In episode 4 of Stranger Things Season 5, Eleven and Hopper were attacked in the Upside Down by Lt. Col. Sullivan’s men, and they managed to incapacitate Eleven with some kind of a sound cannon. In retaliation, Eleven and Hopper killed all those soldiers and captured Lt. Akers, because they thought that he must know what’s behind that wall, or how the military had figured out a way to subdue Eleven. After sifting through Akers’ memories of exploring the military base in the Upside Down, Eleven came to the conclusion that the army had captured Vecna and somehow figured out a way to use his powers against Eleven. Which meant that Eleven and Hopper needed to break into the military base, infiltrate the room Vecna was being kept in, force him to free Holly, and then kill him. Meanwhile, Steve, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Robin, Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy, and Mike reunited at The Squawk to discuss the theory that Will could tap into the minds of the Demogorgons as well as the kids that were being targeted by Henry or Vecna. Will knew that Henry’s next victim would be this kid called Derek. So, they needed to get to him when Henry sent a Demogorgon to kidnap Derek, not just to protect him, but to use him as bait to put a tracker on said Demogorgon. That way, when the Demogorgon would go back into the Upside Down, they’d be able to follow it all the way to Vecna, kill him, and save Holly from his clutches.
To pull off that task, they roped in Erica, who had to deliver some pie spiked with sleep-inducing drugs to the Turnbow residence. Once that was done, the gang turned the Turnbows’ house into a trap, and, as expected, the Demogorgon showed up. After getting walloped by the gang, the Demogorgon tucked its metaphorical tail between its legs, opened a portal, and ran away. However, it wasn’t headed to the Upside Down but towards the barn where Derek had been stashed away. Somewhere between Hawkins and the Upside Down, Henry was seen grooming Holly while preparing to bring Derek into his memory realm, where he’d stay with Holly. Before leaving for that task, Henry told Holly to stay out of the woods because there were monsters in there. Soon after that, Holly got a letter from Henry, asking her to meet him near the Rocky Mountains. To get there, Holly had to trek through a forest. After much hesitation, Holly embarked on the journey. No, she didn’t reunite with Henry, but the audience was reunited with Max. What happened next? Let’s talk about episode 4 of Stranger Things Season 5 to find out.
Spoiler Alert
Will Sees Vecna’s Prison
In Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 4, Joyce tries to pacify Derek, as he has become extremely agitated after learning that he has been kidnapped. The more Joyce talks to Derek, the more apparent it becomes that Henry has successfully brainwashed the kid into thinking that his kidnappers are the villains while Henry himself is his savior. Joyce tries to win over Derek by freeing him from his bonds, but the kid decides to escape from the barn. Will, Robin, and Erica try their best to keep Derek from freaking out, but to no avail. In the meantime, the Demogorgon that has been hunting for Derek arrives at the barn. The only thing that’s standing between it and Derek is an axe-wielding Joyce, and she swings that axe so violently (Joyce’s plot armor is extremely thick) that the Demogorgon is forced to exit the barn and maybe search for another way to get to Derek. Before it can make a decision, Steve—who had been tracking the Demogorgon along with Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan—rams his car into the creature and sends it packing. When the Demogorgon opens a portal to retreat into the Upside Down, Steve announces his intention to follow it into that realm and find Holly and Vecna, instead of doing the same from Hawkins. Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan give him the green light, and Steve puts the pedal to the metal and drives into the Upside Down. As the portal closes behind them, Will sees a vision of a spot in the Upside Down where multiple kids, including Holly, are being held captive. They are unconscious, and they have tubes rammed down their throats, the same kind that Vecna used on Will after capturing him. Before Will can figure out what this place is, the vision comes to an end.
