#the first show of a s4 episode is of them having a film date!!! and it lingers on them!!! until it pushes out to their girlfriends

[gleefullypolin]

Initial thoughts on first watch through of Part 2

I will need to watch the season again a few more times as I was overwhelmed to be sure as a lot was going on. But my quick thoughts on storylines...

I'll start with my least favorite part. Sorry but it's the elephant in the room.

Ben.

I cannot. Every time they wasted screentime to go back to him fucking, I was like. God no, please make it stop. I mean I got it the first three times we showed it. Was it really necessary to keep harping on it. Honestly, shit or get off the pot with Ben's story. I'm bored and I don't know where they are going with this. I'm disinterested now.

Fran/John

This got better for me in the back half than the first half. I took no interest in them in the first 4 episodes. it was a snooze fest and while I would not watch a full season of them, they were cute in the back half and while the "dying breath" line was a bit harsh (seriously writers was that necessary) I'm even less interested in exploring a full season of Fran's actual story, not because it's been gender bended to Michaela, I just don't care for Fran's character. Personal opinion, sorry.

Kate/Anthony

Loved competitive Anthony at game night, we are the same Anthony, truly first borns. Kate has relaxed him for sure tho. Loved how he seemed to truly support his siblings, first with Colin and again with Fran in their choices to marry. Wished we could have seen his face when Pen announced she was LW after he was so clear that there was no way anyone could be her under his nose as RULER over the Bridgerton lands or some shit. Would have been a delight to see, yet...he did once again run off and leave his duty as leader of the Bridgerton family once again. For all this fandom screams that Anthony is the only man of the house with the actual job and responsibility he has yet once again disappeared from it yet again. No matter, there was little of this duo for me to take true aim at this season and thus not much for me to say other than what I have.

So moving on....

Cressida

What is there to say...Who's afraid of the big bad BITCH. Well not Pen. And no one else, for off to the country she goes and good on ya! Sorry, don't let the door hit ya on the way out. I'm not sad to see you and your big ass sleeves go.

Violet/Marcus

Tend that garden girl. TEND THAT GARDEN! That's all I gotta say, S4 is gonna bring Mama Bridgerton her just desserts! It was lovely seeing her navigating the dating mart and being nervous herself. I can't wait to see her needing to lean on Lady D and her children as she tries to figure this out herself next season.

Eloise

I was up, I was down. I was on the floor in anger and tears and then crying with joy. I understood you, I swore at you, I still love you dearly. There is much for you to learn about love and the world and I will welcome you home to do that. I did feel like she grew a lot this season. She was confused by love. Love of Pen, Love of Colin, love of being a woman in society and finding her way in what all of that means again. It was nice to see that. I loved her scenes with Colin and Pen and even with Benedict. I do look forward to her season as I feel like she had the most growth this season and while I feel like Ben's is next (boo) she can't be far behind, though I would welcome them doing her and Ben together in 4 at this point since it takes so fucking long to film these.

The Featheringtons

The most growth came from the family. Portia, Pru, and Phillipa had a lot of growth. Between mama being put in her place, then having to face how she has treated her daughter, how she sees her daughter, and then realizing how her daughter is stronger than she realized was quite the journey. And then beyond that seeing the jealousy the sisters had for Pen all along, the way it burned in them because some part of them always felt that their mama loved her most, favored her most even with her treatment. That all the girls really wanted was love of their mama. Seeing that family all together at the end, not jealous of who had the heir, just happy, with their families was beautiful.

Colin

Oh dear sensitive Colin Bridgerton. You really are a soft angel boy. He was so in love, so smitten and we needed that for him to understand how he felt up front but the moment he found out about Pen, you could feel the heart break, the confusion, the anger, the loss. And it didn't just magically heal. He loved Pen, he knew that but the burn inside to reconcile that he couldnt tear LW from her, couldn't rip it from her soul was literally a dark cloud over him for the back half. I took no issue with his words in anger, the were to be expected. He no more meant them or believed them than the stupid ass words people say in anger or stating he would never court her. They were simply words.

His mother was right. He is sensitive. Sleeping on the couch, pouting everywhere. He could not reconcile his thoughts. Could not get her to give up LW for anything and his brain could not comprehend. It was only when he went back to her letters that he realized Pen was not LW, LW was Pen. He loved ONE woman and they were the same woman. He also needed to stop taking control and stop trying to save the day. Pen was a capable woman and he needed to stop trying to control her.

I think the greatest thing about Colin as a character is that he is a sensitive person who loves wholly. He is able to put away the notion of the MAN needing to be the one who runs things. He lets her be a partner with him, in sex, in life, in their roles. This is shown not just in the fact he lets her take on how to fix the LW situation in the end, but also having her on top in the bedroom in their final sex scene. She's a participant in their marriage, not a submissive wife. This is refreshing in this world and I'm happy to see it in Colin.

Penelope

What a ride for Pen she had. She was faced with giving up her dreams to let Colin thrive in his. And she was willing to do so, lets just preface they gave us that scene where she put away LW for us to transition to Colin finally losing his writers block and happily writing away. She gave it up only to be faced with a challenge and needing to take up the quill again. Pen needed to save the Bridgertons and did so later on but she was willing to give everything up for Colin.

I loved her convos with Gen and how it was another woman who allowed her to see that women did not need to give up their worth for men. AMEN! No one said, Colin needed to give up his dreams but Pen absolutely was able to have hers too. I loved this and then to see her stand up to Colin in their second fight, to let her voice be heard to him and not let him talk over her was also important.

The fact that Pen stood up for herself, diverging from the books where Colin does this for her in the books, having Pen stand up for herself thus saving herself and outing herself to the ton, I liked this. Pen was able to put LW away and use her OWN voice to the ton and explain to everywhere why she created this entire empire. I thought this was beautifully done and then having her let Colin out of the marriage afterwards so that she basically put them now on a level playing field was perfect. His speech at that point should be put in a museum because it leveled me. I think this put them finally into the right place for their marriage and lets them begin as equals. They both have a career, they both have a purpose, they have each other and they do things together. She's not out there alone anymore.

What a fucking journey. God I love this show.

So yeah, I know I'm seeing people upset, they didn't get the spoilers they wanted, didn't get some pieces they built up and you are allowed to feel that way. I think my only gripe I have is that our sex montage was cut from the show and instead we got too much Ben and his tiresome threesome that went no where. So that is my only gripe. Give me that deleted scene and I'll be happy forever. Otherwise....

Polin is life! I loved everything they gave us and I have no complaints.

A+++ They have a happy fan from me.

[carigm]

MAJOR POTENTIAL SPOILERS/LEAKS REGARDING S5 (WARNING)

Last Spring/Summer, a semi popular fandom account on Twitter got sent some leaks about S5, focused on the first half of the season. At this time, many fandom accounts were receiving supposed leaks, so our attention was a bit scattered and we didn’t focus on any of them too much. A popular leak account on Twitter (unrelated to ST) also mentioned that they had gotten the first half of S5 leaked, and that this source is “never wrong”. Now, it is hard to tell if these leaks are the same as the ones that the specific fandom account I’m talking about received, but something to keep in mind. Her leaks were given to her by a person named James (which I assume is a fake name). These leaks were also posted on Reddit, last year, by her (the person in the fandom that got the leaks from James) but some major things were omitted in that post. I’m gonna leave a link here in case you guys want to read the discussion.

I’m sharing these leaks with you because some things from them are kinda lining up with what we’re seeing from S5 production. Keep in mind that these could be fake/wrong, and James himself said he didn’t have info on the last couple of scripts.

According to James, Mike dies in Ep. 3. I’m adding more screenshots later for more context, but the gist of these leaks is that Mike bites it, mlvn never breakup nor do they get a resolution, and Byler is left up to interpretation but never really happens. (I don’t really need to get into how shitty this all is writing wise)

Let’s go over the things these leaks might have potentially gotten right, according to what we know so far.

1. James said that the time jump would occur in ep. 1, after an establishing scene where S4 left off. He said the time jump would place us in late 1987/early 1988. He also mentioned there would be a series of flashbacks showcasing stuff from before the time jump. The dates he gave do seem to be accurate, and David Harbour had a shaved head right before they went into filming, which could imply pre time jump scenes.

2. According to him, after Mike dies, they find a letter he had been writing. Some of us were theorizing Finn had a letter in his back pocket in those rooftop pics. Could’ve also been Finn’s script and he just stuck it there (who knows).

3. He said that Joyce gets badly injured in ep.3, and since there’s speculation Winona was seen filming at the hospital, some people think that means she was taken there because of her injury. It’s important to notice that Natalia, Cara, and Finn were also supposedly seen filming at the hospital, and that the production called for many extras for nurses and paramedics. So whatever they’re filming at the hospital, it might be bigger than Joyce getting injured in her leg. Let’s remember Max is at the hospital too. I’m not 100% sold on this part of the leaks.

4. Today it was revealed that they’re setting up to film at Stone Mountain. (This is where they filmed UD scenes for S4)

Apparently production might have purple tentacles out already. (UD vines?)

Cara Buono mentioned, in that video shared by Ross Duffer, that she was filming stuff from Ep.2. This was around 2 days ago.

The people that know about the leaks think this is where Mike dies in ep. 3. Here’s some further context:

Here’s some stuff he said about mlvn:

Which is just….meh, because like I said, it doesn’t look like him and El ever breakup before his supposed death. Plus Byler never gets any resolution.

Now some things that might disprove the leaks (I’m trying to be impartial here)

1. These leaks mentioned Argyle a couple of times, saying he has a hero moment at some point. Eduardo made it sound like he’s not coming back to the show, but tbh he could just be lying. He’s listed for ep.2 on IMDb (and yes I know anyone with an account can edit that site)

2. These leaks say that Mike is very insufferable for the 3 episodes he’s alive, basically lashing out at everyone, specially El, and just overall behaving like an asshole. I really didn’t get that from the ElMike rooftop scene, in fact he seemed very gentle with her. People that know about these leaks think that the rooftop scene is Mike maybe apologizing to El and them having a heart to heart, right before he dies (no comment).

All in all, if Mike is dying this early, I’m sure we’ll know soon enough. The rest of the cast is gonna be filming for like a year, and Finn will be done in like two weeks 💀

I also hope there’s more leaks soon (on Reddit) so that we might compare them to these and see wtf is up.

I know someone is gonna inevitably ask why leaks would be out almost a whole year before they started filming when we usually get them during filming or post production, but I’ve been told these leaks happened around the time the writer’s strike began, which is when they were originally gonna start filming. I was also told other shows had issues with leaks around that same time.

I don’t want to get too much into the truly awful writing we’re facing if these are real but…First, I believe it’s a total disservice to Mike’s character. One of your mains since S1 and you don’t even offer him the option of dying towards the end of the season? Even fucking Eddie got that. Two, it seems like a very easy cop out for not having to make Byler canon. Let’s just have neither ship be endgame and that way we don’t get queerbaiting allegations. It also stands in a zone too close to torture porn for my liking, because sure let’s kill the character two of the most traumatized characters in the history of TV love most. And yes, it’s also a disservice to El and Will’s characters. And lastly, if that supposed letter vaguely alludes Mike having some sort of sexuality problems (we don’t know atp) it is pretty fucked up they just killed him off like that. Sure let’s not explore any of that, but give a half assed explanation via letter ex machina. This is looking like Supernatural finale levels of bad to me.

