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Okay, let’s discuss the genesis of the Upside Down in “Stranger Things”. We’ve watched three seasons of the show and the fourth is coming but we still know nothing about that place. So, it’s time to develop theories.
For quite a notable time, in the fandom, an opinion has been rife that flashing lights indicate the Upside Down’s creatures’ presence or the vicinity of a portal leading there. I have to admit I thought the same way until recently but then I paid attention to the interesting details I’d never noticed before. I’ve done a little research and that’s what I’ve found out.
If you go through all the lights-flashing scenes, you’ll see that lamps start flickering not only as an Upside Down alarm but also as a sign of someone using a superpower. Besides, it’s not only the flashing lights, also it can be represented as static on TV or the radio or as broadcasting of voices by loudspeakers.
And what’s even more important, it isn’t strictly connected with the Upside Down and it has never been. If you browse season 1 carefully, you’ll see a few scenes when lights are flashing and loudspeakers are broadcasting well before the Gate between dimensions opens.
I’d like to remind you of the scene where Dr Brenner asks Eleven to eavesdrop on a guy portrayed in the photo and repeat his words, but instead she turns the light off and makes that guy’s voice sound from loudspeakers. Then during the experiment with a sensory deprivation chamber she does the same, rechannelling everything she can hear in her mind to loudspeakers at the Lab, so that we can hear a Russian’s voice. The sound of snarling rings out a little later. And it happens out of the blue for everyone, including Dr Brenner.
Well, as you can see it’s not connected with the Upside Down directly but it’s obviously connected with superpowers exertion. Most of the time it’s Eleven’s powers, but probably it may be her mom’s and Kali’s, too.
It’s not easy to notice that. Partly it’s because it happens in broad daylight, and there are no lamps on, so we can’t see if there is really any connection there. Partly it’s about the type of the impact. I guess, the thing is not about telekinesis or telepathy as such because there are a lot of moments in the show when Eleven moves things with or Kali creates illusions with their mind power and in both cases nothing happens. But when Eleven or her mom are trying to reach someone, it works at once. Lights are flashing and loudspeakers are turning on, sometimes something blows up and so on and so on.
What does it mean? I assume that flashing and static are caused by a certain impact producing electromagnetic disturbance. Speaking of it, I mean the moments when Eleven mindwalks the Neverwhere place up to the point where she can see someone and talk to them, and the moments she has to make great efforts to do something. To impact on someone’s mind or to interrupt someone’s impact on herself, for instance.
I guess, those are the moments when the canvas of reality is stretching to the breaking point and the boundaries between dimensions or minds become as thin as a sheet of tracing paper ready to be torn. And you can pass through it or you can give someone a sign, “Knock-knock! It’s me. Do you copy?”
By the way, I’m also inclined to think that thunderstorms in the show make sense too, because during all the three seasons something happens when there is a storm raging outside. Will’s attempt to phone his mom in season 1; the first appearance of the Mind Flayer and the burnt-out transformer at the Upside Down in season 2; the first encounter of the possessed Billy with Eleven, and Will’s realisation that the Mind Flayer is coming back in season 3.
In other words, examples abound. There may seem to be no direct plot connections. However, in season 2 the creators make it clear that there is a real aftermath in our dimension of a storm at the Upside Down — like the de-energized equipment at the Lab, for instance.
But it still seems to me that thunderstorms may at least emphasize the internal stress of characters in the face of the storm of the century which is yet to come. If lightning rhymes perfectly with all those electric problems I’ve already talked about a lot, rainfall works in a more delicate manner rhyming with the allegory of an ocean represented by the Upside Down. What is more, it represents both a real ocean and an ocean of subconscious. It’s not the right time to go deep into that theme, though. So if you are interested, you can read that amazing essay on spatial design in “Stranger Things” by @strangerthings4theories.
But I got off the subject. Let’s go back.
The next halt is the Mind Flayer’s appearance in season 2. As I know, many people think it’s a logic bug in the narrative because the Gate had been open all that time but the Mind Flayer hadn’t manifested its presence for almost a year without any visible cause. Why? Why didn’t it do anything?
