In recent days, I’ve gotten back into stranger things to an unfortunate degree, and I’ve had some thoughts about the recently released episode titles, and what they could mean. Most of these are incredibly half baked in the sense that I have no idea how they would tie into the plot of ST5. That being said, if anyone has additional information to add or correct me with, please do. Spoilers: There really aren’t any, except for the last two paragraphs (?, I know it’s for sure in the last paragraph, but not so sure about the second to last) regarding season one.
-ST5E5, Shock Jock, will have some sort of radio theme (though I don’t know how this would relate to any of the themes in the show, other than that the term was coined in the eighties)
-Some of the recently released titles may be placeholders, as that has happened with previous seasons.
-I’ve heard that ST5 is supposed to “end how it started” (I do not remember where I heard this, but I’m 90% sure it was someone who was apart of the cast and creative), and will have ST5E8 draw parallels to ST1E8.
(By the way, I have no idea if this has been said before, and I realize as I write this that it feels very half-baked. Please bear with me as I haven’t had proper sleep in four days, amongst other things, and am very tired)Now, to relate this to st5, we know one of them is called “shock jock” (episode five). For those who don’t know what that means, a “shock jock” is a term created in the 1980s, describing a radio personality who relies on vulgar, offensive, or otherwise controversial content. Therefore, I have a small feeling that this episode, and perhaps the season as a whole, will have some sort of theme regarding a radio personality, possibly Howard Stern. I say Howard Stern because he was the subject of a conversation that my dad and brother were having, which gave me this idea. In the likely event that there is no radio host of this nature, the shock jock could be some sort of rude person that possibly bullies the characters (i.e. will, mike, dustin, lucas, el). At this point, I’m not exactly sure how well this holds up, but I’m slightly confident that this episode will be, in some way, radio related. Especially since this is the last season, and the Duffers likely wouldn’t name an episode haphazardly.
To conclude this bit, I have no idea how this would impact the final season, especially since it seems to deal with heavy stuff. Perhaps it is similar to the satanic panic stuff that is present in ST4, where the nation is outraged by these shock jock radio people, and one is injured or goes missing in hawkins. Maybe one will start making comments about hawkins, and sparks outrage amongst the town. I honestly have no idea how this fits into the show, or if it will even be important, given how messed up things are. (Maybe it happens in a different state, showing the upside down creeping into the rest of the continental U.S. )
I also understand that the episode titles are often times not the ones that end up becoming official (Such as ST2 MADMAX originally being called dragon’s lair). I’m really just spitballing here, and I’m going through a second stranger things phase.
The only other ideas/thoughts I have regarding episode titles is the final episode (assuming it isn’t a placeholder title), “The Rightside Up”. Using information from cast and creative, it seems to be a running theme that the show will end somewhat like it started (wether that means the final episode will somehow relate to the first episode, or the season will somewhat play out like the first season, I don’t know). However, if Rightside Up will stay as the title for the last episode of ST5, it seems similar to ST1’s final episode, The Upside Down. Jonathan, Nancy and Steve fight the demogorgon, Joyce and Hopper rescue Will, and the party encounters government officials and eventually El sends the demogorgon away, ultimately disappearing (though we find out that she didn’t disappear). Based on this, and the idea that the show will end somewhat like it started, my theory is that the events in ST5E8 will mirror the events of ST1E8 to some degree. I’m also backing this up with the fact that a possible title in ST5 is “The Vanishing of *blank*”.
Again, my thoughts are kind of half baked, so please, feel free to correct or add anything.
