#i think there was some stuff with clock chimes in s1 but this ones so blatant and undeniable

[demadogs]

im seeing something going around rn about how the duffers didnt have anything planned beyond season one

in season 2 theres a grandfather clock chime when hoppers in the upside down

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2 - REACTION + THOUGHTS

Holy fucking shit, everyone 😭 it was only two episodes and yet I feel drained, it took like 4+ hours to get through two damn episodes but I did it!

My reaction to Episodes 1-7 are HERE!

I wrote my thoughts in a notebook as I watched and I’ve elaborated more on those thoughts in this post below. Mostly it’s a lot of freaking out and fangirling though 😂

⚠️ There are HUGE spoilers below the read more so please read at your own risk! ⚠️

Episode 8 - Papa

Awww mini Eleven is so cute

She was so exhausted after sending Vecna to the beyond that she straight up passed out after

Not me getting triggered by showing 001 being tattooed again 🤧

The gang panicking to find music is so funny but also FIND THE MUSIC FFS

“I want you to tell Eleven… I want you to tell her everything you’ve seen… tell her everything” - oh shit, he didn’t kill Nancy 😮‍💨 but also yikes

Not the Russian demogorgan still alive???

Awww, Joyce patching Hopper up :3

“You’re the hero of Hawkins” - IM NOT CRYING, NOT YET 🤧

Hop asking after El and Joyce saying “she misses her dad” ❤️

“Umm I hate to interrupt” LMAO “but apparently they (the demogorgons) can climb too” … shit

WHY IS THERE ANOTHER ONE STRAPPED TO A TABLE BEING DISSECTED

Tell me the Russians have NOT been experimenting on the demo-creatures 😭💀 and what the hell is that swirling dust stuff???

Eleven’s powers are BACK! 😀

To be quite brutally honest, I forgot what the Cali crew were up to because they were just… there. Not really doing that much. :/

I’m not really digging Mike’s whole “what if she doesn’t need me anymore???”, let alone Will having to reassure him “of course she’ll need you” like… ?? Boys, hello???

OHHHH THE PAINTING

Awww is it based on DND?? Apparently El commissioned it, and Mike in the painting’s coat of arms is a heart because he’s the heart of the group or some shit?

Honestly not really here for Will’s painting/feelings being used to further the Mileven pairing :/

The way Jonathan was looking at Will and Mike, I thought he was thinking “yeah my brother’s got it bad”

“When you’re different, you feel like a mistake” - WILL BABY??? Again, it’s so obvious he’s gay and hiding it???

NOT WILL LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW AND CRYING, POOR BOY IS HEARTBROKEN (and at this point I’m starting to think that yes, in love with Mike)

Did sending Vecna through the portal cause Eleven’s speech and language to regress too??? Because I’m S1 she can barely speak and needs to be taught common words, whilst in flashbacks in S4 in the lab, she seems quite fluent?

Has this motherfucker Brenner been searching for 001 this whole time??? Is that what this is about???

Oh god not the autopsy photos 😭

“Your friends are in danger” - yeah but what else is new??? They’re in danger like every 6-12 months 💀

The clock has 4 chimes… which means 4 gates, 4 victims??? Shit, he’s one away???

Eleven using her powers to watch the Hawkins gang :’(

Nancy: We have to go back // Eddie: 🤦 NO

Robin calling him “Henry-slash-Vecna-slash-One” 😂

Because El is watching them, she’s in on their plan too now… interesting

Max: I draw his focus next to me - ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT I CANNOT GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN

If Max fucking dies, I will be SO ANGRY

Yayyy Jopper + Murray + Dmitri made it out of the Russian base!

LMFAO at the van just smashing through the gate

Hopper protecting Joyce by wrapping his arms around her :3

Joyce saying “That plane crashed” and Hopper’s concerned “… crashed?!?”

Dmitri threatening Yuri lol

I like that at this point Steve is still not wearing a proper shirt 🥵

Eddie calling Max “red”

“You got a ski mask or a bandana?” - cut to Eddie wearing Max’s Michael Myers mask that she wore at Halloween in S2 😂

Eddie hot wiring a van

HE CALLED STEVE “big boy”, I’M-

Also Steve is STILL barefoot 😂

“Your friends are not prepared for this fight” - right, so maybe go and fucking help them????

