Warning: Spoilers, so many spoilers, ahead forStranger Things season 2.
While Stranger Things is usually the kind of show that leaves you with more questions than answers, the season 2 finale “The Gate” gave viewers a shocking amount of closure. Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) finally kissed. The Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton)-Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer)-Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) love triangle ended on as final a note as high school romance can. And, the shadow monster was banished from Hawkins, Indiana. All of that certainly makes the sci-fi drama of Hawkins feel pretty wrapped up. But, once you get past the broad strokes of Stranger Things 2, there are quite a few major unanswered questions hiding below the surface of all this finality.
Keep reading for all the mysteries we’ll be waiting for Stranger Things season 3 to answer. Until then, there’s one huge reason we’re worried about fan-favourite Jim Hopper (David Harbour).
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Will Stranger Things Now Go The Way Of An Anthology?
While we all love the supernaturally-informed residents of Hawkins, Indiana, it seems a little unfair to keep thrusting them into the danger and chaos of the Upside Down. Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) lost a boyfriend in Bob (Sean Astin) and nearly lost her son Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) to the otherworldly dimension. When will enough be a enough for torturing these well-meaning midwesterners?
Also, after watching the Stranger Things crew beat Upside Down monsters twice now, it might seem a little too implausible to watch them do it all again for a third time, against what we can only guess is an even bigger threat.
It’s possible the Duffer Brothers’ creation would be better served to cap this story off with season 2, which gave everyone closure, but hinted the Upside Down would never be far from Hawkins. Then, for season 3, Stranger Things could go the way of American Horror Story by giving viewers an entirely new strange thing, but with the actors we’ve all grown to love.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
Will Next Season Focus On Kali Instead?
If Matt and Ross Duffer don’t want to lose the characters they’ve established over two years just yet, they can drop the Hawkins string in favour of Eleven’s “sister,” fellow Hawkins Lab kidnapped child, Kaili (Linnea Berthelsen). Throughout the middle of Stranger Things 2, we get a glimpse of Kali’s life of crime, where she and her friends rob banks and kill the people associated with her traumatic, abusive time in the lab. These details alone are definitely meaty enough for their own season of television, especially since older girl Kali has one of the most interesting powers in pop culture: the ability to make others see, or not see, anything of her choosing.
There’s also the possibility to explore what happened to the other children taken by Hawkins Lab, since Kali’s tattoo reads “008.” If the wayward young woman is “Eight” and newly minted “Jane Hopper” is “Eleven” where are all the other numbers?
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
How Will The “Mind Flayer” Play Into Season 3?
While a new anthology structure or a Numbers Only diversion sounds fun for the future of Stranger Things, it’s highly likely season 3 will return to Hawkins. The final seconds of Stranger 2 shows the shadow monster, a.k.a. the Mind Flayer, looming over the Upside Down’s version of Hawkins Middle School where our heroes are enjoying the innocence of the Snow Ball. This seems to suggest the malevolent creature will still be the main antagonist in Things 3.0.
Now our major question is how will the Flayer get back into Hawkins, now that Eleven closed the interdimensional breach for good in season 2 finale “The Gate.”
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
How Did Closing The Gate Actually Kill The Mind Flayer’s Minions?
Speaking of Eleven closing the gate, her defeat of the Mind Flayer doesn’t exactly track. Our heroes realise killing the shadow monster will kill his minions, including the demo-dogs terrorising their town, the Upside Down tunnels growing towards Hawkins, the killer vines living inside that tunnel, and the virus inside of Will. So, they talk to Will, who is possessed but can share his thoughts via finger-tapping Morse code. Will ends up telling his friends “Close gate,” which is good advice, but wouldn’t actually kill the Mind Flayer — it would just stop the being from further encroaching on our world. It’s not like trapping the Demogorgon in season 1 would have killed the monster.
Yet, when Eleven finally closes the gate, and battles back the Flayer’s shadowy tentacles, all vestiges of the “superorganism” in Hawkins die. Still, we know she didn’t actually kill the monster, since we see it still towering above HMS at the close of “The Gate.” So, technically, the group’s plan shouldn’t have worked, since the Flayer is still very much alive.
Maybe just severing the monster’s connection with its earthly hive mind was enough?
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
Why Didn’t Closing The Gate “Kill” Eleven?
Look, I’m so happy Eleven is alive, well, and able to attend the Snow Ball in her finest dress, but, in season 1, simply eradicating the Demogorgon seemingly killed Eleven and definitely banished her to the Upside Down. In the freshman year finale, “The Upside Down,” Eleven’s eyes go bloodshot and she starts bleeding out of one nostril before she vanishes.
