Stranger Things fans will remember that the Department of Energy is the big bad during the show's first season. The generic-sounding government entity was pretty much perfect as a benign guise for the evil people who enslaved Eleven and unleashed the Demogorgon. In fact, many viewers thought it was a fake agency.
Turns out, there's very much a Department of Energy. And they also want justice for Barb. Washington Free Beacon journalist Lachlan Markay issued a Freedom of Information Act request for the release of DoE documents that mention the show and he got more than he expected. He also got this amazing response from their press staff.
@lachlan no matter what you write, it won't bring Barb back. #JusticeForBarb
— DOE Press Staff (@EnergyPressSec) October 6, 2016
Turns out, they're as obsessed with the show as we are. They unleashed a trove of documents on Markay that make up extensive internal discussion that eventually resulted in the following blog post entitled "What 'Stranger Things' Didn't Get Quite So Right About the Energy Department." But the emails are where the real action takes place. Like this one, that clarifies that the Energy Department in fact does some of the work suggested by the show.
“It’s not true that ‘the Energy Department doesn’t explore parallel universes.’ We support theoretical physicists/cosmologists through the Office of Science High Energy Physics program, some of whom almost certainly are doing a fair amount of research on parallel universes,” the emailer writes.
They also made some shady corrections.
Update on this: these are some seriously shady redactions pic.twitter.com/3DTrHaro2c
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 6, 2016
And bemoaned the fact that their own blog spoiled the show of the summer.
These poor @energy staffers never stood a chance pic.twitter.com/kqs15AEetE
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 6, 2016
It's nice that the heretofore-unknown Energy Department is getting its moment in the sun. Finally, we'll get to the bottom of the massive conspiracy that took Barb from us. One day, they'll pay.
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