I want the Toy Story debate!”. Courtesy of Netflix. In just three seasons, Stranger Things has built its own mythology, which has taken inspiration from various works from the 1980s as well as from the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, though there’s still a lot that the series has to explain, such as the Upside Down. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate that wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Season 3 largely drops the plant logics of Seasons 1 and 2, opting instead for a 1980s bodysnatcher plot. What’s known about Stranger Things season 4 is that it will continue exploring the role of the Russians, their experiments, and their real plans, especially because they have Jim Hopper (David Harbour) as prisoner. Their passion for pop culture fueled the creation of Netflix’s Things, a tribute to the movies they loved as kids in North Carolina (think E.T., The Goonies, Stand by Me). Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Season 2 explored the aftermath of Will’s return and the … It is right next to you and you don’t even see it”. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. By the time of 12-year-old Will’s disappearance, viewers know the government lab in the small Midwestern town of Hawkins, Indiana, has opened a rift to the Upside Down, an ecological nightmare of epic—and ever growing—proportions. The floral patterns of the Stranger Things backgrounds present botanical life as a set of orderly adornments, a nonthreatening backdrop for the more important affairs of human beings. Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. After killing many people at Hawkins Lab, the Demogorgon escaped and went after Will Byers, who spent a week in the Upside Down but managed to survive. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Goonies (1985) and Stand by Me (1986). Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings. Plant faces appear again, too, this time on the much beloved, very terrifying Demodogs. Though there are some ideas of how the Demogorgon chooses its preys, there’s still one big question that hasn’t been answered: why did it take Will Byers? On Oct. 27, fans will finally get to see Things’ bigger, badder second installment (To celebrate the return, EW has three different covers featuring the cast). This carnivorous monster comes from the Upside-Down, a dark, cold, and toxic alternate dimension. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round. “I don’t think Netflix thought it was going to be as huge as it became, but neither did we,” admits Matt. But, like a stray seed, a little bit of the monster remains shut out in the real world. The Demogorgon’s face is terrifying because it is predatory. Eleven, the child coerced into touching the monster and opening the gate to the Upside Down … She was also a contributor for FanSided's BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. But it seems like a human, or an animal. Another example could be Barb, as she was kicking her feet in the pool at Steve’s house, which was near a gate in the woods (which along with the blood made a terrible combination). Stranger Things 2 returns to Upside Down with new monster, bigger story By Tim Stack September 27, 2017 at 12:00 PM EDT Next: Stranger Things Season 4 Needs To Properly Explain The Upside Down. What’s known about the Demogorgon is merely speculative, as not even the scientists within the series know about its origins, anatomy, life cycle, etc. She gets pretty seriously slimed in the process, but that is only appropriate given the whole Ghostbusters thing going on in the new season. The Stranger Things monster takes different forms across the seasons. It can create credible copies of its victims, which are made of the same ooze as the Oblex, and are pretty much identical to the victim except for a faint smell of sulfur. Jonathan and Nancy, for instance, use monster hunting as an occasion to sharpen their critiques of the normative lives of Hawkins’ families. “It’s all connected to this singular threat, which is tied into this shape that Will sees in the sky,” says Ross. In his Travels, the American botanist William Bartram marveled at the plant, which he called a “carnivourous vegetable.” As Mary Kuhn notes, Bartram’s account of the “sportive” Venus flytrap described “plants as like humans in some respects,” since both could engage in strategic motion. Another fan theory suggests the Demogorgon targets the living creatures near the gates to the Upside Down, as the movement and sound make it aware of their presence. