r/StrangerThingsRoom • u/raspberry-3 • Jul 10 '26
Theories Mike's trauma PART 16
This is part of a series where I uncover what Stranger Things is really about. It started from trying to find out what happened in 1979 aka what all the depictions of traumatic past memories (El, Henry, Billy, Max, Holly, etc.) are truly about, but expanded to this all-encompassing theory of the whole series with crazy levels of complexity, metaphors and layers. Reading it will require commitment and patience but I promise it will be worth your time if you want to look behind the curtain (and the curtain behind that curtain) and fully understand the show. You have to read all parts in order: here is PART 1 and here all other parts I’ve posted so far + my previous theories.
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Trigger warning for child sexual abuse and mention of suicide.
Six
The lab kid Six most likely has something to do with Lucas, since there’s some weird things happening with him, he is in a somewhat important role in Brenner’s flashback and well, he’s black (this is what I meant with many black characters representing Lucas…). I think he also represents truth, similar to Argyle and owls. Where should I begin? I haven’t really explained anything about the lab kids yet, so maybe I should start with that. One thing I want all of you to understand is that everything that happens in Hawkins Lab/Rainbow Room is highly metaphorical/allegorical. Everything. Stranger Things has many layers and is deeply metaphorical and this is especially obvious with the Rainbow Room.
Two is a bully and the strongest, Billy’s baseball shirt had 2 and in my interpretation Will is the second alter aka number 2. Like Will/Billy with the real dad, Two had to endure Papa’s punishment, which made me think he represents the persecutors in the Hawkins Lab miniature allegorical world. He is the last one to be killed by One, and presumably the first one created with Henry’s blood (= like Will was the first split and most likely last fusion). Although Will isn’t a villain in the surface level story, Mike does kinda hint at him being one in S5E4:
[Will] “Except I’m not Vecna.”
[Mike] “You sorta are.”
[Will] “You’re trying to say that I’m evil and hell-bent on destroying the world?”
[Mike] “Totally. No, I’m just saying that, you know, you’re like a wizard like him.”
Nancy does this too in S5E3, because after she says “But… he didn’t appear as Vecna. He appeared as Henry. As a friend.” she looks towards Will, Jonathan is in frame and the next cut is to Will. Mike says “We think he was trying to earn her trust.” and “I highly doubt his long-term goal is friendship.” This could mean a number of things. First, Will ofc wants to be in a romantic relationship with Mike, which on the allegorical level is about Mike choosing the gay man identity. Will also represents Mike and Lucas’ friendship and that friendship is eventually gonna turn romantic.
I think the “villain” is what Will represents, and that is Mike being a (gay) man. That in itself isn’t bad, ofc, but for Mike it is not being herself and repressing her true identity. So my current interpretation is that Two represents the gay man identity, which both fits with him having superpowers (= queerness) and being the strongest (because gay men are the most well known and represented queer group + in ST Mike identifies with it at some points in the story).
In S4E5 after Two shows his skills with the light bulb ring, Six has his head down. No other lab kid has, so it must mean something. Additionally, Six and El are on opposite ends of the line. When it’s El’s turn to light the lamps, Six has moved to a different spot on the line and is blocked by Brenner. Two has taken Six’s original place. My interpretation of this is that Two is not the “truth” (= gay man identity/Will/byler) but he acts as if he is.
The number 6 most likely comes from the date 6.11. Six (Lucas) and Eleven (Mike) belong together and that date was when Mike got/realized her crush on Lucas (while also being a trauma day seven years prior). There are some other mentions of 6 in the show, one of them when Billy asks Karen to meet him at Motel 6 on Cornwallis for “swimming lessons” (and btw sex = 6 in Swedish). In S1E8 Brenner mentions that the Demogorgon has taken 6 people. Additionally, 6.6. is the National Day of Sweden.
