After the Stranger Things finale: What I believe happens...

As of tonight it has been 120 hours since the series finale of Stranger Things dropped on Netflix.  And in that time the Internets have been going full-blown wacky with theories and speculations.  It's the kind of debate and discussion that I can't remember seeing in a very long time, at least not since the Lost finale almost sixteen years ago.

I have now watched "The Upside Down" twice all the way through and numerous bits and pieces of it since it went live on streaming.  And I thought it was the most beautiful thing that I've seen on the television medium in quite awhile.  But if you've seen it also, you're well aware that it left a few things dangling.  Not "critical" information, but we are certainly teased a bit about what becomes of these characters who we've followed for almost a full decade.  The Duffer Brothers, the creators of Stranger Things, have given us just enough to whet our appetites for more.  Or as one friend put it, they made a satisfying conclusion without putting a solid padlock on it.

So since everyone else it seems is weighing in with their own thoughts and theories, I might as well chime in with my own.  What happens to our heroes after their struggle against the Upside Down and Vecna?

Be warned: Spoilers ahead!!

I believe that El survived.  She did so knowing that never again could she see Mike and the rest of her friends but it had to be done.  El knew that she had to break the cycle and that nobody else could do it.  That there would always be people like Brenner and Kay who would continue the work.  So El took herself out of the equation and I think that in her dying breath Kali saw to it that El would escape as cleanly as she could.

I'm thinking to something that Hopper tells her earlier in the episode.  About El getting to have a normal life, and be a parent herself and have children.  I believe that she goes on to do that.  El goes on to find herself, and in time she will marry and have children.  But she will never forget the love that she had with Mike and I very strongly doubt that Mike is ever going to forget her. As long as they live they will be thinking of each other.

This finale evoked so much thought.  It's been a LONG time since a story has had me ruminating upon its ending.

I can't help but imagine that Will went on to have a better story than he could have imagined.  And I say that as a trauma survivor also.  The full measure of what Will went through because of Vecna was something that could not be portrayed on screen.  Will survived but he's going to forever be scarred.  Maybe Will goes on to make his life a triumph over Vecna.  I think Will becomes something like a behavioral therapist, with a master's degree and everything.  Will knows what it means to be damaged, he's going to use that experience toward helping others who have survived their own Vecnas.  Just a hunch that I have.  I may not have ever had a homosexual temptation but in many ways I still identify with Will (I also identify with Dustin a lot, but I digress).  I know what it's like to be hurt and be discarded by society.  There was a Vecna in my own life, and that's something I write about in my book.  Going through that, coming out on the other side, a person absolutely wants to do what he or she can to keep others from knowing that same pain.  It's what led to my having a career in the mental health field and I think that if Will doesn't end up doing much the same professionally, his heart is definitely inclined toward that direction.

I had wanted Dustin and Suzie to come together and get married.  But it's been established by the Duffer Brothers that their relationship ended.  It was mostly Dustin's fault.  He was so torn up about Eddie's death that he pushed aside almost every other relationship he had with people.  It took the party and especially Steve to pull Dustin back from the brink of self destruction.  In the end we see that Dustin comes back, and has embraced life again.  I like to think that he goes on to have a brilliant time in college and career in science and technology afterward.  That Dustin comes to fall in love again and he and his wife have a son who they name Eddie.

Lucas and Max are going to end up together happily ever after.  I've seen love like theirs a few times.  Sometimes it goes well and others, it doesn't.  But a young man like Lucas doesn't go to the hospital every day for a year and a half to play "Running Up That Hill" for a comatose girl without that meaning something profound.  By the way, the Duffers have said that the movie we see them sitting together watching is Ghost, so by the summer of 1990 their love is still going strong.  I think it's going to keep getting stronger.

I also think that Nancy and Jonathan end up with each other after all.  The two of them are each in a place where they're discovering who they are supposed to be.  They had that taken away from them for the better part of six years.  Now Nancy is pursuing her dream of being a journalist and Jonathan is where he wanted to be, studying photography and film at NYU.  They've seemingly gone separate ways but they're always going to share something remarkable and very unique and that's going to draw them together sooner than later.

Steve is a wandering journeyman of sorts for a few years.  But he comes to discover that his heart really is for helping young people be their best.  It started with being "baby-sitter" for the Party and it's going to continue.  If he doesn't get his full "six nuggets" he's still going to get that family he longs for... and that is very encouraging and inspiring.