By the way, apparently, Vecna isn’t the only one who is going after kids. When Mike and Lucas are on their way to reunite with the rest of the gang, they notice the military police rounding up all the kids of Hawkins. Since they can’t question the police about why they are doing what they are doing, lest they be captured and questioned about Eleven, they decide to get out of there before they are spotted. In the meantime, instead of waiting for another chance to get a glimpse of that prison in the Upside Down, because nobody knows when that’ll come, Will draws a very artistic representation of that place. Robin theorizes that that is Vecna’s command center, and he is using the kidnapped kids to make himself and his realm powerful enough to take over Hawkins and then the rest of the world. He has already taken 4 kids, and if Will’s interpretation of his vision is correct, then he is going to apprehend 8 more. Everyone starts wondering why Vecna is going after kids and why he needs 12 of them, but Will says that thinking about the reason behind Vecna’s plans is pointless. They must focus on keeping the kids out of Vecna’s reach with the help of Will’s ability to see from the perspective of Vecna’s latest victim. Will says this because he is under the impression that all of the kids are at their respective homes, and he’ll be able to spot them as soon as Henry invades their minds and brings them to the barn or somewhere safer. But Lucas and Mike throw water all over that plan by revealing that the kids who fall in the age group that has been targeted by Vecna so far are being moved to the military zone where the entry of civilians is strictly prohibited. So, what’s the alternative?
Vecna’s Targets Need To Be Saved
Erica tracks the kids being taken into the military zone and reports that they are being kept in the barracks near the library. Back at The Squawk, Joyce lays the map of the underground tunnels over the map of Hawkins and points out that there’s a tunnel that goes right underneath those barracks. Robin references The Great Escape and proposes that they smuggle the kids out of there through the bathroom before the military gets a whiff of what’s going on. Then they’ll transfer the kids to Murray, who will take them out of Hawkins, and once they are out of Hawkins, hopefully Vecna won’t be able to reach them. There are 2 issues with that plan: Firstly, Vecna needs 8 more kids, and there are more than 8 kids in the barracks. Therefore, they need to know exactly which 8 of them will be targeted by Henry and extract them through the bathrooms. Secondly, they need somebody to direct those 8 kids to the bathroom so that they can be smuggled out of there, and that somebody is, of course, Derek. I know what you are thinking: Won’t Vecna just choose 8 other children if the ones he had selected aren’t available? Well, as per Stranger Things Season 5, if Vecna selects someone, he’ll go after them only and not seek alternatives. So, we just have to assume that he will go for a certain set of 8 kids and nobody else.
Going back to the plan, Derek shows up at the military zone with the walkie-talkie in his G.I. Joe tiffin box, which is a surprise, because I didn’t expect him to comply. What’s even more surprising is that after getting into the barracks, he starts communicating with Joyce and the others and tells her exactly where the bathroom is located. While Mike, Will, Robin, Lucas, and Joyce work on getting to that bathroom through the tunnels, and Murray prepares his truck that’ll eventually take the marked kids out of Hawkins, Derek starts rounding up the people who have been talking to Henry. Also, before heading into the tunnels, Mike advises Will to not succumb to the fits when he taps into the hive mind and instead try and somehow reverse-engineer the process to control the hive mind, much like Vecna does. Robin notices how Will looks at Mike. So, while heading to the spot underneath the bathroom, Robin advises Will to not be afraid of being gay. She doesn’t explicitly say that, but yeah, that’s essentially what she means. The issue here is that Mike is straight and seemingly in love with Eleven. Hence, if Will tries to open up to Mike, he is bound to get his heart broken. Well, we’ll burn that bridge once we get there.
