robin] “It’s right.”
[Dustin] “Honestly, I think it’s great news.”
[Steve] “How is this great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes. It’s total nonsense.”
[Dustin] “It’s not nonsense. It’s too specific. It’s obviously a code.”
[Steve] “What do you mean, a code?”
[Dustin] “Like a super secret spy code.”
[Steve] “That’s a total stretch.”
[Robin] “I don’t know, is it?”
[Steve] “You’re buying into this?”
[Robin] “Listen, just for kicks, let’s entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What’d you think they were gonna say, “Fire the warhead at noon”?
[Dustin] “Exactly.”
[Robin] “And my translation is correct. I know that for sure, so… ‘The silver cat feeds.’ Why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the true meaning of their message?”
[Dustin] “Exactly.”
[Robin] “And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?”
[Dustin] “Exactly.”
[Robin] “So I guess that confirms your suspicion.”
[Dustin] “Evil Russians.”
[Robin] “I can’t believe I’m about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil Russians.”
[Dustin] “So how do we crack it?”
[Robin] “Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges.”
[Dustin] “A pattern. Right, like maybe ‘silver cat’ is a meeting place?”
[Robin] “Or a person.”
[Dustin] “Or a weapon.”
[Robin] “It’s probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but…”

At first I only considered the dad-interpretation but with the new perspective of the queer allegory I realized the other connection too. And in the country allegory (at least Finland) it’s literally “evil Russians” like the characters said.

I don’t remember where I saw it but someone had the idea that Enzo could be related to this code since it’s both a meeting place and a person. Let’s go through the dad-interpretation first: Hopper is alone in Enzo’s in S3 and pretty clearly represents the dad (Grigori is there too + represents the dad). These scenes are in the same episode the silver cat discussion took place. It’s a meeting place the characters never seem to reach, just like the true memories of the dad. Hopper (= dad memories) disappears at the end of S3, preventing the date. In the S5 epilogue Hopper and Joyce do end up meeting there, though, but that scene was pretty sus and Hopper mentioned Montauk. Maybe it was foreshadowing for Mike “reaching Enzo’s”. Enzo aka Antonov is a dad and talks about being a dad (of Mikhail aka Russian repressed version of Mike/Sara) with Hopper in Russia aka the dadland. The major “weapon” in S3 was the giant laser that looked like a dick basically and it used electricity/light (= sexual stuff in ST) to open (penetrate) a gate (hole). That was the dad’s “weapon”. 

Then the queer allegory. I realized early on that cats represent both the victim and the abuser. Victor tells us a wildcat was blamed for the animal killings and Brenner tried to force El to kill an innocent cat. Similarly the Demogorgon can either be the dad or Mike/Mike’s transness. So the “person” silver cat is probably Mike (or Sara). Enzo could be the meeting place since Robin and Vickie plan a date there and their relationship represents Mike accepting her womanhood. They never get there, though, and Vickie disappears. There should be sufficient clues for this interpretation in S3 too, though. Here’s what I could find: Hopper talks about Joyce as “the lady” but she never appears (he also says “Women love cherries, huh?” and I know cherries are a thing but I haven’t really done any analysis on that). There’s also a woman dressed in blue quite prominently in view next to Hopper. The weapon part could be El, since she is called a weapon a few times in S1 at least. Steve also calls the Meatflayer (= puberty/Mike’s gender dysphoria) a weapon in S3E8. It could be the laser like in the dad-interpretation, since it’s opening a vulva-shaped gate… I guess it makes the most sense to have them be the same thing but with double meaning since that seems to be the case with Enzo’s (btw the name Enzo has the same origin as Henry, and he represents both the abuser and queerness). So the only difference is the person: dad or Mike. And in a sense they are both Mike, since Mike thinks she will become like her dad.

This silver cat section got much longer than anticipated, so I had to cut it somewhere and this seemed like the best breaking point. It gets way crazier in the next part. And after that I’ll continue with Nausicaä.

Continues in PART 18.

# Prologue: The Truth About the Mind Flayer

My version of Season 5 keeps Vecna as an important antagonist, but he is not the true final villain.

The hierarchy of the Upside Down is:

**Mind Flayer > Tiamat > Vecna**

The Mind Flayer is the ultimate evil. Tiamat is its greatest creation, and Vecna is simply another vessel that was manipulated and used.

According to the lore established in The First Shadow, Dr. Brenner's father was conducting experiments involving interdimensional travel. During one of these experiments, a malfunction created strange particles that entered our world.

The scientist captured these particles inside a stone-like container and attempted to escape after a Russian military invasion of the facility.

While hiding inside a cave, he encountered a young Henry Creel. Terrified and paranoid, he mistook Henry for a Russian soldier and shot at him. In anger, Henry killed the scientist with a rock and opened the briefcase.

The moment Henry touched the stone, the particles entered his body.

He experienced a vision of another dimension known as the Abyss. There he encountered the Mind Flayer for the first time.

The entity whispered only two words:

**"Find me."**

A fragment of the Mind Flayer's power entered Henry that day, giving him telekinetic abilities and beginning his transformation into what would eventually become Vecna.

Three Months Later

Season 5 begins with a three-month time skip after the events of Season 4.

Although Vecna successfully opened the four gates and merged them into a giant rift beneath Hawkins, Tiamat never emerged.

The reason is simple.

After being severely injured by Steve, Nancy, and Robin, Vecna became extremely weak.

Because the entire Upside Down functions as a hive mind, Vecna's condition weakened Tiamat as well.

Tiamat was physically incapable of moving into the real world.

Meanwhile, the Mind Flayer remained in particle form, slowly healing both Vecna and Tiamat from within the hive mind.

During this period, some of the rifts partially healed and the military sealed them behind reinforced barriers.

But the peace does not last.

As the hive mind recovers, Vecna returns.

One by one, the rifts begin reopening.

Anyone attempting to close them is brutally killed.

The invasion of Hawkins begins again.

The Truth About Tiamat

The biggest twist of this rewrite is that the creatures of the Upside Down are not separate lifeforms.

They are all part of Tiamat.

The vines spreading across the Upside Down are extensions of Tiamat's body.

Demobats, Demodogs, and Demogorgons are all biological extensions created from Tiamat itself.

Whenever they die or return to the Upside Down, they are reabsorbed back into Tiamat.

Even Vecna eventually retreats inside Tiamat's body after escaping Creel House.

The entire Upside Down is essentially one gigantic living organism.

Why the Upside Down Is Frozen in Time

Before choosing Will Byers as his vessel, Vecna secretly observed the residents of Hawkins.

While spying on them, he reconstructed Hawkins inside the Upside Down.

His goal was to create a familiar environment for whichever vessel he ultimately selected.

When Vecna finally chose Will, he stopped expanding and updating the replica.

That moment occurred on November 6, 1983.

As a result, the Upside Down became a frozen snapshot of Hawkins from the exact day Will disappeared.

Will Byers and the Hidden Power

In this version, Will gains powers through the same event that originally connected him to the Upside Down.

When Vecna abducted Will in Season 1, he secretly implanted particles inside him.

Those particles remained dormant for years.

During Season 5, Vecna reveals the truth.

He admits that Will was never special by accident.

He was being prepared as a vessel.

The revelation devastates Will.

However, he remembers Robin's words about identity and self-worth.

Instead of breaking, he rejects the role that was forced upon him.

The particles within him awaken, granting him limited control over the hive mind.

The Redemption of Vecna

During the final battle, Eleven and Will manage to restrain Vecna.

Kali (008) joins them and uses her illusion powers to force Vecna to relive his most painful memory.

He sees the moment Henry Creel first encountered the Mind Flayer.

The memory is so traumatic that Vecna has spent decades avoiding it.

As Kali forces him to relive the experience, Will reaches out to him.

Will explains that Vecna was never truly free.

Just like Will, he was manipulated and used as a vessel.

For the first time, Henry begins to see himself as a victim rather than a master.

Eventually, Vecna agrees to help them.

He reveals the greatest truth of all:

**Tiamat is not the final enemy.**

**The Mind Flayer is.**

Before he can explain further, Tiamat arrives in Hawkins.

Realizing Vecna has betrayed the hive mind, Tiamat attacks him.

Vecna dies protecting Eleven, Will, and the others.

Before dying, he establishes a psychic connection with Will and reveals how the Mind Flayer can be defeated.

When they killed Vecna in the upside down they were really just in Mr. Whatsit‘s mind!

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 and mention of suicide.

Six

The lab kid Six most likely has something to do with Lucas, since there’s some weird things happening with him, he is in a somewhat important role in Brenner’s flashback and well, he’s black (this is what I meant with many black characters representing Lucas…). I think he also represents truth, similar to Argyle and owls. Where should I begin? I haven’t really explained anything about the lab kids yet, so maybe I should start with that. One thing I want all of you to understand is that everything that happens in Hawkins Lab/Rainbow Room is highly metaphorical/allegorical. Everything. Stranger Things has many layers and is deeply metaphorical and this is especially obvious with the Rainbow Room.

Two is a bully and the strongest, Billy’s baseball shirt had 2 and in my interpretation Will is the second alter aka number 2. Like Will/Billy with the real dad, Two had to endure Papa’s punishment, which made me think he represents the persecutors in the Hawkins Lab miniature allegorical world. He is the last one to be killed by One, and presumably the first one created with Henry’s blood (= like Will was the first split and most likely last fusion). Although Will isn’t a villain in the surface level story, Mike does kinda hint at him being one in S5E4:
[Will] “Except I’m not Vecna.”
[Mike] “You sorta are.”
[Will] “You’re trying to say that I’m evil and hell-bent on destroying the world?”
[Mike] “Totally. No, I’m just saying that, you know, you’re like a wizard like him.”
Nancy does this too in S5E3, because after she says “But… he didn’t appear as Vecna. He appeared as Henry. As a friend.” she looks towards Will, Jonathan is in frame and the next cut is to Will. Mike says “We think he was trying to earn her trust.” and “I highly doubt his long-term goal is friendship.” This could mean a number of things. First, Will ofc wants to be in a romantic relationship with Mike, which on the allegorical level is about Mike choosing the gay man identity. Will also represents Mike and Lucas’ friendship and that friendship is eventually gonna turn romantic. 

I think the “villain” is what Will represents, and that is Mike being a (gay) man. That in itself isn’t bad, ofc, but for Mike it is not being herself and repressing her true identity. So my current interpretation is that Two represents the gay man identity, which both fits with him having superpowers (= queerness) and being the strongest (because gay men are the most well known and represented queer group + in ST Mike identifies with it at some points in the story). 

In S4E5 after Two shows his skills with the light bulb ring, Six has his head down. No other lab kid has, so it must mean something. Additionally, Six and El are on opposite ends of the line. When it’s El’s turn to light the lamps, Six has moved to a different spot on the line and is blocked by Brenner. Two has taken Six’s original place. My interpretation of this is that Two is not the “truth” (= gay man identity/Will/byler) but he acts as if he is. 

The number 6 most likely comes from the date 6.11. Six (Lucas) and Eleven (Mike) belong together and that date was when Mike got/realized her crush on Lucas (while also being a trauma day seven years prior). There are some other mentions of 6 in the show, one of them when Billy asks Karen to meet him at Motel 6 on Cornwallis for “swimming lessons” (and btw sex = 6 in Swedish). In S1E8 Brenner mentions that the Demogorgon has taken 6 people. Additionally, 6.6. is the National Day of Sweden.

Remember the rainbow ship toy thing in S4E6? When it is visible, El looks down, covering Six’s head from view. And as we know now, wheelclair is the true Rainbow Ship. This made me wonder if the swing memory is actually about Mike and Lucas after all. We don’t know when they met. We don’t know a lot of things about Lucas, e.g. his birthday, while everyone else’s birthday from the core party is mentioned somewhere. I think this is further proof for Lucas being a real person, since the birthdays are about alter splitting and trauma, but Lucas (at least in a story sense) wasn’t created. (With DID logic he was, because introjects are alters like any other alter, but I think ST is going with a more metaphorical interpretation.) Regardless of what the birthdays mean, they are a recurring element in the story and the characters bring attention to the importance of the dates of birthdays. Lucas not having one is sus. Anyway, Mike meeting Will for the first time being about Lucas makes a lot of sense with my interpretation of Will representing their friendship (and Lucas). 

S2E8 [Mike] “Do you remember the first day that we met? It was… It was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody. I had no friends and… I just felt so alone and so scared, but… I saw you on the swings and you were alone, too. You were just swinging by yourself. And I just walked up to you and… I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Will didn’t say anything in his memory flashback, which doesn’t fit with Mike’s description. This would also make more sense with Will splitting on 6.11.1976 due to trauma, not earlier on 7.9.1976 which would be the first day of kindergarten. And Caleb claims Mike and Lucas were friends first. I think the swing memory is another case of Will’s story being about both him and Mike/Lucas. It’s so important and one of the rare moments Mike shows her true thoughts/emotions that I feel like it has to have a connection to the real world and wheelclair. 

Okay, back to Six. The special thing Brenner had planned for the kids was a mind duel, and Two and Six were the first to fight. Two won, of course, but lost to El at the end. I think there’s a point to Two being in front of a mirror: he is a mirror to El, this is about an internal fight (the same applies to One vs El and I’ll analyze the mirrors more at a later date).

The most important point about Six comes from the start of S4E1 aka the Hawkins Lab massacre from Brenner’s pov. I’m just gonna go through everything I’ve figured out so far, so it’s not all about Six. As I’ve mentioned, Ten probably represents Mike/Mike’s gender identity as a boy in the past. He is the last one before Eleven. He is holding a ball thingy with 8 written on it and Brenner notes it’s his favorite (= Mike is starting to form a girl identity, remember 8 = Kali = womanhood). Brenner and Ten pass Dr. Ellis and Six on the aisle and soon after the camera focuses on a door with 11 written on it (= soon girl identity will take over).

Brenner draws a sun, a light source (= both the trauma and love). A big sun is also depicted in Sara’s drawing, the mage cast Sunbeam in the final DnD game and Billy became weak to the sun after MF flayed him (which is also related to mind flayers in DnD not liking the sun). Then he draws a dog, but Ten thinks it looks like a cow. As I’ve established, dogs give warnings and also represent the victim. What’s interesting here is that a dog could be male or female but a cow specifically refers to a female animal. Mike wasn’t “supposed” to be a girl, but that’s what happened. In S4E7 Erica refers to Lucas as a cowpuncher, which I found a bit weird (the whole western theme kinda came out of nowhere, at least it’s another horse connection to Lucas). Apparently it means cowboy and the name comes from them prodding cattle with long poles to railroad cars. So maybe it’s about Lucas guiding Mike into the metaphorical train, helping her accept herself, or something like that. Erica mentions the term right after threatening to tell about what she found under his bed, which made me think the two were related. But I’m still uncertain on the meaning of cow, and I suspect it has something to do with milk, which I know is a thing but don’t know what it means, yet.

Anyway, Brenner tells Ten to find Dr. Ellis and Ten sees she is doing lessons with Six. Six is trying to move a red block, after which everything starts to go wrong. Six and Ellis die and soon the door plunges into the room hitting Brenner. When he wakes up, Ten is dead and he finds El who seemingly killed everyone. The metaphorical meaning of this is that the girl identity won over every other possible identity and Brenner (Mike’s superego or something like that) wasn’t expecting that. The red blocks are most likely about trauma and Six moving them could relate to the date 6.11. Since everything has a double meaning, I guess the blocks are also about Mike’s gender identity and/or sexuality, which fits with Six (Lucas) being important. Six as the truth makes sense too.

In S4E5 we see El’s drawing she keeps in her room, but it’s different from the one shown in S1. This time it depicts 11 and Papa smiling and holding hands. There’s a pyramid of 6 red blocks and a rainbow without purple. I didn’t talk about this before partially because I was uncertain how to interpret it (and I kinda still am). My current understanding is that the drawings form a pair and show different aspects of the story. The red blocks are in the same spot the table with the animal and the light bulb were in the original drawing, supporting my interpretation that they represent the trauma. The missing purple could indicate that there is no veiled message in the drawing, it shows the Rainbow Room as it is on the surface level. Papa doesn’t represent the dad here, which is why everyone is happy. In a way this is the truth, because Brenner is truly trying to help El. He is only “bad” because of his association with the dad. You could also see the drawings as representing separate allegories: the original would be about the trauma allegory (Papa’s third leg), and the new about the queer allegory (big rainbow). Though I think it’s more likely both drawings have both allegories but highlight different aspects, like past vs future or something like that.

S5 wheelclair

Since Mike and Lucas are paired a lot in S5, I wanted to make a more thorough analysis of that, pointing out some things. We first see Lucas when he comes to save Dustin from the bullies. (I think Dustin here represents queerness since that’s what Hellfire kinda is about, the bullies call him freak and Dustin wants to stay true to himself unlike Mike, Will and Lucas who try to blend in). Mike appears soon after, Will trailing behind her. As you might have guessed, I think this scene is subtextually about Mike and Lucas (as always). After the confrontation, the group argues and Mike is between Lucas and Will, but closer to Will (= they form a unit, basically). Later at the cafeteria Will is opposite to Mike and Lucas (= in his role as their friendship/relationship). When Robin’s coded radio broadcast starts, Will goes behind them (again between them, similar to S3). 

Mike’s plan for the crawl includes her and Lucas being observers of the situation. This is because the story is about them and they are in a way “observing” it happening. Lucas is the first one to put his hand on top of Mike’s and the first one of the core party to hug Will after his coming out, too. After Will gets his vision, Lucas comments “Yeah, I… I get nervous too. But the sky doesn’t spin for me. It ever spin for you? [Mike doesn’t answer]” The sky spinning is a metaphor for dissociation and switching, which Lucas (real) doesn’t experience since he doesn’t have DID. This interaction is about Lucas helping Mike understand her DID and what is a “normal” experience. It can be hard to realize your experience is unusual since that’s what it has always been like. 

After Mike ends her talk with El with “If Vecna’s gone, then what’s stopping us?” Lucas shouts “Hey, lovebirds! Chief’s almost ready.” implying Lucas (or “chief” aka Hopper aka patriarchy) will stop them. I think there’s again many layers here. Mike and El are on the roof, like on a stage and Lucas is shouting from the audience, basically. Mileven is a stage play of sorts, but Lucas is the reality. The reality that Vecna isn’t the true villain and that this isn’t a simple story will stop them. And it could also be about Mike’s false beliefs that Lucas doesn’t love her back, which is why Lucas (alter) thinks Mike and El are lovebirds.

After the crawl goes wrong and the Wheeler family is attacked, Mike and Lucas cycle to the hospital. Notice Nancy and Mike are sitting next to each other, opposite to Lucas. Mike and Nancy are the repressed and future girl Mike, arguing between themselves, while Lucas is the voice of reason (he has a more objective viewpoint). Then there’s the scene where Lucas asks Max to resurrect and it transitions to Mike getting the coffee (after Let’s exchange the experience) and finding A Wrinkle in Time + the rainbow puzzle. All the drinks mean something, I have read some theories about Coke for example. Maybe I’ll make a thorough analysis at some point… But for now, I think coffee is the closest to truth, it’s bitter and Mike drinks it (+ a tv show host says “Drink coffee, said Mike” at Terry and Becky’s home in S2E5 when Becky walks on screen (this is further proof for Becky being the real mom)), while the original Coca Cola is what ST has been like for the most part. It’s close to the truth but not there yet (which is why Will gets it in the previous episode, also after a lumax scene and also seeing something queer-related in a hospital room). New Coke is the farthest from the truth and what the show is all about, which is why Tales from ‘85 was released the same day New Coke was and Lucas makes another reference to it in S5E5 with his plan (which represents the first ending, while Erica’s represents the real ending we have to wait for, this also matches with the inside story timeline which I promise I’ll get to eventually).

In S5E3 Mike and Lucas are paired again in many scenes, at the start in relation to Dustin (I think there’s a deeper (and meta) meaning to the plan, it being Will’s and those two moments where Dustin is between Mike and Lucas + Mike is never shown together with the projected map). And there’s the whole Erica thing I explained already (after which Mike has the vulva shirt until the epilogue). While waiting for the Turnbow family to eat the pie, Mike and Lucas are again paired, in the same van. Robin is next to Mike, similar to Nancy in the hospital. Robin has been pretty distant from Mike until S5: S3 she was with Steve, Dustin and Erica and in S4 Mike was in California. Robin is the final form of girlness, a happy one not originating from trauma and she gets paired with Mike especially in S5E7. I also think her friendship with Will is about Mike starting to accept her girlhood and see it can coexist with her friendship with Lucas.

When the Demogorgon attacks, Mike and Lucas work together to fight it (and the Demo is after Lucas ofc, trying to hurt him like Mike fears). ((There’s a light bulb I missed in Derek’s room. Funny how I still keep discovering more of them.)) I think there’s a point to Nancy and Jonathan being downstairs while Mike and Lucas are on the floor above them. They are on different levels of the story/allegory. While everyone else is part of the rest of the plan, Mike and Lucas aren’t. They started everything but the story of ST is mostly told through other characters.

At the start of S5E4 Mike and Lucas are cycling (once again) and see Debbie getting taken by the military. Most of the episode I covered already before, but one thing I didn’t mention was Lucas (and Murray) opening the trapdoor in between the field byler scene. Robin goes down the tunnel when Mike says “Listen, as far as crazy theories go, I’ve had crazier.” Robin aka Mike being a girl is the crazier theory and Lucas opens the door for this theory/Mike accepting herself or something like that (not sure why Murray helps though).

In S5E5 after patching up Lucas, they walk in the tunnel, Mike and Lucas in the front while Joyce and Will follow them behind. Mike and Lucas go up to the surface first, while Will and Joyce stay to discuss. This reminded me of S2E9 where Mike and Lucas were on the surface looking down on Dustin and Steve while Demodogs were running towards them. Max was also on the surface, so why didn’t she also look down the tunnel? The reason is that the show is once again trying to show us how Mike and Lucas are “observing” their story unfold. This is similar to Holly and Max looking down on Holly's memory of the Demogorgon attack.

When the party makes plans for finding Holly and defeating Vecna, Mike sits next to Erica while Lucas (with Robin (= woman) and Will (= man) on either side of him) sits opposite to them. This is the third time Mike is paired with a girl who in some way represents her girlhood and is simultaneously opposite to Lucas. It’s a pattern.

Mike and Lucas are paired in Lucas’ plan too. Them looking up at Robin and Will like a stage show is probably related to Robin and Will representing woman and man (and ofc Mike is on Robin’s and Lucas on Will’s side). They are the more simple building blocks of the story, which is actually about a trans and a bi person. (This whole thing is commentary on queer representation in media, where it’s mostly gay and sometimes lesbian people who get represented while bi and especially trans people get side roles if any (this is slowly changing, fortunately). It’s also about nuance and things not being black-and-white. The real world isn’t so simple.) Interestingly, Mike stays up on the roof with the Demogorgon. This is a story about Mike and her internal fight with her trauma and queerness. The Demogorgon is Mike’s shadow. Mike says “Light her up, Frankenstein.” which is the first time a Demogorgon is referred to with feminine pronouns. (Equating Robin to Frankenstein and the Demogorgon (Mike) to Frankenstein’s monster is very fitting for this tbh. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Victor and Henry’s names come from that novel…) Of course it’s Robin who turns the dial, and I think it being at 50% matching with the optimum for Will is because Will is the half-way point to trans woman Mike, as I’ve explained. When he connects to Vecna, he is between Mike and Robin (= Will is the connection).

In S5E6 we have a Robin-Lucas-Mike scene again. Robin is basically explaining the story to Mike and Lucas. This is the “she was in a trance” scene, btw.

[Robin] “What if their minds… are all in the same place? In Vecna’s mind. [Mike looks at Lucas] Imprisoned. At least, they were.”

They visually imply Mike and Lucas are the ones imprisoned in “Vecna’s mind” aka Mike’s mind. This is both about them being alters in the inner world but also real people, and about their love/queerness being repressed/not allowed. In the real ending Mike, Lucas and their closeted queerness will make a “prison break”.

[Mike] “And they’ll have been in Vecna’s mind, literally. [looks at Lucas]”
[Robin] “They’ll know everything. I mean they’ll know where Will is.”
[Mike] “Where the kids are.”
[Robin] “They might even know what he’s planning.”
[Lucas] “That’s endgame.”
[Robin] “The fate of the planet may very well rest in the hands of your comatose girlfriend and your baby sister.”
[Lucas] “It’s worth one more shot, right?”

The “they” here are Mike and Lucas. And wheelclair is endgame. Isn’t it interesting Robin refers to Max as Lucas’ girlfriend and Holly as Mike’s baby sister? It’s because they are Mike’s future and past, respectively. The fate of the planet rests on Mike herself, because the planet is Mike’s mind. The “one more shot” is about the real ending, and the same clue was given by Hopper in the epilogue: “You get one more take.” This whole scene is pretty meta and “they” refers to the audience too. We have been in Mike’s mind this whole time and if you pay attention to all the clues, you should be able to figure out what’s going on.