It’s a good question, isn’t it? I shall be honest with you, there is an irresistible temptation to brush it aside and blame all the series problems on genre and TV conventions. But it’s not my choice. I’m not going to swallow the bait. I’m going to sort that question out instead. The more so, the key to that mystery may be lurking in plain view.
Supposing the Duffer Brothers used a reference to “Ghostbusters” 1984 and represented the Party as ghostbusters in season 2 not only to create the atmosphere of the eighties but to do something much deeper. I guess now it’s not a secret that, using a glimpse of “Back to the Future” in season 3, they gave us a hint that there was a time travel line in the show. So, what if they deliberately used the same trick in season 2 and hid that plot layer behind a reference to an iconic movie? What if it’s not a haphazard but a part of the exposition? Why not?
Let’s remember several scenes from all the three seasons. Scattered while considered individually, together they neatly fall into a seamless pattern. Shall we take the trouble to look at it?
First of all we ought to recall a scene before the start of another bath experiment, when Brenner tells Eleven, “Today is a very special day. Do you know why? Because today, we make history. Today, we make contact.” Also he says, “Whatever it is, it can’t hurt you. Not from here. So there is nothing to be frightened of. It is reaching out to you ‘cause it wants you. It is calling you. So don’t turn away from it this time.”
Putting it otherwise, Brenner knows that previously in her mind trip Eleven came across something unknown. A species unfamiliar to mankind as he can assume. And this time he wants her to make contact with that thing in spite of the fact that she is frightened half to death. Leaving the morality of his act on his conscience, I wonder what precisely Eleven encountered? It’s a curious question.
The next scene being of interest to us is the first and last appearance of Dr Brenner in season 2. Yes, he’s obviously an illusion that Kali has created for Eleven, but it still makes sense. So just listen to what exactly he says to Eleven.
“You have to confront your pain. You have a wound, Eleven, a terrible wound. And it’s festering. Do you remember what that means? Festering? It means a rot. And it will grow. Spread. And eventually, it will kill you.”
Charming, isn’t it?
Describing Eleven’s problem, Brenner uses the same words people usually use for describing the Upside Down. It’s growing. It’s spreading. And it’s killing. But the most fascinating thing is that the monologue rhymes perfectly with the design of the Gate. It resembles a purulent sore and all those little portals are the same too. All of them look like a part of a living organism with terrible wounds that tend to heal up because they are small enough to do so without any help.
Does it mean something or is it nothing more than a coincidence? I’d say the second option is hardly possible since Brenner’s monologue also refers to Kali’s words from the same episode.
“I was just like you once. I kept my anger inside. I tried to hide from it, but then that pain festered. It spread. Until finally I confronted my pain and I began to heal.” She says to Eleven.
As you can see, that theme emerges round and round, like a spring gushing out from the earth. Those springs support each other and at the end they merge into a big river. So I bet it is absolutely not a coincidence. More than that. I hazard a guess it is a crucial detail in understanding the plot of “Stranger Things”.
Okay, let’s take a look at the third scene with Eleven and Billy. Or, more precisely, with the Mind Flayer in Billy’s shape.
Billy says to Eleven, “You shouldn’t have looked for me. Because now I see you. Now we can all see you. You let us in. And now you are going to have to let us stay. Don’t you see? All this time, we’ve been building it. We’ve been building it... for you. All that work, all that pain, all of it... for you. And now it’s time. Time to end it. And we are going to end you. And you are gone, we are going to end your friends. And then we are going to end everyone.”
That is to say, the authors make it clear that no matter what form the Mind Flayer chooses at a certain moment. From the very beginning it is always the same creature — The Mind Flayer and no one else.
Now let’s consider those scenes as the parts of a comprehensive whole. What can we see?
Reaching a Russian mind, Eleven detects some creature’s presence. The scientists from the Lab can hear its growl. Next time they deliberately make Eleven look for that thing. She finds it and it invades our world. But what is it?
