leia!!

…Mike couldn’t make it, because the Wheeler house was attacked that very night.

Analysis Overview

Summary

1 - The Stranger Things rewatch video

2 - Rovickie’s missed date = Byler's missed dinner plans

3 - Rovickie mirror Byler (literally)

4 - Clues from Robin and Will's talk

Why would Vecna replace Mike's memory of this?

Theory Summary

As I explored in my MWTFDYD = conformitygate analysis, Vecna reversed Mike and Will’s love story. In the months after Season 4, they didn’t lose hope for a relationship, they actually gained hope and got closer to each other. 

If you haven't already, please read that analysis before this one! You'll kind of need it to understand what's going on.

Mike and Will planned to go on a date the night of November 3rd, 1986 – but Vecna had other plans. That was the day the Wheeler house was attacked, and Nancy’s vision about Karen, Holly and Mike came true. Karen was fatally wounded, Holly was kidnapped, and Mike was severely injured and rushed to hospital.

Thus, Mike and Will’s dinner plans for November 3rd were VERY inconveniently interrupted.

…

Okay, okay, it’s a fun theory – but let’s explore the evidence, shall we?

1. Mike’s Dinner Plans With… “Who?”

A few weeks ago, @mixu commented this great idea. 

If Mike and Will were already dating before his disappearance, and we consider that they were rewatching the seasons in character… Mike had a date with Will.

In the ST5 rewatch video, the actors are fully in-costume, dressed as their characters in settings from the show. They essentially are their characters. Which is why it’s very interesting that “Mike” says this…

Mike: "You know I had dinner plans, right?" 

Dustin: "With who?" 

Firstly: It’s a date. Otherwise Dustin would’ve known about it (or been invited along).

Secondly: The fact that Dustin doesn’t know who it is implies it’s not the “obvious” choice for him or the audience – it's not El.

Thirdly: The fact that Mike had any dinner plans at all is a REALLY BAD OMEN for him.

Every time a character has planned a date in this show, it's been doomed by the Upside Down.

Boyce – one of them died to a Demogorgon

Karen/Billy – one of them was possessed by the Mindflayer + later died to it

Jopper – one of them almost died to an Upside Down portal + disappeared to Russia

Lumax – one of them died to Vecna + was revived and put into a trance

Uh, Mike? Are you sure about those dinner plans, buddy? 

Yep. Every date on the show has been cancelled because of the Upside Down and a death/near death. Oh, wait, hang on. 

Every date except Rovickie. 

Rovickie – one of them was suddenly erased from the narrative?????? wtf??????

Yeah. It turns out that Rovickie’s date is a massive outlier in many ways. Let's explore how and why!

2. Robin and Vickie’s suspicious date at Enzo’s

So many aspects of Robin and Vickie’s date totally break the pattern of the other dates, and… just seem weirdly off.

It’s the only date with a cancellation that doesn’t seem to have been caused by the Upside Down. 

It’s the only date where neither of them died/nearly died.

They are the only queer couple, and have previously been paralleled to Mike and Will multiple times.

Their original plans were meant to take place the night of November 3rd… AKA THE NIGHT OF THE WHEELER ATTACK. What a coincidence.

Nothing is stopping them from having their second date, and yet, they still don’t!! Even though they promised to!!! Why??????

Now, if this date really was Robin and Vickie’s… well, it’s really weird that they have all these differences from the other couples, right? 

Unless the date was Mike and Will’s. 

The interruption actually WAS caused by the Upside Down – the Wheeler attack.

One of them actually DID nearly die – Mike.

They literally ARE Mike and Will. 

The Wheeler attack is what MADE them miss their date.

Something actually DID stop them from having their second date (post-November 6th) – Will’s trance and Mike's kidnapping!

See how suddenly, all the weirdness is explained? How Mike and Will’s date would actually follow the exact same pattern as all four other missed dates in the show? 

Remember, all of these writing choices were intentional. This would be a seriously insane coincidence, in my humble, humble opinion. 

Let's explore even more of these writing choices!

3. Rovickie literally MIRROR Byler

I’m just going to leave these parallels here for you to enjoy.

ALL THREE of Rovickie’s date conversations happen in a HOSPITAL. Mike had to miss his dinner plans with Will because he was put in HOSPITAL.

In ALL THREE conversations, Robin and Vickie are repeatedly reflected in mirrors, suggesting they are mirroring other characters.

The mirror on the wall when Robin tells Vickie she has to cancel her date.

Robin’s handheld mirror while she is rambling to Will about missing her date with Vickie.

The big, circular mirror when Robin promises Vickie to go on a second date (while Demogorgons slowly approach them)

Why else would there be mirrors in all three scenes?

Robin, who is missing the date, is dressed like Mike does: blue jumper, black pants and converse.

Vickie, who is being cancelled on, has a bowl cut like Will (despite bowl cuts being “not that popular anymore”).

Robin lies about her “fake granny”. Just like Mike lies about his own fake granny in S3, AKA Nana.

Rovickie was ominously erased from the narrative in the Epilogue – just like Byler throughout all of Season 5.

And here’s a bonus one. 