Akers Informs Kay About Eleven And Hopper
In the Upside Down, Steve is nowhere close to catching up to the Demogorgon even though he is driving at top speed. Dustin loses track of the Demogorgon, and he starts reprimanding Steve. Nancy and Jonathan warn Steve that he is driving too fast through a place where visibility is almost zero. But Steve and Dustin are so busy fighting that they don’t heed Nancy and Jonathan’s advice to slow down, and Steve ends up ramming the car into the wall that Hopper and Eleven had first encountered in episode 2. At the military base in the Upside Down, Kay is seen talking to Sullivan and Ramirez about her theory that Eleven is the one who has been kidnapping the kids and taking them to the Upside Down for some mysterious reason. Kay isn’t interested in learning said reason; she just wants the kids to be safely stowed away in MAC-Z. Since it’s a high-security zone, the military will be able to nab Eleven if she tries to extract one of the kids from there. Kay wants Sullivan to be at MAC-Z so that Eleven can get the warm welcome that she deserves. Sullivan wants to look for Akers, who was captured by Eleven and Hopper, but Kay shoots down that proposal and reiterates her order to go to MAC-Z. Sullivan has no option but to oblige and leaves for Hawkins. Ramirez stages a miniscule protest against Kay’s decision to use the kids as bait to capture Eleven. Kay understands that it’s his fear talking, and she tells him that if Ramirez and his crew do a good enough job of protecting the kids, then no harm will befall them.
Speaking of Akers, he frees himself and begins making his way to the military compound. Yeah, I thought that Eleven broke his mind and he died. Well, clearly he is alive and fit enough to walk all the way to his destination and then inform Kay about Eleven and Hopper’s arrival in the Upside Down. Also, allow me to address the elephants in the room: why is everyone casually roaming around in the Upside Down? How did they build that goddamn military complex? Aren’t the dandruff-like particles floating around affecting anyone? These were major factors keeping people from waltzing into the Upside Down without proper precautions. But now, for the sake of the plot, those rules and regulations have been abandoned, I guess. Anyway, Eleven and Hopper are seen scouting the military facility from afar. They have a bit of a tiff about whether Eleven can jump the fence and then let Hopper into the facility because Hopper is too afraid to let Eleven do such a risky thing.
Kali is Eleven’s Kryptonite
Hopper and Eleven’s discussion about the military infiltration plan is interrupted by Dustin, Steve, Jonathan, and Joyce, who want Eleven and Hopper to meet them at the wall near the Roane Cemetery. Hopper says that he and Eleven ran into a similar kind of wall, but the location where they encountered it—near the old Hagen Bridge—is on the opposite side of the town. If it’s not clear already, later on, Dustin gives a detailed explanation of how the wall runs all around the Upside Down’s version of Hawkins. Since it’s impossible for Eleven and Hopper to make that trip without getting killed by a Demogorgon or something else, Hopper tells Dustin and the rest to stay put while they infiltrate the military facility and force Vecna, who is apparently being held captive there, to bring down the wall. With all that out of the way, Hopper lets Eleven execute her plan, and he even congratulates her for exceeding his expectations. In the meantime, instead of just waiting idly for Hopper and Eleven, Dustin figures out that Hawkins Laboratory, the place this whole mess started, is at the center of this wall. The lab isn’t accessible from the Upside Down, but it can probably be accessed from Hawkins. So, while Eleven and Hopper are busy with the military facility, maybe Dustin and the rest should go to the lab. By the way, after the first step of their plan, things go terribly wrong for Eleven and Hopper. Just when Eleven is about to access the room, which is supposedly where the military is holding Vecna, the sound cannon effect that is Eleven’s Kryptonite is dialed up to eleven, causing her to collapse. Kay, Akers, and several other soldiers enter the room that Eleven and Hopper are in.
