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henrysglock · 2 years ago

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Cracks 2: Electric Boogaloo

AKA: The Universe Where Henry Did Nothing Wrong? It Exists On Screen.

That's right babes. If you thought the crack fuckery ended with my last post...you're in for an insanity-inducing surprise.

The gate crack we talked about here? It straight up disappears.

Let me explain. The progressions I want to look at are the ones where Brenner finds El in the aftermath. Supposedly, the progression from his memories in S4E1 is the same progression as the one in S4E8...until you look closer.

Before we start, I want to give a major shout-out to Em. All the corpse and Brenner details re: blood and positions are things he noticed. I'm just merging that evidence with the cracks and mirror fuckery I've found. It's very much a team effort, and I likely wouldn't even be making this post without him noticing the first weird details during the NINA fight.

Here's our scene progression:

S4E1: The Hellfire Club (left) and S4E8: Papa (right)

We've got 3 weird things to contend with:

What's going on with that Brenner who has blood bisecting his face?

Where did the gate crack go?

Why did the corpse to her right change positions entirely?

I've diagrammed all of this, so lets start with the most obvious one.

The Lost Gate.

Where is it? How are we missing an entire gate?

Now lets look at the Brenners.

We've got this Brenner (I call him Bisecting Brenner) with these corpses:

Things To Note Here:

Eyes are not gouged, just bleeding

Limbs are not broken

Corpses are older than they ought to be in 1979

Killing style is reminiscent of El's style, not Henry/Edward's style (see below)

El kills Connie (S1E8: The Upside Down):

The gouged-eyes, broken-limbs, Henry/Edward-style version of the above body:

That is not the same killing style.

Moving ahead.

Bisecting Brenner exists in opposition to this Brenner (I call him Half-Face Brenner). Half-Face Brenner is associated with, but not necessarily shown in frame with, these corpses:

Things To Note Here:

Eyes are not shown, but they're likely gouged given the limbs

Limbs are clearly broken

Corpses are the age they ought to be in 1979

Killing style is textbook Henry/Edward

Lets look at the other set.

Here we have Brenner+El and these corpses in frame with the gate crack:

Things To Note Here:

Eyes are not shown

Limbs are twisty (Check out the fingers on that bottom left kid. Fingers generally don't bend backward like that naturally.)

Age ranges aren't concrete

002 is present at top right, clearly shown

The corpse at top left is on her back

This exists in opposition to no-gate El, who's associated with these corpses:

Things To Note Here:

This is the first time we're shown corpses after Bisecting Brenner is shown

Corpse at top left swaps positions between camera changes

002 is shown, but by GOD it's just his toes in that one shot (꒦ິ^꒦ີ)

There's a pattern.

S4E1: Half-Face Brenner enters -> mangled corpse close-ups -> Half-Face Brenner close-up -> twisty children, top left on her back with gate crack in frame, 002 in frame -> Half-Face Brenner close-up -> gate crack + El, no bodies shown -> cut to black

Bisecting Brenner doesn't shows up in that progression, but he does show up in El's flashbacks alongside Half-Face Brenner:

(Huge thanks to Em for pointing this one out!!)

Here are the full images, just in case you'd like to double check the Brenner identities for yourself:

So Bisecting Brenner isn't just a one-off shot in total, it's just that he only appears once in El's experience of the 1979 massacre via NINA. He definitely exists, and he is not a production error.

Moving on.

S4E8: Bisecting Brenner enters and is shown with un-mangled older bodies with eyes -> Camera swap to gate crack + El, no bodies shown -> Half-Face Brenner close-up -> no-cracks El, no bodies shown -> El + top left on her side, 002's toes just barely in frame -> El + top left on her back, no 002 in frame -> cut to black.

The pattern of the bodies between these progressions is so interesting to me, and I just want to touch on it briefly as it relates to the aftermath, since Em is planning to elaborate further on the positions during the fight once he nails it down. (That day will be the day we feast fr)

Let's dive in to a couple corpse positions:

We have that top-left corpse who swaps back and forth between side-laying and back-laying, but 002's toes indicate he likely isn't changing position between those shots:

However, that position is entirely different than the one seen in S4E7, where a version of Henry/Edward has just killed 002 on screen:

Things To Note Here:

002's right foot is in front, his left leg is tucked under, and his arm is not twisted.

Top left's feet point away from the wall, and we can't tell if she's on her back or side. (I'd wager she's on her back based on the position of her feet in relation to the blood stain. See side-laying and back-laying position below)

Things To Note Here (Bottom Image In The Above Collage):

002's Left foot is in front, his right leg is extended behind, and his arm is twisted.

Top left's feet point almost straight up underneath the bloodstain, and she's on her back.

That's not the same body as the 002 who was just killed by that version of Henry/Edward.

