One night, in November 1983, Will Byers didn’t come home. That central hook from the 2016 pilot episode of Stranger Things seems so simple compared to what the series became. Over the next nine years and four seasons, Stranger Things grew more and more intricate in its lore, adding telekinetic kids, Cold War intrigue, the hellish Upside Down, and the ultimate evil known as Vecna. It’s almost as if Will’s disappearance was insignificant.
According to Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer, the events of that November night are anything but. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Matt revealed, “So much of the [final] season was built around the idea of coming full circle, answering many of the questions that were posed all the way back in season 1.” And that means season five must answer the two questions left over from those first episodes, not just “What is the Upside Down, truly?” teased Matt, but also, “Why was Will taken?”
One of the reasons we may forget about Will’s disappearance is that he did make his way back home, and has spent most of seasons with his friends and family. But fans know that just because Will came home doesn’t mean that he’s the same, a point that the Duffers will explore in season 5.
Ross Duffer points to season 2’s sixth episode, titled “The Spy,” as a key point of connection between the initial disappearance and the season 5 revelations. “[It’s] the most important episode,” said Ross, because it shows that “Will was really working, in a way, for the Mind Flayer.”