Another point, I distinctly remember the Duffers saying, after S4, that they could never kill off a character like Mike because it would be too painful, and that ST would cease to be ST and lose its identity. They didn’t want to be like GOT. I sincerely hope they actually meant this and were not trying to be cheeky or whatever the fuck.

It would be genuinely insane, and quite frankly, a highlight of their lack of writing abilities.

I hope the leaks are wrong, but I felt like it was necessary to warn everyone just in case. I know I’m not watching something this awful.

[bylrlve]

Warning! Potential Spoilers for Stranger Things 5!

A compilation of recent tweets made by Alex and others about the mileven ‘making out in a field’ leak. Alex is insisting that this scene is separate from the sequence involving them talking on the rooftop, the scene which was leaked as a video back in January. According to 011scenes this scene happens ‘at the beginning’ aka in episode one.

The issue? Alex’s sources are people who speak to paps (which she lied about in answering a cc question; either that or she’s clueless), and who deliberately feed her inconsequential things production dgaf abiut because it distracts from the juicy shit e.g., what Mike and Will are doing. She was told ‘Robin and Will have a scene’ and that morphed into ‘Will is in his unrequited mopey Steve era, Jonathan and Robin don’t share scenes’, etc. The source said nothing about Byler being finished or about passionate makeouts.

I’m suspicious of the second anon’s claim about Finn, as Noah is straight-up went on TikTok live right before filming commenced in January to read out byler endgame and Byler kiss comments lmao. The bit about the love triangle being kept under wraps seems accurate enough - they’re openly passing out scraps of mileven to leakers to pass onto Alex, and it’s pretty clear they didn’t care about that mileven video hitting national news website in the Uk (daily mail). Byler? On lockdown. The only thing we know is the hospital stuff and that’s due to specific leakers, and even then it’s not that much. It is clearly a big question going into s5 for the GA, so it being kept tightly guarded is unsurprising.

The context of the kiss will be interesting, regardless of if it’s pro-mileven or somehow anti-. Alex indicates that it’s only them present in the field - BUT she’s also said that she outright leaves Will out of ‘leaks’ and gave the example of Max, Lucas, and Will having a scene but her only reporting Lumax having a scene, so… S4 mileven was a concerted effort to show that the characters had matured from s3, and that their fight was more serious. They only kissed once, and that briefly, and were… unaffectionate at the end of the season, to say the very least. The reversion to kissing in broad daylight, in an apocalyptic setting when El will be mostly hiding with Hopper from the military, feels a little out of character - and will certainly be jarring tonally and thematically.

Alex received this dm ^ back in February (discussed in my first leak post), which stated that hopper is annoyed by mike’s continuing presence around el. I and many others (including Alex iirc) dismissed it, as Hopper and Mike are on good terms at the end of s4. If Mike and El are still doing reckless things in s4, and if the old pattern of isolating El from others just to kiss re-emerges, though… The veracity of this is very shaky: the time skip occurs gradually over episode one, not in between episodes 1 and 2.

It’s important to note that many leaks are undoubtedly missing context. Just today, Alex brought up how she was right about Mike ignoring Will at the airport, about their fight, and about the airport kiss. Yes, she was, but she lacked the tonal subtext of the scene itself, which portrayed Mike’s behaviour as inexplicably phony - and of course, she lacked the lynchpin of this plot, which is that Will is in romantic love with Mike. She completely missed that, and it meant she missed every important aspect of this plotline.

Byrhop, a highly reliable st acc who’s closely following filming, was able to ascertain that Vickie is at the farm.

Lastly, I want to go over everything I know to try and map a trajectory. The Byers are living in the radio station before it’s overrun by military and they flee to the Turnbow farm - I personally am not sure of when exactly this occurs. There is a leaked hospital file showing that Karen Wheeler is attacked by a demogorgan. The file is dated as 1/1987 but it could be a prop error, as I’ve seen claims that she’s attacked when Holly is taken..

As we know, according to the leaked episode 2 title, Holly Wheeler goes missing. This likely occurs at the end of episode one, but the chronology is unclear. Karen being attacked could happen here, and I’ve seen claims that it happens in episode 2. Mike and El kiss in episode one, and as I’ve said this has been overblown greatly by Alex. The chronology of this is also unclear. At some point in episode one, Mike and Dustin are at the high school and interact with the jocks. Mike is wearing the same outfit he wears on the rooftop - dark trousers, blue and black shirt with a yellow collar, etc. As this is what he wore in the official pic released by Ross of him in his room, I am speculating that this is the first outfit he wears in the story proper, after the last time jump to November 1987, and that he may wear it throughout episode 2 as well

In episode 2, Mike, Nancy, and Karen have a plotline at the hospital. From official BTS pics, we know Robin and Vickie are there as well. The above anon does not mention Mike being injured, and its description of Karen’s mindset does not tally either with her having being attacked by a demogorgan prior or with Holly being abducted. It’s likely that they have partially but not totally accurate information; or else it’s a point in favour of Holly being taken and Karen being attacked after this happens, at the end of episode 2. I have confirmation that Mike is injured in episode 2, as are several other people - I discussed this in a post a few days ago - please discount the forehead kiss anon section of that post. This was confirmed by an extra who played a nurse on the scheme and by a different source later. The second source confirms that Will shows up last, and is crying and blaming himself for what happened. - I also have confirmation that El doesn’t show up to the hospital at all. The nurse extra also confirmed that Mike and Will ‘share scenes’ although he was not present for those so can’t speak as to what happened in them - I don’t have an image of that text so didn’t include it yesterday.

The forehead kiss anon is definitely not real (check @will80sbyers) but the rest seems to be.

Lastly, Atlanta-filming insinuates that the m*leven rooftop scene occurs after the hospital subplot. It’s unknown how they came to this conclusion.

To summarise: m*leven kiss in episode one, potentially during one of the staggered time jumps (my speculation) and the short rooftop conversation between them likely in either episode one or two immediately before something involving Hopper and Joyce occurs down in the field that alarms El. I’ve seen conflicting into on when Holly is abducted - either episode one or episode two. In episode 2 Mike, Karen, and Nancy go to the hospital for plot reasons. If this occurs after Holly goes missing, it is likely to be related to that. I am speculating that Holly vanishing, whenever it happens, accelerates the byler plotline, as Mike will more-than-likely seek out Will for advice, reassurance, information. In episode 2, Mike gets injured somehow at the hospital, along with several other people in a small-scale mass-casualty event, and ends up being admitted to the hospital. As I’ve said, it seems to be rock-solid that Will arrives and is crying and blaming himself for what happened, and Will stays with him but El is nowhere to be found in this plotline. We know from BTS pics that Robin and vickie are also there, and I’ve seen claims that Jonathan shows up to be with Nancy, but have no proof or knowledge of the providence of such claims, so… take that for what it is. It is pretty certain, as far as I know, that El is not there.

One possibility is that Will is possessed at least temporarily in 501-2. Perhaps there’s another superspy, ‘it’s a trap’ situation? Will Byers would never be reckless with the safety of Mike Wheeler or his family… but I bet Vecna and the mindflayer are just itching to attack the one salvation standing between them and Will. Something to muse on.

The timing of the rooftop scene is very important. El not showing up at the hospital is unlikely to happen after it. The scene is very clearly about affirming their relationship- whether as lovers or as friends. It’s likely that she’s distracted by Max, who is her main plot, but this is a narrative. El not being present for Mike, while Will is there and crying and staying by his side? That is telling of a potential rift that opens up in their relationship between episode one and two. There is a pattern of problems arising in their relationship in episode twos. In s2 El reached out to Mike during his call but he walked away while an ominous stinger played. In s3 they broke up at the end of episode 2. In s4 they had their disastrous roller rink date.

A few days ago, I gif’d the rooftop scene, and speculated that they’re discussing being friends, and that El apologises for not being there and Mike says ‘No. You should have been.’ before basically saying that he’s okay because Will was and “you’re all friends to me.” The ending of s4, to me, potentially marks a shift in Mike’s attitude to El, as much as it does for hers to him. In the hospital she seeks him out by resting a head on his shoulder, and she did speak briefly with him prior about Brenner, but he offers her no comfort beyond a stiff arm around her. When they arrive at the cabin, he walks in with the other boys instead of staying with her - as shes’s clearly very nervous and emotional about reentering the cabin. Finally, as we have all observed, she directs an almost angry look at Will and Mike before stomping into her room and slamming the door - a parallel to s3 after the phone call with Mike where she knew he was lying. When it pans back to Mike, and Will asks if they’ve talked? He rolls his eyes. Unlike in 403, he does not seek her out and push through her self-isolation. He leaves her be. This, coming from Mike the Paladin, suggests that he’s kind of done with trying.

El’s attitude has been convincingly dismissed by M*levens as simple grief over Max causing her to retreat as she always does. It is bizarre, however, that the monologue did nothing at all to make her feel she could rely on Mike, and much more so that he’s very apathetic.

I posit that they might, maybe, fall into old habits of passivity and inertia and string the relationship along over the time jump. Perhaps the kiss is from one of the interim jumps between March 1986 and November 1987? I could see El having too much on her plate to really address it, and feeling that she doesn’t want to push him away - after all, he did give the big damn speech. The kiss could be a parallel to Boyce and Stancy. If that Hopper leak is accurate (doubtful), perhaps they fall back into habits of clinginess and immaturity while still being deeply unhappy. Nurse extra stated that Mike is no longer trying to be normal, and that he’s discovering himself, being himself again, and being the support he once was - the wording rather implies that it means being the support to Will.

Of course, I could be wrong, and it could be that they’re doing very well, and that the kiss is indeed as happy and loving as Alex paints it out to be… but I am skeptical bc of the hospital, and because of El the brave protector not rushing to her boyfriend’s side. It’s simply too early to say. If my musing on whether Will was possessed and effectively set Mike up (against his will ofc) is correct, and if my lip-reading is correct, Mike speaking affectionately of Will here could be due to the fact that he’s intimately witnessed Will being possessed, and he knows Will would never do something like that on purpose.

Finally, definitely worth noting that there have been no signs of any NPC love interests. Will’s storylines are being protected well from leakers, so people could be missing something, but there has been no indication of it. What we are getting, though, is a focus on Will’s love of Mike, and his selfless devotion.

All of this is incredibly shaky, and I’m interested to hear your guys’ opinions on alternate sequences of events. Whatever the truth, clearly m*leven is inconsequential to the production, as it’s being deliberately leaked to distract from the real juicy stuff.

Oh, and I just want to wrap up by mentioning this bit of idiocy. Someone in Alex’s inbox sincerely thought that the production actually kills fields they want to look dead-looking, rather than editing it. And Alex agreed.

[will80sbyers]

STRANGER THINGS 5 PRODUCTION MASTERPOST

part 001 (a new masterpost with the dates in order and more organized)

Before filming started:

We know that "The crawl" is the title of episode 1 of season 5 !

( posted on Nov. 7 /2023 ) The first scene is this one with a child's voice singing a familiar song (probably Will singing Should I stay or Should I go)

April 29 / 2023

Casting was looking for two kids 8-10yo (April and Derek - probably fake names)

August 17 / 2023

David (Hopper's actor) says the season is going to start a bit after the final scene on the hill and the finale is ''moving'' and the characters will have a pay-off.

September 19 / 2023

First pictures of the Hawkins set, they were building it still.

pictures and drone footage

September 29 / 2023

The STRANGER WRITERS account on twitter posts a pre-vis of a scene in episode 1 where Jonathan and Steve are doing something together.

