#the jocks

now imagine this. the winter weather progressing, the snow getting heavier and heavier, and yet jimmy hasn’t tossed on another layer of clothing the entire season. running around in a shortsleeved shirt and vest, very poorly pretending that the winter weather isn’t having a effect on him.

this starts a school-wide trend of bullworth students loaning their jackets and pieces of their uniform to him. random jocks sparing him their jerseys, greasers gifting their jackets for the day, preps adorning him with aquaberry— even the nerds pitching in with their gloves. most racing to make their offer first.

and so, jimmys unknowingly walking around with a new

and so, jimmys unknowingly walking around with a new cliques trademark-clothing on practically a daily basis, entirely blissful at the competition he's caused.

THIS PRODUCTION

and we are here for ALL OF THESE COSTUMES very cute. i love heather mcnamara and veronica's blazers in these. very different from the usual. are these costumes the most exciting? no, but they are more varied than off broadway. a win is a win.

veronica is super cute here! ive got a lot of pictures for this one, so long post ahead.

In the TIME pic, Andy's cap says 88 (might be 89, but it looks more like 88 and would make more sense if it were), most likely "Class of 88", and there's a patch with a tiger paw print on his left shoulder. In S4, his outfit looked like this:

The cap says "Hawkins Tigers" and his left arm patch says "Class of 86."

What the heck is going on here?

When the apocalypse happens, they're 2-3 months away from graduation. You're telling me that in 18 months, there was no way for them to do their finals? Even if Hawkins is in chaos, we know from promo photos that the kids still attend school.

So why did it take them two extra years to graduate? Why not just do the finals and be done with it?

Perhaps they're not academically gifted. Fair.

But it still doesn't explain why the wardrobe team ordered a brand new cap for Andy when it would've been much easier to switch the "Class of 86" arm patch to one that says "Class of 88."

Well...

The delayed graduation might be hinted at in the cafeteria scene with Hellfire in the first episode of S4, the one where Mike and Dustin ask about postponing the campaign. In it, Eddie talks about graduating:

I always thought this was just foreshadowing for Eddie's death, but now I begin to wonder. A two-year postponed graduation... And army-crawling? That's a weirdly specific word choice. Especially considering there's a large Hawkins Tigers banner behind Eddie as he says it.

Are the jocks still in school 'cause they're doing stuff for/with the military?

I saw a rumor about that somewhere (can't find it now). Would track since they're most likely angry, grieving, and out for blood after Jason and Patrick's deaths. The army is probably not above using teenagers to do their dirty work either, so that checks out as well.

I have talked about how the jocks might get an expanded role in S5 beyond just being antagonists. This could play into that somehow.