Owens at least tried to let Eleven make a choice, Brenner is a dick

No but Steve talking about his dreams and saying in his dreams for his life, he wants 6 kids and to travel America on road trips with them 😭🤧 he would be such a great dad, I’m-

Nancy calling 6 kids “a nightmare” LMFAO SAME

“If only I had some practice” *gestures to the kids he’s always babysitting* 💀

Lucas making the Ms Kelly link and also wanting to find someone else - anyone else - so Max won’t be in danger

Max’s happiest memory involves Lucas, which makes me think it’s probably the Snow Ball dance when they got together?

Is that a helicopter?!! There’s no way that thing is carrying five adults from Russia to America???

“For me, she is still a virgin” - PLEASE DO NOT SAY THAT ABOUT THE HELICOPTER YURI

The War Zone store is like the size of an entire shopping mall :/

Ah, America… no one is questioning young teenagers like Erica, Max, etc buying guns and explosives

IS THAT VICKIE IN THE STORE 💀

WHAT DO YOU MEAN VICKIE HAS A BOYFRIEND AND SHE MADE OUT WITH HIM RIGHT THERE, FOR FUCK SAKE

Robin being heartbroken 😭

NAHHH WHY THE FUCK IS JASON AT THE GUN STORE, why are ALL OF THE BASKETBALL BROS THERE

Jason really needs to back the fuck off, and the scene where he’s talking to Nancy and putting his hands on her gun really proved that

Argyll saying Nina sounds like a “small woman” 😭 he ain’t wrong, “nina” is Spanish for little girl I think

Nahhh is Argyll STILL fucking high 💀

Getting REAL sick and tired of seeing military and army assholes

DID BRENNER CALL THEM, FUCKING DICK

“If my men hear you coming, they’ll kill him (Owens)” - BRENNER IS LITERALLY BLACKMAILING HER WHAT THE FUCK FUCK HIM

Eleven called him OUT and I love it

“You could not let him (001) go” “you are the monster” — SO TRUE

He injected her what the hell 💀

She should have just killed him tbh

“Is this legal?” “Actually, I think it’s a felony” — LMFAO

Eddie and Dustin play fighting and Eddie making Dustin promise “never change, promise me”… why do I feel like Eddie’s imparting some wisdom and is about to be killed…

“Even though you’re a bench riding loser, you’re still my brother” - awww Erica :3

Wait did Steve say Vickie’s boyfriend is a full ass college man 💀

“Not everyone has a happy ending” - ST writers are definitely trying to tell the fans to lower their expectations of happy endings for everyone 😭

“It might not work out for us this time” - FUCK. NO. NOPE.

Oh god did he put one of those collars on Eleven?!?

Not the shootout 🤦

Omg they shot Brenner and he dropped Eleven. Not gonna be sad if he dies tho, he low-key deserves it lmao

Owens saying he could put El in a coma and then if the killings stop they’ll know it’s her, but the gang is planning on taking down Vecna do the killings will stop??? And they’ll think it’s El???

Never mind, asshole army guy ordered them to kill Eleven anyway

EYYYY Cali gang FINALLY pulling their weight and going to the rescue!

Go on, Eleven! Bring it down! Knock the aircraft out the air!

I’m confused tho because I thought he collar subdued her powers but she’s still wearing it in this scene and straight up knocking a helicopter out of the sky???

The Mike and Eleven reunion was sweet but idk Will still feels like a third wheel even when he’s happy to see Eleven and he hugs her

Will crying with happiness at seeing El again and giving her a hug 😭❤️ love the brother-sister relationship

Brenner has a remote control to make the collar fall off???

“I’m proud of you” “you are my family” “my child” — yeah? Funny way of fucking showing it, mate

“Please tell me you understand” - and then she doesn’t say anything, just gets up and says “goodbye papa” 😅

Soooo… is he actually dead this time?

I’m so anxious for this plan, holy shit

THE MUSIC IS PHENOMONAL!!! (It’s Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) by Journey and Steve Perry, and it was in one of the trailers)

The chills I got at them approaching the Creel house again… ooh

Episode 9 - The Piggyback

Strap in, folks, this one is a whopping 2hrs and 20 minutes!

