#absolute byler

Check out my previous blog post: this is a deep analysis of volume two and three of season five and WSQK hints that hint at conformitygate.

There was a crack theory that Dr. Kay (the military big bad) is El/Jane from the future. It was literally just one comment on a TikTok that I saw. It's giving "maybe when he kiss, elven blood transfer." But honestly...

Dr. Kay - K is the eleventh letter of the alphabet. Why bring in another military big bad (a small, but powerful woman, mind you) in the final season when it could've just stayed as Sullivan, who we've known as the military big bad for 2 seasons up until this point. While Sullivan wanted to track Eleven down to kill her. Dr. Kay makes a point to track Jane down with the hopes of just capturing her. Also the "JK 95" in the end credits that people are interpreting as, "Just kidding! Season 5, Episode 9!" I feel like it could also hint at J (Jane) = K (Dr. Kay) theory that I'll elaborate on now:

Why cast Linda goddamn Hamilton as Dr. Kay? Linda Hamilton is famous for playing the Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise. A brief summary of Sarah Connor: Sarah Connor develops from a damsel in distress to a wanted fugitive committing acts of terrorism (hm. sounds like Jane or at least the military's perception of her.), on the verge of losing her humanity, and a mentor preparing and protecting a protegee for her destiny (Dr. Kay with Jane). Sarah Connor's fanatical fixation and desire to keep her protegee safe has made her mentally unstable and very violent (sounds like Dr. Kay). Sarah lives off grid as an outlaw, teaching her protegee the skills to one day lead the resistance.

Terminator and Time Travel:

Terminator: Sarah Connor is rescued by a time-travelling soldier who informs her that her protegee in the future leads the remnants of the world's military and survivors. But in the future, evil forces have found a way to time travel and send an Android back in time in an attempt to kill her so her protegee never ends up leading the Resistance.

Terminator: Judgement Day: Model 101, an Android, is sent back in time by Sarah Connor's protegee from the future to protect them both. Sarah Connor finds it impossible to trust the Android, but eventually forms an understanding with it, even offering friendship and a bond at the very end.

This would add SO much depth to Jane in a season where she otherwise feels kind of like just a resource (Millie literally used this word in an interview, that El just feels like "a resource" this season). It would also add so much depth to Dr. Kay, who is otherwise one-dimensional and almost a caricature.

Narratively speaking, Byler makes for the best storytelling and completes Will and Mike's arcs perfectly. It even completes El's independence arc and would it not be so epic if this leads to this theory. That she actually becomes this Dr. Kay, this military leader, albeit a little unhinged (and unlikeable, at first?), but powerful woman in charge, ensuring her own destiny. Her own destiny of not just her survival, but the survival of her friends and loved ones and the survival of the world.

I always found it weird, we didn't see time travel at all when it's hinted at a lot in the show. Back to the Future is referenced time and time again, even this season we get the "flux capacitor" reference. After the finale aired, even WSQK references the flux capacitor again. Back to the Future is about a young man that gets stuck in the past and has to make sure his parents fall in love so he doesn't lose his existence. Dr. Kay making sure her past self doesn't die?

And now Terminator.

The emphasis on clocks with Vecna, why does he need twelve children? "It is Time", "Turn back the Clock", "seconds. minutes. hours. days. weeks. months. years. decades." Vecna views life as a "silly, terrible play", (playgate, anyone?) and wishes to break free from time's restraints.

More evidence / in-show dialogue hinting at Conformitygate / Playgate:

Joyce in 5x07: "This isn't over, not by a long shot."

Mike & Holly (who mirror each other all season) : "I don't understand." The kids' Camazotz is almost exclusively from Holly's POV. The epilogue Camazotz is almost exclusively from Mike's POV.

(Am I onto something here? Am I cooking? Did I eat?)

Lucas: "Is this real? Is Vecna messing with us again? It doesn't make any goddamn sense!"

