#the squawk

[henrysglock]

"Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?"—Evidence of Visions and Coded Communication from the Upside Down

I'm finally getting around to pulling my reblog from last September into a full post of its own!

"As for the lights not necessarily having been Will, I don't have a formal post about it yet. However, I can give you a run-down of my reasoning.

One, they basically told us that the letter lights and the other signs from Will are two separate things:

Specifically, "R. U. N." is categorized as a "message from the UD".

This becomes fun when we realize that the scene in S1 with the lights in general is chock-full of weirdness that indicates the presence of another person (?).

For instance:

How is "Will" in two places at once? And, if we recall, the lights jump from the end of the chain straight back to its origin:

Which is decently reminiscent of this:

Which is not to say that Will has powers, but more to say someone with powers wants Will to be found. Someone with powers is working in Will's favor, in favor of all the protagonists. It's also someone who consistently warns our protags of incoming danger. This is a continuing theme, and I'll discuss is more as I go on.

Second, the lights scene has all the hallmarks of a vision.

When Joyce puts up her letters, it's daytime. Full sunlight. Next comes the scene of Nancy and Karen, then Hopper at the library (neither pictured), and we can see the sun setting consistently across the two scenes.

The next time we see the Byers house, it's well past dark. The kids run after the cops down to the quarry in that same scene, no cuts. Smash cut to Joyce talking with "Will", which is...once again daytime.

The demogorgon "attack" also happens during the daytime...but then Joyce is shown running away from the "attack" in total darkness, like someone flipped a light switch. Then the cops, which we just saw at the quarry, come up the street.

That tells me that these two scenes:

Are happening just about simultaneously. We never see the letter lights used outside this context

In short: this tells me that time is visibly passing in reality, but not for Joyce. Joyce has spent however long in daytime. Meanwhile, sunset is visibly occurring for everyone else.

There are very few people in the show who can give visions. One of them is Kali, one of them is the Mindflayer, and the other is Henry.

Which all makes this direct callback even weirder:

The gang being led up to the attic is directly compared to the Christmas lights.

Now...riddle me this. If we know people in the UD can hear people in the right-side up, and they call attention to this fact multiple times, then it stands to reason that yes, Vecna could hear them and knew they were there during that scene. It was then established that this instance was not a trap, subverting Dustin's expectation that it was Vecna leading them to be killed.

Is that not, then, weirdly generous and unprompted exposition? This is on the level of, like, say...Or the gang in S2 being led up to the gate, and the Mindflayer ignoring them while they wander around just on the other side of the barrier. There's a cocky villain, and then there's unrealistically stupid behavior (especially for a supposed mastermind who's meant to be very intelligent).

Everyone in the UD knows they're there. Someone is letting the gang know exactly where Vecna is—someone working against the UD baddies from the inside. Sort of like Alexei did with the Russian gate just one season prior, yknow?

See: the Russians+Jim being directly compared to the Mindflayer+Henry.

See also:

(There's also a tangential bit to be mentioned here about "they'll get his whole life story, making this an elaborate ruse to capture you too" vs "join me" and the NINA monologue that can't physically exist outside of NINA and the distinct possibility that the guy we saw giving that monologue was not Henry, but a Mindflayer-generated dupe.See: the Mindflayer in the VR game putting Henry into a NINA-type simulation and the distinct possibility that NINA runs on a captured section of Mindflayer. See also: the Russia parallels, the captured Mindflayer in Russia, and the similarities between the Russian Prison Massacre and the NINA massacre.There's a whole web of connections here regarding The First Shadow, as well, because the plot and mechanics of TFS are very, very similar to those of NINA...I have like 50k words of analysis on TFS if you're interested. The link regarding the VR game will take you to the full work on Ao3.)

Circling back to the original topic, there are other instances in S1 of people in the Byers house being given visions with the specific intent of making them run away. Take Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve with the demogorgon, for example.

It comes through the exact same area that it did for Joyce, and then it just...gives up the chase...for no discernible reason?

Only for it to pop back up like 30 seconds later in a totally different spot with a totally different "progression" (see: all the electricity in the house going out the second time we see the demogorgon, but not the first)

The purpose of the first instance, and of Joyce's instance, being to get our protags to run away before they're in real danger. Like...

In short: There's someone else there, they want Will to be found, and they're ringing the alarm bells whenever our protags are in danger.

See also: The unexplained call they never return to/they never tell us who the caller was...that turns into literal alarm bells at the lab right before Will sees the Mindflayer.

Sounds like a missed warning to me.

But who would have the knowledge and foresight to do something like that? Wouldn't it have to be someone in close contact with the Mindflayer?

Which directs me back to something I was saying earlier this year about S2, specifically about Will and "closegate". Will fully succumbed to the Mindflayer in less than 3 days. How was Will not only able to figure out what should have been a closely guarded secret (that secret being "how does a person stop the Mindflayer?"), but also communicate it through perfect morse code...while being fully flayed.

