From huge reveals about Vecna and The Mind
Flayer to a bombshell ending for Eleven and the gang, the final volume of Stranger Things
Season 4 has finally arrived! Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in
this video I'm explaining the big season finale, revealing some hidden secrets you might have
missed, and what to expect in Season 5. Spoilers ahead, of course, so take care. At the end of Season 4, during his villain's
monologue, Vecna reveals he's been the evil mastermind behind everything all along. After Eleven sent One into the Upside Down,
he explored the new world and eventually came across a mass of unformed particles. Using his powers, he shaped these into a giant
spider form, The Mind Flayer, basing the monster's look on the Black Widow spiders he so admired
as a child. I saw a means to realize my potential. To transcend my human form. In fact, the young Henry Creel already had
a vision for the monster he would go on to create many years later, and his drawing is
uncannily similar to the one that Will made in Season 2. This makes sense because we know now that
the Mind Flayer was invented by One, and he was therefore controlling Will at that moment. Back in the Upside Down, Vecna then had to
wait for Eleven to eventually open up a gate again to the real world, which she did accidentally
when she first made contact with a Demogorgon in Season 1. But because El fought back each time and closed
Vecna's access to the world in the first two seasons, he decided on a plan to take Eleven's
portal-opening powers for himself in Season 3. I sought a means to open my own doors. I sought your power. He achieved this through the Spider Monster,
which attacked Eleven and took her powers, which were in turn transferred to Vecna who
used them to begin opening gates between the Upside Down and Hawkins in Season 4 whenever
he made a kill. Vecna's plan was to open four gates by killing
four teens, something hinted at through his clock which always chimed four times whenever
it appeared to one of his intended victims. The significance of the number four might
also be a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which certainly seems appropriate
given the way the final season ends after the four gates have been opened. And notice how in Volume 1, the clocks at
both Hawkins Lab and the Creel House were at 3 o'clock at critical moments, a clue to
the three victims that Vecna had claimed by the end of the first part of the season. The Hawkins crew themselves come up with a
four-phase plan they hope will defeat Vecna, the problem being that as good as it might
have been, he already knew what they had planned. By appearing to Max as a vision of an angry
Lucas, Vecna traps her in a twisted version of what should be a happy memory for her of
the Snow Ball dance at the end of Season 2. There was some ominous foreshadowing of this
moment in the way Season 2 ended with the camera flipping over to a shot of the Shadow
Monster watching over the Ball in the Upside Down. Vecna then throws Max across the room and
pins her against a wall, just like Eleven did to him in the Hawkins Lab and to the Demogorgon
in the school. However, when Eleven manages break into Max's
nightmare, she propels Vecna into the air, twisting him around, and curling her fingers
and wrist, similar to what he did to her years earlier in Hawkins Lab. Vecna quickly recovers from this and overpowers
Eleven, sending her into his mindscape, and trapping her with his vines. This is exactly what Brenner warned Eleven
about when he said she wasn't strong enough to confront Vecna so quickly after regaining
her powers and that she needed to learn more. If you want to stop One. You will need to do more than run. You will need to fly. At that moment, Eleven wanted to leave immediately
to help her friends who she knew were in danger in Hawkins, something very reminiscent of
how Luke Skywalker wanted to leave his training with Yoda early to go and help Leia and Han
Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. And there's also shades of Palpatine in Vecna
when he tells Eleven he wants her to watch him execute his evil plan, similar to how
the Emperor tells Luke to watch while he destroys the Rebellion. I want you to watch. You will witness the end of your insignificant
rebellion. At this point, Vecna has broken Eleven's will,
and it's not until Mike tells her how much he loves her, that Vecna's vines shrink away
and she frees herself. Similar to how Max needed happy memories to
escape Vecna's grip previously, Mike's heartfelt words are what El needs to break free. The moment calls back to Will's painting where
he explained to Mike that because he's the one who leads the group, he has a coat of
arms with a heart on it, as he's the one who holds everyone together. Without heart, we'd all fall apart. Even El. By the way, in Season 1 after Will went missing,
Mike was browsing some similar paintings by Will of the D&D crew going up against a dragon. Another interesting detail about Will's painting
is that when he shows it to Mike he claims that Eleven asked him to draw it. Did you paint this? El l asked me to. She commissioned it, basically. I mean, she told me what to draw. But this doesn't match El's voiceover in the
first episode: Will is painting a lot, but he won't show
me what he's working on. It's possible Will is embarrassed to tell
Mike why he really drew the painting, so he's pretending El asked him to do it instead. The combined might of Eleven pinning Vecna
in his mindscape, Murray flaming the demogorgons in Russia, and Steve and Robin's use of Molotov
cocktails, weakens the villain to the point that Nancy can finish him off with some close-range
gun shots. This sends him flying through the Creel House
attic window to the ground below where he appears to be defeated. However, when they go downstairs, his body
has disappeared. The moment is a homage to Michael Myers and
the first Halloween movie where after being shot and falling off a balcony, he appeared
