🦋 Illusionary milkvan in 3x01 (aka milkvan kiss is a corrupted byler kiss) p.2 + mixtapegate? (p.1 & p.3)// corruptiongate
The most suspicious part about milkvan in s3 was and still is the drawing of Paladin that makes no sense for Jane to have. Aside from it, I published also another post where I showed weird changes of the drawing’s placements and it’s changing looks. Interestingly, in s4 El also took the drawing to Cali.
In part 1 I mentioned that it might be important to analyse music in 3x01 m11 scenes, and there truly is something to talk about; also there are some other details in both kiss scenes giving away that something is corrupted / illusionary / or just off.
1. Cassette player
To begin with, it’s simply orange. It’s hilarious that it’s that simple, but well! What music does Vecna’s thingamajig play? We listen to it in two scenes (= two songs). In both we also see three tapes.
Tapes: Corey Hart, Bryan Adams (scene 1), El’s mixtape, Bryan Adams (scene 2).
Songs: Corey Hart — Never Surrender (scene 1), REO Speedwagon — Can’t fight this feeling (scene 2)
🧮 Now, let’s do some maths and see how what we see and hear work together.
Scene 1: Mike sings “Never surrender”, Eleven shuts him up. This is the song from one of the cassettes we do see on the shelf, Corey Hart’s.
So Eleven shuts Mike up while he’s singing along to the song about being loyal to yourself? The song from the album “Boy in the closet box” (and the name of the album is actually even seen on the cassette case)? Okay.
Scene 2: “Can’t fight this feeling” is playing, the song by REO Speedwagon. And there’s no tape of the band, only “El’s mixtape”. Mhm. Interesting.
We have never heard of this tape in the show, it’s seen just once, with no context. And we have byler mixtapegate. Before I continue with my speculation, I’ll introduce you to the song.
which doesn’t sound like m11 to me? 😅 but you know what it does sound like? I know you know.
Tell whatever you want, but this is a byler song. (There’s zero m11 lore in those phrases, but as for byler…) Also tell me that it doesn’t sound like a song for byler endgame? I mean, it could be used in s5… Which together with mixtapegate and some other details that, ngl, melt my brain making me think that s3 and s5 mb connected more than it seems.
One of the speculations on that part I posted here:
As I found out that the rain fight has happened bc of Vecna’s presence, and we also see him during the rain in Holly x Mary’s scene, both scenes (the rain fight and the rain movie night) felt suspiciously related. The connection is subtle, and I get that it’s easier to speculate on the possibility of this scene being just s5 byler version, I agree. Which made me wonder more of how s3 can be corrupted s5 (meaning that in s3 we might see something from s5, but distorted) and some of these thoughts even make sense but melt my mind… however, I believe that’s for real a conversation and a theory for another post.
This speculation suddenly explains mixtapegate: 1️⃣ this is For Will tape from s5 but corrupted; 2️⃣ Jonathan could help Mike with a tape, while in s3 we have no context who could do that for El (could it be even Mike, or was it Hopper?) and no one ever discusses the tape; 3️⃣ at least, one of the songs from that tape is byler coded.
I believe, if the show recontextualises itself somehow revealing that El represented either byler in general, or was never in the picture before “corruption”, it’ll explain m11 scenes being byler scenes at their cores. Maybe, we’ll hear some specific songs again but in their true contexts, conveying true meanings?
There are two more certainly sus things for me in the shots with the player: the first one is a rocket (?) which surprises me no less than Paladin (why would El have it?) and the second one is —
2. Butterflies 🦋
Do you still remember that butterflies at least symbolise illusion? (And at most time fuckery?)
Let’s get to scene 1 again: it has TWO butterflies. Given that, I believe, you won’t see the small one in any other shot with that shelf. You’ll see the big one later though. But yes. Illusion. Two butterflies.
The second shot almost killed me, when I noticed, bc wdym they put the 3rd butterfly in the corner so that it is still in the frame when we see m11! It’s not needed (?) but it’s there… it’s like they are screaming to our faces: right now you’re watching an illusion, don’t believe it! It’s not real!
An orange lamp and a pillow on El’s knees and weirdly uncoloured Paladin drawing (after we saw it coloured in the same episode) are our bonuses.
3. Hopper frames
1. He opens the door, sees m11 — the orange lamp is seen next to his head.
2. Wide shot gives us: rainbow imagery, Rubik’s cube (which has been associated with byler, but it’s a speculation so far), an orange hat, also another orange thingamajig and, who could’ve guessed it, the 4th butterfly!
3. During the dialogue we constantly see: a mirror (a frame within a frame even), a big butterfly, a rocket, two orange things (one is a hat). A full combo of weird stuff having double meanings.
And the last thing I want to drag your attention to is a moment after which Hopper enters the room: he peeps and sees 1) firstly, the orange lamp, 2) and only after the lamp he sees m11 (the orange pillow between them again? yeah, right). (That’s btw the first scene, where El wears a blue t-shirt.)
Even if my interpretations are wrong, implied illusionary fuckery seems to be pretty obvious, as all these details were put there for a reason… too many coincidences for each shot, I swear! (And yk what my good friend Lucas thinks about ones…)
[ all the main theory posts, other key corruptiongate posts ]