October 20 / 2023

Pre-vis animation of the scene of Dustin, Jonathan and Nancy falling down a tunnel in a car while screaming. Happens in episode 4 at the McCorkle farm.

October 30 / 2023

Ross and Matt Duffer post a video of them preparing one of the scenes- Robin, Nancy, Joyce, El and Will are in it.

TRANSCRIPTION:

You probably have some sort of straight on with Joyce…we're seeing them kinda parading and then we'll probably have some rakes, you know? Yeah. But then we need to get to Will, though. Well, what, isn't it Joyce ???? Well, we'll start from Eleven and then, cause Eleven says ''There's not enough.''. Oh she says ''There's not enough.'' either ''too many'' what if we just pull back like, Eleven says '' There's too many'' and then we land on Will and he's looking nervous… and then we could zero-in on him like that… is that weird to pull and then move in. I don't think so.

November 26 / 2023

BTS of some posters inside the Hawkins school make us think the season will start or take place around november 21, 1987. There is a project for the fair for ''Energy conservation'' from the Department of Energy. There is also a poster aboout Christmas.

November 29 / 2023

Ross Duffer was on the Wheelers home location

November 30 / 2023

Scouting the locations. New bts of the posters at Hawkins high, the crew is preparing the locations- pictures from Ross.

December 7 / 2023

Cara Buono posts a ''back to work'' selfie and we have some more pictures from the Hawkins high set.

December 8 / 2023

Ross posts some bts pictures, they are doing camera tests for the show before they start filming.

December 17 / 2023

Confirmed that STRANGER THINGS 5 will be 8 episodes long, video interview to the Duffer brothers. They already did the table read of the first 6 episodes (which makes me think it was the day Cara posted the selfie on dec. 7)

January 5 2024

atlanta_filming on instagram says that Nancy, Steve, Jonathan and Robin were filming.

January 8 / 2024

New bts pictures of the Hawkins set with the militay in town.

The Stranger Things production begins officially with a picture of the cast. Linda Hamilton is interpreting a new character in s5 as previously announced.

January 9 / 2024

Ross Duffer posts a series of bts pictures from Day 1: FIRST LOOK AT ROBIN AND STEVE IN COSTUME. BTS pictures of the background, Nancy and Jonathan were filming too, Pink Floyd the movie poster etc

January 11 / 2024

Eduardo Franco says Argyle will not be back in s5 (HE COULD BE LYING)

FIRST LOOK AT DUSTIN IN COSTUME from Ross Duffer's ig.

More bts pictures of Dustin in costume, the scene seems to be him at the cemetery visiting Eddie's grave that has been defaced with hate writings on it. LINKS: 1 / 2 / 3

January 17 / 2024

Paparazzi pictures of the filming at Hawkins high, the Bully with the hat from s4 (or Dustin???) in costume?

Bts pictures with the military near the school

FIRST LOOK AT MIKE IN COSTUME paparazzi picture at Hawkins High / 2

New pictures of Dustin on set, his shirt is damaged, there's probably been a fight at school with the bullies (initially I thought it was with Mike but it makes no sense lmao), he's being harassed because of what the town believes about Eddie. LINKS: 1 / 2

The Stranger Things channel on instagram posts a bts video of the set with books about electricity.

Some details from the video

January 18 /2024

Prod. Spoilers on twitter posts a picture of the Bradley's big buy supermarket saying it will make an appearance.

New pictures that show the Radio station WSQK where they are filming, the truck from Bradley's is there so maybe they took it in a scene.

January 19 / 2024

Ross Duffer posts bts pictures from week 2 of filming: FIRST LOOK AT MIKE in his room (finally a good picture ❤️ ) / A bike in the Hawkins school field, Will's bike with the shoes that Noah was wearing there so it's a scene with Will probably having a vision/dream because it's at night with the fog. / A sticker that says the Halley's comet is coming nov. 1985 - apr. 1986 / Mike's basement ? / A hellfire drawing inside one of the lockers. / El and Mike in a field going to the radio station.

Bts pictures of a scene with El and Mike at the radio station talking to each other, Hopper and Joyce were there too. / 2 / 3

Picture of Hopper

Picture of Joyce

VIDEO OF THE SCENE BETWEEN MIKE AND EL ON THE ROOF OF THE RADIO STATION

My lip reading of the video (it could be wrong!!!!)

January 24 / 2024

The Hawkins mall will be back?

Pictures at the Hawkins new hospital with a blue and a yellow bike there

Video of Karen on set filming ep. 2

A new video of the scene between El and Mike on the radio station roof seems to indicate it's an emotional scene.

January 25 / 2024

They are filming at the Stone Mountain park location, new bts pictured of the weeks before at the radio station etc

Little curiosity about the radio station and the inspo for it.

January 26 / 2024

The Stranger Things channel on ig posts new background pictures at the school with the decorations inside the school: 1 / 2 / 3 /

The lockers at school: 1 / 2

January 27 / 2024

New bts paparazzi pictures from the day they filmed at the hospital in Hawkins / 2 / 3

January 28 / 2024

Filming at Browns Lake in Georgia?

January 29 / 2024

Bts pictures of the Upside down vines in the woods and at Hawkins Lab

February 1 / 2024

Probably old - pictures of the night shoots at the radio station

Maybe a song is involved?

Bts pictures of the Wheelers car and Steve's car at the radio station with the WSQK blue van / 2

A good picture of the WSQK blue van

February 2 / 2024

Prod. Spoilers says that Nancy, Mike, Will, Jonathan, Murray and Joyce and Steve were on set.

New pictures from the radio station

ROSS DUFFER BTS PICTURES OF WEEK 3-4 / El at the radio station, background decoration with '' A wrinkle in Time'' and '' Why start a life under a cloud?" - the old bus from s1 at the place where they went to hide, a bloody shoe (probably Joyce's) and a scene in a room with blue walls (?)

BTS paparazzi pictures near the Bradley's truck, Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, Robin and Murray were involved. / 2

Filming in Stone Mountain Park probably on the train tracks like in s1

February 3 / 2024

Prod Spoilers posts a drone video of the radio station with some info

FIRST LOOK AT NANCY AND JONATHAN (from behind…) paparazzi pics / 2 / 3 / 4

February 5 / 2024

BTS pics from the Mc Corkle farm / 2

Continues in -> 002 and 003

[paopaupaus]

part 8 of the Buddie Development Rant

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10

S4:E4 9-1-1, What’s your grievance?

i’m sorry but the scene where Buck is punching the punching bag and Eddie is right beside it is kindaaa…

S4:E5 Buck begins

One thing that i can take away from Eddie and Buck’s interactions, especially in this episode, is that they understand each other like no one else. Eddie tells Buck that he knew why he had to go into that fire, and something in his eyes makes me think that Buck felt like he didn’t have to explain anything to Eddie

S4:E6 Jinxed

bonus: did anyone notice all the women checking out Buck at 13:56 😂

and then Buck looking angry/confused when eddie said he had a date with Anna

S4:E7 There Goes the Neighborhood

why did Buck have to go on a date with the most annoying woman ever, i think it was weird timing with Eddie starting to date again.

And then they decide to keep her as Albert’s gf, but all of her traits are gone now? i felt like they introduced an anarchist and pessimist and then she starts dating Albert and it all goes away? plot device smh

S4:E8 Breaking Point

Buck babysitting Christopher while Eddie’s out on his date :”) and when he’s home Buck asks how did the date go and Eddie tells him “she taught me math” and he wasn’t lying??

S4:E12 Treasure Hunt

Eddie heard treasure hunt and immediately told buck we’d make a good team :) it was cute seeing them running around trying to find it, although Eddie did look sad when he found out Buck had already partnered with Taylor :(

S4:E13 Suspicion

Carla talks to Eddie and tells him that he needs to listen to his heart and not only to what Christopher needs.

At the end of the episode Eddie is shot, right in front of Buck, the world literally stopped and they looked into each other’s eyes. 😭 then when they are both on the ground Eddie reaches out with his hand to Buck. and it is said that Oliver (Buck’s actor) got their silouette tattooed after filming :”)

S4:E14 Survivors

ooohh my god. following the gunshot Buck pulls Eddie out of the middle of the streets and then carries him to get him in the truck (hot? 😃) in the truck Buck is tending to Eddie (is it a bad time to say that i love how Buck’s voice gets all high and pitchy when he’s freaked out?)

Buck “hey hey i got you, hey just… you just stay with me okay?” looking into his eyes 😭✋

Eddie “are you hurt?” (cause Buck was covered in his blood) honey you’re bleeding how can you focus on Buck (no but also let’s never forget Eddie is a BAMF who also pulled out a convoy from open fire in the war)

Buck “i need you to hang on” x2

Buck is COMPLETELY out of it shaking so much, but still all he wants to do is go with Christopher and be with him.

when he gets the news that Eddie is out of surgery he breaks down crying. guys idk about you but this doesn’t seem like simply just a friendship.

Anna calls Buck to tell him that Eddie woke up, first of all he makes sure Eddie makes a facetime call with Christopher.

Eddie “appreciate you staying with him”

Buck thought Chris should stay somewhere he knew, because carla offered to take him to her house.

Eddie “you were there for him when i couldn’t, that’s what matters.”

i love these two together, they aren’t just a bromance, they jumped straight to functional family.

Eddie babytrapped Bick, he made him Christopher’s godfather 😭 also i don’t see the big deal? a lot of people have said that it was wrong for Eddie to do that but Buck would 100% be up for the job and he already has a village that could help

“no one will ever fight as hard for my son as you”

i think this is the first time Eddie calls him Evan and it is so cute 😩

“because 😒 Evan 🙄 you came in here the other day and you said you thought it would have been better if it had been you who was shot😠”

with this we finish season 4 🫶 i’m glad i got addicted to this show because there’s so much contect and i love every single character, hope you have a great day/night and feel free to comment so we can chat!

[angelwithnightmares]

60 questions to ask the Duffers if Byler isn’t endgame

Thank you @merth-or-nothin for the help!

1. Why emphasize so much on the strong “Friends don’t lie” in the very first episode of the show, showing Will couldn’t even lie to Mike, only for him to lie to Mike for the first time in the second to last episode of the second to last season?

2. Why did Mike and El such a short build up before getting together? If they were meant to be endgame, why not build them slowly, so the audience could be invested in the development of the relationship?

3. Why were Mike and El separated every single season?

4. Why do Mike and El fight so much when they’re together? They barely have any cute scenes at all when they’re dating.

5. Why did El refer to Mike as "her first boyfriend?"

6. If she was meant to only date (then marry) Mike, why draw attention to the fact that he's the only boy she's dated?

7. What was the purpose of El asking Mike if he'd be like her brother in s1? Why give them a familial association?

8. In season 4, why is it revealed that Will is in love with Mike as Mike's relationship with El is eroding?

9. Why make a point to show the audience Will loves Mike the way he wants to be loved, while El makes him feel like a random nerd?

10. Why have Will in the background of every single Mileven scene (except for their bedroom fight) in the entire S4, making the audience to root for Will?

11. Why have Will love Mike at all?

12. Why bring Will into Mike and El's relationship? If Mike doesn't feel the same way, it's a waste narratively and it's anticlimactic.

13. Why did Mike change so much between seasons 2-3 without any perticular reason? And no, it wasn’t just puberty. That change made Mike go from being one of the most loved characters to one of the most hated ones.

