Why we have been trained to believe in conformity gate
As a marketer and designer, I decided to dive deep into Stranger Things and research why we believe what we believe. And I think the Duffers worked the same way mentalists work, by manipulating your image of reality, by making you feel like you made the theories and you came up with your own opinion. While really, they manipulated all of us to go into this psychosis that we now call conformity gate.
CONFORMITY: Why is this word important?
compliance with standards, rules, or laws. behaviour in accordance with socially accepted conventions." A word of praise or an encouraging smile provides rewards for conformity to social norms"
This word has been mentioned more times than I had originally anticipated, and it has been repeated at crucial moments, getting a lot of attention from not only us as the audience but also the people of Hawkins. The word is first introduced by Eddie, but later mentioned by Henry and Dustin as well.
Henry/ 001/ Vecna:
Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day. I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness. I could not pretend. And I realised I didn't have to.
While Eddie said something even more jarring:
"It's forced conformity. That's what's killing the kids! That's the real monster"
We also notice that when you don't conform, you'll get rewarded, but it comes with high risk. These are a few examples, ofcourse there are more characters. In the text underneath, you will see how it holds up with the conformity gate theory, made by Jess.
The first example is Joyce; she should be the grieving mother. But she was the fighting mother, not believing her son was dead, and she was rewarded with actually saving her son, but she risked her life, and many died.
She many times after this has been non-conforming, except for Season 5. In S5, she questioned nothing, she became the expected worrysome mother.
The second example is Eleven, who was trained to be a weapon; she was supposed to behave just like the other children. But she decided to break out, not conform to what is expected of her, but to start her own life. Later, we see that Henry even uses the word conformity to explain why she needs to escape.
In season 5 she made herself a weapon and stopped living her life.
Third example is Hopper, who has been non-conforming multiple times, as a police chief believing in the supernatural, but also in Russia he should have been behaving like a prisoner, listening to orders, but he decides to make an escape, go against the rules and realises that the feast before the battle with the Demogorgon is not meant to strengthen them. He takes a very high risk by escaping and fighting, but survives and can come back home.
In season 5 he became a police chief, who had lost his daughter and went to the big city.
Fourth example is Steve and Robin, they were supposed to be just ice cream scoopers, behind the desk, not getting intertwined with all the supernatural things that are going on. But eventually decide to decode some message that is Russian and also follow this up. They break out of their teenage side-job life to do something stupidly heroic.
In season 5 Steve became a baseball coach and Sex-ed teacher despite always have wanted to leave Hawkins to travel and buy a big house for his family. He now settled in Forrest Hills, not a fancy place at all.
Robin wanted to flee Hawkins, planning to escape to Europe and start fresh after feeling stuck and dissatisfied with life in the town. But she settles in another town and goes to a female liberal arts college. Fun fact, they have Elm street houses there and guess who: U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin ('84) was a Baldwin House resident during her time at Smith College. She is still chasing her Tammy.
Fifth is Nancy, who left her A-grade student persona behind to discover the truth. Eventually, she became more of a Rambo and ends up shooting a bunch of soldiers, but who cares??
She wished to not become like her mother, but in the finale epilogue, we see her looking earliy similar to her mother. She dropped out of school to become a trainee, quite similar as an intern. But this time for the Boston Herald. In a man-dominated populist paper, I can't imagine her getting treated much better than in Hawkins.
Sixth is Jonathan, who never conformed; he was always an outcast, just like Will and seemed to enjoy photography. He had some unfortunate moments when he was taking pictures, but his goal was always to make it look as authentic as possible. He always wanted to attend NYU for photography.
We see him in the epilogue as a filmmaker, attending NYU, creating an anti-capitalist movie about the consumer.
Believe in the impossible
This word and theme has reocurred in the series a lot, I counted in the context of believing in the impossible surrounding Will mostly, excluding jokes.
The word believe has been used over 50 times in the context of not believing someone or something.
