8 Credible ‘Stranger Things’ Fan Theories About What Will Happen In Season 4, Part 2
Spoilers ahead.
Netflix Stranger Things season four is a standout for the series even if we only got seven episodes from Netflix.
Fans feel like some of the burning questions we’ve had for years are finally being answered, and that’s because all of the stories from the past seasons are forming into one, large, complex mythos.
With that, however, comes more questions as the story continues forward and fans haven’t been given the full season to be able to unpack all of the information they’ve been given.
The final installment of the hit show will come to Netflix on July 1 in the form of two episodes. Episode eight will be an hour-long while episode nine will be a whopping two hours and 30 minutes.
That means there is a lot that could still happen and fans think they may know what.
Here are 8 theories that fans have come up with for Stranger Things season 4, part 2.
1. Eddie Munson is going to save Nancy from the Upside Down.
Someone on Reddit pointed out how in the original trailer for Stranger Things season four, Eddie was in the Upside Down playing his guitar on top of his trailer with a bunch of speakers set up.
“It seems that he has a bunch of amps set up, so he wants this music to be really loud,” they wrote.
“What if Vecna has evolved to kill multiple people at once, and has those people in the trance-like state. In order to save them, Eddie is broadcasting this music to all of them.”
Of course, the song has to mean something to all the people he would be saving, so the Reddit theorist went into a spiel about the star-spangled banner, Eddie Van Halen, and more details but its also possible Eddie Munson is just trying to save Nancy or take down Vecna with music since we know for sure Mike's older sister is already under Vecna's control.
2. Steve proves he still loves Nancy by saving her.
Not so fast, Eddie, because Steve Harrington is actually going to be the one to save Nancy. Or at least that's what some fans think.
Steve’s redemption arc ever since season one has to be one of the best modern television redemption arcs I’ve seen in a while.
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Going from the guy everyone hates to the guy that all of the no-longer-kids love in the most heroic and wholesome fashion, can’t be easy.
And that’s because it isn’t, at least, not on his love life.
After his soft rejection from Robin Buckley, Steve’s love life seems to be in limbo — unless it’s in the Upside Down.
Fans think that Steve is still in love with Nancy, and to try and prove his love to her, he’s going to save her by singing the same song he sang to her back in season one.
3. Robin might also play a hand in Nancy’s rescue, potentially saving her herself.
While Robin was searching Nancy’s room, she found some music tapes that could include her favorite song which would then be played to save her from her trance.
Whether she tells her now-best friend, Steve, about the music so he can save her or Eddie who is gearing up for a concert in the Upside Down is unknown, but she may just do it herself.
4. Will Byers is gay.
The long-debated topic of Will’s sexuality seems like it might be getting some answers soon.
Everyone in the show has some sort of romantic interest and has made their sexuality known, but the only one that hasn’t is Will.
Aside from the many, off-screen interviews where the actors have hinted at the character’s sexuality, the show seems to be leaning towards a reveal pretty soon.
When Will and Mike had that heart-to-heart after running away from those soldiers, he seemed to be struggling with an internal conflict that he wanted to tell Mike about.
"Sometimes I think it's just scary to open up like that, to say how you really feel, especially to people you care about the most," Will tells his friend, "because what if they don't like the truth?"
Fans think he’s in love with Mike and is debating whether or not he should reveal that sensitive information to him — it also may be why he was seen getting mad at Eleven in an earlier episode.
They also point out that Will was doing a project on Alan Turing at the start of episode one.
Turing was a World War II codebreaker who was charged with gross indecency after being caught having a sexual relationship with another man.
5. Eddie was in the same experiment as Eleven.
The introduction of a new character, especially ones with very interesting backstories like Eddie, means that people are going to dissect every little thing that character says or does.
When Eddie said “my hair was buzzed,” sirens started to sound in everyone’s head when they had a flashback to Eleven having buzzed hair when they first met her after she escaped Hawkins laboratory.
After digging a little deeper, fans discovered that they didn’t actually see a clip of 010 dying in the lab when 001 (a.ka. Vecna a.ka. Henry Creel) killed all test subjects except Eleven.
So fans believe that he might still be alive and is now going by Eddie.
6. Will is the Mind Flayer.
This theory is a little complex but makes a whole lot of sense when you look at the bigger picture.
It’s been confirmed that Season five will be the final season of Stranger Things, and with the big bad of season four being Vecna, fans think that the final monster for the gang to kill once and for all will actually be the Mind Flayer — this would bring everything full circle back to season one.
And who is the Mind Flayer really, you ask? Will.
“My guess is that Mind Flayer is actually the Upside Down counterpart of Will,” says someone on Reddit.
The Upside Down seems to be stuck on the day Will first went missing and though Will was once possessed by monsters, he is one of the only victims to escape the Upside Down.
“An Upside Down version of Will is the dungeon master of the Upside Down,” said someone else, making a D&D reference and tying the monsters in the Upside Down to the game that all of the kids play.
The Upside Down seems to be created from Will's imagination after years of playing D&D.
7. Steve is going to die.
The past will always catch up with you somehow. If it happened to Jaime Lannister, it’ll happen to Steve.
Redemption arcs commonly end with a tragic death, and it seems like fans think Steve will fall victim to the TV/movie trope.
They work these characters up to be so likable only to break your heart by killing them in the end.
Stranger Things season four, part one, seems to build on a lot of moments between Nancy and Steve, but now that Nancy has been taken, Steve has been tasked with the ultimate quest for redemption — saving the girl he loves by sacrificing himself.
8. Erica will be the one to kill Vecna.
Everything always comes back to Dungeons and Dragons, the game that the kids love to play and seemingly always ties into what’s happening with the Upside Down and all of the monsters.
Someone on TikTok posted their theory about what’s been going down in season four and claimed that Erica would be the one to kill Vecna.
In season one, when the boys played D&D, Will said the Demogorgon got him, and then it really did, so when Erica beat Vecna during their D&D campaign in season four, they think it means that she’ll really be the one to kill him in the show.
Not only that, but in the trailer for part two, it looked like Erica was in the Upside Down, so if she isn’t actually the one to deliver the final blow, at least she’ll play an important role.
Whatever happens in the second part of the fourth season of Stranger Things, it’s good to see fans are as creative as ever when it comes to coming up with ideas for what comes next.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing a fictional sport. Keep up with his rants about current events on Twitter.