YURI JUST SABOTAGED THE HELICOPTER FUCK SAKE

Hopper and Joyce’s sexual tension is getting VERY obvious Jesus Christ

THEM CHANGING NEAR EACH OTHER AND JOYCE LOOKS OVER AND HE’S SHIRTLESS IM-

Lmao at her Hulk Hogan t shirt though

Hopper’s been dreaming about their Enzo date and starts listing the food, and then… “been dreaming about something else too”

IS IT HAPPENING

HOLY FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK I LITERALLY SCREAMED THEY KISSED HOLY FUCKING CHRIST

NOT THE PHONE INTERRUPTING THEM GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY

“You can be the hero, Steve” - yes but only if he survives 😇

I’ve got a horrible feeling about both Steve and Eddie, and I hope I’m wrong

To be fair to him, Jonathan is trying very hard to get plane tickets to Hawkins and I appreciate the effort

Soooo Eleven is going to go inside Max’s mind and protect her there? 🤔

*talking about how El needs a “bathtub”* Argyll: Yeah, gotta be clean to enter the mind — I FUCKING DIED LAUGHING

Hell yeah for the Kate Bush reappearing

Them writing notes so they won’t be overheard by Vecna on the other side is super smart actually

Not that dude seeing Erica and tipping the basketball team off 😤

Not Jason target practicing smh

Murray: “I see the mood here is bleak, and understandably so” LMFAO NO KIDDING

So those particles moving… means there’s a gate open?

Part of the hive mind is in Russia… where they’ve just escaped from 💀

Of course there’s another Surfer Boy Pizza shop, of course it’s a franchise

The amount of “dudes” in this one conversation LMFAO Even Jonathan was doing it 💀

Love that their prep involves cooking a pizza in the oven 😂

Also the sensory tank is in the newly emptied pizza freezer???

Robin panicking about getting lost is a whole ass mood frankly

“She’s a super klutz” - bless

Apparently Steve used to crawl backwards as a baby? “Always in reverse” (no joke I actually read a book about a boy who crawled backwards and did everything backwards because his mother and father met on a train that was travelling backwards???) (I looked it up; it’s called “Back To Front Benjy” by Dick King Smith)

He also apparently thumped his head as a baby o_o (Nancy: “explains so much” lol)

Steve calling himself confident but an idiot made me kinda sad, all this self reflection made me think he was gonna die 😭

Him thanking her for giving him “the biggest thump” of his life and discussing their relationship

I can’t believe he really said NANCY was the most important part of his dream… I am really not here for Steve/Nancy :/

LMAO at Robin ruining their moment 😂

Wait, where are the Russian guards?

… ohhh I think I know based on the sounds coming off that radio, my god

Ooh did Dmitri break through with Yuri and convince him to do the right thing? :O

Max writing “hi” and Lucas writing “hi :D” back

“I’m glad you’re here” - AWWWW

He asked her to a movie on Friday and she drew him a cute picture 🤧

Okay but WILL Vecna take the bait or not is the question?

Max taking her headphones off… Here we go.

I had a fleeting thought of what if he decides to take Lucas instead??? They’re expecting him to go for Max but Lucas is there too?!?

Mike made goggles out of pizza boxes, I’m-

Argyll interrupting Mileven to give them pizza!

Ewww okay so Eleven: she’s an 11 but she likes pineapple on pizza 🤢

“Do you remember that time you told me you had Lego stuck up your nose?” - I SPAT OUT MY COFFEE WHAT THE FUCK JONATHAN

“You used to come to me more for help” — aww :(

“I’ve been distanced-“ “Stoned.” - LOL

Aww Byers brothers sharing a hug :3 and Will getting emotional 🥹

“I love you: there is nothing in this world that will change that” - TELL ME THIS WOULD NOT BE JONATHAN’S REACTION TO WILL COMING OUT??? This should have at LEAST been a prompt for Will to come out to him maybe???

Eleven found Max!

… oh no. No, it’s not working??? Vecna isn’t taking the bait???

Max saying Vecna was right, Billy made her life hell, she would pray for something awful to happen to him… “I didn’t know if he deserved to be saved” OOF

“So now when I lie in bed at night, I pray something terrible will happen to me.” - MAX SWEETIE NO 😭

I KNEW AS SOON AS LUCAS STARTED SAYING BAD STUFF THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY VECNA

Oh gosh come on Eleven, save the day

We get to see a little Max memory of her skating

WHOOOO EDDIE SHREDDING THE ELECTRIC GUITAR

“Chrissy, this is for you” - I’M NOT OKAY

Demobats!!!!!

