The two hearts of Stranger Things (and El’s big love)
Dear Stranger Things fans,
I don’t know what to call this text as it doesn’t have a reasonable structure to refer to as an essay or analysis. It’s just a bunch of thoughts and observations after I watched this TV show. So… this whole text below is just my own interpretation. OK? And you definitely do NOT have to agree with me. I, myself, am not sure if I’m correct with a lot of things. I just couldn't find a better explanation. At least for now, as the last season is still not out.
During my own little google investigation about all the strange things going on in Stranger Things a few months ago I stumbled upon an argument. I think it was here on tumblr (or Reddit?), this weird platform I'm struggling to decipher even though I decided to make an account here to post this text and where I really rarely visit when I’m looking for any information in general (it’s mostly recipes or work related stuff I search for online, plus I’m older than google and live my daily life in a cave, so you understand the situation you are dealing with, heh). The debaters in that specific thread argued who is the “heart” of the show. On one side there were the ones who stood by it being Mike and the others opposed that it’s Dustin. This made me smile because why didn’t they consider that they might be both correct? It’s just the context they would need to understand. And I thought how sad it actually is that they don’t understand it. On the other hand, I found several excellent and incredibly detailed analyses with things I didn’t catch or was lazy to look up and helped me to better understand the beauty of this show. But I couldn’t forget about that quarrel. This is also connected with the biggest battle that fans are fighting. I find it extremely interesting how a lot of viewers can’t understand the core problem of the show and are in a straight denial of the most obvious stuff (which is far from being straight).
So after months of playing with the thought to write something publicly and a few weeks of writing it (after busy workdays), here I am posting this as another help to all clever and observative fans to reinforce their analyses which provided tons of rainbow evidence.
To understand my approach, to how I analyzed Stranger Things, I have to first address some general stuff which can be applied to any film or TV show.
If you want to have a clear idea about what Stranger Things really is, e.g. the subtext of this show, you have to start with the basics. And with the basics I mean how scripts are written structurally and what storytelling tools (the building blocks) screenwriters use to deliver the message they want even if they don’t want to show it directly for different reasons. Writers do this all the time. For centuries. Be it a movie, a TV show, a theatrical performance or a book. All of these media use basically the same types of tools dating long before any of these media were invented. As I want to focus on Stranger Things, unfortunately, here I have no space or time to go deep into everything and if you are interested or hearing about them for the first time, I recommend you to do a self study (maybe re-visiting your notes from literature classes you had in high school can help too). I’m going to really scratch only the surface, but I’ll try to be as clear as possible with my ideas. Plus, English is not my first language, nor the second, so I apologize if there will be any grammatical or stylistical errors.
When I want to analyze a movie or a TV show I always have to keep in mind that everything I see is by design. The characters set-up, the era in which the story takes place, how the characters behave, how they speak, their facial expression, what they wear, how they move, where they stand, the blocking, the music used, the props used, the lighting used, the camera work, etc.. Everything is by design and serves a purpose. Sometimes little errors pop up, especially in TV shows with several seasons, but otherwise we usually deal with a meticulously orchestrated piece of art.
However, before the filming starts the script is written. If the script is written by true professionals there’s always a subtext (sometimes even several levels). And, actually, a lot of times the subtext which represents the core topic of the work to be created precedes the main plot. This means that the author first decides about what they want to write and only after that they choose how they want to tell their story.
Now, to create a subtext within the main script for basically any movie or TV show there are 3-4 basic tools which writers use: metaphor, allegorical character and mirroring/mirror character. After deciding on the theme/topic of the script and basic plot through which they want to explore the chosen theme and creating the main character(s), they use these tools to expand the information they want to share about the world/circumstances they created and about the main character(s) who have to deal with various challenges. Knowing how these tools work helps you to decode them, which, honestly, is not an easy task at all as we don’t see into the writers’ heads. But fortunately the writers usually give us clues to figure stuff out.
So, basic definitions in storytelling can be like this:
A metaphor is a concrete thing (usually an object) representing a more or less abstract thing.
An allegorical character is (usually) a side character representing a more or less abstract thing.
Mirroring happens when a scene mirrors another scene or a scene mirrors something that happened in the past, may or may not happen in the future, the main character wishes it to happen or happens in an alternative reality which would be the main reality if the character took another path or made a different choice.
A mirror character is a side character mirroring the main character and giving us wider information about the main character’s past, possible future, his beliefs, wishes, hidden thoughts or worries; or a mirror character can also show us what personality the main character would have if his life took an alternative path or made a different choice. Etc.
The possibilities with mirroring and mirror characters are immeasurable and depend only on the writers’ immagination and skills. Sometimes it can be so insane that, depending on the context, one main character can mirror the other main character or the hero can mirror the anti-hero and vice versa, and trying to decipher it results in your brain exploding.
(Note: Please don’t mix up mirror characters with foil characters. They have a different purpose in storytelling. They are used to accentuate something on the main character by putting them in contrast with other characters. For example, the writer wants to show how brave their character is, they create a side character whose only purpose is to be a coward and then they put these two characters together in a situation where the brave character will show heroism.)
In this text I will shortly explain some of the metaphors I have found in Stranger Things, go deeper in the allegorical characters territory as this fired my need to let my thoughts out and sit for hours in front of the computer (after hours of sitting in front of the computer in work), and only touch briefly mirroring, leaving you enough space if you want to play a detective hunt to find all the metaphors or try to figure out the mirroring game the writers used on their characters.
When it comes to metaphors there is something I like to call ‘the holy trinity’. There are 3 metaphors which are so widely used and so telling that even someone who has never heard about the concept of a metaphor can catch them or understand their meaning on a more or less subconscious level. These are: water, music and food.
The last one, the food, is the most obvious one. I think the word “foodgasm” is known to everyone and a lot of times, using the same reasoning in cinematography, food is a metaphor for sex. There’s one comedy released in 1999 where they took this metaphor too literally at one point and I think totally made fun of this whole concept of food representing sex. I think most of you know which movie I’m referring to…
The water is a lot of times a metaphor for feelings/emotions. It can represent a wide range of feelings to be precise, positive or negative. Deep diving into the ocean can represent deep feelings, storm a confusion in one's feelings or frozen/dried out lake lack of feelings.
Music is usually a metaphor for love. Not necesarily romantic. When a mother in a movie sings a lullaby for her baby this shows maternal love, when a musician composes a song for his/hers beloved one then it’s a romantic love or if the character is tone deaf that can mean he/she is not able to love.
Although these 3 metaphors are used in their respective meanings in a plethora of movies/TV shows, it is important to remember that it doesn’t have to be always like that and every time we have to analyze the metaphor in the specific setting of the movie and in its own context, because the writers can assign any meaning to any object they want to use as a metaphor just based on how they woke up that specific morning or use the “flip the coin” method for deciding. I'm exaggerating a bit here, but you get my point.
