Stranger Things season 2: Secure, Contain, Protect.

I saw Stranger things season one, and picked up the obvious Dungeons and Dragons theme which was set up from the get go but somehow my extremely nerdy ass completely missed the deeper connection to Things like Control and SCP.

What the fuck is an SCP? Secure Contain Protect, one of the biggest online collaborative writing projects on the Nerdy side of the internet.

It highlights a super secretive organization that as its name suggests Secures Contains and protects the normal public from entities that breaks physical laws/act in unnatural ways.

Control is a game based on this very premise, and hence heavily inspired from SCP, where you play as Jesse Faden, a character with Telekinetic abilities very similar to that of eleven, given to her by an entity known as Polaris or Hadron, who is sound resonance based consciousness and the "good" counterpart to the main evil in the story: The Hiss.

The main reason I bring this similarity up is because of the names given to the "test subjects" Namely: 008 and 011, that combined with the nature of the show, focusing on entities that come from a place completely foreign to our and hence follow different rules altogether, plus the fact that the govt. and Hawkins lab work as the shady organization covering it all up, and you see where this is going.

In fact the Upside Down can itself be an SCP, it is similar in nature to SCP-106, which is a pocket Dimension in that universe.

For context: everything the organization monitors/contains is called an "SCP". And they are named SCP-011, SCP-107 like this.

This is an artistic depiction of the pocket Dimension by Amamidori on r/SCP.

Now, everyone reading this must be thinking, so what? Also aren't the numbers more likely references to Nazis branding the Jews? And running experiments on them?

Maybe, one thing can be a reference to more than one thing.

But more importantly, the similarities to SCP, make it easy for me to predict what is coming in the future.

But before we get to that, let us talk about what is actually going on in this season.

And I like for one that they picked up on what me an probably a lot of other fans felt watching season 1, that Barbara was completely treated like trash and just simply cast to the wayside without any further explanation.

I mean sure, Will came back, but Barbara was also a loss, and that was barely mentioned, especially the fact that this came after a soft betrayal by Nancy, her supposed best friend.

I mean yes, the entire Investigation Nancy and John go on is because of Barbara, but I can't be the only one who felt dissatisfied.

Although seeing the way the story went, it feels more like a planned thing, like they planned for things to go this specific way so that the audience felt what characters like Nancy felt.

Also, the fact that this season basically built up in the background for the reveal of the shady activities at Hawkins to the wider world and the fact that it happened because of Barb lends further credence to the idea that this was planned from the start.

We learn a lot more about the lore of Upside down, including the fact that the Demogorgon, basically the main villain of the previous season is now just a lackey for a much larger big bad.

And speaking of which, is it strange to anyone that in spite of the Big bad being very vague and without much characterization for two seasons, this show is still pretty interesting for two seasons.

I guess that goes to show how interestingly the characters are written.

Speaking of well written characters Remember Jim hopper?

And how he had a missing daughter?

I guess it was only natural for him to be paired with Eleven as a sort of proxy father

These two are somehow the most wholesome and heartbreaking part of this story.

Wholesome because seeing a father who lost his daughter to cancer with a daughter whose parents and Childhood were stolen from her is obviously heartwarming.

Heartbreaking because even though we see that Hopper is clearly trying and knows how to be a good father, trying to keep her safe means that he can't give her the freedom every kid her age desires and needs.

A situation that becomes unintentionally abusive with good intentions.

On the opposite end of that spectrum we have Maxine or Madmax, someone who is given almost a hundred percent free reign on going out by her parents and is at least initially outwardly very independent, but in her getting an almost free reign from her parents, her abusive elder brother places random nonsense limits on her, he does this mostly because of his abusive father and the fact that he hates that he has a new woman in his life.

He cannot get angry on his step mother, so he takes it out on his step sister.

A situation that becomes abusive in a complete lack of supervision, two extremes, both abusive.

The difference also lies in intent and outcome, for one by the end, Hopper and Eleven or Jane make up because Hopper did mean well, and he understands that a young woman her age will naturally want to go out.

He doesn't even hate the new punk look, even though it is most definitely a sign that she has been upto some crime.

Kali, or 008 is yet another "subject" from the Hawkins lab, who unlike Eleven can make people see things that aren't there, she also happens to be her sister.

She finds out about her because she visits her mother who also has powers, meaning that she too was probably experimented on, I guess the people at the lab tried with Adults first, but when that didn't work they switched to children.

What exactly were they up to?

Doesn't matter though, cause if there is a 011, and a 008 then there has to be a 001, and the reason that is so important is because within the lore of SCP, SCP 001 is extremely mysterious and a big point of theories.

No one knows what it is.

Some believe it to be the "Gate Guardian" or the Angel that stands guard in front of the Garden of Eden, the Scarlet King, or perhaps the foundation itself.

Whatever it is, no one can pin point what the first Anomaly was.

And that means, if Stranger things takes inspiration from SCP, then 001 will play an equally big role in the story.

001 may even be the big bad.

I hope I am right, and if I am, then please do believe me that I have done everything to avoid spoilers, I mean I do know that eventually the Villain is someone called Vecna, but I only know that cause I saw a reel of him being compared to Voldemort, seriously other than the fact that he looks like a peeled onion I don't anything about him.

If I had to guess who he is, I would say he looks like Kro from Eternals, and is similarly an evolution of a Demogorgon or something, who knows maybe he is the Mindflayer.

And that would make sense because the very first Anomaly would be the Upside Down itself and hence a ruler would be called 001...

Please don't kill me on how wrong I am later.

Who the fuck knows.

What we do know is that the detective who no one listens to is right about a lot of things, including.

It is he who suggests that perhaps revealing everything is a bad move, we want the people who hurt Barb to pay, so we focus on that, and not throwing off the curtain.

Because, and this is important, and probably the main reason organizations like the SCP are allowed to exist and decide what can and can't be revealed to the Public.

Most people love the curtain, they don't want it opened, they want to return to their comfortable lives, and so shady people can do whatever they like, so long as they stay behind it.

Because even if it comes out, no one will believe it.

He also Suggests that Jonathan and Nancy give each other a chance, which was wholesome to see, alongside him finally getting the recognition he so deserved.

And Steve... Oh poor Steve...

All that aside though, why is poor will always the Target? is this like an Allegory for something?

I don't know.

No poor Sweetheart, you don't get to be sorry, you were the one who was Victimized.

You and poor Bob, because god forbid a Woman get some well deserved happiness from an actually good man.

Good and Stupid, because anyone that knows anything, knows that once you have put a flimsy wooden door in between a threat and you, you leg it out of there and definitely do not stop to admire your girlfriend as relief washes over you.

ITS TOO EARLY FOR RELIEF, GET THE FUCK OUTTA THERE, YOUR SWEET REUNION CAN WAIT.

So Bob while you are missed, I do not feel sorry for you, you were an idiot, sorry I know I am heartless, Sorry not Sorry.