14. Why frame Mike and Eleven’s relationship in S3 as unserious and unhealthy?

15. Why make everyone go against their relationship and why break them up as early as in the beginning of the second episode of S3?

16. Why empathize so much on El in EP3 and her independence, making us (the audience) feel genuinely happy when she breaks up with Mike and frame the breakup scene with light-hearted humor and comedy?

17. Why make Will and Mike’s first fight scene in the show dark and angsty? And making it a huge contrast to Mike and El’s comedic breakup scene.

18. Why make Max say “he’ll come crawling in no time begging for forgiveness” to El, which was true, but he didn’t come crawling back to El. He went to Will’s house, begging for forgiveness.

19. Why spend SO MUCH time on the Byler scenes and putting so much effort in them so they’ll look intimate? It’s such a contrast to Steve and Dustin’s scenes for example which is almost always comedic.

20. Why have so MANY Byler scenes at all?

21. Why have “tender emotional music” in almost all of the Byler scenes in S4?

22. Why make Will even confess behind El’s name instead of just confess himself and having Mike rejecting him right away? Why drag it out all the way to the very final season?

23. Why spend an entire day filming the van scene if it wasn’t that important anyway? If Will is just ending up getting rejected anyway?

24. Why the whole painting plot?

25. Why so many parallels with Jopper, Jancy and Lumax?

26. Why the very same soundtrack when they became friends again as when Lucas and Max became friends “On the bus”?

27. Why is Finn describing Mike’s story arc for both season 3 and season 4 as “Mike is trying to be a normal teenager”, “Mike is trying to be as normal as possible” and “He’s trying to keep on a normal path” why so much focus on Mike trying to be normal?

28. Why spending two seasons on Mike trying to say the word “love” to his girlfriend? Isn’t that a kinda boring arc for someone who’s just having bad self esteem because of his parents loveless marriage?

29. Why does the whole cast and even the Duffers always so secretive and giddy and smiley every time Byler gets brought up if it’s just another sad tragic unrequited love story?

30. Why having Will say “I’m not gonna fall in love” with such a heartbreaking tone and then end up making him not get the boy he’s in love with and has been since the very beginning?

31. Why put so much effort in the set design to queer code Mike (as in rainbows, shirtless men, monsters with muscles, the word BOY in the bg, multiple closet imagery, even a big sign towards the closet saying “One way” if it meant nothing or was just weird coincidence’s?

32. Why the triple take? What was the point of that?

33. Why filming and editing the last scene of S3 emphasizing that Mike is going to miss Will more than El? (Him looking back at Will’s house, then it cuts to Will, then it cuts back to Mike who walks up to his mom and hugs her with a heartbroken look on his face)

34. Why make El say in the letter “I think there’s someone Will likes, cause he has been acting weird” but all we see in s4 is Mike acting weird?

35. Why make Mike being able to hug everyone except for Will, when he could hug him just perfectly in s3?

36. Why make Mike treat Will differently than his other friends?

37. Why make Mike and Dustin have the same look on their faces as they watch Will and Max dance with other people and then after that Mike looks upset until El shows up?

38. Why is The Duffers so “hushy hushy” about Byler at all? If it was obvious it’s unrequited why not just clear that shit up because they KNOW they’ll get a lot of backlash if it turns out it was a big queer bait all along.

39. Why start to build up and hint at Will’s love for Mike from the very first episode and make it canon in the second to last season?

40. Why so many coded talks which easily could be interpreted differently? Like Karen’s “I want you to know you can talk to me, I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide anything from me”, Ted’s “See what happens?” About Will’s disappearance (as in see what happens if you’re queer? You get abducted, killed etc) and Ted’s “our son with a girl?”

41. Why make Mike NOD in the scene when Will talks about how difficult it can be to open up about something the other person may not like to hear?

42. Why make Will having to remind Mike of the painting and his coded speech before Mike can say it? Why could he only say it the moment El was about to die?

43. Why make it look like Mike doesn’t want to kiss El by removing her hands away from him (3.01) and not reciprocating, not kissing back with eyes wide open looking confused in 3.08? Why frame him like he isn’t interested in girls at all? (Princess Daphne, Phoebe Cates, Max etc.)

44. Why never show us Mike’s pov?

45. Why SO MUCH effort in flashbacks during the entire S4 except for the monologue when El only remembered one single moment with Mike? Why did she had so many with Max but only one with Mike?

46. The ending scene in S4. WHY put them in couples when they could just have made them stand together all of them instead?

47. Why does it look like El isn’t talking to Mike at the end of S4? Why does she look annoyed at first and THEN sad when she finds the bottle under her bed which reminds her of Max?

48. Why SO MUCH yellow and blue coding when it comes to Will and Mike? Even their colors of their clothes are almost always blue and yellow as well.

49. Why make Mike nervous every time Will is close to him in S4 or accidentally touches him?

50. Why make Mike say “we’re friends” to Will twice when both him, Will and the audience clearly knows that already?

51. Why associate the word “crazy” with “love” and then make the “crazy together” scene?

52. Why having Mike saying “it was the best thing I’ve ever done” about meeting Will but then having him say his life didn’t start until he met El?

53. Why did Mike’s words work for Will in S2 (making him being able to communicate) but didn’t for El (not until she looked over at Max)?

54. Why write the lines for Will “We could just play DnD for the rest of our lives” and “Not possible” about him joining another party?

55. Why make Mike look at Will’s lips so much? Why the flirtiness in the bedroom scenes in S4? They could easily have remade those scenes if that wasn’t intentional.

56. Why all the classic romantic interruptions in season 4 which we’ve seen plenty of times in the show between “more than friends”-couples earlier?

57. Why make such a HUGE contrast between El’s reaction to being without Mike and Will being without Mike in S3? (El did a high five with Max while Will cried and destroyed Castle Byers)

58. Why make Mike say “Hawkins isn’t the same without you” to only WILL and not to El? Why does Mike not have any problems opening up to Will but only to El?

59. Why couldn’t Mike say the full reason why he and El had their fight in 4.03?

60. Why have so much hints and clues in the show that Byler is endgame so it’s possible to make 300+ pages slideshows, hours of long videos with proof of Mike being gay, if everything is just unintentional or “made up”?

[27emailsicantsend]

My theory on Kourtney s4

I think at the beginning of the season we are going to get a scene where either A) Bart says Zac, Vanessa and Ashley aren’t coming back for their roles or B) he answers a “call” from them (obviously fake, they won’t be on screen) declining the offer after he announced hsm4 to the whole school.

Because of this, the director is left short and needs a Troy, Gabriella, and Sharpay. That’s why we see auditions for the movie.

I’m not sure what is happening with Ricky, but I wonder if he’s messing up on purpose so A) they don’t film HSM4 (wants normal year with his girlfriend) or B) doesn’t get casted as a main (because he wants a normal year with his girlfriend).

But because Mack is a dancer (somehow he is linked to Dani too? In episode one there are pictures of them together) he steps in and steals the show with Gina.

This causes mack and Gina to get casted as the “Troy and Gabriella” of the show and one other person as the Sharpay of the show. My bet is on Ricky or Kourtney… my money is actually on Ricky. He’s still stuck as a main in the show- something he doesn’t want- and for kicks the director is going to make him super nerdy and pursue Gabriella, rather than a diva who pursues Troy.

But as we know, Kourtney is going to be a “diva” and have a “I want it all” attitude. I think she is going to be mad she was casted as either Sharpay- or more likely an extra- and because of this, her jealousy of not getting Gabriella makes her mad at Gina. We know they’ll be feuding about something this season and I suspect this is it.

I could see Kourtney either having a conversation with Ashlyn about not getting the lead or maybe (more likely) Monique. We even see in the promo a still of them talking.

What I would be REALLY curious to see is if they add depth to why Kourt became like this in the first place. Was she sick of feeling like a side character to Nini all these years? Does she love the feeling of fame and so we get a scene of her and Carlos doing “I want it all” as their characters but also because they themselves love it? Is she pretending to be cool and a queen bee so people don’t know that deep down she actually feels uncool and anxious all the time?

A couple bonus things:

- I said this before, but I think the director won’t originally plan for the Sharpay/nerd/Ricky to fall in love with Gabriella. She may put them in some scenes together, but more just because it’s funny to have someone crushing on the “Gabriella” character. Ricky and Gina ARE still secretly dating at this point, so the director doesn’t suspect a thing. But she sees their chemistry in a scene and changes course of the show (a direct callout to Tim changing course with Gina and Ricky s1e5).

-Mack and Dani may also purposely be causing interference. Blues-Valentine did an amazing job explaining this here

-like Zeke and Sharpay, jet will be smitten and whipped for Kourtney which will be a fun parallel to see. It might be why we see Kourt have a duck on her desk that looks suspiciously like his and he’s sitting next to her in this still

[chirpsythismorning]

I feel like I missed something from today - was there news released that made everyone think a 2025 release date is more likely?

@kittykat940 posted this. It's from a casting call for extras in Atlanta. This is official as they do drop publicly right around the time filming starts bc they need background extras in the area to film on a moments notice. They are always public, though really hard to find. You have to have the right links to get to them bc there are scams out there and they only want people that are actually genuinely inquiring to find them for major productions like this.

Filming for s5 from June 2023-June 2024 (exactly 1 year), means that post-production wont officially be in swing until July 2024. While they will definitely be trying to get a good chunk of post-production done while filming s5 (esp time consuming VFX), they still need to be able to mostly focus on filming while they are literally filming. They also might even be writing parts of the last episodes while just starting to film the first episodes. It's a lot!

The bulk of editing and quality control-esque final touches is saved for the long phase afterwards, when they can actually focus on post-production full-time. Also note, post-production includes making trailers and planning for promotion which is directly tied to the Duffers vision... meaning it requires more than just an intern behind the official ST instagram. They have to dedicate time to not just editing, but also focusing on critical reception and how they can plan to make their decisions around that as well. A lot of thought goes into all of this.

Post-production, completely separate from filming will probably take at least 7 months, though it could be more. Working conditions and quality are also big factors (arguably the biggest). And then there's Netflix who probably has somewhat of a say, since they are always planning their releases around each other. Netflix is probably willing to wait as long as the Duffers want as well bc they need to keep the hype of this show as long as they can. Which means if the Duffers were hypothetically negotiating for a little bit more time, I don't really think Netflix would put up much of a fight.

Overall they are giving themselves a lot of time early on with this approach, so that is a good sign they are trying to be ahead of the curve, at least right now I feel that way. And I do imagine they will have the ability to get a lot of post-production done for early s5 as swiftly as they can. But I don't think they'll want to rush too much, IF they don't have to.

Like best case scenario within this scenario, I think they could have a 2024 release, but it would have to be two volumes with the first in 24' an the second in 25', so that they still have time to continue post-production for vol 2, similar to s4 while vol 1 was premiering. Otherwise 2 volumes isn't technically confirmed for s5, so I would say best case scenario separate from that, they manage to finish 90ish% of post-production by Jan 2025 (7 months) and they will have to rush with like the last 10ish% bc they're human.

And I think that could land them on a March release comfortably, assuming everything goes as planned.

I don't think Summer 2025 is necessary with how much time they're giving themselves overall, but it would be naive to say that unforeseen circumstances couldn't make that a reality. I'm personally choosing to hope early 2025.

[the-gentler-gamester]

Happy ST4 Anniversary, nerds!