While Kay gets busy intimidating Eleven, Hopper begins killing the soldiers. Hopper seems to be on a roll, but his kill streak is impeded by Akers, who proves to be quite a handful. During their fight, they fall into the cabinet, which holds a tentacle of one of Vecna’s creatures. So, even though Hopper knocks out Akers, the tentacle grabs hold of Hopper and begins asphyxiating him. Kay uses that opportunity to learn why Hopper has tried to infiltrate such a secure military base with Eleven. Hopper refuses to say anything, which gives Eleven the time to gather her strength and distract Kay for a bit. That in turn allows Hopper to escape the grasp of the tentacle, take the keycard to the Kryptonite room from Kay, and then knock Kay out. However, since backup is on the way, Hopper tells Eleven to run away from the facility while he blows up her Kryptonite with the help of his DIY suicide bomber vest. Eleven isn’t strong enough to go after Hopper as he heads into the Kryptonite room and closes the door behind him. Thankfully, since Hopper takes a peek inside the room before blowing it up, he sees that it’s not Vecna in there but Kali. Kali was introduced in Stranger Things Season 2, episode 7. She had escaped from Brenner’s lab a long time ago, and, during Eleven’s “punk rock” phase, she had reunited with her sister. Eleven had briefly joined Kali’s gang, but when duty called, she parted ways with Kali to go and save Hawkins. It’s unclear how Kay captured Kali and has been using her powers to subdue Eleven (it’s probably an homage to Stephen King’s The Institute, where psychic kids are used to subdue other psychic kids). But now that Eleven has found Kali again, maybe they’ll team up to take down Kay’s facility as well as Vecna.
Max Explains Henry’s Memory Prison
In the space between Hawkins and the Upside Down, Max is seen tending to Holly’s injury that she got while trying to run away from her. How does one get injured in a realm that’s probably made of Henry’s memories of Hawkins? It’s like in The Matrix or Inception, where if you believe everything around you is real, then you will experience it like you experience reality. Hence, if you think you can get injured in a place like Henry’s memory realm, you will get cuts and bruises. If you are self-aware enough to not believe in the illusion, nothing will hurt you. However, Holly is just a kid, which is why she experiences pain. Max probably knows what’s going on, but instead of breaking her mind instantly, she casually says that the wound isn’t that deep. Once Holly remembers that she has seen Max with Mike at her house, Max decides to unpack what’s going on with the realm they are in. But since the woods are accessible to Henry, Max asks Holly to come with her to the cave in the Rocky Mountains. Holly says that she needs to wait for Henry, and Max reveals that that letter that brought her to the woods was left by her, not Henry. Holly doesn’t want to go to the caves with Max, because if she can lie about the letter, she can lie about everything else. It’s only after Max shares a memory of Mike that only a select few people could have known that Holly chooses to trust Max and enters her humble abode.
After that, Max begins her exposition about how the place they are in is a realm made of Henry’s memories of Hawkins from the 1950s (which Holly thinks is similar to Camazotz from A Wrinkle in Time), and Henry uses it as a prison to trap the minds of people. She also gives Holly a recap of the last season so that Holly understands how she went into a coma and then got trapped in this realm. She basically says that she briefly died after being attacked by Vecna, then she came back, and then her physical body went into a coma, but her consciousness was transferred into Henry’s memory realm. She almost got out of there and re-entered her body through a portal that had been opened thanks to Lucas playing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on a loop, but Henry closed that portal and chased her. After running around Henry’s memory realm for what seemed like ages, Max finally found the Rocky Mountains and hid in their caves. While hiding there, she saw the fear in his eyes, and she realized that Henry has some bad memories associated with those caves. What are those memories? That’s not revealed in this part of Stranger Things Season 5. Maybe part 2 will shed some light on it. For now, Max wants Holly to go back to Henry’s house and wait for further instructions.
