By Chris Snellgrove | Published
It’s an exciting time Stranger Things followers. The series finale goes down on New Year’s Eve, and we’ll finally find out if our characters can make history and successfully defeat Vecna once and for all.
Understandably, fans have a lot of questions about the ending, including who will die and whether the Mind Flayer is as quiet as everyone thinks. However, I’m focused on a different question that the show has so far refused to answer: what the heck is so important about November 6, the day when Stranger Things completely fascinated with?
November 6th Time of Day Set
The mystery began with the Upside Down being frozen in time on November 6, 1983. That’s the day Will Byers was kidnapped, leading fans to think there must be a connection. Finally, we got a sort of answer: this is the day Eleven opened the gate to the Upside Down by psychically contacting the Demogorgon.
That still leaves a few mechanical questions Stranger Things fans to untie, of course. It’s not entirely clear why time is completely frozen in the Upside Down, but the original mystery seems clear. Eleven created a bridge to the monster world, and one of them snatched Will that day.
Mystery solved, right? No.
November 6th is Beyond the Time of Day
Not really: later, we find out that it is November 6, 1959, and the day Henry Creel (the future Vecna) would make his acting debut in a play directed by Joyce. Fast forward nearly three decades, and on November 6, 1987, Vecna will try to merge the hellish dimension called “the bottomless pit” with our world.
These events (especially the game) seem to have four nothing that he did when Even just opened the gate. So, we are left wondering what the heck is so important about this particular day. With any luck, the Stranger Things the series finale will provide answers, but it’s incredibly surprising that the show has turned this day into a huge mystery that’s lasted almost a decade.
The game Stranger Things: The First Shadow specifies that this is the day things went wrong for Henry Creel. After gaining power in Dimension X, he kills his mother and sister, injures the girl he loves, and is sent back to Hawkins Lab by Dr. Brenner. Because of this, some fans think that Henry (now Vecna) is very focused on this day, returning to it as a kind of painful memory.
No Coincidences
The painful memory may explain (partly, at least) why Vecna wants to launch his crazy plan to “unite the worlds” on November 6. He may reenact his trauma, or even share his pain with everyone in the world on a mysterious day.
It wouldn’t explain why this happened until the same day Eleven opened the gate to the Upside Down, causing Will Byers to be kidnapped by Vecna. It could all be a coincidence, but I think Lucas spoke for us all Stranger Things Season 5 when he says, “I don’t believe in mutual understanding anymore…
The safest bet is that Stranger Things the series finale will provide others the answer to why November 6 is so important. Whether that answer will satisfy the fans who were frustrated by this mystery years another question entirely.
The quality of that response may determine whether a show sticks as a success or becomes the next one Game of Thrones: a masterpiece that was slowly revealed until there was nothing left of the show fans once loved.
