Stranger Things Season 5 Gives A Major Role To A Background Character You Forgot Existed

This post contains spoilers for all five seasons of "Stranger Things."

The fifth and final season of "Stranger Things" uses its first four episodes to map the immediate aftermath of Vecna's (Jamie Campbell Bower) reign of terror in Hawkins. This portrait is a tad inconsistent: we're now privy to unsettling details about Will's (Noah Schnapp) disappearance back in 1983, something super shady is going down at the Military Access Control Zone, and the general townsfolk still seem clueless about Demogorgons and the Upside Down. Meanwhile, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her friends are doing their utmost to find and kill Vecna, but history suddenly repeats itself when we least expect it. Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) vanishes just like Will did four years ago, making it clear that Vecna wants this fight to be personal, as he knows that Eleven and co. will do anything to rescue this innocent child.

If you don't remember much about Holly except for her familial connection to Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer), I don't blame you. Holly is mostly relegated to the background in the first four seasons, but paying close attention to her personality underlines certain traits. In season 1, when Joyce (Winona Ryder) sees the Demogorgon tear through the wallpaper for the first time, Holly says she can see it too, establishing a subtle connection between her and the creature. She's also more sensitive to disturbances in Hawkins, as she notices the Mind Flayer among the trees in season 3, even though her parents remain oblivious. Season 5, however, situates her front and center, as Vecna has gone to great lengths to hide her inside his memories for some yet-to-be-revealed reason.

Based on what we know about Holly so far, let's revisit her prominent arc in the latest season.

Right off the bat, there are a dozen references to Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time," which Holly is seen reading in "The Crawl." In fact, her new imaginary friend, Mr. Whatsit, is a reference to a character from the novel — in the show's context, it is quite obviously Vecna, who has managed to hoodwink Holly into thinking that he means well. In L'Engle's story, Mrs. Whatsit is a supernatural entity who teleports the child protagonists through the universe, and this process involves creating a rift through the space-time fabric and a bit of time travel. Will this somehow tie into Vecna's plans with Holly? We don't know yet, but it's worth keeping in mind.

A crucial conversation takes place between Mike and Holly, where the former assigns her the Cleric role in Dungeons & Dragons. As "Stranger Things" uses D&D to dictate character fates and assign morality, this feels like foreshadowing, as Mike even mentions that clerics can open magical doorways. What's more, clerics are powerful healers and can even repel/control undead creatures, which is exactly what Will does at the end of Episode 4. While Will's power-scaling seems to parallel that of Eleven, Holly could be powerful enough to do something similar, or open a gateway that nobody else can.

Vecna took Will in 1983 for a reason, and the murders he commits in Season 4 open the requisite gates to turn Hawkins into hell on Earth. Vecna sends the Demogorgon to take Holly, but he immediately does some mind manipulation to put her at ease to take her to the Creel House (which doesn't look warped or dilapidated). This refusal to kill her right away proves that Vecna needs Holly for something grand.

The parallels between Will and Holly's vanishing are deliberate, to the point that the latter is taken around the same time Will disappeared four years back. Will wasn't supposed to be saved, but he was, which foiled Vecna's plans and created an unintended Horcrux-esque connection between the two. It is important to note that Vecna doesn't leave Holly to her devices in the Upside Down, but hides her in his mindscape, where Max (Sadie Sink) is currently trapped while her body is in a coma. After Max reveals that they're inside Vecna's memories, Holly makes another "A Wrinkle in Time" reference, comparing the mindscape to the dark planet, Camazotz.

This is quite intriguing, as Camazotz has been consumed by something known as the Black Thing (the personification of pure evil) in the novel, where its inhabitants are all controlled by an entity named IT. As the planet entraps people's minds, it makes sense for Holly to compare it to Vecna's sunny, optimistic memories, which exist in the past, allowing an unconventional sense of time travel. The cave seems to be the only anomaly, as Vecna seems to be scared of it, which allows Max to remain safe there. While Max works on a way out, Holly needs to be brave and trick Vecna into thinking that she's none the wiser.

With Hawkins already split in halves, Vecna could be using Holly to open another portal, one that might have nothing to do with the town or its inverted hellscape. Or perhaps, she's supposed to be Will 2.0, making it possible for Vecna to merge both worlds and control everyone inhabiting them.

Season 5, Part 1 of "Stranger Things" is currently streaming on Netflix.