With just a few days until the finale of Season 4 of Stranger Things, the anticipation is higher than ever.  From a series known for its dramatic twists and turns, we can only speculate what may be in store for the next two feature length episodes.  So we thought it would be fun to look at 10 fan theories about the Season 4 finale of Stranger Things!

Who’s The Boss?
It was suggested in Vol. 1 that if the Demogorgon is a foot soldier of the infamous Mind Flayer, then Vecna is the 5 star general.  But what if it’s the other way around?  What if the bats, demo-dogs, demogorgons, the Mind Flayer, and the Upside Down itself are all creations of Vecna?

The moment that young Eleven banished him to another dimension, he may have began to create that world in his own image.  An image of the small town in which the lab sat underneath, that 001 definitely would have been familiar with.  This would mean that Vecna is the “big bad” that’s been behind everything from the start, and it makes the coming confrontation all the more epic.

Paternity Test
We know that Henry Creel came into the custody of Dr. Martin Brenner in the 1950’s, and 20 years later, we know that Brenner had a whole class of young children, each with a number and psychic ability.  We also know that Brenner was involved with each of his “children” before they were born, including Eleven’s biological mother (who later broke in and tried to save her).

So it’s not outside the realm of possibility that either through artificial insemination, or maybe even some genetically altered cloning, that Brenner didn’t use Henry’s DNA to conceive Eleven (and possibly all the other children).  It would explain why the children have the powers they do, as well as why Brenner kept Henry around, long after rendering his powers docile.

Jonathan’s Sacrifice
Because it wouldn’t be Stranger Things without a beloved character dying.  This season has also spent a lot of time showing us that Jonathan feels lost.  He’s clearly upset that Nancy didn’t come with Mike to visit them in California and he’s taken his casual pot use and turned it into his entire personality.

The one thing that always motivated him was the love for his brother Will and the innate instinct to protect him.  And with this series loving redemption arcs as much as they do, and with everyone saying that someone will surely die, it would be poetic and poignant to see Jonathan die saving his little brother Will.

Eddie is 10
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.  Some have pointed out that Eddie resembles one of the other children we saw in Eleven’s flashbacks, plus it does appear that he at least could be hiding something on his wrist.  However, it doesn’t really go any further than that since he hasn’t really demonstrated any psychic ability, and it would definitely raise more questions than answers if this was the case.

Robin Saves Nancy
This one seems incredibly likely as we did see Robin commenting on the type of music that Nancy had in her room.  Given what we saw with Max, we can expect Nancy to face a similar confrontation with Vecna.  And when that happens, Robin will be there to intervene with Nancy’s favorite songs to provide the support she needs to either escape or defeat Vecna himself.

Vecna is Pennywise
Obviously this one involves multiple franchises and won’t ever actually be canon, but it’s fun to think about.  These two iconic villains do share more than a few similarities.  They both torment their victims with fear before killing them, they both project images and visions that their victims see, they both are interdimensional beings, and they both have an affinity for spiders.  It’s probably more a case that Vecna is heavily inspired by Pennywise (as well as Freddy Krueger) but these are still fun to think about.

Eddie Saves the Day
We all saw the amazing but brief clip in the trailer of Eddie Munson playing his guitar on top of a building in the Upside Down.  Other than a concert in the Upside Down being super metal, the only other reason he would be doing that is literally using the power of music the same way we saw with Max.  Maybe as the others in the Hawkins crew take on Vecna, Eddie provides music not just to make the scene all the more badass, but to be their lifeline back to reality so they can defeat him.

Cliffhanger
It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that the stakes and intensity now seem higher than ever.  Many have pointed out the Season 4, Vol. 2 trailer feels like it’s geared more towards a series finale than a season finale.  So one such explanation is that ultimately they will fail, Vecna will win, and Season 5 will be the surviving characters licking their wounds, and gearing up for a rematch; not unlike Avengers Infinity War and Endgame.

At this point, they’ve built Vecna up to be such a villain, that if they were to defeat him in Season 4 and introduce a new villain in the 5th one, it would be difficult to top him.  So it makes sense that he would continue as the “big bad”.

Russian Gate
This season has seen our characters far more spread out than they’ve ever been before.  We have the Hawkins crew, the California pizza van group, and of course the prison break mission in Russia.  So as the stories begin to converge, so too must the main characters.

And while Argyle, Will, Jonathan, and Mike can probably drive from California (or Utah where we last saw them), it will be much harder for Hopper, Joyce, and Murray to make it to Hawkins.  Unless of course they travel through the same Upside Down portal in Russia that brought Hopper there to begin with at the end of Season 3.

End of the Cold War
The looming threat of the Cold War has always been present in this series, and made all the more overt in Season 3.  One of the biggest conflicts, aside from the supernatural threat, has always been the warring government agencies.

And right now, both Hawkins and the Russian prison seem to hold different keys to a larger question.  So what if the series ends with the US and Russian governments coming together to face a common enemy (like Vecna), and the result is the “real” historically retconned reason that the Cold War ended.

What are your predictions for the final two episodes of Stranger Things Season 4?  How do you think the series will end altogether?  Let us know in the comments!

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