Becky talks about how she regrets not believing her sister. In this episode 2x05, the word believe is mentioned 12 times! Since no one believed in Terry, but also Max did not believe Lucas his story. All in the same episode.
Murray is constantly questioned and not believed, just like Joyce
But the word believe was also used in a song Chapter 2 Ep 9, "I believe I am falling in love", which seems to reference Billy and Karen, which was not love, just lust. So they are also making us believe there is something more there, while there is not.
We have been shown time and time again that we can't believe what we see or hear. We can't trust anything we see, because we had fake-out deaths and disappearances, even a fake body. EVERY SINGLE SEASON, we are trained to NOT believe what is happening, to no trust everything just because they showed or told us something.
Fun fact Mr. Clarke says I don't believe we've met. What's your name, as the first thing towards Eleven.
And maybe the biggest trust issue we have here is that they were making us believe that Eleven was responsible for the massacre at the lab until Season 4.
Song choices
A song that feels more like a stalker than a lover.
One of the song choices in season 2 that really stood out to me is "Every Breath You Take" and the winterball ends with:
♪ Since you've gone I been lost without a trace ♪ ♪ I dream at night I can only see your face ♪ ♪ I look around But it's you I can't replace ♪ ♪ I feel so cold And I long for your embrace ♪ ♪ I keep crying baby, baby, please ♪
Which is kind of now Mike and Eleven's song for dancing, but also Dustin and Nancy, and Max and Lucas. Take what you want from this, but it's not a romantic song to me, just the idea of romance. Even though I am a big Lumax fan, it contradicts the idea that this is real love; it's just the obsession of finding love.
Heroes David Bowie
This one is a big one, played at Wills Fake Body and Hoppers fake death. Why would they play it at the end credits of S5? It only signals a fake-out.
We're nothing And nothing will help us Maybe we're lying Then you better not stay But we could be safer Just for one day
But also a song that was never chosen
Small-town boy or Uptown girl
They mentioned so many times that Hawkins is just a small town with a small-town paper. The lyrics of Small-town boy really seem to reference a lot of the kids, but especially Will.
Mother will never understand why you had to leave But the answers you seek will never be found at home The love that you need will never be found at home Pushed around and kicked around, always a lonely boy You were the one that they'd talk about around town as they put you down And as hard as they would try, they'd hurt to make you cry But you never cried to them, just to your soul No, you never cried to them, just to your soul Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (Crying to your soul, crying to your soul)
Correction! I was kindly corrected by several people that allegedly this song Small-town boy was actually connected to Mike Wheeler, but was removed to prevent spoilers!
We can't even trust their dice!
Or their Titles
Chapter 2 Ep 6: the Spy
We didn't know it was Will who was the real spy until Ep 8.
Henry's plan was never just to infiltrate Will
The VR Game shows us that Vecna wanted to infiltrate the others' minds as well, but failed by using Will as his spy. In the VR Game, you play as Henry, becoming slowly more influenced by the shadows, and you move through the story from Henry's perspective.
Now he uses Will as a spy once again as @atsadi mentioned here
💬 6 🔁 68 ❤️ 202 · On unreliable narration: possession, the fourth wall, and you 🫵 · Plenty of people are speculating about Will being poss
And since he works best in minds that feel guilt, he was not able to infiltrate Dustin, Lucas and Mike back then. But with everything that happened, he might be able to infiltrate now in S5. Will leads them to the heart of the mindflayer, saying he was not supposed to see it.. The rest is self-explanatory and again @atsadi really explained this well.
GUILT GATE
We all know Vecna works with guilt and secrets. Basically, blackmailing and manipulating them using their insecurities against them. He did not have enough in season 2 to infiltrate them, but he does now.
DUSTIN
He clearly is grieving his friend Eddie and feels very guilty about this.. To the point where he let himself become hurt to defend his friend. But also to punish himself. He becomes Eddie to keep him alive, and is filled with anger and guilt. Because he is alive because of Eddie. And he and Eddie had made this plan, and Dustin could not save him.
