#22gate

[ft. #conformitygate, #docgate, #birthdaygate and #chancegate]

Epilogue Max: “[We’re graduating] in TWO HOURS.”

Stranger Things Documentary: 2h 02min.

22. Twenty-two.

Will’s birthday = 22nd March.

Chance’s basketball number = #22.

@ven0moir !!!!!

Credits to @Byleriscanon7 on Twitter for the graduation + documentary connections!

All of us, as Bylers, need to eventually realize that metaphorically/mythologically speaking, Eleven acts as a personified manifestation of Byler’s love.

Eleven SYMBOLIZES an idealized, childish & naive version of Byler that is pure, wholesome & cute—but also needs to eventually adapt, change, be integrated or put to rest in order for their love to be able to evolve into a more mature, renewed version that healed and learned from past trauma, embraced rebellion, developed independence and “emancipated” itself. The character that encapsulates or is tethered to this evolution is Max Mayfield, but that is a topic for another post.

Eleven lying, feeling jealous and possessive, being bullied, publicly humiliated, reacting with thoughtless violence, experiencing brutal guilt, reliving flashbacks to her most traumatic memory at Rink-o-Mania—ON WILL’s FORGOTTEN BIRTHDAY of all possible days, mind you—is NOT just about Eleven herself, at least not in a superficial character sense.

What it means is that, in the past—probably on the dreaded & forgotten 1979 birthday party event where Will turned 8 years old—the love between Mike and Will ALSO went through some kind of traumatic experience involving lies, emotional turmoil, severe bullying and humiliation, violence and guilt. To the point that its memory had to be forgotten, buried or erased in-universe by the characters themselves, SOMEHOW.

And in true Stranger Things fashion, this very same core traumatic series of events are going to be mimicked and replicated in s5 in a similar way. AKA, involving similar beats, motifs, themes and emotions.

Eleven GOING THROUGH IT after all that, being ARRESTED by authorities, and TAKEN AWAY from Mike and Will, while Mike and Will themselves are both angry and distant at her and also each other—this quite literally means Byler’s relationship SUFFERING, being PUNISHED, FRAGMENTED and WITHDRAWN while Mike and Will become ANGRY and DISTANT at eachother.

What’s Birthdaygate’s connection to Bychance, you ask? Well COUNTLESS things, but most importantly, and to make it short, 22Gate. Chance quite literally WEARS Will’s birthday on his basketball tanktop. He is PLAYER #22. This was a discovery by @ven0moir btw, please check her brilliant posts.

Bonus point among a billion others: Mike, in his desperation for finding El (aka BYLER aka Will’s love for him after feeling the stinging pain of jealousy), stumbles into an ORANGE 🍊 WASHROOM no less; to witness something he shouldn’t.

In the official s4 scripts, he originally even goes as far as PEEKING UNDER A GODDAMN BATHROOM STALL. You cannot make this shit up. It’s insane.

In s4’s case, the “something he shouldn’t” was girls in their privacy; in s5 vol 1, it was Will stumbling upon Rovickie; in s5 vol 2, let’s see what they have in store involving jealousy, a washroom, invaded privacy, and the color orange.

It’s also right after this scene that Mike goes on his famous fake IDGAFer butthurt jealous cokerant about how Will has been neglecting their relationship. With multiple orange extras and set pieces in the background, for some reason.

Mike: You should have told me Eleven was having trouble. (You should have told me our relationship was having trouble AKA you searched for love somewhere else.)

Will: i didnt know they were gonna be here, Mike. (I didn’t know you were queer / interested in me / going to catch us here.)

Mike: yeah, but you knew she was having trouble for like, a year, and you didn’t tell me. (Oh, so you’ve been having this secret relationship for like a year and didn’t tell me.) — Now we finally know why later in this scene they say “a year” instead of the 6 months that have actually passed since Will left Hawkins (AKA left Mike lmfao). It’s because the purpose was to foreshadow Will meeting Chance in late 1986 and Mike finding out their secret relationship a year later, in Nov 1987 (ST5 vol 2).

But yeah, as always I’m sure it’s all just a totally random coincidence with zero implications to the wider narrative.

