Stranger Things Season 5 is the end of the show, and that means things are going back to the beginning. The Netflix series promises to bring the story full circle in its final outing, with the major mysteries regarding the Upside Down and Vecna set to be resolved. It’ll be hard to satisfyingly answer every single lingering question, but the Duffer Brothers already appear to be doing a good job of taking on that task, especially after the opening scene of Stranger Things Season 5 was released.
This quite literally goes back to Season 1, showing Will (a de-aged Noah Schnapp) in November 1983 as he battles to survive the hellish dimension he’s been dragged into. It’s the story we never really got to see nine years ago, giving us his perspective on things while his friends and family try to find and save him, but it also highlights another mystery.
In the footage, we see the Demogorgon take Will’s body to Vecna, rather than killing him; the villain has a clear use for him and says that they “can begin.” But Will wasn’t the only character taken into the Upside Down back then: Barbara was too. So why was he spared, and she killed?
Barb’s death was one of the biggest talking points of Stranger Things‘ first season, sparking backlash and an entire “Justice For Barb” movement on social media. This came from frustrations as to how her death and its aftermath were handled, with characters quickly moving on and her disappearance being of lesser importance than Will’s. It actually gained so much momentum that Stranger Things Season 2 attempted to rectify things, introducing Barb’s parents, giving Nancy a story even more driven by uncovering what happened, and finally an admission of the character’s death and a funeral.
However, it seems as though Stranger Things isn’t done with Barb just yet. We already know that Barb’s body will appear in Season 5 in some capacity [via Time], and that could be during more of these Season 1 flashbacks. And if that’s the case, then there’s an opportunity to explain just why Barb was killed, and why Will was kept alive. I would assume that there’s something special about Will – after all, he could’ve easily been killed by either the Demogorgon or Vecna. This could be linked to theories around his potential powers, or it might be that, as something of an outcast like Henry Creel, Vecna related to Will and thought him the perfect (unwilling) partner for his plans.
It’s likely that poor Barb’s death was just a case of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but nonetheless, it’d be interesting to get more context for her death after all this time. Even with Season 2, the show never fully gave the character a truly satisfying resolution, but now there’s the chance to offer one last dose of justice for Barb.
Stranger Things Season 5 will release on Netflix in three parts on the following dates:
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