The first volume of the Netflix original series Stranger Things will release on November 26th this year. The new volume consists of the first 4 episodes of what will be the show’s final season. With this grand finale right around the corner, many ERHS students have their own thoughts and predictions about what will take place and how the story will unfold, as well as insight into the series’s favorite characters, monsters, and more.
In a recent poll sent out by the Raider Review, it was found that ERHS’s favorite main character in the show is Steve Harrington, played by Joe Keery. Ironically enough, Steve Harrington was originally meant to die in Season 1. However, creators of the show, Matt and Ross Duffer, loved Joe Keery so much that they decided to write him in as a much bigger role.
Every character, save for Max Mayfield, was a member of the “Scoops Troop” of Season 3, which was also ranked ERHS’s favorite Stranger Things season overall.
Mahlet Alemayehu, a Sophomore at ERHS, is most excited for the return of Erica Sinclair in this upcoming season. “She adds a hilarious touch to the dark tones of the story, and I love to see myself represented as a black girl in media,” Alemayehu shared.
Additionally, Alemayehu believes that “Steve is for sure cooked.” The character has frequently expressed his own bleak future, having a dead-end job, a poor education, and no romantic prospects. “I don’t think he has much going on for him after the show.” Alemayehu expressed. “I think he will feel inclined to sacrifice himself.”
As for ERHS’s least favorite main characters, Mike Wheeler comes out on top with 27.4% of votes. Mike is followed closely by his mother, Karen Wheeler, and his friend, Will Byers.
“I think he gets a lot of flack.” Junior at ERHS, Rowan Kelly conveyed. “Like, I know what you mean, but he is a 14-year-old boy,” combating the popular sentiment that Mike Wheeler is an overly obnoxious character.
As for monsters, the poll found that ERHS’s favorite Upside Down villain over the course of the show has been Vecna, with 30.2% of votes. In second place is the Demogorgon of Season 1, and in close 3rd is the Mind Flayer of Season 2.
The Duffer Brothers themselves have often shared that many of the main characters are going to die in this final season, even stating in an interview with The Times that this season will have “the most violent death of any season.”
With this staggering 56.8% of students predicting Eleven’s death, Alemayehu shared that she believes Eleven will “go through a journey of self-discovery and independence. And if that happens, then it won’t feel like her story is unfinished.” With her character arc complete and her story all wrapped up, Alemayehu believes her death could be a satisfying one. “But I really hope she doesn’t die,” she adds.
Similarly, Kelly is torn between Will or Eleven dying this coming season. “Not both of them, but one of them is on the chopping block because they’re both so integral,” she shares. As for other characters’ deaths, Kelly believes that “Ted Wheeler [Mike’s father] is going to die.”
A Sophomore at ERHS shared that “it’s either going to be Jonathan or Nancy who dies.” This is mostly due to the clip from the Season 5 trailer that depicts Nancy Wheeler delivering the line, “He’s planning to end our world… and he’s not going to stop until we’re drained of every last ounce of suffering,” followed by a clip of her washing someone’s blood off her hands. “I will bet at least a quarter that that is Jonathan’s blood and Jonathan is dead,” the Sophomore claims. “Also, because their relationship is just falling apart, with the lies and everything,” he adds, in reference to Jonathan’s recent scheme to not apply for the same college as his girlfriend, Nancy Wheeler, and not tell her.
Max Mayfield’s death is a current hot topic among fans. At the end of last season, she fell into a coma after narrowly “surviving” an attack from Vecna. Her heart stopped for an entire minute before she was resuscitated by Eleven, who used her powers to restart Max’s heart. Eleven later uses her powers to peek inside of Max’s mind, trying to find her inside of her coma, but she was unsuccessful. The same ERHS Sophomore shares that he wants “to know what happened to her,” and why she is not inside her own mind. On the other hand, Junior Kelly believes that Max will “wake up” sometime this season, but is unsure how.
Outside of the poll, students shared their more general predictions about what the plot of the new season would entail.
Kelly shares her predictions that the show will end with Vecna’s defeat, but that “they’re going to have a bit of an open ending to leave the door open for an extended universe.” Additionally, she adamantly exclaimed that she does “NOT think it’s going to be a Dungeons and Dragons game. That’s stupid.”
Recently, Ross Duffer teased the titles of episodes 1-4 on his Instagram. The titles are:
- The Crawl
- The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler
- The Turnbow Trap
- Sorcerer
Kelly had her own theories on these titles. The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler was an interesting title in particular. “Obviously, that’s a direct parallel to The Vanishing of Will Byers,” Kelly stated. “What they might do is say that when she was 3 in the first season, she had some sort of encounter and the Upside Down rubbed off on her or something like that.” In Season 1, Episode 3, “Holly, Jolly,” Holly Wheeler wanders down the hallway and witnesses the demogorgon’s hand begin to push at the wall of Will Byers’ bedroom. Otherwise, Holly has been much more of a background character.
Regarding the quality of this final season, Kelly thinks that they’re gonna mess it up. “I think in a broad sense it will make sense, but they’ll mess up the details,” she voiced. However, she believes that she’ll “be fine” with the ending the Duffers decide on.