Luckily for us, the writers of Stranger Things kept the coins in their pockets and stuck with the widely used meaning for water and music. For food, thankfully, they did something else. Or at least it seems that the food stands for something like giving/showing, needing or wanting/demanding love or affection. But honestly, I mostly avoided checking the meaning deeply as I would feel uncomfortable if I found more explicit things. The story starts when the main characters are still on the verge of puberty and even 4 seasons later they are still too young for me to go any deep into this territory. Although we have some action with the older characters so the writers didn’t avoid that topic completely, for me personally specifically looking for the existence of a sex-related metaphor is a big no no.
But back to the other metaphors. I think the most iconic use of the water metaphor is probably the Lover's Lake, a heart-shaped big mass of water, directly connecting the water with the strongest emotion - love. A lot of things happen around and in this lake. It’s no coincidence that one of the gates opened on the bottom of the lake tearing it apart. And of all the characters it was specifically Dustin who named it a “watergate”.
It was also Dustin who in S1 E1 said: “Can you feel it?”, complaining about the rain shortly before him, Mike and Lucas walked into the forest where they found El. When they found El it was a total downpour.
And when Mike and Will had the argument where Mike insensitively said that it’s not his fault that Will doesn’t like girls? It started to rain. Later when Will is crying in Castle Byers and then demolishes it the rain is really heavy. Both these 2 connected scenes are full of emotions and Will’s despair is accentuated by that heavy pouring rain.
Also, when El wants to find someone she needs to submerge in water using some kind of water tank. When she is searching for someone and is inside her mind there is always a water she walks in. El is driven by her emotions, her powers depend on her emotions. And her love for all the main characters is what directs her decisions.
An interesting fact also is that there is no water present in the Upside Down. The lake is dry and the pool in S1 in which Barb was wetting her feet is completely dry as well. Meaning that Upside Down is a realm without feelings, or at least without the emotion of love.
Music is also very important on this show. Not just because the writers seem to love the 80’ music and it gives a lot of us a warm feeling of nostalgia, but it serves a purpose. Through music Johnatan communicates his love and support to his brother Will. Will sings when he is trapped in Upside Down contemplating if he should stay or “go” (i.e. die). And its music aka love that keeps Max alive and prevents Vecna from getting her. If it was not emphasized enough during the first 3 seasons, I think in S4 they went all in, culminating everything in the grand finale of Eddie's guitar solo.
Oh, and we should not forget Dustin singing ‘Never ending story’ which I’ll keep for later as I have a quite hilarious theory regarding this and a part of the S3 plot. Trust me you will like it!
There’re two other metaphors I want to write about but to understand them I need to address the biggest metaphor of the show first. The Upside Down. If you google Upside Down the AI function gives you this answer: “In Stranger Things, the Upside Down is a dark, decaying alternate dimension that mirrors our world, characterized by a toxic atmosphere, ash-like spores, ghoulish webs, and root-like tendrils.” Basically we can describe it as a realm which looks like our world but is dark, terrifying, toxic and when a human is trapped in there they are all left alone haunted by nightmarelike creatures. This place is slowly sucking the life out of them. We saw how Will almost died there. So what exactly is Upside Down a metaphor for? What abstract concept this physical place represents and why was it Will who happened to get trapped in in the first episode of S1? First of all we have to determine what type of a TV show Stranger Things is. Officially is labeled as horror but I personally think it is a coming of age story. The kids are around 12 in S1 slowly growing and if we exclude all the strange things happening in Hawkins, the kids experience all the bad and the good kids their age experience - friendship, love, middle- and highschool problems, slowly grooving up. Now raise your hand, all of you who felt like they were living a horror story during puberty. One day you are happily playing D&D and the next day you feel like you live in a different world feeling all kinds of confusing things. Now imagine a little boy who suddenly realizes that feelings he felt towards his best friend are not friendship anymore. They’ve suddenly changed into something different, deeper, what he shouldn’t feel for another boy. Especially not in the 1980s when proper knowledge and positive societal inclusion was still heavily lacking all over the world (not to mention what stigma being gay held in the 1980s). Add also an abusive father to the formula, who is fortunately not in his life anymore, but had a deep impact on the boy’s mental wellbeing calling him week or fag. What do you think this boy would do? In what abstract place he would end up? He would be terrified to death, locking himself up in a closet he created so nobody would find out. This place would look like our normal world but it would be dark, cold, terrifying, lonely and eating him alive. Isn’t this the exact same description we are given for the Upside Down? When Will was sucked into Upside Down he projected Hawkins into that place. The Hawkins how it looked at that moment and even later it’s still stuck in that same time when it was created, not evolving in time like the normal world. Therefore I think Upside Down is a metaphor for ‘the closet’, Will’s ‘closet’. (Note: In the following seasons this concept is widened for the purposes of political agenda the writers incorporated into the subtext as well and I will shortly address this at the end as this so not the scope of this text here, but it is important to mention it to have a clear picture.)
Now, as I will show later, Mike is also in his own kind of a closet, but he’s lucky to have a stable family environment and it takes more time for him to realize and admit what he feels towards Will. So basically Will knows what he feels so his closet is about the fear caused by trauma and Mike’s closet is about the fear to admit to himself what he really feels (I will discuss this more in depth throughout the text).
As for those two metaphors I want to write about too, they are communication devices and light. I think that the communication devices on the show serve as a metaphor too. They serve as a means to reach someone's heart/soul or when someone's heart/soul wants to communicate something. If the show was set in modern days they would probably use just mobile phones. But in the 80’ only landline telephones existed therefore the writers came up with a genius idea of employing walkie-talkies. For plot purposes they obviously need phone calls which are probably just phone calls, like when Nancy calls Mrs. Driscoll. But in S1 when Will tried to communicate with Joyce, I believe, can be read as him with his heart and soul trapped in the Upside Down/closet trying to communicate with his mother who knew that there was something wrong with her boy. Mothers who love their kids usually know. They can feel something has changed and is off with their children. But for Will, trapped in a closet, communicating what is going on with him was extremely hard. This was represented by the phone wires getting completely burnt. Several times. But he could feel his mother’s worrying and attempted to reach him and with all his strength left he finally replied using lights (multicoloured rainbow Christmas lights!). While solid lights represent willingness to open up and seek help, flickering lights are a warning that there are a lot of frightening monsters (homophobia, abuse, childhood trauma, etc.) threatening Will. At the end of S1 Will is rescued thanks to Joyce's extreme effort to find him, reach out to him through her heart and love. Thankfully she finds him on time before he dies (subtextually probably before he tries to commit su*c*de, as there are several hints that are indicating this) but that doesn't mean he is out of danger now. S2 showed us how deeply connected Will still was with the Upside Down and in S3&4 he still is able to feel its presence. People who have ever experienced being deep in the closet can confirm that even after finding love and creating a happy life the closet will never go away completely, it will always stay somewhere on the back of their mind lurking for the opportunity to trap them again. It is only on us, the society, to not give it a chance.
There are obviously other metaphors I don’t have space to address here (like nerdyness on this show is clearly an equivalent to queerness), I didn’t figure them out completely yet (like the drugs in S4) or didn’t catch them at all. So if you have more ideas let me know your thoughts.
Using these metaphors allow me to build up on the structure of the script even more analyzing the allegorical characters.
