Okay, nerds, take a deep breath. Clear your schedule and put your phone on "Do Not Disturb," because after what feels like a literal decade of waiting, we finally have a look at the opening five minutes of Stranger Things Season 5. And I am—quite frankly—losing my absolute mind.
I’m giving this opening a solid 9.5/10. The only reason it isn’t a 10 is because my heart actually can't take the stress of the implications. This isn't just a "cool flashback"—it's a total structural shift for the entire series. We’re going back to 1983, back to the very beginning, and it turns out everything we thought we knew about Will Byers’ disappearance was a lie. Grab your D20s, because we need to talk about this.
The Return to Castle Byers (And the Heartbreak)
Seeing Castle Byers again hit me like a ton of bricks. Watching "Will the Wise" huddle in his fort while "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" plays... I was actually tearing up in the first sixty seconds.
We always knew that fort was his refuge from his dad, Lonnie—a sanctuary born from real-world family trauma—but seeing it in the Upside Down again reminds you of the tragic irony of Will's life. He built this place to escape a human monster, only to have it become the site where a literal interdimensional demon hunted him down. But here's the kicker: the D&D roles aren't just cute nicknames anymore. They're the blueprint. If Will is "The Wise," he isn't just a victim; he’s the one who sees the board. The specific roles from that 1983 campaign are clearly the rulebook for how the final act of this story plays out.
The "Why Will?" Mystery (Finally!)
For years, I just assumed Will was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A tragic accident of geography. Nope. This footage basically screams that Will was hunted. Targeted. Hand-picked.
If you’ve seen the canon stage play The First Shadow (and if you haven't, stop what you're doing and go read the wiki now!), we know that Joyce Maldonado, Jim Hopper, and Henry Creel (Vecna) all went to high school together in 1959. This isn't random; it's a conspiracy. Vecna isn't just a nihilistic monster; he’s a petty, patient bully with a decades-old grudge. He didn't just grab a random kid; he grabbed Joyce’s kid. Did he see a specific vulnerability in the Byers bloodline? Or was he just settling an old score from his teenage years? It makes the whole "stalking" vibe of Season 1 feel so much more predatory and calculated.
Will the Wise, Not Will the Victim
Can we talk about the de-aging for a second? It was a little surreal seeing "Season 1 Will" again, but seeing him fight back? Chills. Literal chills. In the original pilot, we saw him freeze in the shed. In this version, we see the week he spent in the void. He fires the rifle. He does some insane parkour through the rotting trees. He survives through sheer, unadulterated resilience.
It makes me feel so much better about his character to know that he wasn't just sitting there shivering for a week like a damsel in distress—he was a warrior from day one. He earned his survival. This technical achievement of de-aging Noah Schnapp isn't just a gimmick; it’s thematically crucial because it bridges the gap between the boy who was taken and the man who will be essential to defeating Vecna in the present day.
The Red Lightning Retcon: Vecna Was Always Watching
Did you catch the sky? This is the detail that's going to set the theory forums ablaze. In Season 1, the Upside Down was blue, murky, and felt like a feral, empty echo. Now? Red lightning. This is such a genius retcon. It proves Vecna was always there, pulling the strings. The red lightning isn't just weather; it’s Vecna’s searchlight. It turns the Upside Down from a lonely dimension into a monitored prison. Every time a bolt flashes, it feels like a camera snapshot—like Vecna is personally "tagging" Will’s location and tracking his movements through the hive mind. The blue silence we saw in 2016 wasn't the whole truth; we just didn't have the "eyes" to see the red influence yet.
The Moment I Screamed: The Bow
If you didn't gasp when the Demogorgon bowed, are you even a fan?
This one action completely reframes the entire first season. The Demogorgon wasn't the apex predator; it was just a dog on a leash. Watching it back away to show Vecna in his transitional form—standing right there in the Hawkins Library—is haunting.
The implication here is staggering: it means when Hopper and Joyce were searching the library at the end of Season 1, Vecna was probably standing five feet away in the shadows, watching his old high school "friends" from the void. He wanted them to find Will. He let them take him back. It makes Will a "Trojan Horse." His escape wasn't an escape at all; he was a vessel being sent back into the real world.
The Horrifying Truth of the Slugs
We finally see it. The sequence where Will is implanted with those slugs is ripped straight out of Aliens, and it is a profound violation. We see the "seed material" pumping through a tube—it’s the same appendage the Mind Flayer used in Season 3 to flay Tom Holloway.
Now we know: that wasn't the Mind Flayer. It was always Vecna. He doesn't just kill; he converts. As we intercut with Vecna’s face, he says, "The beautiful things that I want to create." He sees himself as a god-like creator, and poor Will was his first, unwilling experiment. Will isn't just a survivor; he’s a living part of Vecna’s ecosystem.
"William"
When Vecna calls him "William," it’s not a greeting. It’s a claim. It sounds like a father calling his son by his full birth name to assert dominance. It’s that skin-crawling intimacy that makes Vecna the best villain in the show. He doesn't just want to destroy the world; he wants to "conquer" it.
Think about the name: "William the Conqueror." Is that what Vecna sees in him? Not just a victim, but the first citizen of a new, twisted dynasty?
Final Thoughts: Season 5 isn't just the end of the show; it's the payoff for a plan that's been in motion since 1983. Every event, every monster, and every narrow escape now feels like it was orchestrated from the shadows. Will Byers started this story, and it’s clear he’s the only one who can end it. I am terrified for him, but god, I am so ready to see him finally take his power back and face the man who stole his childhood.
What do you guys think? Is the "William the Conqueror" theory too much, or is Vecna building a dynasty? And did anyone else notice the backpack Will left in the tree? I bet you anything they have to go back for it in the final episodes. Let's obsess in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment