#and yes i may be implying that el is lesbian jesus

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Lighting and Mike and Will & El and Max - Full Analysis (Pt.23)

Here we go my friends. 

S4:E9 - Finding Max (#1)

Going in from Jonathan and Will’s talk, the first thing we have in preparation (or one of them at least)  is El taking off her socks. Color-wise, her socks are blue- which symbolizes Mike. The act of her taking them off is her taking the final piece of blue from her outfit, stepping fully away from her and Mike’s romantic relationship. 

However, the stress placed on this action implies more meaning than just colour. Biblical references and western media tend to frolic in a field of wildflowers hand in hand. It’s just how it is sometimes. 

I had to look it up, but (in many religions, so this isn’t entirely the bible + media, but it will be later on with some other references so. Be prepared for that in like 2-3 analysis-note to self) bare feet symbolize a whole lot of different things in different contexts (like most things). But I think it’s safe to say that in this context, it’s to put El in the role of some sort of saviour figure. 

Biblical references (in season four specifically) have been seen at Suzie’s house with her family and also in the scene with the painting of the Last Supper (I did go down this rabbit hole a while ago and it’s not actually Da Vinci’s version, it’s one of the remakes. Apparently because of the degradation of The Last Supper OG, others were painted, but they changed shit so you can tell that its different. Anyways- just a bit of art history) and in more recent scenes like the pizza scene where Mike says, “that’s blasphemous.” 

I always found this shot a bit weird, but after thinking about it for a bit, it makes sense that it would be a biblical reference. And not just some weird shot. 

They turn on the radio to white noise, but what’s important is that the music inside is the tape that Mike grabbed from the van. It’s The Cars, and even though it’s not playing, it’s still present within the scene. 

Before El puts the Pizza goggles over her eyes, we can see that everyone it lit pretty much the same. Also interesting here, and will continue throughout the scene, is that El’s heart ring is in view. It’s also on her right hand. (and that’s also a later thing that I will explain- it just makes sense to mention it here)

Then she puts the sunglasses on, we can see that the part of the logo used is “pizza.” This is stressing that El knows something, even with the glasses on. 

Mike and Jonathan’s positions on either side of El are also neat. They’re mirroring each other. This could be saying that El sees them the same way. In season one she asked if Mike would be like her brother, and while he said no (for reasons that require a different analysis- but in short, forced conformity and heteronormativity) it’s always been an interesting line. El has a lot of familial connection and importance this season, and a lot of those connections parallel Mike’s relationship to El.

When El finds Max and Lucas, she sees them in the lighting of the room they’re in. Max is holding the light here, which could be alluding to Max being a guiding light of sorts. The blue, however, is not an indicator of anything good. 

Again when we see El, we can see both Mike and Jonathan’s hands. She isn’t narrating either of them as more important than the other. 

Mike is narrating Will as more important than the other characters within the scene, as per usual. Even though El is still here, and we’re seeing Mike and Will from behind Argyle and Jonathan, we can still tell that Mike’s narrating. 

The lighting on Mike’s face has returned to being half lit, while the light on Will’s face is back to the soft lighting we’re used to seeing in scenes between Mike and Will. Mike is also looking at Will. 

Another thing about this is that yellow and blue lighting has returned. The lights flickering above Mike and the light of the fridge behind Will are very similar to Rink O’ Mania. All of Rink O’ Mania had yellow and blue lighting following Mike and Will, but this shot specifically is like the one where Mike, Will and El are standing in front of Angela and Mike asks El, “What did you do?”

Mike is also looking to Will again. He’s been looking at Will all season, that’s why we’ve seen so much of him, but here he’s looking for reassurance. He’s also been doing this all season (series) as well. From the van ride home from Rink O’ Mania, where he glanced to Will instead of El, to all the heart to hearts, and in the van when the agent was dying, and all the way to the gas station where he looked at Will for help understanding what Argyle was saying. 

The Piggyback doesn’t wrap anything up. It’s open ended and leaves us with far to many questions and concerns. But it does seem to be tying elements from earlier in the season into the this point in the story to create some sort of end. 

What I’m trying to say here is that there is a lot of emphasis placed on this shot of Mike looking to Will for reassurance. It’s been happening all season, but this is where we’re told to really see it. 

Mike looks away after Will does, but we still are looking at the two of them. We’re finally allowed to see them. Their relationship has been set out like this since the beginning, but now we as an audience are being told to take notice of it and so are other characters. 

Argyle and Jonathan have been placed in our perspective of the situation. Which makes sense because we now know that they both know more than Mike and Will. 

Another really weird thing, is that Will is cut out of a lot of these types of shots. He’s intentionally being kept out of sight. Dustin said earlier in the season, “God, we need Will.” And Will has been mentioned a few other times in regards to the upside down. 

What is important here is that El doesn’t see Will. I don’t think it’s in regards to his feelings for Mike, but more so his importance in defeating Vecna. 

(yes the picture quality is terrible, I am sorry. But it’s what we’re working with, so we must continue onwards)

The light is placed in front of Max in this shot. Also worth noting is that Lucas and El are in very similar positions on either side of Max. I’m not entirely sure what this means or where this is going, but I’m going to write about what I see. I’ll think about plausibility later.

Again, we can see that since we’ve switched back into Mike’s narration here, Will is still in the soft light that’s just a bit brighter than everyone else's in the room.

El places her right hand over Max’s. This is the hand with the heart ring on it. 

The lights start flicking when she does this indicating that she’s using her powers to the group. It’s also very clear to see here how Max and Mike are positioned in regards to El’s ring. El has a ring on one hand and her blue bracelet from Hopper on the other. The one with the braclet is the one that was held out to Mike in the pizza scene. 

