Stranger Things Season 5's Big Reveal About The Upside Down Was In Plain Sight All Along

This post contains spoilers for "Stranger Things."

The "Stranger Things" saga is in its final stretch, and things seem pretty convoluted at the moment. Henry/Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) wants to merge Hawkins with a dark dimension for some reason, which is why Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and co. need to put up one last epic fight. As we gear up for the series finale, much of what we know about the Upside Down needs to be recontextualized in light of the big reveal about its true nature. In "Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz," Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) looks through Brenner's (Matthew Modine) journal and learns that Vecna's shield is made with Exotic Matter and that the Upside Down is actually a wormhole. This revelation comes as a shock, as the series has always portrayed it as a parallel dimension, essentially an inverse mirror to the town of Hawkins.

But assumptions about a strange realm can be wrong, which is exactly what Dustin says when he explains that the Upside Down functions as a bridge between Hawkins and a place named Dimension X. It is not a physical bridge, of course, but one that rips through space-time as it is held together by Exotic Matter (forms of matter that are either hypothetical or not understood well enough). He coins this dimension the Abyss, which is the true home of every nasty creature the group has encountered, including the Demogorgons and the Mind Flayer. With this fresh information in mind, we can deduce that Eleven must've blasted Henry into the Abyss (and not the Upside Down) during their first showdown in 1979.

In hindsight, the first four episodes of season 5 clue us in about the wormhole theory, thanks to a scene with Erica (Priah Ferguson) and science teacher Scott Clarke (Randy Havens).

In the classroom scene, Mr. Clarke is teaching wormhole theory, and the term "Einstein-Rosen bridge" can be glimpsed on the blackboard along with a theoretical diagram of a wormhole. Erica mentions that wormholes allow matter to travel between distant dimensions without actually crossing the space in between, to which Clarke responds with the unstable nature of these structures. He also muses that if the stability issue is solved, it would open up the possibility of traveling to another time. Now, this is a clue hidden in plain sight, along with the wormhole-shaped mural that Will (Noah Schnapp) draws to describe his vision while stating that it is somehow important to Vecna's plans. The penultimate episode also sets up the inevitable collapse of the wormhole (the Upside Down) before Vecna can merge the Abyss with the real world.

Parts of this story echo the Director's Cut of "Donnie Darko," where a parallel reality (known as the Tangent Universe) is also revealed to be an unstable wormhole. As the Tangent Universe is fated to collapse upon itself, it leaves the Primary Universe (the real world) in danger. To prevent this, the protagonist sacrifices himself to travel back in time and prevent the creation of the wormhole in the first place — this ensures the safety of everyone fated to die, except for himself. "Stranger Things" seems to be hinting at a similar conclusion, where Donnie's sacrifice might be an inspiration for Eleven, who intends to remain on the Einstein-Rosen bridge as it collapses upon itself. This might trigger a reset, with Hawkins traveling back in time before the disappearance of Will on November 6th, 1983. With no Eleven, there's no Upside Down or Vecna, which would undo every death we've witnessed.

As wormholes are naturally unstable and only survive for a short amount of time, there must be a reason why the Upside Down hasn't collapsed upon itself yet. Dustin's hunch that the Upside Down will collapse if they shoot the shield generator is proven wrong, so there must be some source of energy that is preventing its destruction. That source could be Will himself, as his disappearance was the catalyst for all events to follow. Alternatively, Eleven could be the unwitting source, which is why her probable death would make sense in connection to the realm's destruction.

We also know that Vecna has been using Will and the other kids to do his bidding with good old mind control and manipulation, but was every death in Hawkins specifically caused to open a gate? Seasons 4 and 5 support the gate sacrifice theory, but the deaths of characters like Barb (Shannon Purser) seem arbitrary in comparison, as the Demogorgon seemingly kills her for no reason. Are these deaths necessary to sustain the integrity of the wormhole? We don't know yet, but the series finale might offer a convincing answer.

Circling back to the possible time travel ending, it wouldn't work for a show like "Stranger Things" for several reasons. Donnie's sacrifice in the film, while tragic, can be justified within the context of the scientific rules of that fictional world. It is a necessary sacrifice that compels a teenager to be selfless in the face of a global catastrophe. Eleven's sacrifice would undoubtedly be an emotional gut-punch, but a clean timeline reset will cheapen every lived experience and every character arc. Hopefully, the Netflix mega-hit will come up with a smarter resolution to such a sweeping saga.