Stranger Things Season 5 – the unanswered questions

Cassie Mammone

21/11/2025

Translation: Katherine Martin

The fifth season of Stranger Things is just about to start – and it’s got a whole bunch of questions to answer.

On 27 November, the moment we’ve all been waiting for will finally arrive. Netflix is scheduled to release the first half of Stranger Things Season 5 at 2. a.m. But before we look to the future – and (hopefully) experience a stupendous finale to the nine-year-long series – it’s worth looking back at the past.

Although El, Mike and the gang have been on numerous adventures, they haven’t yet managed to put a stop to the horror of the Upside Down. It’s high time we had a finale-worthy showdown.

But what does this season actually have in store for us? These unanswered questions might contain clues to potential storylines that unfold in the final season of Stranger Things.

As you might’ve guessed, this article’s packed with spoilers for the first four seasons of Stranger Things!

1. What’s the deal with the Upside Down?

Five seasons in, the Upside Down is still the biggest mystery of Stranger Things. It seems to be a parallel world mirroring the fictional US town of Hawkins created in 1983, when the beginning of the series is set.

The Upside Down boasts a hostile atmosphere and countless monsters, including the mastermind Vecna aka Henry Creel aka Number 1. However, even after four full seasons, it’s still unclear what exactly this parallel world is.

The heroes spent the first season searching for a way into the Upside Down to rescue Will, who was missing. In the second season, Will was regularly pulled into the alternate dimension by his connection to Vecna. While the events of the third season were confined to Hawkins, the fourth season forced the teens into the Upside Down, as they suspected it contained a way to break Vecna’s power.

There’s a whole host of unanswered questions about the Upside Down. How was it created? Are more places affected by it? Will it be wiped out for good when our heroes drive it out of Hawkins?

Whatever the case, it’s time some light was shed on that dark place.

2. What’s Eleven’s connection to the Upside Down?

As a result of her supernatural powers, El’s able to face up to enemies from other dimensions and our own. She often uses telekinetic abilities, such as moving large obstacles or destroying monsters.

El can also locate people from far away or eavesdrop on them – something we get to see happen in the blackness of The Void.

Rather than stemming from the Upside Down, El’s powers were created by experiments conducted at the Hawkins Lab. The space she uses to find other people isn’t a hostile environment – in fact, it only seems to exist inside her head. And yet, the epic scene unveiling Vecna’s true identity reveals that Eleven was the one who banished him to the other dimension in the first place.

It begs the question of how she formed a connection to the Upside Down, and why it occurred with that world in particular. In theory, other dimensions exist too. So it stands to reason that Vecna could well have ended up in a world made of candyfloss and rainbows instead of a gloomy, tentacly dimenson.

3. What’s Will's connection to the Upside Down and Vecna?

Ever since he disappeared in Season 1, Will can sense when Vecna (then known as the Mind Flayer) is using his powers. This is initially explained by the fact that Will was infected by the Mind Flayer in the Upside Down. However, even when Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy drive the Mind Flayer out of Will in Season 2, the connection remains in tact. The trailer for the upcoming season has quelled any lingering doubts. There’s no misunderstanding Vecna when he says:

«William, you are going to help me one last time.»

Considering the trailer, it’s clear Will’s about to take on a special role. But what will that be exactly? There’s been plenty of speculation that Will developed supernatural powers while he was in the Upside Down – or that they’ve been dormant in him from the very beginning. Regardless of whether that’s true, he has something that Vecna needs.

It’s also interesting that time stood still in the Upside Down on the day Will went missing in the very first episode. This is underpinned by this scene in Season 4, when Nancy’s searching the parallel world for weapons she’d stashed in her room. As she’s rifling through her belongings, she finds no trace of the weapons. What she does discover is her old diary, whose last entry is dated 6 November 1983.

With this in mind, Will could potentially have played a key role in the creation of the Upside Down as we know it. The only question is: how? And why did Vecna choose him?

4. What’s been keeping Vecna going all these years?

Season 4 revealed Vecna as the series’ main villain. His dislike of human beings emerged when he was still a young boy. However, that aversion becomes his undoing when he seeks an ally in El. She rejects both him and his cruel ambitions, then banishes him to another dimension.

