Will's Possession: A Timeline
Thanks to a post from @thedutchbyler on Byler Nation for inspiring this post! It's going to be a very long one.
Will is wearing his colors. He's still himself here. However, in the park, the same place Chrissy first saw the clock, Will see's through Vecna's eyes for the first time - this was the beginning of his possession. He's able to fight back though - allowing him to control the demogorgons whenever his loved ones are attacked.
If you look closely, the flannel Will wears has shades of brown and grey- Mr. Whatsit/ Vecna's colors. He's inside Will, but the connection is weak. That is, until Vecna decides to strike.
This scene is a direct parallel to episode 4 of season 2, when Will first got possessed by the mind flayer. It's dormant- he's not activated yet, but the mind flayer is starting to corrupt him.
Holly is taken into Vecna's mindscape. The merry-go-round is red, like the voltage dial. It's a sign that Vecna's illusions, his mindscape/the Upside Down is bleeding into the real world.
Will starts to talk back to his mother, something he's never done before. It would make sense that Vecna's influence on him is growing.
He sheds his jacket, which consists of his true colors, red and yellow, and Mike's color, blue. He's still wearing green and his plaid, so he's still partially himself.
Jacket's back on- this is the true Will.
Will's not wearing a coat- indication that he doesn't like to be too hot. In season 2, we learn that the Mindflayer likes it cold. Also, Will's wearing gray- Vecna's colors. He's activated by Vecna. His sleeves have some blue on them, indicating that Will's still in there, but only minimally. It also explains how Joyce forgot how old Will was when he went missing.
That explains how Vecna finds out where they were - because he's seeing through Will, not through Derek. Look, he's got his jacket on, but over it is a grey vest. Vecna is cosplaying as Will.
When Mike is going over his plan, Vecna is activated. Will's not wearing his jacket anymore. That's how he knew where to find them.
Again, Vecna's cosplaying as Will here.
Hmmm. Seems like something someone who is pretending not to be Vecna would say.
Mike tells Will to take off his jacket- to shed his true self. This represents Will being activated by Vecna once again. It makes sense now why Vecna decided to show up in person after this, to weaken Will's mind and make him more susceptible to his control. However, because Will's able to hide in happy memories from his childhood, he's able to fight back and unlock his powers.
But guess what? Vecna sees these memories too. REMEMBER THIS. IT'S IMPORTANT.
I was right when I said Will was possessed at the beginning of this episode all the way back when we got the trailer! I wasn't crazy to notice his eyes were darker than normal.
He only snaps out of it when Joyce calls his name touches his shoulder. He says Mom and hugs her tightly because he's trying to fight back against Vecna, to remind himself who she is, to cry out for help. Same with Mike, he whispers his name after Mike hugs him and calls him a sorcerer, and his hand lingers on his arm because it's the hand that Mike held, the hand he used to signal them to close the gate. It's a sign he's trying to stay tethered to his real self, to reality.
Vecna slips up in the cave, calling the children vessels, which Mike notices. When Vecna catches onto his mistake, he panics and says Vecna told him (Will). He's making up a lie on the spot, and honestly he sucks at lying. When Mike and Lucas mention the theory that Vecna's going to act on November 6, Vecna makes a warning face towards Lucas and shakes his head. He doesn't like that his plan has been exposed.
Joyce says to Will nobody thought that it was possible for him to have powers, that they all underestimated him, like Vecna did. This is weakening Will's mind, because he thinks nobody believes in him. Joyce is unknowingly playing right into Vecna's hands. That's why her plan didn't work.
In fact, I'm willing to bet this whole thing is an illusion, a play, and Mike's the only one who is actually being himself. He's the only one who's mind Vecna can't break.
Anyway, we see Will tearing up when Joyce says she won't ever underestimate him again- her love for him breaks through the possession temporarily.