As for the ERHS Sophomore, he thinks that the “Sorcerer” episode must be related to Will and Vecna. “Will is the sorcerer/wizard of the party, and Vecna’s also named after the evil sorcerer from their D&D campaign,” he explains. As for other episodes, he is “curious about the one that’s called ‘The Turnbow Trap,’” as there seems to be a new child character named Derek Turnbow.
A major plotline of the last season revolved around the basketball team and their crusade to kill Eddie Munson. The team falsely believed that Eddie was a satanic murderer. This ERHS Sophomore theorizes that these religious themes will continue into Season 5, with many considering the setting of Hawkins, Indiana, to be a “gateway to hell” or in need of someone to “cleanse sin from the town.” Moreover, he predicts that the basketball team will bully Dustin Henderson for having been friends with the late Eddie Munson.
Sophomore Alemayehu predicts that “The Crawl” will be all about the tunnels that recently sprouted up under the town, connecting the 4 gates from the end of last season. Similar tunnels existed underneath Hawkins before, with Season 2 being all about the complex, vine-like tunnels that the Demo-dogs used to travel across town.
Many of Alemayehu’s theories center around Will Byers. She predicts that “Will Byers will have powers in the same way Henry/One/Vecna had his.” More than that, she theorizes that the first clip of episode 1 that has been teased is just one of many flashbacks to Will’s time in the Upside Down that will play throughout the season. The first 5 minutes themselves depict a young Will Byers being captured by the Demogorgon and taken to Vecna’s lair inside Upside Down City Hall. “He’ll use his memories to harness and be able to use his powers,” she explained. “But seeing those first moments of the season of Will going through so much suffering, it’s so obvious he’s going to live.” This is a rather unpopular belief, as it was previously found that many ERHS students predict Will is going to die.
Alemayehu’s other theories consider Vecna. “I do not think Vecna is the main villain. Rather, there is a stronger, more threatening monster that has controlled Vecna’s mind and actions from when he was a young boy,” she claims. This idea is backed up very well by the Stranger Things Broadway show, “The First Shadow”. The play has only ever been available in London or New York, and so many fans of Stranger Things have not been able to watch it, but the plot focuses very intensely around Henry Creel, or Vecna’s, backstory, and is rumoured to have easter eggs of it sprinkled into Season 5. “The main characters will work to save Vecna by bringing him to the good side. That’s when he will help them defeat the actual villain,” Alemayehu believes.
One of the final focuses of the Raider Review’s poll is that of fans’ favorite romantic relationship pairings, or more colloquially, “ships”.
Lucas and Max had a significant spotlight on their relationship this past season, despite having been broken up for the entirety of it. The ERHS Sophomore shared that he just wants “to see more of their relationship.” He explained that he doesn’t care if their relationship winds up platonic or romantic. “They are one of my favorite duos.”
The 5th most popular ship on this list, tied with another non-canonical ship—Steve and Nancy—is that of Will Byers and Mike Wheeler, more commonly known as Byler. The ship is a hot debate topic at the moment, as many fans are torn between whether or not they support the ship or believe it will be canon by the end of the show. The last question in the Raider Review’s poll, and the one with the most write-in replies, is titled “Do you think Byler will be canon Season 5?” 31.4% of students who replied stated plainly that they were unsure. 29.1% believe that it will not. 30.3% said that they did in fact believe it would happen. The rest were a collection of “gosh I do hope so” and “I hope not” and plenty of other torn or non-answers.
With such a close-cut debate between sides, it is difficult to determine what might happen. Both the ERHS Sophomore and Junior Rowan Kelly agree that Will is in love with Mike, which was heavily alluded to in both Seasons 3 and 4. “I do think that Will will confess to Mike at some point,” Kelly shares. “I think it’s an undeniable fact that Will is in love with Mike,” the Sophomore agrees.
Alemayehu believes that Byler may be a key aspect of Will’s survival in this final season. At the end of Season 2, the characters help to save Will from the Mind Flayer’s possession by telling him all about their memories together and sharing how much they care about him. Furthermore, Vecna’s powers are rooted in exploiting others’ insecurities about themselves. Alemayehu believes that “Mike and Will suit each other well” and that Mike’s reciprocation “would motivate Will’s character growth tremendously” by allowing him to accept himself and fight off Vecna.
Kelly shared that she does not think it’s going to happen. “I don’t think they’d do that,” she clarifies. More so, she believes that if it did, “they have not been planning it and just decided it because it’s a popular ship.”
The ERHS Sophomore shared that, as a queer person himself, “a canon queer relationship between the main characters on an immensely popular show would make me very happy. But at the same time, I won’t be shocked if nothing even remotely Byler happens.”
Whether ERHS’s predictions turn out to be correct will have to wait until the entirety of the season releases this year. Volume One of the season drops Wednesday, November 26th, and with it, many of these theories may come true. Volume Two releases on Thursday, December 25th, with the next 3 episodes in the season. And the finale, rumoured to be titled “The Rightside Up”, will release on Wednesday, December 31st. The show is available on Netflix only, with the exception of the finale having a theatrical release on the same day of its release to Netflix.