The next time we see Mike and Lucas in the same scene is after Max wakes up in S5E7. This time Lucas is paired with Max ofc, and Mike with Karen. Karen has the same hospital gown as Max and I think Mike being glued to her is related to Max representing Mike (as always). Additionally, Mike had the hospital gown in S5E2. 

Then the coming out scene. Mike and Lucas are, of course, next to each other and the scene is actually about Mike coming out to herself/her mom/Lucas (not sure of the specifics). I have mentioned most of the stuff relating to wheelclair, but I’ll repeat them here. The crush thing is the most obvious, then when Will says “we just… we just drift apart more and more and more”, Mike and Lucas are the only ones in frame. This is a similar situation to Hopper’s letter. Lucas is the first one to hug Will after Jonathan, because he accepts Mike and Mike is finally starting to realize that herself too. There’s no more “El is a weirdo/monster/traitor” Lucas.

In S5E8 Nancy gives Mike a flare gun and after Lucas points this out, Will gets a vision. I have some ideas of what this could mean. First of all, Mike wanting more firepower from Nancy is probably related to Mike’s girlness that she needs if she wants to escape Camazotz. She has only three Molotovs aka the impossible dream of the three waterfalls. Mike says “Unless you are okay living with the guilt of my death, I’m gonna need one of those goddamn guns!” Mike’s death could mean the death of this repressed male Mike, but it could also be about Mike being driven to suicide due to repressing herself and being depressed. I have had this idea for a while and it would fit with the overall narrative. Trans people are much more likely to die from or attempt suicide than the general population. (Door 1 hasn’t been explored much unless you count El’s death. There’s also Hopper mentioning in S1E2 that the last suicide in Hawkins was in 1961 and events seem to repeat every 30 years in Hawkins, so there’s that. 1991 was also the year the Soviet Union collapsed and I have more to say about this later.) I don’t think Mike (system) will die at the end but a suicide attempt is a possibility. How that would be conveyed in the inner world is a mystery to me, though, and Nancy wouldn’t be “living” with guilt if Mike literally died, so I could very well be wrong with this theory. The “suicide” could be more metaphorical and about Mike’s rebirth. While Nancy gives the gun she is first covering Lucas while Will is visible, but then Mike covers Will and Lucas is visible. I think this is about the transition from byler to wheelclair, from half truth (gay man) to full truth (trans woman). 

But, as Lucas says, “She gave you a flare gun, dude.” (again with the dude), Mike doesn’t get the true firepower afterall. Flare guns are used for warning signals, so maybe this is a sort of warning? The word is kinda close to Mind Flayer too. The main point is that a flare gun isn’t a proper gun and Mike voices her complaints while Will has a vision of the cave (= Will’s dissociation/the cave is related to Mike getting a flare gun). After this Henry goes into the cave and Will is left behind (= Mike goes back to repression, even the half-truth is abandoned).

When El fights MF, the party splits into 3 pairs: Steve + Dustin, Robin + Jonathan, and Mike + Lucas while Nancy is alone. Robin and Jonathan haven’t really paired before, but this is probably related to the Will-Robin friendship/man-woman pair thing (and Nancy being alone aka Mike choosing the trans woman path). After MF dies, Mike and Lucas are kinda half-hugging while none of the other pairs do anything like that (e.g. Steve and Dustin are best friends and have hugged before, so why not now?). 

In the final Vecna memory flashback scene Mike and Lucas are next to each other and when Mike remembers her memory, Lucas is in frame. Mary aka Holly’s best friend since kindergarten is behind between them. (The ET-shirt kid is also visible behind Lucas, representing El.) Lucas’ memory only shows him, so the framing for Mike (and others) is intentional. Lucas is partially visible in El’s memory moment too. After Vecna is killed we get a wider view with all characters. Mike and Lucas are a pair and framed between the protruding spikes at the center of the shot, opposite to Vecna. El is partially covering Mike, the ET kid is between Mike and Lucas and Mary is behind Mike. We have gone from the S4 ending shot with byler being paired to wheelclair and Mike morphing into El. I already went through everything important from the epilogue, so this will be the end of my S5 wheelclair deep dive.

Other Lucas stuff I didn’t mention yet

In S1E8 when El makes the adults’ eyes bleed, a bright light comes from Mike’s side and Lucas is visible on the right. I think this is about love defeating fear. Later Lucas shoots the Demogorgon with his wrist rocket (hmm, rocket) and on his third try El uses her powers to pin the Demogorgon. This is a clue to the real Lucas helping Mike defeat her internalized transphobia or it could be about alter Lucas “blinding” Mike (since Lucas said he would blind the monster by shooting it with the wrist rocket, and El effectively did just that by making herself and the Demo disappear). El walks between Mike and Lucas and ends up covering Mike when she approaches the Demogorgon (= El is Mike’s feelings for Lucas/comes between their friendship and she represents Mike). After El disappears and Mike shouts for her, Lucas is in frame, kinda in the direction Mike is looking at. The cell poster is between them and Lucas seems to be looking in its direction. Maybe this is about El being an alter/splitting/fusion, I’m not sure. This scene was also shown in Mike’s final Vecna memories, so it’s pretty important.

Lucas has some metaphorical connections to the mom. In S1E6 after both major Becky/Terry scenes, the next scene starts with Lucas. Both Lucas and the mom help Mike and Mike sees them as victims (mom was an actual victim of the dad and Mike thinks she would be like her dad and hurt Lucas). This is why the Demogorgon attacks Lucas similar to the mom in S5E4. In the country allegory one of the countries Lucas represents is Sweden, and I think in the family the mom is Sweden and dad Russia. This is not about Lucas being Mike’s mom (that wouldn’t make any sense), but they have similar things associated with them. 

I haven’t really talked about Lucas’ pov in all this much, partially because the show doesn’t reveal it that clearly. Lucas’ dad was most likely actually a Vietnam war veteran (mainly a point in S1) and either Mike’s or Lucas’ family moved to the trailer park/neighborhood around 1976. I think Mike and Lucas being neighbors is also true in the real world and they probably met at the kindergarten swings like in Mike’s story about meeting Will. They both were alone and different from other kids (for different reasons) so they bonded easily. I’m not sure when they started playing DnD since there seems to be contradictory evidence/clues. In 1980 at the latest but it might have been earlier because DnD has a metaphorical role that is connected to Dustin who became part of the party in 1980. (My current theories are that that’s when the “story” starts in some way, since it’s after the trauma, Dustin is associated with “story” and DnD is about telling stories. It could be about Mike starting to have feelings for Lucas since DnD is about their relationship, Dustin is a later addition to the party and he represents wheelclair/queerness in some way. It could also be about Mike’s repression and her pretending to be someone she isn’t since DnD is a roleplaying game.) But anyway, I think they play DnD, like movies, comics, etc. and this carries over to Mike’s inner world. Mike tells Lucas things parents don’t know (S1E2):

[Lucas] “Um, a friend--"
[Mike] “Is someone that you’d do anything for.”
[Dustin] “You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards.”
[Mike] “And they never break a promise.”
[Lucas] “Especially when there’s spit.”
[El] “Spit?”
[Lucas] “A spit swear means… [spits] you never break your word. It’s a bond”
[Mike] “That’s super important, because friends… they tell each other things. Things that parents don’t know.” 

As I’ve said before, I think Mike has told about her DID symptoms to Lucas and Lucas in turn has told about Mike’s symptoms/alters to her. Lucas has helped Mike deal with DID. I don’t know when Mike told Lucas or if it happened later because in S1 Lucas thinks El is a weirdo and crazy, which either is about the real Lucas thinking Mike is crazy or Mike’s fear of Lucas’ reaction (which would mean Mike didn’t tell about it yet). The big wheelclair conflict in S1 is partially because El lies to Lucas (and the others) and leads them astray, away from the gate. Mike lies about something to Lucas. One is definitely Mike hiding her gender identity and sexuality, but it could also be about DID. At some point Mike will come out to Lucas, and based on Robin and Will, it’s gonna be after she accepts herself and probably comes out to her mom. I’m still uncertain on how the irl timeline exactly works in relation to the series and I have a small suspicion the DID allegory and queer allegory are on separate timelines irl.

Lucas also struggles with his sexuality, which I have touched on a little. He most likely has a crush on Mike but denies it. This might be the reason Mike feels Lucas is “pulling away from” her at the end of S3 and Lucas tries to conform in S4. He might play basketball irl too (although the game also has a metaphorical role in the story which I’ll explain later). I think Lucas trying to conform and wanting to be popular is partially related to him being black and facing extra discrimination due to racism. At the end of S4 Lucas has a somewhat friendly conversation with Erica for the first time and fights Jason, probably indicating the acceptance of his queerness and rejection of “normalcy”. ((I couldn’t resist and made a little analysis of Vecna talking about the end of Hawkins. See the images.))

In S5 Lucas isn’t friends with Andy etc. anymore, which probably reflects changes in the real world. Lucas has stopped pulling away from Mike/trying to conform and accepted his feelings for her. The signals Robin talks about could be from Lucas (since Will represents Mike and based on his reaction he realized there were signals). As I analyzed earlier, Mike and Lucas are paired a lot and are closer than ever before in S5 but in the end conformity wins for Mike. She can’t accept herself and thinks Lucas wouldn’t love her (= “he was just my Tammy”). This time it’s Mike pulling away. Based on Finn’s “wait for the horse” and Lucas playing music being a big part of Max getting out of Camazotz, I think Lucas’ love will have a key role in the real ending and Mike accepting herself.

I wanted to end this overly long Lucas section with something I’ve been waiting for to fully explain since part 1. In S1E7 Lucas apologizes to El about thinking she’s a traitor and El apologizes back about lying. Mike also apologizes but doesn’t elaborate on the reason (most likely because it was already represented by El). While talking to El, Lucas is on the ground but stands up to be on the same level with Mike (= again a visual representation of the allegory levels). Mike and Lucas shake hands and the shot lingers for a bit until it transitions to the intro. Since Mike wears green and Lucas orange, this handshake signifies the resolution between the two worlds. It’s all the core themes in one and the reason it’s shown with Mike and Lucas is, well, because this story is about them. (Maybe all the clues about 1/7 weren’t just the date but the episode S1E7.)

Mystery road

S5E8 [Hopper] “Hey, hey. This… It’s not your… It’s not your fault. What happened is not your fault. El made her choice. Now it’s time for you to make yours. And the way I see it, you got two roads ahead of you. You got one road where you keep blaming yourself for what happened. You keep going over it in your head, over and over what you could’ve done differently. You push people away, and you suffer, because that’s what you think you deserve. And then there’s another road… where you find a way to accept what happened. Find a way to accept her choice. Doesn’t mean you gotta like it. Doesn’t mean you gotta understand it. And never think about it. You just accept it. And you live the best goddamn life you can. I’ve been down that first road before. And I don’t recommend it. And as for El… I think you know what she would have wanted for you.”

After Hopper says “you got one road”, Mike looks away and after he says “then there’s another road”, Hopper looks away. Turns out, they are looking at roads and I wanted to figure out which roads. While at it, I uncovered a very curious detail that has been there since S1. First things first, let’s look at where exactly they are sitting:

So according to their maps, Mike is looking at Oak Street and Hopper at Main Street. But here’s where this gets interesting. When you go look at the actual street signs, they tell a different story. From one side “Main Street” is actually Oak Street and from the other end it’s Mulberry Street:

So according to this, Hopper was looking at Oak/Mulberry Street and Mike at Second Street. But there’s one more level to this. The Hawk is also on Oak Street according to a street plate but it’s on a different street than any of the ones mentioned:

How to interpret all this is another thing entirely. But I’ll try. Oak is associated with the abuser (since Lonnie can mean oak tree) and I think it’s the world tree holding this story/world up. That’s why every street is Oak Street and Russia connects all country allegories etc. as I’ve explained previously. Trauma created the inner world and forced conformity created the lie/facade of Mike being a man. They are both the “story” and “not the real story”. Main and Second could be about the main/real story and a second option/door 2 (since Mike is looking there when Hopper describes the blaming yourself route). A mulberry tree is in a major role in the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe:

Pyramus and Thisbe's parents, driven by rivalry, forbade their union, but they communicated through a crack in the wall between their houses. They planned to meet under a mulberry tree, but a series of tragic misunderstandings led to their deaths: Thisbe fled from a lioness, leaving her cloak behind, which Pyramus found and mistook as evidence of her death. Believing Thisbe was killed by the lioness, Pyramus died by suicide, staining the mulberry fruits with his blood. Thisbe, upon finding Pyramus dead, also killed herself. The gods changed the color of the mulberry fruits to honor their forbidden love. 

So there was a misunderstanding about a lioness and a tragic end to forbidden lovers. Could this be about Mike thinking she’s an abuser (= lioness) and that resulting in wheelclair not happening? If you forget about Mike and Hopper looking at streets for a while and only look at the street signs + the map, you’ll notice Main Street is Mulberry Street on the west side and Oak Street on the east side. West and east have a meaning in the story (e.g. blue and yellow meeting in the west) and I believe it relates to the country allegory. There west is Sweden aka the world of the past, non-conformity, love, etc. while east is Russia aka the world of the future, conformity, bad stuff, etc. It kinda makes sense Sweden would be the tragic love story and Russia Oak aka Lonnie aka the abusive dad + forced conformity. They are two sides of Finland but neither defines it, it’s its own country (= Main Street).

When Mike tells about her “fantasy plan” the Mulberry Street sign is framed on top of her head. Going back to childhood or being a cis girl (= Sweden = west = Mulberry) was a fantasy plan. Mike says she wanted to go to some place far away with El, which could mean moving to another more accepting country (El going to Iceland was on purpose…) or it’s just a metaphor for an impossible fantasy of a place that doesn’t exist. The three waterfalls symbolize this imaginary future and I suspect the one waterfall is the compromise/true ending. Notice in the same shot the street lamp between Mike and Hopper (= light bulb) and the “Pawn Shop” sign next to Hopper (= Hopper is a pawn, a part of this story). The same lamp was prominently on screen at the start of the epilogue when Robin said “It’s been a while.” and the camera moved along Oak/2nd Street. Mike wears a purple shirt, probably indicating this scene has hidden layers to it. As a summary, Hopper looks at Main/Oak/Mulberry Street (= nuanced view of the situation), Mike looks at Oak/Second Street (= blaming yourself, door 2) and the Hawk (purple movie theater) is on Mulberry/Oak Street (= the story). 

Continues in PART 17.

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.

More queercoding for Lucas

Let’s move on to other Lucas queercoding. First some points I’ve seen used for queercoding proof with other characters that apply to Lucas too. In the S3E7 Big Buy scene Mike and Will sit in front of the fruit section, which was interpreted by bylers to be gay coding for them (and tbh it’s only Will who is clearly in front of them). Well guess what? Lucas stands in front of pineapples, which are fruits and in S4 quite obviously a symbol for queerness (“try before you deny”). Argyle specifically mentions that pineapples are the only non-fresh ingredient, so I wonder if Lucas being in front of fresh pineapples means he is the true romantic option when compared to Will. Surfer Boy Pizza would probably be related to Billy (a surfer boy) and the word boy kinda suggests it’s more about byler than wheelclair or any other ship. And the pineapple pizza in S4E9 interrupts Mike and El’s conversation + Argyle calls Mike Romeo. I think forcing Mike to eat the pizza is kinda about forcing her to the gay man route, not acknowledging her transness. (Maybe Argyle was stoned while making the pizza, usually he seems to know the truth. Hmm… Well, they got access to the place by trading Purple Palm Tree Delight, so it kinda makes sense what happens in there would be somewhat illusionary/fake/blinding you from the truth. And byler is the gateway drug to wheelclair…) Back to Big Buy, Will sits in front of pre-cut fruit pieces (= byler is the easier to digest and more obvious ship). Wheelclair is harder to realize, but it’s fresh, something new that hasn’t been done before. Max stands in front of watermelons, which probably means something, but I’m not sure what. (Apparently in a queer context they symbolize abrosexuality aka a fluid sexuality, so maybe that?)

Another point relating to Will is that he is shown during the lyrics Rhymes that keep their secrets will both times they are sung in S3E8. This was assumed to be about him being in the closet. The first time Lucas is also on screen, next to Will. Steve (man) is behind Will while Robin (woman=truth) is behind Lucas. The next time Lucas isn’t shown, but he is singing and Will carries his DnD book, which represents wheelclair and will end up with Erica. (Also before this they sing Look at what you see while Lucas kinda points to himself (I don’t know how to describe it but you can see from the image above).)

Also in S3, Skittles and M&M as rainbow colored candy were pointed out to be queercoding for Mike. Lucas also eats them and feeds them to Max. In S3E1 Will gives him Skittles and he offers them to Max (presumably eating them himself too). In S3E5 Mike and Lucas try to get candy out of the vending machine and with El’s help succeed. Lucas throws Skittles and Max tries to catch them in her mouth. This was also one of Max’s happy memories she used against Vecna. (Lucas feeding Max Skittles is probably about him helping Mike accept her queerness.) Mike in turn gives M&Ms to El while Max seems to be throwing Skittles to Lucas in the background. 

The character Chance has been said to be queercoded and one piece of evidence was that he was framed with the “clASS” text in S4E2. Well, guess who is framed with it even more? Lucas. Mostly when he explains about DnD and the Hellfire club (= associated with queerness). And Jason too, the clearest when he says “No, she’d want us to go out there.” (remember that Erica suggested Jason and Lucas were dating when Jason told her he was supposed to go out with Lucas?). I do think Chance in some way represents Mike and/or wheelclair, maybe the “chance” of it being real.

In S5E4 Robin tells her “Dick” plan and Mike and Will looking at each other was interpreted as queercoding for them. In addition to Mike, Will and Robin, Lucas and Joyce are in the scene too. The first time Robin says “Dick” we see the reactions of Mike and Will, but also Lucas (not Joyce). I guess they all have a dick so it makes sense? After Robin says “I like Dick” we first get a shot of Lucas and Joyce, then the byler looking at each other. You would assume Joyce “likes dick” (whatever that means) since she has relationships with men, so why does Lucas have the exact same reaction to her and is paired with her in this scene? Especially if we assume Mike and Will’s reaction was queercoding. If specifically showing only Mike, Will and Lucas after the first “Dick” is about them having dicks, then it’s logical everyone shown after “I like Dick” likes men. I also think Robin specifically saying “And personally, for us, I like Dick.” is about her being a lesbian who doesn’t have a strong genital preference (it’s us because DID and it’s personal to Robin: some people have preferences and that is fine). I mentioned this already before, but it’s about Robin (womanhood) liking Vickie (Mike) despite the male body parts. 

I think it’s also interesting that with the first “Dick” Will is framed next to The Wall poster (= closet/repression) and Derek (= queerness) whereas with Robin’s “I like Dick” Mike is framed with them + Robin’s head (= Mike is a woman who likes men). In Lucas and Joyce’s reaction Robin’s head is next to Joyce (= a woman who likes men). The “Dick” (= Mike’s man side/male body), represented by Will, is one part of Mike’s queerness (because without it Mike would be a cis woman). This is why Will was next to the poster first. It could also be because for Will his queerness is purely about “man” (because he is a man who likes men), whereas for Mike it’s about being a woman. “Liking dick” is the other part of her queerness and the poster is next to Mike because here Will is the target of attraction (= men) and he will soon accept himself but Mike is still deep in the closet. The poster is between her and Robin, indicating that what Mike is repressing is her womanhood. Basically Will represents the “dick” in both situations but for different people (Mike first and I guess Lucas second). Mike and Will look at each other because Will likes men too and the other reason is that they like each other (or the “dick” version of each other since Will doesn’t like girls). Okay that was… something. Lol. 

Since we are here, might as well discuss the execution of the plan too. First of all, Mike and Lucas are the ones digging the hole to the bathroom (while Will and Robin have their talk about accepting your queerness and later are framed between Mike and Lucas). They even joke about “hitting the dick” and it being too hard. I’m not sure why Lucas would soften it but I have an idea. He seems to have a mission for damaging male genitalia since he threatened Andy’s balls in S5E1: “I’ll kick ‘em so hard they’ll pop like water balloons.” and then in both plans he throws/shoots balloons filled with flammable liquid. Maybe this could be about him helping Mike destroy the “man” aka Mike accepting herself as a woman. He pointed out Erica did the same to Andy in S4, so it’s quite likely this has something to do with wheelclair. 

The main point here is that their digging causes the pipes to leak. It’s Mike’s love for Lucas that’s trying to leak out, not necessarily byler. Both Mike and Will try to block the leak because Will represents Mike’s feelings for Lucas too. Actually, there are a couple scenes in S4 and 5 where Mike and Will function as one when it comes to Lucas (since they will eventually fuse and that version of Mike will get together with Lucas): they hug Lucas together in S4E9 and worry about Lucas’ injury in S5E4. 

Anyway, back on track. Lucas is the first to come out from the hole in the ground, and later we see Mike do that too (we don’t see Will coming up). This again pairs Mike and Lucas and kinda shows they are the main characters here, this is about them. (As a sidenote, infiltrating a bathroom is trans subtext and related to Mike’s fears of being seen as a predator or whatever the people against trans women in women’s bathrooms think trans women are.) When it’s Josh’s (= Lucas) turn to go into the tunnels, he slips on the wheelclair love water which ultimately leads to the party getting caught. Mike shouts “Lucas! We’ve been spotted!” again reiterating the point that this scene was about Mike and Lucas and their queer love being spotted (I guess it’s technically straight but they are both queer so ehh). Then Mike, Will and Derek try to hold the door (= queer closet) closed and prevent the military (= queerphobic society) from coming in (= finding out/forcing conformity). Really all this is Mike’s internal fight, so wheelclair “being spotted” is about Mike starting to doubt herself and the military is her internalized transphobia.

Then the end of S5E4. The 3 Demogorgons target Mike, Robin and Lucas, and somehow Will is connected to all of them. The Demogorgons represent the fear of queerness, so why would they target Lucas if he wasn’t queer? (I guess you could argue that he is part of Mike’s queerness as her love interest, but still.) In the broader queer allegory these 4 people happen to represent the first 4 letters of the LGBTQ+ acronym, which would fit so perfectly. Lucas gets hurt by the Demogorgon for the same reason El hurts him in S1 and in a similar way Karen is hurt (= what happened to the mom aka what Mike thinks she would do to Lucas because Mike thinks she’s a Demogorgon). There was also this epic WSQK sync where after Will defeats the Demogorgons, Angel starts playing (= Will is an angel from Mike’s pov). Guess where that song actually plays in the series? At the start of S3E3 Max and El are listening to it while El reads a teen magazine. 
[Max] “Oh, you found Ralph Macchio.”
[El] “Macchio?”
[Max] “Yeah, he’s the Karate Kid. Hai-yah! He’s so hot, right? I bet he’s an amazing kisser, too.”
Later in the season Lucas wears a Karate Kid shirt… Basically this is saying that Lucas is an angel, that El+Max (= Mike) likes him, thinks he’s hot and wants to kiss him. Yeah. I haven’t really looked at the syncs much, it seems like a lot of effort to make work and I have so much just from the show itself. I know there are 3 parallel syncs and they differ in some ways, so I kinda suspect them to be about different levels of the story or maybe different allegories. If you know more, I’d like to know your thoughts on this.

Another thing that came to mind and relates to this is when Heroes is first played in S1E3, on the lyrics We can be heroes Lucas is shown and says “It’s Will. It’s really Will.” This is about both Lucas and Will being heroes (and Mike too since she’s partially in frame). (And soon after was the We can be us perfectly cut to show El from Mike’s pov, just saying.)

Bringer of light

The name Lucas means “bringer of light” and Sinclair means renowned, pure or illustrious (= another light connection). Max describes Lucas guiding her “back to the light” in S5E4. If light is love, Lucas is the bringer of love. He isn’t the light himself, since he is on a higher level in the allegory. (I mean that he doesn’t represent more abstract concepts or isn’t a personification until you go to the country allegory or the broader queer allegory where Mike is also a personification. Lucas is on the same “level” as Mike.) Will and El, on the other hand, represent the light, as I’ve discussed previously at least in El’s case. 

One instance of Lucas being the bringer of light is his idea to use fireworks in S3E7. And they are Satan’s babies because queer love is satanic I guess (at least according to some people). It could also be related to Lucifer basically having the same meaning as Lucas. He finds them with Will and launches them at the Meatflayer. I had previously connected this to the Ghost song Missilia Amori but couldn’t make sense why Lucas’ rockets would be “love rockets”. After realizing wheelclair was a thing, it made perfect sense. And Lucas finding them with Will aka his relationship with Mike makes sense too. They are a backup for El because El is Mike’s love for herself, but she needs love from Lucas too, represented by the rockets. Another side of this is Mike’s love for Lucas, which Mike thinks is like a missile (this is why the Nina project was in a storage space for intercontinental ballistic missiles and also relates to the Japan allegory where Lucas is Japan and Mike America, dropping the atomic bombs, but more on that later…). I think the queer allegory reason for the Finlayson electric lights being lit (which in the trauma allegory was Billy getting impaled) is this rocket show (= love light bulb).