Mike is still kept on the side of the bracelet in this scene. This is a symbol of Hopper and El’s family.

El takes Max’s hand with the heart ring. 

As the lights are flickering and everyone is looking around, our attention is drawn to Will. This is, as always, because of Mike’s narration, but also because we’re missing something. Will is important. He always has been important to fighting the Upside Down. But he hasn’t had to do that this season. 

This is also because of the transition Will is going through from a side character to a main character. We are seeing his reaction to the events around him because it’s becoming important to the narration of the story going forwards. will has always been important but now he’s becoming integral to our understanding of what we see. 

Our attention is being drawn to Will, while we can also see that El’s isn’t. 

I keep thinking about the line, “God, we need Will.” And I think that’s because they really do need him. But, this is a tad bit off topic, so, back to lighting.

A few quick lighting observations about these next three shots. 

When El is in the pizza freezer, her lighting is relatively normal compared ot everyone else in the scene (except Will). 

In the transition from the mindscape (I hope that’s what it’s called) to Max’s memories, El’s lighting changes. It’s a sharp light, unlike the type of light we’ve seen for a lot of this season with Mike and Will. Our attention is being directed to El with the light. 

But this is what the light is supposed to look like when we’re supposed to look at a character. No one can see El here. It’s just us. 

When we arrive in Max’s memory, El’s lighting changes again. She’s almost entirely shaded. This could be indicating that El hasn’t found Max yet. But with the colours and lighting in this scene and going forwards in The Piggyback, it is possible that it could indicate to us that El is in the dark about something. 

But El’s face is also similar to how Mike’s has been lit for the majority of this season, at least when we’re in his perspective. Like we can see when we go back to Mike, his face is similarly shaded. 

We have both Mike and El narrating the story but they aren’t influencing their separate narrations. What we see is what they’re telling us. They’re in separate places and are narrating separate situations which makes it really easy to understand what they’re telling us.

Going forwards with this scene, we have Mike and El telling us what’s happening at Surfer Boy Pizza and in Max’s head with Vecna/One/Henry respectively. Lucas is telling us what’s happening outside of Max’s head, Nancy in the Upside Down, and everyone else who’s separated is narrating their own sections but perhaps to a lesser extent than Mike and El. (Also, just as a note, I’m not going to go into Erica and Lucas very much. So, don’t worry about any graphic images coming up- other than supernatural horrors. just in case anyone was worried about that. I will have frames of Lucas, but only ones that are relevant to the lighting and none with Jason.)

This shot of El is from Mike’s OTS shot. Putting this in here just to point out that even when explicitly in Mike’s perspective, El’s lighting is still normal (although a little better lit than Mike and the others because we’re focusing on her) and not nearly on the level that Will is in this scene. 

Back to El’s narration, we can also see how the lighting is contrasted when switching from Mike’s perspective to Els’. She’s in shadow again. 

the letter’s ‘LBT’ are visible here. Originally I thought it was BLT when I saw it (like, bacon, lettuce, tomato) but it’s not. Apparently. Anyways, I found it interesting that those letters are so clear within this scene, since those are 3/4 of the letters of the most common abbreviation of LGBTQIA+; LGBT. 

It might’ve been apart of the setting when they got there, but they filmed it specifically focusing in on it. It could very well be referencing the queer community and themes within the show. 

Also what we can see here are the skaters clothes. Most of them are wearing primary colours. Primary colours are connected to Mike, Will and El, and also are strewn throughout the entire series. They’re important and we’ve been told to look at them before, so it makes sense o look a little more in depth into their meaning in this scene. 

El, in this shot, is again pictured in the shade. 

We get another shot of Mike and Will from the side of Argyle and Jonathan. Nothing had really changed lighting wise, but this continues to tell us to look at them. they’re positions are also mirroring each other, with their watches in frame and on both their outer arms. 

Okay. This is another shot that draws attention to El’s ring. Again, it’s on the hand furthest from Mike and it’s the same hand she reached out for Max with. We are meant to notice it’s distance from Mike. 

The shade on El’s face persists through this scene. The ring that I mentioned above, doesn’t have the same emphasis on it in El’s perspective. It does later, but under very specific circumstances that have more to do with Max than they have to do will Mike. 

The skaters in front of El here are dressed in yellow and red. There is one skater who is in green, but they come in a little later when we find little Max. Green is also a very important colour. 

In season one it was established that it has romantic implications. I wrote about this more in depth here, after I was wrong about the colour of the roses and sought redemption in the form of an analysis of Will’s funeral and colour theory. Anyways, the roses are yellow and white-. To summarize my argument, green is a romantic colour in the place of red. It’s a mask of true feelings and intentions because Will, “couldn’t find a red crayon.” Joyce told him that Will the Wises fire balls looked more like cabbages, and this connects to Mike at Will’s funeral. 

But anyways, green is a romantic colour and has queer implications as per when it was established in season one. 

Green’s going to come up a lot. It already has with Mike and Will, but now it’s being paralleled to other characters and their relationships. 

It’s becoming very clear, with the separation of Mike and El’s narrations and the obvious juxtaposition of them being shown one after the other, just what Mike and El are telling us. But first it had to be established that they were separate narrations. 

We know how Mike feels about Will. That’s been in the lighting the whole season, and in every scene with Mike and Will we can see it. 

The establishment of the lighting and Mike and Will,  is going to allow us to interpret scenes between other romantic relationships and implied romantic feelings. 

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