Creelby is the key to Byler Endgame... just not in the way you're thinking (what I'm calling #BobGate)
Part Sixteen: The Roane Enigma
PART 1 HERE | PART 2 HERE | PART 3 HERE | PART 4 HERE
PART 5 HERE | PART 6 HERE | PART 7 HERE | PART 8 HERE
PART 9 HERE | PART 10 HERE | PART 11 HERE | PART 12 HERE
PART 13 HERE | PART 14 HERE | PART 15 HERE | PART 17 HERE
PART 18 HERE | PART 19 HERE | PART 20 HERE | PART 21 HERE
PART 22 HERE | PART 23 HERE | PART 24 HERE | PART 25 HERE
I originally had this as part of my "Captain Midnight" analysis, and subsequently realized it had no place there as it had diverged from the main analysis.
In Part Fifteen, I started speculating about the *real* timeline of TFS and ST, given there's a lot of plot holes that didn't mesh with my theory or even Henry's version of events.
I began by positing Bob and Henry may have first met as children, before the Creel murders, and bonded over their shared love of Captain Midnight, radios, and puzzles.
But what happened after Henry killed his family and was locked away in Hawkins Lab?
I continued speculating that maybe Henry was able to keep tabs on Bob (maybe even communicate) via radio and/or the Void the way Henry and Patty communicated in TFS.
And now, things start getting a little Disney up in here.
What if, when Henry got older, he had a Little Mermaid moment?
Stay with me! I know it's f***ing crazy, I know I may lose a lot of you here, but when I did my Mr. Baldo analysis, one thing that stood out to me was that the details Bob mentioned about his first encounter with Mr. Baldo were the white gloves, the balloon, and Roane County Fair. Then I saw the name pop up again at Hawkins' cemetery in S5 Ep1, which affirmed for me that this detail was important.
Names and their meanings have proven to be very important in cracking Bobgate, so out of curiosity, I decided to look it up:
'Roane' is another term for selkies -- the seal version of the mermaid myth.
As some of you may know, I've been doing Netflix's Puzzled everyday since the #ConformityFinale dropped (after all, that's how this whole damn thing started #puzzlegate).
Anyways, some hints have been very pointed, others not so much. However, my interest was further piqued when one of the Wayword puzzles featured the answer Mermaid Diving. I filed that away (and damn, I wish I'd taken a screenshot). But I did get a screenshot of this Waywords puzzle from the 10th:
What's that at the bottom? A f***ing seal. Also there's "lune", which is what you all definitely think I am by now.
Again, there is no such thing as coincidences in this crazy thing called #ConformityGate.
Here's some important points about the selkie myth itself:
Selkies are shapeshifters who take the form of hauntingly beautiful humans, but have skins that turn them into seals, allowing them to travel between dry land and the sea.
What doesn’t have water? The UD. And what does water represents in ST? Feelings.
They usually find a human mate on the surface, who often steals or even burns their seal skin to keep them on land. The selkie becomes *cursed*; trapped in one world by their controlling lover.
However, some of those stories end with the selkie finding their seal skin and, unable to resist the call, returning to the sea.
And, in some cases, they'll leave behind a half-selkie child who they'll keep visiting in hopes said child will one day join them.
In the better, but no less tragic cases, "Selkies fall in love with humans and seek their lover out. The tragedy between mutual love is that after one night with their lover, the selkie must return to the sea, never to return to their human mate for seven years. This is upsetting to the amoured human who wakes to see them gone and the aching selkie in the sea." (link to article by "LORELAI" of The Urban Siren here)
Is any of this sounding familiar?
If it does, it's probably for more reasons than one. When I finally read The First Shadow (at least the transcript) I got a serving of humble pie and a jabbing reminder of why you *read your source materials before writing your thesis*. Because I thought I was so f***ing clever about how I was going about this, when the answer was right there in the text the damn whole time: Dark of the Moon. The play Joyce puts on.
“A Witch Boy saw a mountain [boy] and wished that he was human.”
The story of the play is bar-for-bar a retelling of the selkie myth, and it is bar-for-bar a retelling of Henry and Bob's *real* love story.
Also note how "Barbara" sounds a lot like Bob.
It's literally The Little Mermaid set in Appalachia.
Most people know that the original Hans Christian Andersen tale is significantly darker than what Disney adapted. The beginning of the story follows pretty much like the movie, with the Mermaid saving the human Prince's life and falling in love. However, the Mermaid is in pursuit of more than a boy -- she wants to gain an eternal soul.
Sadly, life on the surface is agony the entire time, with the Mermaid trying to be something that she's not (having legs instead of a tail, lacking her voice). And it's all for naught. The Prince is in love with someone else: a woman who works at the temple (and ends up being the princess he marries at the end).