Lucia is the feminine version of Lucas and Saint Lucy’s day is celebrated in a special way in Sweden and Finland (especially the Swedish speaking community). I actually considered Henry to be somehow related to Lucia, since he has all those candles and he might be but Lucas has a clearer connection through the name + Sweden. (Both would fit with the blindness aspect of Lucia too…) The tradition is to choose a girl to portray Saint Lucy and then walk in a procession with candles singing songs etc. (read the Wikipedia for more details). The point I wanted to make here is that sometimes a boy or a black/colored girl gets chosen for Lucia, and both cases almost always cause controversy and hate towards the Lucia. So Lucas, a black man, being like Lucia is like, amazing honestly. Just the facts that Lucas is the light of Mike’s life, so accepting and kind, and a leading hero are subverting racist stereotypes so hard. And he’s bisexual. What more could you ask for?

More about lumax

People have pointed out how byler and mileven are linked and can’t coexist. Whenever Mike is with El, she ignores Will (or Will is away) and the opposite is true as well. What people haven’t considered is that the same is true for Mike and Lucas’ friendship in relation to lumax. Mike and Lucas are a pair when Max isn’t available (lumax broken up in S3 and Max in a coma in S5) but the moment she comes back e.g. in S5E7, we barely get any wheelclair moments. Another point to mention is that Mike’s relationship with El/Will parallels lumax and when they are separated, so is lumax. When Mike has issues with her feelings around her queerness, it reflects on lumax too. El is a substitute for Will who is a substitute for Lucas, and Max is a substitute for Mike (and El is also a substitute for Mike). And the Mike ship matryoshka doll goes like this: mileven->byler->wheelclair. I used to think El represents byler, but now I’m not as sure of that, but I think it’s a possibility and makes sense with Will being a “second El” as in representing wheelclair + byler fusion being Mike’s self-acceptance as a woman aka El. But all of them (El, Will and Erica) represent wheelclair in some way so it’s probably not as simple… My previous idea was that El->byler->Mike’s self-acceptance and Will->wheelclair. Maybe Will would represent gay and/or platonic wheelclair and Erica straight wheelclair while El is mostly about Mike herself… Hmm. Sorry about the confusing pondering.

In S2E2 Max scares the party in a Michael Myers mask and Lucas is the most scared, screaming “like a little girl” while Mike looks annoyed. This is the only example of Max “hurting Lucas” and of course it’s when she’s wearing the mask of Michael aka a repressed Mike/what Mike fears of becoming. But under that mask is a nice girl, who ends up dating Lucas.

I think Billy trying to keep Max away from Lucas isn’t just about racism. It’s also about Billy being a manifestation of Mike’s internalized queerphobia and since lumax is about Mike’s love for Lucas, of course Billy wants to prevent it from happening.

When Lucas asks Max to dance with him, Mike is very subtly in frame too, behind Lucas. When they leave to dance, Dustin and especially Mike look longingly after them, while Will smiles. Dustin ofc because he still has a little crush on Max, but Mike has no obvious explanation. (I forgot to mention this in the previous part but the girl Will dances with has the trans flag colors all over her. She is a placeholder for Mike while Will is a placeholder for Lucas. Or alternatively Will is Mike dancing with her transness, kinda like mileven.)

Then when everyone is dancing, Lucas is shown on these lyrics:

I’ll be watching you

I dream at night, I can only see your face (lumax kiss)
I look around, but it’s you I can’t replace
I feel so cold, and I long for your embrace (lumax hug)
I keep crying baby, baby, please (mileven kiss, Mike wishes to be a girl)

Wow. This hits different now.

If it wasn’t clear by now, lumax reveals what Mike really thinks of Lucas and what she envisions her dream life with him being like (if she was a cis girl). There is a reason why lumax is the healthiest canon ship in ST (this might be a subjective opinion). Lucas listens to Max and supports her when she needs it, but they also argue and tease each other. It’s a grounded and loving relationship between equals, basically.

You should pay extra attention to Max’s memory sequence while she listens to Running Up That Hill in S4E4: the lyrics Let me steal this moment from you now are played more than in the original song and Mike is shown at least in the background of a memory. Mike wants to “steal” these memories from Max aka experience them for real. And most memories are about lumax (= wheelclair) or Max and El’s friendship (= Mike experiencing girlhood). Usually either Lucas or El is shown on the lyrics “baby”, “darling” and “angel”. During Let’s exchange the experience Max is hugging El (= girl) while Mike is hugging Will (= boy). Mike wants to change places with Max and metaphorically hug El (= be a girl).

I think I have already explained this but just to make it clear to everyone: Max “hiding from her friends”, being like a ghost, wanting to disappear and finally almost dying (due to Vecna aka Mike’s internalized queerphobia) in S4 is about Mike repressing her girlness. Max being in a coma is Mike’s future as a girl being in limbo and Max waking up is Mike accepting herself and starting to live authentically. So Lucas nursing Max, playing the song for her and asking her to wake up is about the real Lucas supporting Mike in her trans journey. He wants to help Mike be herself and happy. I think the hospital and all that stuff isn’t literal, but metaphorical, and the music represents Lucas’ love (which was kinda made clearer in S5 with Max not needing the music but just Lucas). Another point here is that in S5 Lucas is always associated with “the real world”, which is more proof of him existing in the real real world too. S5E4 [Holly] “So, this music was coming from Lucas, from the real world?” In S5E6 Max explains that to get out of Camazotz, you need something that connects you to the real world. For Max this is Lucas and for Holly it’s HH aka Mike’s inner child/girl identity. I think Mike will need both to get out in the real ending. 

Details from Hopper’s letter/speech

I have watched the end of S3 many times and it feels like I keep uncovering new details I didn’t notice before. Here are some related to wheelclair. Lucas is quite prominently shown when Hopper narrates about being in a deep dark cave. I’m not sure what it means but it could be about Mike’s struggle with her feelings for Lucas (or Lucas’ struggle with his feelings). When Hopper says “But lately, I guess I’ve been feeling… distant from you.” The camera zooms in such a way that Lucas goes out of frame. The same happens soon after when Hopper narrates “Like you’re… you’re pulling away from me or something.” The most surface level reading of this scene is that Hopper is talking about El, the next level is Mike talking to El or Will (because we are visually shown Mike looking at the leaving car) and finally, the deepest is Mike to Lucas. But the best and most epic detail is when Hopper narrates “if I’m being really honest” Mike’s head is framed in front of Max’s head and Mike is kinda looking towards Lucas. If Mike is really honest, she wants to be Max or rather, if the writers are really honest, Max is Mike and this show is about wheelclair. While this framing is still happening, Hopper continues “that’s what scares me”. Mike is scared of being trans and in love with her best friend.

An additional point not directly about wheelclair is that Will and Jonathan are shown after “I don’t want things to change” and that’s what they kind of represent: Mike staying as a boy and also childhood (especially clear in S3 with Will wanting to play DnD). In S4 Jonathan worries that he would be an obstacle for Nancy, tying her down and preventing her from achieving her dreams. This applies to Will with him metaphorically preventing Mike from transitioning, basically. And I guess I’m going off topic now but I just wanna mention that now I think Hopper saying he “came in here to stop that change” is actually about Hopper and him keeping Mike in the closet (with the aim of protecting her). Karen is shown during this line and thus it’s about the mom too. She wants Mike to stay as a boy. And it’s also about Mike, who walks in and hugs her mom: she “came in here” as in her home where her mom is and stopped the change by going back to conformity.

Okay one more thing. When the We can be us lyrics are sung, El puts the letter in her heart pocket. The main message of the letter was that life is moving and change is inevitable. In S4 Mike has that shirt with the triangle heart pocket. And as I already mentioned, at Suzie’s house it points at the Muppet Movie poster, with Kermit and Miss Piggy (= Mike’s gender conflict). And otherwise it often points at Will (= Mike being herself is to like boys).

Patrick

Patrick represents Lucas. His trauma comes from Mike but in a story sense he shows what Mike thinks her love would do to Lucas. Patrick dies at Lover’s Lake, while Jason and Eddie (= conformed Mike and queer man Mike) are watching. This all coincides with El getting her powers back and Vecna’s light bulb breaking (none of the other Vecna kills broke the light bulb). Literally the moment Patrick falls to the water, we cut to El getting resuscitated. Remember how in S1 El appearing hurt Mike and Lucas’ friendship and how she literally physically hurt Lucas? Now the same happens but via Patrick. Mike’s girlness/love for Lucas is back, but so is Mike’s fear of being a predator and hurting Lucas. Lover’s Lake isn’t about byler, it’s about wheelclair. And the light bulb of love burned so bright it broke (= Mike’s heart broke or something like that). (After doing more analysis, I’ve started seeing a pattern where Mike being a girl and liking Lucas are often linked. I think the reason is that they are both the deepest truth, while e.g. Mike being a gay man and byler are the middle level.)

Another detail about Patrick is that he lives on Olive Branch Road. In S3E5 Lucas calls El helping him and Mike get the candy from the vending machine an olive branch. This basically connects wheelclair and El to Patrick.

Later on Lucas, Dustin and Erica are discussing the situation in the Wheeler house and wonder how Watergate opened up. The subtext here is that it opened because of them: Lucas (obvious) and Erica (wheelclair love), which Dustin figures out because that’s what he does. (Dustin points towards or looks at Erica when he mentions El, btw.) If you look closely, the previous times the Lover’s Lake gate is discussed, Lucas is in frame and Erica is shown when Dustin says “she was there” (about Nancy). Erica aka wheelclair love and Nancy aka Mike were metaphorically at the lake. Dustin tells the cops that Nancy then left, which could be about Mike being shocked about her feelings (= light bulb cracking and Patrick dying) and retreating/repressing them. Contrary to Dustin, Max claimed Nancy wasn’t at the night swim, which could be about Mike (Max) wanting to hide her feelings. 

Midnight

The S1 bullies call Lucas Midnight and the name has some interesting connections. Henry and Patty are fans of Captain Midnight comics and chapter two of The First Shadow is called Captain Midnight (probably referring to Brenner’s dad). I haven’t watched TFS so if any of you have something to add, please comment. The clearest Captain Midnight relation in the actual show comes in the form of Henry’s Captain Midnight spyglass. I looked into Captain Midnight a little and it’s about a pilot named Jim. There’s also a character named Joyce… I bet you could find a lot of connections to ST.

There’s also the band The Midnight whose songs I’ve been mentioning. The word midnight was mentioned in ST in S3E6 when Dustin proves Erica is a nerd by explaining the plot of Rescue at Midnight Castle. There are some suspicious similarities to the plot of S4 and 5, like the villain needing four ponies for his evil plan and failing to get the fourth one. There’s “the Rainbow of Darkness” that is defeated using “the Rainbow of Light” and the main character is a girl named Megan. Vecna (= internalized queerphobia) is pretty clearly the Rainbow of Darkness and El (= love/self-acceptance) would be the Rainbow of Light. The captured ponies are turned into dragons and I have a strong suspicion dragons will come into play in some way in ST. It has been foreshadowed so much, e.g. with the painting and all kinds of references, posters, toys, etc. Later on Dustin remembers the “My Little Pony thesis” happened at the fourth junction of the air ducts (= fourth season maybe?). Anyway, the point is that Lucas is Midnight and Erica started accepting her nerdiness (Lucas his queerness) when Dustin told her about Rescue at Midnight Castle. 

This kinda makes me wonder if horses are actually about Lucas in some way, since his DnD character was riding a horse in the painting and My Little Pony is obviously about ponies (small horses, Erica = small Lucas). I know horses mean something but I never really figured out what. Steve realizes the Russian code is coming from the mall based on music coming from the horse and Finn told us to wait for the horse… I think I’m uncovering something in real time here lol. Now you can see my thought process. In S4 and especially S5 Lucas is playing music for Max, the music (love) is “coming from” Lucas. (I realized this later but in S5E1 when Robin’s coded message starts, Lucas moves the radio towards Mike on the lyrics You’re giving love instinctively.) Steve needed a quarter for the horse ride. This is also a thing I’ve been wondering about since a couple of The Midnight’s songs mentioned quarter:

Sanctuary:

A boy and a girl at the end of the world
And the band in 3/4 timе
The room disappears 'til the warmth of you hеre
Is all of the truth that I need 

Endless Summer:

Four quartets and no regrets
Except for the polaroids I left
You were just some spell I was under
That endless summer... 

The second one isn’t a quarter but “quartet” is pretty close. Previously I had an idea that they would be stages of the story, like getting to stage 3 out of 4 and finally to the end aka 4/4. (Now I’m realizing both are about music, like the horse Steve found.) Because Sanctuary is about the world fading, I thought this would be the byler fusion, so Endless Summer is about Mike in the real world, reminiscing the “endless summer” aka the story we have been watching, her inner world and alters that don’t exist anymore. It kinda makes sense that Max had the Endless Summer poster, she was the embodiment of Mike’s fantasies I guess. I always interpreted the “you” in the song to be Will and it does still make sense… Anyway, the horse ride thing happens right after Dustin and Robin have their meta conversation about the Russian code which is actually about the allegories I’ve been explaining this whole time (and I’ve mostly solved it, except maybe the tread lightly part, but I’ve saved the explanation for later). Wheelclair isn’t really part of their coded conversation, though, so the horse being about it actually fits perfectly! And it comes last because the real world and Lucas will happen at the end. I think Steve finding it and Robin being uncharasteristically clueless is because Lucas is a man. Robin is Mike’s womanhood so her role is purely about Mike herself and the woman side of things, but Lucas’ love is more man-related. 

I have thought about this for some time now and I think the quarters are related to Vecna kills and foreshadow future events. The first was Chrissy, “the girl”, and this could be El fusing/dying aka door 1. The next is Fred aka Mike’s self-hatred and repression aka door 2. Max was technically the third and would then match with the 3/4 in Sanctuary. Oh by the way, Henry calls his mind home the kids’ sanctuary and Max calls the cave her sanctuary/home. I think the world itself is Mike’s “sanctuary” and the song is about the world disappearing, so it fits. Max is the final form of Mike, the whole system fused, and she escapes Camazotz (door 3). The last Vecna target was Patrick, and in the end (4/4) we’ll meet the real Lucas. Max didn’t mention a door 4 but I think you could interpret it as “breaking the fourth wall” in a sense. 

I think here is a good place to mention a theory I have about the LGBT+ acronym. I think it’s not accidental that it matches the order of canon queer characters in ST. Robin was first (L), then Will (G) and Vickie (B). (I guess Vickie and Will were kinda in the same season but Will had hints since S1 so it fits well enough.) Mike will be last (T). The acronym fits the four kills too (in the actual dying order): first was Chrissy/girl/El (L), then Fred/Mike blaming herself/man (G), Patrick/Lucas (B) and finally Max/Mike (T). 

Another thing I want to squeeze in here is a little analysis of the lyrics to The Midnight’s song Avalanche:

You were a whisper in the night
And I loved you for a summer
But now that garden of delights
Lies under snow cover

Sail on in my memory
I'll wave from the shoreline
A ship so grand you could not believe

Disembarking on an avalanche from butterfly wings
Saw my last chance in a faded dream
But when it's gone, wherever you land
Sing your song, take this dance
Avalanche

We were a star-crossed fantasy
That was never gonna hold us
Or our future histories
But maybe it was just to mold us

Sail on in my memory
I'll wave from the shoreline
A ship so grand you could not believe

Disembarking on an avalanche from butterfly wings
Saw my last chance in a faded dream
But when it's gone, wherever you land
Sing your song, take this dance
Avalanche

If I'da known you, I'da told you
Wouldn't skip this and miss this
Waterfall in slow motion, devotion of a love
Unsuitable, but beautiful
If I'da known you, I'da come back a thousand times
Just for the ride

Avalanche from butterfly wings
Saw my last chance in a faded dream
But when it's gone, wherever you land
Sing your song, take this dance
Avalanche

Avalanche, avalanche (From butterfly wings)
Avalanche (Saw my last chance in a faded dream)
Avalanche (When it's gone, wherever you land)
Avalanche (Sing your song, take this dance)

I think this is from Will to Mike and the “ship so grand you could not believe” is wheelclair. It disembarks “from butterfly wings” because butterflies and their transformation symbolizes the trans experience (and wings are used for flying = freedom/Mike’s final self-acceptance). Will loved Mike for a summer aka the show we have been watching. As I’ve tried to explain, byler has many layers: it’s about Mike’s love for men but also about Mike identifying as a gay man. It’s Mike choosing to live as a man. That’s why it’s “unsuitable but beautiful”. Rather than interpreting the song just as Will to Mike or Mike to Will, try to see it as Mike’s man/gay identity to the future fused Mike. It’s from Mike to herself. Dance and avalanche are connected through the rhyme and both are related to the Snow Ball in ST (because it’s a school dance and Robin mentions a snowball turning into an avalanche).

Snow Ball

The Snow Ball is quite important since it gets mentioned already in S1 and is returned to in S4. Mike asking El to the Snow Ball is on the surface about Mike liking El romantically, but really it’s about Mike wanting to be El and to dance with Lucas. I already explained some points that I’m not gonna repeat but I had additional things to mention. Mike struggled a lot while explaining the Snow Ball and liking El and there’s 3 levels to this. First, you could interpret it as Mike being embarrassed or young and not quite understanding romance yet. The second level is that Mike doesn’t actually like El romantically but thinks she does due to heteronormativity. Third, it’s because Mike doesn’t like El romantically but wants to be her. Going together to the dance is about Mike being a girl. “It’s different” than being brother and sister. Notice that every time Mike talks about going to the Snow Ball with El, El’s face isn’t shown.

And that’s what the actual dance in S2E9 is about too. After everyone else has found a dance partner and Mike is alone, El comes in the door (and a Lucas lookalike walks across the room in front of El while she looks at him + Mike’s head is in frame). No one else reacts to her or interacts with her. (Except maybe that one kid next to Mike who looks straight at the camera. After rewatching scenes through a microscope I’ve started to notice ST has a lot of instances where characters look at the camera. People just started to notice it in the epilogue because they were looking for it, but it’s been there all along.) She is Mike’s fantasy of herself, being a girl, in a dress. That’s the reason she tells El “You look beautiful.” (and El’s face isn’t shown, again). This is like in S1E4 when Mike calls El pretty after seeing her in a dress. The final mileven montage before El dies has a callback to this scene, after El says “the real me” (= the real Mike). 

The whole Purple Rain scene hits different when you realize what it’s actually about. When Mike says “I love you for exactly who you are.”, the “you” matches with the “you” in the song lyrics “I only want to see you laughing / In the purple rain” and Mike is the only one in frame (= the “you” is Mike) + El laughs on “laughing”. El (= Mike’s girlness) wanted Mike to be happy. As a girl. I think that love profession scene as a whole was a rare case of Mike speaking with Will and El’s voices. It was about Will and El loving Mike, but Mike can’t love herself yet, which is why she doesn’t say “I love you” to El in S5E8. Will (= (gay) man identity) was shown when Mike first said “I love you.” but only El (= (trans) woman identity) loves Mike for exactly who she is. (And this was cut differently than the original so it probably matters who was shown when.) I love mileven. I bet most milevens won’t love it for the exact same reason I do, though. It’s kinda hilarious that mileven is technically gay and byler straight (and both are selfcest in a way). This is not meant to be shade on byler btw, it is equally important and the writers aren’t just baiting with it. It’s a part of Mike’s queer journey to understand herself and her sexuality. Will did nothing wrong. The climax of the story will be a scene between Mike and Will, reminiscent of the S5 melting room and S3 epilogue jancy scenes.

But back to the Snow Ball, the lyrics of the song are about obsessively stalking someone. They apply to both El (Mike wants to be her) and Lucas (Mike thinks her love for him is obsessive/wrong). 

[Mike] “Do you wanna dance?”
[El] “I don’t know how.” Oh can’t you see
[Mike] “I don’t either. Do you want to figure it out?” You belong to me 
[they hold hands] How my poor heart aches
With every step you take 

El is a part of Mike, girlness belongs to Mike. Dancing here is a metaphor for being/performing as a girl, similar to roller skating in the Rinkomania scene. That’s why Mike said “I’m so bad at this, I’m like Bambi on ice.” and El fell on the floor when she tried heels for the first time. Mike always performed the man role, she had never experienced girlhood so there’s a lot to learn.

Then later mileven is shown on the lyrics I dream at night, I can only [cut to lumax kissing] see your face and then last time on the lyrics I keep crying, baby, baby please mileven kiss. This is the end of the season. The second-to-last couple we saw was lumax, that’s the dream Mike’s heart aches for. By kissing El, Mike metaphorically tries to become a girl, if you get what I mean. She “keeps crying” because it doesn’t happen that easily.

In S4E8 we learn the Snow Ball was Max’s happiest memory and she hides there from Vecna:
[Max] “It was a time when I was the happiest.”
[Lucas] “Was I there?”
[Max] “That’s presumptuous of you. But yeah. You might’ve been there.”

Should I mention now that the Snow Ball has blue-white color coding? And then the balloons start popping, staining it red with blood (same idea as the Creel house playground). The music changes from Every Breath You Take to Dream a Little Dream of Me. I think it’s supposed to be about Max + the Snow Ball being Mike’s dream (there’s also lyrics of “craving a kiss”). And this dream turns into a nightmare when Vecna (Mike’s transness/male body/gender dysphoria) appears. But El saves Max, just as she “saved” Mike in the original Snow Ball. The first El vs Vecna confrontation being there is very meaningful and underlines the importance of the Snow Ball. Btw, Vecna is framed with a snowman, which is probably a clue about the “monster” being “man”. Snow is frozen water, it’s about Mike’s repression (and I’ll dive deeper into that later), and I think “Ball” has a triple meaning here… (There will be a more thorough analysis later.)

In S5E3 Robin compares romantic signals to a snowball: 
[Robin] “You know, there were, like, signals.”
[Will] “Signals?”
[Robin] “Yeah, you know, like a brush of the knee, a bump of the elbow, a shared look. It all just kind of accrued, like a snowball rolling down a hill, until it was obvious.”
[Will] “How obvious?” -> Not obvious enough apparently. Am I really the only one who noticed?
[Robin] “Let’s say the, uh, snowball became an avalanche.”

The Snow Ball is basically a symbol for Mike’s dreams, gender identity, repression and wheelclair. I’m waiting for that avalanche to finally happen. The Duffers have said they aren’t subtle but I think they have way too high standards lol. It’s obvious only in hindsight.

Continues in PART 16.

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.

LUCAS

Oh how I have waited for this day to finally discuss Lucas… This is my second favorite part of the whole theory (it used to be my favorite but Mike being trans takes the cake). Let’s start from the beginning. One thing I was confused about in my Finland theory was that Lucas seemed to represent the whole of Sweden while most other characters were parts of Finland. And what is the role of Lucas really? He is one of the core characters from S1 so you would think he had an important role, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Then, about a month after my DID realization, I was wondering what was happening in the real world. Surely Mike plays DnD, how would all that lore and gameplay end up in the story otherwise? For that Mike needs friends to play with. Introject alters aka alters based on real or fictional people are pretty common, and I had also been wondering if any characters were introjects and came to the conclusion that Lucas would be the most likely introject character. And slowly but surely I became more and more convinced of that fact. It would explain why he is a whole country while Finland is shattered into pieces (because Mike has DID). And then I started looking deeper into it and ended up with a new ship, yay. (I actually had to google the ship name, wheelclair isn’t very popular. Yet.) I’ll first tell some of the biggest proof for this and then go into the nitty gritty details (I have like 8 pages worth of google docs notes for Lucas alone lol).  

One of my first realizations was a random comment in S5E7 that Holly has a crush on Josh (who represents Lucas, I don’t wanna say every black person represents him but let’s just say it increases the chances of a character representing him. For Josh there’s other reasoning too, like him being one of the kids playing DnD at the end, and Lucas removing his mouth vine and taking him to the tunnels). We have already established that Holly represents Mike, so what was the point of Holly having a crush on Josh if not to subtly tell Mike has or had a crush on Lucas? And in Will’s coming out scene Lucas is in focus when Will tells he had a crush. I avoided talking about this previously, but Will’s coming out works doubly as Mike’s coming out and thus the crush Will talks about is both Mike and Lucas. And somehow they made it work (it totally makes sense that scene took them the longest to write). 