As I mentioned at the beginning the quarrel for the hearts was the trigger to write this text here. So who is the heart? Mike or Dustin? Well, the writers actually told us everything we need to know in this concern using D&D and Will himself. Depending on season, Mike as the leader of the group is the dungeon master or paladin. Will (“Will the Wise”) is a wizard or a cleric. Dustin is a dwarf or a bard. Lucas (Sundar the Bold) is a knight fighter or a ranger. However, to understand my thought process regarding the hearts I have to introduce you to the concept widely used in storytelling - the ‘heart and mind’ allegory in couple dynamics, which doesn’t necessarily mean that the couple is in a romantic relationship but it usually does. The prime examples are all the cheesy love stories in which a freeminded American girl driven by her emotions meets with a narrow minded emotionless heir of some made-up European principality. They fell in love and her love helps him to open up and free his emotions. In their couple dynamics she represents the heart and he the mind. Or think about detective/crime stories/series where there are two main characters. A good example is the BBC Sherlock. Sherlock, the mind, dreading any close relationship until he meets Holmes, the heart, who has his own problems. But together they help each other. Sherlock opens up and Holmes repairs his broken soul. Something similar is going on in Stranger Things as well. However, here both Mike and Will are smart and full of emotions at the same time, therefore, I think, the writers decided to give us a hint. They nicknamed Will as ‘Will the Wise’ assigning him ‘the mind’ and made Will directly call Mike ‘the heart’. Moreover Mike is also the leader of the group. This means that in their couple dynamics not the mind/brain/rationality leads and makes decisions but the heart/feelings/love. So, Mike is definitely the heart of the show, but he as a character also has his own heart and mind. There is a scene in S1 E 1 when Hopper was interrogating the boys about Will. Mike is sitting in the middle having Dustin seated on his left side (where the heart is) and Lucas on his right side. Mike is sitting there silently for a good while while Dustin and Lucas argue if the name of the path where Dustin parted with Will is from The Lord of the rings or Hobbit (stories where I can’t decide which one of them has more queer vibes). It seems like a little funny unimportant thing, but it shows how shocked and confused Mike was when Will suddenly disappeared. He knew something was going on (look at his sad expression in that scene) but didn’t understand what, yet. He was trying to figure out the situation but both his heart and mind were confused and couldn’t decide on such a simple thing from where that road is even though both of them probably read those books several times already.
Honestly, it takes Mike a lot of time to fully realize his feelings. Why?
Take a look at Lucas first. He is smart, practical, athletic and, in line with this, in D&D his character named Sundar the Bold is a knight fighter (or ranger). He is suspicious and doesn't like El at the beginning (keep this in mind, it will be clear why a little later). He wants to be popular and not bullied anymore. Taken all these clues together, I think Lucas is an allegorical character (a personification) of Mike’s mind. Lucas is the walking-talking brain of Mike. And he always has strong opinions on things. Do you remember how he ‘educated’ Mike what he should do to earn El back after their argument? BTW, at this point Mike seems to be still in denial or trying to convince himself that he’s only into girls (and the code in S3 still has to be cracked). Taken together, Lucas nicely illustrates the thinking of a closetted young boy who wants to fit in with the norms. He wants to be normal like the other boys from school. But he misses his friends. He is very conflicted (as we see in S4). Oh! And he likes Max! That is important (put a pin on this for a little while too).
So, if Lucas is Mike’s mind, then Dustin has to represent his heart. Right? Lucas and Dustin are his only friends left after Will goes missing in S1. To be honest, Lucas was quite clear to me, but, although I believe that Dustin is an allegorical character for heart, I pondered a lot going back and forth if he is Will’s heart or Mike's. If Will is marked as the brain then it would be nice to meet his heart and vice versa if Mike’s the heart, introducing his brain as a character is also needed. And probably this is also how one can interpret these characters, but for me, considering the wider narrative and Dustin himself, I think he represents Mike’s heart.
However, I should explain why I think he is the ‘heart’ first. It’s not just because Lucas is the mind. Dustin is portrayed as a Bard in D&D. He is cheerful, funny and a lovable character. He is good at storytelling, able to keep the group's spirits up and can sing! (Bards used to use singing in their storytelling.) He builds a giant radio to communicate with his ‘girlfriend’ and they sing together - a character which represents a heart uses a device metaphorically connected to a communication with the heart and performs a musical ability, i.e metaphorically shows/emits love. This is a nice example of how metaphors and allegorical characters work together and how they should be read together to understand the subtext. I mentioned earlier that I have a funny theory about Dustin’s singing and this little hint here is a part of it but you still have to wait a little bit more. Now, why I think Dustin is Mike’s and not Will’s heart. At the beginning of S1 Will is sucked into the Upside Down. As I explained above, I think Upside Down is a metaphor for being in the closet. This means that Will has to be clearly aware of his feelings for Mike. In fact, he ends up there because he realizes that he is in love with a boy. Mike on the other hand is still clueless about his feelings (he is still only around 12 years old after all) but is slowly realizing them and then he goes into denial. This is reflected on Dustin. Although he is extremely smart, at the beginning he has a carefree childlike behavior walking around with his snacks. Not to mention the casting guys hit the jackpot with an actor having a real-life condition affecting his development. “My teeth are coming in.” is iconic for S1 and quite telling how Mike's heart is starting to realize his feelings. As the story progresses he remains the most kind character of all but really early also shows how emotionally intelligent he is. Later in the text I will give other examples how Dustin, an allegory for Mike’s heart, works with other characters which have different roles in the subtext supporting my theory about Dustin.
Little hint that Dustin represents Mike’s heart also comes in S1 E1 when Mr. Clark announces that a new radio has arrived and that its signal is able to reach as far as Australia. The kids are so excited. Mike greets the ether calling himself the president of Hawkins Middle AV Club then Dustin follows calling himself the secretary and the treasurer. And before Lucas manages to say something Hopper comes to interrogate them. It’s interesting that Dustin is a ‘treasurerer’. Subtextually, I don’t think he takes care of and handles with money. He’s a treasurer for something else that we believe resides in the heart - love.
Here again I opted for what I should explain sooner. But to understand the other characters, especially Max, it is important to talk about El and her roles in the script first. I wrote ‘roles’ because she has textual and subtextual roles. The textual role is basically being the hetero girlfriend for Mike to complicate the things for him and for the plot. But her subtextual role is basically being the main heroine of the story.
You might think: “What the heck? She is obviously the main heroine in the story! In the plot she’s the girl with the superpowers saving the world!”
