#ohbillyboy

Billy Hargrove sketches at varying levels of completeness 💖

I’m not kidding. This symbolic relationship is so important to the show that I consider it the foundation for everything else... including my assertion that Billy is alive. 

Wherever water shows up - rain, baths, showers, pools, the ocean - the Upside Down is not far behind. Nine times out of ten, the pattern holds true. And if I went through every example, this post would be HELLA LONG. So I’ll just hit a few highlights...

1) The Upside Down is designed to look and sound like the deep sea.

As someone who’s fascinated by the deep sea, I freakin’ love the Upside Down’s design. Walking through the place is like walking on the ocean floor. Stuff that looks like barnacles and seaweed covers everything. Spores float through the air like the particulate matter we see in the ocean. In S1, Hopper and Joyce even wear "dive suits."

The music and sound design emphasize the deep sea connection. Billy’s trip into the Upside Down gives us the perfect example. If you listen carefully to the sound in the scene, it creates an underwater ambiance. When Billy first steps out of the phone booth, we hear wet, squishy sounds. Every other sound has heavy reverb, and we hear no high frequencies, just low ones, as if the soundscape is muffled by water.

So yeah, the Upside Down’s likeness to the sea is pretty obvious. But the connection affects more than the way the Upside Down looks and feels. It even affects key plot choices.

2) El first encounters the Upside Down in “the bath.”

In S1, we get a series of flashbacks showing El’s training in the lab. Her training culminates in her meeting the Demogorgon and opening the first gate into the Upside Down.

Remarkably, she doesn’t even hear the Demogorgon until she’s in the water tank. The first time she runs away. The second time, Brenner forces her to approach it, and all hell breaks loose.

Symbolically, she’s being submerged in the Upside Down. That’s why she meets the Demogorgon in the tank. Later in the season, when she wants to project her mind into the Upside Down, she uses a kiddy pool to recreate the tank (aka, she’s symbolically submerging herself again).

3) Barb encounters the Demogorgon in the Harringtons’ pool.

The scene begins with Barb perched on the diving board, dipping her feet in the water. Then the Demogorgon shows up, Barb flashes into the Upside Down, and... well. We all know what happens next.

(This scene creates a parallel with Billy that is extremely significant. I’ll explore it at length in another post.)

4) Will’s “dead body” is found in the water.

The people of Hawkins aren’t aware of the Upside Down. When Will’s “body” is found, his death is chalked up to drowning. Thankfully, we as the audience are in on the secret; we know Will’s alive. HOWEVER, his drowned “body” being pulled from the water represents the threat he still faces: the Upside Down has taken him, and he could very well die there.

The threat is underscored by my next example...

5) When Hopper and Joyce rescue Will, he’s portrayed as having (almost) drowned.

“He’s not breathing! He’s not breathing!” Joyce cries. As Hopper pumps Will’s chest, he talks her through giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Finally, Will jerks upright with a gasp, all to the tune of “When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die” by Moby.

I don't want to swim the ocean I don't want to fight the tide I don't want to swim forever When it's cold I'd like to die...

Literally, Hopper and Joyce just saved Will from the Upside Down. Symbolically, they pulled Will from the water, then gave him CPR like a lifeguard would.

(The lifeguard connection is HUGELY IMPORTANT FOR BILLY OMG, I’LL TALK ABOUT THAT IN THE BARB POST)

Other details of the scene support this reading. Will’s vest makes it look like he’s wearing a life preserver. Meanwhile, the library around them looks like a shipwreck on the ocean floor. There’s even a “porthole” in the background.

6) When the Upside Down takes Heather, she’s portrayed as being dragged under the ocean.

We start with El finding a bathtub full of ice. Already we have the association with water - cold water. Then Heather pops out of the tub, begs for help, and gets sucked back down. After that, we’re hit with one of the most significant visuals of the show: Heather disappearing into the green-tinged darkness, reaching for the surface, as El screams her name.

Again, we see that being taken by the Upside Down = drowning. Tragically, no one reaches Heather in time to save her.

7) Billy's first experience of possession is surrounded by water symbolism.

When Billy wakes from his nightmare about the Upside Down, his eyes reflect the pool like he’s seeing water all around him. Not coincidentally, he looks like someone splashed him from the pool while he was asleep. Gasping for breath, he stumbles to the pool showers and literally submerges himself in water. Here, the Mind Flayer scorches through Billy’s mind, making His presence known for the first time.

It’s here that the Mind Flayer forces Billy to claim his first victim. Soaked from the shower, Billy attacks Heather and pulls her into the stall with him.

Symbolically, he’s been dragged into the ocean too. We’re left wondering if he’ll ever escape.

»»————-　✼　————-««

These are just a FEW of the many, many examples I could use. Like I said, wherever water shows up, the Upside Down isn’t far behind. This rule applies to rain, bathtubs, pools, even glasses of water at times.

With a little deduction, the rule also gives us a back door into a crucial revelation.

