Stranger Things is back for its fifth and final season, and there’s enough nightmare fuel here to keep us all sleeping with the light on until 2035. But forget Vecna for a second. The real key to what’s coming next might actually be the smallest Wheeler: pigtailed Holly. Yes, Mike and Nancy’s quiet little sister has suddenly become a huge plot point, and the book she’s constantly holding is basically one giant spoiler.
Credit: Netflix
The youngest Wheeler sibling has been around since season one, previously played by twins Anniston and Tinsley Price. But now Holly is front and centre, meaning she’s been recast with 14-year-old Nell Fisher, which already tells you she’s not just background anymore.
She’s into all the essential ‘80s staples: Strawberry Shortcake dolls, Tiffany… and most importantly, books. One book in particular: A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle.
A Wrinkle In Time follows Meg Murry, her genius little brother Charles Wallace and Calvin O’Keefe as they travel through space and time to rescue their dad from a sinister evil spreading across different worlds. The villain? A giant dark force called The Black Thing. Sound familiar? A friend group battling a creepy extra-dimensional monster… trying to save a captured parent figure… yeah.
Credit: Netflix
Even Holly starts noticing the parallels, especially after she ends up somewhere that feels a little too Upside Down-adjacent. She tells another character that Vecna/Henry is kinda like the villain “IT” in the book, a giant hive-mind brain that controls an entire planet and erases individuality. The place it rules is called Camazotz, which is… checks notes… exactly what episode six is called when volume two drops on the 26th December.
So what does this tell us about the end of Stranger Things? Well, the book wraps up with Meg saving Charles Wallace, everyone breaking free from IT’s control, and the family returning home, all powered by, wait for it… love.
So maybe the finale sees our Hawkins group doing the same: Rescuing those under Vecna’s control, breaking the hive mind and making it home together? The show has referenced A Wrinkle In Time multiple times this season, so it feels intentional.
But then again… this is Stranger Things. And after that twist in episode four? Literally anything could still happen.
We’ve got a long road through the Upside Down before New Year’s Day. But Holly Wheeler’s bedtime reading might already be telling us exactly where it ends.
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Featured image credit: Netflix