In contrast, per The First Shadow, young Henry had been more or less successfully managing to live with Mindflayer stuff for about 10 months—or 6 full years, per Broadway—while every other known victim had succumbed within the span of days. Also per TFS, Henry had been writing and breaking codes/ciphers since elementary school. This man knows his codes.

(See also: Will's project citing Alan Turing as his hero vs all of Alan Turing's codebreaking work against the Nazis and the Shadow being compared to an interdimensional Nazi, but also Alan as a fellow oppressed gay man...but also the direct tie between Will moving to California to escape his past and being flirted with by a pretty black girl as compared to Henry moving to Hawkins to escape his past and being flirted with by a pretty black girl...which could all mean nothing...)

On top of that, Henry, in the VR, holds his own against the Mindflayer in terms of individuality and strength of identity.

Which person sounds like a likely culprit for sending a message with sensitive information right under the Mindflayer's nose?

(See also: "closegate" being sent in morse code, the kids communicating through morse code in S4 asking for help/trying to tell people where they are and that being compared to Vecna and the lights, and Enzo—welcome back, Russia arc— sending sensitive info in code right under the Russians' noses)

Anyway, I'm stopping myself here. If you want to read more about the double agent stuff throughout the seasons, I have a post here: "

Now (May 2025), I'd like to add more on in favor of my argument, specifically this post about WBOB (TFS), SQUAWK, and the reason for the focus on the WSQK radio building:

Specifically in terms of communicating with the Upside Down, and specifically for the purposes of sending messages like "a 'lost' friend is still alive and is either in need of help or trying to help by sharing important information".

(See: Cerebro being used to discover the Russian base and coordinate its downfall with the help of a man on the inside—Alexei—and the ST1 HAM radio being able to reach Australia/"the land down under" vs it being used to communicate with Will in the UD and the whole concept of "needing a more powerful radio" to communicate across dimensions. So...tell me, again, why ST5 spent so much time at a radio tower?)

There's also the detail of the Shadow communicating with Henry via his Captain Midnight radio, indicating that the Mindflayer's "channel", so to speak, can reach radios—meaning that someone co-opting that channel could reach our protags via radio receivers.

Idk, guys. The radio thing kind of feels like a smoking gun.

[ellstinson]

the sign in this state showing that the radio station had not been in operation for a long time 😭

[jellisdraws]

The Wildlings (emblem sketch)

A first pass at an Emblem for the Wildlings. Trying to make it more cohesive and tight. I like getting to do design work like this, it comes with its own challenges

[minicy]

I love talking to kids about disability bc

1. they often just Get It, and

2. they have 0 concept of disability as a tragedy or something pitiable.

I've watched kids get into an argument with a teacher bc they thought wheelchairs were cool. I told a kid that I can't stand for too long sometimes and they replied, "That's okay, I can't do cartwheels sometimes, but I just do other stuff then. You can sit down with me if you want". Today a girl asked me what the headphones on a classmate's desk were for and I told her that headphones are important for some kids because noises bother them, and she said she wished she had headphones at home, because her baby brothers make a lot of noise and it makes it hard to think. The idea that different people could use tools at different times is intuitive and simple and when accessibility aids are explained neutrally, kids don't see them as bad or unfortunate, they're just things that are useful.

Even mental disability!! In Kindergarten the other day one of the kids asked me why his table partner got stickers when nobody else did. I started off by saying, "Well, when you do your work well, it feels good, right? That's your brain giving you a reward," and the kid just right away went, "Oh, and the stickers are like his reward?" YES! You are 5 and have a better grasp on ADHD than most adults! Kids blow me away every day.

[jaiofalltrades]

i really enjoy that i’m experiencing dashcon 2 in the same way that my forefathers experienced the original dashcon: though sporadic bursts in chaotic photos. i have no damn clue what’s going on except the ball pit is tiny, strange aeons won the duel and ousted the muppet joker, there was a live in person kung pow penis, and someone cosplayed the children’s hospital

[hawnks]

watching someone in your notes go through your entire catalogue of work

[sapphic-suchoripterus]

Ah-Duo's presence in the story means so much to me. She's literally the biggest reminder to the reader that Jinshi becoming Emperor would be a trap/bad ending for both him and Maomao. She lives with the regret of losing so many years in a gilded cage, the regret of switching her son with the Imperial Brother, of feeling that its her fault he died, the sadness of never being allowed to tell her son who she really is... and at the same time she opens her heart to people who need somewhere to go, who need a friend or a mother figure... She's the beacon character for letting go of all class and gender boundaries, and just being a human.

