Strangererer Things: Some Speculation on Stranger Things 3
3Hey, there are some incidental Stranger Things spoilers in here, so don’t read this unless you’ve watched both series.
So I just finished Stranger Things 2 and I loved it, even the cheesy urban underground punks or whatever they were supposed to be. The Duffer brothers have said they could do this for several more years, and I’m sure Netflix will shovel money their way for at least another season. So it got me thinking: now that “the party” has saved the world, where could it possibly go from here?
Let’s think about the '80s/'70s canon that the show pays homage to. This series added touchstones like Aliens, The Exorcist, The Terminator, Warriors, even a bit of Star Wars and the Chris Claremont X-Men (among many more) to the E.T., Poltergeist, and Stephen King (among many more) stew of the first series. So what’s left?
Also, what has the giant shadow Mind Flayer or whatever it is learned about the human race it seeks to conquer? What other approach could it take to its goal?
These two questions lead me to the paranoid infiltration/mind control vein of stories like They Live, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and V. If this monster is as intelligent as it’s supposed to be, it has to understand that its offensive can only succeed if it’s not detected until it’s too late to stop. And it should be able to adapt its attack into a subtler form.
This angle would also touch on the recurring theme of trust, and put the bond between the kids under even more strain than the crushes and the white lies of season 2.
Finally, there’s another element that’s been very lightly touched on, and is conspicuous by its absence in a story set in the 1980s: the Cold War. Isn’t it weird that, aside from a few stray references to the Russians, the fear of nuclear war which fell like a shadow on the entire decade hasn’t popped up once? Especially when there’s a wealth of potent, evocative '80s film imagery, from WarGames to The Day After, built on exactly that fear?
So here’s my prediction: Stranger Things 3 will turn on a mass impersonation or mind control plot, with the monster’s human puppets trying to provoke a nuclear war to weaken our species so the monster can take over.
I mean, maybe not. I don’t know how you get the kids of Hawkins, Indiana into the Kremlin, for one thing. And it’s pretty much impossible to do a story like that without some kind of politics seeping in, spoiling the blessed relief from political anxiety that helps make the show such an addictive pleasure.
Anyway, I’ve certainly never been able to predict a Stranger Things plot twist before. I’m waiting anxiously to be proven wrong about this prediction, too. Got any ideas of your own?
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Behind, so Did Not Read.
But thx.
I read on because I’ll probably forget this before I get to watch the show. It’s an interesting theory and once you mentioned it the absence of the cold war seems conspicuous, but as a child of the era I don’t think the cold war weighed heavily on my childhood. Not nearly as much as the earlier days of Duck and Cover practice. My elementary school did have a fallout shelter sign near the cafeteria but it seemed a relic of a time gone by.
So (and recognizing that I haven’t watched a second of season 2 yet so I may be way off) as this story focuses on the kids and their experiences, maybe it’s just not that big a deal to them?
@djslack Yeah, maybe that’s just me. Personally, things like The Day After and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome gave me recurring nuclear war nightmares from about ages 9 to 13, but I was a pretty weird kid…
I need to get Netflix.
@sammydog01 <cough> torrent <cough>
@Pavlov <cough>Kodi<cough>
@djslack @Pavlov
Cough What’s with all the coughing? Cough
@gumtreertmug idk, something going around. here, have a peppermint.
Whatever happens, I hope they kill off Eleven. I’m surprised they didn’t this season because boy did the writers not have shit for her to do until that ridiculous episode in Chicago that served absolutely no immediate purpose.
Papa is going to return and do… something? He was never super interesting but exploring that character and his motivations might be cool. Torture Man said he was alive and I really hope that wasn’t just to trigger weird visions for Eleven later in the episode and Papa is actually dead.
My guess is Hopper and Dustin get sick from the dust they inhaled in the tunnels, and they have to seek out Papa for help on saving them.
I don’t think the Cold War will play much into the show, because it is too big for Hawkins. Same as the election signs were seen in yards but never ever mentioned, I don’t think it will be a big focus for the kids.
I need justice for Steve, who I guess knows he’s dumped? Maybe? And Billy, who was a product of his environment, didn’t get any sort of resolution either. (also, two characters named William in this show? Sounds like a time travel loop to me…)
Season 3 will be about Johnathan taking revenge on Steve for stealing his bat.
Seriously, that’s not Steve’s bat!
@darksaber99999
whoa
I bet they’ll encounter some even stranger things.
It’s going to get weird when puberty starts popping up. Ahhh, what an awkward time. Can’t wait to see a 5’8 Eleven trying to date late bloomer Michael.
Steve Harrington’s hair is actually a disguised Shadow Monster who rises up from the shackles of Farrah Fawcett hairspray and enacts cruel hairstyles on the residents of Hawkins.