One year on since this moment in the first episode changed the trajectory of my life.

Now. Gather round, children. It's story time.

Let's dial the clock back.

- It's January 2008. I'm sitting alone in a dark cinema. The film I'm about to watch is Sweeney Todd. I. Am. Hyped. Suddenly this young lad appears on the screen. I watch the film and fall in love with it. I watch the credits thinking, "who played Anthony? I gotta remember that name. Kid will surely go places!"

- I do remember the name. And saw it crop up several times over the years. Twilight, The Mortal Instruments. But I was never more than just a casual admirer. I was always pleased to see him though.

- Then came the realisation he was a musician too. (Oh hey look, it's also the one year anniversary of Run On/Devil in Me!) I checked out some of his band's music and wasn't too keen (at the time that is. Low-key obsessed now.) It was little too hard-core for me. Although I did think it was pretty cool when I saw that they'd tour and Glasgow would occasionally be on the list. Alas I never went to any of their shows. (THE REGRET IS SO REAL)

Then... he fell off my radar.

- Stranger Things S4. Up until this point, I enjoyed the show. But never called myself a "fan"! So, I never really kept up to date with filming etc. Anyway. I sit down to watch the new series. Literally right after the title sequence, the name flashes up on my screen. I sit bolt upright.

"Oh... you're back."

You know that way when you see someone's name in the opening credits of something and think "I wonder who they're playing. I gotta keep an eye out" but then you're so swept up in the action, you forget? And before you know it, it's over and you sit there thinking "wait... I didn't see them..." Yeah! I should have clicked right then who he was playing... hindsight huh?

- The series progresses and come episode 5, I FINALLY see the face I've been waiting for. And something changes in me. It's hard to explain. I'm immediately intrigued and by episode 7 I'm ALL IN. This character, man!

- I have quite a few friends who love the show. And we're all collectively losing our minds. For several different reasons. I would have these amazing conversations with each of them. And while the world falls in love with Eddie, I'm inexorably drawn back into the fold by that same blond-haired, blue eyed boy who has been tucked away in my heart, waiting for the moment when I finally realise he's been there all along.

- My focus has been shifted back to him. I revisit all our previous connections with new eyes (AND ears!) All the while, the friendships I have are being fed constantly. Daily, nerdy conversations are my life. I've never smiled and laughed so much. All of this also allowed me to reconnect with people who had drifted away from me. Not intentionally. But life (and a pandemic) gets in the way. This series opened a gateway to allow so much positivity into my life. More than ever before.

- While deep diving into his past, I discover things that open my eyes further. The realisation that he was many years sober and clean after battling addictions made my heart hurt. But also instantly made me feel a deep pride in how far he'd come. I would watch videos of him interacting with fans and talking so openly and honestly about his struggles. Both with addiction and his mental health. I respected him so goddamn much for his honesty. And made me more honest about my own struggles.

Despite the darkness though, there is his sunny disposition. A laugh and smile that always makes me smile too. And there's the pure kindness and truthfulness he radiates. I was pulled in. There was no resisting.

- As odd as it sounds, everything combined gave me an entirely different outlook on life. I was happier than I'd been in such a long time. And then came the convention appearances. Oh boy. What a crazy ride that's been!

- After the initial "I can't afford this!" drama, I got my own shot at him in November of 2022. He was everything I expected and so much more. Kind, warm, chatty and an absolute sweetheart. Even though our literal first interaction was him shaking my hand, looking at me with squinty eyes then asking "have we met before?" No babe, we haven't but I've known you far longer than I realised. And our tale is a very long and complex one. Maybe one day, I'll be able to sit with you and share it myself.

Thank you. For everything. I'm so incredibly grateful that you came into my life. I owe you so much. My words, gifts and hugs will never be enough.

TL;DR - Happy S4 Day! And if you didn't know already, I fucking love one James Metcalfe Campbell Bower.

[lovecolibri]

I just hope that tomorrow apart from the " do more" we' ll have some eddie scenes, because the way they're underusing him in s6 it's criminal, ofc since kr hates him and likes to keep him far away from buck the moment he'll start to date again we'll see him 20 min for episodes because no homo, like there wasn't really any other sl for him but dating again right?

I know that whatever we get from all the cast tomorrow is gonna be soooo good, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm trying to keep my expectations for how much Eddie we're getting low, just so I'm not overly disappointed. I wouldn't necessarily say KR hates him (that argument could be made of Oliver too since Buck's personal storylines outside the firefam have been trash since she took over), which we know isn't true, she's just....bad a coming up with storylines in general across the board 🤷🏻‍♀️ Honestly I think that's what him dating again is about too.

A) TPTB haven't fully pulled the Buddie trigger (I expect that Tim wants to be around to get the credit for that and also she's....not the one anyone would pick to head that train), and these guys can only have so many scenes screaming each other's names while single before they gotta wedge some woman in there to "prove" there's nothing to see. 🙄

B) KR is bad at coming up with ideas and while I don't think she hates Ryan/Eddie, I DO think that she just doesn't find the character interesting so she doesn't know what to do with him. It's the same with Chim who is getting the first storyline centered on him since season THREE when Albert showed up. Everything else has been about Madney and he was written off the show for most of that, and their breakup AND resolution/working things out happened off screen. JLH has negotiated for limited time on set apparently but they continued to squander the majority of the time she DID have on random stuff instead of making sure she was included in firefam stuff like being the one at dispatch on big calls which she could film separately from the team to fit her schedule. Bobby has this WHOLE arc with Wendall, and yet KR didn't think that name needed to come up a single time before 6x09 and Bobby spent the previous 8 episodes being a background character with nothing going on. Ravi is supposed to be back with a big episode and his name hasn't been mentioned a single time in 10 episodes. Hen was apparently going to officially leave the 118 to continue med school and it wasn't ever mentioned until suddenly there was a going away party. There was no Chim being nostalgic on calls that "this could be the last time you have to hold the vomit bag in the back of the ambulance" or anything. Honestly, I didn't even KNOW she was resigning, until that party because everything was about her passing the test to move on, it never came up that moving on would necessitate her leaving which SHOULD have been a huge plot point. Chim was going to lose his partner and we didn't hear anything about it until we were watching her going away party! Yet another of the things KR had in her notes that she didn't think needed to make it on screen so the audience knows what's going on. And it's not like there wasn't time for all that ins 6a because nothing much else happened.

Point is, we've got some GOOD writers and directors back, and the cast is really excited about the work they've been doing (though it's good to remember what an actor finds exciting to DO and a fun experience for them ACTING, doesn't necessarily translate perfectly to what the audience prefers to SEE on our end), but at the end of the day the same person is still making the decisions and planning the arcs. And unless someone higher up steps in (as they did with the L mess and what appears to have happened with the sperm donor arc given that the interviews are showing distinctly opposite answers to what they were after 6x09), we're still stuck with someone who has proven since taking over partway through s4, that she fundamentally doesn't understand the characters or what motivates them, or what the audience wants from the show. The tone of the seasons has swung wildly all over the place and been horribly inconsistent, and either nothing is happening or they're trying to pack too much in to an episode.

So for my personal edification and to make my experience as enjoyable for me personally as possible, I'm working on managing my expectations so I'm either right, or pleasantly surprised and delighted by what's delivered. And as I said, at the very least, whatever we DO get, from Ryan or any of the rest of the cast, is gonna be GOLD.

[addictedtostorytelling]

A few weeks ago, I found seasons 1-10 dvds on eBay cheap, so I've been watching in order. Just got to #2 in Season 4, and it seems as if almost all of the episodes aired out of order in this season so far. I know George and Jorja were temporarily fired at the beginning of the season, so do you think (or know) that had something to do with it, or was there some other restructuring going on, or both?

hi, @bartramcat!

so while the episodes of early s4 do indeed air out-of-order from how they were produced, it's unclear why such is the case.

production numbers for the first seven episodes show a widespread reshuffling, in terms of their airdates. 

the true production order for the episodes would have gone as follows (with the numbers of the list representing the production order and episode numbers representing the airing order):

episode 04x03 "homebodies"

episode 04x01 "assume nothing"

episode 04x02 "all for our country"

episode 04x07 "invisible evidence"

episode 04x04 "feeling the heat"

episode 04x05 "fur and loathing"

episode 04x06 "jackpot"

episode 04x08 "after the show" (note that this episode is the first one where both the production number and the airing number align)

of course, it is worth pointing out that there are also two other significant "out of order" episodes that aired later on in s4, as well: episode 04x13 "suckers" was actually the 14th episode of the season produced, while episode 04x14 "paper of plastic?" was the 13th (meaning that, had they aired sequentially, episode 04x14 "paper or plastic?" would have come after episode 04x12 "butterflied," as opposed to episode 04x13 "suckers").

what’s more: in terms of their “within the universe of the show” dates, episodes 04x15 “early rollout” and 04x16 “getting off” also air out of sequence, as the former episode supposedly takes place on 02.11.04, while the latter supposedly takes place on 02.05.04, even though their production numbers do otherwise match their airing order.

unfortunately, there is no information available on why the first seven episodes of s4 all were aired out of sequence from how they were produced or why episodes 04x13 "suckers" and 04x14 "paper or plastic?" ultimately got swapped.

however, one thing we can say for certain is that this reordering didn’t have anything to do with jorja fox and george eads being fired, as that event actually postdates both the filming and the original airing of s4 altogether, having occurred in summer 2004, prior to the filming of s5.

so looking to other possibilities to explain the restructuring, then:

it may have been the case that postproduction issues necessitated the reordering—for example, maybe “homebodies” required more second unit, sfx, cgi, and/or adr work than did “assume nothing” and “all for our country,” so while it was technically produced before they were, it was ultimately aired afterward, as it may not have actually been “finished” until long after the fact. perhaps such was the case for multiple episodes throughout the early season.

it may have been the case that the production team didn’t like the pacing of the season with the original production order and so reordered the episodes in order to make the overall story (in their opinion) flow better. for example, “homebodies” is a very heavy episode, so maybe they ultimately thought better of starting out their new season on such a down note, opting to go for “assume nothing” (which is, while certainly not lighthearted, definitely more upbeat than “homebodies”) as their season premiere instead.

it may have been the case that they had always intended to air the episodes in the order they ultimately did end up airing them in; however, they just happened to film/produce the episodes out of sequence, so even though “assume nothing” was always meant to be episode 04x01, its production number ended up being 0402 when all was said and done. perhaps filming or postproduction logistics played a role in episodes being finished out of sequence. for example, if the production team didn’t secure permissions to film at a particular location right away, then perhaps they might have worked on another episode in the interim, resulting in that episode being completed first.

it may have been the case that the network forced the reorder, wanting to place “assume nothing” and “all for our country” (which are paired with each other) up front because they are relatively flashy “classic csi” ensemble pieces that play well to advertisers AND create a natural momentum into the season. (if you watch the first part of the cliffhanger, chances are you’ll also then want to watch the second, and by that point, you’re hooked!) they may have also forced some reordering with subsequent episodes, as well—for example, maybe they wanted to make sure that “fur and loathing” aired around halloween because they hoped to capitalize on the whole “animal costumes/dressing up” aspect in their advertising. (the episode originally aired on 10.30.03.) if they did force their hands this way, then it’s possible that the initial changes they made then in turn forced other changes, with the production team having to swap around various other episodes in order to make everything flow and make sense from a story perspective. if so, then it might explain why every one of the first seven episodes of the season airs out of sequence from the order in which they were originally produced. (while of course i can’t prove my conjecture, i heavily suspect that this option was the case when it came to the swapping of “suckers” and “paper or plastic?” later in the season, as i think the network probably wanted to air a somewhat more lighthearted episode on the heels of “butterflied,” rather than jumping straight from utterly depressing tragedy to utterly depressing tragedy.)

anyway, i’ve never been able to locate any official word on why so much of the season seems to have aired out of sequence from how it was produced, so, unfortunately, the above speculation is all i can offer in terms of answering your question.

i will say that i have done the experiment of watching the season in its original production order, and while doing so doesn’t necessarily make a world of difference in terms of the overall story, it does certainly alter the flavor of the early season, particularly in the way of making the gsr “rift” arc much more of a kind of thesis statement for the season right from the get-go.    

thanks for the question, friend! please feel welcome to send another one any time.

