In Worlds Turned Upside Down, JAWS is mentioned as a source of film inspiration for the show—a source of inspiration for who we now know is Henry/Vecna.

I like that the word ‘haunting’ is used to describe “the key inspiration for [ST’s] monster.” That’s precisely what Vecna does. He terrorizes by using what haunts Hawkins’ residents, lurking in the dark recesses of their minds/ sense of reality as he spies on them. We have seen the JAWS poster in Will’s rooms. We know it represents the dangers of the Upside Down/Vecna coming up to the surface.

There’s an interesting specificity to the times we most notably see this poster in the series: during heart-to-heart scenes between Will and Mike in s2 and s4.

In s2, when Mike is in Will’s room after Will is possessed, we see Mike trailing along the drawn tunnels on the wall. As he slowly reaches the JAWS poster and passes it, we get these lines in order:

Some of him is there (Mike gradually passes the poster—). But some of him is here (—and now the poster is between Mike and Will) too. Through JAWS, we can establish that the Mind Flayer/Vecna is here, right here in the room with Will and Mike. Spying on them.

As the scene continues, the poster is not only behind them but between them and not in-focus/ blurry. The JAWS poster may not be hugely noticeable if you aren’t thinking about it, but it’s there and stays between them through a chunk of the scene as Will tells Mike the horrors he experiences due to his connection with the Mind Flayer: his now-memories, remembering them all the time, and seeing and feeling what the Mind Flayer does.

And Mike says “maybe that’s good.”

When Mike says this line, JAWS has shifted from between Will and Mike to behind Mike.

The poster was already behind Mike. It was there when Mike placed himself on the opposite side of it, very close to it. The poster, while Will is talking, is just framed in such a way that it falls evenly between Will and Mike’s heads. You can see the distinction before and after “maybe that’s good,” because there is a clear shift towards Mike’s head; especially as the scene goes on:

S2 wasn’t the first season to show suspicious imagery that looks like Mike was being watched/spied on. It continues in every season. But here, with that JAWS poster representing a haunting, villainous monster, we know that is what’s happening to Mike in this scene too. Here, Mike has once again involved himself in helping/saving Will. He knows about the tunnels under Hawkins now. He’s learning about what Will is experiencing. He talks about spying back on the monster, and the JAWS poster closes in behind him. This is a symbolic indicator that Vecna is honing in on Mike, targeting him for his interference/ his close bond with Will.

Will then expresses worry over the Mind Flayer spying back. Mike says he won’t. “We won’t let him.”

But the emphasis against ‘not letting him’ states otherwise:

Will’s drawing gets closer to us every time we cut back to it. The poster also peeks out from behind Mike’s head when he says “We won’t let him.” In true Jaws fashion, the threat moves closer and closer in, his sights set on his prey as he prepares the attack. You don’t simply thwart what he’s doing. Vecna was already spying back in this scene, and the framing of the poster throughout it shows us Vecna has a specific target on Mike.

Then in s4, you see the poster again. This time the poster is solely behind Mike and can be seen in all noticeability while he’s having his reconnecting heart-to-heart with Will.

We see JAWS very blatantly while Mike talks to Will about ‘working together’ as “a team. Friends… Best friends.” In other words, united. Working together, being together, makes the two of them stronger. Vecna knows this. He’s experienced it; especially when Mike reached a possessed Will with his monologue, allowing Will to secretly communicate through Morse Code. Unlike in s2, the JAWS poster is never positioned between Will and Mike. Only behind Mike, once again showing a clear—and more threatening—target on Mike’s back. And from this scene onward, Mike and Will + the Cali crew have shots that suggest outside forces spying on them.

Notice the first shot; Mike is in center-frame with his back facing us. We’re meant to take this as a hint that it’s Mike in particular who is being watched and targeted.

Additionally, the fact that the JAWS poster belongs to Will and is in his s2 and s4 bedrooms, where we prominently see it between him and Mike + solely behind Mike, makes it an indicator that Vecna has continued to spy on Will despite him having moved to Lenora. I’ve seen it discussed many times before that Will is still a spy for Vecna, just unknowingly. With this analysis in mind, it makes sense. S3 didn’t end with a truly dead and defeated monster. Will left Hawkins but Vecna’s connection to him was never severed. S4 ends with Will still feeling him.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner but—

—the framed picture of an ocean lined up behind only Will and Mike’s heads continues the negative/dangerous water imagery in ST. They are in a near-death experience, with Secret Hero Agent Man later dying.