Robin?  I'm not sure of her.  I do believe that she completes her college education.  I like to think that she ends up happy.

Holly, Derek, and the other kids that Vecna captured bounce back none the worse for wear.  Derek though has discovered personal responsibility, including for himself.  I think that Derek becomes quite the athletic type, taking part not only in baseball but also swimming (I say that because I was a swimmer in high school and taking part in that was one of the best things that ever happened to me).

Murray Bauman, the Duffers have already said he continues to be weird.  Maybe so but he's also a happy weirdo.  By the end of the series his conspiracy theories have been proven true, he's taken out government forces and he's saved the day for the entire world.  I imagine that ten years or so later Murray has become the master of a website devoted to conspiracy theories, and maybe even hosting a late-night radio show a'la the one Art Bell had for many years.

Mr. Clarke is going to be Hawkins, Indiana's most eligible bachelor.  But his first and foremost love is going to be teaching children.  Playing a part in the final battle against Vecna, seeing his star pupil Dustin come up with the conclusion that the Upside Down was a wormhole, filled Mr. Clarke with enormous pride.  He truly got to have a dream come true as a science teacher and he's going to do his best to catch lightning in a bottle again.

Erica.  Ahhhh yes, Erica.  Who ties with Dustin as my most favorite character in Stranger Things.  The Duffers have said that she goes on to be valedictorian also when she graduates.  Erica Sinclair is a force of nature and she goes far.  She's either going to get involved in Internet commerce at the start of the industry revolution (like Bezos, she can call her company Ericorps) or, more likely, she enters politics.  For some reason or another I think she's a registered Republican.  Erica eventually runs for U.S. Senate, wins the race, and provokes discussion about her running for higher office.  But that's maybe saying too much.

Hopper and Joyce spend the rest of their lives happy.  Hopper finds fulfillment that he never knew he needed before.  It's a quiet life at Montauk.  The only real trouble that comes about is when a great white shark starts prowling the waters and eating people.  Just kidding 😛 

And Mike?  The storyteller?  He goes on to write what he can about the time that he and the Party and their friends had together.  It becomes a book that goes on to be a bestseller, and it's going to be a story that will forever perpetuate debate and discussion about whether it's true or not.

The title of Mike's book?  It is "Stranger Things".

Read More

Massive coronal ejection en route to Earth

The largest ejection of charged particles from the Sun since 2005 is currently speeding toward Earth at 5 million miles per hour. It's due to hit us sometime tomorrow.

In recent months I have made it known that for the past number of years, I have been observing a correlation between this kind of solar activity and an increase in significant seismic activity. You can read about them here and here and here and most recently from October here. So in keeping with that, I am going to strongly suggest that this latest storm of energy which the Sun is throwing at us could possibly trigger severe earthquake activity.

Just something to maybe bear in mind these next few days and weeks...

Read More

The Knight Shift Seismic Forecast #2

Less than 24 hours following my most recent post regarding a theory I've been developing about seismic activity, Turkey was hit with a 7.2 earthquake.

In keeping with this blogger's goal of observation and collecting data, I will now state that if there is indeed validity to the theory, that there will be a significant possibility of severe seismic/geological activity within the next three to four weeks of this writing, with a chance of occurring much sooner. That seems to be the window of "opportunity" (for lack of a better word).

Read More

Follow-up to previous post about seismic activity

On September 26th I wrote about a theory that I have been developing for some time now and in regard to that, there was a strong possibility of a moderate to severe earthquake happening in the near future. Well it's been almost a month since then and I thought it would be wise to revisit that prognostication...

There has been an increase in geological activity since I posted that, particularly around the Pacific Rim (the so-called "Ring of Fire"). In addition there have been numerous earthquakes in excess of 4.0 Richter throughout the American Southwest following the "forecast" (or whatever one wishes to call it) and now increasing volcanic activity in Iceland and a very interesting rise in earthquakes around El Hierro in the Canary Islands.

So what does this mean for my theory?

I suppose it could be some validation, but something like this still needs long-term data before I could comfortably say "Hey, this makes the possibility of earthquakes more likely to happen!" Although in the past month there has been one peer-reviewed and published journal study that kinda dovetails with this concept of mine.

So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna keep watching this thing that I've been observing, and the next time the conditions are "favorable" (for lack of a better term), I'll make a note of it and we'll see what happens.

