{"id":311957,"date":"2025-11-27T10:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T10:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/311957\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T10:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T10:17:11","slug":"what-to-know-from-past-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/311957\/","title":{"rendered":"What To Know From Past Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT! This post contains major plot details from the first four episodes of Netflix<\/a>\u2018s Stranger Things<\/a> 5.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hawkins crew are set for one last adventure in Stranger Things 5<\/a>, which debuted with four episodes on Wednesday evening. While there\u2019s an 18 month time gap between the events of Seasons 4 and 5, it\u2019s been more than three years since there were any new episodes of Stranger Things.<\/p>\n

\n\tCreators Matt and Ross Duffer have sought to meticulously divulge more details about the supernatural forces that are plaguing the small Indiana town across the last four seasons, and it\u2019s all leading to this. So, that means remembering details from all the way back to the beginning of the series when Will Byers disappears, which is actually how Season 5 opens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether you didn\u2019t have the chance to rewatch 30+ hours of Stranger Things before Season 5\u2019s launch or you just need a way to keep track of everything as the first four episodes of Stranger Things 5 catapult viewers deeper into the show\u2019s mythology, this guide is for you.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, we\u2019ll take you episode by episode for a refresher on the pertinent information from Seasons 1 through 4 needed to keep up with Stranger Things 5 Vol. 1. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"L-R:<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\t\tEpisode 1: \u201cThe Crawl\u201d\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWill Byers disappeared on November 6, 1983<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 5 opens with a flashback to November 12, 1983<\/a>, six days after Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) went missing. It gives us the first glimpse at what Will was going through while he was in the Upside Down, and it directly ties his disappearance to Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) for the first time.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe scene begins with Will muttering The Clash\u2019s \u201cShould I Stay Or Should I Go,\u201d<\/a> a song that his brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) introduces him to during a flashback in Season 1, Episode 2 to distract from their parents\u2019 arguing. The same song also starts blasting from Jonathan\u2019s bedroom speakers the first time that the lights flicker in the Byers\u2019 house, convincing Joyce (Winona Ryder) that Will is trying to communicate with her.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Stars Noah Schnapp & Millie Bobby Brown On Revisiting Their Season 1 Performances For The De-Aging Process In Later Episodes<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tStranger Things began with Will\u2019s disappearance on November 6, 1983. It\u2019s been confirmed that he spent about a week in the Upside Down.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Season 1 finale, Joyce and Hopper (David Harbour) find Will inside Hawkins Library, buried beneath the flesh-like vines on the wall with some sort of tentacle pumping something into his mouth, just like he\u2019s seen at the end of the opening sequence of Season 5.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Season 5 flashback explains how he got there. After days of evading the Demogorgon, it finally apprehended him and brought him to Vecna. <\/p>\n

\n\tEleven first opened the gate to the Upside Down<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso worth remembering: In Season 4, we learn the the Upside Down is frozen in time on the day Will disappeared, because it\u2019s also the day the primary gate to the dimension was opened unintentionally by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) during a psychic experiment gone wrong. Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) had wanted her to try to make psychic contact with a Demogorgon, and it created a tear in the fabric of reality. The action allows the creature to come into Hawkins, which sets off the chain of events that led to Will\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy is Hawkins militarized?<\/p>\n

\n\tRobin (Maya Hawke) catches viewers up on the final events of Season 4<\/a> during her morning broadcast as the new host of Hawkins\u2019 local radio station. She also reveals that the town is under military quarantine. \u201cI mean, what town on earth can match our very impressive military-to-civilian ratio?\u201d she says cheekily.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Soundtrack Through The Seasons: From The Clash To Kate Bush<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAfter being split up for most of Season 4, everyone reunited in Hawkins in Episode 409, \u201cThe Piggyback,\u201d just as Vecna opened four gates to the Upside Down (now temporarily covered by giant sheets of metal), using the lives of four people, including Max (Sadie Sink). Eleven was able to save Max from dying, but she\u2019s still in a coma. The gates split the small Indiana town apart and sent a huge ash cloud overhead, which Robin jokes that they all \u201cinhaled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is still a gate to the Upside Down open in Hawkins at the convergence site of the four massive gates Vecna opened, and it\u2019s highly secure in the Military Access Control Zone (or the MAC-Z).<\/p>\n

