Here we are in July, and I am still thinking about everything that feels unfinished in this show and the questions left unanswered. I know I'm missing a lot, but these are the ones that haunt me.
In just the season 5 story line, they didn't answer these questions or close up these story lines:
-Who unplugged the tower.
-Why high school Joyce was in one of Henry's memories when she never mentioned knowing him and they never put Henry in any of the school moments to confirm he went there. (if you didn't watch the play or search online, it wouldn't make any sense based on Henry's age in the season 4 flashback)
-Dustin and the bullies story. He got beat up and clearly wasn't popular. Then his epilogue had him giving a Breakfast Club speech about nerds and jocks and freaks all coming together that got applause and he got an invite from a girl who turned him down in 2.
(That was one busy time jump btw. Military left, Hopper got his job back, Max healed and caught up on a year and a half of missed schoolwork to graduate, Jonathon got his dream school at NYU-no longer worried about his family, Vickie disappeared, Steve somehow got a coaching job instead of working for his father, and Dustin who was having his girlfriend fudge some of his grades in 4 and was a grieving troublemaker for almost two years after in 5 was suddenly the valedictorian)
-Dr. Kay's real purpose. In 4, Sullivan just wanted to kill El. In 5, Kali said something about her blood and pregnant women. Dr. Kay mentioned the Russians to Akers. No one actually explained wtf was going on and why they needed El. Was it to kill her? To use her blood? And why, like Kali said, was her blood different and the only one like Henry's? How would that be possible?
-The real reason Will was still connected and those 12 kids were chosen, and why it mattered (being weak is really not an answer, or even the truth)
-Why Vecna so dramatically changed his MO between 4 and 5 and decided to make friends with his victims. Was it just the book? Was he drawing power from his victim's imaginations as well as their fears? Maybe, but it was never made remotely clear.
-Why 12 kids question was asked but never answered. Someone once said that 12 kids + 4 deaths in 4 =16 anchors which =16 points/vertices of a tesseract, tesseract is in Wrinkle in Time, and that would explain the Vecna plan/connection. But did anyone get that from the show? No they did not. Not even during the "let's explain what Vecna's doing with the wormhole" conversation at the radio station.
-Why Will had hope at the start of the season and what he saw from Vecna-that we NEVER saw- that killed his hope and brought Tammy into the mix.
-Why Will mentioned milkshakes at Melvald's and getting lost in the woods.
-Why everyone was okay with Joyce's crazy plan for Will and had no questions. Aka why the people in the show who understood D&D never mentioned siphoning Vecna's powers would not only make Will an instant spy again but could actually allow him to take over Will's body and, since Will "took" his left hand in the battle, maybe use Will to co-create an attunement curse or something aka Camazotz....Is that why no one filled Dustin in onscreen about Will's new abilities? I mean, even siphoning was way too dangerous for Will to be doing voluntarily.
-Why no one used music to try and wake Will up.
-Why Mike was suddenly calling Mrs. Byers Joyce and not touching Will.
-Why no one noticed the dial and tower changing colors.
-Why no one appeared to sleep or really eat anything substantial for 3 days, and why some of them occasionally looked like death warmed over but then were fine in the next shot. Will, Robin, and Mike in particular.
-If the gate had never opened until El did it in 79 and didn't stay open until she opened one again in 83, which the show if not the play implied, why was there a room full of journals about exotic matter and wormholes that we're supposed to believe Brenner made in the UD lab for Dustin to conveniently find? *Note: Even if we assumed it had something to do with the little observation tower Owens had going in the UD in 2-the show tells us that UD is frozen in 1983...so it still doesn't make sense.
-If we believe in that stupid meat wormhole, which sure is theoretically possible, then How did Kali, El and everybody in the UD survive the sudden hole into the vacuum of space Steve's car created? I mean seriously? Even with the exotic matter present, the instant decompression and destruction that would happen would be as cataclysmic as Mike's record bomb right? Right? I think I'm right.
-Why we never got Mike's emotional POV. That last talk with Will and Hopper doesn't count. His worst dialogue ever. Both of them felt so off and fake it was jarring.
-Why Will didn't get an epilogue and was erased from a credit pic and called an illusionist.
Bonus question: Where did Argyle, Suzie, the deputies and Owens disappear to? They were never mentioned once.
Overall series questions that still aren't answered:
Who opened Will's door that night? We saw El do that to locks like that at least twice, but demos can't and Vecna couldn't get out of the UD at that point so...
Why did El recognize him from his picture or know his player piece was the wizard and how was she able to guide the party directly to his house? Seriously, how did she know he was hiding there?
Why are there so many time travel references and odd anachronisms throughout the series? Why clocks chiming and ticking? Why Back the Future and Terminator references? Why keep playing that Moby song from 95?
In the Nina, how was El given memories that appeared to occur when Brenner's cameras were off? And why did the drawing of her and Papa on her wall change from what Hopper had seen in 1? Was any of that real?
Why did people stop thinking about hazmat suits after season 2? Things we also stopped thinking about: rotting farms/food, hivemind soil, inhaling spores, Will's brain scan and the effect of bites from UD creatures etc.
Why did the lab stop thinking or caring about Will after season 2? Why did the MF/Vecna stop caring about Will after season 2...until season 5?
Why did Bob, Hopper, Joyce and Karen appear to have no memory of Henry or Brenner if TFS is canon?
What is up with that stink everyone has been smelling through the entire series?
What's up with birthdaygate and paintinggate? They never explained the continuous changing and forgetting of Will's birthday and age-that they are still highlighting to this day with that new book that came out. And they never addressed the painting's Cyrano trope, which they are still highlighting with that book that came out with the WRONG VERSION of the painting in it.
Why did they give bffs Mike and Will every romantic trope out there, tender music, soft lighting, lots of heart to hearts, if it was only supposed to be a one sided gay realization/coming of age story without reciprocation?
Why did Hopper go through all of this--his mourning a lost daughter, thinking he was the curse and a black hole, ready to kill himself with a bomb in 5 right before losing another daughter to a wormhole/bomb situation as he watched-to then just be fine in the epilogue, talking to Mike about acceptance, proposing to Joyce and planning his future like everything was great? Again-that time jump did A LOT of work.
I could keep going. I've never had so many questions about a show that is supposed to be over.
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