Most of the time we assume that the beast is the Demogorgon but what if we are wrong? What if there, between dimensions, El encounters an ancient spirit they later call the Mind Flayer?
Supposing it travels between dimensions, letting any dweller of the universe who has become its conductor choose a form of the world’s destructor. From that point of view it looks like a reference to “Ghostbusters” and lets us see the set of parallels with the movie.
The Party represents the Ghostbusters, the Mind Flayer is Gozer, demodogs are those monster dogs — the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster, obviously. And El is probably Dana. She let the monster in and she is in love with Mike aka Venkman.
Besides, that assumption explains why the Mind Flayer is portrayed as a giant shadow monster. At the moment of making contact Eleven knows nothing about the world and her fears are indistinct, shapeless and huge. They are like a giant shadow — ominous and enigmatic. So touching Eleven’s mind, the Mind Flayer catches that very mental picture.
But unfortunately that theory neither elucidates the reason the Mind Flayer is so obsessed with Eleven nor supports the theme of cruel and absent fathers in the show in spite of the fact that the latter sounds loud and strong. It’s difficult to imagine that such an important plot element is suddenly left unsupported. Especially when we are talking about such a mature story as “Stranger Things”.
I can only suppose that an absent father figure is a reference to all Steven Spielberg’s films. The Duffer Brothers are big fans of him, they don’t conceal that, they confess outright they are inspired by Spielberg’s films. And there are as many of the same daddy issues in those films as in “Stranger Things”.
So far as it goes to the Mind Flayer’s obsession with Eleven, I have a guess actually. As we know, Eleven is a kid who grew up in the walls of the Lab. She knows no father except Dr Brenner. “Papa” as she is used to calling him. She is extremely lonely and she needs love and approval by her “Papa”. All her life depends on Brenner being pleased with her or not. I bet she would run through a brick wall for him. But Brenner isn’t a nice daddy from a family movie, he is a heartless and callous person. He is as cold as charity and obsessed with science in a bad way. He treats Eleven as she is a tame tiger but not a little girl who needs love, parental care and family. As a consequence she has lots of suppressed anger and pain.
Now imagine, that very important person asks her to find a creature from another dimension. He asks her to make contact with it. And of course Eleven is doing her best and even a bit more in spite of being scared of that thing since she is zealous to please her “Papa”.
And this raises a question if she really found some evil spirit on the crossroad of dimensions or somehow she was able to separate her check rage, to fashion it into a certain shape.
In fact that idea was sparked off by watching the Duffer Brothers’ first film “Hidden”. It is a story of a family hiding from some mysterious Breathers after a catastrophe. Unfortunately I can’t say It is a great movie but it’s still pretty interesting. Especially If we consider it as a kind of draft to “Stranger Things”. There are even some dialogues which the Duffers have subsequently used in the scenes with Eleven, but it’s all nothing. The most fascinating thing is the final twist.
Just in case you haven’t watched it, I’ll retell that twist briefly. But don’t read the next paragraph if you are going to watch “Hidden” themselves. It’s a whole big spoiler. I have warned you.
So. At the end of the film it is revealed that the Breathers the family has been scared of are ordinary people — catastrophe liquidators — and it’s the family who are real monsters. As everyone in their town, they are victims of a virus leak from some Lab so when they are nervous they become terrible beasts. The government can neither cure them nor cope with them, so they have ordered to kill everyone in the town because all of them could be infected.
A pretty sad story, huh? But I wonder what the odds are that the Duffers have reused the plot line of a little girl who is a monster and a victim of negligent adults at the same time. What if Eleven is not a metaphorical monster, but a real one? From that angle, everything becomes more and more curious.
Eleven has never seen the thing she is that scared by. She just heard it once during her mindwalk, but when Dr Brenner makes her return, she has to face it. Now let’s suppose that when it happens, on coming in contact with her mind it breaks loose. Her rage gets the form of a monster and her moral exinanition creates a devastated, all-burnt-to-the-ground world that we know as the Upside Down. It’s a metaphorical Dark Forest where monsters live. It’s her subconscious. And it breaks free and starts to kill. But that’s only the first step.