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate that wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Needing a monster that would be on par with the creatures featured in some of the aforementioned films, Stranger Things came up with a faceless beast, which is referred to as the … In Stranger Things Halloween Special, a monster attacks Hawkins twenty years before Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will take on the Demogorgon. Featured image: Detail of promotional poster for Season 2 of the Netflix series Stranger Things. Every season has had two different types of villains: humans (Dr. Brenner, those working at Hawkins Lab, the Russians) and monsters (the Demogorgon, demodogs, and the Mind Flayer). She was also a contributor for FanSided's BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. After Nancy and Jonathan set an animal trap for the monster, Jonathan claims, “It has to be dead. Will was on his way home at night after playing Dungeons & Dragons at Mike’s house when he came across with the Demogorgon. Even this floral wallpaper in the Byers’ living room, where Joyce communicates with her missing son, hints at the omnipresence of vegetal powers. Plant monsters abound in twentieth-century science fiction and popular culture. This time, however, Stranger Things should let the Mind Flayer rest for good. Luckily, Stranger Things fans have come up with different theories on why the Demogorgon targeted Will and what draws the attention of the creature – here are some of them. Unruly botanicals upend domestic order in 1980s Hawkins. The author adds that the monster was able to find Will at Castle Byers in the Upside Down because Eleven had just been there through the void, for which she used a lot of power, and so the Demogorgon sensed it. As friends, family and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one very strange little girl. When it screeches, moans, or eats, its face furls open around a radiating mouth. Viewers witness both the spatial destruction of the Byers’ house and the general renegotiation of social norms among the show’s terrified characters. There are no details on the plot of Stranger Things season 4 yet, but given that all seasons so far have had a human threat and a monster villain, the upcoming season will surely follow that pattern – but the monster should be one different to the Mind Flayer, and here’s what it could be. The Demogorgon in Stranger Things was given that name after Eleven used that game piece to show what Will was hiding from. While knowledge about plants could be powerful, both for colonial agents and for those resisting the violence of colonial expansion, plant life itself often troubled the boundaries set out in European and American natural history between kinds of beings, including kinds of human beings. Whether Stranger Things season 4 will answer the big question of why the Demogorgon took Will to the Upside Down or not is unknown, but it should at least shed more light on how the monster chooses its victims, as well as how the Upside Down really works. "Chapter Six: The Monster" is the sixth episode of Stranger Things and the sixth episode of the first season. In the minute-long clip, we see Eleven wandering the Upside Down version of Hawkins Middle School, which is basically the same as the normal version except with moodier lighting and some spooky plants growing up the walls. Courtesy of Netflix. “The love for this show is so rabid.” But the Duffers are confident that viewers will be more than satisfied with their return to the Upside Down. Eleven, the child coerced into touching the monster and opening the gate to the Upside Down in the first place, is initially described as a boy. Those “infected” by it were instructed to ingest various chemicals and were later called back by the Mind Flayer to turn to goo and become one with the monster, creating a much bigger Mind Flayer. After escaping from the government’s lab, she experiences rapid normative gender socialization, donning a wig and a pink babydoll dress in a not-quite-successful attempt to pass as an ordinary girl from Hawkins. But it looks, to my eye, like a lily. Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Cara Buono, Charlie Heaton, and Matthew Modine. It premiered on Netflix on July 15, 2016 along with the rest of the season. It was great. “It makes [Stranger Things] so authentic because it comes from their hearts.” The Duffers’ canny but old-fashioned combination of emotion and thrills drove the series — about four small-town Indiana friends who find themselves dealing with a portal to a different dimension — to monster-level success after its 2016 premiere. I want the debate. She comes across a small portal to the normal world and, using her telekinetic powers, breaks through to the better-lit and plant-free reality. But also Caps and Leafs), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. - September 6, 2017 02:42 am EDT. The Venus flytrap, then, is just the most literal example of an American nature full of potentially predatory plants that disrupt categories of plant, animal, and human being. With all this in mind, Stranger Things would then need a much bigger villain in season 4 – after all, Hawkins isn’t the only place where gates have been opened and experiments have taken place, and it’s unknown what the Russians’ experiments have produced. The original series Stranger Things is now available to stream on Netflix. And it causes problems for the characters of Stranger Things, too. Season 2 plays up the viney overgrowths hinted at in Season 1—the monster reappears, stretching across a pumpkin patch and, eventually, all of Hawkins.