Is there a correct way to Tumblr, probably.

Now that we’ve seen the ending, I’ve been revisiting that idea.

Viewing the series through this lens, El isn’t only a literal character. Allegorically, she may function as the embodiment of something larger. If that’s true, then her ending carries symbolic weight beyond the surface plot.

It also made me think about Nikki in Tales from ’85.

Full disclaimer: I haven’t watched Tales (and I may never). This is literally just my impression from seeing screenshots and hearing people talk about the character.

What immediately caught my eye wasn’t the discourse. It was the imagery of the purple mohawk. My brain immediately went to Mike wanting a mohawk. Then I started wondering why a seemingly new character would suddenly occupy that visual space. If Tales intentionally diminishes the Mike-Will connection, does Nikki inherit part of the symbolic function that El carried? Not as the same character, but as another person who visually and narratively occupies some of that space?

I could be completely wrong. I haven’t seen enough of Tales to know. Ironically, that’s part of why I’m mentioning it. TV-M tells a story about realizing the central metaphor of a film before watching it because they weren’t yet immersed in all the details. Sometimes stepping back lets you notice patterns that you might otherwise overlook once you’re emotionally invested in every scene and line of dialogue.

The finale has me thinking about Mike’s line to El in S5 when they are talking about escaping to a place with three waterfalls; he says that sometimes the Party has to leave town and travel to a faraway land. They all start again…together.

If the ending really is the ending, maybe that’s simply about growing up.

But if there’s more to Conformity Gate (or if the ending is intentionally symbolic) that line lands differently. Maybe the point isn’t that hope disappears. Maybe some things simply can’t survive inside Hawkins as it currently exists. It may mean leaving isn’t abandoning love or identity, but realizing it’s the only way those things can finally live openly.

In the article TV-M posits that El allegorically represents Mike and Will’s queer love for each other. They break it down beautifully. If the link to the Substack works, here it is:

Given that the ending can be viewed as both tragic and beautiful, El’s decision can be viewed as two possible outcomes:

El truly dies

Mike and Will sacrifice their love to restore “normalcy”. The ending exposes or accepts conformity.

El survives somewhere far away

Mike and Will’s love can live and even thrive, but they must leave their small town for it to do so. And that may mean cutting ties with many of the people they love. It can be seen as protection by them, not just for themselves, but also for their family and friends (their reputations and standing especially in the 80s in a small town).

TV-M believed the Duffers would leave it allegorical; they would not allow the subtext of Will and Mike’s mutual love to become expressly canon. I am hoping they are wrong and that in the next few months, something will be revealed that is more hopeful and less hidden.

I think it’s time to be bold. And yes, our editors were right to draw a parallel to something said in a very unrelated series, This is Us….the whole show really was just a gay love story.

And as they say in The First Shadow (paraphrased), “it’s a sad song [but] I like the gay ones best. You never know the ending ‘til it’s sung all through. C’mon, then, let’s make it a gay one. Even if we have to make our own ending…”😉

But no matter where this journey ends, El textually is still a hero, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a girlfriend. She is all those things and more. She and other characters may also allegorically represent other ideas and concepts in the work. However, for Will and Mike, she arguably represents a love story that can never be told. At least not in Hawkins…at least not explicitly in the canon work. The Duffer Brothers said they knew from the beginning she would have to leave in the end, but I’ll hold out for a more hopeful ending. I still believe. And I do like the “gay” endings best.

meanwhile us:

MILLIE BOBBY BROWN & LOUIS PARTRIDGE TAKE LIE DETECTOR TESTS

Warning: Spoilers for ST, Cheers, and SVBIGTH

Picking back up from where we left off in PART ONE, discussing this shot from S3Ep1 of Stranger Things:

Featuring several symbols that may end up being powerfully relevant to ST5 Side B.

But first -- rewinding and zooming out to the context of the scene.

Joyce coming home from work, finding herself alone...

...And serving a dinner for one.

Note the symbols of #conformitygate here -- Conformity Coke and orange juice in the fridge.

And the mushrooms -- that can be hallucinogens, and produce spores (like the spores from the UD)...

Rockin' Robin, what do you know??

But back to Joyce -- who cracks open a bottle of wine (alcohol -- another mind-altering substance and depressant) and turns on an episode of Cheers, which of course, reminds her of the person she loved, who loved watching with her -- Bob.

In this flashback, we see Bob also has a glass of wine.

Bob, who was trapped in his own conformity!ending, but dreamed of escaping, only to walk it back, saying --

And while we're still on the topic of wine, the Cheers episode Joyce watches makes a very interesting mention --

Huh. Let's back this train up a bit.

I feel like I saw someone else make this observation before in a different context, so lmk if you know who/which theory it was.

The episode of Cheers Joyce is watching is the last episode of S3 (funny, because it's featured in the *first* episode of ST S3) -- titled

"Rescue Me" 👀

Who is doing the rescuing, who needs the rescuing, and what are they being rescued from?

In the Cheers episode, Diane Chambers (Diane having name associations with Mother Goose, mind you) is in Italy -- at a restaurant -- with her current boyfriend, the very brainy, pedantic Frasier Crane (who ended up getting a spinoff where he has a radio show 👀).

In a very unfortunate set of circumstances, Frasier is the Chianti drinker who suddenly pops the question and proposes he and Diane marry on the morrow.

However, a panicked Diane dials her ex, Sam Malone, the owner of Cheers, a bartender with a drinking problem and a wandering eye, who is rough around the edges, much less refined than Frasier, but has passionate chemistry with Diane.

Hop, mind you, was once married to a Diane.

Looks like a clear love triangle right?