[castlebyersafterdark]

can someone please explain how the time jumps are going to work??? like the ending of s4 was a disaster hawkins were split in 4 and they are going to randomly do a 3 year time jump??? or they're going to do a few month time jump where it will make us get to 1897 but then they're going to randomly do another time jump? and how would they address the painting or something else happened after 3 years? i know this isnt about spicy byler but i really think about this but o cant really find answers

i hope you can post this love youu <3

I love you too anon haha ☺️ Just my very very loose theories because it's all just guesswork on my part, I'm sure others have been meticulously tracking timelines through hints we've gotten but I'll admit all the leaks and theories and rumors got overwhelming to a point so I've been reading others stuff here and there instead of obsessively documenting things anymore. But!! My thoughts:

E1 - The immediate aftermath of what we saw from the ending of season 4. Action following the sights on the hill. I almost think either something is going to happen right away with Will, cementing his place one, as the main character for 5 but two, to showcase that he's a major target and to establish the storyline as to why he and Mike are going to be paired together the whole season. To establish both the supernatural storyline as well as the romance. See what I mean when I say both of these arcs are completely entwined, like a DNA helix. I think it'll start with the flashback to Will's time in the UD and then it will cut to present day Will standing on that hill, we hear that icy vecna voice in his head "Will Byers [something sinister and 👀]..." and then boom opening credits. Cut to the group trying to come up with a plan, how they're hiding El and Hopper, maybe there's a little mini mission that fails, start the season off strong with some major injury to a lead character, introduce the military takeover, showing Hawkins on whatever the version of a lockdown/quarantine situation is, boom end of episode. There's a lot of stuff I can't think of that will be here too, these are just the major plot points. I think some E1 spring 1986 stuff has already been filmed when they were making 4 but not all of it.

E2 establishes that time has passed. Here's where I'm not sure how deep the time jump is. Because we see a lot of the leaks/officially shared behind the scenes shows the characters in the same outfits and scenes and it looks like fall? So is it fall 1986 or fall 1987? And we missed an entire year, we skipped the entire sophomore year of the party? So they're juniors now? So I wonder if we get anything in the in-between of spring 1986 and fall 1987. That's a big gap (A gap in which I would hope Mike and El have split) I have this suspicion that Will actually has been staying with the Wheelers - all that time, though? Interesting. What are the older teens (young adults now. What do we call them now, the Nancy age squad) doing - all stayed in Hawkins out of some sense of obligation to see the situation through, but what do they think is the end point? No one went to college? But E2 will be the first time jump.

I'm having trouble establishing if there's a Fall 1986 jump and then a Fall 1987 jump. Are there summer scenes? There were filming rumors at a pool. All these different dates on props and release dates of cassettes (I think one was 1989 - epilogue? Graduation for the party? big ONE YEAR LATER card) so I think there will be multiple jumps. But adding in the relationship timelines and the painting issue - unsure how that'll all play out. That's the thing that completely alludes me, I've tried multiple ways to make it make sense through theorizing and laying out a fic and it's all just not clear to me so I'm kinda just riding the waves of anticipation at this point!! Because I can't commit to a timeline. I do think there will be multiple jumps. The plot will not be contained to one week like in all previous seasons. At least I don't think so?? And some people think we'll jump all the way to the 90s at one point - no. No we won't be. It's the 80s show and in the 90s the party would be 18/19 in 1990 I think and college age and we're not going that far, unless it's the unlikely event they show them years down the line. Which I highly doubt. This is such a flighty answer but such is the issue of predicting things!!

[vindieselsfacebook-blog]

Omg I was positively foaming at the mouth reading this - thank you for sharing! As the self-proclaimed no. 1 AYITL defender, you're beautifully articulating so many of my opinions, too. I must chime in with some thoughts of my own:

I agree that it feels cozy and comfortable for me, too! It was never going to look as gorgeous as the early seasons filmed traditionally with Michael A. Price at the helm as cinematographer, but the colors and lighting are so much richer and beautiful than S6-7. I think a lot of people bristle at all the cold blues in the first episode, but babes, it's Winter - that's the point??? Fall is stunning. The sets look more expensive and lived-in than a lot of the original series does. On a cozy Sunday night, the episodes I most think about turning on for comfort-watching are the pilot, the last 3 in S4, sometimes the last 3 in S7, and AYITL!

AYITL has SO much gratifying closure and growth - I haaate when fans say they hate it because it feels like no one has grown and they've just been immaturely frozen in time. That's the point! They finally are!!! Wouldn't you prefer seeing that to being told it happened off-screen years ago?

I think the only thing I really disagree with you on is your more pessimistic takes on Lorelai and Rory, but especially Rory. "Rory is self-centered, thinks she is special, and has no idea how to deal with not getting what she wants. The consequences of her actions almost never directly affect her, and when they do, said consequences are quickly stamped on and snuffed out by her mother/friends/family." I totally disagree with this. I think Rory is a chronic people-pleaser with shaky self-esteem. Her family thinks the world of her and she often really struggles with the weight of those expectations. She's expected to succeed where Lorelai failed not just to justify Lorelai's entire life's ambitions, but heal her grandparents' wounds, too. Her father left her and shows little to no interest in her. Her paternal grandparents tell her to her face she's a disappointing mistake that ruined lives. It's not that she has no idea how to deal with not getting what she wants, but she has no idea how to deal with failure when she was doing all she thought she had to to succeed. She's a list-maker, a studier, a rule-follower - when things don't follow her obsessively planned plan, she melts down. Her worst decisions are made when she finally explodes after bottling up her emotions. People often say Rory never suffers consequences but that also isn't true? Headmaster Charleston enforces rules and punishments on her multiple times in S1 and nothing is simply handed to her at Chilton. She really struggles those first few episodes. Dean publicly breaks up with her and calls her out on her shit with Jess. She flounders her first year at Yale struggling to get her articles published then having to drop a class because she can't keep up. She tries to date and has a tough time connecting with people. Mitchum is an asshole to her and makes her doubt her entire career path. She doesn't get the NYT fellowship. The list of Rory's struggles, failures, and consequences go on and on. I really don't get why people seem to gloss over them? Because her mother loves her and believes in her in spite of these things...? Why do women in fiction seemingly have to "earn" love and support?

"Rory’s life rhymes with Lorelai’s." Obsessed with this line - what a beautiful way to put it!

I've truly never thought of a what a perfect metaphor coffee is for Lorelai's vices. You're soo right and it's soo good! Having Luke be the provider of her favorite coffee is also just *chef's kiss*

One of my favorite parts of AYITL is Lorelai redirecting Richard's inheritance from Luke's business to hers. In contrast to her begging for the tuition money in the pilot, this time feels like an empowered decision. Her dad wanted Luke to expand his business because he felt like his daughter's partner should be taking care of her. She says no, I'm the one taking care of myself and expanding my own empire - I don't need my husband to do that for me and I can honor my father's legacy myself. :')

Just to nit-pick, I must remind that Lorelai never "refused" to expand the Dragonfly - she literally couldn't and I think that added to her feelings of frustration and being stuck in place. There was no space at the existing building, protected wetlands preventing expansion, and she couldn't afford another property until she thought to use the money from Richard. Also, as symbolic as it would've been, the Dragonfly Annex isn't the Twickham House. Kind of glad tbh as I always found the Twickham House ugly as hell lol. I hate that storyline for multiple reasons, but the top is that it feels sooo not like Luke or Lorelai???

I'd love to defend Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life for a minute (I don't usually make long posts and may delete this later for that reason) because I feel like writing something inconsequential.

Other people get lots of comfort watching the original show (especially in the fall). I feel cozier watching AYITL. The characters are much older; the dizzy, flighty, still-growing-up feelings for Lorelai and Rory have faded, and it's full of moments that make it clear that certain things in their lives are definitely always going to be there. Constants. Luke, Stars Hollow, family, Kirk, Taylor, the changing of the seasons. Now - for my defense. (I'm rambling.)

Okay, many, many people don't like the revival. I understand. It's different in a lot of ways from the original show, and lots of expectations were not met. When I first saw it, it threw me too. But I didn't dislike it. In fact, the more I rewatched it, the more I thought it was almost better than the first show. The leading ladies are not flashy young stars anymore - Rory is Lorelai's age when the OG show first began, and Lorelai is gracefully and fabulously careening toward grandma times with all her wit and charm, all her most comfy habits, and it makes me want to hang out with her more than Season 1 of the show ever did. And I think the fact that ASP came back to write for these characters again and end it on her terms, at last, was an absolute win, and I love how she did it because it fixed so many things I thought were wrong in the show.

Lorelai is self-centered, terrified of commitment, and has no idea how to put others before herself and not run away during the hard times - unless something involves Rory.

Rory is self-centered, thinks she is special, and has no idea how to deal with not getting what she wants. The consequences of her actions almost never directly affect her, and when they do, said consequences are quickly stamped on and snuffed out by her mother/friends/family.

Emily is self-centered, desperate to be in control, and finds her worth in what other people think, in how things look, and that includes what Richard thinks.

In the show, Lorelai has moments where she learns to stay and learns to put other people who are not Rory before herself. Those moments don't last. She definitely has good intentions, but they're all conditional. She only has good intentions up to a point - and that point is usually when someone or something threatens her happiness and feeling of safety, or Rory's happiness and feelings of safety (understandable; that's her child).

In the show, Rory is told she is the sweetest kid in the whole world. Rory is told she'd never do anything to hurt anybody. Rory is told she's special, she's smarter than her peers, she's not like other girls. Rory 100% believes that. She also probably has a bit of a problem with living up to that image - she wants to be all of those things, and thinks she is, and can't handle it when it seems like people think she's not. (That may or may not have something to do with Christopher, who always had somewhere more important to be, or with Lorelai, who was so cool and strong and sure of Rory.)

And the show has moments, too, where Lorelai has to face the music and see that she's screwed up or is hurting someone with her behavior (Max, Chris, Luke, Jason, Emily, Richard, Sookie), but very very often, Lorelai breezes her way through that music and keeps moving, and flits to the next thing or person that will make her happy, because she does not know how to stay and stand and fix what she's broken. Because it only matters if she is happy and if Rory is happy. (The same thing goes for Rory in the show - consequences come, but Rory rarely has to properly deal with them herself. She is coddled and propped up the whole way.)

Now, to my point!

