The first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 are out now, and they’re packed with Easter eggs and references. Most viewers will notice the obvious ones; popular songs from the ’80s, including the perfect use of Diana Ross’ “Upside Down.” But by the end of Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1, it’s pretty clear some of the nods are a lot more important than they seem.
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Rather than present a complete list of Easter eggs, we’re here going to present a selection of (unsurprisingly, but oh so appropriately) 11 references that are rather more significant. Here are the most important in these first four episodes, and why they matter so much.
11. Stranger Things’ Chilling Aliens Reference
Stranger Things Season 5 opens with a flashback to Season 1, finally showing us how Will was captured by the Demogorgon. We also see the sinister tube-like growth attach to his mouth, pumping him full of Mind Flayer particles. Later, Will has flashes in which he sees Holly and the other missing kids going through something similar.
The whole setup is deliberately reminiscent of Aliens, complete with strange egg-like sacs embedded in the walls of the Upside Down. It looks very much reminiscent of the Xenomorph hive from deleted scenes in Aliens, a smart nod to parasitic alien entities that destroy their own hosts… likely foreshadowing what the Mind Flayer parasite will do to the children (who, according to Vecna, will ultimately become “vessels”).
10. What Are “Dungeon Crawls” Anyway?
The Stranger Things kids always interpret the chaos of the Upside Down through the lens of Dungeons and Dragons, and it’s no surprise to see them come up with the idea of a “dungeon crawl.” In D&D (and ’80s computer games), a “dungeon crawl” is an exploratory mission through a hazardous environment filled with traps and monsters.
Hawkins’ heroes have conducted 37 dungeon crawls through the Upside Down to date, but it’s clearly been slow going, because they hadn’t encountered the wall until the first four episodes. They’re also particularly excited at the prospect of a two-hour dungeon crawl, as though it’s unusual; most of these missions were likely brief forays, with hurried returns.
9. Eleven’s Training is a Perfect Rise of Skywalker Nod… & a Lot More Besides
Training montages were a staple of many ’80s action films, but nobody expected Stranger Things Season 5 to deliberately riff on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. These montages are the perfect way to show a character’s refinement of their powers, and there’s definitely something Jedi-like about Rey’s telekinesis.
Eleven is training in the junkyard, a key hiding-place for the Hawkins kids back in Season 1. The whole setup is evocative of the X-Men’s Danger Room, with Eleven working through obstacles as she masters her powers. It’s one of the most explicit X-Men nods since Season 1 (when we even saw a key X-Men comic), and it’s an early hint that Eleven will soon wind up working with other superhumans.
8. Holly the Heroic is a Cleric
In a touching big brother scene, Will comforts his little sister by telling her of “Holly the Heroic.” In his telling, Holly is a Cleric – the same D&D class of character as Will. Significantly, a Cleric is an intermediary between two planes of existence, and possesses the power to raise the dead. This definitely seems to foreshadow both Holly’s kidnapping and her alliance with the near-dead Max.
7. Holly’s the Heroic’s Powers Are a Secret X-Men Reference
But that’s not all; there’s another subtle layer to Will’s “Holly the Heroic” scene. He tells Holly that her D&D self possesses the power to create interdimensional portals, which is true (some can literally open portals called “Gates,” which seems appropriate). That said, the specific power is reminiscent of the X-Men’s Magik, and this seems important.
In the comics, Magik was the blonde-haired younger sister of the X-Men hero Colossus. When she was six, she caught the eye of a demonic entity named Belasco, who drew her into a Hell Dimension he ruled named Limbo, populated by astral images of her friends. Magik’s story built to a head in a 1989 event called “Inferno,” in which portals opened between Limbo and Earth, triggering a demonic invasion. The parallels to the seven-year-old Holly in Season 5 are self-evident.