Robin: “I stole money off the dead guy they just wheeled out.” (

Robin stole this plot point from Mike Wheeler, a guy who almost died due to his injuries and was sent to that very hospital.

Considering how frequently Robin and Vickie were already paralleled to Mike and Will in Season 4... the fact that they’re now literally DRESSED like Byler, and have giant mirrors in all their scenes together? 

All I can conclude is that in these scenes, Robin and Vickie are literally Mike and Will. 

4. Robin’s rambling matches Mike's POV

In the hospital, Robin rambles to Will about the fact she’s going to have to miss her date with Vickie.

Robin flips her mirror open to look at Vickie. Robin: I promised Vickie that I would take her to Enzo’s tonight… and now I can’t, obviously, meaning I have to ditch her again for reasons that she just can’t understand… a massive fight will inevitably ensue, we’ll never make it to my fake granny’s room... I can’t be the reason Wheeler’s plan fails.

Isn’t. That. Interesting. If we replace only a few words, Robin’s rambling fits Mike's POV perfectly.

Mike: I promised [Will] that I would take him to [dinner] tonight… and now I can’t, obviously, meaning I have to ditch him again for reasons that he just can’t understand… a massive fight will inevitably ensue, we’ll never make it to [our dinner plans]... I can’t be the reason my own plan fails.

Obviously he can’t make it – because he was attacked by a Demogorgon. He has to ditch Will again – like he did in Season 3 and 4. A massive fight will inevitably ensue – with a Demogorgon, lmfao. And finally... Mike is unfortunately the reason his own dinner plans fail.

Cut him some slack, though! He was literally attacked by a Demogorgon and sent to hospital!

Robin looks at Vickie through her mirror a second time. Will: You know, you could always just… kiss her again.

Hmm. So if Mike just kisses Will again, it’ll all be okay? Aww :3

...Hey wait, that implies they've kissed before! MWTFDYD = conformitygate is looking pretty good right now, lol.

Anyway, this would mean that Robin – Mike’s stand-in for this scene – rambled on and on about the date Mike was going to have to miss… TO THE PERSON HE WAS MISSING HIS DATE WITH. If nothing else, that’s pretty funny.

AND! ALSO! MORE EVIDENCE!

After this, Will asks how Robin knew that Vickie wanted to date… 

Robin: "...a brush of the elbow, a bump of the knee, a shared look."

Will immediately has a look of realisation. This stuff has all happened between Mike and Will already.

And if this conversation’s already happened before, like my theory presumes… then that is literally how Mike and Will knew the other wanted to date! That’s why they had dinner plans!

Robin (AKA Mike): Let’s just say the snowball turned into an avalanche.

Oh, I’m sure it did, Mr. Made-His-BFF-Dance-With-A-Girl-At-The-Snowball-Then-Got-Jealous.

I’m sure it did.

So, why would Vecna replace Byler's missed date with Rovickie's?

The same reason he edited, reversed and replaced the rest of Mike and Will's scenes: Love and memories are the key to escape.

Max escaped with help from memories of Lucas and El. Will fought his possession with help from memories of Mike, Joyce and Jon. El saved Max with their shared memories, reversing her death. If Mike was to remember his love for Will, he'd be able to escape – but that would ruin Vecna's plans to create "beautiful things".

So, Vecna is doing everything he can to prevent Mike's escape.

Vecna needed Mike to believe that everyone had won, to BELIEVE that he got the happiest ending he could, and most importantly: to believe that ending up with Will would never be an option for him. With his memories now scrambled and replaced by Vecna Mike doesn't know Will loves him. He's back to thinking he and Will never even came CLOSE to dating, and that Will only ever wanted to be "friends."

(Plus, it's commentary on how queer characters are viewed as interchangeable, if not erased from media altogether)

As long as Mike continues to forget the love that he and Will truly shared, he will remain trapped in the Rightside Up.

But when he finally remembers?

Freedom.

…

Thanks for reading!

I’ve gone back and updated the last few dot-points of my MWTFDYD = conformitygate analysis to reflect these new changes.

This one took me quite a while to work out, because I was missing details at first. Lucky for me (and unlucky for Mike), the Wheeler attack on November 3rd was the missing puzzle piece I needed! So after two weeks of "huh?", I finally have an idea of where this fits hahaha. Thanks again for reminding me about the rewatch @mixu :P

Links to my other rightsideupgate posts: ORDER OF EVENTS: Part 1 (Mike the storyteller), Part 3 (12 Episodes), Part 4 (MWTFDYD), Part 9 (Wheeler attack -> Mike's kidnapping) SCENE ANALYSIS: Part 2 (Will/Robin), Part 5 (Rainbows), Part 6 (The roof talk), Part 7 ("Where's Dustin right now?"), Part 8 (El is missing), Part 10 (Byler's missed date)

So, I'm going back through the seasons and scrubbing scenes for potential clues, when I come back around to the Rink-O-Mania scenes in Season 4 Episode 2. It goes without saying for those who have been paying attention, but that chapter in the story is heaving queer-coded for several reasons (i.e. Mike ignoring Jane but paying close attention to Will, the HSM2 fight, "We're friends, WE'RE friends!" etc...). But I want to talk about Angela's friend Jake, because I don't think we bring him up enough as evidence for Mike's queer coding.

