#matrixgate

I’ve seen a few interesting posts about these mysterious 11 tapes here and here, and it’s got me thinking & digging…

Did you know it looks exactly like the Limited Edition Season 2 tape?

(same yellow sticker and everything!)

This was Season 1 for comparison:

Like it’s been mentioned, the Snowball ‘84 being crossed out is literally Season 2 being overwritten.

And the definition of red tape might as well be the definition of what conformitygate feels like 😭

There was also this interesting 80s RCA/Columbia Home Video anti-piracy campaign:

We’ve all theorised that the colour red is like an alarm. A symbol of the corrupted truth, screaming to be looked at closer.

Let’s apply this “if it isn’t red, it isn’t real” rule:

Most of Season 5 clips uploaded to YouTube has this red border around it. (could be just a style choice…or maaaybe not)

And to me it’s asking us to question, “am I real?Am I as real as I’m claiming to be?”

If it isn’t red, it isn’t real:

If it isn’t red, it isn’t real:

If it isn’t red, it isn’t real:

The yellow “be kind, rewind” sticker on the tape also has implications of its own.

Surveillance but also corruption (see link in this post):

And also connects to the Watchmen:

This S4 teaser included a nod to The Watchmen “Doomsday Clock”, which symbolised the looming apocalypse with the time stuck on 5 mins to Midnight:

(A user on Reddit clarified the exact time on the clock:)

Once it reaches Midnight, Game Over. And that’s exactly what happened in S4 - they lost.

So S5 continues to not make sense:

So how do they fix this?

Most of us think the signs are pointing to “re-winding” the proverbial tape to S2 and The Snowball, where everything literally went Upside Down:

Full Snowball clip here

It’s interesting because The Snowball is also the same episode when they “closed” the Mothergate:

(Erica said it!! We have to go back…)

El closing “the Mothergate”:

Does this possibly imply that something went wrong when the Mothergate was closed? Will’s connection was severed but still dormant. In S5, Will even mentioned himself that closing the gate didn’t work for him. Does this mean they need to go back to the Snowball, and also rewrite events of closing the gate??

And speaking of S5 maybe all being in Mike’s head, Mr. Whatsit seems to be a manifestation of himself at the Snowball 💀

Something about that night continues to haunt him:

There are also some Matrix connections:

(if it isn’t red, it isn’t real)

It’s been pointed out by Kelly on TikTok that a lot more CG edits are leaning into The Matrix hints:

People who accepted the ending took “the blue pill” (comfort and happiness)

People who thought S5 felt off took “the red pill” (conformitygate)

And if you saw the “black cat” twice in The Matrix, it means there’s a glitch in the simulation:

Serious deja-vu:

Serious deja-vu:

Serious deja-vu:

Their realities seem to be looping over and over again. And by the time we got to S5, no one in Hawkins seemed to have noticed.

That’s why the inconsistencies like shifting colours and false memories (Will’s speech) suddenly became more obvious. It’s begging us and the characters to notice the truth of their realities.

If it’s not red, it’s not real:

I think the painting is part of taking “the red pill” and waking up to the truth.

Can’t help but notice their red & blue ties here 👀

I’d say it’s time to “be kind and rewind”

It has always seemed sus for me that characters can see themselves like on screen. Shouldn’t be their perception lwk… internal? Coming from inside? Why do they see THEMselves?

I was brushing it off bc I thought: well okay, bc how else would they show it from the inside? like cinematic language is so limited that there is literally not a single option for doing it not this clumsy.

now if we get back here (comment for this post):

(and this is the post I’m linking 👆👇)

so if we get back here, doesn’t it give an observation room? the way Vecna would watch?

How could he see also from the outside? Where is that spot in the hospital where he’s standing, yk? Mb he can and I don’t have a decent idea for this, but if the rule of impossibility to see someone from that POV is correct, then the answer is: it is not happening in the real world. It’s a room for observations placed in his mind. He literally looks through the window. And so does Max. And Holly. If we see this space as a united one, the physics of it suddenly makes sense. It’s just one big mental apartment, which no one leaves.

Which shows that the Abyss (Holly) and Hawkins (Max) are both in there. (And it makes so much sense bc they just came from Henry’s memory with a rock into the red room, crossed it like a hall, and ended up in another room!)

But where’s an actual exit?

