#webgate

Ep6 of S4, titled “The Dive,” contains the Bingham house segments. We are well aware of how symbolism, foreshadowing, parallels and more for the show and it’s characters fills this house to the brim. Metaphorically, there is so much to dive into—to uncover—regarding this house. This includes a Disney World Figment the dragon plush doll sitting below Suzie’s window.

Figment is Epcot’s (one of the four Disney World Orlando parks) mascot. Figment himself is meant to be the literal embodiment of the phrase “figment of the imagination,” which matches Epcot’s brand of innovation. Basically, don’t let a figment (an idea or thought) of the mind stay in the mind; bring it into reality. I was working in Epcot when Stranger Things 4 aired, funnily enough in what’s called the Land Pavilion, which is directly beside an attraction called Journey Into Imagination with Figment.

In Journey Into Imagination, you sit on a slow-moving compartment that takes you through the “Imagination Institute” on an open house tour led by a character called Dr. Nigel Channing. He’s the chairman of this institute that researches and develops technological innovation in ways to harness the power of creativity. This research is what led to the discovery of Figment (in lore, not the ride).

Now, as I mentioned above, Figment does not simply represent imagination; he is imagination literally, completely unrestrained and unwilling to yield in his sense of creativity despite being told to stop causing [harmless] chaos by Nigel.

While Nigel is enthusiastic in sharing the institute’s discoveries with the public (you, on this tour, and his goal is to stimulate your creativity through the five senses in order for you to harness your creativity), he is constantly voicing his wariness and disapproval of Figment’s mischievous but still harmless insistence to share his perspective throughout the tour (Figment expresses his tests/experiments/thoughts through song; I will explain momentarily because this is important). However, as you approach the ride’s end, Nigel has a change of mind. Nigel at first states “imagination must be captured and controlled.” Figment promptly replies, “Nuh-uh! Imagination works best when it’s set free!”

Soon enough, Figment figuratively and literally turns everything upside down. Because, as Nigel learns, “Imagination is the act of turning your thinking upside down!”

I mentioned Figment expresses his creativity through song, along with key pieces of dialogue that challenge your basic understanding of the senses (sight and hearing especially stand out). Rather than post the entire song and it’s dialogue, these are moments of intrigue I strung together:

FIGMENT: It’s not about listening with your ears—it’s about listening with your imagination.

For every sound your ears are hearing,
A thousand thoughts can start appearing.
And each of us imagines different things,
From just a sound, your mind has wings!

DR. NIGEL CHANNING: Continuing now, if I may, in a calm, scientific, Figment-free manner—the things we see with our eyes can control the eyes of the imagination. Let’s begin by using the eye chart to test your vision.

FIGMENT: With F-I-G-M-E-N-T,
You can see things differently!

Sure, you can see with your eyes. But imagine what you could see if you used your imagination!

One spark of light can light your fancy.
Your mind sees more than what your eyes see.
Your sense of sight can make your fancy fly.
There’s more to sight than meets the eye!

…

DR. NIGEL CHANNING: Figment, what is going on? You’re turning this entire open house upside down!

FIGMENT: Upside down? Now you’re talkin’!

With just a spark of inspiration,

I’ve made my house an innovation.

Imagination really clowns around:

Makes downside up, and upside down!

- after change of mind -

FIGMENT: A dream can be a dream come true. With just that spark from me and you.

DR. NIGEL CHANNING:

One little spark of inspiration

Is at the heart of all creation.

Right at the start of everything that’s new,

One little spark lights up for you.

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There’s a lot to unpack here, but the first thing to take from all this is the importance of freeing your mind. Not just freeing your mind, but placing no restrictions upon yourself! Hear and see and be beyond the surface to open your perspective! All it takes is a spark of something new—something that could bring new light to you. To more than just yourself as well. Figment isn’t just imagination incarnate; he is non-conforming freedom.

In bringing this around to ST, this requires a dive through some ideas Figment could be associated with. There’s more than one meaning or foreshadowing we can grab from Figment in-frame.

The first association that comes to mind is Will and Mike. Will and Mike getting together and the GA reacting. Byler is in motion right now and there’s a desire from certain parts of the GA to control it—to stop this ‘harmful chaos,’ so to say. They want restriction on this ‘way of thinking,’ refusing to open up their minds to more and understanding how harmless it is for same-sex couples to exist. To people like this, who think so shortly, they believe queerness should be a figment of the imagination that never exists. But queerness does exist, queer people do exist, and it’s the opposing parts of the GA who haven’t freed their minds from restriction not acknowledging that truth. One spark of something new—a new ‘spark’/perspective to turn your thoughts upside down—is what can lead someone to understanding others’ differences. I don’t have to go into detail as to why “forced conformity is killing the kids” is such a vastly important line in Stranger Things.

