Hi again! 👋👋
You've been absolutely cooking with your theories as always; I was particularly excited to read how Vecna would've kidnapped Mike- in fact that was the one theory that managed to finally convince my sister to jump onto the CG bus! (after over a month of me sounding like a lunatic in her eyes lmao) 😮💨😂
She wanted me to ask you how the whole Kali/Dr. Kay storyline would pan out from a Rightsideupgate perspective- especially since Kali's whole thing is crafting illusions (in fact, I don't remember it was ever explained why her powers are different from the other numbers??), so its highly likely it plays a part in the fakeout timeline of S5? I'm sure you plan on addressing that at some point but we just wanted to know 💗
Hi againnn! :D
Omg that's crazy, say hi to your sister for me askjfhgak
Aaand I'm not sure yet!! I like to rewatch scenes, and use the patterns in them to form evidence of the "real" story. I haven't rewatched El's storyline yet, so I don't have much evidence!
...I have some ideas, though :P
I'm presuming that all the biggest plot points are things that happened in the 8 months after Season 4. Here's a timeline of stuff that in my opinion is basically confirmed.
March 29th – El and Hopper laid low as soon as they both got back into Hawkins (could've stayed in the police station, according to pre-Season 5 leaks). But they kept in contact with the Party.
June 13th – El was spotted by the military after helping someone who was in danger. That's when she and Hopper had to hide somewhere new, and largely out-of-contact from the Party.
November 6th – The Party reunited, so El was there.
So, anywhere from June to November (5 months max), El and Hopper are unaccounted for. They could've been doing anything.
Considering their current storyline, they were most likely doing missions as a duo. They probably did actually break into the Lab, and they probably did find Kali! But not necessarily both at once.
My current guess (again, no evidence!) is that while El and Hopper were in hiding for the second time, they ran into Kali together. The three of them may have even teamed up on a mission relating to the Lab. That's what Kali was doing in Season 2, after all. Revenge missions against the Lab.
Based on previous storylines, the three of them might try to expose what the Lab has done and prevent the experiments from ever happening again. No death pact required!
This follows story threads that were left in Season 2 and Season 4, so it seems pretty plausible.
(And if this is true, then it's no wonder Vecna hid this in the "fake" story. He had to make it seem like there was no hope for El, in order to make her fake death make sense. Because then, Mike would be wracked with even more survivor's guilt – which Vecna knows is the perfect way to keep him trapped, as he has been in the past. Plus, if El was still in the picture, Mike would inevitably end up confronting his feelings for Will, and he would break out of the illusion.)
Most likely, finding their sister again made both Kali and El finally feel understood, like in Season 2. But El's "choice" would make even less sense if Vecna kept this in, so instead, he made it so that Kali "corrupted" El's mind.
Kali could play a crucial role later on! Since Will is listed as an illusionist here, and is Vecna's "builder"... ->
-> it's plausible he's the one generating Mike's illusion world. As a fellow illusionist, Kali might be able to offer some crucial information about illusions, how they are created, and how to break them!
OH!
Since Max would most likely still be in her coma, Kali could be the one who reveals that you don't need music to break out of an illusion, just something that reminds you of the real world, brings you hope, etc.!!! She's an illusionist, she would know. Just in time for the Party to reunite on November 6th, and for someone to tell Mike, like in my theory about his kidnapping!
And on a darker note, if Vecna loses control of Will, he could try to control Kali and use her as a backup illusionist now that she's in range. Uh-oh...
Thanks for the ask :D
I don't know what will change once I rewatch El's storyline, but hopefully my speculation was interesting at least!!
Also... from the hair to the calmly menacing authority, Dr. Kay resembles Dr. Brenner quite a lot. She could literally be a stand-in for him. So many questions, haha.