Season 4 tells his story, depicting his arrival in a strange place – probably a form of the Upside Down. A setting free from human influence until Vecna unleashed his powers.

During that time, he somehow created the Mind Flayer, gained control of an army of creatures and strengthened his powers. Exactly what he did to achieve that, however, remains a mystery. Hopefully this’ll be revealed once we learn more about the Upside Down and parallel dimensions.

5. Are there other people with supernatural powers? If so, where did they come from?

In Season 2, we found out that El’s supernatural powers weren’t an isolated case. In the seventh episode, she joins a group of petty criminals. There, she meets Kali, a girl with the number eight tattooed on her wrist. And with special powers. Unlike El and Vecna, she can manipulate what other people see. This allows her to do things such as create illusions or make herself invisible.

Was Kali just a side note on El’s journey? Or will she help the girl she calls her sister once again?

In Season 4, the other children from the original experiment appear in El and Vecna’s flashbacks. Most of them have been cruelly murdered by Vecna, but there might well be other survivors like Kali.

Still, not every human being with supernatural powers is the product of experiments. After all, director Dr Brenner didn’t start experimenting on children and their pregnant mothers until he discovered young Henry’s abilities.

Which means superpowers can be created without the involvement of some external factor. But how? This question isn’t central to the plot of Stranger Things. However, if Will really does have supernatural abilities without having been part of the Hawkins Lab experiments, the powers might explain other, connected mysteries.

6. How will the love triangles work out?

Horror isn’t the only element Stranger Things brings to the table. The series also makes room for romance. Joyce and Hopper are the most recent couple, having finally got together in Season 4 after a long back-and-forth.

When it comes to Season 5, most couples seem to be a sure thing: Joyce and Hopper, Max and Lucas, Dustin and Suzie, Robin and Vickie. However, it’s still unclear how two potential love triangles will work out.

Jonathan and Nancy have officially been a couple since Season 2. Though they’ve had their issues in the past, they’ve stayed together. Season 4 put physical distance between the two, leaving Nancy to spend a lot of time with her ex-boyfriend Steve, who clearly still has feelings for her.

But there’s also another potential love triangle. While Mike’s visiting his girlfriend El in California, Will pines for him from afar. When Mike and El’s relationship hits a rocky patch, his best friend’s there to advise and support him – even though it breaks his heart.

Despite Mike’s dramatic confession of love at the end of the season, the dust apparently hasn’t quite settled between the couple. Will’s feelings could potentially take a really interesting turn, given the key role he’s about to take on.

7. Who’ll live and who’ll die?

Okay, this one’s the biggie – and the one likely to cause the most tears. The cast actually cried at the table read for the finale, and have hinted several times that audiences are likely to have the same reaction. A series favourite meeting an unfortunate end could well be the reason behind that.

One character who’s often been tipped to die in Season 5 is Steve, the cool kid turned hardened babysitter, who also happens to be Nancy’s ex and first love. Steve was actually supposed to die in Season 1. However, after actor Joe Keery won the hearts of the producers even faster than his character won Nancy’s, he landed himself a permanent role in the cast.

Now, his future’s uncertain. He doesn’t have any big dreams to pursue outside of Hawkins once Vecna’s evil deeds finally come to an end. Other than his dream of having a big family with Nancy, that is. In the trailer, by the way, we see her with blood-stained hands, crying in front of a sink. If Steve’s dream doesn’t come true, he’ll be left with nothing at the end of Season 5. And unfortunately, that sets the perfect conditions for him to kick the bucket.

But Steve certainly isn’t the only character who might not survive the series.

For instance, there’s Max, who’s been in a coma since her last direct encounter with Vecna. The trailer also shows people like Karen and Holly (Mike’s mother and younger sister) becoming embroiled in the events. New characters’ survival chances tend to be low, as we’ve seen from the likes of Bob, Alexei and Eddie.

With the final episode of Stranger Things scheduled to come out during the Christmas holidays, one or two character deaths might just put a dampener on the festivities. It’s less than two months away, so we’ll hopefully have answers to most of our questions soon.

Header image: Netflix

Cassie Mammone

Freelance Editor

cassie.mammone.freelance@gmail.com

I wrote my first text about video games when I was eight years old. I haven't been able to stop since. The rest of my time is spent on my love for 2D husbandos, monsters, my cats and sport.

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