“Where are you going, Maxine?” Oh fuck no I’m out

NOT THE BILLY SAUNA DOOR THING

NOT THE BASKETBALL CREW HITTING AND HURTING ERICA FUCK THEM

Let me say it again, Eddie shred the FUCK outta that guitar solo

Max’s memory is the snow ball dance…

Dustin: “Most. Metal. EVERRRRR!” Bless

NOOOO the Russian glass cage things are broken?!?!

Sooo… monster got in, guards tried to stop it, gunfire shattered the tanks, others came alive :O Particles = The Shadow, which went into the monster(s)?

By the way, this whole plan of “hey, while Max distracts Vecna and probably gets herself killed, let’s sneak up into the attic in the upside down and stab/burn him while he’s in a trance” is fucking stupid 💀

Ohhhh that’s a LOT of vines on the floor

Robin worrying because she’s clumsy, she’ll tread on them, and Nancy holds her hand and says it’s okay??? RONANCY FANS RISE UP

“Shouldn’t you be playing with dolls?” “Should you bag your face?” YOUNG MAX IS A SAVAGE

Wait, the song from the Snow Ball (Every breath you take)?

I was singing along to that song and then I let out a scream because the balloon popped 💀

Speaking of balloons popping, what is this, Stephen King’s IT??? 🤡

Ohhh now the music’s changed to Dream a Little Dream of Me, which was playing in the Creel house and was what Victor was listening to

Well this took a sharp turn… the flowers are withering, blood is everywhere…

LET ERICA GO, FUCK 😤

Oh NO NOT JASON IN THE ATTIC

He thinks Lucas is doing some cult shit to Max (a la Hellfire Club)

JASON PUT THE FUCKIN GUN AWAY MAN

He wants Lucas to wake Max up or he’ll shoot???

“Or are we supposed to read your mind” lmao Murray

Nooo why does Hopper need to he demo-bait 😬

Not Joyce remembering Bob because Bob did exactly the same thing and she watched him die in front of her 😭

“I still got a date to make, remember?” “I am not having another funeral” - I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS I WANT TO CRY

Awww now there’s a tender Jopper kiss in addition to the down and dirty one

The demobats are on the roof… they can’t get in, right?

OH WAIT YEP THEY CAN 🤧

Watching Steve/Robin/Nancy dodge the vines made me extremely anxious to be honest

NOOOOOOOO NOT ROBIN

NOT STEVE FUCK FUCK FUCK

AND ALSO NANCY TOO WHAT THE FUCK

(They’re not dead, just being strangled by vines inside the house)

I can’t do this, I’m not strong enough for this show 💀

Not the demodog chasing Hopper 😭 meanwhile the demobats are coming through the vent

Dustin climbed back through the portal and then Eddie cUT THE ROPE NOOOOOO

Eddie trying to buy more time 😭 don’t do it, Eddie, the town don’t deserve it

Somehow I don’t think barricading the door with fold up chairs is going to stop Vecna, Max lmao

Oh god that chiming is going to haunt my fucking nightmares

Vecna appearing behind Max definitely scared me, Jesus Christ

Nooooo leave Max alone!!!

Lucas trying to convince Jason but of course Jason is a toolbag and too far gone

“I never should have let you in the door” “and I never should have knocked” OH SHIT

Lucas called Jason a raging psychopath, which is quite accurate to be honest

Sinclair siblings once again kicking ass at the same time, we love to see it

WAIT DID JASON JUST BREAK THE MUSIC PLAYER

COME ON ELEVEN HELP MAX PLEASE

“Much braver than your brother” OOF OKAY VECNA JESUS

Oh no no no no he’s gonna do the thing-

ELEVEN YESSSSSS SHE SAVED MAX THANK GOD

V: You. // E: Hi. *throws him through a wall*

Dustin trying to jump back up into the ceiling portal using furniture and then he hurt his leg falling though :(

NOOO EDDIE NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

Jason needs to leave everyone alone smh what an ass

ElMax checking on each other :3

“Are you real? Did I make you?” “I’m real.” “How?” “I piggy-backed from a pizza freezer.” “… what?” — LMFAO

Oh of course Vecna is up again 😭

“If you touch her again, I’ll kill you again” — OOF GO OFF

Vecna is right though, technically she didn’t kill him before, just sent him through that portal 🤷🏻

Max really tried to run up behind Vecna and stab him when she was being noisy as fuck

Yeah no Eleven’s getting her ass beat in this fight I won’t lie

Goddammit now he’s attached El to the door with vines

NOT CHRISSY’S DEAD BODY IN THE BACKGROUND JUST CHILLING

Vecna has Max 😥😓😰

She told him Papa is dead and Vecna paused

“He is the monster, Henry. Not you.” OOF.