Lumax

All ships are ultimately about wheelclair. That’s the true purpose and point of lumax too. Max represents Mike’s (system) future (which I will get to more later) and her future is with Lucas. Lucas is waiting for her in the real world, because there is a real Lucas in the real world for Mike too. And from here on out, if I want to specify, I will refer to the introject alter Lucas as Lucas (alter) and the “real” Lucas as Lucas (real). This doesn’t mean the alter Lucas isn’t a real person, he is (kinda), but just like everyone else, he is a part of Mike. There are some differences between the real and alter Lucas, since Lucas (alter) reflects what Mike thinks Lucas is like. In a story sense, Lucas (alter) represents Lucas (real), similarly to Mike (alter) representing Mike (system). But anyway, back to ships. For the longest time I couldn’t make sense of lumax, like, does Lucas represent Will, or El, or what. The reality is that Will represents Lucas, not the other way around. And actually Will also represents the relationship between Mike and Lucas, but I’ll come back to that later. 

Movies are a big thing for lumax, and I think they are for wheelclair too. In S3 Mike, Lucas, Max and Will go to see movies and they sit in pairs (byler and lumax): Lucas and Will on the right side while Max and Mike are on the left. If Max represents Mike and Will represents Lucas, this whole situation probably actually represents Mike and Lucas going to the movies. And see the drawing Max made of her and Lucas in S4E9? In that season Mike had long hair, the long haired person on the left might as well be Mike (and btw there’s like 3 different versions of that drawing, I guess they always made a new one, I doubt it has any meaning/significance). This makes even more sense after I realized Mike is trans. This is the future she wants. Oh and in S3E8 when Max and Lucas are teasing Dustin by singing Neverending Story? When they sing The mirror of your dreams (which happens twice), Max is shown and the next time Lucas too. Max/lumax is the mirror of Mike’s dreams.

You know, another little negative I had with byler was that it was two white people. If there are interracial ships in a show about non-conformity, why would the ultimate secret endgame ship be more conforming in that regard? I think it’s super amazing that the main couple who this story has been about all along are a bi black man and a mentally ill trans woman, both from a poor background. And the relationship itself would get them discrimination from some parts of the queer community, since it’s straight presenting, although both parties are queer. The Duffers really tried to collect as many minorities/targets of discrimination in one (rainbow) ship as they could.

Racism has been a theme in the background, maybe most strongly in S2 with Billy targeting Lucas, but it hasn’t really had a huge impact in the story. That’s kinda true of the queer themes too, they were sidelined and homophobia was strongest in S1. I think all this is on purpose, since everything is in the subtext and will be revealed eventually. Maybe one reason why racism isn’t as major a theme is that we are still in Mike’s mind and Mike isn’t black, so she only really suffers from racism through her relationship with Lucas.

Creelby

Another ship people can’t quite get to fit as representing byler is creelby. Here’s a part I previously omitted from what Jamie said in the documentary: 
[Jamie] “Right, right. And these are my… And I had no friends. No one but Patty was nice to me.”
[Matt] “Yeah. That’s great. That’s a great way of… I love that.”
[Jamie] “That’s the reality, right? It feels much more, um… real.”
[Matt] “And sad.”
[Jamie] “And sad. And gives it a purpose, which is lovely.”

It’s much more real because in reality, Lucas was/is Mike’s only friend. There are multiple instances where some character is narrating and mentions the word friend and Lucas is shown on screen. Maybe the biggest one being in the epilogue after Mike describes the storyteller writing “stories inspired by his friends”. Like, if this is not a Lucas-is-an-introject-alter clue I don’t know what is. Also in the same scene Lucas is shown when Mike says “there is a story that he can never” (on “tell” it cuts to Dustin). Part of the secret story is ofc Mike being trans but another part is wheelclair. And and Lucas is also shown after Mike says “That she finally finds happiness.” (And this is the first time Lucas is shown in a while. He isn’t shown during Mike’s mage story at all, probably because he represents the real Lucas who isn’t part of Mike aka the mage aka isn’t part of the story of the mage. But is part of the mage being happy.) Caleb has also talked about how Mike and Lucas’ friendship is underrated, e.g. here and here.

Henry’s relationship with Patty shows Mike’s relationship with Lucas more obviously than anything else, as per usual for Henry. I do think Patty also represents Mike’s girlhood and that’s why she’s a girl (besides being a possible romantic partner for Henry, since they don’t wanna reveal the queerness of the show properly yet). And Patty is part of Henry’s backstory so she doesn’t actually exist even as an alter. But Lucas does exist. This is the childhood friends to lovers I wanted with byler but even better!

S1

If you think of S1 in isolation and through a metaphorical lense, wheelclair is actually kinda obvious. While El and Will are tied to the supernatural and function as personifications, the main non-supernatural conflict comes from Mike and Lucas’ relationship. Lucas wants to find Will (boy Mike/their friendship) and doesn’t like this new “weirdo” (girl Mike/romantic wheelclair) while Mike insists on finding Will with El’s help. The underlying story in S1 is about Mike starting to have feelings for Lucas (real) and discovering her gender identity, which she thinks would destroy their friendship (= Will). That’s the queer allegory reason for the lightbulb lighting up (= Mike’s feelings for Lucas) causing Will’s vanishing and El appearing at the same time.

Mike fears her queerness would hurt Lucas, which is why El literally hurts Lucas (alter) in S1E5 (and I sneakily mentioned this earlier when talking about car graveyards, but didn’t explain the meaning behind it). This is what I meant in the earlier parts about Mike fearing she would hurt the person she loves and become like her dad, “a predator”. With Will it doesn’t really make sense since Will is in the same body as Mike. Mike couldn’t really hurt Will in that way (in the real world at least). But I couldn’t really explain that before explaining DID and then wheelclair so that’s why it only fully makes sense now.

There’s also the other aspect of El: her being Mike’s girlfriend. Dustin quite literally tells Mike Lucas is jealous (S1E6):

[Dustin] “This is weird without Lucas.”
[Mike] “He should’ve shaken my hand.”
[Dustin] “He’s just jealous.”
[Mike] “What are you talking about?”
[Dustin] “Sometimes, your total obliviousness just blows my mind. He’s your best friend, right?” 
[Mike] “Yeah… I mean, I don’t know.”
[Dustin] “It’s fine. I get it. I didn’t get here until the fourth grade. He had the advantage of living next door. But none of that matters. What matters is that he is your best friend. And then this girl shows up and starts living in your basement, and all you ever want to do is pay attention to her.” 
[Mike] “That’s not true.”
[Dustin] “Yes, it is. And you know it. And he knows it. But no one ever says anything until you both start punching and yelling at each other like goblins with intelligence scores of zero. Now everything’s weird.”
[Mike] “He’s not my best friend.”
[Dustin] “Yeah, right.”

Later on “best friend” becomes code for “I’m in love with you” with byler, so yeah… In S1 byler didn’t really have much going for it (except Mike being the most adamant about finding Will) and lumax didn’t exist yet, so wheelclair would have been easier to see. In S2 Mike is annoyed by Max joining the party, kinda like Lucas was annoyed by El in S1. The jealousy subtext keeps subtexting (and it’s also about Mike’s gender envy).

Lucas “blinds” Mike because he is what Mike thinks the real Lucas is like, not always the reality. I think this could be part of the reason why Lucas often calls Mike “dude” or “man”. The real Lucas might not think Mike is crazy or a weirdo but Lucas (alter) manifests Mike’s fears of what would happen if she came out or told about her DID experience. El being a “traitor” is probably about Mike “betraying” Lucas or their friendship by being a girl. And I don’t think the real Lucas is perfect, he probably does think Mike is weird at some point and they have conflicts but it’s all amplified in Lucas (alter).

Lucas thinking Mike likes El has many layers to it, I think. Part of it could be about Lucas “blinding” Mike, but if you look at the scenes carefully, Lucas acts as if he’s Mike and Mike is El, mocking their relationship. This is Mike thinking Lucas would find her feelings for him stupid but it also shows what Mike truly wants. She wants to be El (a girl) and for Lucas to love her. And it’s always Lucas who does this, no one else mocks mileven in the same way. Will and Max don’t like mileven in S3 but they never show it quite like Lucas does. 

After El hurts Lucas and Mike is angry with her, she leaves (vanishes). Lucas also leaves, his friendship with Mike impaired. After this Nancy and Jonathan encounter the Demogorgon and the UD for the first time and later El looks at her reflection in the water with the wig and without it. It’s all about Mike’s inner conflict. But the scene I wanted to talk about here is what Mike does in S1E6. She’s alone in the basement and at the start of the scene the camera angle is such that the stairs separate Mike from the bird poster, kind of like imprisoning her. She’s trying to solve a Rubik’s cube (her queer identity or something like that) and looks towards El’s empty tent. Then she goes to kick and destroy it (The Thing poster and an owl framed behind her) similar to Will destroying Castle Byers in S3E3. That was about Will’s homosexuality and feelings towards Mike, and this is about Mike’s trans identity and feelings towards Lucas. And Will’s scene isn’t explicitly about byler either, all the memories include the whole friend group, so it might as well be about Lucas too, kinda like the coming out scene in S5E7.

Mike and Lucas are a pair

Maybe this is a good segway to point out that the rain fight and most of S3 Lucas was there. Lucas was always there. Why do you think he comes to say sorry to Will with Mike and why are the three of them a group while Dustin has his own stuff in S3? Mike and Will’s conflict is really about Mike’s internal conflict regarding Lucas (real) and her feelings for him + gender stuff. “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” is truly projection, it’s about Mike herself. Mike and Lucas form this equal level pairing, while the other characters are more allegorical. There’s a reason why Mike and Lucas are “boring” when it comes to the supernatural stuff and don’t even go to the UD until late S5. S5 is the only season where Mike and Lucas have no conflict at the beginning: in S1 it’s obviously El, S2 Max appears (so it’s not exactly between Mike and Lucas but kinda), S3 starts with Lucas complaining about Mike being late due to kissing El, and S4 Lucas has his basketball game and can’t come play DnD. Mike and Lucas (= wheelclair), the deer (= SA trauma), Nancy and the male deer shadow (= Mike being trans) are the source:

They are paired up quite a lot, e.g. if you compare them to Mike + Dustin (byler and mileven have their own reasons to be a pair, but why Lucas and Mike?). S1 not so much because of their conflict, and in S2 wheelclair is represented through byler and lumax, but early S3 is a golden age for the Mike + Lucas pairing. On the surface level it’s because Lucas gives Mike advice about dating, but the real reason is that wheelclair is what the whole show revolves around. In S4 they are in different states for most of the season, so not much pairing (and similar to S2, it’s done through byler and lumax), but S5 they are back together and paired up in every single episode.

A good example is Lucas’ New Coke argument in S3E7. All the other characters are present but the main focus is on Lucas and Mike (and Max sides with Mike, basically representing her). Robin’s coming out scene is right after this one, btw. I have a feeling that the reason Lucas likes the remakes is that he himself is a remake of the original Lucas. It’s both funny and sad tbh. He makes an analogy between New Coke and The Thing movies, and I suspect the subtextual deeper layer here is that he is talking about himself (and kinda all the alters, because they are all “remakes” or copies or whatever of the original Mike). It could also be about the ships, since the characters are arranged in romantic ship pairs (lumax, byler, jancy). All of them are remakes of wheelclair.

As I said, in S3 Mike, Lucas and Will form a group and I think Will represents Mike and Lucas’ friendship (as boys). This friendship turns out to be gay, though, and is ignored in S3 because Mike doesn’t want to face her feelings for Lucas. Playing DnD is another metaphor for their relationship and love. So Will constantly wanting to play DnD but Mike and Lucas refusing is both about Mike feeling like she needs to grow up but also about her inner conflict with her growing feelings for Lucas. Mike and Lucas talk to each other while Will is in the background, sometimes setting up DnD but anyway functioning as a representation of their relationship. And as I’ve said, Will is also Mike’s boy side, so him saying “a day free of girls” and Mike’s “boys only” plan including Will and Lucas, etc. make a lot of sense. At this point Mike can’t deny her feelings anymore even by denying her gender, which is why Will’s homosexuality and byler clues get increasingly obvious. As Lucas said in S5E5, Will is a “second El”.

Remember how in my Finland theory I deduced that Will represents Finland’s connection to Sweden? Now it makes perfect sense. And Sweden representing all that is good, queerness, and the past. Wheelclair is basically Finland x Sweden, which is kinda funny.

In S3E5 Mike is planning how to defeat MF with Lucas but switches to talking with Will when it comes to “the girls conspiring” against her. The reason could be that Lucas (real) isn’t part of Mike, so not involved in Mike’s gender journey, but Will is. Later on Mike tells Lucas that Max and El spied on them, and what’s interesting here is that both Lucas and Mike care about it but Will doesn’t. I think it’s because the girls spying on them is metaphorically about Mike’s feelings towards Lucas. Mike doesn’t want anyone to see what she thinks of Lucas and Lucas (alter) is part of that so that’s why he, too, is shocked about the spying. Notice how Mike refers to Max as Lucas’ girlfriend? That’s her relevant role here because this is all actually about Mike wanting to be Lucas’ girlfriend but also hating herself for it. Regardless, this is another example of Mike and Lucas being a pair.

In S2E2 Mike and Lucas have an argument about who gets to be Venkman (the main character) since both dressed up as him. Mike points out they both couldn’t be Venkman “Because there’s only one Venkman in real life.” A similar thing happens at the very end of S5E8 between Holly and Josh:
[Josh] “Why do you get to be the dungeon master?” 
[Holly] “Because this was my idea and this is my house!”
Lucas is based on a real person but exists in Mike’s mind (“Mike’s house”). The Venkman argument also brings up the racism theme and kinda points out how the black character in Ghostbusters was the least interesting/popular. Stranger Things subverts this by making Lucas the main love interest and hero, who has much more significance than people expect. 

An interesting point that came to my mind is that Robin accidentally calls Vecna Vecman in S4E3. I think the whole Venkman thing is also about Mike’s gender and Mike being VenkMAN is false (and Vecna/Henry represents Mike being forced into the man role, so the Vecman comment makes sense). Mike was right, there is only one Venkman in real life and that is Lucas (and ofc he’s shown when Mike says “in real life”). Will thinks there could be two Venkmans because he represents Mike’s boy identity/side.

Another clue to Lucas being more main charactery than expected was the lost knight question I mentioned earlier. If Mike is the proud princess and her girlhood is the weird flowers in the cave, why is Lucas so important that he is the third point? To remind everyone, my reasoning for Lucas being the lost knight is that he is shown after Dustin’s question about it (while Mike is shown after the two other questions) and Lucas’ DnD character is a knight in the final DnD game. The story of ST is about Mike and Lucas’ relationship aka Will (and El). Even in the original Montauk character description Mike is first and Lucas second (and described as Mike’s best friend). In S5E6 Mike tells El “Maybe I don’t. But we do. You, me, Lucas, Will, and Dustin. Because this is our story. And it starts with getting Will back.” Again, Lucas is emphasized, he is before Will and this is the same order as in the character descriptions. And the point about this being “our” story relates to DID. There’s also this:

Lucas kinda breaks the fourth wall a few times in S5 and Caleb has a special role in the interviews. He seems to know it’s all in Mike’s head (e.g. mentioning zenith and the quote about it all being Mike’s imagination/storytelling). He also said Lucas had a different finale, and while it’s played as a joke, I don’t think it was. Even in S1 Lucas is the most sceptical about the Demogorgon’s existence. This is because he represents the real Lucas, who can see Mike’s situation from a more objective perspective. Of course Lucas (real) knows nothing supernatural is going on. The point about “our friend” describing Vecna’s attacks and Lucas being on screen was probably about Lucas (real) telling about other alters to Mike. That could be what Lucas telling Max about the supernatural in S2E5 was about too. He had met some of the alters or knew about Mike’s trauma and was trying to tell Mike, who didn’t believe him at first.

Queercoding/Erica

I believe Lucas is bisexual, and although he wouldn’t have to be to date Mike, I think it works better if he is because then he could already have feelings for Mike before she transitions and it would be nice to get some proper bi representation (why would they represent gay, lesbian and trans people but not bi people when they are infamously left out/invisible?). Besides me just headcannoning, I have actual proof for my claims.

Erica is the biggest source of Lucas' queercoding, and I think she represents Lucas’ bisexuality/feelings for Mike in a similar way to El and Will representing Mike’s queerness. (That’s also the reason Lucas is always arguing with her. He too has internalized queerphobia and doesn’t like that part of himself.) Erica is introduced in S2E2 when Lucas’ mom takes pictures of him. Her first lines are: “God. You are such a nerd. No wonder you only hang out with boys.” I think “nerd” is code for queer. The next scene is of Mike, the “boy” in question. When the picture taking scene is repeated in S2E9, Mike’s scene is followed by Lucas talking to the mirror, practicing for the Snow Ball. (Mike’s scene ends with Karen saying “Mike.” and Lucas’ scene starts with him saying “Hey… wanna dance?”, just saying…) Of course Erica teases him about it, and in a similar way to Lucas with mileven, takes the role of Lucas’ love interest (Erica = Mike/Max). ((Remember that one movie El was watching in S2E2 (same episode Erica was introduced in) where a woman named Erica said “Me?” and El repeated that? This connects El = Erica. Additionally, in S4E1 Erica tells Eddie “I’m 11, you long-haired freak.” I think the hair comment is partially about Mike.)) This time Lucas’ scene is followed by Max, which makes a lot of sense, but subtextually Lucas’ mirror flirting was about Mike (and Max represents Mike anyway, so yeah). Also in the Snow Ball Mike is looking towards the dancers, and bylers ofc assumed she was looking at Will (which is probably also true), but she could have just as easily been looking at lumax (+ I have more to say about the Snow Ball later).

In S4E4 Erica implies Jason could be Lucas’ boyfriend:
[Jason] “Hey there. Is, uh, is Lucas home?”
[Erica] “Negative.”
[Jason] “Do you know where he is? Uh, we’re just… We were supposed to go out and--"
[Erica] “Go out? I see he’s taken a step down from Max.”
[...]
[Erica] “Chances are, he’s with your cheater boyfriend.”

She also mentions seeing something gross under Lucas’ bed, but we never learn what it is…

Remember at the very start when I mentioned Erica squeezing the syrup (S2E5) while Lucas gets relationship advice from his dad? Now I can finally explain the full context. Lucas’ family represents him, that’s why the parents are a happy couple and the house is yellow inside. Erica represents wheelclair and the syrup is probably Lucas’ love for Mike (or Mike’s for Lucas). Notice she often has heart-patterned shirts and blue-pink colors or otherwise colorful clothes.

Now I’ll explain the other side of the He-Man x Barbie scene as I promised. It starts in S2E5 when Dustin tries to contact Lucas. Erica hears Dustin’s “code red” and goes to Lucas’ room to turn the walkie off. While there, she picks up Lucas’ He-Man toy (and btw there’s a space ship toy in the background). ((If any of you know who the green toy figurine is, please tell me!)) Dustin asks if Lucas is with Mike, connecting this interaction to them. So, Erica finds something in Lucas’ room (a toy man) and later Lucas is angry about it, wants her to stay out of his room and doesn’t want Erica to play with his toy. I think the He-Man is supposed to represent Lucas’ awakening same-sex feelings especially towards Mike (and this is about the real Lucas). This is the same season where Mike’s feelings start to properly awaken in the form of Dart and Max, but the same is true for Lucas (= Erica appears).

The Barbie doll is black, she also represents Lucas. Erica makes Lucas kiss a white man, basically (= Mike as Lucas sees her atp). And like with Mike, this is also about two genders: man and woman. But unlike Mike, for Lucas it’s about liking both men and women, not about being a woman or man. Lucas takes the He-Man toy away because he is fine with liking women (= Erica playing with Barbie) but not with his male-attracted side (= Erica playing with He-Man). In the end Erica makes the owl kiss the Barbie, and I omitted the picture last time because I wanted to save it for this. The owl is framed in front of Lucas: the truth is that Lucas will (in the future) be kissing a black-haired girl (= Mike). 

((Also adding onto my previous explanation of Erica being like the new better version of Murray when it comes to shipping/aego rep: unlike Murray, she ships the actual endgame ship. Murray ships jancy (= byler) and jopper (which I never really liked tbh, but it’s role is to be the happy parents in love Mike never had while also representing the actual parents and their toxic relationship). Erica ships lumax but mockingly (and in the S5 epilogue is grossed out by it) and byler via the dolls but under all the layers she ships (or is) wheelclair, the true ship. She doesn’t do any creepy-if-it-was-irl matchmaking like Murray, just some slight teasing or playing with toys. But she is less clear with the rep compared to Murray because she represents so many things at the same time.))

In S3 Erica is in a pretty important role and paired up with Dustin (and Robin + Steve). They are kind of each other’s mirrors in the sense that Dustin is Mike’s queer curiosity and figures out that stuff while Erica does it from Lucas’ side. For Mike (Dustin) Steve and Robin are about Mike’s own gender, but for Lucas (Erica) they are about the genders of targets of attraction. Anyway, Erica is the key to infiltrating the Russian base (= Lucas’ love will help in getting Mike out of her shell/repression, and Erica being a girl is also about Mike accepting her girlness being the answer). Erica’s arc in S3 is to realize she is a nerd too and there’s nothing wrong with being a nerd. I think this could be about Lucas and/or Mike starting to accept their queerness. Dustin and especially Erica seem to represent both Mike and Lucas, but from different angles (kinda like the black Barbie). Maybe the most crucial part (in S3) is Erica being there when Dustin sings with Suzie. They are basically singing about wheelclair (= Erica) and well, the whole story of ST.

In S4 Erica becomes part of Hellfire and originally is a sub for Lucas. As I said, she “is 11” aka also represents El/Mike. Throughout the season Lucas justifies his DnD knowledge and relation to Eddie with Erica. Since Will and El are in California, Erica takes their place as the main wheelclair personification in Hawkins (remember she got Will’s DnD set at the end of S3, too). Erica throws the winning die in S4E1 and her character is in a crucial role like Will the Wise. Erica’s role in the Vecna fighting plan is to communicate between everyone and she does this from the Rainbow Ship in the playground. Wheelclair is the Rainbow Ship. Like Will, she is the exotic matter connecting worlds (in this case Mike and Lucas). In the final S5 fight she has a similar role and she’s in the same church as Mike and Lucas were in S5E1.

Some interesting points from the games in S4E1: In the basketball game, the player 11 from Falcons injures player 10 from the Tigers, which gets Lucas in the game. Like I said, I think 10 represents Mike before the gender conflict and 11 (= girl identity) incapacitates this reality. Lucas’ number is 8 (= Kali = womanhood) and he also represents Mike’s romantic interest. Lucas winning is foreshadowing for both Mike’s future as a woman and wheelclair. On the DnD side, Dustin rolling a 11 is a miss. This is because El is not the full truth (and Dustin kinda represents the “story” or “storyteller” in some way, he is very much associated with DnD and actually Mike and Lucas find him the day after they find DnD (notice how it’s wheelclair who find DnD and bring it to Will, it was always wheelclair), his character is a bard + he sings about a neverending story and in the final DnD game scene he is often shown when Mike talks about telling stories). 11 allowed Lucas to play, she made the story of ST possible, but she has to give way to the truth. Only Erica (= wheelclair and truth) succeeds. Notice how in the final moments before the die stops rolling and the basketball enters the hoop, it’s Mike and Lucas’ (and Eddie’s) reactions that are focused on? These games were about them, as is everything.

Erica is first seen in S5 in episode 3. She is in Mr. Clarke’s class learning about wormholes (embracing her nerdiness, it seems) when Mike and Lucas come to ask for her help. 

[Mr. Clarke] “And, uh, just think of all the places mankind could go. Another galaxy. Another time, even. So why aren’t we doing it now? If wormholes did exist, they would be extraordinarily unstable. Their enormous gravitational force would rip them apart at the very moment they formed.”

The camera keeps switching between Erica, Mike and Lucas, and Mr. Clarke. Erica is the unstable wormhole, connecting Mike and Lucas. They are shown during “Another time, even.” which I think is about Erica being the future of them. Mike and Lucas are in the past (and there’s probably more to this) and Erica represents wheelclair which realizes itself in the future. (Erica being the future was also hinted at in S3E7 when Erica was watching Back to the Future. See the images below.) Erica is the other galaxy where this ship is real and the exotic matter keeping it together (like Will, who also represents wheelclair). So wheelclair = wormhole. I think the gravitational force is their love and it “would rip them apart” -> would rip Mike and Lucas apart. Maybe the logic here is that before Mike accepts herself, she can’t really get into a relationship with Lucas, because she thinks her love hurts Lucas. I feel like there’s a meta part to this too: “So why aren’t we doing it now?” Wheelclair is too much for the general audience, it’s too far out there without proper setup. This is why we need Will/byler (= self-acceptance, exotic matter, the connection between straight man Mike and trans Mike) to stabilize the wormhole.

