They Put Byler In This Dark Corner… 🥀
The Great Escape analogy foreshadows Max, Holly, and Will's escape from Camazotz. Will is "Dick," as he's Robin's favorite.
In the end, it's Mike's vision of Will waiting in the shadowy realm of Valaki.
Will's (fake) album was left inside the red crate, Vecna's mind (a track on the album is "four horseman," "remote control").
Robin's shirt is a picture of Tom Waits…
Mike is the one who waits in this scene's analogy.
Tom Waits' photographer recalls the Ring a Ring o' Roses nursery rhyme line, "a pocket full of posies," using poses for a bit of word play.
Mrs. Who's favorite pop culture references are nursery rhymes. She teaches them to Charles Wallace, who is later brainwashed by IT to conform.
Posies were used as protection and to ward off the plague, often called nosegays. In floriography, posies are used for secret messages, like forbidden desires.
Roses are symbols of the plague, the red rose on Henry's door is a symbol of religious persecution and bigotry.
The stench in The Thing's source material is "queer," the stench of internalized homophobia. Only Mike is left when others notice the smell.
In the end, it is Mike who waits in the dark corner of his basement. Mike is Tom, and he'll wait for Will with his pocket full of forbidden desires.
Mike's been warding off his queer feelings for Will, but his feelings are too strong to be suppressed as others start to notice the smell.
Moreover, he's becoming cognizant that things are "not lining up" in Camazotz, when he feels like he is "living a lie" and has a flashback memory at graduation.
The basement's door, that was in Camazotz, similar to Mike's closet, is as white as "ash." The audience "all fell down" the stairs and bumped their heads in this backwards crawl of Season 5, bending the knee to homophobia.
