Stranger Things Season 4 is the first entry in the series to be split up into two parts. On July 1st we’re gonna be getting the second volume with the final two episodes dropping the same day. These are gonna be supersized with the first being an hour and 25 minutes with the finale coming in at an incredible 2 and a half hours.
Longer than my last relationship, this is gonna have the run time of most Marvel and Star Wars tv shows and they have a lot of things that they can do in them. Throughout this, I wanna give our theories on where we think things will be going whilst also going over some spoilers from Part 1.
No idea why you’re here if you’ve not seen it but on the off chance you got the watch order of the prediction videos before the last season upside down then this is your last chance to check out before we do a deep dive on the entire thing.
Eleven’s Powers
Now the first major thing that comes from the end of Volume 1 is that I think it confirms Eleven gets her powers back. Early on in the season, we heard Dr Owens talk about how he thinks the Nina project will revitalise her abilities and help in the upcoming war.
In the series, we learn that this is a giant machine with a floatation device in the middle that is equipped with television screens so that the person inside of it can view recordings. We learn that the name of it comes from the Opera of the same name created by Nicolas Dalayrac.
This piece is basically about a woman who discovers that her lover was killed during a duel and to save herself the pain of this her brain buried the memory in her subconscious. Completely hiding the trauma she believed him to be alive and would venture out to a train station every day believing that he would return.
The truth of the matter was hidden from her by herself due to the anguish that came from it and this is very similar to Eleven who lost her powers after the events of Season 3.
Nina is about her taking a trip into her memory and the subconscious to discover the truth about her past and to also showcase to her how she gained her abilities in the first place. This not only gives us the truth about Vecna but it’s also her basically going through the motions once more so that she can remember how to tap into her abilities.
Now because Eleven manages to do this and the season ends with us coming full circle from how it starts off I do believe that this means her powers are now back. In taking a trip down memory lane and going through all the paces of the Nina project she has finally rediscovered them. So I think that come next time my number 1 prediction, put it in writing. Eleven will get her powers back.
Make sure you stay tuned for more amazing predictions clearly spelt out in the show.
Eleven and Vecna
Now because of this, I think that we are obviously leading to a showdown between Vecna and Eleven. The pair’s history was set up really well in this season and it ended with Eleven basically transforming him into the Freddie Kreuger-esque monster that he became.
He’ll no doubt want revenge and we discover in the season that he’s the five-star general for the Mind Flayer. With next season being the final one I think that Part 2 will end with a big battle between the pair. We discovered in this season that there are ways to at least escape him and this comes from having love for something. The series was very much about people who were distant from each other coming back together and this motif was shown in Mike and Eleven, Lucas and Max, Joyce and Hopper, Dustin and his girlfriend, Steve and Nancy and so on. I think that everyone will reunite for part two and this will be what empowers Eleven to have enough energy to take down Vecna once and for all. In the teaser we also catch Eddie thrashing away in the Upside Down so it seems like the love for an item or object will be used heavily to take him out.
Because of the way that Part 1 ended I think that we’ll pick up immediately on the other side of this and that we’ll catch him in the Upside Down as he comes face to face with the Mind Flayer. We discovered that Vecna was obsessed with Black Widow spiders as a child and with The Mind Flayer resembling one of these he will likely start to worship him. I’d absolutely love to see his journey through the Upside Down and we could also learn what shaped it.
The Upside Down
In the season we discover that it’s stuck in 1983 like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite and that it’s not changed since the day Will Byers entered it. I think that the entire reality works much in the same way that the dark dimension does in Doctor Strange. This was a completely formless universe but upon Strange entering it, it started to somewhat mirror him. In behind-the-scenes stories on the production of the film, the creative team talked about how they cast Benedict Cumberbatch as Dormammu to show that the villain very much crafted his appearance off the first person he came across.
I think that the Upside Down will likely be similar to this and that it starts to alter the way it looks to seem similar to Hawkins because that’s all it knows from the right side up. Perhaps Vecna will also help to introduce this as well as he is from our reality and thus he can inform its appearance.
This would also explain why the Creel house exists down there because it’s something that he knows from the real world.
So prediction, s**t forget to do one for the last one, so predictions 2 and 3, Eleven Vs Vecna and Vecna in the Upside Down explained.
Nancy and Vecna
Now the series also ended with Nancy being stuck down there with him. In the scene, we watched as she attempted to climb from the Upside Down to the right side up and it was at this moment that she was pulled across. Cut to Steve shouting in her face unable to wake her up which is when Max realises what’s going on with her.
To make matters worse the season actually ends with her stuck down there with Vecna but there is a clue as to how they’ll get her out.
At one point in the season, Robin goes through Nancy’s things when they’re at her house. This happens in episode 4 at roughly the ten-minute mark. During it she comes across a music box that she springs open and then shows, directly to me, pointed at me and said, put this in your theory video.
So I think that this scene will come back around and that Robin will end up using the Music Box to pull Nancy out of the Upside Down.
However, I do think that during her visit to the Upside Down that she’ll discover Vecna’s true plan and I think that to him he’s doing things for the right reason.
Vecna’s Motives
Now the guy clearly has a twisted view of the world and this was something that he developed early on in his life. The backstory we get treated to at Creel House very much tells us all we need to know about him and his goals. Vecna views humans as people stuck in routines, constantly counting the seconds, minutes and hours until their death. He views everything as a massive waste of time and talks about how he is very much trying to wipe out humanity because of what he deems as being destructive to the planet.
However, the people that he kills all share something in common. They have a deep-seated trauma and he thinks that he’s freeing them from life. He believes that he’s setting people free from all the anguish in their life and this is actually mirrored in his journey with Eleven.
She is stuck in a prison, constantly bullied and he sees allowing her to escape as something of the utmost importance to him.
This is likely reflected in the victims he chooses, namely Max who is still feeling guilt over the death of Billy.
But f**k him. Yeah, I said it.
I think we will likely discover this and also his endgame which is to invade our world. We discover that the Upside Down works very much as a hive mind and that he has a legion of bat-like monsters ready to swarm Hawkins.
After cutting a tear in between the realities I think that he will unleash these which will be a major part of Volume 2.
So add that, add that one, Vecna’s plan and what’s gonna happen, you damn chump.
Brenner’s Plan
Now to counter this, I think that Brenner has been working on his plan. We know that he studied Vecna when he was a child and that he found a way to inhibit his abilities. I think Brenner has been brought back for a very important reason and that he wanted to study Eleven’s powers once more so that he could find a way to permanently stop her abilities and the Upside Down. The guy seems like he might have actually changed and after opening Pandora’s box he could end up wanting to close it.
Hopper’s Return
Lastly, I think that the most obvious one is that Hopper and co will all get back to America. This first volume was very much about them rescuing him from the hell that is Kamchatka so I think next time will be about him getting back to the US. I’d love to see him back before the end of the season but I think that Volume 2 will probably end with him finally touching down in Hawkins. From there Season 5 can bring him back to Eleven and I think the next part will focus on them trying to escape Russia before they make it back to the US.
I think Season 5 will just hit the ground running and have all the characters back in Hawkins and I can imagine this entry is very much about pulling them back into the area after the groups were split up.
Anyway, that’s the final theory and now I’m gonna pass it over to you. What do you think is gonna happen? Comment below and let me know.
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