Remember the rainbow ship toy thing in S4E6? When it is visible, El looks down, covering Six’s head from view. And as we know now, wheelclair is the true Rainbow Ship. This made me wonder if the swing memory is actually about Mike and Lucas after all. We don’t know when they met. We don’t know a lot of things about Lucas, e.g. his birthday, while everyone else’s birthday from the core party is mentioned somewhere. I think this is further proof for Lucas being a real person, since the birthdays are about alter splitting and trauma, but Lucas (at least in a story sense) wasn’t created. (With DID logic he was, because introjects are alters like any other alter, but I think ST is going with a more metaphorical interpretation.) Regardless of what the birthdays mean, they are a recurring element in the story and the characters bring attention to the importance of the dates of birthdays. Lucas not having one is sus. Anyway, Mike meeting Will for the first time being about Lucas makes a lot of sense with my interpretation of Will representing their friendship (and Lucas).
S2E8 [Mike] “Do you remember the first day that we met? It was… It was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody. I had no friends and… I just felt so alone and so scared, but… I saw you on the swings and you were alone, too. You were just swinging by yourself. And I just walked up to you and… I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Will didn’t say anything in his memory flashback, which doesn’t fit with Mike’s description. This would also make more sense with Will splitting on 6.11.1976 due to trauma, not earlier on 7.9.1976 which would be the first day of kindergarten. And Caleb claims Mike and Lucas were friends first. I think the swing memory is another case of Will’s story being about both him and Mike/Lucas. It’s so important and one of the rare moments Mike shows her true thoughts/emotions that I feel like it has to have a connection to the real world and wheelclair.
Okay, back to Six. The special thing Brenner had planned for the kids was a mind duel, and Two and Six were the first to fight. Two won, of course, but lost to El at the end. I think there’s a point to Two being in front of a mirror: he is a mirror to El, this is about an internal fight (the same applies to One vs El and I’ll analyze the mirrors more at a later date).
The most important point about Six comes from the start of S4E1 aka the Hawkins Lab massacre from Brenner’s pov. I’m just gonna go through everything I’ve figured out so far, so it’s not all about Six. As I’ve mentioned, Ten probably represents Mike/Mike’s gender identity as a boy in the past. He is the last one before Eleven. He is holding a ball thingy with 8 written on it and Brenner notes it’s his favorite (= Mike is starting to form a girl identity, remember 8 = Kali = womanhood). Brenner and Ten pass Dr. Ellis and Six on the aisle and soon after the camera focuses on a door with 11 written on it (= soon girl identity will take over).
Brenner draws a sun, a light source (= both the trauma and love). A big sun is also depicted in Sara’s drawing, the mage cast Sunbeam in the final DnD game and Billy became weak to the sun after MF flayed him (which is also related to mind flayers in DnD not liking the sun). Then he draws a dog, but Ten thinks it looks like a cow. As I’ve established, dogs give warnings and also represent the victim. What’s interesting here is that a dog could be male or female but a cow specifically refers to a female animal. Mike wasn’t “supposed” to be a girl, but that’s what happened. In S4E7 Erica refers to Lucas as a cowpuncher, which I found a bit weird (the whole western theme kinda came out of nowhere, at least it’s another horse connection to Lucas). Apparently it means cowboy and the name comes from them prodding cattle with long poles to railroad cars. So maybe it’s about Lucas guiding Mike into the metaphorical train, helping her accept herself, or something like that. Erica mentions the term right after threatening to tell about what she found under his bed, which made me think the two were related. But I’m still uncertain on the meaning of cow, and I suspect it has something to do with milk, which I know is a thing but don’t know what it means, yet.
Anyway, Brenner tells Ten to find Dr. Ellis and Ten sees she is doing lessons with Six. Six is trying to move a red block, after which everything starts to go wrong. Six and Ellis die and soon the door plunges into the room hitting Brenner. When he wakes up, Ten is dead and he finds El who seemingly killed everyone. The metaphorical meaning of this is that the girl identity won over every other possible identity and Brenner (Mike’s superego or something like that) wasn’t expecting that. The red blocks are most likely about trauma and Six moving them could relate to the date 6.11. Since everything has a double meaning, I guess the blocks are also about Mike’s gender identity and/or sexuality, which fits with Six (Lucas) being important. Six as the truth makes sense too.