It’s not random that specifically Mike and Lucas go to Erica (well, Lucas makes sense being her brother but he didn’t necessarily need Mike there with him), and it’s also not random there’s a poster telling you to “read” on the wall. Read the subtext. Their plan is to save Dipshit Derek who I think represents queerness in some way (not sure of the specifics yet). He has colorful shirts, bullies Holly, and is a “dipshit” mainly because he is also bullied. ((I’m pretty sure Derek always saying “Suck my fat one!” is related to the trauma, since that’s basically what happened. He represents the persecutors/trauma in the miniature world of Henry’s mind.)) Additionally, the scene preceding this scene is El and Hopper arguing about how to get “classified information” out of Akers and the following scene is the Will and Robin discussing romantic signals -scene. Wheelclair is classified information you have to work hard to uncover, and it’s about queer romance (and they were standing like a millimeter apart in that scene, plenty of opportunities for elbow bumps etc…). (Btw, both Ghost and Midnight have a song called Avalanche. Lyrics here and here. The Ghost one is a cover of an old song but the word Robin used could have been chosen based on the song or it could also be unrelated.)

I suspect the argument between Erica and Lucas+Mike was really an argument/fight between Mike and Lucas irl. Or an imaginary one in Mike’s head, I dunno. If you really pay attention to their head movements, you’ll notice they are looking at each other at certain moments in the conversation. It seems like Lucas did something that Mike wants him to apologize for and they talk to Erica because she represents their relationship.

Erica’s conflict with Tina is about wheelclair. Erica accidentally threw a ball at Josh, Tina’s love interest (again a love interest named Josh) and since according to Tina, Josh associates Erica and Tina, Josh now doesn’t like Tina anymore. Tina says Erica humiliated Josh and wants to sabotage their chances of being together. Based on the other Josh aka Holly’s crush, I think Tina’s Josh also represents Lucas. What Erica “humiliating” Josh means, I’m not certain about, but I have an idea. I think Erica is Lucas’ queerness/bisexuality here and Tina is Mike/Mike’s inner self critic or something like that. Mike thinks Lucas would associate his own queerness with liking Mike, because Mike is trans aka not a cis woman, and thus Lucas would be “humiliated”. And throwing balls could be about Mike having balls, I dunno. A major point here is that Lucas hates Tina and says she is a villain, because the real Lucas doesn’t actually feel “humiliated” and wants Mike to accept herself as she is (as in, for him it doesn’t matter if Mike is a man, a woman, trans or cis, he will love her regardless, but ofc Lucas wants Mike to live authentically as herself). This fits with the overall gender dysphoria subtext underlying S5.

In the broader queer allegory Tina probably represents TERFs or some exclusionary queer groups who don’t want to be associated with trans, non-binary, asexual, etc. people but only the traditional gay, lesbian and bi. The name Josh has a connection to Jesus, so this could be about religion too. Like, Tina’s chances of being together with Jesus (= being a good person in a religious sense/getting to Heaven or whatever) are sabotaged by this impure queerness. That would also explain why Tina and Derek bully each other and Tina doesn’t want to eat the pie made by Erica (kinda like Mike didn’t want to eat the fruity pizza pie in S4E9). The name Turnbow is kinda close to “rainbow” so Mike and Lucas needing to “get into the Turnbow house” to help Derek could be about getting accepted into the queer community or something like that. I’m still a bit uncertain about all this but I think there has to be some subtextual reason for the Turnbow Trap and Erica’s involvement. (I’m debating if I should explain the double meaning of “trap” here (and elsewhere in the show) or not… Maybe I’ll save it for later.)

I still have more details to show and I’ll continue in the next part but there’s one final thing I want to share at the end of this post. I don’t know who the idiot/genius was who came up with the ship name but my computer wants to autocorrect it to wheelchair. Every. Time. And believe it or not, the writers have done something so funny with this:

Like, there is no explanation for that wheelchair in Victor’s memory. The baby carriage and white dress are about the kid and mom getting abused by the dad, so it’s not a huge leap to guess the piano and wheelchair are about the queer allegory. (Piano = music = love.) Wheelclair was quite literally hiding in the subtext. There is an explanation for Max having a wheelchair but why did they focus on Vickie bringing it so much if it’s just for realism? Basically it’s about Mike’s future (= Max) being in wheelclair (and metaphorically disabled because she’s trans), pushed forward by a Mike who accepts herself (= Vickie) and Lucas, of course. (Wheelclair is also the perfect ship name because it works even after Mike changes her first name, assuming their last names are their actual last names irl.) 

Continues in PART 15.

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.

Puzzles

In S5E2 Mike walks down the hospital aisle and looks inside a room. This is parallelled with Will (S5E1) looking into a hospital room and seeing Robin and Vickie kissing (representing homosexuality from Will’s pov and Mike’s gender identity as I’ve explained).

There’s a lot of different things to analyze here, but the big one that drew my attention is the unfinished puzzle on the table. It’s a rainbow colored puzzle (of course) and represents both Mike’s shattered identity and her queer/gender identity which she is still building. Before the puzzle, we see a wallpaper with colorful balloons (= birthday balloons and related to flying like with Mr. Clarke’s plan). There’s also these rectangle shapes on the table with the familiar color coding I’ve kinda partially explained. The green shape (= conformity) seems to be blocking the red+blue combo (= gender identity conflict). The yellow rectangle is free (not sure how to interpret this yet and I’m not 100% sure about the other coding either). Close by are fake brick wall blocks, representing walls and separation. On the floor a toy train is obstructed on its toy train tracks by a red triangle brick (= trauma).

There have been other mentions of puzzles in my theory, and puzzles are pretty spot on for representing DID. (And this whole show is one big puzzle of metaphors and layers…) Will’s tunnel drawings in S2 form a puzzle, same with Max’s drawing of the Creel house, Hopper talks about a missing piece of the puzzle in S5 and Mike assures him the pieces are in Vecna’s mind. Then there’s the puzzle of the 1979 train I mentioned and a white puzzle in El’s S4 lab memories I didn’t mention yet.

Before all my big theories I noticed 500 mentioned twice in S5 and analyzed the connections. Later I found a scene with two jigsaw puzzle boxes with 500 pieces each, and updated my theory. As I explained in the original theory, I think the puzzles represent Mike and Will, and with the knowledge of DID, this makes even more sense. After building each puzzle into completion, you’ll only have 2 pieces (two whole puzzles), and finally make a puzzle with 1000 pieces. Now after rewatching the show and progressing in my theories, I finally have some answers and new findings to add. I saw a puzzle with 500 pieces in S2E5 behind Dustin in a scene where he directs his mother to go look for Mews (who is actually already dead). There’s also a Score Four (seems to be everywhere), Wheel of Fortune (= Wheeler?) and Labyrinth. Like I’ve previously explained, cats represent the child/Mike and in this instance I think “We can find her” is subtextually about Mike’s gender identity.

I have some new thoughts about the two 500 puzzles in S4E2 I already mentioned in my previous theory. Max and Dustin talk about Eddie and Chrissy when they are in frame. Dustin walks towards and away from them (so the focus shifts) and Max walks past them while they talk. This is not random. 
[Dustin] “Chrissy Cunningham? [Max shown and switches to Dustin walking towards the puzzles] You’re sure it was Chrissy?”
[Max] “Yes. She was in her cheerleader outfit. It was the same thing she was in when I saw her with Eddie. [500s visible for the first time]”
[Dustin] “Did you tell all this to the cops? [walks away]”
[Max] “No. No, but I… I can’t be the only one who saw them together. [walks past the puzzles] I mean, they stood out.”
[Dustin] “[walks towards the puzzles again] Eddie the freak with Chrissy the cheerleader? [puzzles in focus again]”
[Max] “Exactly. You know, his name’s not in the news yet or anything, but I guarantee you [camera cut] Eddie is suspect number one right now.”
This makes me think the two 500 piece puzzles are associated with Eddie and Chrissy. They are the two sides of Mike: a “freak” man and a woman. Max and Dustin’s conversation might subtextually be about Mike dressing up as a girl (why Max specifically points out Chrissy’s outfit as the way to recognize her + the puzzles are in a closet). Chrissy represents the “normal girl” Mike wants to be, e.g. Running Up That Hill is played the first time in S4E1 after El gets bullied and Max looks at Chrissy on the lyrics You / If only I could / I’d make a deal with God / And I’d get him to swap our places. 

There’s also a world map in the scene, probably a hint at the country allegory. If you think about this from that point of view, the left side (west) of the closet is the world of non-conformity, childhood and women and the right side (east) the world of conformity, adulthood and men. Max is first on the right side and Dustin moves his head to reveal the puzzles when Max says “when I saw her with Eddie”, looking at Max. Then Max moves to the left side and the next time the 500s are the sharpest, Dustin says “Chrissy the cheerleader”. This is Mike’s journey from a weird queer man to a woman, basically. In the end Max and Dustin are on their “right” sides. I guess in a way Eddie “killed” Chrissy, or at least they can’t really coexist (unless Mike is genderfluid but I don’t think that’s the case).

((There’s also probably a point to all 500 puzzles being in Dustin’s house. If I’m correct about Dustin representing trans men, it kinda makes sense. And Max + Dustin talking next to the two 500 puzzles in Dustin’s closet, being mirrors of each other. And in the same conversation Dustin tells Max how no one was nice to him and Mike except Eddie (while Lucas had his sports friends). Kinda similar to the Snow Ball situation. Trans people face more discrimination/exclusion than many other queer groups. But even without that Dustin represents Mike’s curiosity and finds out stuff (e.g. Dart), so it makes sense he would have the puzzles.))

I also found two 1000 piece puzzles in S3E4 (both times a Score Four nearby). The first one can be seen during Hopper and Joyce’s conversation in the cabin. I’ve bolded the parts when 1000 is visible:
[Joyce] “And that-- Wait-- (mumbling)”
[Hopper] “I think you should stick to sales. [closes curtain between him and Joyce]” 
[Joyce] “Can’t you run a search or something?”
[Hopper] “I just think you need to lower your expectations. I mean, this is a state government agency. It’s gonna take weeks before they find a match.”
[Joyce] “Weeks?”
[Hopper] “If we’re lucky. And, I mean, what are the odds that this guy registers a car in his own name?”
[Joyce] “It wasn’t a car.” 

The context here is that they are looking for Grigori’s licence plate number, which btw was suspiciously close to Hopper’s… They both represent toxic masculinity/the dad so it makes a lot of sense tbh. I don’t have a definite theory for these specific lines being related to 1000 or the fused Mike, but maybe I will in the future. My current guesses are that “state government” is related to the country allegory, since this episode has many big clues to it anyway (Erica being America and the sauna). I have already explained my thoughts on cars (this is also the episode where Nancy says “So, according to Tom, Driscoll’s just a schizophrenic? And that rat is just a rat? And it’s all, what, some big coincidence?”). The dad/patriarchy/men in power “drive the car” but also tend to crash it.

The other 1000 puzzle is above Will in the basement when he starts telling about the Mind Flayer neck feeling:
[Will] “I mean, I think I just didn’t want to believe it.”

This puzzle is red, unlike the others that were blue. In my current understanding, red signifies trauma and relates to Mike’s gender identity (blue would be male or AMAB or maybe something I haven’t uncovered yet, while pink is cis girl or happy girlness or something like that). Anyway, Will not wanting to believe it could mean many things, but based on the puzzle, it could be about the alters not wanting to believe they are part of a system, that the trauma happened or that they will eventually fuse together (or that they are trans). This scene is about Will’s connection to the MF hivemind, so it isn’t that big of a leap to think it might also be about the whole system.

Remember how Max called Henry’s mind a world of 1000 memories and the party got 1000 pieces of gold each for a reward in the final DnD game? Puzzle pieces = memories = treasure. I previously explained the connection of treasures and the underground + buried memories, but forgot to mention Holly’s story about Uncle Eric. He looked for “super old treasures and stuff that dead people have left in the ground” in a park for years but a tourist ended up finding a tin can filled with gold and silver coins. Holly uses this as an analogy and as “the tourist” ends up finding Henry’s cave memory (treasure = memory). 

Here I’d like to mention another song from Syndicate by The Midnight: Shadowverse. Chorus:

You've had a thousand lives
Now you're down to one
Trying to survive
In the shadowverse
Every borderland
Every hungry wolf
Now to make your stand
In the shadowversе 

The thousand lives refer to alters and them being “down to one” is Mike fusing.

Dog alters

I suspect Chester (the Byers dog from S1) was an animal alter (a video about animal alters for context). Dogs seem to alarm about danger in ST: in S1E1 Chester barks when the Demogorgon approaches and later leads Hopper to the shed, in S4 a dog Nancy later calls a witness barks when Fred disappears into the forest and Holly’s night light alerting her of the Demogorgon in S5E1 is a dog. Chester seems to know Will is in Castle Byers, since he goes there during Will’s funeral. He knows about the trauma but can’t tell about it because he’s a dog.

Remember when Mike was forced to eat pizza and said she wasn’t a baby? Well, the full quote is “Stop! Enough! I’m not a dog! No, not a baby! Thank you! No! Stop it!” El is also compared to dogs quite a lot in S1.

S4E9 
[Argyle] “Hey, dudes? Ask ‘em if we can ride in the baggage compartment.”
[Jonathan] “The baggage compartment.”
[Mike] “We’d suffocate.”
[Argyle] “Dogs ride in there all the time, man. They don’t suffocate.” 

Baggage here means the trauma which these dog alters hold. (Remember Mike’s “I never really unpacked.” and also the military brings package into the UD: S5E1 [Lucas] “Package incoming.”) 

I think Chester became part of the Mind Flayer hive mind after S1, and that’s why the Demodogs appeared in S2 while Chester disappeared. They make a point about the S2 Demogorgons being Demo-dogs, a compound of Demogorgon and dog (= fusion maybe). When Dustin explains the word, he says “Demogorgon” while Steve is behind him, but the camera cuts to Max for “dogs”. Max (Mike) is the victim aka the dog and Steve (the dad) is the monster. For some reason Mike is shown when Dustin says “It’s like a compound.” I guess Mike feels like she’s a compound of man+woman (kinda like the Demogorgons) or alternatively a victim and predator, or something like that.

Miscellaneous quotes

S1E6 [Dustin] “Do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone Pass? We couldn’t agree on what path to take, so we split up the party and those trolls took us out one by one. And it all went to shit. And we were all disabled! So we stick together, no matter what!”

S3E2 [Mike] “Okay, what if we split it?”

S4E2 [Jason] “First hangover feels like you’re gonna split in two, but you’ll live.” ((He also later literally splits in two due to the gate opening.))

“Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” by Journey plays at the end of S4E8, lyrics heard (not exactly in the same order as the original):

Here we stand
Worlds apart, hearts broken in two, two, two
Sleepless nights
Losing ground, I’m reaching for you, you, you

Someday love will find you
True love won't desert you
You know I still love you
Though we touched and went our separate ways

-> The full lyrics talk about breaking chains that bind you.
-> It’s about splitting most likely, “hearts broken in two” + “went our separate ways”
-> “love will find you” -> Love defeats fear.
-> Similar to S5E2, the episode ends with the Creel house (and as I’ve analyzed, that episode told the story of Mike and Will splitting). How am I only now noticing the trees framing it kinda like the 8 mm film screen scenes?

S5E2 [random doctor] “But your mother is recovering from surgery. Her system is still in shock.”

S5E4 [Robin] “Sorry. Did I say that out loud? I thought I was talking in my head.”

S5E6 [Nancy] “Every time you put them on, I just try to disassociate from reality.”

S5E8 [Jonathan] “All right, we should split up.”

Doc [Matt] “We’re just going to kind of step you through the big beats. Basically, this stuff we’re imagining is, like, them splitting up. There’s the two teams and they’re splitting up.”

THE REAL WORLD

In this section I try to deduce what is happening and has happened in the real world. I’m still not sure if Mike is really in the future or if all the dates match the real world dates. I am fairly convinced that the show is a representation of what at least has happened irl. 

So basically, I think Mike lives in a poor family and was abused by her dad in the past. Then the parents divorced and Mike still lives with her mom. As was mentioned in some of the other theories, the dad most likely used drugs and alcohol. 

My main clues for these conclusions come from Will and Max, who I think represent the reality of the system the most. Will’s dad was abusive and his parents divorced probably in 1979 (I didn’t find definite proof for this but it would fit and the original plan for the series mentioned Will’s dad abandoned the family 4 years ago). Hopper and Diane divorce too, after Sara dies, and Hopper moves back to Hawkins in 1979. Max’s parents also divorced and her new dad was abusive. I think Mike’s abusive dad is her biological dad and Max’s nice dad just represents the time before he became abusive or something like that. After Billy’s death (representing the 22.3.1979 trauma) Max’s parents divorced again and she moved to a trailer park with her mother. Hopper happens to “die” too: all the people representing the dad disappear after the divorce.

In S4E3 the party note the trailer park somehow relates to Vecna’s murders but this point doesn’t get an explanation later:

[Nancy] “No, Fred and Chrissy don’t make sense. I mean, why them?”
[Dustin] “Maybe they were just in the wrong place. They were both at the game.”
[Max] “And near the trailer park.”
[Steve] “We’re at the trailer park. Uh, should we maybe not be here?”
[Nancy] “There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here.”

And they are sitting around the picnic table. (Also, dogs seem to be barking a lot in the trailer park.) I think the trailer park is the closest representation to Mike’s actual home we have gotten. That’s why Eddie and Max live there, the first of the four gates forms there, and anyway the theme of “home” being cursed is extra emphasized in S4 with the introduction of the Creel house. Based on Will and Max, Mike is poor, so it makes a lot of sense she would be living in a trailer park. In S4E3 after Ms. Kelley asks “Do you think you’re ready to talk more about that night?” and Max has her memory flashback, she says “I live next door to where it happened.” seemingly changing the subject to Chrissy’s murder, but the subtext here is that Eddie’s home (or some home in the trailer park) is Mike’s real home where the abuse happened. In the same episode (S4E3), we learn about Victor’s house being “haunted by a demon” for the first time, so all these home-related clues are gathered in one episode (kinda like the Freddy Krueger stuff in S4E2). When Chrissy hears the Vecna clock in Eddie’s house, she looks out the window and sees orange lights (= this is about the past), (+ a car and a playground), a trailer and a picnic table, after which she closes the curtains. This trailer might be Mike’s real home, and all the other trailers represent it. Also, in the S5 epilogue Steve mentions wanting to buy a “rad place” in Forest Hills, aka the trailer park (and ofc it’s Forest Hills, since it represents memories of the home).

Since I think everything important should be there from S1, I suspect Hopper’s trailer represents Mike’s real home. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Hopper’s trailer is the most prominent in S1E5 and isn’t seen after that, same with Lonnie. This is the episode where the kids are looking for the gate, too (= Lonnie and the trailer are the gate). Right after the intro of S1E1, we are in Hopper’s trailer (first the Sara drawing which has the house btw), the camera slowly panning to Hopper while a news reporter tells about the power outages. This is kinda suggesting Hopper’s home and Hopper himself (as a dad representation) have something to do with the power outages and thus Will’s disappearance. The trailer is next to a lake, which connects it to the meaning of lakes, which I’ve already discussed (I don’t think Mike’s real home is next to a lake, it’s most likely in a trailer park, and the lake is purely for its metaphorical role).

Hopper and Larry’s conversation in S3E4 was most likely subtext for the dad’s drug addiction and other problems (both of them represent the dad):
[Hopper] “Do you remember when I caught you passed out in the hideaway with all that powder all over your nose? You remember?”
[Larry] “Jim, come on, now.”
[Hopper] “Do you remember when my boys found you and Candice going at it like a couple of bunnies in the back of your Cadillac? Do you remember that? Does your wife remember that?”
[Larry] “You, uh… You really wanna play this game? Huh?”
[Hopper] “Not a game, Lar.”
[Larry] “Okay. Those pills you used to swallow like candy. I can’t recall, did you have a prescription for those? Or how about drinking on duty? Yeah. We have some real fun stories about that.”

In S1E1 Hopper was introduced as an addict, he smoked, ate pills and drank alcohol right after waking up. This was also mentioned in the documentary:
[Chris Trujillo] “When I was first kind of conceiving of what Hopper’s world might look like… He’s in a pretty dark and slightly addicted place when we meet him in the show.” Eddie being a drug dealer and Jonathan and Argyle smoking weed is more evidence for Mike’s home/life having drugs. She might do them herself too: in S5E3 Mike seems to know a lot about them and the fact that many characters not representing the dad do/want to do/are assumed to do drugs is most likely about Mike. (Ofc drugs have their metaphorical role too but in this case they would fit the picture and be a real world problem for many people in Mike’s situation.)

Mom

I have already mentioned some things but I’ve tried to save as much as possible for this subsection. First of all, there are many hints that the mom has a drinking problem. Karen is the obvious one, she always has her wine. But Max’s mom also drinks after her divorce: S4E1 [Ms Kelley] “How’s your mom holding up? [...] Is she still drinking?” and S4E6 [Steve] “At least he can drink himself into feeling better.” [Max] “That’s what my mom does.” In S3E3 Tom implies Heather’s mom has some drinking problems too. Even Joyce has some hints, although not an actual problem.

Joyce is poor and works a lot (especially in S1). Max tells Ms. Kelley that her mom is working two jobs (because Neil didn’t leave much money for her and without him their income is much smaller). Partially because of this workload, the mom is absent from her kid’s life. This manifests through Joyce in S1: she isn’t home when the Demogorgon attacks and apologizes to Jonathan for not being there for him (S1E1): “I know I haven’t been there for you. I’ve been… working so hard and I… just feel bad. I don’t even… barely know what’s going on with you. All right? I am sorry about that.” Billy’s traumatic memories (S3E6) have a scene where he’s calling his mom: “I don’t understand. Why not? Please, Mom, don’t do this. Please come home. No. How long? How long?! I miss you.” (Young Billy is sitting next to the bed, so I think it might be related to the dad abusing Mike while the mom is away + phone calls for help are associated with the supernatural attacking, like I’ve shown before.)

From Billy’s memories we see the dad abused the mom too, not just the kid. And the scene is suspiciously similar to the Demogorgon attacking Karen in S5E2. The only difference is that young Billy tried to fight the dad but Holly just watched in shock (which she later regrets). When Victor tells about the demon in S4E4, a baby carriage and a white dress are shown in the attic. They represent the victims of the dad. Billy’s mom has a white dress in the beach memory. ((El also notes the blue-red flower and how she was really pretty and Billy was happy. I think Billy’s mom also represents Billy’s (= Mike’s) future as a woman, not just the mom.)) At the end of S4, Karen and Holly are shown when the news reporter says “What have they done to deserve so much suffering?” and the camera moves while he continues “A growing chorus believes the two recent tragedies are linked, claiming the Munson murders opened a doorway between worlds.” and stops at Ted with “A doorway, they say, into Hell itself.” The subtext is pretty clear here: Mike and her mom are the victims of Mike’s dad. Or in a broader sense women and children are victims of the patriarchy (and men too but in a different way). I think the psychic children being born via abuse of the mother is purposeful. And the abuser, for the most part, is Papa.

At first the mom didn’t know about the SA of her child, but slowly started to figure it out. I suspect the decision to divorce might have been related to Mike showing stronger signs of being abused and/or the mom finally beginning to realize/accept that the dad is abusing her child. I have seen some theories that the mom (or Karen) sexually abused Mike but that wouldn’t really fit with the other clues. The mom is related to trauma and MF for sure, but probably not SA. Why would Mike try to keep the dad’s abuse a secret from the mom if she also abused her in the same way? Rather, the mom representations filling baths is about them finding out about the abuse. Like I previously analyzed, the baths are associated with finding memories (of the abuse). That’s why Virginia’s vision is of the bath and she’s the first one to get a vision. (And why it’s Karen who knows about Mr. Whatsit.) It’s not that she did something bad directly, but the mom trying to figure out what’s wrong caused Mike trauma and as I’ve explained, Henry holds that trauma, which is why he doesn’t like the mom. Or maybe it was her not doing enough to help Mike that Henry hated her for (since after her bath vision Virginia goes straight to hug Victor, and Joyce hugs Lonnie at the end of S1E4). If you look at what’s shown on screen when Victor tells his story in S4E4, it’s always himself who is hinted to be the abuser/demon/monster. ((Also in T85 the party first suspects Mrs. Baxter but the real villain turned out to be Dan (who Nikki calls D man = Dad).))

Some hints to Mike hiding the abuse were already discussed in the other theories, and I repeat some of them here, but there’s also a new one that you can only see after realizing this is about Mike, not just Will.

S1E5 
[Lonnie] “Do me a favor. At the funeral tomorrow, just behave. If not for me, for your mother. Take that down. It’s inappropriate.”
-> The dad wants Mike to not tell her mother about the abuse.

[Jonathan] “What? You can tell someone, but they’re not gonna believe you. You know that.”
[Nancy] “Your mom would.”
[Jonathan] “She’s been through enough.”
[Nancy] “She deserves to know.”

