#this is technically my first analysis but i have one in my drafts for stncy being like a stereotypical rom com and how that is conformity

[emily-mooon]

In the The First Shadow, George and Betty Are New Characters and Not Characters we Already Know

I have seen a lot of theories go around as to who George and Betty might be, But one thing about those theories always makes me think one thing. Why would they hide names of characters we already know and can assume that are in it due to other characters?

Let me start of with saying that there is nothing wrong with liking the theories. Some of them are cool and do make sense in some way. To me they don’t make sense due to that question I put forward and age discrepancies between the characters put forward and George and Betty.

Now let’s get into the first part. The character ideas.

1.1 George is either Henry or Lonnie

Out of the two, Henry is the most common answer I have seen so we will start with him. A lot of people assume that George Smith is an alias for Henry Creel. A cover up. This does make a bit of sense as in the recently released audition tapes, George has some connection to flickering lights as Betty was able to sense him and also was hiding something during confessional. But there are two things wrong with this theory: age and appearance.

On the casting call, it says that George is 14.

But Henry’s age in the show is stated as being 12 (in the newspaper article). The Duffers are known for not being the best at continuity with little details for characters so this could easily mean nothing but season 4 and this play were probably written at the same time because as stated before, the play will be apart of the series canon. They do not want anything about it to not make sense with anything we have seen already.

This is where we now move onto Lonnie. It has been pointed out that the possible(?) actor for George looks a lot like Lonnie and nothing like Henry (source henrysglock).

This is a more underrated theory. It is a really good one as well but again the issue with age comes up. If George is fourteen, how would he interact with Joyce, a high school senior?

Now it has been hinted at that Lonnie will be in the play by the writers, but not in the place of George. Here’s my theory:

In the synopsis that was released on the day the play was revealed, it states two things about Joyce an Hopper (sorry for bad image quality)

Hopper’s car won’t start and Joyce wants to leave Hawkins. I think that Lonnie is a bit older than Joyce (he’s around 19-20). He makes these promises to her while Hopper is figuring out what’s wrong with his car that he is her way out of Hawkins and tells lies about Hopper. In the process, Joyce falls in love with Lonnie and the same goes for him as well.

Now this does not mean that it’s still possible. Lonnie could be fourteen at the time of events. It would be weird considering the fact that Joyce is around eighteen at the time and I’m a bit weirded out by that idea. But these theories bring me back to the question from the start. Why would they need to hide Lonnie and Henry’s names in a casting call when we already know that they are going to be in it?

By proxy, we know that Lonnie will be in it because Joyce is in it. We know that Henry is in it because he is on the promotional material. We already know these characters. We have seen them already in the show. This means that George is a new character we have never met.

Let’s move on to Betty.

1.2 Betty is Ms. Kelley

I have seen this idea once. Like the other ones it’s good, but go back to the discrepancies. I also have some of my own personal issues with Ms. Kelley theories. I personally think that she is a red herring. Everything about her seems too obvious. The clock key necklace, the clocks everywhere, and many more feel too on the nose.

If you don’t know what a red herring is, here is the definition (look at the highlighted text or #2):

In mysteries, the most obvious suspicious person is never the killer, it always the one you least suspect. The clock stuff is meant to distract you from what is actually going to happen and who is actually responsible.

Also the way I saw this theory gets tied in with how Henry is actually George but since we can disprove it with two things, I think her role if she is in the play could be different. I will explain it after this next section on who George and Betty actually are.

2. Who They Are

Now that we have gone through the theories, who could Betty and George actually be? They aren’t characters we have seen before so who are they? Let me tell you.

The descriptions of Betty and George remind me of two characters: Nancy and Jonathan.

Pale and moody outcast? That’s Jonathan.

Goody two shoes falling for said pale and moody outcast? Sounds like Nancy.

Obviously they cannot be in it since they are not actually alive yet, but the role of Betty and George is like theirs.

Betty is going to be the first person who notices that weird things are going on. Eventually, George gets sucked in and the two work together to figure out what's happening and come to a conclusion. The conclusion being that Henry is behind it. Just like Jonathan and Nancy, a bit of a romance is going to spark between them as it states in Betty's description that she is falling for George.

Now where does Ms. Kelley fit into all this? Well I think that the key-clock necklace she wears around her neck is important. Betty gives it to her for safe keeping and the way that they know each other is through church as Betty would help out I assume. Unwillingly, Ms. Kelley is used by Vecna to find people he can curse as the necklace she wears is connected to the grandfather clock we see used a lot by him.

But what about the stuff with George having powers and being able to see into the mindscape? Well this post from a Twitter thread I saw through my lurking (I don’t have twitter) sums up what I’m thinking:

George could be a target of Henry’s because if George has similarities to Jonathan, he could be the only person who sees Henry’s true character and Henry may or may not like that because it would ruin his plans.

Another idea is that Henry uses George as a human test subject with his powers because so far we have only seen him use them on animals. Henry is not stupid to jump into a plan he wants to work. In the process George gets cursed somehow.

I don’t know exactly how these two ideas would work with what we currently know about the upside down but anything is possible I guess.

Feel free to expand upon my ideas. All input is welcome. I guess I hope you all have a good day tomorrow!