There’s so much more to say about this, but after volume 1 and by now, I think it should be obvious that the Byler plotline still needs to get severely worse before it gets any better (and eventually pays off in an actual, truly satisfying manner).

The Byler issues haven’t been processed or addressed. The true conflict and drama still haven’t happened in the story. THE STAKES HAVE NOT YET BEEN RAISED.

A.K.A. the “MISSING PUZZLE PIECE” of Stranger Things.

+ a possible chronological timeline of Bychance.

•••••••

It’s VERY unlikely Chance the Jock doesn’t have some kind of relevant role in the finale (even if through flashbacks only).

Because… there’s all these breadcrumbs and Chekhov’s Guns that haven’t fired or gotten any payoff at all yet:

JealousyGate.

Mike’s extremely recurrent possessiveness/jealousy arc throughout all seasons. That’s definitely not just a funny gag.

ChanceGate / LuckGate.

Chance being named after the concept of Luck/Randomness. Mike: “it’s simple dumb luck”.

22Gate + BirthdayGate.

Chance being number #22 in the Tigers basketball team, which is Will’s mysteriously “forgotten” birthday.

TimeJumpGate. ItsBeenAYearGate.

18 full months of Will’s AND Mike’s life (between s4-s5) that we have seen nothing of.

OrangeGate.

Why is there SO much orange in s5, specifically in Vol 2…

… and even WILL is wearing ORANGE too now.

Yellow (Will) + Red (Vecna) = Orange (Chance).

Chance is associated to Orange through Basketball 🏀, Tigers 🐯 and Halloween 🎃.

Orange is also a color that signifies danger, alarm, risk, thrill.

HalloweenGate / RainGate / BasementGate / PossessionGate.

Max & Holly visited memories from Halloween day, when it was RAINING and Holly occupied the basement with a friend.

Meaning, Will had to have slept SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Now, was that “somewhere else” really Mike’s bedroom, like many are theorizing right now?

Or was it… not?

Remember—that was exactly the moment Henry took control of Holly’s mind. And Holly is acting as a bit of a metaphor for Mike and Will’s minds too.

What if Will was somewhat possessed by Henry that night and did something to push Mike away?

SecretsGate.

Will talking about Vecna seeing his “secrets” in Vol 2.

What secrets???

Are we sure it’s just him loving Mike… I don’t think so. We’ve been KNOWN that. I think there’s definitely something else at play.

DustinsLiesGate / PhysicalInvolvementGate / SnakeGate.

Dustin having been PHYSICALLY INVOLVED with the Jocks is still a secret to everyone else (except Steve—his BEST FRIEND—who suspects it).

Dustin’s been LYING about it.

And I firmly believe this is foreshadowing for Will’s own secret PHYSICAL INVOLVEMENT with (one of) the Jocks.

Except… this physical involvement is not really about a “fight” but about something all of us can probably guess…

Plus, the Dustin-Andy conflict implicated a SNAKE 🐍, which is not only a very established type of PHALLIC symbolism, but also BETRAYAL symbolism.

FramingGate.

In all of Chance’s scenes—and specifically in s5e1 when Mike and Will approach the jocks—there’s a very weird focus on Chance’s blocking, behavior and facial expressions.

He even exchanges noticeable looks with both Will and Mike; and Mike and Will exchange deliberate looks at him too!!!

Will and Chance in particular look slightly worried/guilty, but like they’re trying to hide it or act nonchalantly.

There’s even one shot where they’re all framed together in an incredibly suspicious way. You could even say in a love triangle imagery way.

What the hell was THAT all about?

[see more about this in the *** “Bychance Chronological Timeline” section below]

SwingGate.

“Nice swing!”.

This is what s5e5 Will says in a flirty voice towards a bare-chested Lucas (a former Tiger/Jock, and also a man of darker skin lol).

Keep in mind, “Swing” and “Swingers” have a sexual connotation too.

Then, Lucas responds with “You saw it?” -> prompting an immediate & slightly possessive response from Mike: “He didn’t ONLY see it.”

Meaning, Will didn’t ONLY “see” Chance, he DID something about it. He ACTED on it. He got INVOLVED.