\n\tHellfire Club<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Joseph<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJoseph Quinn in \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Season 4<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tDustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is the only one still associating himself with the Hellfire Club at Hawkins High School, because the rest of the student body still thinks Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) is responsible for killing Vecna\u2019s victims last season. The Hellfire Club was just a Dungeons & Dragons club that the boys belonged to, but after the town\u2019s series of murders, people began to think of it as a satanic club and suspected Eddie of the crimes.<\/p>\n

\n\tKnowing that he was still facing those accusations, Eddie sacrificed himself inside the Upside Down to help the gang escape a horde of Demobats by playing the guitar solo from Metallica\u2019s \u201cMaster of Puppets\u201d to attract them to himself instead. It was his final, heroic act. Eddie and Dustin were particularly close, so he\u2019s likely still grieving that loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBurning the Upside Down <\/p>\n

\n\tWe know that the fleshy monsters that emerge from the Upside Down have an aversion to heat and can be killed by fire. It\u2019s one of the few things that can actually harm them. This also explains why people who are under the Mind Flayer\u2019s control have an extreme aversion to heat. Throughout Season 2, Will is completely incapacitated every time that an entity from the Upside Down is exposed to fire. In the Season 2 finale, Joyce uses extreme heat (via heaters, while Will is strapped down to a bed in Hopper\u2019s cabin) to get the Mind Flayer dust out of Will and sever Will\u2019s connection to the Upside Down \u2014 or so she thought \u2014\u00a0so that Eleven can close the gate at Hawkins Lab. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe kids also used heat to determine that Billy (Dacre Montgomery) is under the control of the Mind Flayer in Season 3, when they lock him in the sauna.<\/p>\n

\n\tEleven\u2019s sensory deprivation<\/p>\n

\n\tEleven has been using sensory deprivation since the very first season of Stranger Things. It allows her to enter \u201cThe Void,\u201d which is a blank space inside her mind where she can use extrasensory perception to locate other sentient beings. In the first episode of Season 5, Steve says El can\u2019t find Vecna \u201cin her bath,\u201d which is how they occasionally refer to The Void, using that as a justification for why he thinks the big bad monster is already dead.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tunnels<\/p>\n

\n\tYou might recognize those tunnels that Hopper, Joyce, Eleven and the rest of the crew are using to get around undetected. They\u2019re the same tunnels from Season 2, when the Upside Down gate at Hawkins Lab was expanding below ground without the scientists\u2019 knowledge. Hopper discovered them in Episode 205, \u201cDig Dug,\u201d and the Demodogs used the system to get around underground undetected. When that long gash of a gate was closed, those tunnels were also no longer connected to the Upside Down.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Season 2, when Will is connected to the Mind Flayer, he draws the series of interconnected tunnels on a ton of pieces of paper through what he referred to as his \u201cnow-memories\u201d (more on that later). Joyce realizes that the edges connect, and she pieces them together to create the map around the walls of her house. You\u2019ll want to remember this for Episode 504, \u201cSorcerer,\u201d as well.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Nell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\t\tEpisode 2: \u201cThe Vanishing of \u2026 ***** Wheeler\u201d\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWill\u2019s connection to the Upside Down<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the end of the first season, Will is seen throwing up a slug-like entity into the bathroom sink, an ominous sign that he is still connected to the Upside Down. From then on, he\u2019s always able to sense when creatures from the Upside Down are near, because he\u2019ll get goosebumps on the back of his neck and experience a sinking feeling.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: The Duffer Brothers Finally \u201cLet The Cat Out Of The Bag\u201d With A Nightmarish \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Season 5 Episode 2 Cold Open<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIn Season 2, the remaining link he has to the alternate dimension grows when Will begins to see the Mind Flayer, a massive shadowy figure that haunts the Upside Down. It happens gradually, as Will\u2019s reality occasionally shifts inexplicably to the Upside Down, and he can see the storm brewing as the Mind Flayer gets closer to him. During one of those encounters, the Mind Flayer pumps some sort of dust into his body, which in turn allows the shadowy creature to increasingly infiltrate Will. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the physical symptoms he experienced, Will would also have these visions that he called \u201cnow-memories\u201d while he was infected by the Mind Flayer, allowing him to see what it saw. The rest of the group came to understand this as a \u201chive mind\u201d that the Mind Flayer could control.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut, even after they get the Mind Flayer particles out of Will at the end of the season, he is still able to sense when the monster is near in Season 3. In Season 4, Will is less connected to the hive mind, because he\u2019s moved to California. However, when he returns to Hawkins at the end of the season, he experiences those same ominous symptoms, leading him to believe Vecna is still out there.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat happened to Max?<\/p>\n