When the group are all discussing Joyce's plan, Mike corrects everyone that Will is a sorcerer, not a wizard, because his powers are innate. Lucas tries to say it doesn't matter, to get Mike to believe that Will's not as special as he actually is, but Mike doesn't back down. Not until Joyce tells them all to focus, and then Mike's personality shifts completely. He doesn't call Will a sorcerer again. He's falling for Vecna's trick.
Vecna talks to Robin about confessing to Vickie, telling her that what she said in the tunnels was "helpful". He knows he can use this information against Will now. He's asking her so many questions to get more ammunition for his plan to weaken Will's mind.
Will's doing Henry's pose here - he's activated. Interesting.
I wonder if maybe Vecna thought getting Will close to the hive mind by resurrecting the demogorgon was a good plan because it would make his powers stronger - make it easier for him to control Will's mind. However, Will was able to fight back because he was surrounded by people who cared about him, and he was made stronger through their encouragement and reassurance that they trusted him and were right there with him. This time, Lucas is the one to call Will a sorcerer. Interesting, consider he said it didn't matter before.
Vecna, being a heartless person, did not anticipate this, so he was weak against Will's attack. That angered him, so he knew he needed to take a drastic action - to force Will to accept the Mindflayer. This causes Will to be temporarily put into a trance.
Mike rushes to Will first, but because of Joyce's prior comment, he hesitates to reach out to Will. Vecna was able to sow seeds of doubt or shame into his mind, even if he couldn't get in there himself. But in the very last second before the scene changes, he decides to touch Will anyway, indicating that he won't let his fear stop him from expressing his love for Will.
Lucas is wearing Mike's color here. He's seeing through the cracks of Vecna's illusion. He realizes that Will shouldn't have been able to see Holly if she's with Max. It's almost as if... Lucas has the same role as Mike? It would make sense, considering that in season 2, they both wore the Venkman costume, and both have had their love interest be possessed/ cursed by Vecna.
How many times have we heard this exact line? They're all trying to break through Vecna's spell, but they're missing some pieces of the puzzle. This reminds me, Lucas is the one who figured out why Holly was taken on November 3rd specifically. He's the one who said he doesn't believe in coincidences anymore. He doesn't give in to Vecna - which helped Max escape Vecna's mindscape.
When Mike says he's going to stay with Will, ominous music plays - just like it did in the tunnels after "Will" mentioned the vessels. Mike is realizing that there is something off about Will. Remember, he knows Will better than anyone else; he can sense that he's not acting like himself anymore. Also, we see Will's eyeballs moving rapidly under his eyelids while he's asleep, just like in s2 while he was building the tunnels. Vecna is using him to build again.
Vecna is working overtime to remind Will that his powers aren't his - they're Vecna's. He's the one who is making Will doubt himself, why he refuses to be called a sorcerer, why everyone calls him a wizard. He's the reason why in the tunnels Will said he was just siphoning, stealing Vecna's powers.
By the way, one definition of siphoning is to "draw off or convey (liquid) by means of a siphon." A siphon is a bent tube, like the one Holly and the other kids are connected to. Very deliberate choice of words here.
Back in the real world, Mike tries to check on Will, but gets distracted by the sound of a car pulling up to the radio station. That's why he calls her Joyce - he's become susceptible to Henry's illusion. Vecna has successfully gotten to him. He's making Mike care less about Will, because he knows Mike is the key to strengthening Will's powers.
Everyone infected by the UD changes somehow. The UD is toxic. Remember from seasons 1 and 2, you had to use PPE if you were going in there. Now they're all breathing it in, becoming infected. The UD is exotic matter, negative energy. When they are infected by the negative energy, they become more hostile and on edge, turning against each other. The burden of their lies begin to fester and poison them. That's why revealing the truth and love is able to stop the effects of the UD. Remember this.
In the tub scene with Mike and El, Mike makes a comment about El's wetsuit. This is unusual behavior for him, but that's because he's not fully himself anymore either. Nobody is. He's in a trance, unattached to reality. He refuses to listen to El when she tries to tell him that he can't write the ending of the campaign, because he's clinging to a fantasy.