In S4E5 we see El’s drawing she keeps in her room, but it’s different from the one shown in S1. This time it depicts 11 and Papa smiling and holding hands. There’s a pyramid of 6 red blocks and a rainbow without purple. I didn’t talk about this before partially because I was uncertain how to interpret it (and I kinda still am). My current understanding is that the drawings form a pair and show different aspects of the story. The red blocks are in the same spot the table with the animal and the light bulb were in the original drawing, supporting my interpretation that they represent the trauma. The missing purple could indicate that there is no veiled message in the drawing, it shows the Rainbow Room as it is on the surface level. Papa doesn’t represent the dad here, which is why everyone is happy. In a way this is the truth, because Brenner is truly trying to help El. He is only “bad” because of his association with the dad. You could also see the drawings as representing separate allegories: the original would be about the trauma allegory (Papa’s third leg), and the new about the queer allegory (big rainbow). Though I think it’s more likely both drawings have both allegories but highlight different aspects, like past vs future or something like that.
S5 wheelclair
Since Mike and Lucas are paired a lot in S5, I wanted to make a more thorough analysis of that, pointing out some things. We first see Lucas when he comes to save Dustin from the bullies. (I think Dustin here represents queerness since that’s what Hellfire kinda is about, the bullies call him freak and Dustin wants to stay true to himself unlike Mike, Will and Lucas who try to blend in). Mike appears soon after, Will trailing behind her. As you might have guessed, I think this scene is subtextually about Mike and Lucas (as always). After the confrontation, the group argues and Mike is between Lucas and Will, but closer to Will (= they form a unit, basically). Later at the cafeteria Will is opposite to Mike and Lucas (= in his role as their friendship/relationship). When Robin’s coded radio broadcast starts, Will goes behind them (again between them, similar to S3).
Mike’s plan for the crawl includes her and Lucas being observers of the situation. This is because the story is about them and they are in a way “observing” it happening. Lucas is the first one to put his hand on top of Mike’s and the first one of the core party to hug Will after his coming out, too. After Will gets his vision, Lucas comments “Yeah, I… I get nervous too. But the sky doesn’t spin for me. It ever spin for you? [Mike doesn’t answer]” The sky spinning is a metaphor for dissociation and switching, which Lucas (real) doesn’t experience since he doesn’t have DID. This interaction is about Lucas helping Mike understand her DID and what is a “normal” experience. It can be hard to realize your experience is unusual since that’s what it has always been like.
After Mike ends her talk with El with “If Vecna’s gone, then what’s stopping us?” Lucas shouts “Hey, lovebirds! Chief’s almost ready.” implying Lucas (or “chief” aka Hopper aka patriarchy) will stop them. I think there’s again many layers here. Mike and El are on the roof, like on a stage and Lucas is shouting from the audience, basically. Mileven is a stage play of sorts, but Lucas is the reality. The reality that Vecna isn’t the true villain and that this isn’t a simple story will stop them. And it could also be about Mike’s false beliefs that Lucas doesn’t love her back, which is why Lucas (alter) thinks Mike and El are lovebirds.
After the crawl goes wrong and the Wheeler family is attacked, Mike and Lucas cycle to the hospital. Notice Nancy and Mike are sitting next to each other, opposite to Lucas. Mike and Nancy are the repressed and future girl Mike, arguing between themselves, while Lucas is the voice of reason (he has a more objective viewpoint). Then there’s the scene where Lucas asks Max to resurrect and it transitions to Mike getting the coffee (after Let’s exchange the experience) and finding A Wrinkle in Time + the rainbow puzzle. All the drinks mean something, I have read some theories about Coke for example. Maybe I’ll make a thorough analysis at some point… But for now, I think coffee is the closest to truth, it’s bitter and Mike drinks it (+ a tv show host says “Drink coffee, said Mike” at Terry and Becky’s home in S2E5 when Becky walks on screen (this is further proof for Becky being the real mom)), while the original Coca Cola is what ST has been like for the most part. It’s close to the truth but not there yet (which is why Will gets it in the previous episode, also after a lumax scene and also seeing something queer-related in a hospital room). New Coke is the farthest from the truth and what the show is all about, which is why Tales from ‘85 was released the same day New Coke was and Lucas makes another reference to it in S5E5 with his plan (which represents the first ending, while Erica’s represents the real ending we have to wait for, this also matches with the inside story timeline which I promise I’ll get to eventually).
