The ‘Stranger Things’ play totally unlocks ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5, Vol. 2

The following contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5, volume 2.

Look Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway after watching Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 was a surreal experience.

Not only were audience members treated to the play’s spectacular special effects, but seriously, you’ll feel like you’re In an episode of Stranger Things – but we also got to see how the piece related to season 5.

Mentions of Henry Creel’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) childhood in Nevada made audience members gasp as they remembered the mysterious Nevada cave system in Henry’s mindscape. Elsewhere, the production of young Joyce Oklahoma! In The first shadow linked to Henry’s memories of his time at Hawkins High, which Max navigates through in Volume 1. You even get a glimpse of the series flier, which reveals that Henry himself plays the lead role in it.

But after watching Stranger Things In Season 5, Volume 2, it turns out that there are even more connections between the play and the show, each helping the other create a clearer portrait of Henry/Vecna’s origin story. From Henry’s fateful stay in Nevada to some illuminating insights into Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) own powers, here’s how Stranger Things: The First Shadow illuminates the mysteries of Stranger Things Season 5, volume 2.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow reveals why Henry is so afraid of the caves in his mindscape.

Jamie Campbell Bower in “Stranger Things.”
Credit: Netflix

One of the biggest questions I had about Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 explains why Henry was too scared to follow Max into the cave system in his memories. And there you have it, Stranger Things: The First Shadow I had the answer all the time.

The room reveals that the cave system was where Henry first ventured into Dimension X – now nicknamed “The Abyss” in Stranger Things. This is the alternate dimension where the Mind Flayer and Demogorgons come from, as opposed to the Upside Down, which, according to Volume 2, is a bridge connecting the Abyss to our world.

According to Stranger Things: The First ShadowHenry’s memorial caves in Nevada were home to experiments conducted by Dr. Brenner (Michael Modine) to learn more about Dimension X. His own father briefly disappeared there during a World War II experiment on the battleship USS Eldridge. However, one of the scientists on his team defected to the Soviets. He stole equipment from the laboratories and fled. During his escape, he crossed paths with Henry, at which point the stolen equipment transported them both to the Abyss.

Naturally, this dimension-hopping experience was traumatic for Henry, explaining why he won’t revisit these caves or memories in his mindscape. But even if all this is relayed in a speech by Dr. Brenner to Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 actually gives us a glimpse of what happened to young Henry in Nevada.

In episode 6, “Escape from Camazotz”, Max and Holly (Nell Fisher) watch Henry’s encounter with the defecting scientist. At first, Henry wants to help the injured defector, who is carrying a mysterious briefcase. But when the scientist shoots him in the hand – leaving a wound that Dr. Brenner talks about in Stranger Things: The First Shadowbut doesn’t explain – Henry goes into fight or flight mode. He surprises the scientist with a rock, the action starting as a survival instinct but quickly becoming more bloodthirsty. Then he will open the briefcase.

All we see of the contents of the suitcase is a rolling fog before Max and Holly continue on their way. But thanks to Stranger Things: The First Shadowwe know that whatever is inside the briefcase will bring Henry to Dimension X, where he will come face to face with the Mind Flayer.

Don’t expect this revelation to remain purely playful knowledge. There’s no way the Duffer Brothers would tease the importance of Nevada’s memory without going all the way.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow explains why Henry and Eleven’s blood is different.

Jamie Campbell Bower in “Stranger Things.”
Credit: Netflix

Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 drops a pretty big bombshell about Eleven’s powers. Throughout the series, she believed she possessed her abilities thanks to her pregnant mother’s involvement in the MKUltra program, which exposed Eleven to mind-altering drugs in the womb. However, it turns out that his powers actually came from transfusions of Henry’s blood.

In Stranger Things: The First ShadowDr. Brenner tells Henry that when his father reappeared from the Abyss, he had a completely unique blood type. The same thing happened to Henry after his exposure to the Abyss and the Mind Flayer.

The play features scenes of Dr. Brenner drawing Henry’s blood, and we later learn why: it is to give it to all the children used in the Hawkins laboratory experiments. The transfusions grant Henry’s powers to children, all without exposing them to the Abyss themselves.

In Stranger Things In Season 5, Volume 2, the U.S. government attempts to recreate the success of these initial transfusions, this time forcing transfusions of Kali’s (Linnea Berthelsen) blood onto unconscious pregnant women. If they capture Eleven, they will also drain his blood. As Kali reasons, the government’s insistence on carrying out this agenda means that neither she nor Eleven will ever be safe.

Stranger Things: The First ShadowHolly’s revelation that exposure to the Mind Flayer and the Abyss changes your blood type – and therefore probably gives you powers – adds a new wrinkle to Holly’s plight. She, Derek (Jake Connelly), and the other kidnapped children were all trapped in the Abyss, with Henry hoping to use them as containers for his powers to join our world with his. However, if they manage to escape this whole situation alive, will their powers remain? And will the government hunt them down like it did Kali and Eleven?

Unfortunately, this is not a question Stranger Things: The First Shadow can answer. Only the finale can do that.

Volumes 1 and 2 of Stranger Things Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix. The series finale airs December 31 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix and in theaters.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow now plays on Broadway and the West End.