Also she's hot af and probably can work the strap like no one else

[flashflashhundredyarddash]

dick: this is my foster father, bruce wayne. and this is my stepdad, clark kent

clark: im not- im not his stepdad

dick: WOW

bruce: honey, how could you deny our love like that

clark: IM MARRIED

[allegedlyfunny]

[henrysglock]

D.A.D. and The Squawk: Radio-Based Mindflayer Tracking Devices

The WSQK van was leaked showing it with the radar dish/antenna that was originally in Steve’s car:

I've talked before how the antenna was reminiscent of Bob's D.A.D. (Directional Antenna Device) from TFS, which he, Joyce, and Hopper used to track down the weird radio emissions that happened every time Henry had a Mindflayer attack.

Now that the van has it, I want to talk about the WSQK slogan:

"The Squawk"

What's so special about the squawk? Well.

First: The Definition

The main protest we see is in ST3, when a guy named Henry is leading a protest against the construction of Starcourt (a cover for the Russians trying to open a gate to the UD, which would activate the Mindflayer ...interesting connection, that). It also has other ties to protesting and Starcourt, like Murray's code name being Bald Eagle and him/Nancy "squawking" about Barb's death re: HNL and the UD. You could even say Terry "squawked" about Brenner, and we all know she has an absolutely insane number of ties to both in-show Henry and TFS Henry. There's also the fact that it's vomiting rainbows vs Will vomiting up slugs vs the ties between the slugs, the Mindflayer, and Brenner/HNL.

So right off the bat the slogan is a tie to Henry, Brenner/HNL, the Mindflayer, and fighting The Man.

Second: Squawk Codes

I'm not sure how many of y'all are military/aircraft loons, but "squawk codes" were invented during WW2 as radio-transmitted codes to distinguish between Allies and Axis to avoid friendly fire as part of the IFF system "Parrot". They range from 0000 to 7777, and each one has a meaning.

This, of course, immediately had me thinking of this:

In Squawk, 3700 becomes:

What's an AEW aircraft?

Airborn Early Warning. AEW aircrafts patrol to keep on the lookout for incoming aerial and/or maritime attacks.

They're even used to track UFOs

So, given that these were implemented in WW2, we can all see the ties to Victor, yes? And how this creates a nice web of connections between all this:

And Henry/TFS? Nifty.

One last thing: IFF "Parrot"

Are we 100% sure the bird on the van is an eagle? Because while it does resemble an eagle, it also resembles a parrot.

Given that it has a short lower beak and ruffled feathers (it also happens to be colorful), whereas a screeching eagle is sleek and has an elongated lower beak:

I talked about it with Em, and we both agree that it looks like a weird eagle-parrot hybrid, which may be an intentional stylization to cover both the eagle symbolization and the IFF references (parroting having ties to mind control and the Mindflayer, as well as the threads of word repetition in ST as a whole).

In summary: If the antenna and the radio station are being used the same way Bob's D.A.D. was in TFS, then it essentially functions as a radio-based early warning system against the Mindflayer, which is supported by the design and slogan of the WSQK van.

Additional support:

There’s a poster of “The Squawk” in the theater of The First Shadow, tying the two directly together. It’s a nice final piece to the puzzle!

[starlit-bawka]

is this anything

[paladinsbrainrot]

let's take a look at how the st4 epilogue foreshadows character arcs & pairings in st5 ☆

so if all these scenes in s4 (+ many more) managed to reveal something about the direction certain characters were heading in s5.....

why haven't we seen anything about this?

maybe this is my bias talking but this is just pure interesting to me because I think the byler scene in the st4 finale is arguably the most emphasized and the most blatant case of foreshadowing out of all of these scenes, not just relating to will's connection to vecna but also mike's insistence on killing him together.

we don't have any byler scenes from the teaser (disregarding the crumb of them biking holly to school). but we know that they have been filming together for majority of the season based on leaks, pap photos, and just piecing things together.

it only makes sense that byler has a storyline together this season based on the s4 epilogue foreshadowing alone, and mike's whole speech to will that they should start working together as a team. but it's a little odd that we haven't seen any confirmation of this through the promotional material, unlike the rest of the shots from the teaser. byler is having a plot together, whether people like it or not, and it's only a question as to why the teasers are trying to keep this a secret to us. (spoiler alert: it's for shock value and being treated as a plot twist)

also — isn't it weird how mileven doesn't have a solo scene together in the s4 epilogue??? 🤔

food for thought

[carriecarriecatgirl]

you people are not serious about stopping transphobia

[lesboy-tommy]

tommy visiting the L'manhole in 2024, almost four years after L'manberg was founded

o7

[sapphic-suchoripterus]

kinda messed up that people are more forgiving of Jax for his own coping strategy and not Ragatha for hers... like they're all trapped here together, they all have problems, and sometimes people clash over opposite coping methods.

Its not about taking sides, Pomni wants to be on good terms with everyone. She even brought up Kinger's wife, hoping it would be an opportunity for everyone to know more about him.

[chirrups]

being a bird owner and bird nerd in general really does fill me with lots of small and asinine grian headcanons.

like: does grian have a gizzard? and if he does, does this guy eat rocks???