Now before we dive in, I just want to bring up this wide shot:

Tell me this isn't just the Snowball of '84 if you just swap out the skating rink for the Middle School gym.

Honestly, I encourage you to go back and watch this scene in general. Pay attention to who you see in the crowd and who you don't. It's a lot creepier with everything that has happened.

Ok now back to Rink - O - Mania with Mike, Jane, Will, and the Bullies

When Angela approaches Jane with her friends in tow, I found it impossible to ignore home boy in the orange on her right. This is apparently Angela's boyfriend, according to the fan wiki, although I'm not sure it's ever explicitly said/implied in the show. But I mean come on. He's not really screaming typical "80's boyfriend of the popular girl" aesthetically, which would be relatively insignificant if he didn't immediately start making these eyes at Mike.

Sir, you are not subtle, but I fear neither is Mike

Notice on the right, he's looking at Angela. Then he glances at Jake, and his eyebrows do that thing where they levitate behind his bangs before he glances back at Angela.

Then we get the following exchange with Angela greeting Mike sardonically, Jake noticeably still checking him out in the background.

Now, it's bad enough that Mike is somehow still oblivious to the hostile vibes radiating off of this group, but he also seems to nervously trip over his words as he glances between Jake and Angela again. His voice is also noticeably softened here... which could mean nothing.

Sure, you could argue maybe he's flustered because he finds Angela attractive. But let's look at these next frames, after Angela laughs at the idea of Jane and them being "friends".

On the surface, it would seem like this might be the moment Mike is starting to catch onto the vibes between Angela and Jane being off. And yet... it's not. We KNOW it's not because about 30sec later we see him act completely bewildered when Will reveals the truth about Jane's relationship to them.

So, what's the look of concern at Jane for then?

Again, it comes after Angela laughs saying "Friends? Yeah, super cool."

where do we hear something textually similar but with a different kind of tension????

Mike: I think maybe we should be a team. Friends. Best Friends

Will: Cool :)

Mike: Cool :)

Now, I have seen speculation that Mike may have been worried about Will being "friends" with Angela here, as we know he's been paying specific attention to him this entire day. I think that's plausible, considering we have context from Jane's letter from Ep1 that Mike could think Will likes someone, enough to maybe even make a painting for them.

But let's look at where his eyes go next, specifically after we get a shot of Will looking at Jake.

Crazy, they appear to back on Jake as well. Let's see where they go as they take Jane away to the rink.

Oh. Still on Jake... right, right.

It's even more obvious with Will in this shot, clearly looking concerned at Jane

And finally, what does Mike do as Will stands, seemingly like he might go follow the group?

He glances away and drinks his milkshake, not once looking back up to check on either of them until Will finally says, "Oh no".

I brought up the comparison to the Snowball at the beginning of this post to bring up this shot here:

We know who Mike is looking forlorn over in this shot. It's an interesting shot to compare to the ones above, as we don't see him worried about Jane leaving him behind at the rink (despite his insistence later that all his weird behavior in Lenora could be explained by him being afraid she'll do exactly that). Instead, he's avoidant and looks away. Until he's made to face the situation by Will, the person he's actually been paying close attention to all day.

So, what do I think the deal with Jake is?

Well, the overt context of this chapter as it relates to Will is to show us just how left behind, forgotten, and rejected he feels at this stage, especially by Mike. Same with Jane, in the aftermath of the bullying incident, we see she's mostly hurt by Mike emotionally rejecting her in a moment she needed compassion and love.

In my opinion, the subtext also supports that Mike is feeling all of these emotions as well, only towards Will. Jake just happens to be a narrative manifestation of that.

Let's think about it: Mike comes to Lenora under the impression that Jane is doing great, and Will likes someone else. He acts incredibly weird in the airport by not hugging Will and immediately asking about the painting that's for his supposed crush but doesn't push further when Will deflects. He hears Jane mention Angela is one of her friends, and Will repeat her name anxiously. He continues to put on the performance of attentive, loving boyfriend for Jane, all while silently paying close attention to every move Will makes that day.

And then at the rink, he sees Jake with Angela. Jake, who is clearly making flirty eye contact with him. Who is objectively cute in a very similar way that one might find Will cute. He hears Angela laugh sarcastically about her and Jane being "friends" and then sees Will look concernedly at Jake and appear as though he might follow them to skate.

And then the truth is revealed, and he realizes that Angela, Jake, and the rest of their crew were not who he thought they were. Angela was never friends with Jane, and Will was never interested in any of them. Everything he thought was true was a lie. And who is he upset with over this? Will. Because it's always been Will's communication and honesty that he's cared about. He was never worried about Jane leaving him behind for her new friends. He was worried about being left behind by Will, just like he was at the Snowball. And in the end, Will does emotionally leave him behind when he lies about his feelings belonging to Jane when he gives Mike the painting.

Actually becoming increasingly more into and finding funny the idea of Byler endgame genuinely happening like

Will: I think it might be time for me to move on-

THE DIFFERENCE IN HIS BREATHING??!???

computer show me girls kissing

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