However, the only reason he's even in love with the temple woman is because he believes she saved his life. But, of course, the Mermaid cannot tell him the truth -- she has no voice.
So, the Prince marries the wrong woman and, per the terms of her deal with the Sea Witch, the Mermaid is doomed to turn to sea foam and fade into oblivion at sunrise. But the Mermaid's sisters, out of love for her, go to the Sea Witch and sacrifice their hair for one last solution.
They give the Mermaid a dagger and a task: Kill the Prince and she can turn back into a mermaid, end her suffering, and come back home to her family in the sea.
Of course, the Mermaid cannot do it. She is too in love with him.
The Mermaid accepts her fate, and turns to sea foam... Only to discover her act of true love has made her a spirit of the air, with a chance to gain a soul and go to heaven after all, if she continues to do good deeds. No small consolation for lost love.
FYI, diving into the origins of The Little Mermaid (pun not intended) led to even more revelations about the story's inherent queerness.
The most obvious being the symbolism of a mermaid splitting her most essential "organ" -- her tail -- in two as to be more "compatible" with her human boy.
Then there is the sacrificed voice equating to a love that must go unspoken.
Presumably these were feelings the author himself was struggling with. Hans Christian Andersen was believed to have been attracted to both men and women, however some scholars believe The Little Mermaid was inspired by his unrequited love for his acquaintance Edvard Collin, since he wrote the story around the same time he'd found out Collin was engaged to be married (to a woman).
Andersen, who once wrote Collin the following in a letter: "I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench ... my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery."
So, now that we're all on the same page, let's assume Henry (like Ariel, ever the explorer) pulled a Little Mermaid.
That would imply that, as a young adult, Henry managed to escape Hawkins Lab to meet his "human boy" Bob in the "surface" world of Hawkins High.
Perhaps it was during this time (whether it was one encounter or several) that the friendship blossomed into something romantic.
Brenner (being Canio/the Sea King aka King Triton in this scenario lol) caught on to Henry and, like in TFS, demanded to know who it was that Henry was seeing/kept him distracted, assuming them to be a *girl*.
Henry, like Nedda in Pagliacci, refused to reveal Bob's identity in order to protect him (and presumably himself being a queer kid in the 50s).
However the MF (being Tonio), also feeling jealous of Henry's split attention, decided to interfere.
Who is her parallel in The Little Mermaid story?
F***ing Ursula, the Sea Witch who wants to steal Henry's voice memories.
But when Ursula realizes that Ariel might actually make good on their deal and kiss her Prince, Ursula decides to play a nasty trick.
She transforms into a beautiful woman herself and uses Ariel's voice memories to convince Prince Eric *she's* the one he's really in love with.
Excerpts from the Broadway version of TFS:
Patty to Henry: "Are you afraid? Do I make you nervous? Then why won’t you touch me? Don’t you want to get closer? Don’t you want to let me in?"
Even though he's more reluctant to open up, she is able to "seduce" him through her dreams, which he channels for her:
Henry to Patty: “I see a light — a red light. [...] It’s, it’s changing. There’s more colors. Green, blue, um — I’m in a theater. Patty, I must be backstage […] It’s just like your dream. It’s beautiful.”
And, in the West End production:
INT. CHURCH -- DAY
[Context: Henry and Patty are in the back of the church. She's about to sing with the chorus (something she's dreading), when Henry decides to use his powers to create a lively dance sequence for her.]
The blue lighting turns purple.
Bob of all people takes centerstage to dance. He's singing lyrics to the rockabilly song "Suzie Q" by Dale Hawkins [a song about a boy declaring his love for a girl].
From there, the lights begins alternating between red and blue [as if Patty and Bob were fighting for dominance in Henry's "dream"].
Patty and Henry are sitting beside each other on a church pew, then Bob sits down next to Patty. They are the only ones sitting in this pew, making it clear that Patty is sitting in-between Bob and Henry.
Eventually, Patty's moment of glory comes when her choir outfit is torn away to reveal a red Wonder Woman costume.
Patty the Dreamer doesn't just make beautiful dreams, she makes beautiful illusions -- deceiving Henry (and the audience).
After that, Patty is finally able to manipulate Henry into doing what she really wants, which is to track down her Mother (aka Tharizdun/Mother Goose), despite the personal toll it takes on Henry (and Bob).
Henry's fate is sealed the moment Henry attacks Principal Newby in the Creel attic.