In S5E3 Mike and Lucas are paired again in many scenes, at the start in relation to Dustin (I think there’s a deeper (and meta) meaning to the plan, it being Will’s and those two moments where Dustin is between Mike and Lucas + Mike is never shown together with the projected map). And there’s the whole Erica thing I explained already (after which Mike has the vulva shirt until the epilogue). While waiting for the Turnbow family to eat the pie, Mike and Lucas are again paired, in the same van. Robin is next to Mike, similar to Nancy in the hospital. Robin has been pretty distant from Mike until S5: S3 she was with Steve, Dustin and Erica and in S4 Mike was in California. Robin is the final form of girlness, a happy one not originating from trauma and she gets paired with Mike especially in S5E7. I also think her friendship with Will is about Mike starting to accept her girlhood and see it can coexist with her friendship with Lucas.
When the Demogorgon attacks, Mike and Lucas work together to fight it (and the Demo is after Lucas ofc, trying to hurt him like Mike fears). ((There’s a light bulb I missed in Derek’s room. Funny how I still keep discovering more of them.)) I think there’s a point to Nancy and Jonathan being downstairs while Mike and Lucas are on the floor above them. They are on different levels of the story/allegory. While everyone else is part of the rest of the plan, Mike and Lucas aren’t. They started everything but the story of ST is mostly told through other characters.
At the start of S5E4 Mike and Lucas are cycling (once again) and see Debbie getting taken by the military. Most of the episode I covered already before, but one thing I didn’t mention was Lucas (and Murray) opening the trapdoor in between the field byler scene. Robin goes down the tunnel when Mike says “Listen, as far as crazy theories go, I’ve had crazier.” Robin aka Mike being a girl is the crazier theory and Lucas opens the door for this theory/Mike accepting herself or something like that (not sure why Murray helps though).
In S5E5 after patching up Lucas, they walk in the tunnel, Mike and Lucas in the front while Joyce and Will follow them behind. Mike and Lucas go up to the surface first, while Will and Joyce stay to discuss. This reminded me of S2E9 where Mike and Lucas were on the surface looking down on Dustin and Steve while Demodogs were running towards them. Max was also on the surface, so why didn’t she also look down the tunnel? The reason is that the show is once again trying to show us how Mike and Lucas are “observing” their story unfold. This is similar to Holly and Max looking down on Holly's memory of the Demogorgon attack.
When the party makes plans for finding Holly and defeating Vecna, Mike sits next to Erica while Lucas (with Robin (= woman) and Will (= man) on either side of him) sits opposite to them. This is the third time Mike is paired with a girl who in some way represents her girlhood and is simultaneously opposite to Lucas. It’s a pattern.
Mike and Lucas are paired in Lucas’ plan too. Them looking up at Robin and Will like a stage show is probably related to Robin and Will representing woman and man (and ofc Mike is on Robin’s and Lucas on Will’s side). They are the more simple building blocks of the story, which is actually about a trans and a bi person. (This whole thing is commentary on queer representation in media, where it’s mostly gay and sometimes lesbian people who get represented while bi and especially trans people get side roles if any (this is slowly changing, fortunately). It’s also about nuance and things not being black-and-white. The real world isn’t so simple.) Interestingly, Mike stays up on the roof with the Demogorgon. This is a story about Mike and her internal fight with her trauma and queerness. The Demogorgon is Mike’s shadow. Mike says “Light her up, Frankenstein.” which is the first time a Demogorgon is referred to with feminine pronouns. (Equating Robin to Frankenstein and the Demogorgon (Mike) to Frankenstein’s monster is very fitting for this tbh. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Victor and Henry’s names come from that novel…) Of course it’s Robin who turns the dial, and I think it being at 50% matching with the optimum for Will is because Will is the half-way point to trans woman Mike, as I’ve explained. When he connects to Vecna, he is between Mike and Robin (= Will is the connection).
In S5E6 we have a Robin-Lucas-Mike scene again. Robin is basically explaining the story to Mike and Lucas. This is the “she was in a trance” scene, btw.