Holly paces, Mike paces. Who else paces? Vickie! She's the only one who hasn't been infected by the UD. Like Holly, she'll help Robin escape the effects of Vecna's illusions. Like Holly, Mike will help Will escape the effects of Vecna's possession.
Okay, enough of that tangent. Back to Will.
El goes into the void to find and free Will, who warns her that Max is in danger. In the real world, Will wakes up, from Vecna's trance, but Vecna's not done using him as a spy yet.
So I'm just gonna come out and say it: Everyone's memories have been warped, not just Will's. Or rather, they've been transported back in time.
Max wakes up and suddenly forgets that Hopper was supposed dead? That's because her mind was tampered with since she was in Vecna's mind for so long. El has no reaction to seeing Max awake? Memories were tampered, because she just went into Vecna's mind.
Mike says Max took her sweet time? Does the word "time" mean anything to you? Vecna is associated with clocks, with time.
When Mr. Clarke, Murray, and Erica are trying to find Dustin, they use rainbow balloons. Murray tells Mr. Clarke to cut their losses, which gives him an idea ("fortune favors the bold"). What's a synonym for bold? Brave. Mike's D&D character is Mike the Brave. He's good fortune. And he's associated with rainbows once again (so much gay imagery).
In the cabin, ominous music plays as Will wrings his hands anxiously, and we hear a voiceover of Vecna, indicating he's thinking about what Vecna said before he woke up.
Again, Joyce's voice snaps him out of his thoughts, and we see Will start to break down. He knows he's starting to lose himself, that Vecna is winning over his mind, and he's desperate, hopeless. He's running out of time before he's all "Vecna" and no more "Will". Vecna has planted seeds of doubt into his mind, giving himself a way in. I would even argue that Vecna has some control of Will in this scene as well, given that he says "but the truth", something Henry used to say. He also speaks in a similar cadence to Henry.
Vecna is trying to get Joyce to give up on Will, to see him the way Vecna sees him: as weak, as a monster. He wants to thwart their hopes at defeating him. However, Vecna miscalculates again - Joyce assures Will that the fight is not over. Look at his face - Vecna's pissed that his tactics continue to fail.
More evidence everyone is under a trance - when the demodogs attack Robin, Max, Lucas, and Vickie in the hospital, Robin says to Vickie, "if by some miracle we survive this..." Mike also says to his mother, "by some miracle, you're still here." They are all infected by the hive mind, stealing each other's lines.
Don't believe me? In Vecna's mindscape, when they're about to escape, Max says to Holly, "You saved me." Mike says to his mother, "You saved us." Same exact lines. Is that a coincidence? Lucas told us there are no coincidences.
Erica has a more realistic reaction to Max being awake - that's because she has no connection to the UD. She remains her true self, unaffected by Henry's illusion. Like Mike, she insisted that it mattered that Will was a sorcerer, not a wizard.
When they all go into the UD, Vickie says, "is this shit safe to breathe?", to which Robin replies, "Unclear." This should set off alarm bells in your head - it's not just a throwaway line. It's more foreshadowing. The UD is beginning to poison their minds. Interestingly, Lucas doesn't go in, instead staying with Max in the Right side-Up. He won't be affected by the poison.
When they return to the radio station, Will runs up to Max and hugs her. But we have never seen these two interact on screen.
Why is this important? Because it isn't entirely Will, it's Vecna pretending to be Will. He's wearing Mr. Whatsit's/ Vecna's colors: orange, red, brown, and grey.
However, the brown shirt Will is wearing a shirt underneath all his other layers appears more green in certain lighting. Here, his vest is appears to be a shade of blueish-gray, and his jeans are blue. (*war flashbacks to the Sydney Sweeney ad*)
Vecna may have control over Will, but Mike still has influence, too. Will is battling to keep his connection to Mike, to remember the pleasant memories he had of him in order to stay tethered to the real world. Through love, Mike can still break through Vecna's curse and free Will.
