USA TODAY International Edition
Read this ‘Stranger Things’ Q&A at your own risk
Spoiler alert! The following contains plot details from Season 2 of Stranger Things.
Back from the Upside Down yet? If you’re anything like us, you probably have spent hours binge-watching the second season of Stranger Things (now streaming on Netflix), which more or less followed familiar beats of Season 1 while doubling down on the show’s monster mythology and 1980s pop-culture references.
But it wouldn’t be Stranger Things without a jaw-dropping twist to tide us over until Season 3 (which Netflix has not officially announced). As the kids dance the night away at their winter formal in the final episode, “Snow Ball,” the camera pans outside, flipping over and showing a murky Hawkins Middle School in the Upside Down, with fiery skies and the Mind Flayer towering overhead.
So what does it all mean? We caught up with series creators Matt and Ross Duffer to get some answers.
Q: Once again, Eleven is responsible for saving Hawkins in the season finale. Why was it important to bring her back to Hawkins this season?
Ross: We always knew that we wanted her to reunite with Mike and the others, but we felt it was important for her to not reunite until she’s come to terms a little bit with herself. She’s growing up. The first season, it was really fish-out-of-water Eleven. This season, we wanted to get more into her learning where she came from and dealing with that anger inside her.
Q: What are fans supposed to take away from the final shot, of Hawkins Middle School in the Upside Down?
Matt: The idea is that Eleven closed the gate, but the Upside Down is still very much there. It just has no entry into our world right now. We have our ideas of what it all means, but I don’t want to say too much because I like that people can theorize and try to guess where it’ll go from here.
Q: Viewers were introduced to Eleven’s “sister” Kali, aka Eight (Linnea Berthelsen). Could we meet more of her siblings going forward?
Ross: It’s hard to know. Are those numbers out there? Are they dead? There are (also) so many characters and so many actors that we’ve fallen in love with, so it’s about, “Do you have room for these other stories?” So we’re trying to figure that out, but it’s certainly a possibility.
Q: Barb (Shannon Purser) also got some closure, with a funeral and an official cause of death (“exposure to an experimental chemical asphyxiant”). Are you ready for people to stop asking if she’s coming back?
Matt: I feel like people will still be like, “But we didn’t see her body in the coffin!” We’re probably never going to outlive that. But we tried to give that closure, so I hope it satisfies and it works and that people can move past Barb. I know it’s hard.