We have multiple exit signs around in every Camazotz room, which no one pays attention to. We also have Mike and the painting, which, I believe (I be leaf) will be his exit. And we know that these portals are opened with music that might hold everyone in there, maybe hiding them deeper. Nancy, for example, got her idea about the music in the mental institution (for symbolism giving Vecna in Pennhurst check this post):

given all this, Max was probably tricked here (or maybe it’s not even Max, or she’s not alive):

but we still have this, and I believe this is not fake (💜) bc this scene sets the context, shows how their bond works for the future seasons resolution

So, from what Robin said, we know that music can reach parts of the brain words can’t. Which traps everyone. But words are still there. Honesty, truth. Love confession. Ik you’re tired of this image but:

this is also a word. the love confession.

And how did Will come back after Mike dragged him out of his trance? Will didn’t need any portals. The illusion just disappeared. And he was back.

One more thing about it: here Will was in the UD.

For a moment. It was a vision. Not a physical place. Physically he was in Hawkins and Mike found him. What does it make of the UD? Is it another room?

Then it looks like leaving “Camazotz” is not that hard technically, the path can be paved by true feelings and honesty with yourself. And that’s why Vecna works with minds to make it hard, while the curiosity door out is still always open three inches.

(how’s this guy relevant, you might ask, and I’ll reply that it’s the matrix, and the matrix is 100% relevant)

It has always been a mistake to play by the rules of that space: to use “portals” while they are windows, or to believe in three doors: that you have to accept your fate/kys/escape.

And the last door wouldn’t work either bc escaping acknowledges the existence of the place. Like, of course, technically they still need to leave that space, but not by reacting to external (acknowledging the world around). They need to come back to their inner selves, to their own truth, choose the door 4, which is… right there:

Vol 1: Max's Blue World

Vol 2: Vecna's Red World

I wasn't going to update my patch post until later this week but I NEED to make a post right now.

Siri play, tell me why for the 100th time-

I was fully expecting to make a post update about VQ squadrons in Japan and the use of bats and dragons, etc but this just killed me LOL

So overseas during the cold war Naval Security Group Activity [papa podlodka's group] was filled with nerds doing cryptologic stuff. Telemetry, ELINT, russian language interception and interpretation. This newer group is linked to Cybersecurity and electronic warfare along with weapons systems, night vision, etc.

Whew. Okay I need to go have a little lay down.

Tagging all the tags and matrixgate because this slots in pretty well with that or a story about a rogue AI/War Games.

With this post, I want to delve deeper into one of the parallels to The Matrix I posted about here — the WSQK and its radio head.

Quick recap: In 501, when the WSQK signal is sabotaged, we are provided with a very clear reference to The Matrix: The signal being down is indicated by a red light, and once the fuse is connected again it switches to a blue light. this is in spite of the manual (which Dustin told us to read) stating that the lights should be red and green.

In The Matrix, the red pill wakes you up from the simulation; if you swallow the blue pill instead, you forget everything you knew about the existence of the matrix (i.e. that it’s a simulation) and go back to living your (simulated) life as usual.

As pointed out by @lavenderlatte222 in this post, the WSQK being up and running reinforces the theme of Stranger Things that music keeps you trapped in the mind prison. In season 4, the asylum has a music room because music “calms the broken mind”, and in season 5 Henry offers Holly a cassette player and her favorite record when leaving her alone at the Creel house in Camazotz. Even Max’ arc somewhat supports this because as she tells us, it was never about the music; her actual tether to the real world was her connection to someone who means a lot to her aka Lucas.

But why does music keep our characters trapped?

While our characters may not live in a fully simulated world, think about what the WSQK actually represents: Propaganda!

Consider Robin’s broadcast that introduces us to the Hawkins of season 5. She’s playing down the mysterious events going on, “encouraging compliance” as she states herself. Media is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful tool for propaganda. The WSQK indoctrinates the residents of Hawkins day in, day out.

But it’s not just the moderation; Stranger Things teaches us how music can be used as ‘propaganda’, too. Think back to the examples of the asylum and Camazotz I gave above: In both cases, music is used to keep people happy and stop them from questioning their realities; to stop them from realising they are imprisoned.

So it makes perfect sense that the WSQK being up an running is symbolised by a blue light because it keeps whatever version of a mind prison/altered reality/simulation/… the characters are in up and running.

I don’t think we should treat Camazotz/the radio head lights/flayed Hawkins as analogous to the Matrix (because i don’t think the Duffers would just rip off the concept) but I do think that we can establish that blue represents some sort of propaganda/simulation while red represents the truth/reality. You may think now that this contradicts the WSQK tower as a metaphor for the signals between Will and Mike — hold your horses, I'll get back to that!

So why did the signal go down?