Then after defeating the Demogorgon at the end of season 1, her anger slumbers in the depth of the Upside Down over a year. It gathers experience and strength until it evolves to the Mind Flayer. And as a result of that transformation the Mind Flayer is setting off on its crusade.
What does it want? On the one hand the Mind Flayer is looking for a way to get a material incarnation, so it possesses Will Byers in autumn 1984. On the other hand it is looking for Eleven. And when she is closing the Gate, it tries to merge with her. The Mind Flayer fails, though as soon as possible it reiterates its attempt in view of its last experience. This time the Mind Flayer doesn’t put all its eggs in one basket. It possesses rats, it takes possession of Billy and with their help it is building a monstrous body for itself. And then it сomes for Eleven.
By the way, the contained anger theory may interpret why the Mind Flayer chooses Will and Billy as its hosts. In the case of Will, I guess, partly the thing is he has been in contact with that hive-mind since season 1, but partly it may be explained with Will’s suppressed anger.
He is kind of melancholic, he is not great at showing his feelings but no doubt he feels angry a lot. And finally, in season 3 we were able to see Will’s rage when he was destroying “Castle Byers” with his bat. It was very impressive and eloquent. Not speaking of Billy Hargrove. He is full of rage. He consists of anger and pain and frustration. So he is a perfect target for the Mind Flayer who uses those feelings as a beacon. It’s just a parenthetical remark though.
But, returning to our topic. In my opinion that hypothesis elucidates lots of things. And first of all, it explains why the Duffers draw a parallel between Eleven’s mental health and the Upside Down.
Second, It explains why lights flashing is both a sign of the Upside Down presence and of Eleven using her power. It’s because Eleven has given birth to the Upside Down. It is bound to her life energy.
Third, that theory also explains why the Mind Flayer in Billy’s shape is talking to Eleven as if it is a kid who loves their parents deeply and is ready to go any lengths to be loved in return — till the very day when filial love turns into hatred.
Kids do a lot for the love and approval of their parents even when parents aren’t worth even a good word, come to think of it. Eleven and the Mind Flayer are no exception. But at the same time they want to do away with their tyrants who don’t let them breathe freely.
And this is true for both Eleven and the Mind Flayer in equal measure. Eleven was suppressed by Dr Brenner. Eleven’s anger was suppressed by her. Then they broke free. And when the Mind Flayer saw Eleven with Billy’s eyes, it conceived a hatred for her for renouncing it and locking it away in such a terrible place as the Upside Down.
And finally fourth, it explains why Eleven is so important to the Mind Flayer. It’s because the Mind Flayer is a part of her. It is the suppressed monstrous part of her personality. She is the start and the end of that creature.
I guess she is the one who can finish it off, once and for all. Since she became a vitality source for the Mind Flayer, she also can take it away, and then the Mind Flayer will be gone. So in its fight for survival the Mind Flayer is trying to kill its creator. To kill or, more correctly, to absorb her.
(By the way, the Mind Flayer partly succeeds in its goal. I still think that Billy might have acted as a kind of a medium, both hosting the Mind Flayer and absorbing Eleven’s power. You can read my theory here, if you like).
Well, let’s sum up the discussion. Obviously I can’t be completely sure whether I’m right or wrong. No doubt, only the creators of “Stranger Things” know Eleven’s whence and whither. How could they not, having a thirty-page research on what the Upside Down really is, before they even started filming the project? However, the truth may be still out there, lurking in the shades of our conjectures. Why not?
So, even If I am right only in a part of my speculation, at the end of her journey Eleven will have to acknowledge the Mind Flayer is a part of herself. Probably it won’t be a story with a classical Hollywood happy ending, because she might perish saving her friends. But it can become a story of challenging the dark side of her own soul. Even if the price of it is her own life.
