Mike's altered memory of his fight with Dustin in the Rainbow Room
Why Vecna needed to replace Mike to keep him trapped in the Rightside Up...
First, here's a brief explanation of my main theory!
Mike is stuck in his own version of Camazotz: the Rightside Up.
In the 8 months after Season 4, the gang prepared for a big battle with Vecna. Mike was taken during that battle, on the anniversary of Will's disappearance: November 6th, 1986.
Every important plot point from Ep 1-8 was an edited version of what really happened in those 8 months. Vecna just changed the order, characters or context to suit his own narrative and keep Mike trapped in the Rightside Up. That's why Mike's real memories are crucial to his escape.
My evidence is here!
Part 1 (Reality = reversed), Part 2 (Will/Robin), Part 3 (12 Episodes), Part 4 (MWTFDYD), Part 5 (Rainbows), Part 6 (Mike and Wileven), Part 7 ("Where's Dustin right now?")
Besides queercoding, rainbows in Stranger Things are associated with forgotten memories and alternate dimensions. Analysis here.
So why do Dustin and Steve fight in the U.D. Rainbow Room of all places?
They’re in another dimension? Well yeah, but so are the others.
Forgotten memories? Yes! And…
The memories theme is further represented by the rainbow Rubik’s cube that Steve can’t solve. He calls it a “piece of shit” – an insult that Mike often uses (Hopper in S2 + S3, Billy in S3 etc).
This is similar to when Mike finds an unsolved rainbow puzzle earlier in the season. This was a hint that Mike’s memories are like that puzzle: incomplete, scrambled, missing pieces.
Hopper: We’re missing a piece of the puzzle. A big piece.
Steve’s “piece of shit” Rubik’s cube is the same as Mike’s memories. Scrambled. Incomplete.
The reason Dustin and Steve’s fight was written for the Rainbow Room rather than literally anywhere else in the lab? The reason yet another rainbow puzzle can’t be solved?
Mike’s memory of the fight has been altered by Vecna.
He replaced Mike with Steve.
Why would Dustin and Mike fight?
A fight between Mike and Dustin is set up in the very first episode of Season 5!
Think about it. In the Crawl, Mike is the most vocal in this conversation with Dustin, and during the argument, they cut to Mike POV shots several times. What do he and Dustin argue about?
Mike: Eddie never gave a rat’s ass about what those mouth breathers were saying about him and you know it. What he would care about is finding and killing Vecna.
Dustin: Do you seriously think I don’t care about that, Mike? Really?
Mike: I think you’re fighting two battles. You need to be fighting one.
Dustin: Blend in? Follow the rules? That’s not what we’ve ever done. We stay true to ourselves, we’re supposed to stay true to our friends. We stand up for what’s right, no matter the cost.
What Dustin gets angry at “Steve” for in the Rainbow Room is exactly what he’s angry at the Party for, and ESPECIALLY Mike.
Being fake. Self-centered. Caring about what others think. Eddie. Vecna.
Additionally, think about this quote again...
Mike: “I think you’re fighting two battles. You need to be fighting one.”
If my theory is correct, this is literally true; Dustin effectively fought two versions of the same battle, once with Mike, once with Steve.
“Where’s Dustin right now?”
The fight between Dustin and Mike isn’t just from Season 5, either. It has been brewing for LITERAL YEARS. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, to when Dustin came back home from Summer camp.
Who left first? Mike, with El.
Dustin: “It’s bullshit. I just got home.”
Remember Mike and Will’s rain fight, back in Season 3?
Will: “Where’s Dustin right now? See? You don’t know, you don’t care, and obviously he doesn’t either, and I don’t blame him! You’re destroying the Party, and for what? So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?”
Mike: “El’s not stupid! It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”
It’s the same argument as Dustin and "Steve" in the Rainbow Room. Mike’s being fake and selfish, drifting away from his friends, replacing them with El, leaving Dustin behind.
That's not the only callback to Season 3 in their fight. As Season 5 progresses, Dustin begins to mock Steve for acting childish. Comparing him to “children”, mentioning his “arrested development” and asking, “Really, you’re actually playing in here?”
Which character is canonically extremely insecure about acting childish, and had a whole arc in Season 3 about his desire to grow up? It’s not Steve. It’s Mike.
Dustin is hitting Mike where he knows it hurts – using honesty.