But who else controls and restricts? Henry. He wants the world adapted to his mindset, his ideal, and he’s incapable of viewing any other perspective other than his own at this point. He tried to manipulate El into joining him and attempted to kill her when she wouldn’t. He bent what we know as the Mind Flayer to his whims, controlling it and using it to further control others. Now, we can gather that Henry wants Will to meet that standard of control in whatever way Henry intends to use him for. To possibly control Will’s powers.

If we take Dr. Nigel’s lyric “One little spark of inspiration is at the heart of all creation” and apply it to Will, this may align with the theory that Will created the current version of the Upside Down on the night he was kidnapped. Unintentionally perhaps, unknowing of what was happening to him in the moment and horribly shaken, something ‘sparked’ in Will’s mind that allowed him to reshape the UD to what we’re familiar with—maybe to what Will was familiar with.

From the tons of analysis we’ve undergone since S4 aired, we can infer Henry was stalking Will before he took him. Henry sees himself in Will and preys on him to accomplish what he couldn’t with El, and from that it isn’t hard to consider Will has powers Henry wants to manipulate. I currently have thoughts that Will could be multi-powered (like a wizard), and creation abilities would tie well into this idea. It could explain the frozen-in-time Hawkins appearance. Creation and imagination are tied to artistry, and that would be an on-the-nose alignment for Will. Will takes a blank canvas and paints—creates what his mind sees. Henry took the canvas of the unspoiled UD and started creating what he wants it to be. And if Will had an effect on Henry’s creation, if Will could have a greater effect on what Henry further intends to create, Henry would aim to harness all Will can do and make the upside down his downside up.

HOWEVER. The controlling way Henry thinks will be undone by our characters needing to think outside-of-the-box, breaking out of Henry’s mould and standard. And I analyze this by linking the shot of Figment in Suzie’s room—

—to Mike’s Rubik’s cube and bedsheets in S1 + Mike’s blanket fort in S2.

How? Color theory, web/gridgate, my rubikscubegate, and the mere presence of Figment. Figment is non-conforming freedom, an unrelenting force who strives to make anything possible. This includes breaking the standard of Dr. Nigel, who formerly believed imagination/thoughts should be controlled. My Rubik’s cube theory, which I recommend checking out here if you haven’t and are interested in greater details on it, discusses how Mike’s Rubik’s cube is a grid in and of itself. The colors we see directly on it are yellow, blue, and orange. I thought it was red at first, but it’s definitely orange. We know to associate Will with yellow and Mike with blue, but we’re missing our other primary color red: El. We see groupings of these three colors quite a lot, and yet red is missing here.

Or is it? Just as we know who to associate with yellow and blue, we know Mike and Will together are green. To make orange, you need red and yellow. El is included on the cube but combined with Will. We even see a square on Mike’s fort that is half yellow and orange (along with half blue&green and half blue&yellow squares; all three of these squares are near Mike’s head—his brain). And because this Rubik’s cube is solved and we can assume Mike did it, my theory is that Mike will be the one to figure out how they will defeat Henry. And for Mike’s strategy to work, Will and El need to team up specifically, as well as Will and Mike. The Rubik’s cube’s color scheme directly correlates to the grids and color schemes on Mike’s bedsheets and fort: Yellow, Blue, Y + B = Green, Red, and R + Y = Orange. You can get all these colors on their own or through combination on the cube and sheets.

And in this shot too.

Figment against the blue and yellow wall, under the orange window sill and yellow curtains with blue trim… and there outside is green.

Green, outside the conventional box.

What makes this theory stronger is this series of words and character placement before and after seeing the above shot with Figment:

‘Make sure to give that selfish shit a nice little shove for me.’

*Cue Mike at the front, looking at—through—the window first, piecing together the answer.

‘Give [him] a shove.’

We know Mike has been targeted by Henry, and Mike is going to suffer because of Henry. But Henry is also going to suffer because of Mike. Mike will figure him out and create a plan—through a spark of inspiration, if you will—that breaks Henry’s web of entrapments with a strategy that requires El, Will, and himself to work. And, ultimately, the final keys to Henry’s defeat are Will and Mike themselves.

(Taken from my 7+7gate post, with the perfect additions from @stranger-chichka and @lilitblaukatz)

(Picture credits and thoughts to @stranger-chichka.)

Henry’s way of thinking is going to get turned upside down and obliterated, by individuals who aim beyond controlled conformity and fight to set themselves free.

For Will and Mike, they will realize their own ‘spark’ (hello “Are Friends Electric?”) is what will set them free from withholding themselves.

