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Vampires, wormholes, and time travel – oh my! There are some pretty out-there theories about the kind of twists we might see in the series finale of Stranger Things later this month. You may have even seen a few kicking around online yourself by now.
Some of these theories sound more realistic than others. Still, they’re all good fun to ponder, and given that online fandom hasn’t been frothing like this since the WandaVision/Mephisto era of television, we’ve been on all the big Charlie Day in Always Sunny red string pin boards and keeping track of the main Stranger Things fan theories so you don’t have to.
Without further ado, then, here are some of the biggest fan theories on how Stranger Things will end…
Whether the Gang Wins or Loses is Based on Points from Eddie Munson’s D&D Game
In this theory, posted before season 5 started streaming, Eddie Munson’s season 4 Dungeons & Dragons game is key. Vecna had 15 hit points left in that game, so the gang needed to get more than 15 to beat him. Erica rolled a d20 and won. Previously, Dustin rolled 11, but that was not enough to win. Therefore, Eleven is not enough to beat Vecna. But with her sister, Eight, they make 19. They need 1 to win: Henry. He must join forces with Eleven and Eight to conquer the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer.
It sounds vaguely plausible at first, especially now that we’ve witnessed the reintroduction of Eight, but as people started to take the theory apart, they found flaws in the logic. As one commenter pointed out, “the d20 doesn’t get rolled for damaging hit points, it gets rolled for checking if an attack hits or not…” and the consensus was ultimately that the theory fundamentally misunderstands the rules of D&D. It’s still a fun one, but probably a bit of a reach.
Vecna is Creating a Wormhole to Time Travel
This is the dominant theory going into the next batch of season 5’s episodes.
We’ve already seen Hawkins’ science teacher, Mr. Clarke, explaining the concept of wormholes, telling the kids that wormholes could theoretically facilitate travel across massive distances, dimensions, or even through time itself. On his chalkboard, we also see that a similar hourglass/tunnel-shaped sketch that Will Byers drew based on his Vecna visions.
In season 5 so far, Vecna is targeting 12 children for capture, who some people say represent the “anchor point” hours on a clock (clocks being a common Vecna motif), and that he will use the kids as a kind of human clock to open a wormhole and rewrite time. Some also posit that the impenetrable wall we saw in season 5 is a circle with points laid out like a clock.
Though this theory is unsubstantiated, a big chunk of the Stranger Things fandom is pretty convinced that we will see Vecna or the gang have to rewrite or reset history to save the day. Robin’s joke about Back to the Future’s flux capacitor MacGuffin in season 5 has only added fuel to the fire.
Hopper Will Propose to Joyce Using Jonathan’s Ring
In a twist based on emotional stakes rather than timey-wimey plot machinations, some fans think that the engagement ring given to Jonathan isn’t for him to propose to Nancy, but for Hopper to propose to Joyce. This is based on repeated references to the number 37 showing up in various romantic scenes between Hopper and Joyce (“Jopper”, if you’re shipping).
One eagle-eyed fan says that 37 minutes and 37 seconds into the 37th episode of Stranger Things, we see a close-up of the engagement ring in Jonathan’s hand. It’s all connected! Or, y’know, not. We’ll see.
Eleven Will Merge With the Upside Down
Could Eleven (or maybe even Will now that he has powers) literally merge with the Upside Down, becoming a living bridge or anchor between dimensions? All we know is that our gut says “maybe”.
This idea builds on the show’s repeated depiction of kids acting as conduits for supernatural events, combined with Eleven’s unique psychic connection to the Upside Down and other dimensions. It’s speculated that any climactic confrontation in the finale might not even involve a physical fight in Hawkins or the Upside Down but rather a metaphysical struggle, with Eleven existing inside the dimension itself to manipulate or seal it.
Vampire Eddie Munson Will Kill Vecna
Wewww, okay. An extremely fun one that has been doing the rounds for a while theorizes that after Eddie was attacked by Demobats at the end of season 4, he became transformed into the vampire Kas, who Mike said originally killed Vecna in Eddie’s D&D game. Even when the Duffer Brothers said Eddie was dead and wouldn’t be coming back, fans suggested they were just being sly. Of course, he wouldn’t really be Eddie, he’d be the undead Kas the Bloody-Handed, the vampire lieutenant of Vecna! Eddie is dead, but surely Kas lives. Perhaps he would initially be controlled by Vecna, but then turn on him and save everyone in the finale?
This is actually one of our favorite theories because it’s also the Duffers’ favorite wild theory, and they have personally debunked it.
Connecting with the Child Version of Vecna Is the Only Way to Win
This is an original one from us – hey, we’re fans too – and is based on a comment from the Duffer Brothers about one of their main reference points for season 5’s story: a horror movie from the year 2000 starring none other than Jennifer “from the block” Lopez.
The Duffers say that they spent hours in the writers room discussing The Cell, where Lopez’s child psychologist Catherine accesses the brain of a serial killer and finds that the only way to escape is to murder the child version of the killer in his twisted mindscape. The brothers describe the movie as “the closest thing we could think of that parallels what we were doing” in season 5.
Perhaps the only way to stop everything that’s going down in Hawkins is to connect with a younger Henry Creel. Perhaps!
Vecna Isn’t the Real Villain
Some Stranger Things fans still suspect that Vecna isn’t the real villain of Stranger Things, despite being presented like one. Vecna (or 001, or Henry, or Mr. Creel if you’re nasty) may be a powerful but corrupted human who is just a straight-up pawn for the Mind Flayer at the end of the day. This theory, to its credit, also draws on the show’s horror and D&D nods by suggesting that a human villain alone could not plausibly create or rule over a cosmic dimension-spanning threat.
If true, this interpretation would frame the show’s final confrontation as a battle against a far older, more cosmic-level evil. It would also allow for a potential redemption arc for Vecna, portraying him as a victim of corruption rather than a purely malevolent figure. This could also be backed up by the Stranger Things play, The First Shadow, which explores Henry’s childhood and what happens to him after he first takes a trip to Dimension X.
The post The Wildest Stranger Things Finale Fan Theories appeared first on Den of Geek.
