STRANGER THINGS Season 4 Ending Explained! Season 5 Theories & Volume 2's Biggest Questions Answered

this season on stranger things she misses her dad we all do [Music] when you're different sometimes you feel like a mistake you're gay not everything has a happy ending you're not gonna die please don't hang on i can't take it anymore nobody moves on to the next phase until we've all copied nobody deviates from the plan no matter what a few moments later if things here start to go south i mean at all you were born what what i'm gonna snatch that diploma and i'm gonna run like hell out of here guys it was all alive holy crap that has to be one of the best finales i've seen in a long time stranger things season 4 volume 2 has just come to an end with two action-packed episodes that would make any hollywood blockbuster go i can't compete with that there are a lot of fun theories to explore like is this actually the upside down what will is actually hiding and has max's mind disappeared to a different realm i have answers to all those plus more i've even left timestamps to all the topics i'll be covering but before we get into it make sure to like and subscribe it's the only way i can support my pineapple pizza addiction volume one left us with the crazy reveal that eleven's friendly orderly at hawkins lab was in fact the murderous telekinetic youngster henry creel unbeknownst to eleven she had banished henry to this strange looking realm in fact that's the exact word he uses to describe it he never calls it the upside down which you'd think he would considering he knows everyone calls it that he can go into people's minds after all this place also looks markedly different than the upside down that we know it has this orange tinted horizon and floating pieces of rock remember that in episode 7 we learned that the upside down is frozen in time exactly november 6 1983 the day will buyers went missing so are we to believe that between september 8th 1979 the day vecna was banished and november 6 1983 when time froze in the upside down that vecna was somehow rebuilding hawkins does time work differently here something doesn't add up so right now there are two theories either this place is someplace different entirely or it's what the upside down looked like before vechna molded it into a place of his own making he did say 11 and him could be gods in their own worlds in which they could create whatever they wanted just like he drew spiders as a kid it seems like he's able to manipulate this giant swath of particles particles which were also found in russia informed all those creatures like the demogorgons demidogs and demobats whatever or wherever this place is it was avecna's ability to manipulate the particles that allowed him to survive and slowly regain his strength it was only when eleven inadvertently opened a gate to the upside down in season one that vecna was able to grab a foothold into the real world all i needed was someone to open the door and he did that for me the only problem is that every time one of these gates would open eleven would close it right back up so as he tells us in episode nine vecna had to find a way to open his own portals and the only way to do that was by stealing eleven's ability to create them he even says that he sought her power remember these two things it was 11 who unknowingly made several of these portals in the first two seasons and vecna has the ability to absorb other people's abilities he takes everything from his victims everything they are and everything they ever will be their memories their abilities in season three we saw how one of vecna's monsters took a chunk out of eleven's leg both in the cabin and later at starcourt mall when eleven rips this creature out of her leg this is the last time she's able to use her powers until season four perhaps this attack is what allowed vecna to absorb her portal-making ability which would explain why it wasn't until season 4 that he begins to attack which leads us to the four gates we learn that in order for vecna to begin his takeover of hawkins and ultimately the world he needs 4 victims he can easily control he does this by manipulating their traumas by killing them it allows him to create a portal between his world and ours as dustin says in episode 7 he's making a powerful psychic connection with his victims a connection powerful enough to rip a hole in the fabric of time and space these portals manifest wherever the victim is killed so the four location victim pairs we currently have are chrissy carmichael in eddie munson's trailer fred benson on a rural road patrick mckinney at the bottom of the lake and max mayfield the attic of the creel house it's never really explained why exactly he needs four gates or why he targets only teens perhaps that will be something further explored in season 5. all we really know is that the number four matches with the amount of times vecna's grandfather clock chimes all these gates are open and activated once max the final victim dies creating what the media calls an earthquake of unprecedented scale as we'll see in the final scene this is a hell of a lot more than an earthquake in the hospital we learned that max had been clinically dead for an entire minute until a miracle occurred she came back from the dead unfortunately blind and with her arms and legs broken we do know that eleven was with her in the void at the time of her death and said she's not going touching her chest we see several flashbacks of happy memories between her and max with the implication being that she somehow revived max when levin later visits max at the hospital she tries to delve into her mind to visit her similar to what she did with her comatose mom in season two however upon entering max is nowhere to be found this could be because vecna has absorbed her just like dr brenner said or it could be because max has a power i'll get into that in a different section but there is hope however henry tells 11 that his victims aren't gone they're not gone eleven they're still with