Well, exactly! That is the point (which might melt your hearts). Let me explain…
What do we know about her? She was kept locked in a facility from her birth, she opened the gate to the Upside Down, she escaped more or less in the same time when Will went missing and Mike found her (in the woods while it was heavily raining). So based on what I wrote above I decode this as follows: ‘Something’ that was locked escaped and opened a door to a place which represents ‘the closet’ and as a result Will, about whom we know is gay, was trapped in ‘ the closet’. Then in an attempt to find his friend, Mike finds something else in a heavy rain (i.e. during a very emotional state). Then what does Mike do? He keeps El (that something) in the basement, once he literally shows her in the closet and El has a panic attack there. He feeds her leftovers or sweets, metaphorically he gives her poor emotional affection but he feels bad about it and wants her to have proper meals, i.e. he wants to express affection to that ‘something’ he found while raining but it is impossible while he hides it. In S2 El is again/still kept in hiding. Now it’s Hopper who does not allow her to go out freely in the fear that Dr. Brenner of the government (or in general ‘the bad guys’) would find her and lock her again in the facility to do experiments on her or eliminate her forever. In S3 Mike has problems expressing his feelings for El, he is struggling. This continues throughout S4 until that big declaration of love in the last episode which a lot of fans take as an ultimate proof that Mike loves his hetero girlfriend. Well, if there wasn’t any subtext then it probably would be true. But we all know that subtext exists and in this case the subtext seems to be about a love two boys share. That love is the main hero of this show. Or rather the main heroine. Want proof? In that love declaration Mike said one weird sentence: “You can move mountains!” referring to El’s superpowers. I don’t know about you, but I know only about one superpower that is able to move mountains - LOVE. A very interesting choice of an idiom used world wide one would say. So, yes. I believe El is an allegorical character representing the love Will and Mike feel for each other.
El was the reason why Will was sucked into the Upside Down means that when Will realized he is in love with Mike he shut himself in the closet. But Mike also struggles. He knows that what he feels Will is not only friendship anymore, but has a big problem to admit it. And is actually angry at his feelings because he knows that it’s something that is considered a mental health issue at that time. In S1 Lucas (Mike’s brain) doesn’t like El at all. He even says that she probably escaped from Pennhurst. Later in the season Mike and Lucas even fight because Lucas is scared of EL and calls her a freak. This is how Mike's mind reacts to his feelings for Will at first. Later Lucas accepts El but we still see him wanting to belong to the cool hetero guys. Mike is struggling and in the vision of the possibility to comfort himself in hetero life he dates El ‘the hetero girlfriend’ but it’s not working at all (also for Lucas being popular is not working). Interestingly, Dustin likes El from the start and finds her super cool with her superpowers. Mike in his heart accepts the feeling for Will.
Although I don’t have enough space to cover all 4 seasons breaking down every scene with El, where she is the ‘hetero girlfriend’ and where the ‘gay love’, let me mention some which remained in my memory. And in two of them Dustin, who represents Mike's heart and finds El awesome from the start, appears. The first one is in S1 when the bullies threaten Mike that they will harm Dustin if he doesn't jump off the cliff. Dustin cries that he doesn’t need his teeth. But Mike rather dies than to let his heart be harmed so he jumps. As he is falling down, El storms in and using her superpowers she saves him. This scene has a strong symbolism if you think of it. Those bullies represent the general society. They give him an ultimatum. Or he stays true to his feelings, but this means that the society will exclude him (figuratively he dies) or he does as the society tells him and they let him be, but then his heart will be mutilated. This is an extremely hard decision to make for such a young boy. He chooses his heart, risking his place in society. But love saves him, love gives society a lecture. The message here is clear: It doesn’t matter what society thinks, if you stay true to your heart and to your feelings, love finds you and saves your life.
The second scene is the one in S3 E7 when El and Mike sit on the floor in the supermarket. Mike wants to tell El how he feels but he still can’t verbalize it. He is clumsily trying to say at least something that would make sense to El (it doesn’t), when Dustin calls ‘code red’ through the walkie-talkie. He says that he is sorry for not being there but it’s not because he was angry, then he admits that he was actually angry, but he was also trapped underground in a Secret Russian base where the Russians want to open the gate to Upside Down. Skipping the whole Russian thing for now, but why would Dustin be angry with Mike? Because he left him and the others on that hill in S3 E1 and preferred to be with this girlfriend? (BTW, this short S3 E1 scene is an example where El is ‘the girlfriend’.) Plotwise this doesn’t make much sense as Dustin is busy saving the country from the Russians, basically the whole S3, but subtextually this tells us how Mike's heart feels. Exactly at the moment when Mike tries to express something his heart goes shalalalala how he is feeling abandoned and that he is trapped somewhere underground while Mike is lovely-dovey with his new girlfriend. Yeah, so much about the involvement of Mike’s heart in his hereto relationship.
Also, do you remember that iconic talk Will and Mike had in the van in S4? How Will stated that it was El who told him to paint that painting? Plotwise it’s a lie, but subtextually he is not lying. He did that painting because his love for Mike inspired him and wanted to give him a gift. He wanted to show him his feelings. Also, that whole conversation is of course much more deep when you decode it as Mike talking about El aka the love he feels for Will as something special and that he’s afraid of losing this love. Mike: “She is special. She was born special. Maybe I was one of the first people to realize that. But the truth is, when I stumbled on her in the woods, she just needed someone. It’s not fate. It’s not destiny. It’s just simple dumb luck. And one day she’s gonna realize I’m just some random nerd…” At this point in the story he is so in love with Will that he fears losing him. But Will assures him that for him he is the core of his love. He is the heart and without him they’d fall apart. Without Mike there’s no love for Will. When you consider only the textual plot their whole conversation is one sided and a lot of fans hate Mike for his obliviousness. But if we consider the subtext the picture widens to them both talking about the love they feel for each other. Love which is special and different but so strong that it can move mountains.
Oh, also note that El has a picture of a rainbow in her room and in the lab facility the gate which sucked in Vecna into Upside Down El created in that rainbow room.
In this show there’s a lot of rainbows to make sure that the audience understands that this is a gay story.
Anyway… if El is ‘love’, the question which arises is what represents Vecna? I noticed that the writers like to play with opposites or alternative outcomes. Therefore, if Vecna resides in the Upside Down, the simplest answer would be opposite to love, i.e. ‘hate’. But of course it is a bit more complex, especially when taking into account the political agenda this TV show also has. I think in the narrowest meaning we can read him as the hate people, who closetted themselves, because of the circumstances surrounding them, can develop. First they only feel like they do not belong anywhere, then they start to hate their parents who don’t understand them and later they aim their hatred at the general population. The hate Vecna represents is the most manipulative, destructive and toxic kind a misunderstanding and an oppression can cause. And then, usually the first victims of this hate are innocent people who suffer themselves. Vecna preyed on young troubled kids - a girl who had ED because of her mother, a boy who was traumatized and felt guilt for not helping the victims of the car accident and another boy who suffered from verbal abuse from his father (likely also physical). And by killing his victims Vecna gained powers. As it was revealed in S4, Vecna formed and controlled the Mindflyer. Therefore, we can assume that William Hargrove aka Billy was also possessed and killed by Vecna as he was the one (pun unintended) pulling the string the whole time. Billy’s background also made him the perfect victim. He grew up abused by his father after his mother ran away and became a bully and an arshole. He is a prime example of a closetted gay boy who, due to the circumstances he was raised in, grew up to become a bully hating everyone around him and wanting them to suffer as much as he had to suffer for years and is still suffering. (Thankfully, there are also gay boys whose mothers get rid of abusive fathers and love their children unconditionally.) Here, of course I don’t want to say that Billy was a closetted gay textually, I just want to emphasize that his function in the subtext could be to show how some gay people can end if they are treated badly while growing up.