LUCAS
Lucas feels guilty about Max. He and Max had this plan together to distract Vecna, but he feels responsible for what happened to her; he was there with her, and he allowed her to get hurt. It's not fair to feel guilt over that, but he does so anyway. He dragged her into all of this.
MIKE
He clearly feels guilty about El, about how he didn't make good plans for the future. He mentions to Hopper, “I had this plan,” Mike says. “Me and [Eleven], we were going to go someplace far away, and no one would find us. And I said this thing about going somewhere with three waterfalls. I don’t even know if she believed me. Who would? Three waterfalls? It’s so stupid. Childish. It was a fantasy plan.”
WILL
Will got told he was the one building the tunnels; he already feels guilty about trapping those soldiers, endangering his friends. But also about being gay, not telling Mike how he feels about him. It makes him prone to blackmail. Even if Vecna lied about him building the tunnels, he can still feel guilt
MOVIE GATE
So there is already a lot about movies being referenced, but here is just one that stood out to me:
Robin's favourite movies:
The Apartment
The apartement synopsis: The Apartment (1960) synopsis: C.C. Baxter, a lonely office clerk, lends his New York apartment to executives for their extramarital affairs to climb the corporate ladder, but his plan backfires when his boss, J.D. Sheldrake, uses it for his affair with elevator operator Fran Kubelik, the woman Baxter secretly loves, forcing him into a moral dilemma as she attempts suicide in his apartment.
The apartment had rumours that the script and story were not finished before recording the show. And they let the actors improvise because they did not want them to know the ending yet.
This reminded me of the Duffers letting the actors fill in the blanks about their future with Nancy, Robin, Steve and Jonathan.
Hidden Fortress
The influence for Star Wars!
It tells the story of two peasants who agree to escort a man and a woman across enemy lines in return for gold, without knowing that he is a general and she is a princess.
To protect Yuki, he has her pretend to be a deaf-mute and has a decoy (Rokurōta's younger sister) sent to the Yamana to be executed so they will believe that she is dead.
Could be referencing El as she seemed deaf-mute at the beginning.
Children of Paradise
A movie made during wartime
The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan in 1830s Paris and the four men who love her.
They also have the extra meta-level of watching films of actors playing parts on stage. So a play in a play? Children of Paradise refers to the poor, working-class theatregoers who sat in the highest, cheapest seats (the "Paradis" or "gods") in 19th-century French theaters, who were the most demanding and honest audience, and it also extends to the actors themselves, caught in their own theatrical lives.
Steve's favourite movies are Animal House, and Family Ties Vacation
Funnily enough, the Animal House movie has an epilogue showing the fates of the characters, a few of which stood out to me:
Pinto became an editor for National Lampoon. D-Day's whereabouts are unknown. Neidermeyer was killed by his own troops during the Vietnam War. Otter became a gynaecologist in Beverly Hills, California.
The plot of this movie is mainly about a trouble-making fraternity whose members challenge the authority of the dean of the fictional Faber College
Family ties vacation
The Keaton family's trip to London, where Elyse and Steven get unwittingly embroiled in a Cold War espionage plot involving microfilm hidden in a makeup brush, while Alex navigates tough classes at Oxford, and Mallory falls for a French tutor, leading to a comical adventure with spies, mistaken identities, and a classic Keaton family mishap in historic London.
Sounds very much like Robin and Steve's adventure
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
It takes place on the moon of Endor, and features the Ewoks, who help two young human siblings as they try to locate their parents.
Feels again a lot like how Steve is the babysitter and helps the kids out.
So yeah, that was it, some honourable mentions are ofcourse the props not lining up with the timeline or in colour. And the well-known Henry pose trains us not to trust people who stand like this.
Also Mike the writer looking exactly like Henry.. Like Henry is writing?
Stranger Things has always been Meta, and now is again. I do believe it is not over yet