Max says, "I leave you alone for a second, and you turn into a sorcerer?"
"Will" (Vecna) corrects her, saying he's not really a sorcerer.
When Lucas asks Max if she wants to take a tour, Vecna/ Will nods. This is the perfect opportunity for him! He can see their base, learn more information about them and find out what they're planning.
We see that Max regrets not staying with Holly. This is because she was not fully herself when she was trapped in Henry's mind - after all, how could she be when she's been affected by Henry's thoughts and memories for the last 2 years? Now that she's back home, she can see things more clearly. She regrets her actions, even though they weren't fully hers. Alternatively, this is actually more of Vecna's influence, making her feel guilty for failing to keep Holly safe, just like how Vecna is influencing Will's mind, making him doubt himself and feel guilty for not saving the kids.
When Dustin talks about his discovery (the UD being the bridge of a wormhole), Will volunteers some suspicious information. He tells them why Vecna took the kids to the Abyss, what Vecna had been up to since their last encounter with him, things only Vecna would know - and yes, Vecna did show him what happened, but remember, he put the Mindflayer into Will. Of course, he's speaking through Will here.
This is not something Will would say. It's something, however, that Vecna has said to Will.
I think Mike may have caught on to this, because he nods before looking down, as if thinking hard about something. He must've realized that Will would never think this way, and that's why he's deep in thought this whole time - because he knows this isn't Will. I'm pretty sure Max also noticed, too, because she knows how Henry thinks.
Again, when Lucas mentions his theory, Vecna looks alarmed. He doesn't want everyone to know his plan.
Robin makes yet another d*ck joke, and Steve comes up with a plan to get to the rifts. This is out of character for them, isn't it? Because they're all playing a role. They're not fully themselves anymore. It might even be the case that they've swapped some personality traits. Steve is playing Mike's role. Mike's the leader, the one who usually comes up with a plan. He's the one who sees everything through the lens of D&D and the one who is associated with the song "Heroes".
Here Kali is wearing Mr. Whatsit's/ Vecna's colors, just Will. She is also being controlled by the Mindflayer. Safe to say, their plan is about to be sabotaged.
Actually, guess what I've just noticed! They all are wearing either Mike's or Mr. Whatsit's/Vecna's colors! EVERY. LAST. ONE. OF. THEM. They all are infected. They all betray each other. Vecna prays on the things they hate about each other and amplifies them. But they all, at the same time, save each other, through love.
We see him next sitting in front of the mirror, staring at the diagram Dustin drew. He's positioned in the center of the bridge- he's fully connected to the UD, the Mindflayer, the exotic matter.
Only after Max enters the room is he able to snap out of his thoughts. When Max says Will saved her life, Vecna looks annoyed, like he's pissed that Will saved her life. He's still mad he lost. (skill issue, L + ratio, VECNA YOU SUCK)
Vecna also asks Max how she survived in his mind the entire time, prying for more information to use against them. When Max mentions the cave, ominous music plays once more. Max says, "Underneath all those scars, he's still human." This surprises Vecna, because nobody has seen that side of him in a long time. Nobody has had compassion for him, not since Patty. This touches him, breaks through the darkness if only for a second.
It's revealed that Mike built the bomb that they plan to blow up the bridge with. The song Mike chooses to play is "Human Cannonball." A human cannonball is a performance in which a person who acts as the "cannonball" is ejected from a cylinder designed to resemble a cannon. More evidence that this is all a play.
Mike dons a camouflage during this scene, showing he's trying to blend in, to play his part. But it's only a vest, underneath which he still has his true colors. He just needs to take off the camo, and he'll be himself again.
Robin also wears camo, because she tells Mike to "follow one simple rule". She's trying to stick to her role and encourage Mike to do the same. Everyone is dressed up in this scene, they are preparing to put on a show. Steve wears a bandana like Eddie did in s4, a camo shirt, and a similar jacket to the one he wore in the UD. Nancy wears a jacket similar to the jacket she wore in the UD in s4. Dustin wears the coat he wore in the UD in s4. They are transported back in the past.
