THE PLAY WITHIN A PLAY
(Or how I think conformitygate comes together)
First of all, disclaimer: I can’t believe I have to do this, but I’ve noticed emotions running high among Bylers. I know conformitygate gives too much credit to the Duffers (although the show doesn’t reduce exclusively to them), that I’m walking myself into another disappointment, that it can get worse instead of better even if this turns out to be real. I know. I’m just having fun here, keeping a bit of hope alive, being willfully delusional. Nothing new.
One thing we can all agree on is that the epilogue in its entirety is an illusion/dream, an artificial world designed to be a prison. The main question is for whom?
I’ve been going back and forth between Mike and Will or both, but finally my answer was half of the group (I’ll explain myself in a few). The most obvious is Mike, of course, as he’s the most heavily implied to be missing by that call between Karen and Joyce, the sound of Vecna’s clock and that infamous Mike, wake up!
The next question is when did the illusion start? I had more trouble pinpointing a time for this because the inconsistencies started small then accrued until we were all fully in. So, it couldn’t have possibly started abruptly. I know is a popular theory that it started at the radio tower right after Steve falls from the platform and we get a black screen, but I have three reasons to refute this.
Will would have gone directly after Henry’s ass the moment Mike entered the trance. With Steve’s fall, there was surely some chaos in there and Mike being Vecnaed would have gone ignored but not for that long for them to not act on it. As proven by Max, the longer they stay trapped in Vecna’s mind, the harder it is to get out, so their best chance to snap Mike out of it would be right after he gets attacked. Mike and Will were standing practically side by side at this moment, and although Will was shown to lose confidence as Vol. 2 progressed, this is Mike, and even if he was convinced that his romantic chances were done it is still his best friend that it’s being targeted.
“X’s a lie” When this started circulating, I wondered about the meaning. The whole dimension is a lie? What happened there is a lie? The whole mission is a lie? Will, who has been marked with an X is a lie? The dimension for sure exists, as that’s where all the creatures and the Mindflayer come from, but I think the whole mission is not real. Not the plan, but the execution of the mission. First, the orange color/lighting has been associated with this false world and, when do we first have this kind of light coming through the windows? Will’s coming out. I know it was sunset but we don’t believe in coincidences, right? Also, another important reason I think they never even made it to Hawkin’s lab is the freaking tank. There is no water in there Upsidedown and if they somehow managed to fill it with water from outside or the military, why didn’t they show us that like they showed us Murray filling the generator’s oil tank?
It’s about love, not strength or violence. I mentioned this in my post about the Truman Show but we have been shown time and time again that it is love that defeats the Mindflayer. I think the final fight has to happen in the mindspace, not in the physical world.
So, when did it start? I say the construction of the world started when Henry captured Will, but the characters entered at different points until most of them were in, like in a play, which brings me to the next section.
The builder, the storyteller and the stage director
Henry told Will that he chose children because they are weak and malleable, and while I won’t call it a full lie (he’s been acting as a groomer), I say it’s not the whole truth. I say he chose children who are creative because his own creativity is not enough to create the world he has envisioned. Will is the clearest example with his drawings and paintings, but there are different kinds of artistic expressions. What if the copy of Hawkins was just a test run? You showed me what was possible. But it’s deserted because Will’s ability in this regard is limited to building. What’s missing for Henry’s play? A script and characters to act in it. Who is writing the script? Mike, the story teller. Who decides who gets to participate, to enter the stage? Henry, the stage director.
We know Joyce’s play, which took place during November 6th, was a crucial day for Henry; it’s the day he finally succumbed to the Mindflayer, the day he lost Patty. It makes sense that he’s using a play to execute the Mindflayer’s bidding. It’s how he expressed his creativity. Mike and Will are the main source to create the illusion and the twelve children are being used as power sources to make it bigger, stronger, more believable, albeit not real enough (thus the inconsistencies).
Going back to the when each character entered “the stage.”