\n\tThis will become even more relevant in Season 5, Episode 3, but you\u2019re probably already searching for a refresher on what happened to Max. We know she\u2019s still in a coma and, in Episode 2, Lucas plays Kate Bush\u2019s \u201cRunning Up That Hill (Deal With God)\u201d for an unconscious Max in her hospital room. <\/p>\n

\n\tMax was Vecna\u2019s primary target in Season 4. He exploits her grief and guilt over her brother Billy\u2019s death at the end of Season 3 to invade her mind and manipulate her. At the end of Season 4, once the Hawkins crew realizes Vecna\u2019s plan to open the four gates to the Upside Down, they devise a plan that includes using Max as bait to distract the monster inside her mind while Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Steve (Joe Keery) and Robin attack his physical body. Eleven \u201cpiggybacks\u201d into Max\u2019s mind to help her friend out, and she and Vecna face off in a psychic battle.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Stranger Things 5\u2032 Stars Sadie Sink & Caleb McLaughlin Dissect Vol. 1 From That Finale Reveal About Max To Lucas\u2019 Enduring Love: \u201cHe Would Die For Her\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, Vecna gets the best of both of them, blinding Max and breaking her limbs the same way that he did his other victims. She was technically dead long enough for her sacrifice to open the fourth gate, but Eleven manages to use her telekinetic abilities to restart Max\u2019s heart. Max hasn\u2019t woken up, though, and remains in a coma. <\/p>\n

\n\tHenry Creel AKA Vecna AKA 001<\/p>\n

\n\tThe end of Episode 2 reveals that Holly\u2019s (Nell Fisher) imaginary friend Mr. Whatsit, whose name is inspired by A Wrinkle In Time, is actually Henry Creel. He has been appearing to Holly in her mind this entire time, explaining why no one else can see him.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re sure you remember that Henry is also Vecna, and they are both the very first test subject from Hawkins Lab, thanks to that shocking reveal when one of Vecna\u2019s vines slithers away from the 001 tattoo on his wrist. But, in case you forgot the lore dump from Season 4, Episode 7, \u201cThe Massacre at Hawkins Lab,\u201d here is a quick rundown with the pertinent information regarding our main villain.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe find out that Eleven first encountered Henry inside Hawkins Lab, where he was posing as an orderly. He would appear to her and try to convince her that Dr. Brenner and the other test subjects were out to get her. He convinces her that she needs to try to escape. On the day of the massacre, Henry reveals his true identity to Eleven when he uses his powers to kill some of the guards who are trying to block their escape from the Lab. He tells Eleven to wait in a closet and, when she finds him again, he\u2019s in the rainbow room killing 002 in the same manner we\u2019d previously seen Vecna kill his victims.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Jamie Campbell Bower Talked To Therapist About Not Wanting To Play Villains For A While: \u2018F\u2014s Me Up\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time as this flashback is playing out in the episode, Vecna has also invaded Nancy\u2019s mind to show her as well that Vecna, 001 and Henry are one and the same. He shows her some of his backstory, including the fact that he and his family moved to Hawkins in the hopes that it would fix his \u201codd\u201d behavior, but it only worsens as he convinces himself that he needs to purge the weakness from humanity. He began honing his powers by hurting animals and, eventually, other humans. After developing a fascination with a family of black widows he found in the house, he began to see himself as the human equivalent of one, a predator. He also tormented his family with psychic visions for their perceived weaknesses.<\/p>\n