This makes me think harder about my analysis and theory earlier this week about ST and JAWS association + possible parallels to JAWS in s5. I briefly touched on wondering what the final battle might look like with Vecna because of the final showdown in JAWS being solely in-water (with a fake-out death for Mike and Will killing Henry). I mentioned the quarry, the void…

A place to keep analyses, theories, and thoughts.

💙💛

🌈 Conclusion for Byler Prediction!

• Potential Stranger Things/IT Parallel: Will and Mike leave Hawkins Together… Just like Ben and Bev leave Derry Together! ✨

⚡️Will-Focused

• The Iron Rod Metaphor: Will’s Upside Down-related Trauma ✨

• Mistaken Identity, Vecna’s Transcendence, and A Favored Boy: Will is The One Who will End the UD-Apocalypse ✨

Absolutely excellent thread of additions to this post that make it even better with lilitblaukatz, scrunchietown, and starsarefire824.

• The original Pride flag’s purple stripe is “Spirit” — Will the Wise, the strength of Will’s spirit

& Argyle association! (lilitblaukatz)

• ‘One’ appears in sign over Will and Mike’s heads in s3

• The Pink Panther in Will’s Bedroom: Significance on Will’s Value for Vecna?

• Andy Barclay (Child’s Play) and Will Byers similarities I’d wish to see paralleled in ST s5 (if it were referenced)

❤️‍🔥Mike-Focused

• JAWSgate posts:

Will’s JAWS Poster: Targeting Mike ✨

Possible JAWS parallels with Vecna’s end + Mike fake-out death (with thoughts about final battle in water)

More In-Water Imagery for Byler, possibly connected to JAWS and the Void (not Mike-focused but in direct association with above theories/analyses)

• Web/Gridgate Imagery in Mike’s Rubik’s Cube + Willel & Byler color theory -> Mike’s Final Strategy (Rubikscubegate) ✨

• [Ongoing] Split-Shading series ✨:

Split Shades of Mike Wheeler: His Heart is In the Shadows and Light (A+ addition by pppp-lesbian)

MORE Split Shades of Mike’s Heart: Crazy Together

Mike Split-Shading at the Snowball + Will-Resembling Background Character

• S3 MEAT sign above Mlleven (A duo post with howtobecomeadragon!) ✨

• The invalidation of “No. You don’t.” -> Mike thinks his traumas are lesser than.

• thegap Metaphor

• Mike’s fear of losing Will an absolute necessity for s5: Mike ‘losing’ Will at the quarry must be emphasized

• Mike cringing at ‘love at first sight’ while his heart/pocket points toward Will

MORE notes on ‘love at first sight’ for Mike + Numbers and Color Theory + ‘Father’(?)Henry

❤️‍🔥Mike’s Basement Beats

• First three ‘last’ songs describing the eventual progression of Mike’s character - Smalltown Boy, Always Something There to Remind Me, She Blinded Me With Science

She Blinded Me With Science follow-up

⚡️Will’s Castle Byers Classics

• Blue Veins - Will’s POV of Mike and how that POV sets up Vecna to fail

🌷Eleven’s Breakfast Jams & Byler

• Eleven’s Breakfast Jams isn’t pro-Melvin ✨

• Kept Me Crying & Breakdown: “You don’t love me anymore” vs “It’s alright if you love me, It’s alright if you don’t...”

• Stuck & Just What I Needed: “Waste away our lives” vs “I don’t mind you comin’ here and wastin’ all my time”

🌈 Byler Color Theory Posts

• Clues in Mike’s and Karen’s s3 yellow shirts that automatically connect Mike to Karen’s “People are always saying you can’t. That you shouldn’t” conversation with Nancy.

• Green, Blue, and Yellow: All Present in Season 3’s Finale, Explicitly Showing Who Mike Wants to Be With

• Season 3 Will’s Blue and Red shirt, Jonathan’s Green shirt: Brief highlight of Will’s perspective and Jonathan’s love for his brother

• “i lOve HeR aNd I cAN’t lOse HEr aGaIN!”