me [Music] i imagine part of season 5 will include 11 having to save max from vecta's mind potentially being able to restore her to her body one scene i found particularly odd was that of young max's memory skateboarding like you could take this scene out and it wouldn't change anything in the story first it's not that traumatic of a memory but it does establish this new idea of memories within memories it gave me total inception vibes this is a really cool concept and it makes me think this will play a bigger role in season 5 considering it was added here we also see lucas reading to max a book called the talisman written by stephen king and peter straub not only is this the next series the duffer brothers plan to produce after stranger things but the plot is all about a character traversing a parallel universe called the territories sounds a lot like the upside down but back to this healing power which is never fully explained but i imagine if vecna can use sad memories to kill victims is it not possible that happy memories can be used to revive them furthermore if vecna can absorb abilities ken 11 did she gain this healing power from vecna or have her abilities merely strengthened we know vecna and eleven share this special dichotomous bond one harnesses dark memories while the other happy not only were these two raised in hawken's lab but they seem to be connected on a much more visceral level especially since the massacre at the lab in 79 they kind of have this harry potter voldemort dynamic with 11 choosing the sign of light and vecna that of dark at the end of the season we see this visually with the beautiful multi-colored flowers on eleventh side of the hill and the dead and gray flowers on the other the ending leaves us with an apocalyptic-like future for hawkins vecna actually showed nancy this future which calls into question whether or not he can actually predict it was he merely showing her what would happen and he got lucky and it came true or does he actually know what the future may hold playing with time is something the writers have kind of hinted at throughout the season the gates vechna open quote rip apart space and time and we aren't sure if the realm vecna operates in experiences time differently i do want to play this line from episode 1 about the relationship between emotion and time which i found really interesting time is funny like that emotions can make it speed up or slow down we are all time travelers if you think about it nancy elaborates to the crew about this future vecna showder some things have already happened which vecna predicted like the dark cloud over hawkins and the fires downtown however we haven't seen this giant creature with a gaping mouth or a flood of monsters emerged just yet but most concerning is that vecna showed nancy that her mom sister and mike were all dead ted i guess you're okay in an interview showrunner ross duffer hinted that season 5 may include a significant time jump from season 4 especially considering the stir season 4 caused with the actors growing at a much faster pace than the chronological timeline of the show mike has been on an emotional journey this season as strain was put on his relationship with 11 when he couldn't articulate his feelings for her and tell her that he loves her his self-doubt ended up getting in the way of expressing his true feelings but but what if after all this is over she she doesn't need me anymore it's his rousing speech in which he professes his love to 11 that gives her the strength to overpower vecna it's pretty much a metaphor for love overcoming hate and foreshadows how she will defeat vecna in season 5. remember it was also 11's loving memory of her mother that gave her the strength to overpower henry back in 1979. this also ties into eleven's feeling that she is some sort of monster what if i'm not good what if i'm the monster but it's mike who tells her she's a superhero and gives her the strength to overcome her own insecurities this superhero talk along with dr brenner telling her in order to defeat vecna she'll need to fly leads me to believe that she will indeed fly next season after all we have seen her levitate people before why not herself now i want to take a moment to talk about will his struggle this season is that he feels different there's an emotional scene in the final episode where his brother jonathan tells him he'll love him even if he's different because you're my brother and i love you there is nothing in this world okay i will ever change that the simple explanation for this is that will is hiding that he's gay we've seen him turn down women's advances and countless shots of him looking longingly at mike but what if there's something more here what if will is hiding something yet to be known we know will has some sort of connection with the upside down ever since he went missing back in season one at the end of season four we see goosebumps appear on the back of his neck when the ash cloud descends upon hawkins he also tells mike that he can feel vecna i can still remember what he thinks and how he thinks and he's not going to stop could will be controlled by vecna either willingly or unwillingly that's a bad pun this might explain why 11 didn't tell the others about her healing power if she somehow knows will is compromised there's a lot the show can play with here our beloved guitar hero eddie risked his life to save hawkins and his friends but is this the last time we'll see him i hate to say it but most likely especially after the emotional scene between dustin and his uncle part of what made his character so great was watching his character grow from a coward that runs away to a hero willing to face his fears to protect those he loves he basically goes from this there is no shame in running to this i didn't run away this time right part of what makes us connected to this character is seeing his flaw watching him overcome it and turn out a better person for it and that makes his death all the more tragic the only way i could see his