“He was just a man. An ordinary mediocre man.” - DAMN TRUE THO

“He did not make me into this. You did.” - … Vecna is telling the truth technically 😬

The flashback showing him exploring this “realm unspoilt by mankind” and it looks like a barren shit hole to me 😫

So the particle cloud… helped him become a predator???

THE MIND FLAYER??? And young Henry/Vecna’s drawing IDENTICAL to Will’s???

So has this all always been Vecna or…?

“Sought a means to open my own doors” (showing S3) - so was THAT Vecna????

I love the contrast of the red lighting in the Eleven/Vecna scene vs the blue in literally all the others but especially Lucas/Jason’s fight

NOOO NOT HOPPER IN THE SAME POSITION AS BOB IN S2

NO NO NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONONO NOT EDDIE NOT EDDIE

Erica, come on girl! Jason is literally about to strangle Lucas to death!

“But now I just want you to watch” - oh shit

NOT MAX, LEAVE HER ALONE

Mike/Will/Jonathan/Argyll trying to wake Eleven up…

Will telling Mike he’s “the heart” and Mike saying “I love you” to El… I’m so tired. I’m so tired of Will’s obvious sexuality/crush being used to further a straight couple

Not Mike claiming his life was only meaningful after meeting Eleven 💀 and the flashbacks to the very first episode when they met, I’m so done with this

Wait, are the vines uncurling from around Eleven???

COME ON LUCAS PULL THROUGH

Noooo MAX’S ARMS AND LEG ARE DOING THE SNAPPY THING I CANNOT WATCH

Joyce rescuing Hopper by electrocuting that demodog 😥

OH SHIT THATS A DEMOGORGAN

TELL ME MAX IS OKAY NOW, RIGHT?!?

Murray kicking ass with the flamethrower!!!

Oh thank fuck Steve/Nancy/Robin are released and okay

Ewww not the squelchy noises when they all walk around 🤢

Well, Hopper, looks like shooting a demogorgan didn’t work…

IS THAT A FUCKING SWORD?!? HE GONNA FIGHT IT WITH A SWORD?!?

RoStAncy found Vecna - come on, guys, prove this plan wasn’t shit

“The beginning of the end” - eyyy it’s the season 4 tagline!

Not them playing Running Up That Hill again, I’m already a mess 💀

OH SHIT THEY’RE BURNING HIM

Oh wait no he’s up again, ROBIN THROW ANOTHER MOLOTOV PLEASE

NANCY SHOOT HIM OH MY GOD

HOPPER SLICED THAT DEMOGORGAN’S ARM CLEAN OFF

Oh sHIT NANCY ANNIHILATED HIM

Wait… what do you mean there’s still 40 FUCKING MINUTES TO GO?!?!

IS Max okay??? And Eddie???

NOPE EDDIE’S DYING FOR FUCK SAKE I’m so upset he was my favourite newbie 😭😭😭

“I didn’t run away this time, right?“ STOP IT RIGHT NOW

Eddie didn’t even get to graduate 😭🤧 this was supposed to be his year, I’m so upset-

NAH FUCK THIS SHOW FUCK IT

CALL AN AMBULANCE FOR MAX PLEASE I CAN’T LOSE HER AS WELL

No no no no I hate this, this is awful, she’s blind and can’t see and she’s so scared and she’s crying 😭

Max crying and panicking because “I can’t see, I’m so scared, I’m not ready to go, I want to go on” I’M SOBBING, NO, NO, NO, FUCK OFF RIGHT NOW

Lucas sobbing as she dies I can’t fucking STAND THIS FUCKING SHOW FUCK THIS

Four chimes… oh no. Oh no no no no NO.

AFTER ALL THAT, VECNA STILL WINS BECAUSE IT’S OPENING THE BIG GATE ANYWAY???

Karen and Little Holly 😭

Holy FUCK, Hawkins is actually well and truly FUCKED this time

… Is Eleven trying to bring Max back to life??? Is that even possible???

Not the ElMax flashbacks making me tear up again 😭

Don’t get my hopes up, I can’t take it if my hopes are raised and smashed down again

Cut to black and… two days later??? Excuse me??? WHt the fuck happened???

