The Department of Energy Has Shared its Feelings About Stranger Things
Images via Netflix TV News Stranger ThingsStranger Things doesn’t exactly depict The United States Department of Energy in the best possible light. After the show ended, it seemed easy to wonder what exactly they were up to at the DOE. In response to this curiosity, the department recently released a blog post titled “What ‘Stranger Things’ Didn’t Get Quite-So-Right About the Energy Department.”
According to the post, while the DOE “doesn’t chart parallel universes, it does power the exploration of new worlds.” That appeared to settle things until earlier this week, when Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz appeared on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show to address the questions surrounding the DOE. During the interview, Moniz seemed willing to play into the rumors started by the show and contradict the blog post, saying “I will note that we do work in parallel universes.”
In order to clear up this whole mess, a writer for the Washington Free Beacon filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Energy’s public affairs office to get their official assessment of Stranger Things. The load he received in return wasn’t light.
I FOIA’d DOE’s public affairs office for internal talk of Netflix’s Stranger Things. This is…more than I expected pic.twitter.com/asSgPllk8J
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 6, 2016
In sorting through that pile of pages, it was discovered that what Moniz had said was in fact true. In an email, the department’s director of strategic communications and messaging said:
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.
One employee also said “we actually do make weapons,” and then dove into the department’s history of experimentation.
Update on this: these are some seriously shady redactions pic.twitter.com/3DTrHaro2c
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 6, 2016
All terrifying conspiracies aside, these DOE employees are just as spoiler-phobic as everyone else, which means they were upset by all the Stranger Things spoilers contained in the department’s blog post.
These poor @energy staffers never stood a chance pic.twitter.com/kqs15AEetE
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 6, 2016
One last note: even the DOE is upset about Barb.
@lachlan no matter what you write, it won’t bring Barb back. #JusticeForBarb
— DOE Press Staff (@EnergyPressSec) October 6, 2016