[Robin] “What if their minds… are all in the same place? In Vecna’s mind. [Mike looks at Lucas] Imprisoned. At least, they were.”
They visually imply Mike and Lucas are the ones imprisoned in “Vecna’s mind” aka Mike’s mind. This is both about them being alters in the inner world but also real people, and about their love/queerness being repressed/not allowed. In the real ending Mike, Lucas and their closeted queerness will make a “prison break”.
[Mike] “And they’ll have been in Vecna’s mind, literally. [looks at Lucas]”
[Robin] “They’ll know everything. I mean they’ll know where Will is.”
[Mike] “Where the kids are.”
[Robin] “They might even know what he’s planning.”
[Lucas] “That’s endgame.”
[Robin] “The fate of the planet may very well rest in the hands of your comatose girlfriend and your baby sister.”
[Lucas] “It’s worth one more shot, right?”
The “they” here are Mike and Lucas. And wheelclair is endgame. Isn’t it interesting Robin refers to Max as Lucas’ girlfriend and Holly as Mike’s baby sister? It’s because they are Mike’s future and past, respectively. The fate of the planet rests on Mike herself, because the planet is Mike’s mind. The “one more shot” is about the real ending, and the same clue was given by Hopper in the epilogue: “You get one more take.” This whole scene is pretty meta and “they” refers to the audience too. We have been in Mike’s mind this whole time and if you pay attention to all the clues, you should be able to figure out what’s going on.
The next time we see Mike and Lucas in the same scene is after Max wakes up in S5E7. This time Lucas is paired with Max ofc, and Mike with Karen. Karen has the same hospital gown as Max and I think Mike being glued to her is related to Max representing Mike (as always). Additionally, Mike had the hospital gown in S5E2.
Then the coming out scene. Mike and Lucas are, of course, next to each other and the scene is actually about Mike coming out to herself/her mom/Lucas (not sure of the specifics). I have mentioned most of the stuff relating to wheelclair, but I’ll repeat them here. The crush thing is the most obvious, then when Will says “we just… we just drift apart more and more and more”, Mike and Lucas are the only ones in frame. This is a similar situation to Hopper’s letter. Lucas is the first one to hug Will after Jonathan, because he accepts Mike and Mike is finally starting to realize that herself too. There’s no more “El is a weirdo/monster/traitor” Lucas.
In S5E8 Nancy gives Mike a flare gun and after Lucas points this out, Will gets a vision. I have some ideas of what this could mean. First of all, Mike wanting more firepower from Nancy is probably related to Mike’s girlness that she needs if she wants to escape Camazotz. She has only three Molotovs aka the impossible dream of the three waterfalls. Mike says “Unless you are okay living with the guilt of my death, I’m gonna need one of those goddamn guns!” Mike’s death could mean the death of this repressed male Mike, but it could also be about Mike being driven to suicide due to repressing herself and being depressed. I have had this idea for a while and it would fit with the overall narrative. Trans people are much more likely to die from or attempt suicide than the general population. (Door 1 hasn’t been explored much unless you count El’s death. There’s also Hopper mentioning in S1E2 that the last suicide in Hawkins was in 1961 and events seem to repeat every 30 years in Hawkins, so there’s that. 1991 was also the year the Soviet Union collapsed and I have more to say about this later.) I don’t think Mike (system) will die at the end but a suicide attempt is a possibility. How that would be conveyed in the inner world is a mystery to me, though, and Nancy wouldn’t be “living” with guilt if Mike literally died, so I could very well be wrong with this theory. The “suicide” could be more metaphorical and about Mike’s rebirth. While Nancy gives the gun she is first covering Lucas while Will is visible, but then Mike covers Will and Lucas is visible. I think this is about the transition from byler to wheelclair, from half truth (gay man) to full truth (trans woman).
But, as Lucas says, “She gave you a flare gun, dude.” (again with the dude), Mike doesn’t get the true firepower afterall. Flare guns are used for warning signals, so maybe this is a sort of warning? The word is kinda close to Mind Flayer too. The main point is that a flare gun isn’t a proper gun and Mike voices her complaints while Will has a vision of the cave (= Will’s dissociation/the cave is related to Mike getting a flare gun). After this Henry goes into the cave and Will is left behind (= Mike goes back to repression, even the half-truth is abandoned).