character come back is a through flashbacks or b if vecna has somehow consumed him upon his death maybe his soul could get released but even then there's no body for it to go back to plus it's probably too long for 11 to try any sort of resurrection like eddie lucas has gone on his own journey this season believing that hanging out with jason and the jocks that he can shake off this image of him being one of the weird kids i'm tired of girls laughing at us i'm tired of feeling like a loser we came to high school wanting things to be different right lucas needs to realize it's better to be yourself than try to fit in just to be popular he'll complete his journey by saying this to jason i thought i wanted to be like you but it turns out he's just a raging psychopath speaking of not normal how about that awkward love triangle between steve nancy and jonathan things are kind of up in the air as to what's really going on with jonathan moving to california at the end of season three it put him and nancy in a long distance relationship allowing for steve who's kind of been hooking up with all sorts of women but not finding any fulfillment in it in a situation to discover if there's still feelings for her jonathan hasn't told nancy that he doesn't want to go to college because if he told her that he says she would follow him not go to college herself and then grow to resent him this this huge knot of resentment would build like like some cancer he doesn't want to see their relationship turn into what happened to his divorced parents meanwhile we have steve coming to terms with his true feelings for nancy without any hesitation it was nancy who dove in after him when he was dragged through the lake something eddie calls one ambiguous sign of true love steve will later tell nancy that his perfect dream of owning a winnebago and having six kids includes her but before he can go any further they're interrupted by robin so this whole love triangle thing is still a big mess considering jonathan and nancy spent almost no time together this season my bet is that nancy will go with steve which may be a bit awkward considering john and nancy are dating in real life bonus points if you caught nancy and john holding hands in the final scene speaking of love what about robin and vicky at the beginning of the season robin questions whether or not her bandmate vicki feels the same way about women that she does and it's steve who's quick to note that when vicki returned fast times at ridgemont high it was paused during the famous booby scene i like boobies you like boobies vicky likes boobies robin's dream of being with vicki are crushed when she sees she has a boyfriend however when they chat at the shelter there is hope vicky has broken up with him and there definitely is some awkward chemistry as they make pb and j sandwiches a new element brought into this season is the piggyback i piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer it refers to 11 being able to travel into another person's memory while vecna has control over it she is essentially piggybacking it when vecna connects into someone's memory his physical body enters this trance-like state 11 theorizes that she can do this too and can simultaneously enter the same memory this is how vechna and 11 are able to interact even though they're thousands of miles apart it's a really cool new element that i hope will be utilized in season 5. one thing that still hasn't been explained is how max somehow infiltrated vector's mind in episode 4. max tells nancy that when she arrived at his lair that vecna seemed surprised like he didn't want her there maybe you infiltrated his mind he invaded your mind right is it that big of a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his could max unknowingly have an ability to travel into other people's minds dreams or memories this might explain why 11 couldn't find her while visiting in the hospital it could be a cool dynamic in season 5 if max could visit the other kids via their dreams or memories but it's dusty who says something really interesting here that's never really been mentioned again what if you somehow unlocked a back door to vector's world a backdoor could come in really handy for our characters in bringing vecna down with hawkins on its way to destruction it looks like the u.s military will be on its way after all nancy did say she saw lots of dead soldiers in her vision of the future the last we saw of colonel jack sullivan was in the nevada desert so expect him to make a return in his quest for 11. remember that he believes 11 to be responsible for all this mess and only by killing her can this apocalyptic threat be neutralized and there are a ton of other loose threads like murray yuri dimitri and dr owens who we have no idea if we'll see again my bet is that murray will definitely be back and what will happen between 11 and hopper they'll probably move in with joyce but where it looks like hawkins is evacuating the great thing about this season's ending is it really felt it closed one chapter of the series yet opened a whole new world of possibilities literally they opened the world but now i leave the floor open to you what are your thoughts and theories for season five i want to hear them in the comments below thanks for watching everyone be sure to like and subscribe and you can follow me on twitter and instagram thingstoryt until next time remember there will be no more retreating

Channel: Think Story

Views: 755,192

Keywords: stranger things, stranger things season 4, stranger things season 4 volume 2, stranger things season 4 ending explained, stranger things season 4 volume 2 ending explained, stranger things season 4 ending, stranger things explained, stranger things season 5, stranger things season 5 theories, stranger things 4 ending explained, stranger things 4 review, stranger things 5 predictions, stranger things season 4 episode 9, stranger things 4 end

Id: EGH1pqUxhQs

Length: 17min 14sec (1034 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 02 2022