Stranger Things Season 5’s big reveal about the other side was in plain sight all along

This article contains spoilers for “Stranger Things.”

The “Stranger Things” saga is in its final stretch, and things seem pretty complicated at the moment. Henry/Vecna ​​(Jamie Campbell Bower) wants to merge Hawkins with a dark dimension for some reason, which is why Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and co. we must fight one last epic fight. As we prepare for the series finale, much of what we know about the Upside Down needs to be recontextualized in light of the big reveal its true nature. In “Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz”, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) looks through Brenner’s (Matthew Modine) journal and learns that Vecna’s shield is made of exotic material and that the Upside Down is actually a wormhole. This revelation comes as a shock, as the series has always presented it as a parallel dimension, essentially a reverse mirror of the town of Hawkins.

But assumptions about a strange realm can be wrong, and that’s exactly what Dustin says when he explains that the Upside Down functions as a bridge between Hawkins and a place called Dimension X. It’s not a physical bridge, of course, but one that tears space-time apart because it’s held together by exotic matter (forms of matter that are either hypothetical or insufficiently understood). He calls this dimension the Abyss, which is the true home of all the wicked creatures the party has encountered, including the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer. With this new information in mind, we can deduce that Eleven must have propelled Henry into the Abyss (and not The Upside Down) during their first confrontation in 1979.

Looking back, the first four episodes of season 5 shed some light on wormhole theory, thanks to a scene with Erica (Priah Ferguson) and science teacher Scott Clarke (Randy Havens).

In the classroom scene, Mr. Clarke is teaching wormhole theory, and the term “Einstein-Rosen Bridge” can be seen on the blackboard along with a theoretical diagram of a wormhole. Erica mentions that wormholes allow matter to travel between distant dimensions without actually passing through the space in between, to which Clarke responds with the unstable nature of these structures. He also believes that if the stability issue is resolved, it would open up the possibility of travel to another time. Now it’s a clue hidden in plain sight, along with the wormhole-shaped mural that Will (Noah Schnapp) draws to depict his vision while declaring that it is somehow important to Vecna’s plans. The penultimate episode also sets up the inevitable collapse of the wormhole (the Upside Down) before Vecna ​​can merge the Abyss with the real world.

Parts of this story echo the Director’s Cut of “Donnie Darko”, where a parallel reality (known as the Tangent Universe) also turns out to be an unstable wormhole. As the Tangent Universe is doomed to collapse on itself, it leaves the Primary Universe (the real world) in danger. To prevent this, the protagonist sacrifices himself to travel back in time and prevent the creation of the wormhole – this ensures the safety of everyone destined to die except himself. “Stranger Things” seems to hint at a similar conclusion, where Donnie’s sacrifice could be an inspiration for Eleven, who intends to stay on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge as it collapses in on itself. This could trigger a reset, with Hawkins traveling back in time to before Will’s disappearance on November 6, 1983. Without Eleven, there is no Upside Down or Vecna, which would undo all the deaths we’ve witnessed.

Since wormholes are naturally unstable and only survive for a short time, there must be a reason why the Upside Down hasn’t collapsed in on itself yet. Dustin’s hunch that the Upside Down would collapse if they shot the shield generator turns out to be wrong, so there must be a power source preventing its destruction. This source could be Will himself, as his disappearance was the catalyst for all the events that followed.. Alternatively, Eleven could be the unintentional source, which is why her likely death would make sense in connection with the destruction of the kingdom.

We also know that Vecna ​​used Will and the other children to do his bidding with good old mind control and manipulation, but was every death in Hawkins specifically caused to open a door? Seasons 4 and 5 support the gate sacrifice theory, but the deaths of characters like Barb (Shannon Purser) seem arbitrary in comparison, as the Demogorgon kills her seemingly for no reason. Are these deaths necessary to maintain the integrity of the wormhole? We don’t know yet, but the series finale could offer a compelling answer.

Going back to the possible end of time travel, this wouldn’t work for a series like “Stranger Things” for several reasons. Donnie’s sacrifice in the film, although tragic, can be justified in the context of the scientific rules of this fictional world. It’s a necessary sacrifice that forces a teenager to be selfless in the face of a global catastrophe. Eleven’s sacrifice would undoubtedly be an emotional gut punch, but a clean reset of the timeline would devalue every lived experience and character arc. Hopefully Netflix’s mega-hit will offer a smarter solution to such a vast saga.