Joyce = Diane

Bob = Frasier

Hopper = Sam

Except it's Hopper, not Bob, who proposes to Joyce in an Italian restaurant over a bottle of Chianti -- so who flipped the script there?

Back to Cheers: Diane dials Sam, hoping he'll tell her to turn down Frasier. However in a classic case of the miscommunication trope, Sam believes that Frasier is who Diane really wants and encourages her to marry him, while Diane believes, based on this reply, that Sam doesn't love her.

She says yes to Frasier's proposal and they make plans to marry the next day.

However, before we the audience have even begun to suspect what Sam will do with the news that Diane is getting married, he crashes the wedding and sweeps her off her feet (literally).

It looks like the two are set to live happily ever after --

Except it was all a fantasy in Sam's mind.

If all of this so far hasn't been proof that our people have been trapped in an illusion since the end of S2, idk what is...

But the episode doesn't end there. After being encouraged and discouraged by his friends to go after Diane, Sam decides to board a flight to Italy (procured for him by Cliff, the letter carrier), stop the wedding, and get his girl.

Except Diane has no idea and calls Sam again, hoping he won't answer bc he's on a flight to Italy (which he is).

However, we see the miscommunication trope at play again when there's an "interference in signals" -- Diane gets Sam's answering machine and, hearing Sam's voice, believes it's really Sam who answered, having decided not to go after her.

With Diane unintentionally deceived due to this signal interference, she decides to go ahead with the wedding as Sam sits on his flight to Italy, with the vaguest feeling something is amiss...

Off this foreboding image, THE SEASON ENDS ON A MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER.

So, what are our characters being rescued from?

Marriage, it would seem --

For those who don't know SVBIGTH is about a young woman with a blood curse whose fate is determined by who she marries: Marry incorrectly and she dies --

Or -- like the Witness -- get cold feet and become essentially immortal, but doom her fiancé and *his* bloodline, and have to witness each ill-fated wedding thereafter.

The secret third thing, is be with the one you love without the vise and pressure of marriage (society's way of controlling love *and who gets to love*) to ruin things, and have a gay ending anyway.

But I digress -- how do things end for Sam and Diane?

Well, when we come back in S4, we quickly learn Sam DID NOT have a good time in Italy (he gets thrown in jail #mikewakeup), believing he was unable to stop the wedding and that Diane is now married to Frasier.

Only Frasier miserably tells him Diane left him at the altar for love of Sam, but feeling ashamed of her actions and believing he didn't return her feelings, got herself to a nunnery. #churchgatebabyyyy

Sam once again goes after her, but Diane is determined to stay, unless God sends her a sign of what she should do. #signalgate

The sign ends up being Sam coming back, asking where the men's room is in this convent. It's good enough for Diane -- she returns to work at Cheers.

But if you thought Ross and Rachel were wishy-washy, Sam and Diane were the blueprint for TV "will-they, won't they" ships -- and America couldn't get enough of it. In fact, people thought the show was better when Sam and Diane weren't together, since their zesty tension and witty banter was reliant on it.

But eventually, an endgame had to be decided: Sam and Diane -- married or not? Even with Diane written off the show, she was brought back for the season finale to resolve that hanging thread.

And you wanna know what the writers did?

Had them get back together after years apart, get engaged, then regret their decision and break up *again* and part ways -- presumably for good (or maybe not, given their track record).

Not quite the gay ending we have in mind for Byler.

The good news? Cheers is yet another symbol of conformity.

As great and iconic as it is, it's another lie -- written, directed, and shot in front of live studio audience. None of it is real.

Back to this shot

While the top of this post showed the symbols of #conformitygate, I think the symbols we explored in Part One are the symbols of #lovewinsgate:

The Rainbow Spaceship 🌈 🚀: Will, Henry, Captain Midnight

Representations of queer love and acceptance hijacking the signal of conformity and fear causing interference.

The Owl🦉 (or Goose): Mother Goose aka Tharizdun

The unmasking of the major player who's been waiting in the wings, and could be key to stopping (and healing) --

The Butterfly 🦋: Kali, Max, El (+Nancy)

The wounded daughter, forced to become a spider to survive, but perhaps needing a mother's love in order to transform into a butterfly.

And perhaps for our other characters, it's about accepting and reconciling our "good" and "bad" sides, our "light" and "dark" -- "the monster" and "the superhero."

The Strawberry 🍓: El

The sacred fruit -- beloved and coveted by all -- experimented on, trampled on, but still sweet despite it all. The key to finding forgiveness. A love supreme.

Maxwell House ☕️: Memory loss #birthdaygate

Perhaps a major sacrifice between two young lovers will be key to saving the world.

And finally,

Bob Newby, Superhero

Rectifying the wrongs of his past, flying rather than running, in order to rescue his lost love -- Henry Creel -- and redeem them both.

12+ hours of editing and sound mixing for the most devastating video to grace your screen…

The Mindflayer is just a metaphor… Falling in love with someone you shouldn’t can feel a bit like getting possessed by an Eldritch monster.

This is what I think Will was actually remembering in Castle Byers and in Mike's basement in S3 and what his train of thought was (his feelings for Mike just weren't canon yet, so the Duffers couldn't go quite this hard…).

Plus, a sneak peek into Mike's POV when he agrees with Will about that roller coaster feeling...

"Something is coming… something hungry for blood…" (the gay and in love with your best friend flavor of heartbreak) "it got me…" (love) "You were just swinging [that bat] by yourself…" "Where were you when I was lonesome?"

anyway I'M SICK!!!!!!!! This Frankenstein creation is like actually sick and twisted and I need to be put in jail but it's art and i'm so proud of it, I hope you enjoy/cry. I put a lot of thought into making it as devastating as possible!