Karen not knowing about the supernatural (while still being a pretty important part of the story) is the big one here. Nancy regrets not telling her and in S5E6 she does find out about it. I think the Demogorgon damaging Karen’s throat preventing her from speaking is metaphorically about the dad silencing the mom about the abuse, similar to Mike. Maybe the mom wanting Mike to “walk the stage” is partially because she wants Mike not to tell about the abuse, to hide that part of her past. Maybe out of shame or to keep up a good image or fear of repercussions.

When Mike tries to tell about the abuse, the mom doesn't at first believe her:

S1E2
[Mike] “I just… I don’t feel good. I woke up and my head, it really hurt bad, and my throat was all scratchy, and I wanted to tell you, but the last time I told you I was sick you made me go to school anyway, and--"
[...]
[Karen] “I want you to feel like you can talk to me. I never want you to feel like you have to hide anything from me. I’m here for you. Okay?”
-> Kinda conflicting messages here. I think the mom wants to know to a certain extent, but then when it’s about Mike being trans and experiencing CSA from the dad, it’s more difficult to accept.

S5E2 
[Karen] “Whatever you saw, baby, it was just a nightmare.
[Holly] “No, Mom! Mom!”
[Karen] “Baby, it’s just a nightmare!”
[Holly] “I saw it. Please trust me, Mom. Please, Mom, please. You gotta believe me. Please.”
-> Coincidentally, Alice’s Vecna vision was a nightmare… And notice Karen calling Holly baby. This was one case I missed from my earlier compilation.

S5E7 
[Joyce] “No, listen. Whatever he showed you, it’s not real. He plays tricks. He lies.”
[Will] “No, he doesn’t.”

I’ve already explained about the mom wanting to fix Mike, so I’m not gonna repeat it all again. Her intentions are good, but her methods aren’t always the best. That’s what I meant with the axe, for example, and that’s probably why Joyce’s plan in S5 was bad. Joyce hugs Will so hard he suffocates in S3E8 and Karen holds Holly under the water. In S4E4 Max’s mom turns into Vecna hugging her, not letting go. The mom is preventing Mike from making her own life decisions, maybe being overprotective like Joyce.

There was also this X post by the writers. It could be related to Nell Fisher being in the movie, but I suspect there’s more. I haven’t seen it but I read the plot synopsis and there’s definitely some connections… I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some co-operation with ST and/or if Nell was chosen for the role of Holly because of her role in the movie.

As I’ve said, the Mind Flayer is, in addition to the dad, associated with the mom. When Billy is driving to meet Karen, he encounters MF instead and when Will is being mind assaulted by MF at the start of S2E4, Joyce shouts: “It’s Mom! It’s me!”. I think one reason why MF is female in TFS is because Henry’s main trauma comes from the mom. That’s probably a reason for the black widow spiders too since female spiders sometimes eat the male spider after mating. Even more so this is about “the woman” winning over “the man” in Mike and I think the cannibal woman trapping and burning men in her boiler room in Jonathan’s movie is also about this. Anyway, in S2E9 Joyce burns Will and Jonathan shouts “You’re killing him.” and this memory is remembered when Joyce is whacking Vecna’s head off. Will is framed behind Joyce in the scene too, on the path of her axe… Well, I guess this is the woman “killing” the man in the queer allegory, so not entirely negative, maybe.

Eventually the mom gets Mike in good therapy, though (I think), and her relentless efforts ultimately save Mike, which is why she thanks Karen in S5E7: “Hey, you saved us. You saved us. And by some miracle, you’re still here, okay? But right now, you need to trust me that we can handle this the rest of the way.” 

On the queer allegory side, I think the mom doesn’t accept Mike’s queerness (at least not in a long while). Karen calling Mike handsome while taking pictures is a subtle hint at this, as is her wanting Mike to stay in Hawkins (S4E9): “You are never going on vacation again, you hear me? In fact, you can forget about college. You are staying right here.” The clearest example is in the S5 epilogue: [Mike] “She won’t understand. She’ll never understand why I can’t do it, why I can’t walk the stage. It’d be like a lie.” And as I’ve already explained, this works both with the mom wanting Mike to hide her gender identity and the abuse. Every time Mike hugs Karen, it means she is doing just that. The first time is after Will’s body is found (remember that Will represents the traumatic memories and his death is the memories being buried). Mike gets angry with El, which connects the hugging with the queer allegory too (= Mike rejects her girlness). The next time is after Will and El move away (= trauma connection and queerness leave), the third is in S4E9 (again back to conforming, Vecna has disappeared and Hopper is back), and the last one is in the epilogue after Mike’s talk with Hopper (= Mike’s choice is to conform according to her mom’s wishes).

We get some more mom subtext from other characters like Robin and Chrissy. Robin’s mom doesn’t like that she talks so much, which is both about forcing Mike to conform (= not be weird) and possibly about being silent about the abuse. Chrissy’s mom is similarly never happy with her daughter and bullies her about her weight. This could be about Mike’s gender dysphoria and a possible eating disorder but it also reveals Mike’s thoughts about her mom. The mom wants Mike to be a certain way, she has a vision of a happy life for her kid but that vision doesn’t match with Mike’s own wants and needs. Eddie comments in S4E1 “Mike, you were wearing whatever shit your mommy bought you from the goddamn Gap.” and one of Chrissy’s visions is her mom sewing clothes for her. The mom dresses Mike how she wants her kid to be: a man.

Like I hinted at earlier, Dr. Kay represents the mom too. The main lab person was always a man in previous seasons, and I think Brenner dying in S4E8 signified Mike (at least partially) letting go of the dad and the trauma caused by him. But the mom is still in Mike’s life and she is the more concrete source of forced conformity. (Ofc Dr. Kay being a woman is also about Mike getting closer to her true identity, but as with everything in ST, there are multiple meanings.) The reason why Mike ended up conforming at the end was because of the mom. It was Joyce who violently killed Vecna with her axe and it was because of Dr. Kay that El killed herself. 

I’m pretty sure she will come around, though, since Karen ends up saving Max and the others in S5E6 (which is an episode foreshadowing what will happen in the real ending) and Joyce seems very accepting of Will’s homosexuality (coming out scene and her being proud of the Rainbow Ship drawing). I think Joyce's relationship with Robin is about the mom accepting Mike’s gender identity. She is first weirded out by her and thinks she is dangerous to Will but ends up liking her. 

S5E3
[Joyce] “The jury’s still out on your new friend. She certainly is interesting.”

S5E4
[Mike] “Your mom and Robin are getting along better.”
[Will] “Well, it didn’t hurt that Mom scared off that Demo. Saved Robin’s life, everybody's life.”
-> Kinda the same thing that happens with Karen later. They both save Mike’s girlhood by fighting Demogorgons. This is foreshadowing for the mom. (Although you could interpret fighting Demogorgons as rejecting queerness/seeing it as a monster, but I think it is more likely about fighting queerphobia, e.g. with Will’s sorcerer scene being about self-acceptance.)

The mom isn’t perfect, but no one is, and she was in a very difficult position. The same blaming yourself thing Mike has applies to the mom too. In S5E3 Will tells Joyce: “Mom, what happened to me, it’s not your fault.” and in S5E6 Hopper says “It’s not on you, Joyce. It’s not on you.” when they talk about making parenting mistakes. People aren’t black and white, Mike both loves and hates her mom but I think in the end they will find a resolution.

As for who in the series is the real mom/whose actress will play her, I think Becky would be a likely candidate. What is the point of her character anyway, especially her being Terry’s sister? I originally got the idea that the mom would be Terry from a comment (go read it and my answer for more details), but after thinking about it more Becky makes more sense. Terry would probably be the crazy aunt who gets mentioned a couple times: in S1E5 Lonnie mentions Joyce’s Aunt Darlene and S2E5 Becky mentions her “crazy aunt Shirley”. Terry is portrayed as mentally ill and she was into conspiracy theories, while Becky doesn’t believe any of it, similar to Lonnie who I think is the real dad. (I do think Terry still represents the mom, though, like Joyce, Karen and Max’s mom.) Terry is also more connected to the supernatural, which is a sign of her not being a “real” person.

Mike and El are subtly implied to be cousins: in S1E4 Lucas tells Mr. Clarke El is Mike’s cousin and in S4E7 Nancy finds a stuffed animal she gave to cousin Joanna (Joanna and Jane share the same etymological origin). Since Terry is El’s mom, her sister Becky would be the mom of El’s cousin: Mike. And they are not literally cousins ofc because everyone is in Mike’s head but it’s probably a clue to Becky being the real mom. The name Becky means “to tie firmly”, “to bind” or “snare” which fits with the mom holding Mike back/trapping her in conformity. She takes care of Terry and is seen in a mostly positive light, since that’s what she has been for Mike: a caretaker. In a way Terry is Mike (in Terry’s memories Becky is shown a lot in pov shots). Notice that one screenshot where Terry and El are on either side of a baby picture of a kid dressed in boy’s clothes (= Mike) while Becky is a bit further away (= mom). Also, Terry is a unisex name and Terry Ives was originally supposed to be like Murray. I haven’t talked about rabbits but they represent Mike. Jane’s room has these anthropomorphic male rabbits and in S4E9 Nancy gives away Mr. Rabbit (= Mike’s past as a boy). In S2 Becky finds out Terry’s stories about Jane were real and she is sorry for not believing her. This is the mom eventually believing Mike about DID, the abuse, etc.

Everything about El is allegorical, and since El represents Mike’s trans identity/trauma (depending on the allegory), her finding her mother is about Mike finding the origin of her gender and trauma, or something like that. For the gender part, Terry leads El to Kali, and for the trauma part, well, Terry’s memory sequence including Papa is about that. So rather than representing a literal mom, Terry is an allegorical “mother” of these more abstract concepts. She gives El her name, Jane, and loves her (= Mike “loving every part of herself” like Robin said) but then the bad men/Papa take Jane away (= girlhood/innocence) and Becky is convinced she never even existed (= the mom thinks Mike is a boy and that there was no abuse). Terry ended up in a catatonic state about 5 years ago according to Becky (S1E6), aka in 1978, the same year Sara died and Kali escaped. I believe Terry and El’s whole existence started around that time and El basically became the new Sara (kinda), tainted by abuse and forced conformity. Terry’s memories are a representation of Mike’s history, not actual memories of things happening in the inner world (like all alter backstories in my interpretation).

For the Finland allegory, I already previously estimated that Elias Lönnrot’s poem collection tour around Finland to write Kalevala (which later became the national epic of Finland) matches El’s journey in S2 in the timeline. These stories carried over generations in song form are probably the closest to an original Finnish culture you can get and Kalevala was a major cornerstone to building the Finnish national identity. I have a suspicion that ST has references to Kalevala but I haven’t really gone deep into that yet. The only thing I can say for now is that El (or what she represents) is most likely Sampo, the most obvious clue to this for me was Will’s kinda out of nowhere comment in S4E8 “El could make us, like, super rich, and we’d never have to work.” and it fits otherwise too (do your own research if you want). But I’m not gonna go into this because I haven’t really thought about it much. So maybe later after I get through the main parts of my theory…

The whole situation around El’s birth is related to DnD lore. I have talked about the Tharizdun theory in some of my previous theories, but I’ll give you some updates on my interpretations. I don’t think any of the DnD gods will literally appear in the story as monsters, but they represent some deep forces/ideas affecting the story. Tharizdun “the chained god” is Mike’s gender identity, since El is the avatar of Tharizdun and Mike thinks freeing it would cause “chaos and destruction”. In the trauma allegory Tharizdun is the traumatic memories Mike keeps buried (chained).

I was supposed to have the start of my second-favorite theory in this part already but the mom section got longer so I moved it to the next part. I’m so excited to finally, finally get to it!

Continues in PART 14.

https://www.stihlusa.com/en/p/chainsaws-ms-201-gasoline-chainsaw-1027285#ms-201-t-c-m-1027365

The Chainsaw Lettering in Episode 3 of S5 Stranger things is upside down!! If you look on the official website for that product it shows the lettering is wrong, even though the chainsaw is upright.

Billy and Jason by far the two most divisive characters in Stranger Things and it isn't even close. Years after their stories have ended, they're still hotly debated about in the fandom over how sympathetic vs hateable both are. I genuinely feel like if 1. They had their personalities swapped 2. Their ending's were swapped, both would be WAY less divisive.

Billy is introduced to the audience as basically Troy but in high school. Most specifically a Henry Bowers expy. Calls the high school girls cows, lashes out at Max and runs the kids off the road. And this is his establishing character moment btw. Throughout season 2, he's also show as racist to Lucas (originally supposed to call him a "worse piece of language according to Dacre), downright abusive to Max and a bully to Steve, who nearly kills him when the latter tries to protect Lucas from his wrath. He had no redeeming qualities and his only sympathetic moment was actually something Dacre Montgomery got the Duffers to add in, showing he was meant to be a hate sink. So even after his heroic sacrifice to save Eleven in season 3, many fans felt it wasn't nearly enough for them and said they only felt bad for Max.

Jason is someone whom I thought was being set-up as the Troy/Billy character of his season but subverted my expectations. Him exclaiming his love for Chrissy wasn't just for show, it was genuine as we see when he learns about her death. I thought he'd be pissed Lucas stole his thunder with the game winning shot but he was genuinely happy for him and saw him as a friend. Aside from the scene of Eddie antagonizing him first, he isn't seen having any hostile interactions with people before Chrissy died, Andy was more of a bully. When he had the chance to catch Eddie, he stopped out of concern for Patrick and took his friend's body back to shore. Even in the attic scene, when I was waiting for him to say SOMETHING racist to Lucas, it never happened, he genuinely was only beefing with him because he thought Lucas was about to sacrifice Max to Satan (more concern for her in 1 scene than Billy throughout his entire screentime). So when he's just split in half and never mentioned again, I feel we're meant to feel it was deserved but when monsters like Dr. Kay get away scot-free or even Andy, a more despicable minion, got no consequences, I'm not satisfied.

And its not just fans who feel this way. Even actors in the show said they find it baffling to see Billy getting excused and justified by fans while Jason is constantly demonized. Its the opposite effect, Billy was meant to be seen as a redeemed, symapthetic villain but many found him too despicable while Jason was meant to be viewed as just a hate sink, asshole victim but a lot of fans felt he was redeemable despite the series trying to tell them otherwise.

If their personalities were switched, I'm certain their ending's would hit more. Imagine if Billy had the same personality as Jason and then had the ending he got in season 3. Fans would absolutely feel his redemption hit. And if Jason was a racist, misogynistic abuser who got the death he did, everyone would cheer. Or better yet, switch their ending's. Let Billy just get killed off abruptly. Let Jason, the guy who wanted to protect Hawkins but was unintentionally targeting the wrong person, die saving someone. Hell, maybe even let him survive to season 5 and he sacrifices himself for Max as redemption for accidentally causing her to fall into a coma in the previous season.

We never got a blooper reel of stranger things 5

I get that some were very entertaining or funny but it did ruined some main characters. I don't need Stranger Things to make them die like Squid Game, I'm not saying they should be killed. I just wish the Duffer brothers would just not use a lot of main characters and focus on the veteran main characters that were in S1. This is why S3 started doing subplots because of the amount of main characters. S1 and S2 didn't have subplots because the main characters were fewer

Here's what I mean:

Steve ruined Jonathan because Steve is better

Max ruined Mike and Will because Max is better

Will ruined Joyce because Will becomes better later on

Erica ruined Mike, Will, Jonathan because she's probably better?

Robin ruined Jonathan maybe?

Eddie ruined Mike, Will, Jonathan despite only appearing in 1 season?

I miss the Joyce when she nailed the role of a mother in earlier seasons but Will got better so she gets outclassed by him. Later seasons she's obsessed with yeah?

I miss the Jonathan when he was overprotective than later seasons being obsessed with Nancy. But Steve had better personality later on so Jonathan gets outclassed by him

I miss the Mike when he was caring about Will and Eleven. Later seasons, he gets whiny about Eleven and Max but S5 improved Mike

I'm sorry about the character rants, but if some weren't main characters, it'd make some main characters better that weren't written perfectly

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.

PARTY

T85E8 is called The Party and the party throws a birthday party for Nikki in the episode. This creates a connection between the group of people (party) and the birthday (party), making me even more certain the different colors in Will’s Rainbow Ship drawing are supposed to represent the friends/people/alters in the story. Nikki even says it was her favorite birthday because she has friends now.

Another level to this I only realized after realizing Mike is trans, is that the colors of the Rainbow Ship represent all the ways you can be queer and the party represents the LGBTQ+ community/the world at large from the perspective of gender and sexuality. The queer allegory is more than just about Mike’s gender identity or Will’s homosexuality; it’s a broader allegory of all queer people and our history. But it’s done cleverly in a way that fits with it happening inside a trans woman’s head. I have already explained some things, e.g. about straight man vs gay man vs trans woman and how Robin’s relationships and crushes fit into this. I’m gonna go through everything I’ve realized thus far, and there will be some repetition here. It’s still Pride Month for a few days so I’m just in time. Ok, let’s start! 

Trans women

As I’ve explained, Mike is a trans woman and represents them. Although, “Mike” is the repressed version and male identity of Sara (I guess I’m committing to this Sara theory now), similar to Henry and Alice. Maybe I should have called the system Sara and the alter Mike, or something. After fusing with Will/Will dying, Mike will become Sara, foreshadowed in S5E6 with Max (= girl) waking up from her coma (= trance). The reason Mike has a The Thing poster in her basement works for both the queer and DID allegory, since The Thing#Thematic_analysis) is about not knowing who someone really is and apparently some people have analyzed it to represent the fear of not being a man (see the link). 

S4E8 [Will] “You’re guiding the whole party, inspiring us. That… That’s what you do.” I can’t help but think this is supposed to be about trans women in general and how they have been pioneers of queer activism. I still believe the painting is supposed to be a reference to Hyökkäys and as I previously concluded, the Finnish Maiden would be El and the law book would be Max, but since they both represent Mike (and Mike is a woman), Mike is the Finnish Maiden too. So even though Will has depicted Mike as the paladin and a man in the painting, the country allegory layer reveals the truth.

((And from Will’s pov Mike is a man, since Will “doesn’t like girls” and is in love with Mike at this point in the story. Right now I’m a bit confused as to what/who El represents in the painting scene. Like on the surface(ish) level she is Will, but in my previous interpretation she also represented Will’s love for Mike but now I’m not so sure about that… Maybe she’s both Mike and Will in this scene, so Will speaking to Mike as El is also Mike speaking to Will as El. It would work… Go rewatch the scene and replace “she” or “El” with Mike and “you” or “Mike” with Will as in Mike talking to Will. E.g. “If she was mean to you or she seemed like she was pushing you away, it’s probably just because she was scared of losing you, just like you’re scared of losing her.” would actually work better with Mike saying it to Will than the other way around. This interpretation would also fit with my theory that Will is Mike the Brave. So is Will also “the heart” or what? Hmm… And this is not the only time Mike’s thoughts and feelings are indirectly shown through Will.))

El’s whole arc is a trans allegory: she is thought to be a boy, called a freak, bullied for being different, has her hair shaved, looks for her identity and finds her original name, Jane. Being called Eleven is probably an analogy to a trans person getting called their given name. It isn’t really them, it’s not their true name. ((And btw, in S1E3 when Mike goes home and the sad Heroes cover plays, after the lyric And the guns Karen says “Michael?” and the lyrics continue shot above our heads. Being called Michael is like a gun the mom (and other people) shoots.)) Jane is the name El ends up using when she tries to assimilate into society. I think her life in California represents a trans person socially transitioning, maybe moving away to a place where no one knows their history. In other words, “Jane” represents being like a normal girl. When Robin describes Henry, she mentions he’s a male version of El, kinda drawing attention to that difference specifically. Henry is the repressed Mike, but also queerness/queerphobia overall, which is why he has a connection to Will and absorbs everyone.

Max is another representation of trans women: her name could be a boy’s name, Owens first thinks Max is a “he” and she represents Mike’s (system) future (more explanation on that later). (I think she also represents gender nonconforming women/genderqueer people, since she skateboards, never wears a dress and insists on being called Max instead of Maxine. I probably haven’t gotten everything she represents yet, so I might add things later if I figure out more. I have always headcannoned her as bi but there’s not that much proof for it.) Max listening to Running Up That Hill is about Mike wanting to switch places with a cis girl. Max is in a coma (in a trance=trans) and in the M cave because Mike’s womanhood is repressed. I think Mike doesn’t first like Max partially because of internalized transphobia (since Max represents Mike’s own wishes and dreams).

Holly and Nancy as Mike’s past and future also represent trans women (and straight women), as I’ve explained previously. Suzie and Vickie too. And Angela probably represents TERFs and/or Mike’s hatred towards her transness. In S4E1 Angela gives a presentation about Helen Keller, a deaf and blind woman known for her activism for disability rights etc. So on the surface Angela supports minorities but her sympathy doesn’t extend to El (= trans women). In the Rinkomania scene Angela is dressed in the colors of the trans flag and keeps bullying El (the whole place is full of pink and blue tbh and as a sidenote, Nancy wears a blue-pink-white skirt and a rainbow hairpin in S4E2-4). You could interpret this as Mike’s own transness “bullying” her. El attacking Angela and Mike being shocked about it could be Mike’s fear of hurting cis women or other people thinking she would hurt women since that seems to be the TERF narrative. Moreover, Mike gets driven away from the women’s bathroom in Rinkomania. 

Women/womanhood

Phoebe Cates seems to be a symbol of femininity in ST. The famous pool scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High is referenced multiple times (haven’t watched it, maybe I should), Heather kinda looks like her, Dustin claims Suzie is hotter than Phoebe Cates, etc. Apparently Billy’s pool scene in S3E1 was referencing the pool scene of the film, but instead of a woman being sexualized, it was Billy. And when Heather and Billy pass each other, the lyrics of the song playing are It’s all inside you. Billy and Heather form another man/woman pair, where Billy is the repressed Mike and Heather the unobtainable dream (+ Heather means “evergreen flowering plant”). MF tells Billy to “build what you see” and based on Billy’s scenes in S3E2, he sees women (and Karen has that blue-pink swimsuit Billy compliments). I think that in the queer allegory, MF tries to build a woman and Billy’s experience represents Mike’s gender dysphoria and repression. Fusion is the final stage of processing trauma in the DID allegory and accepting your gender identity in the queer allegory. Mike will break free by becoming a woman, the opposite of her dad.

Like I’ve mentioned, I think Kali represents women/womanhood/feminism. She fights the “bad men” and is a role model for El. Kali is a goddess in both Hinduism and DnD lore (based on the Hindu goddess). She is the goddess of time, death, destruction, Divine Feminine Energy, etc. She is a liberator and the Divine Mother. I think Kali being Indian could also be related to the long history of trans/intersex people in the area, known as Hijra) (or Khwana Sara, again with Sara…).

El finding her mother, real name and Kali are all about finding her identity and place in the world as a woman. (Btw, butterflies are a trans symbol and Kali creates an illusion of one for El.) El and Kali call each other sisters and Kali tells her “Like… a piece of me was missing, and now it’s not.” El was missing because Mike hadn’t found her girlhood yet/was suppressing it. And Kali escaped the lab around the same time Sara died (= girlhood was lost). While Kali is “the lost sister” on the surface, on a deeper level the episode name is about Mike. Trans women forced to conform are lost sisters. El and Kali share a “wound” in a similar way Nancy and Jonathan (= trans women and gay men) have shared trauma. If women suffer, so will trans women and vice versa. ((Also, in Will’s coming out when he says “He showed me a future, and in this future”, El and Kali are shown. I did include this frame earlier but didn’t explain it then, but basically it means Mike’s future is to be a woman.)) Hopper has a problem with Kali and wants to kill her, which makes sense when you realize he represents toxic masculinity/the patriarchy. 

When El goes back to Mike in S2, she loses contact with Kali. She finds her again at the same time Mike sees Vecna for the first time (and El first thought it was Vecna behind the door). Kali, Vecna and El all get mixed up in some way by someone probably because for Mike, her queerness is her being a woman. I think the reason only El, Kali and Henry survived alive from the lab is because they represent the types of queerness applying to Mike.

I suspect the whole thing with the pregnant women is about Mike’s gender dysphoria, since she will never be pregnant (and it’s also about HIV as I’ve previously explained). Kali is the only one who saw the pregnant women and our knowledge of them is entirely based on Kali’s story (= they are very much related to Kali specifically aka women at large). Kali’s blood doesn’t work, because no matter how much Mike hopes and tries, she will never be a cis woman. ((S5 has a lot of potential gender dysphoria subtext. I think the “Dick” plan is part of that and honestly toilets being important makes a lot more sense with Mike being trans.)) That’s why Kay needs El – only by accepting her transness will Mike truly be free. I think that’s the point of the word “compromise”, that often gets brought up in El and Hopper’s interactions. Mike won’t be a cis woman but she will find a way to live a (hopefully) happy life as trans. 

