"Stranger Things" Season 4 Theories That Make Total Sense

SEASON 4 IS COMING IN MAY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

A long, long time ago, when Obama was the president and Corona was a brand of beer, Netflix released an 8-episode sci-fi drama called Stranger Things. It was Goonies meets Stand By Me meets Firestarter, and every sci-fi-horror-loving 80s kid rejoiced.

Netflix recently dropped the trailer for the much (oh so very much) anticipated fourth season of Stranger Things.

Here it is in case you missed it:

Seriously. Are you freaking out as much as I did?!

If you’re a fan — and I assume you are — you already know that Season 4 was only a few weeks into production when Covid shut the world down, and now, after two very long years since we’ve had a new episode, Stranger Things is coming back!

Two years is a lot of wait time in any fandom, but for we voracious fans of Stranger Things who were left with agonizing cliffhangers, it’s been torture.

Here’s where we left things in Hawkins.

Thanks to Billy’s sacrifice, the Mind Flayer is dead. Sadly, it leveled the Starcourt Mall in its wake. Joyce Byers made the devastating decision to detonate the strange machine in order to close the gate to the Upside Down, seemingly obliterating Chief Jim Hopper — aka everybody’s favorite Dad Bod —in the process. Eleven, now powerless and adoptive-fatherless, has moved in with the Byers clan, and Joyce has decided to move them the hell away from Hawkins. Mike, Nancy, Dustin, Lucas, Lucas’s sassy sister Erica, and Mad Max are left behind to find a new normal. Oh, and Steve Harrington and Robin are working at the video store.

In February 2020, Netflix dropped this little teaser video, and now we know that Hopper is, in fact, alive and trapped in a Russian gulag. But how did he get there? No idea.

Actually, I do have an idea. Keep reading.

We the fans have filled this two-year gap with wild speculations and theories about what’s to come. The following are theories floating around out there that make a lot of sense.

Time Travel Will Be an Integral Part of the Plot

Screen Rant did a great article about this last year. All signs — and clocks — point to time being a central theme in Season 4. How? A few reasons.

1. Clock images have popped up in all the promotional materials
2. Creators The Duffer Brothers and producer Shawn Levy have said in numerous interviews that movies from the 1980s are heavy influences on the plot. Back to the Future was released in the summer of 1985, and if you recall from Season 3, Dustin, Erica, Steve and Robin hide from the Russians inside the movie theater showing it. Later, Steve and Robin have a lively, stoned debate about the plot holes of the film.

In this teaser, we meet a family from the 1950s who live in the same house that our Hawkins crew seems to be investigating. There are clocks everywhere, and that must mean something, right? Perhaps the little boy from the family ends up as a test subject in Hawkins Lab?

And I don’t know if it’s relevant but in the second scene of the first episode of Season Three, this song is playing on Eleven’s boom box. It can’t be a coincidence that the very first lyric of Never Surrender is:

Just a little more time is all we’re asking for

Just a little more time could open a closing door.”

Because from what we know about the Duffer Brothers, nothing is a coincidence.

Joyce Knows That Hopper is Alive

Photo courtesy of Netflix via screenrant.com

Season 3 ends with Joyce making the gut-wrenching choice to blow up the crazy Russian gate-opening machine, even though Hopper was trapped in the room with said machine and would be instantly vaporized.

We know now that Hopper escaped that room somehow. We assume that he slipped through the still-slightly-open gate into the Upside Down. How did he manage it? Can’t wait to find out.

But did Joyce witness it?

Watch this clip, and pay very specific attention to the look the two share at 0:13.

Did you see it? They meet each others’ gaze, Hopper gives Joyce a slight (but noticeable) nod, Joyce closes her eyes and flips the switches.

Was that their silent signal? Could it be that Joyce saw Hopper jump into the gate? Even if she didn’t, she had to at least have suspected it. Right?

