And we're directly back at combining Mike's fall at the quarry and Holly = Mike, only with an really bitter twist this time.
Better watch this Season 5/5 clip first, I promise it's a short one.
We start with Holly and Max, using the telescope to find Henry's traumatic memory (and a way out of Camazotz). At the same time El and Hopper actually find something: the wall surrounding the Upside Down.
In S1 Mike jumped at the quarry, a place surrounded by high walls, just like the Upside Down. That's his traumatic memory.
Finding the spot, Holly crashes through the floor. The only reason she's not falling completely is because Max saves her. At the same time El finds Holly's shoe on the ground in front of the wall. Almost like Holly fell down the walls surrounding the Upside Down. Oh wait- she did that later in S5.
Mike got saved by El, but what if that's not the true story? Maybe there's a story he can never tell - because of trauma suppression?
In the epilogue he's actually speaking of a suppression stone before imagining El at a quarry-like place.
Holly and Max look down through the hole, El guesses Holly got taken through the wall. I'm only thinking about the hole in the brick wall at the start of the epilogue. Mike watched it getting fixed. That and: Max told us she needed to follow the memories back to the day she died to get out of the memory maze. I guess Mike needs to do the same.
He needs to remember the day he died to finally get out. But 'getting out' has a second meaning to Mike. The other side of the wall. Being gay. The Sync told us, 'getting out' and 'the other side of the wall' both mean 'death.' It's all connected.
While Holly says that "M" marks the spot, Hopper's flashlight marks the spot on the ground they found Holly's shoe at.
So if Holly fell down the wall and Holly = Mike, then the flashlight marks the spot Mike would have landed. "M" as in "Mike."
Fun Fact: The next scene was Nancy telling Mike to limp at the hospital and Vickie lecturing Robin about getting 'high' because she's going through withdrawal.
Looking back now, this scene I posted about recently got a whole darker context. It paralleled Holly's fall from the Abyss to Lucas giving Mike his 4th wall break speech about coincidences, followed by Holly's other shoe getting picked up at the Wheeler house. She lost it during a fall... WHAT?! And I was like "haha lol Hollycopter."
By the way, Holly wasn't shoeless when she entered Camazotz, even though she lost both of her shoes. She just had a new pair on. What exactly did Mr Whatsit saved her from again? A Demo? Or a fall? We never saw how she lost that second shoe.
Another quick reminder: The cave equals Mike's heart.
Mike and Will fell to their Death on the Same Day - November 12th 1983
The happiest future Mike could imagine for El is inspired by the day he almost died.
All 3 of them are looking down…
Is Watergate about the quarry?
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I was really hoping to get this through before my trip to England tomorrow, so I can move on to new topics afterwards, but jokes on me: I found more. There's a scene I planned to use for "The Mind of Mike Wheeler" which I thought was about Byler at first. I tried to understand it, even researched trigonometry for it, but in the end I couldn't and just left it out. Yeah, I just stumbled upon my notes for it and immediately got it, so bad I wanna throw up. Mike's thoughts about the quarry... Guess I'll have to make another post soonish... Ugh.