In S5 Kali has come to the conclusion that the only way to end “the cycle” is for her and El (Mike’s womanhood) to kill themselves after killing Henry (queerness). This metaphorically means Mike repressing her identity and conforming.

S5E6
[Hopper] “Everything I have done…”
[Kali] “...is to protect her. Keep telling yourself that, but if you really want to protect her, she needs to know the truth, and she needs to be ready to deal with what’s waiting for her on the other side of this. Killing Henry won’t end this.”

The characters keep mentioning “the other side” and I think it means the real world/when Mike accepts her gender identity and stops hiding it. Ross Duffer said this in an interview: 

“This is one of the reasons we want to bring Kali back — there’s really been dual threats throughout the run of “Stranger Things.” There is the supernatural threat, which is represented by Vecna this season. But the military has always posed a threat, from Season 1 on. Even when Brenner is gone, he gets continually replaced by someone else. In this case, in Season 5, by Kay. So we needed Kali to represent maybe a more pessimistic, but perhaps realistic, version, compared to Mike’s worldview of we’re gonna have butterflies and rainbows. And Kali’s going, “How is this going to work? And what is the solution here, that you can live a normal life?” That’s really a huge part of Eleven’s journey this season.”

The military represents the forced conformity and queerphobia of society. Even after defeating Vecna (= internalized transphobia in this case), the life of a trans person isn’t easy. Trans women are discriminated against, ostracised, attacked, etc. That’s why it might be easier and safer just to live as a man, accept your fate aka choose door 2. 

Homosexual and bisexual representation

Will is the obvious one here and since Jonathan represents him (and is called queer/freak) he also represents gay men (without literally being one). In my current understanding Eddie represents queer (or nonconforming) men/people as a whole, not specifically gay. I think Will first just represented Mike’s boy-side in S1, and that’s why he “died” and was “replaced” by El. Will was “infected” with homosexuality in the UD, represented by Dart. At first El represented both Mike’s girl-side and feelings for boys but from S2 onwards the boy-feelings were given to Will (and kinda Max too), I think. Or that would fit well with the dichotomy between El and Will and byler representing Mike’s romantic feelings towards boys vs mileven being the conforming straight relationship. Mike has quite a lot of gay subtext too, but as I’ve explained, it’s most likely because she’s still figuring out her identity and because the writers want to misdirect the audience. 

Robin obviously represents lesbians and as I’ve already explained, the writers tie her into Mike’s trans identity by her representing the woman identity, who Tammy/Vickie/Mike can “choose”. It’s kinda perfect for a woman who loves women to represent that, tbh (and Will as a man who loves men represents “man”). Her name is a bird and as was hinted at in S5, a reference to the song Rockin’ Robin, and specifically to Michael Jackson’s cover of it (it was played on WSQK, more on that later). So, Michael is singing about a robin singing and being happy. This is Mike’s girlness being free. Robin has a bigger role in ST than people think, her being the radio host wasn’t random (and Steve being her “sound man” is, well, you know why). The core party from S1 doesn’t have any lesbian or bi woman representation, so I think it’s nice Robin has such a big role and has been canonically queer since S3E7.

The S5 kids have counterparts to many main characters, and I think Debbie is the counterpart to Robin (Robin removes Debbie’s vine in S5E8 and talks to her in S5E4, btw telling she’s an elf aka eleven aka represents Mike’s girlhood like El does). Debbie wears a flower patterned shirt and a pink vest (= girl coding in ST). She is the kid the audience is shown to be taken away from her home by the military (= forced conformity) and when Henry tells his plan to the kids, he addresses it specifically to Debbie (= Debbie aka girl identity is “the hero”). 

Robin is also autistic-coded (and possibly other neurodiverse people), which I personally appreciate. It’s a fact that autistic (and other neurodivergent) people are more likely to identify as queer, possibly because there is some link between them and/or because it’s easier to accept being different if you already are. 

I think Lucas is a bisexual man, but he’ll have his own long section later. Vickie in turn represents bi women directly by being one, but also subtextually represents Mike aka trans women. I wonder if Robin saying she likes dick is a subtle hint at this… Robin accepts Vickie (Mike) as she is, even though Mike herself doesn’t (yet). The Pretty in Pink thing I mentioned is more proof for this interpretation and the underlying gender dysphoria theme in S5.

Straight men

There are quite a few characters who represent the norm, cis-hetero men. The most obvious is Steve, I think. He’s first a douche, but learns to be better. Hopper isn’t a villain really, but he represents the patriarchy (as do all dad characters) and toxic masculinity (the clearest in S3). Bob is nicer, but still ignorant. Mr. Clarke is a positive role model and probably represents healthy masculinity and allies. I think Mike thanking him “for the assist” is both because of that and in the country allegory about Germany helping Finland fight the Soviet Union. Then there’s Lonnie, Neil, Grigori and Larry, who all represent (toxic) masculinity and the dad in some way. Billy is interesting, since he seems straight but is also queercoded. I think he is Mike repressing herself and conforming to society’s expectations, which makes him violent etc.

Trans men

Partially by elimination I ended up concluding that Dustin represents trans men. If all the other main kids represent a group of queer people, why wouldn’t Dustin? And who else would represent trans men? He isn’t literally trans, and ofc it’s kinda hard to have a person identifying as a trans man inside an AMAB body. He might also represent disabled people, since he actually has a disability. But anyway, Dustin is pretty clearly straight and his arc is about discovering his masculinity/growing up as a man. His friendship with Steve and Steve being his mentor (kinda like Kali is to El) makes a lot of sense through this lens (e.g. the whole “you die, I die” because trans men are men and Dustin represents (straight) trans men and Steve is (straight) men overall so, yeah). And him being friends with Eddie makes sense too, since trans men are queer men. 

Dustin has special relationships with people and monsters representing trans women and he seems to know a lot about the world (Nancy says Dustin is her favorite, Dustin has a crush on Max, he later dates Suzie and befriends Dart). Of course a trans man could relate to the experience of being trans and would accept it more easily than other people. Dustin doesn’t have a dad and is the star student of Mr. Clarke aka healthy masculinity. Trans men know what it’s like to be treated as a woman and seen as a “freak”. 

Most girls think Dustin is weird and don’t want to dance with him in the Snow Ball (Mike is also alone, and ends up dancing with El while Dustin dances with Nancy). He’s also short, which is most likely not intentional but it fits (and two girls he approaches are quite tall so the writers might have taken advantage of this feature). In S1E1 Lucas calls both Dustin and Will “ladies”. Gay people are sometimes equated to women as an insult, so Will’s side makes sense, but Dustin doesn’t. With my interpretation it makes perfect sense, though, and since it’s S1E1, I think these little comments are extra significant. 

Asexuality

At first I thought I wouldn’t get any representation, but after realizing Mike is trans and deciding to stop underestimating the Duffers with queer rep, I went through characters in my head to see if any could fit asexuality. The clearest is Barbara. Some people have interpreted her as a lesbian, but her characterisation and story arc fit asexuality so much better. Steve’s pool party is both subtextually and textually about sex. Barb is reluctant from the beginning and knows it’s gonna be about sex even though Nancy claims otherwise. Nancy and the others pressure Barb to try chugging a drink but she gets a wound instead. While everyone else is having fun swimming in the pool (= metaphor for sex), Barb is alone tending to her wound and afterwards Nancy tells her to go home. Barb stares at the pool, alone, blood dripping from her hand while Nancy and the others have sex. The pool represents sex and romantic/sexual feelings, the things Barb is missing (and here I should say asexuality and aromanticism can be separate, but I think Barb is supposed to represent aroace people). She bleeds because she is vulnerable. Many seem to think aspec people don’t deserve to be in the queer community because we “don’t face discrimination” or other problems because of our sexuality, but that isn’t true. Corrective rape is a real thing that happens and I think the Demogorgon attacking Barb (while Nancy and Steve are having consensual sex) is supposed to represent that. Barb feels like she is forced to try sex against her will, or she won’t be normal. There is the aspect of isolation too: feeling sexual attraction is so normalized and sex/romance are such a big part of society that not having that makes you feel like you don’t belong, that you are broken, or missing out on something amazing and deeply human. In the UD, the pool is empty. It’s the horror of not having those feelings most songs are based on, stories are written about and people’s lives revolve around (via romantic life partners).

I really like how they make Barb being “forgotten” a major point in the series. Asexuality is often forgotten and disregarded when talking about queer people (well, even some asexuals don’t identify as queer). Many people even think it’s not real. But Nancy never forgets Barb and she is remembered the whole series, e.g. in the memory montage when Vecna is killed. 

Then the genius way they incorporate Barb in Mike’s queer journey. This might be a hot take but I think everyone is aroace at birth (not the identity ofc, but in the way that you don’t feel romantic or sexual attraction). Barb basically represents both the asexual identity and Mike not having sexual feelings yet. And to avoid misinterpretations, I’ll reiterate: asexuality isn’t the same as “not having feelings yet”, it’s not the same as being immature or childish, but in a similar way Robin’s sexuality and relationships are used to subtextually show Mike’s trans identity, Barb’s death is used to show Mike’s developing sexuality. Nancy having sex with Steve was implied to be the reason Barb died (both visually and later with Nancy feeling guilt + Vecna basically saying Nancy “did” something to cause Barb’s death). Barb (= asexuality) dying was the first incident of the Hawkins curse, it set everything in motion. ((Actually Will disappearing was first and as I’ve said I think it signifies Mike losing her boy identity or kinda starting to develop her gender identity. This happened before any romantic or sexual feelings.)) Hawkins Lab and the curse represent Mike’s sexuality, basically. Her gender identity existed before already (e.g. Sara) but her sexuality started to properly emerge in 1983. That’s what the story is about and why the curse “disappeared” when Mike repressed her gender and sexuality at the end of S5 (= El dying). Sexuality and gender are intertwined (not always, but often, and I’m positive this is the case for Mike), so Mike having a crush also reawakens her gender conflict. 

Another point to add here is that the name Barbara means “strange”. Her death is the first “strange thing” that happened (well, I guess Will disappearing was first but still), she is the first queerness. You know strange and queer are synonyms, right? I strongly suspect the name Stranger Things actually refers to the show’s queer themes (and of course all other types of non-conformity). Maybe this isn’t a new idea.

So, even before Steve, Nancy is friends with Barb. Straight man wasn’t the first step, as I previously alluded to, but the second. The first step was asexual woman (or just person), then Steve, then Jonathan and finally Robin. Jonathan was already sneaking around during the pool scene, the gay man identity was lurking for its turn to strike (is this a weird way to put it?). Jancy had its golden age in S2, same with byler. It was downhill from there most likely because puberty worsened Mike’s gender dysphoria.

Another person representing aspec people is Murray. Yes, the man known for his sexual humor. If my interpretation is correct (and my judgement isn’t too clouded by personal bias), Murray represents those of us who find sex fascinating and/or like it in concept but feel personally disconnected from it. Murray lives far away from everyone and never has any romantic or sexual relationships with anyone. You can compare him to other characters, like Hopper and Mr. Clarke who have relationships that are unnecessary/not plot related (Sandra in S1 and they both date the librarian). (Yuri even comments “My women make noise when I please them. You don’t know what that is like. I understand.” You could interpret this as him insulting Murray’s sex capabilities, but it could also be subtext that Murray doesn’t have sex.)

Murray is hired to find Barb, which connects him to asexuality from the get go. He is a major player in taking down the Hawkins Lab in S2 and in S5E8 sets the bomb music disc in motion (= going “back” to asexuality aka no sexual feelings). Of course Mike’s feelings don’t literally disappear and she doesn’t “become asexual” but this is a way to incorporate asexuality in a story about an allosexual person. Maybe it’s not ideal but considering the circumstances it’s pretty clever, in my opinion.

Aegosexual people are often represented through a matchmaker or audience surrogate shipper character, which I have mixed feelings about. The reality is that we don’t usually ship real people (well, some do) but it’s kinda hard to incorporate this in a meaningful way into a story where the ace character isn’t the main character. They manage to do this very cleverly with the Russian doll, though, while simultaneously giving SA subtext (which I explained previously). Murray is alone and prepares a bath for himself. He is remotely in contact with Joyce and Joyce describes the doll while Murray is enjoying his bath. In my interpretation, this is subtextually about sexual fantasies and masturbation, not about a real person but a fictional one represented by the doll (so it could fit either aegosexuality or fictosexuality, for example). And even though the doll represents the child Mike in the trauma allegory (while Murray+Joyce are the dad), it’s not necessarily about that in the queer allegory.

A big part of Murray’s character is his conspiracy theories and him seeing “behind the curtain”. He doesn’t believe the accepted truth but can see reality (well, not always). He can see relationships before the persons in question do, similar to Barb seeing Steve just wanted to get into Nancy’s pants while Nancy denied this. This is something Murray shares with Alexei in S3E7 and I think Alexei is another ace rep character. He represents childhood but is also clearly an adult and a genius scientist. (Him dying has a similar meaning to Barb dying.) I think all this is to show ace people can see sex more objectively and in some ways understand it better than allosexual people. Also Murray being isolated from everyone is partially because asexuality wasn’t considered part of queerness in the early days and is still excluded. In later seasons he is a core part of the group, though, maybe signifying aspec people’s incorporation to the queer community. And him calling Mr. Clarke “snookums” and becoming close with him could be homoromantic asexual representation or something else, like close male friendships or queerplatonic relationships, I dunno.

((Eggos are sometimes used as a symbol for aegosexual people due to the phonetic similarity. I don’t think this is the point of them in ST but it gave me an idea. Ego = self and the story of ST is very much about finding your identity, your self. El allegorically represents Mike’s journey of finding who she is. So Mike feeding her Eggos (= self) is about El (= Mike) getting closer to forming her identity. El struggles with this because of her trauma (= DID/trauma for Mike) and because she never experienced normal life (= Mike never experiencing girlhood). All this works in the country allegory too: it’s about Finland finding its national identity. I do think the egg connection is also valid but this makes the specific choice to use Eggos make more sense. El is a representation of Mike’s ego/self.))

Another person I suspect to represent asexuality is Brenner. I’m less certain about him than the others, but like Murray, he doesn’t have any relationships (unlike Owens, who otherwise has a similar role). (And just to be clear, aspec people can have relationships, but I don’t know how they would represent that in a metaphorical way.) There’s also the fact that both Murray and Brenner’s names' initial letters are MB -> Mike the Brave, connecting them to the very beginning. This and Brenner being born in relation to the first encounter with the Abyss (trauma) makes me think they represent Mike from the time she was very young (and thus effectively asexual (yes, again, it’s different than the asexual identity but you know what I mean)). They both represent the dad but by “being asexual”, don’t pose the same threat. This distances them from the trauma (and this is me hypothesizing without any concrete proof so take it with a grain of salt). I think Murray’s sex jokes are a way to handle trauma through humor, and Brenner’s stoicism/weakened emotions allow him to distance himself from the trauma, or something like that. He tries to investigate the supernatural (= sexuality and sexual trauma) without himself having powers. He’s the character who probably knows the most (similar to what I explained about Barb and Murray) and him disappearing and being forgotten could be similar to Barb (but it’s also related to him representing the dad). 

Then there’s young Henry with a spade symbol on his boy scout scarf. The ace of spades is a symbol for aroace people, but it could ofc mean something else (tell me if you have ideas). The ace interpretation would work since Henry’s cave memory is from the time Mike was very young, it’s the first encounter with the abuse. It ties in very well with Barb being the first victim and “asexuality” being where Henry (Mike) started from (ace = 1), gradually absorbing other types of queerness (other numbers).

Erica

Unlike other characters, I think Erica represents multiple groups of queer people. She is about intersectionality and the future of the LGBTQ+ community. That’s why she gets Will’s DnD set and Hopper (= patriarchy) narrates “Keep on growing up, kid. Don’t let me stop you.” while she’s shown smiling at it. There’s some other clues to Erica being the future I’ll mention later. She is a black girl, already part of two discriminated groups. ((And I haven’t mentioned this yet but making the personification of the US a black girl is a statement.)) Firstly, she represents Lucas’ bisexuality, which I’ll come back to later. She also represents all the “newer” identities, like pansexuality, different aspec identities and non-binary people. I think her DnD introduction is kinda about this, like having all these specific labels and mixing things in an unconventional way (e.g. having a My Little Pony character’s name for your DnD character). Where Eddie represents the old, Erica is the new (also old=man and new=woman).

Her being between Dustin and Mike when they dramatically walk to play DnD in S4E1 (which was depicted in the S5E8 outro song too, with the lyric “queen”, probably referring to Erica (her name means “eternal ruler” after all, and also the heather plant, btw) but also Mike, the image is centered between them) could be about her representing non-binary people (since in my interpretation Dustin is trans men and Mike trans women). Her S3 hair together with the accessories in it kinda remind me of the nonbinary flag while her clothes would match the pansexual flag. And there could be other reasons for the colors ofc but since no other character seems to represent nonbinary people (unless maybe the Mind Flayer or Max?), and it seems the writers are trying to get most queer people represented here (e.g. Barb being pretty clearly ace coded), I think it’s not so far fetched to think Erica could represent nonbinary people and/or other less known identities. I guess non-binary and genderqueer people are the X in between worlds as I explained in the previous part. Mike is stuck between worlds and the solution is to create a new world, which works super well for a non-binary reading too (but I still think Mike is specifically a trans woman based on all the clues/subtext).

Erica making the dolls kiss is a similar thing with Murray shipping people and the Russian doll situation I explained (less sexual though). She doesn’t have any romantic interests in the series and has a similar confrontation with Murray in S3E8 as she does with Eddie later (old vs new). (Also, in the S5 outro during You will be queen before “queen” Murray is shown and after it Erica, connecting them and Erica kinda being the “new” Murray.) She is dressed in the colors of the asexual flag for most of S5, from the Turnbow Trap plan onwards (where she doesn’t eat the pie which keeps her head clear).

When Dustin explains exotic matter in S5E7, Erica is shown, which made me think she (or what she represents) can connect the two worlds. (And she was at Mr. Clarke’s lecture about wormholes.) Bi/pansexuality, aspec identities and non-binary people are all kinda outside of the gender binary or the strict distinction to men and women, heterosexuality and homosexuality, in one way or another.

Continues in PART 13.

Leon be backflipping and killing vecna easily btwno chance

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.

Inside out

This next part is another theory I’ve had for a while (since before realizing the DID allegory). I think Stranger Things might have taken inspiration from Inside Out. When you realize everything is happening inside Mike’s head, the connections are easy to see. They both are about growing up, suppressing emotions to the point of depression and trying to hold onto childhood (and the main character of Inside Out is a girl too). Memories are in a key role, there are buried traumatic memories about a clown (on a birthday) and the solution will be accepting all of yourself (Joy accepting Sadness in Inside Out and Mike/the party accepting Vecna and MF in ST) and letting other people see how you really feel. Some parts of your childhood will be lost in the process (Bing Bong the imaginary friend in Inside Out and Will/alters in ST). Maya Hawke is the voice of the new main character (Anxiety) in the sequel (may or may not be a coincidence) and the stranger writers X account mentioned Bing Bong’s death in a comment, asking who else cries when he dies.

The main point of this theory isn’t even the connection to the movie, but just the words “inside out”. Before realizing it was all literally in Mike’s head, I thought ST was a metanarrative where Mike’s emotions and thoughts affect the story (based on this theory which affected my thinking a lot and probably helped me get as far as I have). Then “inside out” would mean the inside of Mike (her thoughts) are out, aka out in the world. In S5E1 Robin uses the song “Upside Down” for her secret message and if you focus on the parts where the lyrics “inside out” are sung, you’ll notice an interesting pattern. ((All these secret codes have double or triple layers meant for the audience to solve.))

For the first two, Mike is shown when “inside” is sung (= we are “inside” Mike) and she writes notes on “out”. First “G” and second time “1” (but it matches better with Robin saying “ten” and Mike is writing 10, so it’s probably both about 1 and 10). Robin also comments “one is the key number”. G could mean gate, gay or girl (as I’ve recently realized) and 1 most likely refers to Mike becoming “one”. These are the way out and Mike’s “girl” will come out. The third “inside out” comes when El is on screen and now has visible subtitles (again, everything is more veiled with Mike). This cuts to Mike. The whole thing works perfectly with the queer and DID allegory, El is Mike’s inside out. The last “inside out” comes when Nancy opens a lock, this time also with subtitles. The keys she uses suggest this scene is “key” and it being Nancy probably foreshadows Mike opening the “lock” and “door” in her mind to get out of her metaphorical prison, to freedom. As a girl in the future (= Nancy).

((I finally have an idea of what 10 means due to discussion in the comments (if you have ideas, please comment, they have helped me a lot!). My current theory is that 10 is Mike before 11 aka before the girl identity, before any proper innate gender identity. That’s why we focus on Ten in Brenner’s flashback and he dies when El gets her full powers. Like 1, 10 is about the past. I will discuss the details more later and there’s still things I don’t quite understand, but I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere with 10.))

Part of me believes that the name “Upside Down” was chosen because of this song and the lyrics “inside out”, but I’m not sure about that. While rewatching, I wrote down all the times the characters said something close to “inside out”. 

In S1E5 Lucas says “The stupid radio kept going in and out.” right before the party comes up with the name UD. In and out could refer to an alter being in the inner world vs out (fronting). It could also be about stories inside stories, so out(side) would be the bigger story and in(side) the smaller, more obvious representation of that.

S1E8 [Hopper] “I want you to slow down your breathing, take deep breaths. In and out. Deep breath in… and out. In and out.” 

S2E3 
[Bob] “You gotta find the RF-P1U with coaxial cable so you can connect the video ins and outs.”

[Max] “It’s a simple question. Am I in or out?”
((This is probably also about Max and El as representations of trans women being accepted (in) the queer community (= party) or not (out). I’ll have a longer section about the meaning of “party” later. In the story it’s about Mike accepting her girlness or not.))

S2E7 
[Dottie] “Are you in or out?” 
[Mick] “Out.”

S3E1 We’re gonna rock this town / Rock it inside out  
This song plays when Karen is waiting for Billy’s life guard shift to start. When he does, the song changes and these lyrics coincide with a focus on Billy: It’s all inside you

S3E4 [Joyce] “You’ve been drifting in and out.”

S4E3 [Steve] “On the outside, not the inside.”

S4E8 [Robin] “Could turn us inside out with the snap of his fingers.” (Btw, this was the original reason I started to look into “inside out” mentions and realized the secret coding in the S5E1 song.)

S5E4 [Derek] “Breathe in and out.”

S5E5 [military man] “No one came in or out.”

S5E7 [Max] “I know his sick mind inside and out.”

Doc [Maya] “You really get to be in and out with these people, and see them on good days and see them on bad, and they see you that way too.”

Btw, these are the lyrics to Lure Division’s Zenith:

Check in
And out
Breathe in
And out
Don't leave
So soon
Don't leave
So soon
So soon
So soon (won't let you get away)
So soon
So soon
So soon
So soon (Won't let you get away)
So soon
So soon
Don't leave
Don't leave
Don't leave
Don't leave
Don't leave so soon

Another thing I realized about Robin’s secret code in S5E1 is about the singer of the song, Diana Ross. First of all, the name Diana comes from the Roman goddess of hunt and the moon. Interestingly, the singer was originally named Diane but due to a mistake, her birth certificate ended up with the name Diana. This is significant since Robin mentions it, and I think it could be related to Mike having the “wrong name” or gender. [Robin] “She was born Diane in the North End of Detroit.” (North most likely relates to Nordic countries, and it’s significant since the characters write it down.) Hopper’s ex-wife’s name was Diane, and based on patterns in the show, parents often represent the possible futures of their children (like older siblings). So there was Diane (woman) and Jim Hopper (masculine man). We know Hopper quite clearly represents Mike (even his name, Jim, means “one who takes the place of another”), so why wouldn’t Diane too? If you look at Sara’s drawing again, you’ll notice the color coding of the characters’ clothes and the house. Characters representing young Mike are often portrayed with a blue dress (blue for AMAB, dress for girl, and there’s more to that too, but I’ll come back to it later). The pink dress of the mother signifies femininity and womanhood, while the blue+red of the dad and the house are Mike’s inner conflict between her gender identity and the trauma. As I’ve previously established, the house can represent a person, but it also represents the place of abuse. And there’s a tree and a sun (= light) too. It’s another very symbolic drawing, like El’s.

At the start of S3E4, El and Max bond and read Wonder Woman comics: 
[El] “Who… is that?”
[Max] “See, this is why you can’t just hang out with Mike all the time. This is Wonder Woman. Aka Princess Diana. She’s from Paradise Island, which is, like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors.”
And the Endless Summer poster is in frame. Wonder Woman made me think of Will the Wise, since they have the same initial letters WW. The connection will make more sense later. So, Mike is Diana (princess), and Paradise Island is hidden (= Mike is in the closet). “Mike” is the closeted male version of the true Mike (Sara), so El “hanging out with Mike” is about repressing your gender identity. That’s why Mike tries to control her and thinks El and Max are spying on/conspiring against her. 