I watched AYITL and noticed something was different right away. Lorelai is with Luke (she should be), who is the opposite of her - constant, loyal, selfless, determined to stay no matter how hard things get. But they're not married. Lorelai is scared to really commit, and marriage is one of the hardest things you can commit to - ever. And Lorelai is not happy. Rory, for her part, is not perfectly settled as a reporter or a journalist or any of the things she was always told she could be. And she's not happy. And Emily, bless her, has lost her husband and her false sense of control is spinning away, and of course, she is not happy.

And A Year In The Life takes the show's clumsy half-arc of these three Gilmore women and perfectly completes it.

Lorelai's fear of commitment and habit of bolting when things get hard drives her to push every new chef out of the Dragonfly, refuse to expand the inn to better accommodate Michel's needs, shun Rory's tell-all of her past mistakes, shame Richard at his funeral and break Emily's heart, and worst of all, nearly wreck the closest thing to a proper relationship she's ever had: the one she has with Luke. She can't face that she misses her father, loved her father, and that maybe her mother is right about her relationship status. She can't face that people might read Rory's writing and see all her flaws and all her mistakes growing up in printed ink, and she can't run from that. And when Rory insists, Lorelai cuts ties. Lorelai has spent years avoiding marriage with Luke. She has spent years hurting her mother in an effort to defend herself at all costs. And she has spent years ensuring the Dragonfly Inn is exactly what she wants it to be; because changing it would be uncomfortable, and as a result, she won't commit to a new chef, she won't expand, and she's about to lose Michel the way she lost Sookie.

Rory's bubble of self-centeredness and assurance that she's special is popped with the needle of reality at last: she is not special. She's a young woman who has to actually work hard to find a job and make some money, like everyone her age. She is talented and she is smart, but she's not God's gift to journalism, and people keep saying no, and people keep asking her to prove her skills and her merit, and she doesn't know how to deal with that because everyone has always told her she can do anything she wants and she's the best. She wants a distinguished career and can't find anyone who will take her on; she tries to write for a raging batty feminist (hello Alex Kingston I love your work) and that goes sideways; she wants Logan Huntzberger but she turned down his proposal and now he's engaged and it has to be a secret; she wants somewhere to live - just not Stars Hollow because she's better than the thirty-somethings stuck back home. She wants Lorelai to approve of her book and insists her mother give her this, as if Lorelai hasn't always given her whatever she could. And when Lorelai says no, Rory does what she wants anyway and almost fractures their relationship over it.

Emily's control is completely gone - she can't control her emotions, she can't control her tongue, she can't control her maid or her maid's handy family, she can't even control a stupid painting of her late husband. She's on a downward spiral and her anchor is dead. She tries to regain a sense of worth, because surely that will bring happiness back. She tries to gain it from how many possessions she has, that doesn't work. She tries to gain it from Jack, who is not well-suited to her but he makes a matching accessory to the life other people will see. That doesn’t work. She tries to gain it from therapy with Lorelai, control her daughter at last, that doesn't work. She tries to control Richard's headstone, that doesn't work. She even tries to find solace with her beloved D.A.R, and she finds that emptiest of all.

A Year In The Life has these women finally face their flaws head-on and grow. The way characters should.

Rory: Rory is confronted with the fact that she is not special and has to move home like everyone else her age and get a job she does not want, because that's life, and that's what everyone else has to do in the real world. And when she's at her lowest, pouting, she gets advice from someone who has faced his own flaws long ago and has grown and who knows her at her best, and encourages her to get up and work hard (Jess Mariano, ladies and gentlemen). And she does. Rory hits bottom and takes Jess's advice and works at understanding her mother, who is not perfect, and even goes to interview her father, who is also not perfect. She fights with Lorelai over the book and insists on her own way, and when Lorelai refuses, Rory can only blame herself. She has a rabble-rousing night with her LaDB boys and winds up sleeping with Logan in one more bubble of fantasy, one more umbrella-jump of escapism, like the old days, because Logan is her weakness. And when she wakes up the next morning, Rory turns and walks away from Logan and the affair and her insistence on having what she wants regardless of who she hurts (hello, Dean Forrester and her affinity for taking spoken-for men) for the final time. And the consequences of her desires? She’s pregnant. (Come on, we all know the baby is Logan’s; Rory’s life rhymes with Lorelai’s.) She goes to Christopher to interview him for the book and is subtly asking her father why he wasn’t in her life, because she needs to know what to do with her baby and her lover. She didn’t go to Lorelai to figure that out. She went to her dad, because the truth is, Rory didn’t have her father, and part of dealing with the consequences of her actions is to work out how to take care of this baby and whether or not that means involving the father. She’s owning up. She goes to Lorelai and offers to give up this book; she doesn’t make excuses or whine, she wrote the book anyway because she believes in it, but when she’s gotten three chapters in, she respectfully goes to her mother and asks her to read it and then, for the sake of Lorelai, not herself, Rory promises to quit and throw the book out if Lorelai does not approve. Because Lorelai is more important to her than herself. Rory has worked hard and made mistakes and gotten pregnant and she has stared the world in the eyes and seen she’s not special. And she has to deal with that. And she does, finally, deal with it. And she’s happy.

Emily: Emily is confronted with the fact that nothing is inside her control—except what she does. Worth does not come from what she owns or who she’s with or what she’s wearing, and it didn’t come from her marriage, either. That wasn’t why she married Richard anyway. She is miserable and alone, and part of that is her fault. She married Richard because she loved him, and she keeps coming back to Lorelai because she loves her, and she opens up her house to Rory when Rory needs a place to write because she loves her. Emily looks around at what she has and recognizes what has worth and what doesn’t, maybe for the first time, with clear vision. She recognizes that she can’t control everything. At first, that fact keeps her down. She forgets what day it is, the curtains are closed, and she doesn’t get up in the morning. No Richard, no Lorelai, no reason to move. And then Lorelai calls her, and tells her about who Richard was and what Richard did and how it mattered, and that inspires Emily. She can get up. She buys a place on Cape Cod, totally opposite of the sort of life everyone admires and expects to have worth, and she does what she’s really always been best at—she loves. She takes care. She took care of Richard, she took care of Lorelai and Rory when they needed it, and she takes care of Berta and her wonderful family, instead of having a maid take care of her needs. She packs up and moves out, she sends Jack away, she reveals the D.A.R. for what it is and quits them forever, and she takes a job at a whaling museum because she just likes it. It’s nothing fancy, and neither is her oceanic house or the music she plays in it or the clothing she wears, because none of that is worth anything anyway. Her family is. Her friends are. She gets the painting of Richard done right and brings it with her, and she gives up attempting control of everything and only takes control of how she behaves. She gives Lorelai what Lorelai needs for the Dragonfly, and her only stipulation is that she gets to spend more time with her daughter and Luke. She loves, she takes care of others, she helps. And she’s happy. And now, the best for last. The star.

Lorelai: Lorelai sits in that stupid Stars Hollow Musical and hears a song that perfectly describes her problem—it’s never or now. Make a commitment. Do something hard. Make your life about something other than your momentary present happiness and comfort, the way you do with just Rory, sometimes, but make it a permanent change. Make change permanent! Don’t run away! …And then she runs away. She’s been miserable, she’s hit bottom, like her mother before her and her daughter after her. She’s losing friends, she’s losing Luke, she’s losing Emily, she’s losing Rory over the manuscript, and it’s all her fault. Lorelai tries to breeze past it. She does Wild. She does what she’s never done before, she does something hard and uncomfortable, but she does it for herself, and therefore it doesn’t quite work. She tries to hike, Dipper Pines won’t let her hike, she meets other women her age who think this hike is gonna fix things, it doesn’t, and she gives up and goes to get coffee because that’s her go-to. (Coffee is speedy, bad for you, and only a temporary rush—kind of everything Lorelai clings to, actually.) But the coffee shop is closed, and when Lorelai is denied that allegorical Band Aid, she goes around back and sees a great view and finally finds clarity. She didn’t need the hike—she needed to think. She needed a moment of silence and introspection to gain the insane courage to finally stop moving, stick around, and face her fears. To put her eyes on herself and then take her eyes off herself and onto other people—namely the people she loves. Lorelai calls Emily and cries, because it’s hard to do this, it hurts, but with one story, she proves she loved her father, and she knows her father loved her, and the fact that she’s calling shows that she knows Emily loves her too, and she loves Emily, and has loved them both all along. It gives Emily the strength she needs to get out of bed. That was hard, but Lorelai did it. And now she’s going to do more hard things—she’s going to commit. It’s never or now, and Lorelai chooses now. She goes home and the first thing she does is propose to Luke and become Lorelai Danes overnight. Hard. Scary. Just right. She patches things up with her daughter, and chooses Rory over herself—for the hundredth time, yes, but when it’s at its hardest for her to do. “I’ll read it when it’s done.” Lorelai expands the Dragonfly using one of the biggest monuments to her fear of commitment – the Twickham House. She goes to Emily for help, which is also super hard, but this time it’s not for Rory – it’s for her, and it’s for Michel, and it’s for the Dragonfly. And she accepts Emily’s affectionate terms. Lorelai chooses Rory, Luke, Emily, and Michel over herself, and commits, and she doesn’t run away. And she’s happy.

And all of it is earned. Finally earned.

I could talk more about the incredible writing, about ASP at her best, about the perfect themes and scenery and the very intentional end to Paris, Lane, Kirk, Taylor, Dean, Jess, Logan, Chris, and the general cast’s stories, but I’ve already rambled for too long.

Suffice it to say: A Year in the Life is my Gilmore Girls. It’s best version of the story. I think it was expertly done. Not perfect, but an ending that was earned.

[ad1thi]

the way the Hawaii 5 0 writers purposely gave Steve and Danny mostly absent love interests and instead decided to solely flesh out their relationship w each other, to the point where even when the love interests are on screen the focus is on Steve and Danny -- they're in love your honour

[kaypeace21]

It's funny people are losing it over the byler fight possibly being based off a romantic fight, in the highschool musical sequel. Because , byler (long before s4) has been paralleled to romantic pairings - that are from shows/films that are confirmed ST inspo. It's not new. The writers also said the original highschool musical was inspo for s4 ... so the idea the sequel is also inspo, is fairly possible. I even said a few years ago , and got teased by the way ,for mentioning how gabriel/Troy parallel byler because : Byler knew eachother since kindergarten. And in the og film- troy/gabriel say it's "feels" like they've know eachother since they were in kindergarten. They say it a bunch in the first film .And now people are noticing the byler fight (via dialogue and framing) also parallels troy/Gabriella's fight.

But did yall also forget the byler s3 fight (which parallels the s4 fight) was also based off a different romantic scene from a diff series? I noticed/mentioned this parallel - years ago. Duffers said they were huge fans of Dawson's creek.

In the D.C scene the 2 childhood friends try to deny their romantic feelings and fight about it ...one character does so with one very interesting line :

The character who says the same line as mike: is actually in love with their childhood friend. Yet uses this exact line to change the subject/deny their feelings to their friend (when confronted by them).

Also d.c had an endgame gay couple (what's funny is - one had a sister, the other had a brother. Their straight siblings dated before them- but eventually they broke up. And the gay siblings ,started dating later,and were endgame).

Also look at the framing of the gay realization: both occur at the end of an episode where we see them hugging a girl ,and only see the back of the girls' heads - as they zoom in on the guys' faces filled with turmoil.

Even after the gay realization/scene in d.c ,he (jack) pretends to be straight and still dates the main girl for a bit longer. Both are rich guys who initially date the main girl character (because they are in deep denial about being lgbt). And both have a smart overachiever sister who initially dates a guy who is poor,and has a shitty dad.And by the end jack dates the brother of his sister's ex. And this (straight ) brother always assumed his brother was gay and was also an ally to jack,before the jack and his brother dated- reminds me a bit of jonathan.