I mean, come on. The whole reason Dustin befriended Steve in the first place was that his friends weren’t answering his calls on the walkie-talkie. When was this? Season 2. Out of everyone, no wonder it’s Dustin who they lost contact with before the Crawl.
This fight between Dustin and Mike was building up for years.
Why Vecna needed to replace Mike with Steve
The fight most likely happened earlier on in the 8 months between Season 4 and Season 5.
Remember, Mike and El were not on speaking terms at the end of Season 4. They had a fight “you can’t come back from”. After Season 4, they broke up, plain and simple.
What does Dustin say at the end of his argument with "Steve"?
Dustin: “Oh yeah, just crawl back to Nance, you dumb, fake asshole."
Dustin is also angry with Steve for repeatedly trying to win Nancy back during the apocalypse. Sound like someone we know?
Yes, Mike. So this establishes a rough timeline, but... what's this got to do with Vecna?
Well, this fight with Dustin was basically the result of all of Mike's greatest character flaws, combined. It probably marked a huge turning point for him, a moment in which he began to realise how much he was hurting himself and his friends by hiding under a "normal" costume.
Mike really was acting fake, childish and selfish.
Mike probably kept trying to win El back for a month or two post-S4, even though it was the apocalypse, and even though they worked better as friends.
Mike told Dustin “it’s actually your fault, and I haven’t heard so much as a sorry”. I mean, look at his track record. He basically only apologises to Will throughout the whole series. This fits.
Dustin replaced Mike as the leader of the group because of his theory, so Mike felt insecure. He resented it. That’s why he got all snarky about Dustin’s “bullshit theory”.
If you're thinking, "Wow, Mike is coming off as pretty unlikeable during this fight"... then YES! Good! He should come off that way.
This fight was the moment in which Dustin laid out every single one of Mike's insecurities before him, and Mike realised they were true.
And THAT is why Vecna had to alter Mike’s memory of it.
Because if Mike remembered this fight correctly, he would’ve also remembered how sorry he was, and how much he wanted to change, to stop being fake, stop chasing after El, and to begin to accept himself as just Mike – for himself, the Party, and for Eddie.
So Vecna removed the catalyst that made Mike develop positively, and therefore, enabled him to feel more secure in who he was. That way, Vecna could prey on Mike’s insecurities even more.
Dustin: [Eddie] was the smartest, kindest person I have ever met, and he would’ve solved this in 30 seconds flat.
Look – Eddie’s got a great attitude and understanding of the world around him, but solving a Rubik’s cube? That's unexpected for his character.
Remember though, it’s not just a Rubik’s cube. Like the incomplete rainbow puzzle, the Rubik's cube represents Mike’s scrambled memories.
To keep you trapped, Vecna alters the truth. Takes the stuff you want to hide about yourself, and erases it. Lets you believe what you wish could be true. Keeps you trapped in “the light” – a happy, comfortable lie.
Vecna: The light will expel the darkness, your loved ones will be saved, and you… you will be heroes.
Eddie: We are not heroes.
Of course Eddie would’ve solved his own rainbow puzzle quickly, because “Eddie was never fake.” He never, ever hid who he was, “no matter the cost”, so… there was no happy, comfortable lie for Eddie to hide in.
He’s one of the few characters who really wasn’t afraid of himself.
That's why Eddie was important to both Dustin and Mike. He took them both under his wing when no-one else would, inspired them with his authenticity.
(paraphrasing)
Dustin: Lucas has his sports friends. But me and Mike? No-one would hang out with us. No-one except Eddie.
That’s also why Dustin's reaction to Eddie's death is so strong… yet we never see Mike react at all.
Why? We skipped it. Vecna gave Mike’s reaction to Steve.
In reality, after learning about Eddie's death at the end of Season 4, Mike bottled up his feelings. All his feelings, about Eddie, himself, everyone and everything else, and he filtered them through his false fantasies, through hiding himself away and making passive-aggressive, snarky comments as usual. Then, finally, he crashed out during his fight with Dustin, and realised the full truth behind it all.
That's why Eddie gets brought up so much during their fight. Not because Steve is weirdly jealous of him, but because Mike saw Eddie as a friend and an inspiration, just like Dustin. His death affected them both deeply – but in very different ways.
So, basically – Mike and Dustin's post-Season 4 fight is their reaction to Eddie's death, and the culmination of all of Mike's insecurities; everything he doesn't wanna be. It's what makes him choose to be better, for himself and his friends – and that's why Vecna needed to alter that memory if he wanted to keep Mike trapped.
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