Billy is alive, and he’s coming back from (or through) the Upside Down.

✨ Favorite trope: the bad boy who becomes a hero ✨

+ bonus b/w version--

(ohbillyboy is my IG watermark, I was just too lazy to change it)

An argument in pictures.

When we find out his father's abusing him:

When he's confused and terrified by his encounter with the Upside Down:

When he's suffering at the pool:

When the Mind Flayer forces him to kidnap Heather:

When he's so terrorized by being locked in the sauna that he regresses to a childlike state:

When we see his pain in the Void:

When we find out he tried, and failed, to protect his mom:

When THIS SCENE happens:

Every time his pain flashes out to slap us in the face:

The Duffers are not interested in punishing him. They want you to want him to find redemption and healing.

Why else do you think they made you look right in his goddamn eyes

IMPORTANT: If you haven’t read my post “The First Rule of Analyzing Stranger Things: The Upside Down Is Symbolized By Water,” please read it before you continue. Thanks!

Billy has just come fresh from the water, beaming with pride. “Did you see that?” he brags to his mom. “That wave was at least seven feet!” When she says they have to leave, he begs for ten more minutes. Reluctantly, she agrees.

As he grabs his surfboard and runs back to the water, his mom calls, "Billy?”

He pauses. Instinctively, we feel that whatever she says next is significant.

“Watch out for rip currents!" she finishes. 

"I know!" he answers cheerfully.

Then he hurries to the water, gets on his board, and swims away. 

Weird exchange, isn’t it? 

Everything in film has meaning. To tell a story using film, you can only use sight and sound. That means sets (especially location shoots, like a beach), costumes, dialogue, etc., are all chosen deliberately. If chosen well, they will clarify the story instead of muddying the waters. In other words, if Billy's mom goes out of her way to mention rip currents, you better sit up and pay attention.

Okay, so what does it mean? Why did the writers include this moment?

To find the answer, we must define what a rip current is.

The graphic says, “Rip currents are powerful currents of water moving away from shore. They can sweep even the strongest swimmer out to sea.”

Interesting. So they’re currents of water with a violent pull. Dare I say it, they could even sweep your feet out from under you.

Now where have we seen that in Stranger Things? (Skip to 1:30 in the video below.)

Yep. I’m saying what you think I’m saying.

When Billy catches the railing, the floor in front of him even looks like water. Study the screenshot below carefully--

See what I mean? The floor is ocean blue, and the dust patterns look like ripples. This is a purposeful design choice with an undeniable meaning.

The Upside Down is the ocean. The Mind Flayer and His servants are the rip current.

This revelation puts a whole new spin on victims of the Upside Down. Not only can we describe them as drowning victims; we can also say they drowned because a rip current swept them out to sea. 

Alright then! Keep the metaphor going. Suppose a rip current swept you out to sea. What would increase your chances of survival?

You’re a strong swimmer, and you've learned how to handle rip currents. You know to stay calm and swim parallel to shore until you’ve escaped the current’s pull.

A lifeguard saw you and is coming to rescue you.

A lifeguard.

A lifeguard.

Okay. Let’s take it slow... BREATHE... and unpack what this means.

If any victim of the Upside Down can escape it on his own, it’s Billy.  In fact, the Duffers have already foreshadowed that he will.

1) Billy knows how to deal with rip currents. What does he say when his mom warns him on the beach? “I know!” He doesn’t even sound worried. He sounds cheerful and confident, like escaping rip currents is second nature to him.

And that makes perfect sense. He grew up beside the ocean. He’s probably known about rip currents since he was old enough to swim.

We can’t say that for someone like Barb. She’s probably lived in Hawkins her entire life - as far away from the ocean as you can get. We don’t even see her swim in the Harringtons’ pool in S1. Does she know how? We never find out.

2) Like I mentioned above, Billy is a lifeguard. A lifeguard’s job is to save others from drowning. In the symbolic structure of Stranger Things, where ‘drowning’ means ‘dying in the Upside Down,’ that translates to: Billy will save others from the Upside Down.

3) Billy is so good at swimming that he teaches others how. When he’s flirting with Karen in S3, we find out he gives swimming lessons at the pool. It’s his side job in addition to being a lifeguard. In the symbolic structure of Stranger Things, that translates to: Billy will not only save others from the Upside Down; he will also teach them how to save themselves.

4) Billy is a surfer. He’s learned how to ride the waves... and symbolically tame them. Even when he falls in the water, it’s nothing to be afraid of. He just gets back on his surfboard and tries again.

No other character understands water like Billy. We could even say water is his element. It’s so central to his being that the Duffers chose to represent his mind as a beach.

The message is clear--

Billy will ultimately survive his encounter with the Upside Down. In future seasons, he will even tame it.

»»————-　✼　————-««

P.S. The strategy for escaping rip currents foreshadows how Billy will ‘return to shore’: “Swim out of the current in a direction parallel to the shoreline.”

More on that soon~~