If I read Vecna correctly, then someone like El had to be extremely tempting for him to convert to his beliefs. She was still young and innocent but already so powerful. He tried to convince El to believe that he wants to help her. He knew that El’s powers were special. If he wanted to create a world based on his vision he needed her. He needed her powers, wanted her powers to use for himself, to cannibalize them and use them against all the people who ever let him down and who he despised (well, basically everyone) and create a new reality. He tried to convince El that she can use her full power potential if she will draw her strength from sad or angry memories because she also held trauma inside. But thankfully it didn’t work. El, by her very nature, is different. She is caring, selfless and seeks happiness for everyone she loves and doesn’t want anything in return. Just to be loved as well. She is basically everything Vecna isn’t. And after Vecna failed in converting her he decided to destroy her as she represented danger for him. Based on this I want to think positive and I hope that at the end of the series we see how pure and unconditional love wins over hatred. Fingers crossed.
Now, I intentionally left out Max when writing about Vecna above, but now we can finally talk about her. Not just why she was targeted by Vecna but also why she was introduced only in S2. You see, in S1, Mike (main character 1), Lucas (Mike's mind) and Dustin (Mike's heart) were the main kids present on screen. Will (main character 2) was present only as a lost boy showing up here and there although having a strong ’offscreen’ presence. Also the core cause of all the problems was introduced - El (heroine of the story representing gay love). After Will was saved from dying in Upside Down and from S2 was present fully on screen as well, it was logical to add a character to tell us more about him as a character. The whole first season it was hinted that Will’s gay, therefore it is no surprise that the new character introduced seems to be an allegorical character for Will’s sexuality. Here again, I’m not completely sure as Max can also be Will’s heart (definitely not brain) but in the wider context for me it makes more sense if Max represents Will's sexuality. First of all, if Billy represents a deeply closetted and extremely traumatized gay guy who became savage, then his behaviour of terrorizing and blaming Max for everything that happened to him fits perfectly. Secondly, Vecna choosing Max/Will’s sexuality as one of his victims also fit the narrative.
Then, it was Mike who didn’t like Max at first and didn’t want her to be a part of their party. In S2 E2 when the boys go trick-or-treating and Max joins them Mike is extremely annoyed by her and, interestingly, blames Will that she joined. Mike: “Did you agree to this?” Will: “What?” Mike:“Her, joining our party.” Will: “It’s just for Halloween.” Mike: “You should have checked with me.” Will:“Well, they were excited (Dustin and Lucas). I guess I thought you’d be okay with it.” Mike: “She’s ruining the best night of the year.” During the only night of the year when both Mike and Will can be whoever they want and both Mike’s brain and heart are excited to know more about the new ‘friend’ they met, Mike is annoyed and says that Max (Will’s sexuality) is ruining the fun they could have. This has to be painful for Will to hear and no wonder that the next thing that happens to him is that he falls back into Upside Down (the closet) again (although only mentally not physically). What I find particularly interesting is how Lucas and Dustin reacted to Max. They both were extremely into her the moment they found out she’s the one who beat Dustin’s score in the video game. And that Lucas is the one who eventually started dating her was quite a good choice subtextually-speaking. It tells us that Mike’s mind is playing with the idea of being with Will, but we saw how problematic their relationship was in S3&4. Through their interactions we see that Mike has problems accepting his feelings for Will, although they are strong. But slowly he realizes that his behaviour towards Will is hurting him and throws him back to the darkness (Vecna going after Max). This realization is partially shown by the conversation Lucas and Max had in S4E6 when Lucas says that he is sorry that he wasn’t there for her, that it wasn’t Max who disappeared but him not looking hard enough but now he sees her. This, together with the whole Eddie’s character arc of finding strength to not hide anymore and fight for love and subsequently inspiring Dustin (we saw in the S5 spoiler that he took upon Eddie's legacy), led to the big final love confession Mike had in S4 finale. Max is seriously wounded and unconscious at the end of S4. Therefore the question is if Mike managed to do it on time? We’ll see in the last season.
There are also other things pointing to Max being allegory for Will’s sexuality. Like her clothing playing with all the various colors from different queer flags but mostly yellow, the rainbow blanket that can be spotted in her bed when she and El had a sleepover or her overall connection with El in S3.
After 3 seasons of different gay-coded characters, in S3 we are finally introduced to the first openly gay character (at least to Steve and us the viewers) - Robin. Here, I think the same thing happened as in S2 - a new allegorical character for Will is introduced. In S2 Will was still under the influence of the Mindflyer but then he was freed from him and in S3 we meet Robin. Actually we are introduced to one other character, Suzy, but I come back to her in a sec. Robin is smart, intelligent, she speaks several languages, likes movies and is able to crack the Russian code. But, similarly to Will, she’s also artistically gifted as plays in the school orchestra. She’s not just brain-coded like Will but also can express love like Will (shown through the music metaphor). She’s also in a seemingly unrequited love. And if there are not enough hints in S4 E8 there’s a scene where she sees Vickie kissing her boyfriend. The shot nicely mirrors one other scene from the end of the same episode (for you to understand my point here, I need to talk about mirroring a little bit, although I did not address the mirror characters yet). However, there is a ginormous difference. In the first scene Robin is sad seeing the girl kissing her boyfriend. Here Vickie mirrors Mike and that boy mirrors El ‘the girlfriend’. Robin is shocked and almost crying. On the other hand, in the later scene, the mirroring counterpart, Will is smiling. He’s happy seeing Mike and El together. In the first scene it’s Mike and El ‘the girlfriend’ and Will’s almost crying. Here it’s Mike and El ‘the gay love’ being affectionate towards each other and Will is smiling. After a long long journey through a desert (where there's lack of water) Mike and Will finally found El (i.e. their love). They came to rescue her. When they last saw her, she was sad and broken without her powers. But now she gained them back and is stronger than she ever was.
Anyway… it’s interesting to listen to what Robin has to say as she is a walking-talking Will’s brain. In S4 E1, somewhere at the beginning Robin expresses to Steve her fears to confess her love to Vickie. It is a seemingly funny scene but if you think about it deeply, it is exactly how Will has to feel towards Mike who’s giving him mixed signals.
To be honest, I also contemplated if Robin’s not Will’s heart too, similarly as I was pondering about Max. And the reason is that, although I think that the most fitting allegorical character for Will’s heart is Suzy (yes, Suzy), I don’t have enough information on Suzy. She just didn’t have enough screen time. However, she’s perfect. Probably too perfect. She’s Dustin’s girlfriend. You know, heart to heart. They sing together, expressing love to each other. Dustin had a hard time connecting with her. He had to build a fkng Cerebro antenna and drag it to the top of the hill. All the kids were sweating and complaining about that hike and Mike was interested only in his performative affection to his girlfriend. It’s no wonder that at that time Suzy didn’t reply. The heart tried, but Mike was so occupied with his girlfriend that he didn’t care. Nobody even believed Suzy existed. I don’t think this means that Will has no heart. That's stupid. It’s more about that Will doesn’t believe that Mike can be in love with him and Mike doesn’t want to believe in his feelings to be that kind of love and tries to ignore them. But Dustin eventually connects with her and everyone hears her and Dustin sing together. Two hearts singing together a love song of a never-ending story (no this is not that funny theory of mine, you still have to wait a little more). Then, thanks to Suzy, the world is saved and the gate to the Upside Down (i.e. the closet) isn’t opened again.