Holly: "That's wrong, it should be yellow (Will)."

Kali: "Just as you lie to Jane, you lie to yourself." (Mike, wake up!)

Also Kali: "Have you done this before? Shared your mind like this? Have you thought about it? What it all means?” "It's a fantasy!"

Hop: "It's like there's a missing piece of the puzzle." Mike: "All the pieces are in Vecna's mind." (HELLO?!!!)

Dustin: "Was that weird. I'm sorry. That was weird."

Steve: "Yeah, this shit will fry your brains."

Robin: "It gives me a headache (Vecna curse symptom) trying to understand all of this."

Will: "When Vecna attacks, he turns your own mind against you."

Also Will: "It felt so real. It felt SO REAL."

Max: "Whatever he shows you, it's not real. He plays tricks. He LIES."

Holly: “No, you have to listen. He’s not who he says he is. Everything you see, none of it is real. You have to believe me.”

Henry: ("What did Max show her?") "Awful things. Such awful things."

Will: "He showed me things, mom. Such awful things."

Will is literally Vecna atp! Somebody please save my boy!

The chessboard floor in Will's coming out scene. Henry beating Eleven in chess in the lab (season four).

"Checkmate. We lost." - Our party at the end the "finale".

OKAY THIS IS THE BEST PART aka tying this back to Dr. Kay being Jane:

At the end of 5x07, we hear military personnel as the party approaches the MAC-Z.

They say, “Solid copy (!), maintain overwatch (!!!). That’s a negative, private.” Solid copy? Maintain overwatch? That's a negative? (as in that's a fake? fake finale).

And then they say: "Two Hostiles. (Towers, 10 and 11 o'clock." referring to Erica and Mr. Clarke).

But I think there are two hostiles in the party atp. Will, who is fully possessed by Vecna.

And Kali. Why Kali?

(I don't believe in the pregnant women story that Kali is trying to sell). This would explain why Kali is trying to get Jane to sacrifice herself. It would also explain why Dr. Kay (Jane from the future), has Kali in captivity, as if she's trying to save her sister. If Dr. Kay really is Jane, that would explain how they were able to develop the technology that would be Jane's and Kali's kryptonite. If Kali is the second hostile this would explain why she is using that kryptonite so Kali can't manipulate her under Vecna / Mindflayer's influence. And whatever experiments Dr. Kay is really performing on Kali is probably in an attempt to save her. Taking her blood or whatever they are actually doing, to expel the Mindflayer from her and get her sister back.

It's forty five minutes into Ep8. The Party are losing, having an awful time in The Upside Down, and we're losing hope.

Mike is fighting helplessly, trying to defend the people he loves, but it's to no avail. A rustling noise echoes from behind him, and he turns, expecting to face whatever dimensional horror is about to approach him.

The rain is pouring. He is surrounded by a new setting, one all too familiar.

Alone, except for two figures.

"Will, don't go out, it's raining!"

And Mike knows what this is. He sees this same image every other night in the memories that haunt his sleep. He hears the broken voice of his best friend crying out, echoing on repeat in his mind like a broken record player.

He feels the burn of his own words on the tip of his tongue, pooling like regret.

"El's not stupid! It's not my fault you don't like girls!"

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

The words bounce across the walls of his brain. El's not stupid. Will's not stupid. No, that fault falls on Mike's conscience only.

"But it is your fault, isn't it Mike? It's your fault he doesn't like girls." A new voice chimes in, and the memory deviates from its path, the face of his fourteen year old best friend in tears morphing into the sobs of his sixteen year old body, shaking with the panic of his recent confession only a few hours ago.

"See what happens, Michael? See what happens when you don't like girls? When you infect an innocent boy with your thoughts. And he ends up like you, off in fairy land with all of the other queers." Several voices merge into one, the comments of himself, his father, Troy, all ricocheting, each word a new jab at the empty space under Mike's ribs.