Whichever timeline that particular Henry/Edward killed 002 in, it is not the same timeline as the gate crack.

This all means we have at least three concrete combinations of corpses between these three episodes, and at least two concrete combinations in the aftermath progressions:

Top left on her back, 002 in left-foot-forward position (Aftermath, gate crack in frame)

Top left on her side, 002 in left-foot-forward position (Aftermath, gate crack not in frame)

002 in right-foot-forward position, top left's position not concrete. (Immediately post-death for 002)

On top of all this, there's another detail I want to bring to your attention:

The mirror shards between gate cracks and no cracks do not change. This holds true for both progressions.

This means they ought to go together, which so far tells me...There's a lot still to think about.

So far, we we've been shown in total:

One definite instance of right-side mirror with gate cracks

One definite instance of right-side mirror with no cracks

One definite instance of left-side mirror with a dematerialization event

One blink-and-you-miss-it instance of right-side mirror with a dematerialization event

No concretely or speculatively shown left-side instances without cracks/dimension events.

I'd like to mention, as well, that we've been shown one possible instance of a left-side gate. It's unconfirmed and purely speculative because the gate has not formed yet at this point. However, the corpses' limbs are snapped and their eyes are gouged out, meaning that this is definitely a Henry/Edward-perpetrated massacre timeline. Thus, the shot below is leading to either a gate or dematerialization, it's just not certain which one.

We've also been shown:

One gate-cracks version of Half-Face Martin Brenner in frame with a right-side-orientation alignment mirror

One dematerialization-cracks version of Half-Face Martin Brenner not tied to a mirror shard alignment.

One version of Bisecting Martin Brenner who is likely tied to the no-cracks, right-side-orientation alignment mirror.

Zero Richard Brenners of any kind

In conjunction with my earlier post, I have a few summary thoughts.

Bisecting Brenner most likely does not share a timeline with either of the Half-Face Brenners.

Left-foot-forward 002 is shown in frame with the right-side-orientation alignment gate outcome the Duffers show us.

Right-foot-forward 002, therefore, is not in the gate outcome we're shown...and may be an indicator of a dematerialization timeline, since he was killed by Henry/Edward on screen.

002's death is split between two cameras. This may be indicative of a timeline swap.

Bisecting Brenner being in frame with a killing style that's both distinctly different from Henry/Edward's and distinctly similar to El's from ST1, while being in the same progression as no-cracks El, leads me to think he's tied to a timeline where Henry/Edward's massacre didn't happen.

There is at least one timeline where Henry/Edward did not have Soteria removed, since there is at least one timeline where no dimension events occurred and at least one timeline where no gouging/bone-breaking happens to the corpses.

CONCLUSIONS RE: HENRY/EDWARD

Since there's at least one timeline where no gate and no dematerialization occurred, and there's at least one timeline where no gouging/bone-breaking occurred...that means that these stills, the ones where Henry/Edward has no blood on him, not even the Soteria streak?

These are likely connected to that timeline.

This means there's at least one timeline where Henry and/or Edward are unaltered by the side effects of their powers and have done nothing wrong.

That means there is a timeline where Henry and/or Edward are innocent and good.

(More below the cut! Not necessarily analysis, mainly speculation and some theorizing. Read if you want to, it's not necessary for the above analysis.)

Speculation Time! (for those who made it this far)

If I were to theorize about what, exactly, happened in the no cracks timeline...it would be something like this:

We know that HNL has tried to force El to kill before, and she refused...until she was cornered.

El kills at least twice when cornered. She has a higher kill count than pre-massacre Henry/Edward by the time she's the age he was when he was stolen by Brenner.

We know Henry/Edward was aware of and told El that Brenner had plans to let 002 attack her, and we know things went awry and led to the Henry/Edward version of the 1979 massacre. This seems to have happened because Henry/Edward tried to step in and prevent Brenner's plan. He has a track record of trying to help but only making things worse. He says as much during the chess scene.

So what, imagine, might have happened in the event that Henry/Edward had been prevented from stepping in? What, say, might have happened if El had been cornered by people...who had the intent to kill?

No gate or dematerialization cracks. No gouging. No broken bones. Different ages, different positions, different Brenner. Henry/Edward with no bloodstains and no Soteria removal streak.

I'm staring directly at it...thinking hard on it...nothing certain yet though.

#I KNOW MY MAN IS INNOCENT!! I KNOW IT #“Henry was born evil” GET OFF MY LAWN!!!#“Detailed analysis isn't worth it/It's all production errors” GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!! THERE'S A PATTERN TO EVERYTHING!!#henry creel #edward creel #martin brenner #richard brenner #el hopper #st set design #st costuming #st nina project #st mirror fuckery #stranger things

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