It should be noted that throughout this sequence, there's a red light on in the background to signify what I'm guessing is a furnace. As it's previously been established, "when the red light is on" Patty is understudying for Bob in the given scene. In the Broadway version that light is inexplicably purple, presumably to represent the blinding effects of violet prismatic spray.
Patty tries to calm Henry down by reminding him to turn the nightmare into "a nice dream". Henry recalls a romantic moment between them, after they were kicked out of Melvald's for kissing.
He is able to recall the "perfect moment", then says:
Henry: "[...] I wish I could stop it all. Right here."
Patty: "You can't -- you can! It's your dream, remember? Anything is possible."
Henry: "But you said --"
Patty: "I love you!"
Henry: "Me too!"
Patty: "No! You have to say it. You have to say it!"
Henry: "I love you too!"
The memory and romantic declaration should belong to Bob, but Henry isn't aware he's delivering it to the wrong person.
And because of that, Henry can only barely keep from killing Principal Newby, who is sent through the floor of the attic, blinded Vecna-style.
Like Mike's reluctant "I love you" to El in S4, and like in The Little Mermaid, making a declaration of love to the wrong person is a fatal blow.
Miscommunication ends in tragedy.
I want to add here that it's no coincidence that the attack that is so central to the play -- more central than Henry murdering his own family -- is on Bob's father and implied abuser:
Patty: "My father told me what happened in the attic. How you fought it. How you saved him."
Henry: "Yeah. Maybe I shouldn’t have."
Patty: "What?"
Henry: "It shows me fears. Secrets […] You wanna know what your father’s big secret is? It’s you.”
The play also implies maybe Bob secretly did want his father gone:
Brenner to Patty: “All you needed was a hero to get rid of your father, right?”
And maybe it was that guilt that also played a part in Bob's final, life-defining choice.
I stick by my previous assumption that it was Bob who ultimately rejected Henry in some way, like Barbara Allen betrays her Witch Boy in Dark of the Moon.
Even though it was ultimately the Mind Flayer who took control of Henry during this attack, Bob, who hated bullies and likely didn't understand the power of the MF, probably reacted the way Patty did in the play ("Don't touch me!") and told this new "Mr. Baldo" to "Go away!"
And, like I stated in Part Ten, this led to Henry succumbing to the "Shadow" entirely, and pushing Bob over the balcony during the play (I don't know how literal all this will be in Vol. 4).
However, I do think this part of the story ended like the opera Nina: With Henry temporarily believing his love was dead and that he'd killed him, the memory of which was so traumatizing he suppressed it (or allowed Brenner's Soteria and/or the MF to do it for him).
Instead of losing his voice, like The Little Mermaid, Henry lost his memories of Bob.
Speaking of voices -- music continues to be essential to understanding not just Stranger Things, but The First Shadow as well.
The play Dark of the Moon took inspiration from an old Anglo folk song, "Barbara Allen", which was believed to have originated around the 17th century or earlier but quickly spread through oration and publications. The story of the song isn't about a witch boy and a human, but it is about doomed love.
Specifically, the OG "Barbara Allen" rejects the love of a dying man, only to die from grief herself, realizing she'd loved him all along, too late...
The name of the rejected lover in the song varies version to version, but here is one of the more well known Barbara Allen covers, by Joan Baez:
Clearly, this song has gone through many iterations over the centuries, but here's some lyrics from the Dark of the Moon's version [with "Human Cannonball"'s lyrics on the right as a comp]:
"Through no doing of [his] own" implies Bob's hand was forced somehow, but his actions still caused his "witch boy" to lose his humanity.
[Bob] dies, wrapped in "wild rose".
What other visual do red, thorny roses remind you of?
And, like the OG Little Mermaid turns into sea foam, Witch Boy turns into a mountain fog.
Tragic. Romantic. A "sad ending" indeed.
Sounds like our show (right now).
But wait... There's more:
...This is why songs must be sung all the way through.
Witch Boy's fog waters a *briar* to grow with Barbara's *rose* and, like in every version of the Barbara Allen song, they join together to form a *true love's knot*.
A knot that allows them to "conquer death eternal."
"Their love's entwined forever."
Yet more proof of Henry and Bob's endgame (see Part Thirteen).
Now, will this story repeat itself with Mike and Will too? And if so, how will it end?
Will our boys get their Disney ending, the other one, or a secret, third thing the writers have up their sleeves?
Disclaimer: I'm going to break my evidence for this theory into different posts under #BobGate (also #PuzzleGate), but if possible, let's keep this contained to Tumblr because I think there are folks who might care about being spoiled for what I think is going to be an amazing twist (if #conformitygate is in fact real)
**I haven't come across a theory like it, but in case someone else also had the thought -- lmk!