\n\tNancy finds herself in\u00a0Vecna\u2019s lair<\/a>, and he reveals that he knows\u00a0she talked to his father\u00a0Victor Creel in Episode 404, \u201cDear Billy.\u201d Henry also reveals that his mom tried to have him institutionalized, which led him to kill both her and his sister. He attempted to kill his father, but he\u2019s already used too much of his power, so Victor was instead blamed for the murders while his son fell into a coma after pushing his limits. Henry awoke under Dr. Brenner\u2019s care, but when Brenner realized he couldn\u2019t control Henry, he started to breed other children with psychic powers \u2014 thus setting into motion the experiment that breeds Eleven. As he\u2019s explaining all of this to Eleven, Henry\/Vecna\/One invites her to join forces with him, but she instead tears him apart, creating a gate with her power and throwing him through it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Creel Mansion<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the expansive mansion in which we find Holly with Henry (Mr. Whatsit) looks familiar, its because it\u2019s Henry\u2019s childhood home in Hawkins. Down to the stained glass window on the front door, Vecna has reconstructed his family house, which was previously shown dismantled with the door, the creepy grandfather clock and other parts of it floating around in his mind lair. In Season 4, when both Max and Nancy saw into this lair, they also saw that Vecna was attaching the teenagers he was killing to fleshy spires within the hub near his dismantled house.<\/p>\n

\n\tHopper\u2019s Past<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the gruff Jim Hopper, some may understand the Chief of Police more when they remember what he\u2019s been through. Hopper had a daughter, Sara, who died of cancer. He sort of spiraled into depression after this, and Sara\u2019s mother left him. He found purpose in searching for Will and eventually becoming Eleven\u2019s father when he adopted her at the end of Season 2. He references Sara, which explains his protectiveness over Eleven, while the pair navigates the Upside Down together.<\/p>\n

\n\tHop also later refers to his time in Russia, where he was taken prisoner after the events of Season 3. When he and Joyce try to turn off the Russian machine beneath the Starcourt Mall that is opening a new gate to the Upside Down, it first seems Hopper might\u2019ve died in the blast. In reality, rhe Russians took him hostage, and before Joyce rescued him in Season 4, he revealed that he worried Sara had gotten cancer from his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, military experience he draws when interrogating a certain member of Sullivan\u2019s \u201cWolf Pack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Winona<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\t\tEpisode 3: \u201cThe Turnbow Trap\u201d\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEleven closed the gate to the Upside Down \u2014 or so we thought<\/p>\n

\n\tEleven has tried several times over the course of the series to fix the mistake we now know she made, opening the gate between the Upside Down and Hawkins. In Season 2, she manages to close the original gate at Hawkins Lab, seemingly once and for all. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, as we learn in Season 3, those efforts were all for naught, because a group of Russian scientists open another gate to the Upside Down underneath Starcourt Mall, which they use as a front for their mission. Hopper and Joyce manage to close that gate, too, eventually. All the permanent gates to the Upside Down are gone until Vecna opens the massive rift in the Earth at the end of Season 4.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow can Vecna \u201cspy\u201d on his victims?<\/p>\n

\n\tIf rewatching the entirety of Stranger Things before Season 5 wasn\u2019t an option, the Duffer Brothers recommended Season 2, Episode 6, \u201cThe Spy\u201d as one of the few that viewers should definitely familiarize themselves with again prior to Vol. 1. It becomes clear why in Episode 503, when the Hawkins crew hatches a plan to kidnap Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly) and, hopefully, trick a Demogorgon into leading them to Vecna (and Holly).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Spy\u201d is when, in Season 2, Joyce realizes that Will is effectively being controlled completely by the Mind Flayer, at least when it wants to. Will is taken to Hawkins Lab at the top of the episode after another burn inside the Upside Down leaves him incapacitated. When he wakes up, he tells them that they \u201cupset him\u201d by burning the tendrils in the Upside Down and they shouldn\u2019t have done that. He sets a trap for the Mind Flayer by telling Mike (Finn Wolfhard) he knows how to stop the monster, only to lead the crew straight to it inside the Upside Down tunnels (yep, those \u201cDig Dug\u201d tunnels). This clues the rest of the characters in on the fact that the Mind Flayer is using Will to, ahem, spy on them, and it\u2019s also when they begin to understand the extent of its control over the boy.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: How Holly Wheeler\u2019s \u201cLarger Role\u201d & \u2018A Wrinkle In Time\u2019 Lens Bring \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Season 5 \u201cFull Circle\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIn order to successfully free Will from The Mind Flayer\u2019s manipulation, they have to make sure throughout the final episodes that he doesn\u2019t know where he is, otherwise the Mind Flayer can send the Demogorgons straight to him. <\/p>\n

