The "Rainbow Room" was a playroom Dr. Brenner set up for the psychokinetic child test subjects of Hawkins National Laboratory, including Two, Three, Four, Five, Eight, Ten, and Eleven.
The original Rainbow Room was a fairly small and nondescript room, with a small rainbow painted on the doorway. At some point in the 1970s, the Rainbow Room was relocated to a more spacious ward of the lab, and sported distinctive rainbow designs covering the walls and floor.
Description[]
The room could be differentiated from the other rooms in the lab due to a rainbow painted in its doorway. Despite its purpose as a place for play, the room itself was originally rather bleak, having plain white walls and hard white flooring.
In later years, the Rainbow Room was relocated to a more spacious ward of the lab. This new incarnation of the room featured rainbow murals covering the walls and floors, as well as several large mirrors. Numerous games and activities were set out for the children to play and interact with. The room had a distinctive coffered ceiling with recessed fluorescent squares.
History[]
Background[]
In the early years of her life at the lab, Eleven would play in the Rainbow Room with Eight.
1974[]
Terry's rescue attempt[]
In an effort to retrieve her missing daughter Jane (Eleven), Terry Ives forced her way into Hawkins Lab, threatening the lab's employees with a gun. She eventually made her way to the Rainbow Room, where she found Jane and Kali playing. However, she was caught by lab personnel before she could take Jane and escape.
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| According to one source, Terry's rescue attempt actually occurred in 1978. The security breach and commotion caused by Terry distracted the lab's staff, allowing Ricky/Three, Francine/Six and Marcy/9.5 to escape. |
1979[]
Eventually, the Rainbow Room was relocated to a more spacious ward of the lab, and painted with rainbow patterns on the wall and floor. The room was also supplied with more tables, toys, and games. The test subjects would play in the Rainbow Room during their free time and sometimes use their powers to play the games and activities set aside for them.
During Henry Creel's time as an orderly at Hawkins Lab, he took a particular liking to Eleven. After witnessing her being bullied by the other test subjects, he believed both of them were similarly misunderstood, and also believed Eleven to be the most powerful of the test subjects. Henry helped Eleven during times when her peers, mostly Two, Three, Four, and Five ridiculed her, offering encouraging words and advice.
On September 8, 1979, while Henry played chess with Eleven in the Rainbow Room, he offered her a chance to escape from the lab, giving her a key card under the table and telling her to meet him in the boiler room. After escaping to the basement, Henry showed Eleven an escape route through a drain pipe, before convincing her to use her powers to remove the "Soteria" suppressant chip from his neck, restoring Henry's long-dormant abilities. Shortly after this, security guards stormed the basement; the two reached a corridor but were surrounded by the guards. Henry used his restored powers to maim and kill the guards; he took Eleven to a storage cupboard and told her to wait there, revealing his "001" tattoo before leaving.
One proceeded to go on a murderous rampage throughout the laboratory, killing all the other test subjects and various Hawkins Lab personnel, and indirectly knocked Dr. Brenner unconscious. Eleven entered the Rainbow Room and watched in horror as Henry finished killing Two. One explained himself to Eleven, telling her of his origins and philosophy; he asked her to join him in his goal to eradicate humanity, but Eleven refused.
She used her powers to fling One into the wall; angered and disappointed, Henry stood back up and outreached his hand, with Eleven doing the same. The two test subjects engaged in a psychokinetic duel, with Henry initially overwhelming and almost killing Eleven. However, Eleven, finding strength in a distant memory, ultimately overpowered One, pinning him against the wall of the Rainbow Room. She began disintegrating his body, but somehow, she opened an interdimensional gate in the wall, through which One was transported.
The gate began to seal up, and just after the membrane separating the worlds finished healing, Brenner, having recovered consciousness, entered the Rainbow Room. Though he initially believed Eleven was responsible for the massacre, he later learned One was to blame after reviewing surveillance footage. Brenner was bewildered by One's disappearance, and wondered if he was still out there somewhere, "hiding in the darkness".
1984[]
After reuniting with her mother, Eleven was able to see Terry's memory of breaking into the lab and finding the Rainbow Room. Through this memory, Eleven was able to find and reunite with Kali.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Rainbows were rumored to be connected to MKUltra; some claim the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz was used in the mind control experiments, especially the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". However, there is no evidence to support this claim.
- The Rainbow Room may also reference the 2010 film, Beyond the Black Rainbow, a film that shares many similarities with Stranger Things.
References
Canon hierarchy[]
- ↑ Information from Stranger Things: SIX, a Tier 3 source, conflicts with what's presented in the main series.
- The fourth season's depiction of Three and Six is at odds with the versions from the Stranger Things comics. Additionally, the dating of Terry's rescue attempt differs between the two portrayals.
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| Locations | Rainbow Room • Mothergate |
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