What looms on the horizon for Hawkins, Indiana?
What is Vecna's villainous future plan?
And seriously, what's happening between Will and Mike?
Here are some of the biggest mysteries the Duffer Brothers left for us to mull over until
"Stranger Things" season 5.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
Eleven has a twisted past with the manipulative mad scientist Martin Brenner, aka "Papa".
Brenner first orders Eleven to make telekinetic contact with the entity he refers to as "the
monster" way back in Season 1.
This connection unleashes a demogorgon and cracks open The Mothergate — the first known
passage between Hawkins and the Upside Down.
With what we now know about Vecna, this places even more blame on Brenner for the otherworldly
consequences that devastate Hawkins.
In Stranger Things 4, Brenner plays a central role in reactivating Eleven's telekinetic
abilities, but he also shackles her with a restrictive, power-inhibiting collar.
Then, before he dies, he unlocks the imprisoning device.
This final gesture probably isn't as redemptive as Brenner wishes it was – after he so recently
and selfishly tried to contain Eleven, his motivations are mostly rooted in self-interest,
as far as we know.
Assumedly, he knows Eleven has to be the one to defeat Vecna and save the world, so he
releases her.
Did he truly love Eleven like a daughter, or is Vecna right about Brenner's primary
goal of harnessing their greatness?
Maybe Brenner does care for Eleven, but certainly not in the selfless way Hopper does.
Though we may have seen the last of Brenner, his mysterious nature could still haunt the
final season.
Noah Schnapp did a tremendous job delicately portraying Will's navigation of his sexual
identity in Season 4 and even appears to enjoy sharing his thoughts on Stranger Things ships
with fans.
Schnapp has openly discussed the beauty of portraying Will's experience, though he also
says Will's actions leave room for audience interpretation.
Then again, when Will has to pick a heroic figure from history for a school diorama project
in Season 4, he picks Alan Turing.
Turing was a brilliant man of math, science, and philosophy who was persecuted for being
gay in 1952.
Rather than face jail, he was chemically castrated and died from cyanide poisoning in 1954.
While everyone can admire Turing's courage in the face of homophobia, Will's studies
of the mathematician exist within the specific context of his seemingly unrequited feelings
for Mike – feelings that are especially difficult in the context of the 1980s.
At the end of Season 4, these feelings remain unexplored, but the series has seemingly been
hinting at Will's long path toward self-acceptance since the very first episode.
"Look.
He's a… sensitive kid.
Lonnie used to say he was queer."
We won't know if Will's sexuality ever gets openly addressed and fully celebrated until
the final season – but if it does, we hope the poor kid finally finds some peace.
The series consistently explores Eleven's mysterious origin story, though one crucial
question remains unanswered at the end of Stranger Things 4: who is Eleven's biological
father?
Fan theories have gone wild since the series premiered with identities ranging from Brenner
to Vecna himself.
With the final season on the horizon, will we finally learn the truth?
There's a case to be made for both Brenner and Vecna.
The recent season displayed Empire Strikes Back-like themes with our heroes suffering
devastating losses on the cusp of an epic final showdown.
With that in mind, could we get a similar Empire-style reveal in Season 5, with Vecna
announcing that he's Eleven's dad?
A "Luke, I am your father moment" would fit right into "Stranger Things" 80s pop culture
collage, and a hereditary telekinetic ability could explain the strength of her power as
opposed to the other kids at the Hawkins Lab.
It's also possible Brenner is her biological father, which makes his electroshock treatments
on her mother even more damning and monstrous in hindsight.
If he is her father, his paternalistic feelings might be what motivates him to remove her
collar in Volume 2.
Then again, maybe what matters most is the father who was there for Eleven?
Because that would, of course, be Hopper.
As we learn more and more about the mythology of Stranger Things and the Upside Down, viewers
have remained dedicated to figuring out all the specific ins and outs.
In a pivotal flashback, we learn that Eleven sent One to the Upside Down, which is how
he became Vecna.
One detail in particular is a little unclear at first — did Eleven create the entire
Upside Down or just open the Mothergate?
Variety asked Millie Bobbie Brown herself this question, and she provided some much-needed
clarity.
She said,
"I think that the alternate universe was always there [...] That is always going to be under
Hawkins.
I just think she has access to it.
I don't think that she created the Upside Down."
This spine-tingling detail puts Vecna at a big advantage going into Season 5 with the
Upside Down's groundbreaking invasion of Hawkins.
Speaking of Vecna, where is he now?
The last time we see him, in true horror movie fashion, the seemingly dead Big Bad has suspiciously
vanished.
We know for a fact that he's badly injured after sustaining a rain of cocktail fire via
Robin and several shotgun blasts from Nancy, but where is he hiding?