HunterRomanillosGate, lol…

Finally, Hunter Romanillos (Chance’s actor) said he—and the jocks—would reappear again after Volume 1. They did not, yet. This means they will play a role in the finale.

And that role will 100% be relevant or even crucial, otherwise the writers wouldn’t even bother wasting time on those “background” characters in the very last episode of the show.

Yes, it will be about the Andy-Dustin conflict, but taking DustinsLiesGate and SnakeGate into account… I fear that’s not going to be the exclusive reason.

•••••••

*** Bychance Chronological Timeline:

My theory of how the Bychance thing went (chronologically) is this:

1986 March

Ending of s4. Will starts trying to get over Mike.

1986 October 31st / November 1st (Halloween)

Will either meets and/or begins his secret affair with Chance.

1987 Uncertain Timeline:

Somewhere along this year, Will cheats on Chance with Mike (Byler development that we will probably see in flashbacks, likely BasementGate).

By this point, Mike still doesn’t know about Chance; at most he simply suspects something.

Chance finds out Will cheated on him. Bychance breaks up.

1987 October 31st / November 1st (Halloween)

One year has passed since Bychance started dating. “It’s been a year, Mike.”

It’s raining. Henry takes control of Holly’s mind (and metaphorically, of Will’s and Mike’s minds). Will isn’t sleeping in the basement.

Something VERY crucial about Byler AND/OR Bychance happens this night. One of the 1987 events in the “uncertain timeline” above; whether it’s:

- the aforementioned Bychance breakup;

- a Byler fight;

- and/or BasementGate (the Byler confession/kiss).

1987 October / early-November

Whereas before he probably didn’t really give much of a fuck, Chance now grows a personal vendetta/resentment against Will, Mike and the entirety of the Hellfire club because of jealousy.

He’s a cowardly pick-me gay, basically lmao.

And that’s why we see him being so collaborative with Andy and therefore violent against Dustin in s5 (November 3rd).

1987[???] November 6th

It’s Nov 6th, but weirdly, there’s no mention of the year. This implies time distortion/warping, which could mean Will’s past [SA] traumas from Nov 6th 1983 are resurfacing.

Mike listens to Will’s “coming out” that he weirdly agrees to do in front of the entire group of ST characters on their team. Will says his feelings for Mike were a “crush” and Mike’s his Tammy because “he’s not [queer] like me”, implying he’s “moved on” from Mike.

Throughout his speech, Will also adds eerie references to the 1950s, activities that we know don’t really belong to his life (or his friends’ lives) and “getting lost in the woods”, which is his childhood core traumatizing SA-coded vanishing event from Nov 6th 1983—and quite literally what set the entire story of the show in motion in the first place. (The details in this paragraph weren’t noticed by me; this is #playgate and #vecnascursegate, theories that aren’t mine.)

Mike remembers their intimate moments of the last year/days (BasementGate?), notices the inconsistencies in Will’s words & attitude—clocking that this isn’t Will speaking. He realizes Will is already being possessed by Henry, who’s putting on a BAD performance of Will (Will is dressed in ORANGE).

However, Mike doesn’t say anything. Because if he does, then Henry will know that HE knows.

So Mike has to equally put on a “performance” to pretend that he doesn’t realize what’s happening. And that’s why he stays silent, acts weirdly distant and looks so conflicted/heartbroken/scared during that scene.

•••••••

Edit: PLEASE also read the reblog I made to this post, because there’s another piece of crucial evidence (related to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is one of the main movie references the Duffers told us to watch before s5).

•••••••

220 degrees.

22Gate.

Will it get hot 🔥🌡️ enough.

@ven0moir !!!

Yet ANOTHER Byler-Will-hot-22 association.

22 being Chance’s basketball number in the Tigers. 🐯🏀

Lucas being in the middle of them & being a Tiger basketball player himself. 🐯🏀

This happening right after all three stumble into something unexpected / that they shouldn’t have seen.

That something being naked men in a hot sauna. 🌡️🔥🧖‍♂️🧖‍♂️

All three being caught off-guard & looking awkward in their own different ways.