Ohhh that’s a lot of cars leaving Hawkins

Oh shit the smoke coming off of Hawkins?!?!

So they’re saying it was this ridiculously traumatic earthquake???

Not them all believing it’s Hellfire’s fault still :/ and that Eddie is still guilty, fuck this town-

“Doorway into hell” - oof, that’s one way to put it I guess

Eyyy Mike finally reuniting with his family and Will reuniting with his friends, and Jancy seeing each other too!!

“You can forget about college” - LMFAO

Okay, now why is Lucas at the hospital??? Again, do NOT get my hopes up!

Wait, is Max in a coma????

Lucas reading to Max 😭

I can’t get over Lucas and Eleven hugging?!! They’ve come so far since S1 when he hated her 😭

They don’t know if Max will wake up or why she hasn’t yet :( they’re saying she died for like a minute but then a miracle (Eleven) happened

Eleven holding Max’s hand and telling her “I’m here” :’(

Nancy and the others are donating their stuff because of the disaster, that makes sense

I love how ready Steve and Robin are to help 🤧❤️

Vickie?!?! Oh that’s awkward… I love Amybeth tho

“Was my boyfriend” — ohhh aye? 👀

Her saying she should have dumped him for disliking “fast times” lmfao

“It’s like my mouth is running faster than my brain” - oh her and Robin are so suited to each other

Listen… Vickie could still be bisexual, okay, just because she dated a guy it doesn’t mean she can’t date girls 🤷🏻

I hate that people have been graffiti-ing Eddie’s missing poster 😭

Dustin has Eddie’s guitar pick neck chain 🥺

I feel so bad for Eddie’s uncle 😢

When Dustin started crying over Eddie and telling Eddie’s uncle that Eddie was a hero, I lost it

“He fought and died to protect this town that hated him” - I CAN’T 😭 Eddie deserved so much fucking better

Hopper’s cabin???

Jonathan: *pointing to massive gaping hole in ceiling* Well, that’s a bit of a problem — 😂😂😂😂

Aww they’re fixing up the cabin :3

Argyll gathering mushrooms 🤣

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” “I’m actually kinda glad you weren’t… I mean, that you were with Mike” - suuure, Nancy -_-

Why did I feel like they were about to go on a break during this scene 💀

Nancy saying Steve’s grown quite a bit as a person… true but girl seriously

“Are we okay?” “… yeah.” — Nancy, you did NOT sound very sure

Oof Jonathan had the perfect opportunity to tell Nancy about his plans for college but he didn’t :/

Will knowing 001 isn’t dead because he can feel him hurting… o_0

So will Vecna be in S5, and if so will his first target be Will because lord knows that boy has a LOT of trauma to feed off of

Is that coke bottle from when El and Max played spin the bottle in S3? That feels like so long ago now 😭

So apparently Eleven couldn’t find Max in that mindscape/black area thing? (I don’t know what to call it, I’m sorry 😭)

IT’S HOPPER, A FATHER DAUGHTER REUNION IM CRYING ALL OVER AGAIN OH MY GOD

She kept the door open 3 inches always and never stopped believing 😭😭😭😭

“Your hair…” “My hair? Your hair!” - THEY BOTH LOST THEIR HAIR IM SO-

“I kinda stole your look, kid, what you think?” “Bitching” - 😭❤️

JOYCE AND EL REUNITING ❤️

I do wonder if the Hoppers and Byers will be one big family now because Jopper is a thing 🤔🙂

Oh no… no, not the Will Neck Tingle™️

Oh damn, it went from sunny to overcast VERY quickly

It’s snowing??? It’s spring break so it shouldn’t be snowing???

Plants rotting/dying… ash in the sky I think? (So is it ash or is it snow?)

Joyce and Hopper holding hands 🥺

SHIT, THAT’S WHERE THEY END THIS SEASON, ON THAT CLIFFHANGER

SEASON 5 WHEN?!?!?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Roman Numerals, 8s, 10s, Xs, and Beth’s Return

Good morning and Happy Saturday! So as I’ve been saying the past few weeks, @wdway and I have been doing re-watches and finding some interesting things. A lot of these insights come directly from her research. Thanks so much for all your hard work and eagle eyes, Hon!

The biggest problem I ran into while writing this was what order to present everything in. Some much of it is so intertwined, if I start talking about one, I’ll have to talk about the others. So I’m gonna try really hard to keep from confusing you all.