I think Will never actually woke up. How Jane found him was way to easy, for it to be real and remember in all 18 months she was unable to reach Max because she was trapped in Vecna’s mind. If the same is true for Will, then his only way out is like Max and Holly, by going to through the memory labyrinth. Not to mention what comes next is when the character interactions and the plot in general go downhill.
As for Mike, I say he was fully taken while Jane was looking for Will and distracted by the death threat on Max, but let’s go back a little.
There’s no doubt Mike has been on Henry’s radar since last season, maybe sooner given how he has been getting in his way at every chance. However, I think he wasn’t being stalked like the children were. Will was able to feel Henry going after Holly from afar and you’re telling me he wouldn’t have felt Vecna coming for the love of his life? They have been living together; there are few opportunities for them to be separated. I know, I know, he has a lot to unpack and we have the issue with the coffee but they have been doing the crawls during the night, maybe making plans even when there’s not actual mission and even when there was nothing to do, I think he’d be happy to stay up late doing who knows what with Will (mwtfdyd, remember?) Mike is safe so long as he's close to Will.
What’s our bigger clue that he has entered the illusion? When he starts acting Unmikely, aka distancing himself from Will. It’s safe to say that with all his fangirling and that beautiful hug at the start of Shock Jock he was still unvecnaed. He hesitated a little when Will got unconscious, but I say that was because he was afraid of outing himself before talking to Will. He still chooses to stay with Will at the WSQK when they go for Max and pressures Jane to keep trying to reach him. Then suddenly, when Jane exits the bath and says Max is in danger, without even checking on a recently awakened Will he just leaves? Mike is not Miking. He’s useless there; what difference can he make when Jane, Kali and Hopper, the heaviest troops, and on their way? Then the interactions at the hospital are just weird. He doesn’t even seem surprised that his mother is walking. Long story short, he was taken while Jane was busy in the bath looking for Will, and we actually have an image of Henry stalking him. Remember that scene we all thought was for nothing?
Doesn’t it look like Henry is looking at Will’s body through Mike’s eyes?
I have no clear guesses as to when exactly the others entered the illusion, but I’m pretty sure that the gathering at the hospital is when we stop seeing traces of the real world. It’s absolutely stupid that such a big group moved in tandem across the city with the military searching for Jane and what the fuck with that scene where everyone is strolling the Upsidedown?
With Mike and Will captured it is almost checkmate for Henry, as Jane can’t possibly look for Will, Mike and protect Max at the same time. However, not everyone can be inside the illusion. Someone has to save the others and keep fighting. My guess is by the end, the ones outside the illusion are Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Dustin, Jane, Kali, Erica, Mr. Clark, Murray, Robin and Vicky, which I’ll explain later.
On how the illusion works
Not everything in Henry’s play can be artificially created. Even when he has Mike, Will and the twelve children fueling this prison world there has to be limits. Henry can’t control more than one mind at a time, that’s why we have been shown him hopping from one victim to the other when it turns convenient for him. This raises the question: How is he controlling everyone inside the illusion? He isn’t. He doesn’t actually need to.
One of the many movies in the inspiration board was Nolan’s Inception, where a group of people enter others’ dreams. In the movie, for a dream to exist an architect (builder) and a dreamer (storyteller) are needed to craft the dreamworld and the rest of the characters roam and interact with each other and the world. Very familiar.
This is a play. Henry set the stage, those inside are acting mostly freely, responding to the world Will and Mike are creating and as the stage director he makes corrections in dialogue and reactions when it’s convenient, using Mike’s knack for storytelling to fill in the blanks. He’s created a pleasant enough world for everyone to fall into complacency and not question anything, while the mindflayer preys on their minds and the worlds merge. It works pretty well so long as the avalanche doesn't happen. His biggest obstacle is once again Byler, and this is the only thing that Henry has to concern himself with. If Mike and Will make it out, the illusion crumbles and we know thanks to Holly that outside stimuli is not necessary to find your way out. If they get together, even inside the illusion, Henry loses his grasp on them.