We also learn more about his ability to indirectly inhabit other people through the spore-like
smoke of the Mind Flayer, so it may be a while before we see the physical form of him again.
Vecna will surely take his time plotting his next move while he heals up now that Hawkins
is smoldering and broken.
Can Eleven use her powers to track his physical form, or will he keep the Stranger Things
gang busy with his vicious underworld creatures while his spores spread?
We'll find out in Stranger Things Season 5, slated for release in 2024 because good things
come to those who wait.
The fourth clock chimes and Hawkins falls.
It's an unthinkable moment signaling Vecna's victory, but it may have also pointed out
an important location for the final season.
Four gates form paths to the Upside Down and shatter Hawkins until converging in a four-way
center — but where's the building they meet at?
It could be insignificant, but the symbolism of this location would probably give Will
goosebumps.
The four paths meet at the Hawkins Public Library, which plays a major role in Season
1.
It's the Upside Down nest where the Demogorgon drags Will and Barb as well as numerous other
unfortunate souls.
The most notable and frightening detail of the library is the unscathed clock tower.
Vecna's icon quickly became the clock and its dreaded accompanying chimes that he forces
his victims to see and hear before they die.
Could this be signaling where the damaged Vecna is hiding and healing?
The building is covered in black vines in the epilogue and Will did say he could feel
Vecna in Hawkins, so it seems plausible.
When Max's limbs began grotesquely twisting in the manner of Vecna's previous victims,
many viewers were stunned.
Stranger Things has killed off fan-favorite characters in prior seasons, but subjecting
spunky teenage Max — who the audience has been getting to know ever since she's first
introduced in 2017's Season 2 — to a brutally violent demise would've felt like a grim,
dark choice, even by the horror-adjacent standards of Stranger Things.
That's why it's scary when Eleven tries to reach Max in her coma and finds nothing but
darkness.
What does this mean for Max?
There are two possible options here, as far as we can see.
In the first, Max never wakes from her coma; her brain simply died when her heart stopped.
In the other scenario, Vecna still has a hold of Max's mind.
The latter is more probable, and we can even infer that Vecna may use her as a hostage
of some kind in the final season.
Hopefully, with the recently announced time jump, Max will awake in Season 5 on her own.
If not, there may be a time-travel twist awaiting us when Stranger Things returns that reverses
the events of the Season 4 finale.
Remember: Season 4 confirms the Upside Down is stuck in 1983.
Steve makes his lasting feelings for Nancy pretty clear throughout Season 4.
Jonathan and Nancy are still dating, although he's keeping a secret about his future plans
that seems to be pushing her away.
The two planned to attend Emerson College together at one point, but Jonathan intends
to save money by going to community college while also keeping an eye on his family and
has yet to break the news.
Jonathan numbs his feelings with marijuana and pizza in California while Steve struggles
with romance and rewound VHS tapes at Family Video in Hawkins.
However, Steve and Nancy's recent harrowing adventures against Vecna may have reignited
that spark between them.
When Jonathan jokes about Steve's irresponsibility in the finale, Nancy defends him by saying
he's actually matured a lot.
"He's… actually…
grown up quite a bit, ya know?"
"Yeah."
Could this be foreshadowing a renewed relationship in Season 5?
As Hawkins prepares for the showdown of a lifetime, who will live to see the very end?
The final season could quite possibly pack a punch if more than a few beloved characters
lose their lives in the ultimate clash against Vecna.
The most burning question of all is ... who will survive?
This season, we tearfully watched Eddie Munson sacrifice himself in the finale and die in
the arms of Dustin.
Will this inspire Dustin to do the same for his friends next season?
Steve made it through Season 4 in one piece, but could he tragically fall victim to Vecna
immediately after reuniting with Nancy?
Could Hopper, who's evaded death countless times, finally run out of luck?
We've been following these characters since the premiere of Stranger Things in 2016, so
we would definitely prefer a happy ending for everybody.
But in Vecna's nightmare world, that doesn't seem too likely.
In an unforeseen move, Vecna wins the battle and achieves his four deaths to forcibly unite
the Upside Down with Hawkins.
His menacing influence starts taking over the town and draining the life force out of
everything it touches, with flowers reduced to ashy dust.
Eleven looks over the decaying field with a determined look that indicates she's hellbent
on killing Vecna for good.
Can they stop his spores from spreading as they fall over Hawkins like snow?
To reference Star Wars again, our Hawkins heroes may need to retreat to their own version
of Dagobah and find a master like Yoda to train with.
Maybe they'll make their way to Pittsburgh to visit a certain telekinetic sibling, or
even return to California for a much-needed doobie and a couple slices of Surfer Boy pizza.
Then again, there's a chance they'll spend some time back in 1983 via the Upside Down,
but we won't know for sure until Stranger Things returns for the fifth and final season.
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