It was @wdway that first turned me on to look for the X symbol. Once I did, I started seeing them everywhere. Let me start by giving you some examples.

We’ve seen them all the way since S1 in license plates, but I’m not going to talk about license plates today. They’re super important, but they’re getting their own post later.

We’ve also seen them quite frequently on signs, such as railroad crossing signs (RXR) and we all know the train tracks are an important symbol all their own.

We see them as notches in both Beth and Maggie’s belts, Beth’s starting in S3 and Maggie’s starting in S4. (I’m not going to talk about the belts today. They’re important, but again, that’s another post.)

In S5, we saw them on the trees around Morgan. With the circle around them, they also happen to be an electric symbol for lamps (X) and also look like a modified coda. Which is interesting given that we saw them in 5x08.

Also in S5, we saw them near Sasha in the dry creek bed (near the frogs) in 5x10:

We also saw them on Crazy Boxcar Dude’s face at Terminus.

And then here, in FG’s church while Maggie, Sasha and he pray together.

Interestingly, we actually see them around Grady in a few ways. When Rick discusses the plan with everyone, he draws a floor plan of Grady in the dirt and uses Xs to show where each person will be. So X = a person. 

Of course we get a sea of Xs in the chain link of this shot:

(And yes, I know we see a lot of chain link in the show. I don’t think you could point to any random instance of chain link as a symbol. But when there’s a lot of it, when it’s emphasized, etc., it’s probably important. This was a specific decision to show this tragic, iconic shot through chain link rather than put the camera on the other side of it for a clearer view.)

Moving into S6, we saw them around Morgan again on rocks and on the porch of Eastman’s house.

We saw Sasha emphasize an X in Daryl’s last name when she wrote it on the door.

In 6x16/7x01 we saw the Saviors mark the Librarian guy they hung with an X. In the S7 premiere, Negan went back to that spot with Rick and Rick actually climbed the corpse to get away from the walker horde. They really emphasized it, in other words.

(Which btw I think may support my theory about the Captain Hanson backstory at Grady pointing toward Beth helping Rick through something.)

We saw them around Sasha and Rosita in 7b as well.

(Understand that these are only a few instances. I’m sure they’re all over the place, chilling in the background of scenes and such. But these are ones that stood out to us.)

And of course, as @wdway points out, turning an X results in a cross and vise versa. (A tactic employed in the recent Logan (wolverine) film.)

So, what does this all mean? What do the Xs represent? I bet you can guess what I’m gonna say. Yup, I’ll say it: we think they represent Beth. Or things to do with her. It’s hard to say exactly how this realization formed, other than just seeing Xs all over having to do with her. But I’ll get to some stuff that @wdway has found recently that really confirmed our beliefs.

First, let’s talk about Tara.

Remember in 7x06, when we saw some lines of Roman Numerals on her arm, but we couldn’t see the bottom line? 

@wdway noticed two more instances when we see this tattoo, though they’re much subtler than this one, and I found yet another. While doing the re-watch, she noticed that in this scene in 4x07, you can see the tattoo. 

We just didn’t realize it was visible before S7. I also found it here 

but it’s VERY hard to see. I don’t think from either of these shots in S4, we would have been able to tell what the tattoo said. But still, this was something obviously planned since S4, when Gimple took the reins.

The other instance @wdway noticed was here in 7x10:

And the interesting thing in this case is that you can see the bottom line that was hidden in 7x06. Can you tell what it is? Yup, that’s right. It’s an 8. So these are the lines we have, all in roman numerals

26: XXVI

13: XIII

22: XXII

9: IX

8: VIII

I don’t know what the top four numbers mean. I’ve played around with them somewhat–counting episodes Tara is in and trying to multiply or divide them in various ways. Nothing ingenious has come to me. They may have to do with Tara’s arc herself (rather than Beth) and they may foreshadow something to come. If that’s the case, we can’t possibly know what it is yet.

The 8 is suspicious, of course, to TD. And it’s made even more so in my opinion because it was hidden in that close up shot. If they really wanted to hide it, they wouldn’t have shown it to us a few episodes later. And remember Glenn’s theme from 5a: “There’s nothing worth finding in this world that isn’t hidden.” I believe he even said that to Tara.

But there’s more. Again, this is an insight from @wdway. The clock in Still, which we first saw at 8 minutes before the hour, and then chimed, showing that 8 minutes had passed before Beth “made it” had roman numerals, rather than numbers. 