to be dead on the ground below. However, moments later his body disappeared,
proving the villain was still alive. There were also a few other Halloween references
in Volume 2, such as the way Vecna moves his head just before his confrontation with Eleven,
in a nod to Michael Myer's iconic head tilt. And Eddie, of course, donned a Michael Myers
mask briefly as well. When El finally gets back to Hawkins, she
goes to visit Max who's now in a coma. The book Lucas reads to Max from is "The Talisman"
by Stephen King and Peter Straub, a story in which the protagonist whose mother is dying
travels into a parallel universe where Twinners or doppelgangers of an individual also exist. Interestingly, The Talisman is also the Duffer
Brothers' and Steven Spielberg's next project with Netflix. Although El tries to go into the Void to connect
with Max, she gets no response, and I think Max's recovery could be contingent on Eleven's
eventual victory over Vecna in Season 5. Notice how Max tells Lucas she can't see or
feel anything after Vecna's attack. When One kills, he consumes. He takes everything from his victims. Their memories, their abilities. So, it may be that his defeat will somehow
release Max's consciousness back to her as there have been numerous allusions and references
to how Vecna absorbs his victims. With each life I took, I grew stronger. They were becoming a part of me. And the Coke bottle Eleven finds under her
bed at Hopper's old cabin is a call-back to the time she spun the bottle with Max in Season
3 and used her abilities to remotely spy on what Mike and the other boys were doing and
saying. The memory is especially sad for El because
she knows that right now she can't reach Max even with her powers. Of course, we have to talk about Eddie who
made the ultimate sacrifice in Season 4. There were various clues earlier on to his
fate, such as him talking in the first episode about how he'd finally graduate and hand over
the reins of The Hellfire Club… This year is my year. You boys are the future of Hellfire.
…and how he kept pointing out he wasn't a hero:
I see danger and I just turn heel and run. There is no shame in running, don't try to
be heroes. The even sadder thing is that Eddie is still
being demonised and blamed for several murders in Hawkins by the media and the community. Fortunately, Dustin, who knows the truth,
was at least was able to tell Eddie's uncle that he died a hero saving the town. As for Eleven, she got an emotional reunion
with her Dad in his cabin, and notice how she was still keeping her door open a few
inches, just like she did in the opening episode of Season 4. I kept the door open three inches. And in the very final scene, Will reveals
he knows Vecna is still alive through the connection he still has with the Mind Flayer. I can still remember what he thinks, and how
he thinks. And he's not going to stop. Not until he's taken everything. And everyone. And the hairs on his neck stand up just before
that final shot, revealing that the Upside Down has truly broken through to the real
world. The flowers in this field are rotting away,
similar to how a pumpkin field began to decay after the Upside Down's tunnels reached them
in Season 2. You can also see the Upside Down's characteristic
red lightning flashing over here, where the main breach appears to have occurred. This basically confirms the vision Vecna gave
to Nancy about what was to come: Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. This giant creature with a gaping mouth. There were so many monsters. An army. It sounds like in Season 5, we could get a
huge new monster and a slew of other Upside Down creatures. Nancy's comments about her family, including
Mike, also sound very ominous. He showed me my mom. Holly. Mike. They were all… And as powerful as Eleven is, I don't think
she can take on a whole army from the Upside Down, which means I think she'll need to do
something on a different level to defeat Vecna. One possible hint is this curious moment where
Nancy points out Argyle picking some mushrooms in the woods just outside the cabin. Some mushroom varieties can have hallucinogenic
effects and there could be a possible connection here to lucid dreaming, potentially a different
way for Eleven to battle with Vecna on a psychic level. Another possibility, given all of the Back
To The Future references in the series, is that Eleven will perform some kind of time
travel, perhaps to stop Henry turning into a villain in the first place. And there's a big clue to why I think that's
happening in Season 5 in Nancy's vision that Vecna gave her of the future. But, just before I get to that, I want to
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link in the video description to get the offer. Or use coupon code FLICKS when you check out. Now, if you watch extra slowly the vision
Vecna gives to Nancy while she's in his grip, there are not only shots of the gates opening
and ripping through Hawkins, but there's also a shot of the grandfather clock from the Creel
house, winding backwards, similar to what we saw during the reveal about young Henry
Creel in the seventh episode. I think the way the hands move in reverse
in both of these scenes together with numerous other time-related easter eggs are a big clue
to time travel being part of Season 5, something I discuss in a lot more detail in my Time
Travel theory video. You can tap here to watch that or follow the
link in the video description. So, Movie Lovers, what do you think about
the ending of Season 4? And do you have any theories or predictions
for Season 5? Comment with your thoughts below. And if you enjoyed this video, do hit that
like button, I really appreciate it. You can also tap left to discover more easter
eggs and little details you might have missed in Season 4. Thanks for enjoying Stranger Things with me
and hope you have a marvellous movie-loving week! Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!