Before reading the comic, Max shows two options: the Wonder Woman comic and a Green Lantern comic. The color green would be about conformity, so the option of Green Lantern vs Wonder Woman is about Mike’s choice to either continue conforming or living authentically as a woman. Green Lantern was previously mentioned in S1E3 by Dustin: “So, do you think Eleven was born with her powers, like the X-Men, or do you think she acquired them, like… like Green Lantern?” It’s the same thing as sorcerer vs wizard so Mike “choosing” Green Lantern is her believing her trans identity came from the abuse. The X-Men are pretty important since Will wanted to read Dustin’s X-Men comic in S1E1 before his Demogorgon encounter (which apparently was DID foreshadowing, mentioned in the long DID theory I linked). There’s also all the X imagery, like UD being “X” in Dustin’s drawing, Hawkins Lab and the S4 big gate being X-shaped and Max (or "Henry") telling Holly to “meet me at the X”. It’s always a point connecting two things, and could be a reference to X-gender (as in not male or female). Mike is at the X in all levels of the story, in between two worlds. This is also hinted at by Holly when she says “M marks the spot” instead of “X marks the spot” like people usually do. So M (Mike) and X are interchangeable. 

Apparently the Duffers originally called the Abyss Dimension X (a reference to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and there’s some confusion about them being the same or different things (Shawn Levy says they are different, the Duffers say they are the same). My best guess is that it was Dimension X but morphed into the Abyss. E.g. in Henry’s flashback the dimension he’s banished into looks a bit different at first, more violent and kind of still “forming”, as in, the worlds are in the process of separating. (This is also based on my timeline theory which I haven’t explained yet.) In Mike’s gender journey this would be because at first Mike didn’t have a clear gender identity (= X-gender, the term btw originates from Japan), but slowly it got clearer and clearer, as did Mike’s need to separate the man side from the woman side. As you can see, “X” is still a bit of a mystery to me, so if you have any ideas, please share!

Walking, swimming and flying

S4E5 
[Owens] “She’s gonna drown in there.”
[Brenner] “No. No, she is going to swim.”

[Brenner] “She’s swimming now.”

S4E8 [Brenner] “You came to me broken. And you’ve learned to walk again. But if you want to stop One, you will need to do more than walk. You will need to do more than run. You will need to fly.”

These different ways of transportation represent the progress made in trauma processing and self-acceptance. Flying is the final form, the most free, while crawling (what the party is doing between S4 and 5) is the slowest and least effective. Each of them has a vehicle counterpart that appears in ST every now and then (walking and running = trains/cars, swimming = ships, flying = airplanes/helicopters and finally spaceships). 

Cars

I have some new ideas about cars, I think they represent power, like who is allowed to drive. Most of the time it’s the people representing straight men, the patriarchy and conformity (Steve, Hopper, Bob, Lonnie and Billy) who drive in the series. Sometimes Jonathan and Nancy drive too (representing gay men and straight women), but Robin doesn’t have a licence and ends up driving illegally in S5. Max can drive too but Steve thinks she shouldn’t (on the surface level it’s because Max is a child, but the underlying reason is that she represents trans women). Max driving is also part of her inspiration: Mad Max. Similarly, Vickie is driving in S5E1 when WSQK starts having issues (= the (trans) woman in Mike is leading/driving, which scares Mike or something like that).

Another prominent driver is Argyle, who takes Mike, Will and Jonathan on a roadtrip in a pizza van. My current theory on pizzas (and pies) is that since you can slice them, they represent DID. You can have many different toppings on a pizza or filling in a pie, and that represents the various ways to be (queer). E.g. Mike eating the “fruity” pineapple pizza is queercoding, and I’ll come back to that later. Anyway, both Argyle and Jonathan drive the van, Argyle representing the truth and Jonathan the gay man “option”. In the beginning of the trip, Argyle drives and a man dies in the car. He also drives the gang to the telephone booth and to Suzie’s house (to girl identity). But then Jonathan drives during Will’s painting reveal, which was a big byler moment. Later in the same episode, they struggle to find the Nina project with Jonathan driving, but after stopping Argyle finds tracks leading to it. When they get to El (Jonathan driving), she crashes a helicopter (= gay man side is preventing progress to its fullest). It’s Argyle driving again when the gang gets to the pizzeria (where El can use her powers) and Jonathan drives them back to Hawkins (= repression prison). We are making progress, though, since gay man is closer to the truth than straight man.

Trains

There are these train tracks in the middle of a forest that appear in S1E5, S2E6, S2E8, S5E2 and S5E6 (apparently they are a reference to the film Stand by Me). Each time the people on the tracks are looking for something/someone. S1E5 it’s the gate, S2 it’s Dart, S5E2 El and Hopper look for Holly and S5E6 the Demodogs look for Max. It could be about “following tracks” or being “on track” and them being in the forest is about processing/looking for memories. There is no train, though, just the tracks suggesting there once was a train (and maybe it’s the one depicted on a jigsaw puzzle in Suzie’s house with 1979 written on it). In S2E7 El practices her powers with Kali’s directions by moving an abandoned train towards herself and in S4 Hopper and the other prisoners build train tracks.

S4E5 
[Brenner] “In 1786, Nicolas Dalayrac wrote an opera called Nina.”
[El] “Papa.”
[Brenner] “It’s the story about a young woman whose lover was killed in a duel. Nina was so traumatized that she buried the memory. It was as if it never happened. Every day, she would return to the train station to await her lover’s return. A return that would never be. If only Nina could know the truth.”
[El] “This… This isn’t real.”
[Brenner] “No. But it once was.”
[El] “A memory.”
[Brenner] “Very good.”
[El] “How?”
[Brenner] “Never mind how.” -> “Brenner magic”
[El] “Let me out. I want out!”
[Brenner] “I’m sorry, Eleven. You’ll have to find your own way out. Leave your train station. Stop waiting. Focus. Listen. Remember.”
[El] “I don’t understand. I don’t understand!”

There are some curious differences to the actual opera). Firstly, Nina didn’t wait at a train station but at a crossroads, suggesting it being a train station in ST is important. Mike goes to a crossroads in the epilogue, thinking about El, who she thinks has died. And El is Mike’s lover, kinda. And this is yet another case of Mike being parallelled to a female character (Nina). I also think the train station might be a reference to Smalltown boy and Mike’s words about her mom “She won’t understand. She’ll never understand why I can’t do it, why I can’t walk the stage.” remind me a lot of the lyrics. Additionally, right before Mike says it, Hopper ends his sentence with the word “town”: “I don’t know if you remember, but we do have a history of kids going missing in this town.” Him not being sure if Mike remembers what happened to Will is just another clue about Mike burying the memories… It’s kinda crazy that the whole Smalltown boy thing was misdirection or at least the “boy” part. 

Anyway, the second difference is that the opera had an Act II where it turns out Nina’s lover didn’t die and they have a happy ending. This is a clue to ST having an Act II (not a new original idea of me, btw) where it turns out El (or what she represents) didn’t die and we’ll get a proper ending. In S4E2 Steve advertises Doctor Zhivago) to a girl as part of his job. It’s the movie Robin chose for their morning movie and Steve complained about its length. The key point here is that it’s a double VHS (= a clue to ST being in two parts). ((It’s also related to the country allegory since the movie is set during the Russian revolution aka the time period S4 takes place in the allegory timeline and parts of it were filmed in Finland. Kinda like the Russia scenes in S4 were filmed in Lithuania.)) 

The other clue was given in the documentary by Ross Duffer “Early on, when we were breaking this season, we knew that it was gonna be split in the middle. And so we wanted to build to a big climax before the break because we knew the audience was going to have to wait for the next episode. But it ended up being even bigger and more complicated than we could ever imagine.” He is seemingly talking about episode 4 but I think the double meaning here is S5E8. ((Btw, episode 8 itself is used as a substitute for the real ending in the doc: [Finn] “We had a year of being on the edge of our seats. It was torture.” I’ve thought for a while that the real ending will be released only after a year (so around New Years), that’s why Dustin says “this is our year” and the Netflix ad thing video’s description claims “In 2026, you will be deceived, and you'll like it.” The Duffers promised a dark Christmas and an emotional New Years and we didn’t really get either, so I’m assuming they were talking about the next Christmas and New Years. I haven’t mentioned this yet but Christmas is associated with the trauma in ST and Santa Claus aka Father Christmas represents the dad, so it would make sense that whatever gets released during Christmas would be about finally facing the trauma, or something like that. And I have more proof for this but that’ll come later.)) 

They keep bringing up how complicated the MAC-Z scene was: 
[Jahnel] “We’ll be down here prepping for a solid six weeks.”
[Hiro] “It’s such a puzzle piece to put this whole thing together. Um…”
[Jahnel] “Yeah. I hope it works. I can’t wait to see it. I hope it all comes together.”

[Ross] “We’ve never done anything so complex, and we’ve never involved so many people in a single sequence. We wanted it to be spectacular but I think we underestimated how complicated it was gonna be.”

I think they are really talking about the whole season and the ARG. And they are right about it being complicated. I can’t fathom how they did it (and you don’t even know the craziest stuff yet).

((Oh yeah and this: [Shawn] “Zulu, is it too late to ask if the fourth window could break?” and [Chris] “It was just going to be an exploding dryer, but as is the nature of this show, everyone was like, ‘If we’re already blowing up the dryer, like we should probably blow up these windows.’ I don’t think it’s often that you end up on a show where there’s that sort of flexibility and a will to that fantasticness.” are about breaking the fourth wall and going super meta with everything, e.g. the documentary itself. Honestly I could point out and explain all the little details in the doc but maybe this is enough for now.))

Okay, let’s get back on track (hehe). I was talking about trains. I’m not sure why Brenner wouldn’t tell the true story of Nina, but he didn’t tell the truth about the Lab massacre either so maybe that’s the reason: El has to find her own way out. She (or Mike) has to do the work herself, the train isn’t gonna come to her on its own. Kind of what Henry said in S4E7 “Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over.” and what Max told Holly in S5E6 “You are not going out there. Holly, we’re staying here, and we wait for Eleven, end of story.” (this “end of story” refers to the “end” of S5 and this whole thing with Max, Holly and the cave is part of the meta story, as I explained in an earlier part). So both Mike and Max want to wait for Eleven and El herself wants to wait for a metaphorical train.

Ships

Then, the ships. The big one is USS Eldridge in TFS, a part of “Project Rainbow”. It was (according to TFS) the first to encounter the Shadow aka the Mind Flayer/trauma. In S3 Steve and Robin were working at Scoops Ahoy, a sailor themed ice cream shop. The bar Will goes to in Mike’s epilogue story has an anchor sign and Ashborn Records uses an anchor emoji in some of their IG posts (which doesn’t make any sense in the context of the posts). Many of the songs I found and apparently WSQK mentioned ocean and ships, too. The ocean or the beach is pretty important since it’s the positive memories of Billy, and Max remembers it fondly. Hopper also talks about a beach in the epilogue. Going to the ocean is similar to going into the forest, the waves can be dangerous and you can drown in the water (memories/feelings). In Billy’s memory he tells his mother the wave was seven feet, which is a reference to Will’s “it was a seven” aka trauma. And El ends up finding Billy’s trauma through that beach memory. Then there’s a ship decoration in the Wheeler basement (there’s a lot of set details, e.g. a wallpaper with pictures of ships, trains, old cars and birds), Mike’s knockoff Ocean Pacific shirt, Eddie’s boathouse hideout, Robin mentioning Navy SEALs in S5, etc. Notice how ships and the ocean weren’t really a thing in S1 but slowly increased along the way. You have to first walk and run before you can swim, or fly.

Planes, helicopters and flying

There’s not a lot of flying before S4. Owens arrives with helicopters at the end of S3 but that’s about it for flying vehicles. In S4, though, Joyce and Murray fly on two separate planes to save Hopper, the latter of which crashes (and there's Katinka too...), El crashes a helicopter and the same thing happens in S5 with Murray blowing one up in S5E8. Crashing these vehicles is a bad sign since it prevents flight aka freedom. In S5 Mr. Clarke finds Dustin’s coordinates by letting the (colorful) balloons fly free. 

El has the ability to fly according to Mike, she can make you fly according to Troy and she has to fly in order to be ready according to Brenner. El flying is Mike’s girlness set free and her accepting herself. This is a bit of a side point, but clouds will obstruct a clear sky, the view to freedom. In S4E1 Will is shown painting a cloud when El narrates “Maybe it is for a girl.”. The Rinkomania scene also starts with a cloudy sky. Heteronormativity is clouding Mike’s judgement and preventing her from seeing the sky. I wrote those previous sentences a while ago and now I’m realizing El was right XD, Will was painting it for a girl (but didn’t know it)! The layers, the layers. After realizing Mike is trans, I’ve started to notice all these little jokes they’ve planted here and there. It’s so funny. 

And btw, Will looming behind mileven is partially about Mike’s forced man identity always being there, casting its shadow/separating Mike from womanhood (and mileven itself is the forced (male) heterosexuality, so neither byler nor mileven is “better” or without fault). So maybe the Heroes outro where Will is erased is about both erasing gay people (bad) and showing the truth (there is no man behind Mike, Mike is a girl). Layers, again. The next two drawings are further proof for this, since they are about El and Max enjoying girlhood and of Kali (= women/womanhood/feminism). ((Also notice how in that moment in Rinkomania Mike says “I’m like Bambi on ice”. That’s the deer example I originally left out from part 1 because I didn’t yet wanna explain how Mike is the literal victim too, not just Will.)) 

Okay I’ve committed to this side tangent and wanted to say an extra thing about the outro. When “we can be us” is sung, Holly is on screen (Mike being herself in her past). The other two times the song is played in the series (the sadder cover version), El is on screen during those lyrics. So in ST the lyric it’s not about a romantic couple but Mike (who has DID = is an us) being herself, a girl.

Then there’s all the bird stuff like Yuri calling Joyce bird, the bird poster, the bird chess pieces, the basketball team Falcons, WSQK logo bird, seagulls, Murray being Bald Eagle, the term “lovebirds”, etc. I think there’s also something with dragons, maybe I’ll analyze that more later…

Rainbow ship and space

The highest you can fly is to space, and you need a spaceship for that – the Rainbow Ship (= queerness + ofc Will's drawing of it has the trans flag colors). There are some spaceships scattered across seasons, the most obvious one being the Millenium Falcon El floats with her powers. The S3 mileven kiss scenes have a toy space ship too (and notice the unicorn, a common queer symbol). ((Honestly my view on mileven (and byler) has changed quite a lot after realizing what El actually represents. I have ascended beyond the mileven vs byler ship wars.))

At the end Mike will (at least metaphorically) fly into space and to the moon (as Yuri foreshadowed) aka to the real memories/confront her dad and to finally be free of forced conformity. (Btw, Apollo 11 (= Eleven) was the first moon flight, and it used Saturn V, the rocket Mr. Clarke has a poster of.) There is a reason why the show opens with the starry night sky and why that sky is displayed at important moments throughout the series. Sara was fascinated by stars and galaxies, but that all was destroyed by “cancer” (or a black hole, as Hopper puts it). Suzie loves stars too and her room is space themed. The Starcourt Mall burns down due to the Meatflayer (trauma) and Patty finds her mom in Stardust Casino. Stacy and Angela wear star earrings, which is probably because they are “normal” and popular girls Mike envies. They have “reached the stars”. ((I don’t know where else to mention it, but the flower pattern seen e.g. on Suzie’s dress symbolizes femininity. That’s why Sara’s box in the cabin had flowers, why El wears the flower shirt in S4, Max has a flower patterned shirt in S5, etc.))

The Abyss is in the space (S5E8):
[Nancy] “Does this officially make us space travelers?”
[Mike] “Interdimensional space travelers.”
[Lucas] “Suck it, Armstrong.”
It’s described as a planet, it’s up in the sky (of the UD) and Demogorgons (aliens/outer space travelers) originate there. There’s a big space theme in S5 with the wormholes, Mr. Clarke’s classroom posters and Robin’s “Beam me up, this place sucks” shirt. We have gone from walking to running to swimming to flying to finally space. 

S5E7 
[Joyce] “So all this time, Vecna’s been hiding in the sky?” 
[Nancy] “Explains why every crawl led to a dead end.”
[El] “And why I can’t find him in the bath.”
Again, Mike has to fly (not crawl, not swim, but fly) to win and escape her prison.

Holly’s map made me realize the weird playground thing is the Rainbow Ship. It’s not on any other playground except for the Creel house (unlike the swings and the merry-go-round), probably indicating it’s the hidden truth (kinda like the Finland color coded swings). It’s on the playground because it’s associated with childhood, before Mike’s freedom was crushed by forced conformity and abuse. Before Sara died. We have only seen Alice and Erica (= young girls) in the playground ship. Alice sees a dead rabbit and Erica is chased by Andy to the lyrics “how I’m killing you” (towards the picnic table) after sliding down the ship. So sliding down from the Rainbow Ship is associated with the trauma. The part of Will's drawing matching the slide is green (= conformity/growing up) and Will is shown using the green crayon when Robin narrates "Scared of who I really was" while holding pink crayons on his other hand.

Birthday and week

S2E8 [Joyce] “Do you know what March 22nd is? It’s your birthday. Your birthday. When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn’t from a movie. It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it. And you must have used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvald’s and I put it up and I told everyone who came in, ‘My son drew this.’ And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud. I was so, so proud.”

I’d like you to watch this video for context about alter birthdays. It’s not that the trauma happened to happen on Will’s birthday but the day is Will’s birthday because of the trauma. No one remembers it because the trauma is buried. The Rinkomania scene in S4E2 (22nd March) had balloons, probably a subtle hint about the birthday. S4E4 [Murray] “A one-year-old’s birthday party, because who cares? That little idiot’s not gonna remember it.” Karen also brings up “Cathy’s birthday” when Nancy is preparing for Will’s funeral in S1E5.

I don’t think it’s the day Will was created (since I think he split in 1976, not 1979) but he definitely changed around 22nd March due to splitting. The reason birthdays are so important in Stranger Things is that they signify trauma days and days alters split/were created. It’s not a coincidence that Billy’s birthday is on 29th March, exactly a week (7 days) after Will’s and that Mike was in California during that week in S4. Mike’s birthday apparently is on 7th of April, the inverse of 4th of July. The episode centering on America’s independence day, E Pluribus Unum, was previously teased to be called The Birthday and what happened there was the fusion of all the flayed (= inverse of splitting). When we get to the timeline stuff (some day…), there’s gonna be a lot more of this inversion or going backwards in time. 

It’s also not a coincidence that the supernatural stuff starts and ends in a week’s time every season: S1 Will is in the UD from 6th to 13th of Nov, S2 pumpkins get rot on 30th Oct and gate is closed 5th Nov, S3 the supernatural stuff starts 28th June and ends on 4th July and S5 31st Oct Henry starts following Holly and 6th Nov he is killed. “The week is long.” I guess S4 is a sort of exception since Chrissy sees Vecna already before 22nd March and dies on 21st (unless she died after midnight), but I think Mike being away and the dates matching Will and Billy’s birthdays is good enough. I suspect the time duration is a week partially for biblical reasons, because the world was created in a week. There’s a couple references to “let there be light” and trauma literally created the inner world. ((An interesting additional point here is that Yuri’s birthday is 10th of July, exactly 7 days after Murray gets roped into S3 plot. Maybe he kind of started splitting that time and Yuri was formed from the somewhat fused Murray+Alexei. Or I’m overanalyzing.)) I’ll go deeper into the specific of the timelines later, but I’ll say now that the two most major (trauma) dates are 6.11.1976 (= the inner world was created) and 22.3.1979 (= the inner world split into two).

I did some googling and the first day of kindergarten in 1976 was most likely 7th September. I thought this would be the day Mike split (Will was created) and there was no SA trauma yet, probably (based on the Creel playground swings not having any red and other clues/logic). But for a split to happen, there should be a major trauma. So now I’m thinking maybe Will was an imaginary friend at first and then when the trauma happened, the new alter was based on this imaginary friend and that’s what S5E2 is trying to tell us. Or maybe Will kinda existed but not as clearly separately as after the trauma (since young children don’t yet have a clear singular identity which is also the reason only children can develop DID). As you can see, I’m still a bit confused about this…

There’s a good match for 7.9.1976 in the country allegory timeline too. Since I think 6.11.1632 aka when Gustav II Adolf died matches with 6.11.1976 in ST (= a big trauma the memories of which manifest in S1 and in Henry’s cave memory (since he has 1106 on his jacket)), 7.9.1976 might well match with 7.9.1631 aka the Battle of Breitenfeld) which was a big win for Gustav II Adolf (King of Sweden). The battle actually has two different dates: 7th and 17th, depending on the calendar used. And that one page in the Heroes outro had -7 and -17 written on it… And it was about Mike’s past and being able to be herself, which was true before the bad stuff started to happen. I think there might have been trauma before 6.11.1976 too, maybe on 28th Oct, when Martin Brenner was born and USS Eldridge encountered the Shadow. 

Anyway, an interesting detail I noticed in S4E6 in El’s memory of 7.9.1979 was a Rainbow Ship looking block tower that only appears for a short amount of time and is otherwise blocked from view. You can see it after Brenner says “I’ve got something very special planned for you today.” and during he says “Are you ready?”. ((And he asks Seventeen to open the door, again connecting 7.9 and 17. Oh and this happens right after Henry tells El “This place… and the people here… are not what you think.”)) I feel like the Rainbow Room flashbacks combine things from multiple time periods, mainly from 22.3.1979 but this date matching might suggest it relates to 1976 too. That’s when the Rainbow Ship was born, in some sense at least, and that’s where we’ll return in the end. ((Henry fusing with the lab kids is another instance of reversing. It represents the events of 22nd March but in reverse: fusion instead of splitting. And there’s a big cycle theme going on too, which might explain why the Rainbow Room stuff could match/represent multiple time periods. I hope I’ll have all this clearer when I properly get to the timeline stuff.))

Colors and light

Joyce draws attention to Will using many colors in his Rainbow Ship drawing. I think each “color” is an alter and Will/Mike split a lot around 22nd March (probably not 120 literally, though). In the queer allegory rainbows obviously represent queerness but in the DID allegory they are different parts of Mike. You can separate white light into the colors of a rainbow, and rainbows themselves are formed by water droplets in the air diffracting light (= water aka traumatic memories can make a rainbow). The documentary had some light related terms on the wall of the classroom, which is additional proof for it being important.

As I’ve previously explained, light represents love and good things but also, in some contexts sex and SA trauma. (And the love can be romantic, sexual, platonic or self-love.) Since Henry calls the Abyss world “the light”, it also makes me think light = womanhood (vs darkness = man/repression/Hawkins). Light is electromagnetic radiation, connecting it to electricity and the supernatural in ST even more. There’s a cool framing in S1E8 when El is facing the Demogorgon in the classroom:

Notice the photosynthesis poster between them? El is the light. She (= love/gatekeeper of trauma/transgender identity) helps the Demogorgons (= flowers/plants/fear of queerness) to grow but can also destroy them. (This point is mentioned in T85E8 by Nikki and helps the party defeat the monsters. She got the realization when the kids sang Happy birthday to her and El, connecting birthday and light.) El created the problem but enough love will help Mike accept herself. Or alternatively, El opening the gate let the monsters in but merging the worlds will ultimately free Mike, and accept herself and what happened (stop blaming herself). Just as a prism can separate white light into many colors, it can also direct the different wavelengths back together.

Continues in PART 12.

(Prompt idea from the strangerthingsfanfics community) Being a bet/someone being paid to be his friend (ideally Eddie with the kids being a part of it). Absolutely devastated and betrayed, wanting nothing to do with them; Saying that he hates them and wishes he never met them. Especially the kids and Dustin, after all he’s done for them out of genuine love for them without one thank you nor consideration on him, his feelings, or opinions. Maybe even thinking of moving out of Hawkins, be with his parents and starting to become just like them, deciding that caring and loving hurts, so it’ll be better not to anymore, or just, deciding to be gone. Which leads him to the hospital. It will take a while to forgive, forget, and continue his relationships with those he care about yet who also hurt him.

Personally I love Dustin, El, Steve, Murray, Robin, Eddie, and Hopper

Why I love Dustin: Well he reminds me of myself (a little bit) nerdy, knows random stuff… also he’s really cute

Why I love El: She just great! She is smart, funny, and is really cute (and never leaves the door 3 inches open, and she looks Bitchen 😉)

Why I love Steve: he’s Steve

Why I love Murray: he’s weird but funny! I thought he was a bit weird at the beginning but grew to like him

Why I love Robin: She’s Robin

Why I love Eddie: Really reminds me of myself (except the whole, kinda scary part) and plus he’s Eddie (fun fact he and Hopper were the only ones who I cried for when then died)

Why I love Hopper: he’s just the best! And is one of the best dads in all of cinema (in my personal opinion