#nobody move I'm already waist deep in a trance-eyes analysis post

[givehimthemedicine]

El's 4x3 massacre flashbacks analysis

just want to chew on some of the unique massacre closeup shots in this flashback that are rarely or never used in the full scenes. gonna try to see what jives and what doesn't.

(I'm not even gonna touch the Brenner shots, not because they fail to raise many questions, but because he's been thoroughly analyzed already)

let's begin!

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8 Ball

4x3 flash:

best look at this is in 4x8, and I think it's not consistent. the blood on the 8 looks a little different. and we may be missing floor droplets:

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chess board

4x3 flash:

the angle/distance of the board seems a little different relative to the 8 ball compared to my previous 4x8 screenshot, wouldn't you say?

the chess board is also not as pictured in Brenner 4x1 scene. there's no blood on it or chess pieces around it when he walks into the room:

ah so then it must come from El's 4x7? also no:

ps literal dialogue about Papa "moving the kids like chess pieces" and then both dead kids and chess pieces keep moving around in the massacre footage. I'm begging them to be serious

it also doesn't match the 4x6 bullying scene flashback's chess board:

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I don't know what you call this thing

4x3 flash:

it usually sits on the center bookcase in the RR, and we also saw tiny blonde El playing with it in Terry's memory.

it is present in 4x7 and its blood seems consistently oriented to the stripe on the floor.

it's also not a perfect match for 4x6 (it's lying on white floor and the blood spatter extends from red onto white)

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maze

4x3 flash:

not much to say about this, we're never shown this area very closely during the massacre.

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drawing table

4x3 flash:

this is SUCH a weird angle. this is the divider of one of those drawing tables seen from almost directly underneath.

I wanted to say it's obviously the left table, but this other shot from the montage conflicts - the surface I thought this was, is clean. but at the far right edge you can see the neighboring divider is bloody.

4x3 flash:

this is weird because that's a surface that's never exposed. the drawing tables are always kept right up against each other:

so I guess they got both shoved apart and bled on during the massacre? perhaps the POV and blood belong to whoever fell down in between them and landed on the floor?

whoever that was, it definitely wasn't El, not the El shown in 4x7 anyway. she didn't go over in that area of the room at all.

anyway, to actually compare it to the only time we're shown a decent view of that corner during a massacre scene:

okay, so I never noticed the drawing tables did indeed get shoved apart. and. well well! there is indeed a dead kid who's fallen between them on the floor RIGHT EXACTLY THERE where that pov had to come from.

which kid is that and why is pre-NINA El remembering that kid's pov?? what if that's Other Timeline Elev[gets chloroformed]

anyway, the drippy blood on the bookcase is a match to 4x7's massacre. however, we're missing some blood splatters on the yellow and green stripes above the right drawing table.

wait a sec. is this 4x7 shot not also from dead drawing table kid's exact location?

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dice

we never get a good view of this area during the massacre, but it's this spot seen best in 4x6's bullying scene:

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and my personal favorite! Two:

they only let you see a quick glimpse of him, and most of that is very dark. the lights only flicker on in literally one single frame:

even though this is exactly the same footage we're used to from 4x7, it's not identical, it's been changed in post, and no I'm not just talking about the color grading:

in 4x3's flashbacks his eyes are clear, and in 4x7's version of the massacre they're trance-white.

sooooo. who's killing you in this timeline, bud?

so it's hard to say which version these closeups are consistent with because no single version of the massacre is even consistent within itself. but you know what these closeups ARE a match to?

the ones in the HNL Control Room trailer.

aka NINA.

but, again, El experienced these flashbacks while she was still in California. before the s4 NINA plot even picks up.

(Regina George voice) so you agree? NINA has been used before?

another option is the inverse - that El's legit memories are the source of these images and NINA is their destination - they've been taped out of her head and the HNLCRT is a demo of that footage being shown to someone else. however that still requires that something super screwy is going on with El's memories well before the NINAing of 1986.

or, third option, this trailer isn't part of canon. but that's no fun.

I have a lot more to say but it belongs in my other RR analysis. let's just end here before I lose my mind