The Escape Plan Is Ruined
After getting to the spot in Hawkins’ underground system which is right underneath the barracks of the military zone, Lucas and Mike begin breaking into the floor of the bathroom. Once they manage to make a hole, they contact Derek and signal him to send the kids to the bathroom one by one. By the way, the kids don’t think they are being rescued. Derek is convinced that Lucas and the others are actually working for Mr. Whatsit, and they’ll be taking them to their new best friend. Since the kids are so brainwashed, Robin, Mike, Will, Lucas, and Joyce have to play along. Anyway, the rescue operation seems to be going fine until one of the kids, while climbing down the hole, loosens a pipe, causing a series of leakages in the bathroom. Mike and Lucas try to plug the leaks while also directing the incoming Whatsit fans to the hole. But one of the kids, who had previously noticed some strange noises coming from the bathroom (when Mike and Lucas were breaking into the floor), sees that loads of kids are going to the lavatory but none of them are coming out. Hence, she takes matters into her own hands and goes to check out what’s going on. She is shocked to see two men directing kids into a hole, and since she isn’t one of the kids who has seen Mr. Whatsit, she immediately raises the alarm.
Derek abandons his plan to send in the kids one by one and just runs into the bathroom with the rest of the Whatsiters. The soldiers stationed at the barracks try to barge into the bathroom, thereby forcing Derek, Mike, and Lucas to hang back and hold the door shut until the kids in the tunnel have reached Murray’s truck. Eventually, the soldiers break into the bathroom, and they apprehend Derek, Mike, Joyce, Will, and some of Henry’s targets. Sullivan arrives at the scene and tries to learn what’s going on, and he is understandably surprised when he hears that in the time it took for all those elite soldiers to figure out what was going on right underneath their noses, a bunch of locals had almost smuggled 8 kids out of that secure facility. Joyce says that they were just trying to ensure the safety of those children. Sullivan retorts that that facility is the most secure place in Hawkins. Derek snarkily remarks that the military is actually very bad at their job, which starts a lot of commotion between the localities and the army. Hence, nobody notices Will suffering another fit, which is why they miss the indication that Demogorgons are about to descend upon the army base.
Will Has Vecna’s Powers
By the time Joyce gets to Will, it’s too late, and a brutal assault on the military facility begins. And no, it’s not just the MAC-Z that’s targeted; the Demogorgons open portals in the tunnel to nab the kids that are with Lucas and near Murray’s truck to catch the kids that are with him. Everyone tries their level best to keep the Demogorgons at bay, but once Vecna himself enters the battlefield, they are unable to save any of the 8 kids. Most of the main cast survives the ordeal. All the nameless characters bite the dust. The only named character that we see dying is Ramirez. Sullivan is going to have some third-degree burns, but he’ll probably survive. In the ending of Stranger Things Season 5, episode 4, Vecna approaches Will and vaguely insinuates why he is targeting kids. He says that they are weak and they can be easily broken. He also states that the minds he has chosen, including Will, belong to him. I don’t know what that means exactly (I just hope that Vecna’s choice of victims has nothing to do with queerness or something that made kids socially unacceptable back then). I suppose that since Vecna’s “multiple portals to create a big portal” world domination plan has failed, he has taken this alternative route to reshape the planet. He has probably understood that he needs to become more powerful to tackle Eleven, Kali, and the humans. Going by Vecna’s appearance, he has clearly upped his game after kidnapping those 4 children. After adding 8 more to his tally, it will certainly empower him even more, and he clearly wants Will and the rest of his gang to witness that before dying, which is why he retires to the Upside Down after his obscure monologue.
However, going by how Will exhibits Vecna’s powers and kills the Demogorgons before they can kill his friends and family, Vecna should have finished the job. Now, Will is going to join the likes of Eleven and Kali to pull apart Vecna and his empire piece by piece so that we can get that sweet, sweet happy ending. By the way, I thought that the similarity to Harry Potter would be limited to Will being able to see things from the perspectives of Henry and his pets. But I suppose the show has gone full Harry Potter by imbuing Will with the same powers that Vecna has just because Vecna had tried to make him his puppet, much like Harry had the same powerset as Voldemort because Voldemort tried to kill Harry. I won’t be surprised if we get to see Will sacrificing himself to weaken Vecna, since he is one of Vecna’s Horcruxes, thereby giving someone like Eleven or Kali the chance to finish off Vecna. Well, that’s what I think. If you have any alternative theories, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