Read More

Testing a theory

This afternoon, September 26th 2011, I am stating that there is a strong possibility of a moderate to severe earthquake occurring during the next few weeks.

Don't know where. The theory I've been developing ain't that refined yet.

However, I will note that during this past year I have made such "predictions" (though I'd rather find a better word for it) among friends, and every time there has been some significant seismic activity: from the Tokyo quake to the recent one that rattled us here on the East Coast.

We'll see what happens in the next month or so. And if something occurs geologically, I'll elaborate at greater length on this theory (which does seems to have some merit to it...)

Read More

Think I figured out a big LOST mystery

Yah, maybe. Like a few days ago when I posted the "Dark Entity is trying to escape God's judgment" notion.

Here it is this time: "Adam and Eve" are going to turn out to be Sawyer and Juliet.

Go back and watch this past week's episode "What Kate Does" again. Trust me it is not a "filler" episode like too many are saying it is. After going through it for a third time I can't help but think that there are some huge chunks of Lost mythos - that we have been hungering for - that were laid bare at last.

Here's a hint to help you along: you also need to go back to "Not In Portland", which was the first Juliet-centric episode. 'Cuz the two episodes kinda, sorta go hand in hand.

If y'all are seeing the same thing that I am, feel free to post a comment :-)

Read More

Is THIS where LOST is headed?! (Crazy theory ahead)

This may or may not bear out as anything accurate to where Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are taking Lost, now in its final season. But there's a zillion other theories out there, might as well add my own to the madcap mix!

It hit me like a mallet between the eyes late last night, during the 22 hours that the electricity was out from this winter storm. The first big clue was the title of the Season 6 premiere episode: "LA X".

Perhaps a play on LAX, the abbreviation for Los Angeles International Airport where Oceanic Flight 815 was heading toward from Sydney, Australia. Of course, Oceanic 815 crashed on the Island and set into motion the events of Lost...

...but as we saw in "LA X", following whatever it was that Juliet did at the Swan site in 1977, an alternate reality was created: one where Oceanic 815 landed in Los Angeles on September 22, 2004. And this reality is running co-terminous with the "main" timeline where Oceanic 815 still crashed on the Island.

Well, using an "X" for a storyline involving multiple realities isn't unprecedented. Back in the late Nineties comic book artist Alex Ross pitched an idea to Marvel Comics: basically a dystopian Marvel future like what Ross did with Kingdom Come for DC Comics a few years earlier. The result was Earth X: what is, in my estimation a very under-rated alternate mythology of the Marvel Universe.

Earth X was followed up by Universe X and Paradise X. And where this is germane to our discussion of Lost is that it becomes revealed during the course of the Earth X trilogy that longtime Marvel supervillain Mephisto had been plotting and scheming since the dawn of time to create alternate realities! Why, you ask? Because Mephisto sincerely thought that he was the devil of Judeo-Christian teaching and he was making all of these alternate timelines so that he could flee into them, in a bid to escape what he believed would be God's final judgment at the end of time.

By the end of Paradise X, Mephisto was killed at last and his machinations stopped for good. And a "Heaven" of sorts wound up created that would forevermore keep Earth and its realm from being manipulated by cosmic entities like the Celestials and their sort.

See where this is going?

So here's what could be happening in the Lost saga...

The Island is, among many other things, a prison for the Dark Entity (what we have seen all this time as the Smoke Monster, various incarnations of characters and now appearing as John Locke). And it's a prison because the Dark Entity is, if not the Devil himself, then someone representing the very nature of evil. And the Dark Entity has been stuck on the Island all this time, doing what Satan does in accusing humanity (namely to Jacob, who is perhaps the embodiment of the Island and its power, as we saw hinted at by the spring in "LA X").

As with any other prisoner, the Dark Entity wants to escape. But he can't simply leave like a normal person could. There are "rules" in effect: rules which have only begun to be hinted at to us. The Dark Entity cannot escape by breaking the rules. Outright killing Jacob would have broken the rules too... so the Dark Entity has had to find a loophole.

"Salvation" for the Dark Entity came in the form of John Locke: ironically the one human who wanted to remain on the Island. But the biggest irony of all came as Benjamin Linus, who assumed that he was the greatest manipulator on the Island.

Linus had no idea at all that he himself was being manipulated by someone even more powerful.