And it’s something the GA will hopefully come to understand: Why this sense of freedom from society-placed restriction is so important for Will and Mike and the people they represent. In turning their thinking upside down and seeing—really seeing—the other side, more conventional standards may break.

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In s1, after Mike knows Will is alive thanks to El, we see a solved Rubik’s cube on Mike’s nightstand. And the colors we see directly are orange, blue, and yellow (wish I could use yellow to highlight).

The orange might seem red at first, but this is definitely orange. I got a closer shot (pardon the low quality) that confirms these front-facing colors.

We see yellow on top with orange and blue below. Part of my brain associates the yellow with my constantly shared belief that Will is going to be the ultimate hero/victor against Henry (the yellow side of the cube is also directly under the light, as if to show this importance on the color). But of course, Mike is just as important. Will and Mike are, I also strongly believe, the two keys (“two men, two keys”) needed to defeat Henry.

(Credit to @stranger-chichka for these pictures. This image also correlates with my 7+7gate theory, along with stranger-chichka’s excellent additional insight, emphasizing the significance of “It was a seven” and stressing Will and Mike as the keys to Stranger Thing’s completion/fulfillment.)

Obviously, El is an important factor in all this too. But instead of one of the colors we can link to her specifically, we get orange here. I got a great tip from my mutual, @lilitblaukatz, who told me orange could reference a combination of the yellow and red we typically associate with Will and El. If that’s the case, it’s going to take our two keys—Will and Mike—and a combination of Will and El to solve the puzzle, so to speak. And since this Rubik’s cube is Mike’s and we can assume he’s the one who solved it, this may suggest it’ll be Mike who creates the strategy that ultimately solves everything. Mike is smart, we know this, and he has a tendency to connect dots others don’t. When he does, it’s a huge help that puts a dent in Henry’s plans. Mike’s bond with Will especially dents those plans; it’s one of the biggest reasons he’s able to connect dots others don’t, such as his “super spy” scene with Will leading him to realize Will was overtaken by the Mindflayer and would have to be put to sleep.

What does any of this have to do with webgate/gridgate (any other name it goes by)? I’ve seen many posts discussing it, revealing the pattern of this web/grid imagery highlighting some kind of entrapment. Physical, mental, and/or supernatural entrapment in a variety of ways. Danger as well.

Think of situation + grid imagery, as well as location and characters involved. There’s other posts that go into heavier detail with these images, plus many other examples, and I wish I could find them easily again and link them here. But, overall, it’s clear there is a pattern that highlights danger and entrapment/ being caught or feeling stuck going on (or even foreshadowed) in each of these examples.

A few of Mike’s examples from s1 and s2 include Mike’s pillowcase and bedsheets (pictured above), Mike’s basement fort—

—and Mike’s Rubik’s cube. Truly, think about it; especially with this color theory in mind! The pillowcase and sheets on Mike’s bed and the sheets over his fort have a grid-like fashion, just as the Rubik’s cube does. The pillowcase and sheets also have the same mix of colors/combined colors within the front-facing, solved Rubik’s cube: Yellow, Blue, Y + B = Green, Red, and R + Y = Orange.

The grid on Mike’s bed have red, yellow, blue, and green coloring the lines, indicating all three characters plus “the keys” Will&Mike are the answer to breaking Henry’s “web.” And perhaps with Mike’s bedsheets and pillowcase showing the lines of the grid as his, Will’s, El’s, and a combination of his and Will’s colors… It may mean these three themselves are/will be part of the “web.” In being part of it, or integrated into it (could be void-related), they might have the advantage to destroy Henry’s entrapment more than anyone else.

On Mike’s fort, only a few of the blank squares of the grid are filled in and colored in pairs: Yellow&Orange, Blue&Green, and Blue&Yellow. All of these squares are near Mike’s head when he’s in the fort—near his brain, the tool needed for a potential s5 strategy. We see him positioned with these same squares in the ST comics too:

The squares also seem to appear in ‘steps,’ like ideas processing step by step in Mike’s head: Y&O the third closest, B&G the second, and B&Y the first—three important steps, perhaps in order from furthest to closest, for Mike’s strategy to work. As if to say Mike will know Will needs to pair up with El specifically for part of it, will know he needs to pair up with Will specifically next, and then finally B&Y—himself and Will—are the final keys to solving all this and freeing themselves and everyone else from behind/within their entrapments.

If any of this is analyzed correctly, the first hint of it all can be found in s1 when Mike, though he didn’t know it then, was already strategizing in opposition to Henry. He’s solved many problems one by one over the seasons, and in s5 he’ll solve the last one.

Full circle.

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