As the characters state, Robin was encouraging compliance so the military doesn’t have a motive to cut her off, right? Well, although Robin was reiterating the military’s rules she stopped complying right after, when she was openly talking about her queer relationship live on the radio. While she didn’t directly state that she was going on a date with a woman, she wasn’t exactly censoring herself either — people could very easily put the pieces together if they

hear Rockin’ Robin talking about her date

know Robin personally

see Robin and Vickie at Enzo’s that evening

And given that Hawkins is a small town, Rockin’ Robin isn’t exactly anonymous, and it isn’t exactly unlikely for someone to actually piece it together.

Right after Robin is so transparent (considering the time and place) about dating a woman is when the signal is interrupted; the propaganda machine is sabotaged and the red light on the radio head symbolizes that the truth got out/that the Matrix was disrupted in some way. Robin’s queerness is censored.

The metaphor of the WSQK as a propaganda machine also ties in with readings of the Mind Flayer: Both are metaphors for how queer people — especially queer men — were villainized, discriminated against, and censored in the 80s. And, at large, they are metaphors for social conformity or even fascism (i.e. the ultimate version of conformity). In case you’re not familiar with that interpretation of the Mind Flayer, here are some snippets from TVmicroscope’s analysis of Stranger Things subtext:

The end of season two sees Dustin compare the Mind Flayer and the Demodogs to the Nazis in World War II, for example. He sees these monsters from the Upside Down as racial supremacists convinced of their superiority as a master race and the inferiority of all other living things, trying to take over the world. […] So, the Upside Down is more than just a metaphorical closet for the gays, yeah? The show seems to be saying, “It started with the gays, but they were just the first victims. In the 1980s, this movement [the ‘Reaganite Revolution’] was coming for everyone in the US. The gays just happened to be its first targets, which is why they could see this more clearly than the rest of society still blissfully unaware of what was to come.” […] Season three in particular ratchets up this whole angle: Here we now get the Mind Flayer controlling people through a type of hive mind. […] The Mind Flayer strips people of their ability to think for themselves, their agency, their whole identity and turns them into empty and controlled meat puppets, essentially. [..] You don’t need any special subtext-reading skills to understand what you are being told here about the Reaganite flavour of American conservatism, about its followers and fans, and about the evangelical Christian Right taking over both domestic and foreign policy in the US in the 1980s: Mindless meat puppets, completely controlled by a dark entity from an alternate dimension just about covers it.

While the Mind Flayer presents this to us in the form of something supernatural, the radio broadcast is the non-supernatural analogue to this. Where the Mind Flayer enforces conformity by controlling its puppets through the hivemind, propaganda achieves conformity by imposing curated content on citizens. They become part of the hivemind by tuning into these broadcasts that determine the Overton window (i.e. the range of subjects politically acceptable to the mainstream). Whatever is presented to them as acceptable and even desirable creates pressure on the individual to conform to those norms and ideals.

The show actively ties the Mind Flayer/hivemind to radio signals, too: Will’s connection to the hivemind is described as an radio antenna receiving signals. And when they fry the demogorgon in 505, the hivemind particles go up the radio tower.

All of this teaches us another important thing: In order to avoid censorship, Robin has to speak in code over the radio when talking about Vickie; or when giving the party instructions for the next crawl, for that matter. The marketing concept of the real-life WSQK maps onto this, with easter eggs and encoded messages being hidden in it; and with the entirety of the broadcast likely holding deeper meaning through the WSQKsync. There are also instances where the moderators censor themselves, e.g. Vance Goodman making this comment after the tower is hit:

Stay right were you are because I’m about to hand over the mic to the Hawkins Update guy who can shed some light on all the goings on across Hawkins and, uh, man, it’s been… eventful, is one of the words I’d use, uh, some of the other ones you can’t really say on the radio.

Communicating in code is exactly what Robin teaches Will and it is historically (and contemporarily) what queer people have been doing to find each other. She tells him to look out for more subtle non-verbal signals to figure out if another queer person likes you, and speaks in code herself when calling Vickie her “good friend” after being caught by Will.

Does this remind you of anything? Or anyone?

Mike shows the three physical signs of attraction Robin taught Will — a brush of the knee, a bump of the elbow, a shared look. He also speaks in code: He calls Will his “best friend” to set him apart from his other friends. He uses D&D terms to express his admiration for Will (honest-to-god sorcerer), and he is our storyteller after all. He censors himself by saying that there’s a story he can never tell. But he does tell that story if you read between the lines. Just like our character speaking in code, the Duffers are speaking in code to tell us a story within a story, as I explain here.

(Henry S4E7)

the maze of mirrors (S3E7): triangles, red and blue lighting, and broken mirror/glass imagery.