In the end, the Dark Entity, posing as John Locke and thus the leader of the Island's people, entered the statue of Tawaret to confront Jacob. He still couldn't kill Jacob of course... but as Benjamin Linus was still the de facto tapped leader of the Island, he possessed the power and authority to kill Jacob if he wanted to. Of course as we know, Ben was motivated to do so by the Dark Entity, and he slew Jacob.

Why? For what purpose was all of this?

Because the Dark Entity just wants "to go home".

What "home" means, hasn't been made clear yet. It could mean that he wants to escape to somewhere in the outside world. Or it could mean escaping into someplace beyond our realm of understanding.

And it could be that he wants to escape into an entirely new universe. Like, the one that was just created by the timeline in which Oceanic 815 didn't crash.

This is no longer a fight for the Island. Or even for the Earth. This might well be turning into a struggle for all of reality.

Little does the Dark Entity realize though, that Jacob isn't out of the game quite yet. He's still able to communicate via Hurley. And Jacob obviously knew what was coming down given the contents of the guitar case that he gave Hurley before directing him to take the Ajira 316 flight. Also, why did Jacob seem so nonchalant and accepting of his fate?

Unless it was all part of some greater plot by Jacob. Perhaps to put an end to the Dark Entity once and for all?

One of the bigger elements of the Earth X trilogy was Mar-Vell's quest to end the rule of Death. And in Death's realm it seemed that Mar-Vell had fallen and the war had been lost. Mephisto was literally gloating over Mar-Vell's body. And then Mar-Vell revived and manipulated Thanos (no small manipulator himself!) into slaying Death: the entity that Thanos had sought to court as his lover.

I don't see why Jacob couldn't be playing a similar "long con" against his ages-old nemesis in the tale of Lost.

This sixth and final season of Lost might be coming down to an epic battle between good and evil, with people in two universes deciding the outcome.

There y'all have it: my own personal Lost theory.

Comments?

Read More

Physicist rewarded for work on "veiled reality"

In 1939, a young French student named Bernard d'Espagnat began considering that behind the empirical world of mass and energy, there might be something even more fundamental to our universe than we can measure. Reality, d'Espagnat came to argue, is only the sum of what we have observed... and may be a thin veneer over what is truly at work in the cosmos.

Seventy years, twenty books and many journal articles later on what he refers to as "veiled reality", Bernard d'Espagnat has been awarded the Templeton Prize: a yearly reward of $1.4 million to that "honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works."

If you've an interest in things like physics, quantum mechanics and relativity, the above-linked article is extremely intriguing. I am certainly feeling compelled to go hunt for some of d'Espagnat's work, after reading it.

Read More

God as defined by quantum physics

Here is my current proposal for a quantum mechanics definition of God:

In reference to a system encompassing the totality of the physical universe, God is that outside observer which has the unique properties of comprehending the position and momentum of every particle and all energy within the system without violating the observer effect and simultaneously across all points throughout the spacetime of that system.

I think that such a definition easily allows for the occurrence of un-scientific phenomenon as "miracles", since if God is comprehending all quantum behavior throughout every point and moment of the universe's existence, that this means He can pretty much do whatever He wants to with the universe. He can manipulate the quantum state of anything, including altering mass and energy so that water turns into wine. What's more, such a definition might not violate the laws of physics at all. It seems to fit comfortably among them, even.

I might and probably will revise this later on, but right now that's the current model that I'm going by.

Read More

Latest LOST theory (about the lists)

Okay so we've heard that of the castaways that the Others took at the end of last season, that Jack "wasn't even on Jacob's list". That means that Kate and Sawyer were on the list, with Hurley only there to be sent back to the castaways' camp to tell them not to come looking for their friends.

Then last night we find out that Sun conceived on the island, with Jin, and it was because the island gives men five times the sperm count than they would have anywhere else, so Jin's impotence was cured (chalk it up to another healing miracle that the island did).

Did Ben have Kate and Sawyer taken and put in the circumstances of their imprisonment, for the sole purpose of having them come together sexually, as another experiment by the Others? Juliet did say something in her report to Ben about how she was going to attempt taking a sample from Kate soon... so is Kate pregnant now?

Are "the lists" made up of those the Others think are genetically ideal for something?

It sort of makes sense. I've been trying to figure out why Kate and Sawyer would be on "Jacob's list" but not Jack, and what those two would have in common, and that's the only thing that really comes to mind.

Read More