Dustin sees the blood-soaked weapons he and Eddie used in season 4, snapping him out of the role. This triggers a moment between he and Steve, where he offers one to Steve and Steve opens up about his feelings. He apologizes about what happened in the UD. Again, he said those things because he wasn't fully himself back then - his mind was tainted.
As the others load the truck, Joyce hangs back, her hands folded in a similar posture to Henry. She's still wearing the same colors as Mr. Whatsit and Mike. Her guilt over what happened to Will has allowed Vecna to infiltrate her mind.
This time Will snaps her out of her trance, claiming that there's something he needs to talk to her about.
Will tells Joyce how, when Vecna took hold of him, he tried to fight back by focusing on happy memories from his childhood, but it didn't work. Joyce tries to tell him that what Vecna showed him wasn't real, that Vecna plays tricks (though how would she know that? hmm), but Will says what he saw came from his own mind. I'm almost certain this is the real Will talking, and Joyce is not truly herself. Because we know Henry hates lies.
When Will says he thinks Joyce needs to know the truth, Mike barges into the room, wearing his camo and pants that are Mr. Whatsit's colors. That's the moment I think Vecna stole Will's mind back, because Will was distracted.
Mike asks if everything is okay, and Joyce tells him they will be out in a minute, looking a bit shaken up. I think she'd returned to herself by this point. Though Mike nods, it seems he can still tell something is off, given the confusion on his face. He turns to leave, but Vecna tells Mike that he thinks he needs to hear what Will has to say, that everyone does. This is when he forms his plan to out Will and turn his friends against him. I've already gone over the coming out scene in my last post, so go read it if you haven't already!
But anyway, Vecna tries his best to become Will by showing off how much he knows about Will's memories. I think the fact that Vecna gets some of them wrong, though, is because he's going off of outdated ones. You know, the ones that were there before Will was taken. He mentions liking to get lost in the woods. Well, Will did, when he was a kid. It was one of the memories in his memory reel, the one he used to take control at the MAC-Z. Vecna saw those memories, so he used them in the coming out speech to be more convincing.
It's known in psychology that when people lie, they tend to add unnecessary details to make their lies more believable. Well, the coming out speech was full of unnecessary details. He wanted to convince them he was one of them, to make them less suspicious of him, even though he was an imposter.
When Vecna says Will doesn't like girls, take note of Lucas's expression. He seems to be unfazed. That's because he sees things clearly. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he already knew.
When Vecna talks about drifting apart, Mike looks like he's on the brink of tears. He knows Will has been pulling away from him, that he's been acting differently.
When Vecna says he can see into people's minds, Max's eyebrows twitch, as if she can also tell, even vaguely, that something is wrong. After all, Vecna's been in her mind, too, and she's been in Vecna's mind.
Joyce reassures Will that he will never lose her, and so do the rest of his friends. I think seeing how accepting everyone was, feeling how much they love him, allowed him to gain some control of his mind back.
Interestingly, when everyone hugs him, Will's face is half shrouded in shadow - a subtle hint that his personality is essentially split in half. He's half Vecna and half Will.
When Max says that Will is going to have to hug her, Will calls out her name, as if he's happy that he still remembers her. Remember, in s2, when Will was possessed he forgot his old memories from before he was possessed. That hug could've been out of relief that he was still in control in that moment. Also, the lighting is very warm in that moment, showing how the warmth of everyone's love was able to defeat the darkness in Will.
Then when Vecna sees El's face, his hatred for her overpowers whatever Will was feeling in that moment. Notice how his demeanor changes instantly, his face falls, and he sighs in annoyance. Vecna is going to sabotage El.
That's it, golly that was a LOT. Honestly the Duffers really did their big one with how many details they hid in plain sight this season! Can't wait to see how everything pans out in the finale!
Edit: Would also like to point out we don't see Will's face even once in the final scene, where they are all in the truck. He's the only one that happens with. Very strange!
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