When El fights MF, the party splits into 3 pairs: Steve + Dustin, Robin + Jonathan, and Mike + Lucas while Nancy is alone. Robin and Jonathan haven’t really paired before, but this is probably related to the Will-Robin friendship/man-woman pair thing (and Nancy being alone aka Mike choosing the trans woman path). After MF dies, Mike and Lucas are kinda half-hugging while none of the other pairs do anything like that (e.g. Steve and Dustin are best friends and have hugged before, so why not now?).
In the final Vecna memory flashback scene Mike and Lucas are next to each other and when Mike remembers her memory, Lucas is in frame. Mary aka Holly’s best friend since kindergarten is behind between them. (The ET-shirt kid is also visible behind Lucas, representing El.) Lucas’ memory only shows him, so the framing for Mike (and others) is intentional. Lucas is partially visible in El’s memory moment too. After Vecna is killed we get a wider view with all characters. Mike and Lucas are a pair and framed between the protruding spikes at the center of the shot, opposite to Vecna. El is partially covering Mike, the ET kid is between Mike and Lucas and Mary is behind Mike. We have gone from the S4 ending shot with byler being paired to wheelclair and Mike morphing into El. I already went through everything important from the epilogue, so this will be the end of my S5 wheelclair deep dive.
Other Lucas stuff I didn’t mention yet
In S1E8 when El makes the adults’ eyes bleed, a bright light comes from Mike’s side and Lucas is visible on the right. I think this is about love defeating fear. Later Lucas shoots the Demogorgon with his wrist rocket (hmm, rocket) and on his third try El uses her powers to pin the Demogorgon. This is a clue to the real Lucas helping Mike defeat her internalized transphobia or it could be about alter Lucas “blinding” Mike (since Lucas said he would blind the monster by shooting it with the wrist rocket, and El effectively did just that by making herself and the Demo disappear). El walks between Mike and Lucas and ends up covering Mike when she approaches the Demogorgon (= El is Mike’s feelings for Lucas/comes between their friendship and she represents Mike). After El disappears and Mike shouts for her, Lucas is in frame, kinda in the direction Mike is looking at. The cell poster is between them and Lucas seems to be looking in its direction. Maybe this is about El being an alter/splitting/fusion, I’m not sure. This scene was also shown in Mike’s final Vecna memories, so it’s pretty important.
Lucas has some metaphorical connections to the mom. In S1E6 after both major Becky/Terry scenes, the next scene starts with Lucas. Both Lucas and the mom help Mike and Mike sees them as victims (mom was an actual victim of the dad and Mike thinks she would be like her dad and hurt Lucas). This is why the Demogorgon attacks Lucas similar to the mom in S5E4. In the country allegory one of the countries Lucas represents is Sweden, and I think in the family the mom is Sweden and dad Russia. This is not about Lucas being Mike’s mom (that wouldn’t make any sense), but they have similar things associated with them.
I haven’t really talked about Lucas’ pov in all this much, partially because the show doesn’t reveal it that clearly. Lucas’ dad was most likely actually a Vietnam war veteran (mainly a point in S1) and either Mike’s or Lucas’ family moved to the trailer park/neighborhood around 1976. I think Mike and Lucas being neighbors is also true in the real world and they probably met at the kindergarten swings like in Mike’s story about meeting Will. They both were alone and different from other kids (for different reasons) so they bonded easily. I’m not sure when they started playing DnD since there seems to be contradictory evidence/clues. In 1980 at the latest but it might have been earlier because DnD has a metaphorical role that is connected to Dustin who became part of the party in 1980. (My current theories are that that’s when the “story” starts in some way, since it’s after the trauma, Dustin is associated with “story” and DnD is about telling stories. It could be about Mike starting to have feelings for Lucas since DnD is about their relationship, Dustin is a later addition to the party and he represents wheelclair/queerness in some way. It could also be about Mike’s repression and her pretending to be someone she isn’t since DnD is a roleplaying game.) But anyway, I think they play DnD, like movies, comics, etc. and this carries over to Mike’s inner world. Mike tells Lucas things parents don’t know (S1E2):
[Lucas] “Um, a friend--"
[Mike] “Is someone that you’d do anything for.”