6. You Can Actually Dial the Phone Number in Episode 1
Yes, you can actually dial the phone number in Stranger Things Season 5, episode 1. When you do, you get the following message:
โThank you for contacting the Hawkins Police Department. Due to the recent 7.4 magnitude earthquake, Hawkins is currently under lockdown. For the safety of our residents, the Hawkins Emergency Task Force is working closely with Hawkins PD to track down missing persons, of which Jane Hopper is a priority. We urge you as a responsible citizen of Hawkins to assist us as we search to locate her.โ
Stranger Things has used this particular marketing gimmick before, but this is a smarter one that usual. It tells us that the end of Season 4 saw Hawkins rocked by earthquakes measuring 7.4 on the Richter Scale, which would indeed wreak havoc on an unprepared environment.
5. The Perfect “Flux Capacitor” Reference
Robin gets Will away from Joyce by claiming there’s a problem with the “flux capacitor,” a perfect reference that shows how immersed she is in popular culture – and how little Joyce cares for sci-fi. Back to the Future came out in 1985, and Robin has been working at a video rental store with Steve, explaining her litany of movie references.
The throwaway comment may be a lot more significant than it seems at first glance. It comes alongside constant references to Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time, another popular time travel story of the 1980s. We already know something is going on with time in the Upside Down; the entire realm is frozen at the moment the Hawkins gate opened in 1983. Many are speculating there’s going to be a time travel plot in Stranger Things Season 5.
4. Wait, What’s the Mandala About?
Will and Robin stumble upon a mandala on the ground, and Will stares down at it for a moment. Designed as a visual representation of the universe, the mandala is an aid for meditation; in Hinduism and Buddhism, practitioners believe that by proceeding towards the center, a person is guided through a process of transformation and self-discovery.
Will’s mandala is dominated by a spiral, which represents a spiritual journey of evolution and change. This perfectly describes his character arc in Stranger Things Season 5, as Will comes to accept who he is and claim both his powers and his identity.
This may also point to the nature of the Upside Down in Stranger Things Season 5. A mandala has a defined outer edge, and you proceed to the center. In the same way, the Upside Down has a clearly defined outer boundary, and the Hawkins kids plan to go to the center – Hawkins Lab.
3. Vecna’s Plan to Kidnap Children is Similar to Another X-Men Story
Previous seasons of Stranger Things had drawn heavily on the iconic “Dark Phoenix Saga” (one comic from that story even appears in the Season 1 premiere). This time round, the show is steeped in references to 1989’s “Inferno” event. One major subplot there involved demons from Limbo kidnapping 13 children, seeking to use their souls to open the way from Limbo to Earth.
Stranger Things Season 5 features a quest for 12 children, for reasons that are currently uncertain. At the very least, this certainly parallels “Inferno.” Worst-case scenario, that’s Vecna’s goal; to stabilize the gates between Hawkins and the Upside Down through the deaths of innocents.
2. Holly Names Vecna’s Mindscape “Camazotz”
Continuing the references from A Wrinkle in Time, Holly named Vecna’s mindscape “Camazotz.” Known as a “Dark Planet,” Camazotz is under control of an evil entity known as IT, and it serves as a prison planet. Holly and Max imagine Camazotz under the control of Vecna, but there’s another possible clue in this particular Easter egg.
In A Wrinkle in Time, Camazotz is under the control of an external entity. There’s been some speculation that the Mind Flayer has itself taken control of Vecna after the end of Stranger Things Season 5, and that this serves as a prison for his mind as well. The Camazotz reference would fit with this idea.
1. Vecna’s Cave is a Nod to The First Shadow
Supporting this, Max has been hiding in a cave in a desert environment, a memory that Vecna fears. This is an explicit nod to Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a broadway play that reveals Vecna’s backstory. That tale is very different to the one Vecna himself told in Season 4, but he may well not be a reliable narrator.
In The First Shadow, the young Henry Creel stumbled into a cave in the Nevada desert, where he was first exposed to the creature we would come to know as the Mind Flayer. Season 4 had appeared to take a different approach, suggesting Vecna created the Mind Flayer, so nobody had expected this reference. But it may well confirm that the Mind Flayer is the true villain after all, with Vecna fearing the cave because it reminds him of the entity that has now consumed him.
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 is streaming now on Netflix.
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