As far as we know, there are only two other clocks with roman numerals on the face rather than numbers or other marks. The first is—once again—at Grady. In 5x07 Crossed, there’s a clock in Edwards’ office with roman numerals. The weird thing about this clock is that it changes mid-scene. This may be hard to see, but in this top picture, the hands point at the 8 and the 4. 

In otherwords, episode 8x04. Then, 30 seconds later and in the same scene, it changes to the 8 and the 10. 

Perhaps something this scene foreshadows will be an arc that goes from 8x04-8x10. That actually makes all kinds of sense given the rest of this theory but I’ll come back to it. The final clock is the one Cindy looks at here at Oceanside.

As you can see, it also reads 8:20, which would point to episode 8x04.

Could it be that Beth will appear in 8x04? Or that she’ll show up at Oceanside in that episode? Perhaps both.

Three clocks = Rule of Threes. All wrapped up in Beth symbolism. First in Still, then at Grady, then at Oceanside.

We’ll have to look for other clocks as we go, but I even checked watches and the ones in WHAWGO to be sure. They either have regular numbers or just lines in place of numbers. In some cases, they’re too blurry to tell for sure. In those cases, we certainly don’t see roman numerals.

So we have Xs that are wrapped up in TD symbolism, with ties to Tara, Oceanside, and Still. It certainly looks like they were trying to tie the clocks in 4x12 and 6x07 together, which is awesome!

A couple more facts about Xs. In roman numerology, the X = 10, right? We do see some 10 stuff around Beth. Not as much as 7 or 8 stuff, but a bit.

Every season, episode 10 is significant in some way to Beth.

(No episode 10 in S1).

S2x10: 18 Miles Out (suicide arc)

S3x10: Home (Talks to Carol about Daryl)

S4x10: Inmates (Dairy voice over and backward story progression.)

S5x10: Them (Music box wakes up.)

S6x10: The Next World (Rickyl/Bethyl parallels, meet JESUS on the road.)

7x10: New Best Friends (Daryl says goodbye to Carol, Carol reads novel with a serious piggyback on the cover.)

Plus, I might add, we’ve seen a lot of 100s, which 10 is an obvious factor of. And episode 100 is 8x01.

So given these 10s, the 8:50 on Edwards’ clock makes sense. I wonder if Beth will show up at Oceanside in 8x04, but we won’t see the entirety of how she escaped until 8x10. If 8x10 mirrors 4x10, Inmates, at all, we might even hear more voice overs or see flashbacks.

I’d also like to point out that right after talking to Edwards, Beth walks into the hallway and we have some definite Dark Tunnel Symbolism there. (X, X, X).

She’s heading into her dark tunnel as we head into Coda, but there’s a light at the end, showing that she’ll come out the other side eventually.

Buuuutt, there’s one more thing you all ought to be aware of concerning the letter X. @wdway and her ingenious research uncovered something more. Put roman numerology aside for a moment. We’ve seen both that and the Greek alphabet symbols used in the show. She looked up Hebrew. And guess what? The symbol for the number 8 in Hebrew numerology is an X. The word for it is “chet” and it means “New Beginnings.”

(Source)

On that subject I’m sure this has probably been said before, but I was thinking about it in more detail yesterday. In Christian symbolism, 8 is the number of baptism. Baptism, by definition, is a spiritual rebirth. So (and this is what I was listening to the other day that made me think about this) the baptismal font, full of water, is a likeness of the grave. One comes up out of it, newly baptized, as though being resurrected and beginning life anew.

(P.S. Doing re-watches, I’ve found a lot more 8s than I would have thought. I’ll do a post showing all of them, but I don’t want to make this theory any longer.)

Given all of this, it just makes all kinds of sense that Beth will come by water (greenroute) in S8.

So…Tara’s roman numerals? Important.

8s? Important.

10s? Important.

Xs? VERY important.

So I’ll let you go back through the list of Xs at the beginning of the theory and figure out how they relate to Beth. Some are obvious. Others aren’t but we still have theories about them (*coughs Dude at Terminus*).

And can I just add that I love that the X, a symbol for 8s and Beth’s return was put BY SASHA in the middle of Daryl’s name. Love that. ;D

So everyone keep your eyes out for Xs as you re-watch. (Not that we need tons more evidence, but it’s just fun. ;D)

Thoughts?