If you recall, Joyce and Hopper broke into the super-secret Russian lair with the help of Murray Bauman, our favorite Russian-speaking conspiracy nut. In the scene following the one above, Joyce runs to Murray. Where’s Jim?! a confused and panicked Murray demands. Joyce simply shakes her head, and the two flee the scene.

A few weeks after Season 3 was released, internet sleuths — probably Redditors — discovered that if you called Murray Bauman’s phone number (as seen above), you would hear the following outgoing message:

“Hi, you have reached the residence of Murray Bauman. Mom, if this is you, please hang up and call me between the hours of 5 and 6pm as previously discussed, ok?

If this is Joyce, Joyce, thank you for calling, I have been trying to reach you. I have an update. It’s about, well, it’s probably best if we speak in person. It’s not good or bad, but it’s something.

If this is anyone but my mother or Joyce, well, you think you’re real clever, getting my number, don’t ya? Well, here’s some breaking news for you: You’re not clever. You’re not special. You are just simply one of the many, many nimwits to have called here, and the closest you will ever get to me is this prerecorded message so at the beep, do me a favor and hang up and never call here again.”

C’mon.

Clearly, this means that Joyce saw Hopper hop (sorry not sorry) into the Upside Down, and she’s enlisted Murray’s help to find him.

Right?

Eleven’s Powers Will Only Return If She Goes Back to the Lab

After saving her friends from certain death, surviving a vicious mind-flayer bite and removing a rogue piece of monster from her leg with her mind, the most badass kid in Hawkins was finally left powerless at the end of Season 3.

We know from the trailer that Eleven’s mind powers haven’t returned. She says as much to Dr. Sam Owens.

Remember Dr. Owens?

He’s the guy that took over Hawkins Lab in Season 2, helped the gang destroy it, forged Eleven’s birth certificate, and then didn’t show up again until the very end of Season 3. Remember him; I’ll circle back in a sec.

Until now, we’ve assumed that Eleven gets kidnapped in Season 4, presumably by the creepy creep-os at the now-defunct Hawkins Lab. Why? Because of this production still:

Two intimidating dudes in suits hauling our girl into the back of a van? What else are we supposed to think?

In the new trailer, though, we learned two key bits of information:

1. The Byers family-plus-Eleven’s move to California was Dr. Owens’s doing
2. Dr. Owens needs Eleven to return to Hawkins to save her friends knowing full well that she no longer has any powers.

And then we see a brief flash of this:

A shaved-headed Eleven in the vest she wore in her pre-escape Lab days. Is this a flashback? Or could it be that Eleven willingly returns to Hawkins Lab — or something equivalent, seeing as how the lab doesn’t exist anymore — to re-charge her telekinetic battery?

Signs like these point to maybe, probably.

Victor Creel is Responsible for the Upside Down

This is Victor Creel. He’s a new character in Season 4, and all we know about the guy is that he’s a patient at Pennhurst Asylum, he killed his family, his house is full of creepy clocks, and he’s played by the incomparable Robert Englund.

If you don’t know who Robert Englund is…how dare you? He’s the genius behind the Freddy Krueger make-up, and he’s a goddamned national treasure. He’s also not a bit player, either, so the fact that he’s joined the cast must mean that Victor Creel is an integral part of the plot.

Based on that fact and absolutely nothing else besides my overactive imagination, my personal theory is this:

Victor Creel, theoretical physicist, moves his family to Hawkins for his new job as the head of Hawkins Lab. Through a series of science-y events that I won’t fully understand, Dr. Creel discovers a way to cut through the fabric of time, making time travel possible. As he experiments with this, he accidentally stumbles upon the Upside Down. And then his protege, Dr. Brenner (remember “Papa”?) decides to take over and harness the power of the Upside Down by systematically destroying Victor Creel’s sanity and driving him to familicide.

Or I could be completely off base. But if that turns out to be true…well, I guess that makes me a genius, right?

Stranger Things season 4 will be released on Netflix in two volumes. The first premiers on May 27th, and the second on July 1st.