My Stranger Things S4 Theory

Spoiler Warning!

If you haven’t watched Stranger Things season 4, up to episode 8, don’t read this!

Or do, it’s your choice, I’m not your parent. But there will be spoilers!

I love that they always keep the 80's vibe going with the style of the promo materials!

Netflix struck gold when they created Stranger Things. From the first season, the show has been a hit, and it seems especially popular lately with the release of the fourth season, which in my personal opinion is the best season since the first. The streaming service made an interesting move when they decided to release all but the last two episodes of this season and save those two for July 1^st. Giving everyone time to watch the majority of the season – a season filled with mystery, tension, and suspense – ensures that most of us fans will be dying to watch that two-episode finale when it finally drops.

This season's villain is named after an evil god in D&D lore. How do you up the ante from there?
Maybe the fifth (and final) season will feature the Tarrasque!

We’ve already seen a couple huge reveals with the villain Vecna’s origin story, but there are still some mysteries left to solve. Exactly why does Vecna killing someone open a portal between the two worlds? Why does he only seem to target people who not only have trauma (because let’s face it, which of our beloved characters doesn’t have trauma from the last three seasons?), but specifically people who feel guilt associated with their trauma? How did Dr. Brenner (a.k.a. "Papa") survive the Demogorgon attack in season 1 - a mystery we've been wondering about since his reveal in season 2? What’s the deal with Will and his painting? And how much stronger will Eleven’s powers be when she finally gets them back? (Let’s be honest, we all know she’s going to get them back for the finale, probably at the most crucial moment so she can come in with the clutch save!)

El getting bullied in school was pretty much the saddest thing in this whole season so far.
Tbh I'm kinda glad she smacked that bully in the face with a roller skate.

I think I can answer that last question, at least. My theory is that El is going to get some form of time-travel powers. Let me explain why. First, the prominence of the grandfather clock in Vecna’s visions, as well as in his backstory, hints at some kind of time manipulation being possible. Particularly the part where he makes the clock’s hands turn backward. (The grandfather clock also features prominently in the promotional images, as seen in the first photo on this blog post.) Secondly, in episode 3 Dr. Owens told El that her powers would be even stronger when she gets them back, but we don't yet know exactly how strong or whether she'll see completely new powers develop. But the last factor is the key.

The show explained the prominence of the clock by showing it as a piece of Vecna's backstory...
but I'm not convinced that's all there is to it.

When Henry Creel (little baby Vecna) was killing his family, Victor Creel was brought out of the vision by the radio turning on and by “an angel voice”. Watching the scene for the first time, I assumed that the radio coming on was just an electrical distortion from Vecna using his powers. But during Vecna's epic villain monologue at the end of episode 7, we can clearly see that the radio issues started before Henry closed his eyes and began to use his powers. I think that maybe Eleven either went back in time physically or (more likely) just reached back through time with her powers, and tried to save the Creel family by turning on the radio during dinner. We’ve already seen her powers affect electronics this way in past seasons. Perhaps she was trying to prevent the whole origin story of Vecna from getting started at all? But in any case, this first attempt failed to save Creel's wife Virginia and their daughter Alice. Then she turned the radio on again to save Victor, and she also must have spoken to him and that was the “angel voice”. At least that’s what I believe happened and will be revealed in the final two episodes of the season.

Some people assume the "angel voice" was just the singer on the radio. Are they right?

If my theory is correct, that leaves us with the possibility of a time paradox. Did El know that music would bring Vecna’s victims out of their visions, or was she just trying desperately to communicate with them somehow? If she learned that information from her friends in Hawkins, that creates a paradox because they learned it from Victor and he only knew what he knew because of (if my theory is correct) El going back in time and saving him that way. Time paradoxes are a well-known pitfall in sci-fi though, and I trust the writers of Stranger Things to be aware of that and find a way to avoid it. They haven’t failed us yet. (Please don’t disappoint us right at the climax like Game of Thrones, guys, I’m begging you!)

Y'all, I was so SO scared they were gonna kill Max this season! I would've been so mad!

Now, I haven’t done any research to see if anyone else has already put forth this theory. If someone else has, I don’t intend to take credit away from them. But I did come up with it independently, if that counts for anything. All this speculation is just for fun anyway, but I thought I would put my idea out there and see what people thought. Let me know if the comments if you agree or disagree, and why! I’m very interested to know what other people think. And I can’t wait to find out if I’m right when we finally get those last two episodes! Less than two weeks to go now!

Will's artistic passion isn't limited to only drawings of creepy Upside Down stuff!

Oh, and as for question of the painting, I’m like 99% sure Will has a crush on Mike and the painting is of him, or at least for him. But I bet all the other queer folks out there have already picked up on that too!