\n\tSimilarly, the gang realizes that Vecna can see through the eyes of whomever his next victim is going to be, but that also means that he\u2019ll be able to spy on them. So, in order to pull off their plan, they need to make sure Derek Turnbow \u2014 who they suspect Vecna will target next \u2014\u00a0doesn\u2019t know where he is once they take him from his home.<\/p>\n

\n\tEleven can spy on people, too?<\/p>\n

\n\tSort of. Eleven can enter other people\u2019s minds via her Void. It\u2019s not the same as Vecna\u2019s ability to see through the eyes of his victims or the Mind Flayer\u2019s ability to control other peoples\u2019 minds. Instead, she enters their subconscious and sees their memories.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s what she\u2019s doing in the third episode of Season 5, when she and Hopper are trying to get information from Lt. Akers (Alex Breaux), the soldier they kidnapped regarding what the military is hiding inside their Upside Down compound and how, exactly, they\u2019ve learned to neutralize Eleven. The first time we see her do this is in Season 2, when she visits her mom Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins), who shows Eleven inside her mind so she can understand what happened to her at Hawkins Lab. This is how she finds out she has a sister.<\/p>\n

\n\tEleven does the same thing in Season 3, when she enters Billy\u2019s subconscious to try to determine what\u2019s been going on with him. She does it yet again to try to help Max defeat Vecna in Season 4.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"L-R:<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tL-R: Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Season 5<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\t\tEpisode 4: \u201cSorcerer\u201d\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHopper & Joyce\u2019s relationship to Henry<\/p>\n

\n\tEagle-eyed watchers may have noticed as well that the opening night of Joyce\u2019s Oklahoma production in which Henry Creel starred took place on November 6, 1959. Does that date sound familiar? We thought so. <\/p>\n

\n\tStranger Things: The First Shadow establishes that, once he moves to Hawkins, Henry goes to school with Hopper and Joyce, who have spoken about being classmates throughout the seasons. Joyce and Hopper are directly responsible for the reason that the town blamed Victor Creel, Henry\u2019s father, for the murders of Virginia and Alice Creel, Henry\u2019s mother and sister. She and Hopper had been investigating a series of animal killings in Hawkins, including a neighbor\u2019s cat, which they linked back to Victor. In reality, it had been Henry who killed the animals and his mother and sister after succumbing to the Mind Flayer\u2019s control. <\/p>\n

\n\tThere has been no immediate connection between present-day Vecna and Joyce or Hopper in the show just yet execpt in final moments of Episode 504 when she locks eyes with Vecna. The history can be felt between the former classmates and thespians, and Jamie Campbell Bower says it\u2019s something he \u201chad considered\u201d when depicting the big bad this season.<\/p>\n

\n\tHints from Henry\u2019s mindscape<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the final episode of Season 5, viewers learn that Max has been hiding inside of Vecna\u2019s mindscape, which is also where Holly is trapped, at least mentally. Will has a vision of Holly buried into a flesh-like wall with a tube in her mouth, just like Will in Season 1, so we can assume that invading her mind, where he can create any reality he desires, is how he\u2019s keeping her placated.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Stranger Things: The First Shadow wasn\u2019t required viewing before the final season, it might provide a hint as to why Henry won\u2019t venture into the caves in which we discover Max has been hiding all this time. The play links Henry\u2019s descent into madness to the Nevada Experiment, which, in this universe, was an attempt by the government to recreate an entirely accidental inter-dimensional trip made by the USS Eldridge in 1943 (with Dr. Brenner\u2019s father on board, no less).<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the big revelations in The First Shadow is that a staff member from the Nevada Experiment defected and left his equipment in the caves of Rachel, Nevada, where Henry and his family lived before they moved to Hawkins. Henry was exploring the caves one day when he stumbled upon the equipment, unknowingly sending him to Dimension X. While there, he seems to be exposed to a shadowy entity that looks a lot like the Mind Flayer, and he returns with frightening telekinetic abilities. He survives the ordeal, but he\u2019s eventually tracked down by Dr. Brenner, who makes him the first test subject at Hawkins Lab.<\/p>\n