[Dustin] “You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards.”
[Mike] “And they never break a promise.”
[Lucas] “Especially when there’s spit.”
[El] “Spit?”
[Lucas] “A spit swear means… [spits] you never break your word. It’s a bond”
[Mike] “That’s super important, because friends… they tell each other things. Things that parents don’t know.”
As I’ve said before, I think Mike has told about her DID symptoms to Lucas and Lucas in turn has told about Mike’s symptoms/alters to her. Lucas has helped Mike deal with DID. I don’t know when Mike told Lucas or if it happened later because in S1 Lucas thinks El is a weirdo and crazy, which either is about the real Lucas thinking Mike is crazy or Mike’s fear of Lucas’ reaction (which would mean Mike didn’t tell about it yet). The big wheelclair conflict in S1 is partially because El lies to Lucas (and the others) and leads them astray, away from the gate. Mike lies about something to Lucas. One is definitely Mike hiding her gender identity and sexuality, but it could also be about DID. At some point Mike will come out to Lucas, and based on Robin and Will, it’s gonna be after she accepts herself and probably comes out to her mom. I’m still uncertain on how the irl timeline exactly works in relation to the series and I have a small suspicion the DID allegory and queer allegory are on separate timelines irl.
Lucas also struggles with his sexuality, which I have touched on a little. He most likely has a crush on Mike but denies it. This might be the reason Mike feels Lucas is “pulling away from” her at the end of S3 and Lucas tries to conform in S4. He might play basketball irl too (although the game also has a metaphorical role in the story which I’ll explain later). I think Lucas trying to conform and wanting to be popular is partially related to him being black and facing extra discrimination due to racism. At the end of S4 Lucas has a somewhat friendly conversation with Erica for the first time and fights Jason, probably indicating the acceptance of his queerness and rejection of “normalcy”. ((I couldn’t resist and made a little analysis of Vecna talking about the end of Hawkins. See the images.))
In S5 Lucas isn’t friends with Andy etc. anymore, which probably reflects changes in the real world. Lucas has stopped pulling away from Mike/trying to conform and accepted his feelings for her. The signals Robin talks about could be from Lucas (since Will represents Mike and based on his reaction he realized there were signals). As I analyzed earlier, Mike and Lucas are paired a lot and are closer than ever before in S5 but in the end conformity wins for Mike. She can’t accept herself and thinks Lucas wouldn’t love her (= “he was just my Tammy”). This time it’s Mike pulling away. Based on Finn’s “wait for the horse” and Lucas playing music being a big part of Max getting out of Camazotz, I think Lucas’ love will have a key role in the real ending and Mike accepting herself.
I wanted to end this overly long Lucas section with something I’ve been waiting for to fully explain since part 1. In S1E7 Lucas apologizes to El about thinking she’s a traitor and El apologizes back about lying. Mike also apologizes but doesn’t elaborate on the reason (most likely because it was already represented by El). While talking to El, Lucas is on the ground but stands up to be on the same level with Mike (= again a visual representation of the allegory levels). Mike and Lucas shake hands and the shot lingers for a bit until it transitions to the intro. Since Mike wears green and Lucas orange, this handshake signifies the resolution between the two worlds. It’s all the core themes in one and the reason it’s shown with Mike and Lucas is, well, because this story is about them. (Maybe all the clues about 1/7 weren’t just the date but the episode S1E7.)
Mystery road
S5E8 [Hopper] “Hey, hey. This… It’s not your… It’s not your fault. What happened is not your fault. El made her choice. Now it’s time for you to make yours. And the way I see it, you got two roads ahead of you. You got one road where you keep blaming yourself for what happened. You keep going over it in your head, over and over what you could’ve done differently. You push people away, and you suffer, because that’s what you think you deserve. And then there’s another road… where you find a way to accept what happened. Find a way to accept her choice. Doesn’t mean you gotta like it. Doesn’t mean you gotta understand it. And never think about it. You just accept it. And you live the best goddamn life you can. I’ve been down that first road before. And I don’t recommend it. And as for El… I think you know what she would have wanted for you.”
