(NOTE: This post contains SPOILERS)
Stranger Things is easily one of the most talked about shows of the summer. Within just a few weeks of its release, the first season of the wildly-popular Netflix sci-fi drama already gained a massive cult following of die-hard fans. The first season, which is full of ’80s throwbacks and style, was only eight episodes long, but that still gave viewers just enough time to connect with its quirky yet relatable characters.
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The story follows the disappearance of a young boy (Will Byers) and a telekinetic girl (Eleven) who helps his friends (Mike, Lucas, and Dustin) in their search, while the boy’s older brother (Jonathan), his mother (Joyce Byers), and the town police chief (Hopper) start their own investigations. What they discover is a secret government lab right in the middle of their town of Hawkins that has opened a door to another dimension called The Upside Down; all while spawning a demon creature known as the Demogorgon.
There hasn’t been any official word on Stranger Things season 2, but we all know it’s going to happen, as the finale left us with plenty of burning questions that need to be answered. Showrunners, The Duffer Brothers (Wayward Pines), are already discussing their plans for a second season, while Netflix Boss Reed Hastings said, “It would be dumb not to [renew the series].”
Well, of course it would be dumb not to! Netflix has a hit series on their hands that is currently sitting on the top of IMDB’s list of most popular television shows and even has an unheard of Rotten Tomatoes score of 94%. While we sit here patiently waiting for season 2 of Stranger Things to get an official greenlight, let’s discuss what we’d like to see in season 2.
1. Will Getting Really Sick
In the season finale, Will Byers, was rescued from The Upside Down by his crazy mom Joyce and Chief Hopper and brought home safely – or so we thought. After he spends some time in the hospital and on the mend he returned to his mostly destroyed family home. Will sat down to enjoy a lovely little family dinner with his mom and older bro Jonathan – until he politely excused himself to use the restroom.
What happened next proved that Will brought part of The Upside Down back home with him. Oops! He had an eerie flashback and then threw up a gratuitous amount living black goo, which we can only assume is one of those slug parasite things that killed our beloved Barb. Basically, we want to see whatever is going on inside Will’s body and mind come to full fruition. He can’t just return from a mysterious dimension and be A-OK. Something is seriously wrong with the kid, and we want to see it all go down, even if it means sacrificing a character. Sorry, Will.
Now that he puked one down the drain and likely into the town’s water system, these parasitic slugs are already posed for a hostile takeover – either of Will’s body or the entire town’s water supply.
2. The Return of Eleven
Eleven, the mind-bending little girl, made the ultimate sacrifice in the season finale when she exhausted her powers to destroy the Demogorgon. In turn she saved all of her new friends like Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan from certain death. In doing so, she sadly evaporated into a billion little fragments and disappeared, leaving us to believe she was dead.
When Sheriff Hopper, the man of the hour, was seen placing waffles (her favorite food) into a secret box hidden in the woods, we felt hope. Eleven isn’t dead, but where exactly is she? It’s possible that she is stuck in between dimensions (that pitch dark place where we saw her trying to communicate with the Demogorgon) or she is hiding out in the dense forest. Either way, Eleven is somehow able to get to that hidden box to eat, and Hopper most likely knows where she is.
Of course, we want to see the star of the series make a triumphant return in the second season. If she is in danger, we want to see the boys rescue her and maybe Hopper become her adoptive father, since he lost his own daughter to cancer.
3. Justice for Barb
Does Barb even have parents, because we certainly didn’t see them in the show. Does anyone even care about this red-haired, glasses-wearing loner other than her BFF Nancy? The answer appeared to be a big fat no. Poor Barb was innocently sitting by a pool when she was attacked by the evil Demogorgon and dragged into The Upside Down.
The series as a whole didn’t seem to put much emphasis on Barb’s gruesome death. She was almost written off as a nameless victim, prompting fans of the show to seek “justice for Barb”. Nancy seemed to be the only one who noticed that Barb was even missing after the cool teens had their little party.
Nancy set out on a personal mission find her best friend, even asking Eleven for help with locating her. Eleven eventually found Barb, lifeless and covered in goo in a pool in The Upside Down with a slug hanging out of her mouth, indicating a rather tragic death. Barb deserves more. She deserves to be honored as a beloved character and we want to see that in season 2.
4. Something Spawn out the Egg
When Chief Hopper and Joyce Byers (Will’s mom) were granted access to The Upside Down by whatever government agency is running Hawkins Lab, they entered the other dimension wearing full protective gear. During their exasperated search they came across a lot of strange things, like floating orbs, goo covering almost every surface, and distorted versions of familiar things.
At one point, Hopper, the badass town sheriff was on his own. He discovered what looked like an unhatched egg (clearly paying homage to the Alien franchise). Hopper touched it and walked away. Alright…there is obviously something inside of that creepy little egg that is dying (or living) to get out.
There has to be more creatures than just one single Demogorgon. Remember we only saw a very tiny area of The Upside Down “underneath” the sleepy small town of Hawkins, leaving the rest of the world a complete and total mystery. So, we want to see what’s inside of this egg and whatever else is lurking in the shadowy parallel dimension. If it does hatch, there are plenty of open doors created by the Demogorgon, giving these new creatures an easy entryway into our dimension.
5. Hopper Pulling One Over on The Government
In the season finale, it’s alluded to that Hopper made some sort of deal with the government when they drag him away in an unmarked town car. But what exactly was the deal? No one knows for sure. We’re hoping our hero didn’t make a deal to return Eleven to Hawkins lab or even worse, work for the bad guys.
