Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episodes 1-3 of Stranger Things Season 5.
Following a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, Stranger Things is at long last back for its fifth and final season. And just two episodes in, a surprise throwback to the show’s very first installment seems to be positioning a hitherto minor character for a pivotal closing storyline.
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In the wake of the second episode of Season 5 opening with a demogorgon busting into Hawkins from the Upside Down to kidnap Holly Wheeler (played by Nell Fisher, who took over the role from twin sisters Anniston and Tinsley Price) after brutally maiming both Karen (Kara Buono) and Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest), the younger sister of Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) was revealed to be the key to the events of the season being set in motion. While “Chapter Two” is listed in the Netflix queue as simply being subtitled “The Vanishing of…,” the credits reveal it is actually called “The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler.” This is a reference to the title of the series’ premiere, “Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers,” which saw 12-year-old Will (Noah Schnapp) be snatched by a demo and taken into the Upside Down on Nov. 6, 1983.
Season 5 begins on Nov. 3, 1987, just three days before the four-year anniversary of Will’s disappearance. It’s been 18 months since the rifts to the Upside Down were opened at the end of Season 4 and Hawkins has been placed under a military quarantine as the head of the government operation, Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), diligently hunts for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). But the real threat is still Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), who is hiding—and plotting—in the Upside Down as he waits for the right moment to strike.
In the season premiere, Holly told Mike her supposedly imaginary friend, whom she refers to as Mr. Whatsit in a nod to the cosmic guardian Mrs. Whatsit from the beloved 1962 fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time, had promised her he was trying to protect her from the monsters in Hawkins. But given the ending of Episode 2 reveals Mr. Whatsit is actually just Vecna in his human form as Henry Creel, it seems clear his intentions are a bit more malicious—especially considering his plan is to kidnap other Hawkins children to join Holly in his mind lair, the realm he created to reflect his psyche and childhood home.
Once Will discovers his visions are allowing him to see through the eyes of whatever being Vecna is currently targeting via the Upside Down hive mind, the group figures out a way to attach a tracker to the demogorgon Vecna sics on his next intended victim, young Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly), in order to follow the creature to Vecna’s lair and find Holly.
As for what role Holly could play in Episode 4 and beyond, when Mike gifted Holly with her Holly the Heroic Dungeons & Dragons figurine in Episode 1, he told her Holly the Heroic was a cleric with divine powers, meaning she could cast spells of protection to ward against evil spirits and create dimension doors that can teleport you to anywhere you visualize. Perhaps this conversation was intended to foreshadow that Holly, like Will, will end up having a connection to the Upside Down that awakens dormant abilities within her. And since Episode 3 closes with Holly discovering Max (Sadie Sink) has been psychically trapped in Vecna’s mindscape since he attacked her in the Season 4 finale, it seems as though Holy will now have an experienced ally who can help her realize her full potential.
The first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 are now streaming, with Volume 2 (Episodes 5-7) set to hit Netflix on Dec. 25 before the extended finale arrives on Dec. 31.
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