El's not stupid. Will's not stupid. You are stupid, Mike. You were the one who sabotaged the whole day. Did you really think that you could carry on with this act, sit in El's room pretending to be in love every day for the rest of your lives while you secretly pine to be in the basement playing games with your 'best friend'?

Yeah, he guessed he did.

The overlapping noises are overwhelming now, so overwhelming that Mike barely notices the vines tightening around his ankles, guiding him loosely forward through the various memories.

Awkward family dinners, the unspoken accusations and lack of familial love echoing loudly in the silence.

Nancy's horrified sobs, tiredly hitting at his chest and accusing him of not caring enough as he tried in vain to calm her down.

Karen's face in the hospital, once lying weakly in bed, the second as she limped through the basement, consumed by pain, to save them all for one last time.

Nightmare-constructed visions of Holly, tangled in vines connecting to every part of her body. Holly, scared, running through a forest. Holly, petrified, falling through the sky, her piercing scream sure to make him unable to sleep for the rest of his life. All of his fears about his younger sister, the one who should have been safe from this.

El's heartbroken expression when he called her a monster. El's heartbroken expression when she desperately begged him to tell her he loves her, the scattered letters carelessly signed from Mike, from from from strewn across the floor. El's heartbroken expression, when he asked her to speak, alone.

Will's water-soaked body, small in stature, barely grown past the stages of young childhood, still wrapped in Jonathan's hand-me-down red coat, the roll, it was a seven, the Demogorgon, it got him, then morphing into the same body in a faded pink-red sweater only ten minutes ago.

Dead, lay motionlessly, coldly, palely across the board that floated its way to the shore, passing through all of those hands, so many hands, Mike unable to run to him, to Will, his best friend, his lifeline, screaming how she was supposed to help us find Will alive and now here he was, dead at age twelve, at age sixteen, dead, dead, dead.

"It is all your fault." The notes merging like a remix of Will's voice at twelve, at sixteen, and Vecna's gravelly tone.

He couldn't speak. Couldn't move. The vines were urging him to the edge now, compelling the toes of his shoes to hang over the rubble as they had done so many years ago.

A second body appeared in the water below; this time, his own.

"You should have died that day, Michael. You should have died and saved everyone the trouble."

And really, what would his death have changed? El wouldn't have suffered as much as she did. It would have been one less burden for his family to worry about. For everyone to worry about.

Will could've had a shot at being normal, normal in a way that Mike couldn't be.

"Jump."

And the voice sounds like Troy, threatening Dustin's baby teeth with a knife.

It sounds like Will, the reason why he was able to act so quickly on the command back then, when all hope seemed to be lost, because how could he ever live without Will?

It sounds like his father, who wouldn't want a queer as a child, and his mother, whose perfect family he was disrupting.

It sounds like family dinners of silence and suspicion and anger and anticipation.

It sounds like El dumping his ass for the final time, because he could never do anything but hurt her, his malicious behaviour making her the undeserved collateral damage.

It sounds like all of his friends, angry at him for his loudness, his impulsivity, his misdirected words and lack of coherence in the confusion of teenage identity.

It sounds like his own voice most of all.

Standing on the edge of Sattler's Quarry, the memory of twelve year old Mike Wheeler jumps, his body plummeting some several feet, and he is saved by Eleven Hopper, his Superhero.

Standing on the edge of Sattler's Quarry, the mental manifestation of sixteen year old Mike Wheeler jumps, his real body beginning to bend at awkward angles until an overwhelming, searing light encompasses his vision, shining with such love, such gentle care, and his mind is slowly guided by a soft, barely-there caress dragging him desperately across the mindscape ground as Jimmy Somerville's voice calls out for him to run away turn away run away turn away run away, bringing him back to safety.

Byler scene and it’s purple rain

will: I could never steal you from another

Mike: it’s such a shame our friendship had to end

PURPLE RAIN PURPLE RAIN

Then they kiss or hug or something