This time, the same symptoms present themselves during the final showdown. Only now, Eleven starts bleeding out of both nostrils, since she’s attempting the gargantuan psychic task of closing a miles-long inter-dimensional breach while fighting back an all-powerful hive-mind monster. If killing the Demogorgon could send her to a parallel universe, this major obstacle should do more than make her a little tired.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
Can Eleven Adjust To “Normal” Life In Hawkins?
Eleven helps save Hawkins Laboratory's new head honcho, Dr. Owens ( Aliens ’ Paul Reiser), which means the man owes the little girl and her guardian, sheriff Jim Hopper. Before we get a look at the Snow Ball in finale “The Gate,” Owens gives Hop forged paperwork from the United States government certifying “Jane Hopper” is a real person and American citizen. This means Eleven will no longer have to hide out in Hop’s cabin or dodge agents for the rest of her life.
The Snow Ball serves as her coming out party, where she finally gets to kiss longtime-crush Mike. But, how will Eleven, who has lived her entire life in captivity, live in the normal world? If she’s enrolled in school, how will she simply join the seventh or eighth grade with her friends? How will she listen to teachers or do homework, when she knowingly has the mental capability to kill monsters and close gates to parallel universes?
And, how is Eleven going to deal with her desire to spend time with her mother Teresa Ives (Aimee Mullins), if she’s technically under Hop’s guardianship?
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
Is Hopper Okay?
In season 1, Will is trapped in the Upside Down, and is found with one of the dark dimension's tentacles rammed down his throat. When he gets back to our world, that physical invasion has long-lasting effects, as Will starts coughing up slugs — the same slugs that apparently grow into the demo-dog minions of season 2.
This time around, Hop is found trapped in the Upside Down tunnels growing towards Hawkins after he is spit on by one the otherworldly valves and entangled in the deadly vines. I would like to hope this “big, perfect barrel of a man,” to quote my wonderful colleague Rebecca Farley, is okay, as the Hawkins lab scientists claim. But they said that about poor, very-not-okay Will, and we will need someway back into the Upside Down for season 3.
#PrayForHop.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
Actually, Is Dustin Okay?
Hop isn't the only one who was spit in the face by one of those creepy Upside Down valves. Beloved Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) was as well in “The Gate,” which seems suspicious, and results in the trucker-hatted boy screaming on the floor, gasping. Either the over-the-top moment was played for jokes — Matarazzo is one of the series’ most successful comedians — or it was a portent of some terrible, Upside Down misfortune ahead for Dustin.
Knowing Stranger Things, the latter is unsettlingly plausible.
Is Doctor Brenner Still Alive?
The rule for all deaths in sci-fi and horror shows like Stranger Things is, a death isn’t official until you see a very dead body. In season 1, we get no such corpse from villain Dr. Martin “Papa” Brenner (Matthew Modine), despite the fact it certainly looks like Demogorgon ripped his body open in “The Gate.”
“The Lost Sister” suggests Dr. Brenner might still be out there, since his Kali-created apparition confirms Eleven never checked to make sure her original captor wasn’t still alive and kicking. This hints he could be out there, especially since a show like Stranger Things doesn’t float that kind of possibility without a big reason. Had Eleven actually looked for Brenner with her psychic abilities and found he was actually dead, we would have a concrete answer on his mortality, but, there’s still no such luck.
Don’t be surprised if you see “Papa” in Stranger Things season 3.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
Can Someone Make Sure The Demo-Dog In The Fridge Is Dead?
There are quite a few Chekhov's inter-dimensional guns hanging around Hawkins, but the biggest red flag is the demo-dog Dustin and Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) inexplicably stuff into the Byers' fridge. Yes, closing the gate to the Upside Down should have killed the creature once and for all, but, as I said with Dr. Brenner, anything could come back to life on a show like Stranger Things — especially a dangerous being that's literally put on ice for the future.
This problem is made all the more alarming by the fact Dustin rationalises his baffling choice by telling Steve, “This is a ground-breaking scientific discovery, we can’t just bury it like some common mammal.” That is basically the tween’s exact justification for keeping Dart the secret demo-dog alive, and we all saw how well that went.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
Is Billy Racist?
The question seems to live in the subtext of Stranger Things season 2, as new villain Billy (Dacre Montgomery) is obsessed with making sure his little sister Max (Sadie Sink) specifically doesn’t hang out with the apparent only Black boy in town, Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin). His rage over Max and Lucas’ budding relationship is so intense, the young girl tells her friend she’s worried Billy is going to “kill” Lucas for spending time with her.
Stranger Things never explicitly explains whether Billy truly is racist or simply overprotective, since Lucas continuously happens to be the only boy the volatile teen catches around Max. While we never get a straight answer, it seems fair to assume racism is another layer of Billy’s villainy, especially since his abusive father Neil (Will Chase) proves to be sexist and homophobic in the three minutes we get with him.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.
How Does One Deal Will Finding Terrible Billy & His 37 Abs Very Attractive?
Asking for a friend, SOS.
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