In S4, when the boys are searching for El, it’s Mike’s idea to go find Suzy because he thinks she is the only one who can help them with the coordinates to locate El. This nicely connects with what I wrote previously. After a long journey Mike and Will finally found El thanks to the coordinates given by Suzy. Will's heart shows them the road to their love.
In connection with Suzy, one thing is also interesting. She lives in Salt LAke City, Utah, which is known to be located in a high desert climate with low air humidity (i.e. lack of water in the air). This probably also supports my premise of Suzy representing Will’s heart and the fact how lonely Will must feel. When it comes to visual hints, I can’t remember any rainbows in the house she lives in or in her room, just those yellow curtains on her room’s window.
On the other hand, where I spotted a rainbow was on a door to Erica’s room and Erica is the last allegorical character I want to write about. Until now I determined Will’s sexuality, mind and heart and Mike’s mind and heart. The only thing missing is, logically, Mike's sexuality. Similarly to Dustin whose teeth have to grow to be able to bite, Erica is first introduced in S2 as still a small child (but already super annoying Lucas). While Dustin needs to learn to stand-up for himself and find the courage to become a hero, Erica already can express her needs and wants, but she needs to grow up a little bit and admit that she is in reality a nerd Did I write somewhere above that I believe that in Stranger Things being ‘a nerd’ means being ‘gay’? I can’t remember as this whole text is much longer than I expected it to be. So yes, I think that Mike gradually understands what he wants to do when dating someone. He just denies the fact that he wants to do those various exciting things with Will and not with El ‘the girlfriend’. In S3 it is specifically Dustin (Mike’s heart) who explains to her that indeed she IS a nerd. She doesn’t seem to be happy about this revelation at first but in S4 we see her fully indulge in D&D and she is extremely annoyed that she has to cover-up for Lucas when he is trying to fit in with the cool kids. Several times I mentioned that Stranger Things also has a political agenda and I think that layer lightly touches Erica too. She is interested in politics and in S3 she states: “There’s no America without Erica.” What I interpret as ‘there’s no America without queer people’. Although Erica didn’t have much screen time, and therefore I still have a question mark next to her, the fact is that she can be linked to Dustin through their similarity of being introduced to us as still in the need of ‘development’ shifts her towards an allegory for Mike. Moreover her interest in politics links her to 2 mirror characters whose occupation (journalist and sheriff) can be also determined as public service or serving to the community. And these 2 mirror characters are mirroring Mike.
Yep, Mike. So now is the time to finally address mirror characters.
As I wrote somewhere at the beginning, mirroring can be absolutely insane and hard to spot and unravel (due to the extent of this text, I will only focus on characters). But despite this, the first thing I noticed even before everything I wrote above was the love triangle between Nancy, Steve and Johnatan. And after I realized that Will is into boys and more specifically he loves Mike and that Mike is seemingly into El, the mirror triangle was clear as water (pun not intended). Nancy is a mirror for Mike, Jonathan is a Mirror for Will and Steve is a mirror for El ‘the girlfriend’. If the constellation of the triangle wouldn’t be clear enough, the writers also gave us other clues. Nancy and Johnatan are both siblings of the main characters. Jonathan is also artistic like Will and Nancy turns out to have leadership qualities. We got a subtle hint when Joyce in S1 E4 suddenly wakes up from a sleep hearing Will calling her but it was Johnatan who was standing over her waking her up. A less subtle hint we got in the S2 finale when Steve wakes up in a car after he was beaten up by Billy. With still a blurred vision he thinks he sees Nancy sitting next to him, but it’s Mike. Little things like this really can help to determine the situation in the mirroring.
Regarding Steve, his main function in S1 is to mirror El ‘the girlfriend’. That tempting hetero relationship Mike could have with El comforting to the societal norms. But as we can see through Steve’s relationship with Nancy, it can end in a big fiasco. Later, when Steve befriends the kids and becomes the most famous babysitter in Hawkins, his role in the script gains another function. But what this function is, I don’t know for sure. One tiny hint may be the rainbow plaster which appears on his swollen lip in the car scene I mentioned above. But more clues we get thanks to his iconic friendship with Dusting and how great a duo he forms with Robin. He wants to protect the kids and he’s still drawn to Nancy. This protectiveness and captivation by Nancy seem so similar to El's need to protect and save her friends and her fondness for Mike. Therefore I am contemplating if Steve is the mirror for El ‘the girlfriend’ maybe he’s also a mirror for El ‘the love’. When you think about it, love is not only about big gestures and seriousness but also about fun and goofiness. A good relationship is not only about having a partner by your side who stands by you when you need it, but also having a friend with whom you can laugh, play the silly one and feel relaxed. So maybe Steve is that second voice Mike’s and Will’s love needs to show us how wholesome their relationship can become. When I think about it now, the fact that Steve is good friends especially with Dustin, Mike’s heart, and Robin, Will’s mind, nicely ties back to the couple dynamics Mike and Will have - heart & mind. So maybe, I’m really on a good track here. IDK
Now back to Nancy. At first it seems like she really likes Steve but she is too ambitious to settle down and play the good housewife, especially as she has an example in a boring and loveless relationship with her own parents. Her ‘white girl from a good family problems’ might look like a cliche but if you mirror them on a young boy confused about his sexuality, then they tell a completely different story. In S4 we still see that Nancy is speculating if it wouldn’t be safer and easier for her to be with Steve. Even though we saw how unsatisfactory sleeping with Steve for Nancy (for different reasons) was compared to the excitement and desire she felt with Johnatan (in a different story we would probably also see some fireworks somewhere in the night sky), she is still not sure what she should do. This bothers Mike too, should he choose the safe but boring path of hetero lifestyle, or should he choose the risky but oh-so-thrilling of gay love. The positive message is that Nancy and Johnatan eventually got together, but their relationship is also not ideal. They still have a lot to discuss. Both of them have a lot of burden on their shoulders and they need to start communicating directly and openly. Let’s hope they figure it out and stay together as this could mean that also Mike and Will end up together and will have a healthy relationship. But as this show likes to play with different possibilities showing us what would happen if things turn out differently, this can also be one of those cases even if they will live happily ever after. That’s the tricky part in mirroring, you never know 100%.
Also, the reason is that there’s another set of characters mirroring Will and Mike - Joyce and Hopper. Maybe it’s weird that there are several mirrors for them, but Joyce and Hopper show different aspects of Will's and Mike’s personalities and worries.