Some also thought the s3 byler fight reminded them of the fight between a gay pairing in " eyewitness". It has no confirmation of being inspo by the Duffers (unlike hsm or d.c). But the framing is very similar... coincidence or not. The boy on the same side as mike (has a gf, and was in serious denial/repression about his romantic feelings for the other guy, during said fight.) That boy had so much internalized homophobia- especially because he was from/lived in a small town. Their fight in a garage, the car in the background, the lighting . Coincidence or not the parallel is definitely something else... lol

Eyewitness even has another similar scene, which i really disliked in both shows: dude in woods with camera records love interest... cough with someone else doing , y'know. Yall remember that mess in s1 of stranger things. Ick.But, I digress.

Also byler in s2 is based off Ghostbusters. And name dropped in the show. Mike said he was Venkman. Venkman's love interest was Dana (Will): who gets possessed, and then can control demon dogs during said possession, one demondog was in her fridge too, they have to close the gate to break her possession. Does any of this sound very familiar. Cause it should...

And in s1 mike writes a d&d story where king Tristan (Will) gives mike and his friends medals at the end of s1. Like the end of the original star wars film where princess leia gave medals to han (her future love interest) and han's friends . Mike, a star wars nerd: replaced princess leia for a king (Will)- who gave medals (to their future love interest) . The medal ceremony was romantic foreshadowing since Han winks at leia after she gives him the medal.

There's more examples.little woman was s4 inspo. Dude dates girl, but he ends up with his ex's artist sibling -instead. Before that-the artist 3rd wheeled her sister and future love interest while the 2 were skating /holding hands. Aka just like Will watching mike and el skate. Or heck "it" series is confirmed inspo too-ben/bev/bill parallels Will/mike/El. Bev (mike) gets romantic poem (painting). Bev (mike) assumes the poem (painting ) is from Bill (El) when it's actually from Ben (Will). Bev was into Bill, but later she realized the poem is from Ben. When she realized the words were from ben- they became endgame. So if Mike ever finds out the truth of the painting (what will happen?).

But literally every season byler is paralleled to a romantic pairing from a show/film the duffers or writers like. The fact byler scenes are often based off romantic pairings/scenes is strange if platonic or one sided. That's all i'm saying XD

[liesoverthec]

hi do you have a post about the timeline in 911 like with the year and the seasons and so including season 5

Hi anon!

I don't *technically* have a post w/ the timeline, so I'm using your ask as an opportunity to make one!

I'm going to put this under a cut, bc currently I have actually no idea what's going on with the timeline for s5, and as things air, I'll update this continually, and it can be used as the most updated resource whenever you open it!

I could not resist adding commentary sometimes, sorry 😅

*disclaimer - I understand the crossover is supposed to line up w LS’s timeline or whatever but it absolutely does not work for our timeline. So this is purely OG’s timeline, bc I don’t watch LS, and also our timeline is a lot more logical.*

911 OG timeline under the cut!

Just a note - anything that’s currently speculation is gonna be in blue. As we get confirmation of things, I’ll add in confirmed info and put things in black, and anything that’s wrong will be removed/edited.

Also, episodes tend to happen over several days’ time, so if you’re looking for an EXACT date for a little scene in an ep, I mostly don’t have it for you, but you should put it within the week I’ve given, relative to where it went in the ep. (Eg a call later in the ep would be more likely to have happened on Thursday or Friday.)

Also re: s4. COVID does not work as a good timeline indicator for this show, AT ALL. Its sort of like the whole “do they have regular shifts” debate - the writers wrote the stories they wanted to tell, and then fit COVID in around that. Also it got really screwed by them being done filming before it hit, but not having aired any of s3B yet. And then both bc COVID can’t be used to figure out time, and also bc it wasn’t aired normally, it is a lot more nebulous timeline-wise, I did my best though 😂

-Pre Series-

1966-1967: Athena is born.

1967: Bobby is born.

Mid Mar 1977: Chim is born (this has the potential to change in the future, details on why found here)

Sometime July - Dec 1979: Hen is born.

1983: Maddie is born.

1985: Daniel is born.

1987 - 1992: Eddie is born SOMETIME in this time window. Personally I like him in 1989/90, bc it makes him 21 when Christopher is born, but I think 1987 is also very plausible since that’s when RG is born.

Fall 1989: “Athena Begins” starts, continues through 1991 (Emmett dies on Feb 17th, 1991).

Somewhere between Feb 15 and mid September 1991: Buck is born.

Sometime Aug - Dec 1992: Daniel dies.

2000: Albert is born.

Aug 2000 - Feb 2001: Michael and Athena get married.

2002: May is born. (Discussion on May’s birth year here)

2005: Chim joins the firehouse, events of Chimney Begins stretch out over ~2007?? Unclear exact time frame but before Hen joins and over at least a year, if not more.

2006: Josh joins dispatch.

Sometime?? In 2008: Hen joins LAFD to be a paramedic. I really don’t have a good measure for this one bc it apparently takes years to become a paramedic but this is one area where the writers don’t give a SHIT about reality bc she has to join in 2008 for a comment in Future Tense to make sense. So just - early 2008 probably for this one.

Jan 2009: Hen joins the 118.

2009: Harry is born.

2010 or early 2011: Eddie enlists in the army for the first time - coincides with Shannon getting pregnant. (As of now, no idea if they were married before or after she got pregnant. Timeline of him enlisting in response to the pregnancy though indicates to me maybe they were already married.)

2011: Denny is born.

2011: Christopher is born. (Anyone curious, personally, I’d put his birthday somewhere in Jan-early March, late May-early Sept, purely bc I refuse to think at this point that Christopher’s birthday has happened while the show has been airing and Eddie hasn’t mentioned it. So it must be during usual hiatus times 😂)

Dec of 2014: “Bobby Begins Again” starts.

2015: Eddie is deployed a second time, his helicopter crashes/he’s discharged from Army/Shannon leaves him and Christopher

Sometime Aug-Dec 2016: Bobby becomes captain of the 118.

Aug 2017: Buck joins the 118.

-S1-

Jan 3 - Jan 9th, 2018: “Pilot”

Jan 10 - Jan 16, 2018: “Let Go”

Jan 17 - Jan 23, 2018: “Next of Kin”

Jan 24 - Jan 30, 2018 - “Worst Day Ever”

Jan 31 - Feb 6, 2018 - “Point of Origin”

Feb 7 - Feb 27, 2018 - “Heartbreaker”

Feb 28 - Mar 6, 2018 - “Full Moon (Creepy AF)”

Mar 7 - Mar 13, 2018 - “Karma’s A Bitch”

Mar 14 - Mar 20, 2018: “Trapped”

Mar 21 - Mar 27, 2018: “A Whole New You”

-S2-

Sept 1 - Sept 23, 2018: “Under Pressure”

Sept 24, 2018: the earthquake

Oct 8 - Oct 14, 2018: “Stuck”

Oct 15 - Oct 21, 2018: “Awful People”

Oct 22 - Oct 28, 2018: “Dosed”

Oct 29 - Nov 4, 2018: “Haunted”

Nov 5 - Nov 12, 2018: “Buck, Actually”

December 2018: “Merry Ex-Mas”

Mar 11 - Mar 15, 2019: “New Beginnings”

Mar 15 - 16, 2019: “Fight or Flight”

Apr 15 - Apr 21, 2019: “Broken”

Apr 22 - Apr 28, 2019: “Ocean’s 9-1-1″

May 6 - May 12, 2019: “Careful What You Wish For”

May 13 - May 19, 2019: “This Life We Choose” (in case you’re curious, cuz I was, average probationary period for a firefighter is 6-18 months, Eddie’s is 9mo w the 118 (plus 3mo at the academy = Bobby’s “year of hard work” in his speech) so he more or less has an average probationary period length! The timeline just doesn’t fit otherwise w Buck’s leg.)

-S3-

Sept 1 - Sept 22, 2019: “Kids Today”

Sept 22, 2019: the tsunami (ending scene events of “The Searchers” carry over into Sept 23, 2019)

Oct 14 - Oct 20, 2019: “Triggers”

Oct 21 - Oct 27, 2019: “Rage”

Oct 28 - Nov 1, 2019: “Monsters”

Nov 4 - Nov 10, 2019: present day “Athena Begins” events

Nov 11 - Nov 17, 2019: “Malfunction”

Nov 25 - Nov 30, 2019: “Fallout”

Dec 1 - Dec 25, 2019: “Christmas Spirit”

Mar 16 - Mar 22, 2020: “Seize the Day”

Mar 23 - Mar 30, 2020: “Fools”

Mar 30 - Apr 12, 2020: “Pinned” (end scene is Apr 13, 2019)

Apr 13, 2020: “The Taking of Dispatch 9-1-1” (end scene events take place sometime Apr 13 - Apr 19, 2020)

Apr 20, 2020: Events of present day “Eddie Begins” (Christopher’s show-and-tell is Apr 24, 2020)

Apr 27 - May 3, 2020: “The One That Got Away”

May 4 - May 10, 2020: “Powerless”

May 11 - May 17, 2020: “What’s Next?”

-S4-

Mid Sept 2020 (pretty damn sure actually it’s Sept 21, 2020, but since it wasn’t aired on a regular schedule I can’t be completely, 100% sure): The mudslide

End of Sept 2020: “Future Tense”

Oct 2020: “9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance?”

Oct 2020: Present day events of “Buck Begins”

End of Oct - beginning of Nov, 2020: “Jinx” (Jinx happens in ~25hrs, start to finish, I just can’t tell you exactly what day)

Mid Nov 2020: “There Goes The Neighborhood”

End of Nov 2020: “Breaking Point”

Somewhere around the last two weeks of Jan 2021 - first two weeks of Feb 2021: “Blindsided”

Somewhere around the last two weeks of March 2021 - first two weeks of April 2021: “Parenthood”

May 3 - May 9, 2021: “First Responders” (I *think* this is where the show catches up where the regular airing schedule matches up w the show’s timeline. I have no reason to think otherwise)

May 10 - May 16, 2021: “Treasure Hunt”

May 17 - May 24, 2021: “Suspicion”

May 24 - May 30, 2021: “Survivors”

-S5-

Sept 2021: Albert joins the LAFD in the montage at the end of Survivors

Sept 14, 2021 - initial spyware attack

Sept 20 - Sept 27, 2021 - actual blackout

Oct 11 - Oct 17, 2021: ‘Home and Away’

Oct 18 - Oct 24, 2021: ‘Peer Pressure’

Nov 1 - Nov 7, 2021: 'Brawl in Cell Block 9-1-1′

Nov 8 - Nov 14, 2021: ‘Ghost Stories’

Nov 15 - Nov 21, 2021: 'Defend in Place’

Nov 22 - Nov 30, 2021: 'Past is Prologue’

Dec 1 - Dec 25, 2021: ‘Wrapped in Red’

Mar 21 - Mar 27, 2022: ‘Outside Looking In’

Mar 15 - Mar 28, 2022: ‘Boston’ (flashbacks date back to Sept 27 and occur through the fall of 2021)

Apr 11 - Apr 17, 2022: ‘Fear-o-Phobia’

Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2022: ‘Dumb Luck’

Apr 25 - May 1, 2022: ‘FOMO’