Throughout the season, Hopper proved to be a loving father-type figure with a big heart and an even bigger punch to match. He took a chance and believed Joyce that her son was not really dead, and just lost in another dimension. Before the two searched the Upside Down for Will, Hopper himself made some sort of deal with the government to get in there.
Hopper, being as manipulative and sly as he is, probably has something up his sleeve. He’s the kind of character that you naturally root for – we want him to win. Even if he is stuck under the government’s powerful thumb, we want to see him pull one over on the bad guys, once again.
6. Experiments 1-10
If Eleven is named after the number of her specific experiment, where are One through Ten? Are there a bunch of super-powered kids running around somewhere or are they still locked up in Hawkins Lab. We did learn a bit about the LSD float-tank experiments that allowed Eleven to greatly expand her mind and hear anyone, anywhere, but remember there were plenty of other tanks in that room. Also, there were plenty of other cells in the lab.
We did meet Eleven’s real mother, when Joyce and Hopper located her. The poor woman had been stuck in a chair, motionless and speechless for years, after no one believed her claims of Hawkins Lab stealing her daughter. Turns out, she was also involved in some heavy experimentation at the lab when she became pregnant, but little detail was revealed.
We want to know all about experiments 1 through 10, no matter crazy the truth might be. Actually, the crazier, the better, right? If there’s a bunch of other kids like Eleven running around somewhere, we want to meet them.
7. Hawkins Lab Exposed
If we learned anything about the secretive, government run lab in Hawkins in season 1, it’s that is an evil place where horrible things happen to little girls. The showrunners managed to keep Hawkins Lab shrouded in complete mystery. How did anyone in this town not notice this huge monstrosity before or at least question its existence?
Considering it’s built as a bona fide fortress, there has to be something very, very wrong going on inside of that place. We did learn that scientist Dr. Brenner (who was killed by the Demogorgon) was conducting LSD experiments on Eleven who accidentally opened the door to The Upside Down. But that can’t be the only thing going down in the huge, well-protected facility.
In season two, we want Hawkins Lab to be put on blast. Even though the CIA or the FBI or whatever agency did an amazing job covering everything up by murdering innocent people, we want everything to fall apart exposing the entire lab. Or we at least want to get inside of that prison and discover what other secrets it’s hiding. Plus, if Hopper is working for them (whoever they are) we’ll be finding out a lot more about Hawkins Lab.
8. Mike and Eleven Going to the Dance
Out of all the brilliant kids, Mike took the lead on the investigation to find Will. He also took in Eleven and helped her try to understand the world outside of the lab, while hiding her in his basement and generally caring for her. We have no idea how he pulled this off, considering his mom seemed to be quite the nosey, over-protective type.
Even though there were a few close calls, Mike and his friends kept Eleven a secret from the adults for quite a while. Meanwhile, Lucas kept antagonizing Eleven by calling her a weirdo and threatening to tell the cops about her, thus ending in a fight between Mike and Lucas, in which Eleven tossed Lucas pretty darn hard into an old car. Turns out, Lucas was acting out of pure jealousy because his best friend was paying more attention to a girl than him.
There is no denying that we all felt the innocent connection between Mike and Eleven, especially when he abashedly called her pretty and she smiled for the first time. Throughout the season there was talk of an upcoming school dance. Mikes friends even teased him about having a girlfriend to which he turned bright red in the face. Before she disappeared, Mike asked Eleven to the dance and they kissed. In season 2, we simply want to see Mike put a beautiful corsage on Eleven’s wrist and escort her to the elusive Snowball dance.
9. Nancy and Jonathan Become a Couple
Nancy’s (Mike’s older sister) was dating a total jerk name Steve, who eventually came around to help towards the end of the season. However, this doesn’t make him not a jerk because he still did all of those horrible things to Nancy, like spraypaint “Nancy’s a slut” or something on the local movie theater marquee.
Meanwhile, shy guy Jonathan (Will’s older brother) pined over Nancy, even taking beautiful photos of her while she was half-naked (not stalkerish at all). All the cool kids bullied Jonathan for being a weirdo and even smashed his treasured camera to bits. Nancy finally comes to her senses and teams up with Jonathan to take on the Demogorgon and save Will, but UGH…she is still dating Steve.
At the end of the season, there are some real lovey-dovey vibes going on between Nancy and Jonathan including some long hugs and even a kiss on the cheek. Basically, Jonathan is a better man than Steve and he would kill to be with Nancy. We desperately want to see these two accept their fate and end up together forever. Steve will get over it, he’s like the most popular guy in school.
10. More of The Upside Down
If we could, we’d probably jump right into some Hazmat suits ourselves and dive into the mysterious dimension known only as The Upside Down and explore until our legs give out. A few of the Hawkins lab scientists that went through the door did not return, but the fear of death doesn’t put a stop to genuine curiosity.
There are so many unanswered questions concerning the desolate and dark Upside Down, so much that it almost hurts out brains to think about. How and why does it affect electricity and how was Will able to communicate through light bulbs? How did Joyce and Jonathan talk to Will when he was on the other side; is their house a veil? Was this the first time the two dimensions made contact? WHAT ELSE IS OVER THERE? We could go on for hours with this one…
Yes, we are dying to see more of the biggest mystery in the entire series – The Upside Down. It’s not every day that a portal to another dimension opens up, especially a dimension as terrifying and as eerie as The Upside Down. The Duffer brothers (showrunners) created an entirely new world that we can’t wait to jump into. In the second season, it’s already been confirmed that the super creepy alternate dimension and how exactly it affects our own realm will be explored in more detail.