In S1, Joyce’s function is primarily to be a mother who is trying to figure out what is happening to his son isolating himself and how she could help him. As I wrote in the part with the ‘communication metaphor’, Joyce made an extreme effort to find Will - metaphorically to connect with him again. I think the story of Joyce searching for her lost son can be seen as a parable. Joyce mirrors and encompasses all the parents in real life who found themselves in a situation when their children drifted away, stopped talking and shut themselves away. Parents who see the pain of their children but don't know its nature and the children are unable to communicate why they are suffering. Joyce represents all those parents who love their children unconditionally and through this love they are able to connect with them and help them to navigate through darkness which can be connected with the realization that they are queer. In later seasons, particularly through Joyce’s relationship to Hopper, Joyce shifts to mirror Will. The tension, all the excuses, it's similar to how Johnatan first reacted to Nancy. (And in S2 Joyce, Jonathan and Will had similar outfits, if I remember correctly, to give us a hint.) It was clearly worded by Murray that Johnatan has trust issues due to his abusive father. Joyce shared this trauma as that father was her husband but she also suffered another trauma when Bob died. I think Bob mirrors the time when Will was still unaware of the danger which comes with being a gay guy in the 1980s. He was nicknamed ‘Bob, the Brain’, worked as the manager at the town's local Radio Shack and he established the AV club, and according to Dustin, he was the one who taught Mr. Clark everything about the technical stuff. If I’m correct, then him being killed by a monster from the Upside Down was inevitable. So, on the surface Joyce is traumatized by Bob’s death, but subtextually it then means that Will, despite how much he wants to be with Mike, is scared of the consequences.
And what traumatizes Hopper? We know that he thinks that he’s damned and brings misfortune to everyone he loves. Honestly, I’m still pondering about the meaning of his background story, but through his interactions with El we can learn more about Mike’s fears to let his love for Will free. In S2 Hopper keeps El shut in the cabin. El hates it so much and always asks when she can go out. Hopper always tells her that as soon as the danger from the ‘bad guys’ will be abolished. But he never gives a clear answer when it will be. He is extremely angry when El goes out searching for Mike one day. And El is extremely hurt when Hopper forgets about her during Halloween night. She wanted to go trick-or-treat. That’s the only night in the year when you can pretend to be whoever you want or the night when you can be exactly who you are and nobody will notice. But Hopper is strictly against it. He is obviously scared of what would happen if El is found. He knows they would lock her in some facility and hurt her again. But at the same time he is irrationally cautious. This relationship mirrors how Mike thinks about his love for Will. In S2 finale, interesting is Mike's reaction when he finds out that Hopper (after finding El in the woods!) was hiding El the whole time. They discuss this alone, because this is basically Mike’s conversation with himself. Hopper wants him to know why he did what he did but Mike doesn’t understand, doesn’t want to understand. He then yells at Hoper that he blames him for hiding El and that nothing is about that is OK. He yells at Hopper that he is “stupid, disgusting lying piece of shit” and starts to cry. That poor boy wants the love he feels for Will and misses it so much when it’s not around but at the same time he is scared what would happen if someone finds out what kind of feelings he is keeping shut inside him. How conflicted that boy is.
But I think the best way to understand how Mike describes his love for Will is the letter Hopper wrote to El, which she reads and the end of S3 finale. It basically sums up everything I tried to explain on all those previous pages. Unfortunately, it would take up even more pages to break down that letter and this text is already too long. So if you want, play that scene and watch which character (keeping in mind their roles in the text I proposed) in different shots is tied to what words from that letter. Even without subtext analysis that letter is touching. But when you realize that it’s not addressed from Hopper to El, but from Mike to the love he feels for Will it’s poignant and sublime. But it gives us hope that Mike will find the strength to be with Will.
OooK, before I wrap this whole thing up, I will really slightly touch on one topic I am trying to avoid as much as possible, as it makes me uncomfortable because of the age of the main characters, but I will say it. There is an obvious sexual tension between Nancy and Johnatan and Hopper and Joyce. So, I think that there is an additional reason why Nancy mirroring Mike is a girl, why Mike compared himself to Lois Lane and why in Joyce’s and Hopper’s relationship it would be Joyce wearing the trousers, you know? Yeah, so… That’s max where I want to go, but I think you understand my point here.
There are obviously more different mirror characters for Mike and Will throughout 4 seasons but there’s no space for them here or I didn’t bother to look more closely so I don’t have much to say about them. Those 2 pairs are more than enough to follow I would say, especially after the last scene in S4 finale. In this scene, in the middle Mike (on the left) and Will (on the right) are standing. Behind them on each side of the frame two pairs of their mirrors are standing in the same exact order - Mike’s mirror on the left and Will’s mirror on the right. They all stand on a meadow full with rainbow-coloured flowers. In front of them El (the love they share) stands exactly on the border where the death coming from Upside Down starts. The symbolism in this last scene is loud and clear.
Knowing the structural backbone, the storytelling tools, how they work and how they are used to show possible outcomes, even foreshadowing, one might think that it is possible to determine how the show will end. If Stranger Things would be only a coming of age story of two closetted boys in love then perhaps it would be easier to state that the writers’ intentions lean towards a happy ending. However, this story is also a general discussion on gay life and relationships during the 1980s and more importantly it has a strong political agenda. That’s why it was set in the era of Reaganism. I’m not going to put my opinion in this as I’m not qualified to have any opinion on something that happened in a country far far away during the time I barely could speak. But I can describe what seems to be the writers’ opinion.
Following the second season, the metaphor of the Upside Down was widened to show what they think the dangers were brought by the Reagan administration, which began to cooperate with conservative groups. Moreover, in S2 Dr. Owens refers to what's going on with Will as ‘virus’. This is crucial to understand the political views of the writers.
For me, the most heartbreaking scene in S2 was the one in which Dr. Owens and his fellow scientists and doctors are sitting in a meeting room after Will’s mind was completely taken over by the Mindflyer (i.e. Vecna, as we learned in S4). Dr. Owens is upset because he is not able to help Will and asks his fellow colleagues for any ideas. And what do they do? They just silently sit there and absolutely do not care about the boy suffering from this mysterious condition referred to as ‘virus’ (this happens in a TV Show set in the 1980s). They want to continue to burn the vines not caring if Will dies or not. You understand what this whole scene is about? Why did the writers decide to include it right? Just watch Dr. Owen’s reaction to how helpless, angry and disappointed he is. Now imagine how all the healthcare professionals and social workers and everyone must have felt during the HIV epidemic in the US (in the 1980s) when the majority of professionals and politicians who had the power and capacity to do something let those poor people die just because of their sexual orientation. Although I’m not interested in the political views of the writers, I am sensitive to the suffering of others. For me that one scene in the meeting room describes the atmosphere in the 1980s perfectly. And it's tragic and heartbreaking.
The writers go even further in their political agenda by making Vecna kill for the first time in the 1950s. This, with the whole witchhunt on Eddie, is a clear reference to McCarthy's era of redscare and purplescare where also deeply closetted individuals (some seemingly also in the inner McCarthy's circle and some dying because of AIDS themselves) were hunting down queer people and making them lose their jobs and destroying their lives.
Taken all this political agenda together it’s hard to make clear conclusions on how the writers want to end the show. We can determine what their position on the issue is. But what will be their final message? What are their intentions with the whole story? Do they want to send a warning that if the ‘bad people’ will not be stopped then the gate to Upside Down will never be closed? Are they unwavering optimists who believe in happy endings and decide to show us their vision of how the world (or US) should look like, even if they are not sure if it is even possible with everything going on in the world? Or anything in between? We can’t say. Also there are other internal and external factors that might play a role in the decision we don’t know about (including the fans themselves).
If you ask me what I would prefer, I am a sucker for happy endings. And how would I make a happy ending to be in line with all the storytelling tools I think the writers employed? A happy ending digestible for everyone on both sides of the dispute - the ones who believe in Mike to be eternally in love with El (especially after that big confession at the end of S4) and the ones who believe in Mike to be eternally in love with Will (especially after that big confession at the end of S4)? We know that Vecna using his supernatural powers was able to transform into a different life form, possibly able to live in that state forever spreading darkness into our world ad souls. If Vecna’s powers have the same origin as El's, just him taking the path of hate compared to El who draws strength from love (and representing love itself), we can assume that she can possess the same ability of transformation. So, what I would do to seemingly please both sides without the need to pull Mike’s love for Will from the subtext is that I would make El sacrifice herself to become the watcher and the gatekeeper (the protector of the kids) so that the monsters from the Upside Down will never leak into our world again. El can’t die as would mean that the love between Will and Mike ended but she can’t stay in Hawkins and be Mike’s girlfriend either as that would mean that Mike decided to remain in the closet, to comfort and live a loveless life. And on the other hand Upside Down can’t be destroyed, the fear of ending in a closet never leaves the ones who once experienced it. That is a constant threat and only by feeling loved and being able to express love freely is it possible to live a fully happy life. Therefore I would make El destroy Vecna (not Upside Down itself) and transform her into a new entity to reach her full potential of power not just representing the love between Mike and Will but the ultimate love which can save the world.
However, for how the writers will end it, we still have to wait a little bit.
OK, I still owe you that fun theory of mine. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget. The reason I kept it to the end is because I had to first explain to you how I interpret the story with all the structural storytelling tools so you would understand what I’m going to write about next. This fun theory is actually a great example of how all the storytelling tools can work together and prove their credibility.
(The best way to know if you are correct with e.g. music being a metaphor for love is that it works throughout the whole story plot/script (in all seasons).)
Moreover, I have the courage to say that this theory is about the writers directly talking to the viewers and making a little bit of fun out of everyone who doesn’t believe that Mike is in love with Will and that Will is gay. A could even argue that that literal message is ‘How can you not see what is so obvious?’. So this theory reaches to the metatextual territory.
I did some research and found that after S2 there was already a big community shipping Will and Mike and at the same time a big community who found it absurd. So maybe the writers decided to send us a message in S3. Part of the storyline in S3 is about cracking a code broadcasting through a radio which leads to an underground facility where the Russians are trying to open a gate to the Upside Down. As we learn from one of the Russian scientists, to turn off the drilling machine you need 2 keys locked in a safe and the code is Planck’s constant. And the only way to get the correct number sequence for the constant is by singing a song.
First we take a look at the coded broadcast. Plotwise it makes no sense why the Russians needed to broadcast a coded message. To whom did they broadcast it? The message works only if you speak Russian and are standing inside the mall. Moreover if you are Russian then you probably work in the facility so you know where it is and what they are doing there and all the logistics around it. That whole coded message seems to be pointless for anyone in Hawkins and one might think it's only a self-serving plot line so the kids would be able to find the facility. But if you think about it as a part of a message for the viewers it’s quite significant.
So, Dustin is trying to contact Suzy through a radio he constructed (i.e. Mike’s heart has figured out a way how he will be able to reach Will’s heart), however he receives a secret coded message from the Russians instead and perceives it as a national threat (if I narrow the interpretation excluding all the politics, Russians here in this concrete context mirror the threat gay/queer love faces if it wants to be expressed openly and in this specific case Will’s love for Mike). Dustin really wants to know what the code message is so he can save his country from this threat. He teams up with Steve (mirror for El ‘the love’) and Robbin (Will’s mind), who work in a naval-themed ice cream parlor Scoops Ahoy (I don’t have to explain to you why the writers of a gay story chose a naval theme here, do I?), to help him translate the message. Here Robin is shown to be crucial to not just translate but also crack it. I can’t remember the whole text but the most important part is ‘when blue and yellow meet in the west’. This part is crucial for Robin to crack the code and thanks to this part they will find the facility buried deep down underground. And in this facility they find a new gate opening into the Upside Down. I think that even though some of you might think that everything I wrote above is bullshit, we all can agree on the colour coding - blue and yellow - for Mike and Will. Here I propose this interpretation: only if you consider Mike being in love with Will you will be able to crack the code and it will lead you to the subtext (buried under the visible plot) of this show - the core threat both Mike and Will face - ending up suffering in the closet. Oh, and we should not forget that Erica, who I think represents Mike’s sexuality, joins the team too and helps to get them inside the elevator leading down to the facility located under the surface. It’s stressed that only she fits the shaft leading to the room (which turns into an elevator). Without her they wouldn't be able to open the entrance.
Now, fast forward to the end of S3. Hopper and Joyce (one pair of Mike+Will mirrors) are down in the facility waiting for the number sequence to open the safe with the keys. And here comes the most funny part of the whole season (in both text and subtext) - the unforgettable singing duet. At the end of S3 we finally find out that Dustin indeed has a girlfriend and he asks her for the Planck’s constant. But she is angry that he didn’t make contact with her for a long time and she demands a duet in order to give him Planck's constant. I.e. Will/Will’s heart is angry because Mike/Mike’s heart was ignoring him for soooo long and he demands proof of love. How to do it? Well, I showed you at the beginning of this text that I think the show operates with the music metaphor meaning love - so they sing together ‘Never ending story’ and everyone can hear it. All the characters Mike or Will ‘coded’. Love spreads through the ether. Then Suzy gives the numbers and after a little bit of drama needed for the next season the world is saved again. But this time it's not directly by El’s superpowers (allegory for Mike’s and Will’s love for each other) but by combining their hearts together singing a love song.
Everyone’s laughing at the duet, it’s cute and funny, but if you understand the deeper meaning it completely changes the perspective. Moreover, read the lyrics, and imagine that it is the writers talking to you, the viewers. What is a massage? “… hidden in the lines, written on the pages, is the answer to a never ending story … rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds and there upon the rainbow is the answer to a never ending story …” Isn’t it clear as water? If you check the subtext of the script you will find a story of a gay love.
We will see how it ends in a few weeks. Fingers crossed it will have a happy ending.
You don’t have to agree with me on everything. I'm not even sure if I was able to decode everything correctly and there is a lot of stuffI for which I couldn’t find an explanation at all, but I stand behind my overall conclusions and the core problem of the subtext. Stranger Things is a coming of age story about two gay boys in love who struggle in the realm of the 1980s to freely express what they truly feel for each other. There’s no discussion for me in this.
Anyway, I hope at least showing you some of the storytelling tools the writers in general use to create subtext can help you to better understand films or TV shows you watch, give you a structure to your own findings or help to find other hidden meanings and gems. If you at least take away this I will be more than happy.
And thank you very much to all of you who managed to read it until the end. It means a lot to me.
P.S. I always wondered what happened to the Byers family’s dog… Poor puppy…