• The Blue Phone and Yellow Wall: Foreshadowing Mike’s Calls

• “It’s gonna be okay”

• Undefined relationships: A “gray area” in Will’s s4 shirt

UPDATE to “gray area”: Undefined and Defined Relationships in the Same Scene + Mike Split-Shading Relevancy

• Yellow, Blue, and Red In Will’s Closet: “Friends… Best friends.”

🌈 Miscellaneous Byler

• Disney’s Figment in Bingham House: A Symbol of Breaking Convention 🐲 (Figmentgate) ✨

Important Figmentgate Addition! -> Figment is Queer-coded and may indicate Creation Powers for Will! 🌈🐲✨

• 7+7: Will and Mike ARE the Keys for Completion (Excellent thread featuring stranger-chichka and lilitblaukatz) ✨

• A Thread on Loch Nora: Expectations, Conformity, and More ✨

Awesome, very thoughtful additions that made this post better!

stranger-chichka / bylerschmyler

aemiron-main

lilitblaukatz

• Will is Always Involved in Melvin Shots - Even the most Obscure

• Themes of Privacy and Safety for Will and Mike

• Mounted Deer Symbolism (With multiple threads of thought to go deeper and deeper on!)

starsarefire824, googoogagaeyes, pinkeoni, and stranger-chichka - They all made a fantastic thread of info here!!

emblazons - Another great addition!

• Paladin and Cleric Both Guide the Party

• Technically Official Byler Merch

• ACTUAL OFFICIAL BYLER MERCH - No analysis needed!!!✨

• Mike’s Heart would Save Will’s Life

• Hearts gone crazy together

• El and Mike are the show’s E.T. and Elliot: Positive Separation Followed by a Rainbow

🌷Thoughts on El with Byler Relevancy

• El’s Soap Opera Signals Midleven’s End ✨

Ever since I posted my analysis on the JAWS poster motif in ST—with JAWS representing Vecna, the placement of the poster in Will’s rooms during Byler heart-to-hearts, and it showing just how much Mike in particular is being targeted by Vecna—I’ve been thinking a lot about the last ten minutes of the film. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how the film ends on Hooper and Brody.

Hooper, the oceanographer who discovered with Brody just how much of a threat Amity was under because of the monster shark (and goes out to sea with Brody and Quint as a means to put an end to it), enters the water in a shark-proof cage to lethally inject the shark via hypodermic spear.

The shark rams the cage, Hooper drops the spear, and it falls to the seabed.

The shark bends the bars and pushes its head into the cage, trashing it in an attempt to kill Hooper. Hooper fights back—

—and manages to slip past the shark while it thrashes around in the cage’s remains. Hooper swims down to a rock formation on the seabed and hides there.

Cut to when Brody, atop the sinking Orca, utters the famous line “Smile you son of a bitch!” and shoots at the shark, hitting the tank in its mouth and blowing it up.

He did it. Finally. Brody defeated the shark. There’s relief and triumph in his laughter as the mangled corpse sinks amid its blood. As the shark sinks, so does the victory in Brody’s face. Adrenaline is calming. He’s likely processing everything that’s happened while thinking he’s the only one left out there on the water.

But Hooper surfaces. He’s alive, unharmed, and he swims over to Brody. The two, completely exhausted from the fight they just endured and overcame, share laughter. As in, yeah, we survived that.

Since Worlds Turned Upside Down mentions “the Duffers often cited the villainous shark as a key inspiration for the monster haunting Hawkins,” and that JAWS is also “the Duffer brothers’ favorite film,” I am entertaining the possibility that Vecna’s eventual demise could resemble the shark’s. AND this includes a fake-out death for Mike (Hooper) as well as Will (Brody) being the one to ultimately kill Vecna while thinking Mike is dead before he ‘comes back to life.’ There could be scenes paralleling Hooper and Brody during the fight and in the aftermath. For Will and Mike of course, everything would have its own details that fit for them and I can’t imagine it not being crazy emotional. Mike being attacked, fighting back with all he has within a literal grasp of death, ‘dies’ but is actually okay, Will doesn’t know it, Will has an insane final confrontation with Vecna before he kills him, Will thinks he’s alone… but there Mike is. Coming back to him.

The catharsis of it all would be so unreal. I can’t even fully imagine it myself.