\n\tWho is Kali?<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Season 2, audiences learn that Eleven has a sister named Kali (Linnea Berthelsen). She\u2019s 008, and she\u2019s revealed to Eleven through her mom Terry\u2019s mindscape. Eleven, frustrated with Hopper keeping her locked inside, runs away to Chicago to reunite with Kali. While she\u2019s there, we learn that Kali\u2019s telekinetic powers are slightly different than Eleven\u2019s. Kali can make people hallucinate and convince them to see and experience things that aren\u2019t really happening. She does it several times, from conjuring spiders to erecting a gargantuan steel wall from the ground to stave off the police.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Creators The Duffer Brothers Address \u201cBig Swing\u201d Of [Spoiler]\u2019s Return And Dr. Kay\u2019s Motivations<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tEleven soon realizes she needs to return to Hawkins, though, after Kali brings her on a botched mission to murder one of the men who was responsible for their mother\u2019s condition. When the police arrive at Kali\u2019s compound, she and Eleven go their separate ways. That\u2019s the last we see of her before Eleven finds her inside the military compound in the Upside Down in Episode 504.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill\u2019s memories<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the final moments of Vol. 1, before his powers manifest, Will is remembering what Robin told him about learning to embrace who she really is. At the same time, home video-style footage plays on screen, depicting some of Will\u2019s memories from when he was a boy. If you remember, all the way back in Season 2, these were the memories that Joyce, Jonathan and Mike used to try to help Will break free of the Mind Flayer\u2019s control.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill the Wise<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Duffer brothers have been hinting that Will might have powers since Season 1, and fans have already run with that theory for quite a while now. Much of this has to do with Will\u2019s D&D character Will the Wise, so we\u2019ve unpacked a few of the key references.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their D&D party, Will serves as the group\u2019s wizard, which fans have speculated could be one of the keys to understanding his connection to the Upside Down. Wizards, or mages (as the group has commonly referred to Eleven), develop their powers using arcane magic to cast powerful spells.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Season 1, Joyce has a memory of Will drawing a picture of Will the Wise shooting \u201cfireballs,\u201d which is also a key D&D spell, at his enemies. The fireballs are green, because he couldn\u2019t find a red crayon, and Joyce jokes they look like cabbages. In the memory, Will also says he chose to use fireballs to defeat the enemy he\u2019s up against, because \u201csometimes the bad guys are smart too\u201d and he needs braun over brain to defeat them.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother spell commonly used by wizards is \u201cWizard Eye,\u201d which allows the caster to see places they are not physically present in. But wait\u2026when Mike tries to convince Will that he might actually have magical abilities, he tells Will that, while he\u2019s a wizard in the game, he\u2019s actually more like a sorcerer in real life.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe biggest difference between a wizard and a sorcerer is that a wizard develops their magic through study, while a sorcerer\u2019s abilities are innate. There\u2019s also that pesky little fact that the episode is literally titled, \u201cSorcerer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, in Season 2, Mike also refers to Will as a \u201ccleric.\u201d If this sounds familiar, it\u2019s because Mike tells Holly that Holly the Heroic is also a cleric. In D&D, a cleric is a spell caster that derives its power from a deity or other powerful being, rather than possessing innate abilities. There are different \u201cdomains,\u201d or subclasses, of clerics that determine their specific abilities.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe don\u2019t know yet how much of this will connect to Will\u2019s powers (or Holly\u2019s endgame, for that matter). But, what we do know, is that Will\u2019s abilities are unlike what we\u2019ve seen from our other supernatural characters thus far. While they manifest similarly to Eleven\u2019s in the final moments of Vol. 1, Schnapp and Brown tease that \u201cthey\u2019re just two completely separate abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Season 4 Recap: What To Keep In Mind As Final Season Arrives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT! This post contains major plot details from the first four episodes of Netflix\u2018s Stranger Things 5.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,435,24362,176711,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-311957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-stranger-things","13":"tag-stranger-things-5","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}