This is why every time it seems the avalanche is coming, one of them does something that pushes the other away, every time instigated by Henry.
Will is about to come out to Joyce and Mike? Henry calls everyone in and takes over his speech to call Mike a crush that was only his Tammy. Mike was about to say he wants to be more than friends? Henry takes over to say best friends instead of boyfriends.
Will and Mike keep gravitating towards each other no matter what Henry does, so he gets the heavy guns: He kills Jane in the illusion, and makes that horrible speech about Mike being the only one who ever understood her because it preys on Mike's fear about failing Jane. This is what effectively drives Mike away from Will during the next 18 months (in terms of illusion time which I presume like in Inception happens much much faster) and the duration of the epilogue. I'm I saying what I think I'm saying? Yes, ladies, gentlemen and nobinary pals: Henry is the one queer-baiting us.
Absurdly Meta? Yes, but that's the word Millie used to describe S5.
However, there's hope! Because it is still not enough! What with the looks they give each other during that last game of D&D? The avalanche is unstoppable.
Why do I think those specific people stayed out?
This is much more speculative, but bear with me. I think Henry doesn't want/need them there. Also, they are not shown with an Exit sign hanging over them during the epilogue.
Jane and Kali are a definitive no because they know how the mind stuff works, of course, Henry doesn't want them in there. So long as he keeps away from them in the physical world he's safe.
Erica and Mr. Clark are not important to him.
The group at the Hawkins lab is inmune to him by this point because they have dealt with the emotional stuff that was plaguing them in the beginning and Henry can't use it against them.
Vickie and Robin are a combination of the previous three because Mike doesn't know them well enough and Robin is probably going to push Will towards Mike.
How does Henry make up for the lack of these people in the illusion? He uses Mike's knowledge of them, and he makes important corrections when needed, but it shows that it's not quite right in the way they speak, dress, in the case of Steve the sport he's coaching, and fully gets rid of those who serve him no purpose.
What's the plan?
I think the plan in this case would be very similar to what we got in episode 8 but would unfold a bit differently. As to why Mike would know what the plan entails, I say he heard them planning while in his trance and incorporated this in the illusion. I talk a bit more about how external stimuli might affect the illusion in my post about the smell but in Inception and Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind it is shown that people incorporate things from the real world in their dreams, so that's my take on that.
First, the Hawkin's lab group would still be rescued with the help of Mr. Clark, then they regroup and make plans to rescue the children. I think Max still offers to guide Jane and Kali Henry's mind but gets trapped again, which in turn results in Lucas getting trapped. Hopper would fall prey to something similar to what happened in Episode 8 taking Joyce with him too.
While Steve, Robin Nancy and Jonathan go look for the children in dimension X, Jane has to prioritize getting Will back, which she manages but the illusion is till going because the world is already built, and Mike keeps feeding it the story and people are not looking to escape because of it. Next step, Will and El go inside Mike's mind to stop him from writing the story. We get all the memories from Mike, and finally, most likely after a fight regarding certain truths, the avalanche. The illusion crumbles, the main fight is more like a battle of wills now with a virtually invincible Sorcerer/Paladin combo on their side.
Love defeats fear. I won't go into more detail about that in here because this post is already extremely long, but they rescue the children and deal with the military maybe by trapping them in Dimension X or in their own minds, both seem fair to me. Maybe Henry actually gets redeemed. Someone might die along the way and I'm betting on Murray, Hopper or Steve, in that order of probability, if it's strictly required.
So, that's it. Sorry about so many words. I needed to get them out of my system. I'd still want to make another post, way shorter, about how I think this fits into the episodes we already have and episode 9, but I don't know if I'll manage before the faithful 7th. Let me know what you think.
Once again, I know, this could turn out to be a huge disappointment all over again, but hey, if it's useful to inspire some ff or something else, I'll be equally happy. Just tag me so that I can go an read it.