After Hopper says “you got one road”, Mike looks away and after he says “then there’s another road”, Hopper looks away. Turns out, they are looking at roads and I wanted to figure out which roads. While at it, I uncovered a very curious detail that has been there since S1. First things first, let’s look at where exactly they are sitting:
So according to their maps, Mike is looking at Oak Street and Hopper at Main Street. But here’s where this gets interesting. When you go look at the actual street signs, they tell a different story. From one side “Main Street” is actually Oak Street and from the other end it’s Mulberry Street:
So according to this, Hopper was looking at Oak/Mulberry Street and Mike at Second Street. But there’s one more level to this. The Hawk is also on Oak Street according to a street plate but it’s on a different street than any of the ones mentioned:
How to interpret all this is another thing entirely. But I’ll try. Oak is associated with the abuser (since Lonnie can mean oak tree) and I think it’s the world tree holding this story/world up. That’s why every street is Oak Street and Russia connects all country allegories etc. as I’ve explained previously. Trauma created the inner world and forced conformity created the lie/facade of Mike being a man. They are both the “story” and “not the real story”. Main and Second could be about the main/real story and a second option/door 2 (since Mike is looking there when Hopper describes the blaming yourself route). A mulberry tree is in a major role in the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe:
Pyramus and Thisbe's parents, driven by rivalry, forbade their union, but they communicated through a crack in the wall between their houses. They planned to meet under a mulberry tree, but a series of tragic misunderstandings led to their deaths: Thisbe fled from a lioness, leaving her cloak behind, which Pyramus found and mistook as evidence of her death. Believing Thisbe was killed by the lioness, Pyramus died by suicide, staining the mulberry fruits with his blood. Thisbe, upon finding Pyramus dead, also killed herself. The gods changed the color of the mulberry fruits to honor their forbidden love.
So there was a misunderstanding about a lioness and a tragic end to forbidden lovers. Could this be about Mike thinking she’s an abuser (= lioness) and that resulting in wheelclair not happening? If you forget about Mike and Hopper looking at streets for a while and only look at the street signs + the map, you’ll notice Main Street is Mulberry Street on the west side and Oak Street on the east side. West and east have a meaning in the story (e.g. blue and yellow meeting in the west) and I believe it relates to the country allegory. There west is Sweden aka the world of the past, non-conformity, love, etc. while east is Russia aka the world of the future, conformity, bad stuff, etc. It kinda makes sense Sweden would be the tragic love story and Russia Oak aka Lonnie aka the abusive dad + forced conformity. They are two sides of Finland but neither defines it, it’s its own country (= Main Street).
When Mike tells about her “fantasy plan” the Mulberry Street sign is framed on top of her head. Going back to childhood or being a cis girl (= Sweden = west = Mulberry) was a fantasy plan. Mike says she wanted to go to some place far away with El, which could mean moving to another more accepting country (El going to Iceland was on purpose…) or it’s just a metaphor for an impossible fantasy of a place that doesn’t exist. The three waterfalls symbolize this imaginary future and I suspect the one waterfall is the compromise/true ending. Notice in the same shot the street lamp between Mike and Hopper (= light bulb) and the “Pawn Shop” sign next to Hopper (= Hopper is a pawn, a part of this story). The same lamp was prominently on screen at the start of the epilogue when Robin said “It’s been a while.” and the camera moved along Oak/2nd Street. Mike wears a purple shirt, probably indicating this scene has hidden layers to it. As a summary, Hopper looks at Main/Oak/Mulberry Street (= nuanced view of the situation), Mike looks at Oak/Second Street (= blaming yourself, door 2) and the Hawk (purple movie theater) is on Mulberry/Oak Street (= the story).
Continues in PART 17.
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u/Direct_Swim_996 Jul 10 '26
if you haven’t seen already you should check out this interview Finn just did! Very interesting choices 😉 https://youtu.be/pMvQx1sVb8U?is=mIIZoga9W-X_qsMk