Stranger Things: 5 Biggest Easter Eggs & References in Season 5, Part 2 (& What They Might Mean For The Finale)

Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 continues to feature so many Easter eggs that reveal the show’s secret past, while setting up the finale. At last, we’ve learned the truth about the Upside Down; no parallel dimension at all, this is instead a wormhole that allows passage between Hawkins and a realm the kids are calling the Abyss. We finally have an answer for why the Russians were unable to open gates in Kamchatka, instead needing to head to Hawkins in Season 3.

The end of Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 raises the stakes yet again. The heroes have figured out Vecna’s plan to merge Hawkins with Dimension Z, changing the world forever, and they’ve launched a last desperate plan to save the planet from this terrifying threat. It’s all been set up as a potential suicide mission, with Kali even persuading Eleven the two of them have to stay behind when the Upside Down is finally destroyed. No doubt there will be many more surprises along the way… but these seven major Easter eggs drop major clues about what they may be.

A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Horror Walls Reveal Major Problems With the Plan

Stranger Things has always riffed on classic horror movies, and there’s a distinct sense of A Nightmare on Elm Street when the kids come across the bodies of soldiers embedded in white matter at the Upside Down’s version of Hawkins Lab. But this is more than just a cool Easter egg, because it hints that the exotic matter at the heart of the wormhole has been disturbed before. Dustin rightly figures out that the wormhole is dangerously unstable, but it appears to have stabilized itself after disruption at least twice.

The Hawkins kids plan to end all this by destroying the exotic matter, and with it the Upside Down. But, as unstable as the wormhole may be, it seems as though it is in fact able to find a new balance again. Their plan may well be doomed to failure, simply because they’ve underestimated the pseudo-science they’re dealing with.

Wait, What IS Exotic Matter Anyway?

The Duffer brothers are indulging in a classic sci-fi trope when they name-drop exotic matter, and they openly acknowledge it with visual nods to Interstellar, The Cloverfield Paradox, and more. Exotic matter notably features in Dark, a German sci-fi series that is often compared to Stranger Things but focuses a lot more on pseudoscience than teen drama. It’s often used to hand-wave interdimensional phenomena, wormholes, gravity manipulation, and the like – and Stranger Things uses it in exactly the same way.

Attentive viewers noticed the wormhole setup early in Stranger Things Season 5, with Mr. Clarke delivering a lesson on wormhole theory that felt like clear signposting. Hawkins’ greatest teacher rightly described wormholes as unstable and temporary things, and this exotic matter is presumably the reason the Upside Down has endured for years. But where did the exotic matter come from?

The Abyss is The First Shadow’s Dimension X

By now it’s become clear that a Stranger Things story you’ve probably never seen is key to Season 5. The First Shadow is the official Stranger Things Broadway show, and the first four episodes set it up as important; now Volume 2 is absolutely steeped in references to that story. According to The First Shadow, a young Henry Creel stumbled on a sort of dimensional rift while wandering in Nevada, and he found himself transported to a hellish realm known as Dimension X. The memory Holly and Max stumble on is clearly linked to this.

More importantly, though, Dimension X is the realm named the Abyss by the Hawkins kids – a place of chaos and evil. The Broadway show had confused people given it clearly didn’t portray the Upside Down, but now we know the reason why; the Upside Down is simply the way through to Dimension X.

Is Vecna Really Afraid of the Mind Flayer?

One thing is missing from both Dimension X and the Upside Down: the Mind Flayer. Vecna claimed to have created this entity in Stranger Things Season 4, but that always sat uncomfortably with the events of The First Shadow, where he seemed to encounter it in Dimension X. There’s no direct sign of the Mind Flayer in Volume 2, but one key scene calls back the events of Season 2; when Holly escapes Vecna’s mysterious citadel, she releases the same kind of black smoke that blasted out of Will when he was freed from the Mind Flayer.

Something distinctly odd is going on here, and many viewers have noted that Max deduces Vecna is still human – still afraid of secrets of his own past. Given we’re in First Shadow territory here, those suppressed memories of the Nevada cave feel like signposting that Vecna is afraid of the Mind Flayer. Indeed, speaking to the kids, Vecna claims he wants to destroy a dark presence; is he speaking of the Mind Flayer?

Vecna Has Twelve Disciples (& Holly is His Judas)

Vecna insists he’s chosen children because they are weak, but why does he need exactly twelve of them? The number twelve is often associated with completeness, linking to the Biblical idea of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples of Jesus. If we’re going with that idea, these children have become Vecna’s disciples – which means Holly is the Judas figure, the disciple destined to betray him and defeat him. Vecna is an evil Messiah, a supposed savior of the world, and Holly will save us all from him by delivering him up to death and defeat.

There are other, darker meanings, however. In legend, witches’ covens consisted of twelve ordinary members plus a leader – intended as a twisted image of Christ with his disciples, with the leader standing as the Devil himself. That seems quite fitting imagery for Vecna and his children.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

Stranger Things Changes Eleven’s Powers & Sets Up the Show’s Most Shocking Twist Ever