This post contains major spoilers for Stranger Things 5, Volume 2, and the truth about the Upside Down. If you don’t want to be cursed (with knowledge!), stop now. Instead, head to our spoiler-free review of Stranger Things 5, Volume 2.
What Is the Upside Down? We Learn The Upside Down Is Actually a Wormhole on Stranger Things
“This whole time, everything we have ever assumed about the Upside Down has been dead wrong.”
That’s true of both the people of Hawkins and viewers. In Stranger Things 5, Volume 2, Dustin finally learned exactly what the Upside Down actually is. It isn’t another dimension or even another world like we always thought. Instead, Stranger Things‘ Upside Down is “a wormhole, a bridge between two points in time and space.” On one side of that bridge is the real world. On the other side of the wormhole is the place where the demogorgons and the Mind Flayer actually come from. Eleven sent One to that dimension years before the events of Stranger Things 5. We used to know it as Dimension X on Stranger Things, but now Dustin calls that realm beyond the Upside Down wormhole, the Abyss.
How Was the Upside Down Created on Stranger Things?
The Upside Down did not exist at all in Stranger Things‘ world until November 6, 1983, the night Will Byers vanished. That’s the day Eleven made remote contact with another dimension, the same dimension she had exiled Henry Creel to a year earlier. Dr. Martin Brenner had Eleven, unknowingly, searching for Henry. When her mind reached that plane, she inadvertently created a wormhole/bridge that connected the real world and the dimension now dubbed the Abyss. Dustin named this realm after a D&D location. In the game, it’s a realm of “pure chaos and evil. As mentioned, The Stranger Things stage play, The First Shadow, previously called this place Dimension X.
Vecna Has Used The Upside Down to Travel Between the Abyss and The Real World
The Upside Down is frozen in time at the moment Eleven accidentally created it. Nancy discovered that in Stranger Things 4, without knowing how or why this lack of time exists. The Upside Down is also a mixture of the two worlds it connects on Stranger Things, our reality and the Abyss. Vecna—along with Demogorgons, the Mind Flayer, demodogs, demobats, and vines—have used the Upside Down as a bridge to travel from the Abyss to the real world on Stranger Things. It’s also how Vecna has been able to remain hidden from Eleven’s powers and Hopper’s Crawls since the end of season four. He “licked” his wounds after returning to the Abyss, a place where not even Eleven could reach him with her mind.
The Upside Down Is an Unstable Wormhole That Could Easily Collapse on Stranger Things
The Upside Down is also incredibly unstable. It probably would have collapsed permanently had outside forces not intervened immediately after Eleven formed the wormhole. The only reason The Upside Down did not immediately break down is that Dr. Brenner used “exotic matter” to create a single energy source that reinforced its walls after Eleven formed it in Stranger Things‘ first season. So, yes, Eleven created the Upside Down, but Dr. Brenner is responsible for the wormhole lasting as long as it has on Stranger Things. Uh…yay science?
Dr. Brenner didn’t clue any one of our main characters in on this, though. In Stranger Things 5, Volume 2, episode six, when Nancy shot at Brenner’s stabilizing exotic matter in the Upside Down version of Hawkins’ lab, she nearly destroyed the whole bridge. The wormhole that is the Upside Down just managed to hold despite the formation of a giant hole that sucked Steve’s car and other things out into pure nothingness. And that’s what’s outside the Upside Down, nothing. Nothing but “death.”
What Happens if the Upside Down Collapses and the Wormhole Is Destroyed on Stranger Things?
If the bridge between worlds collapses now, it will take everyone and everything inside of it with it. The Upside Down might be a dark, horrible place where terrible things happen, but with Vecna still left to stop on Stranger Things, it hasn’t finished serving its purpose yet. As long as the Party needs the wormhole to get to Vecna in The Abyss, then they need The Upside Down to remain a stable wormhole. The Upside Down is a wall between life and nothingness on Stranger Things, after all. A wall that science was fully supporting before Nancy used her shotgun on its energy source… So fingers crossed it doesn’t fall apart before Vecna is defeated.
Of course, Hawkins’ Party of heroes needs the Upside Down to remain a bridge they can safely use at the moment, but they don’t want it to remain forever. Ultimately, the Upside Down must disappear forever on Stranger Things. The Party wants to blow it up after they (hopefully) destroy Vecna and save the 12 children he’s taken. That’s the only way to ensure no monsters from the Abyss will ever have a way of getting back to the real world. (Kali thinks there’s one more thing they must do to truly guarantee this “cycle” of death ends, though. She believes her and Eleven must remain behind in the Upside Down when it blows up on Stranger Things, so Eleven’s portal-opening powers die with her.)
Stranger Things 5 Successfully Explained the Upside Down to Us
Stranger Things 5, Volume 2 revealed that everything we ever thought we knew about the Upside Down was wrong. But it also explained the truth of it in a way we could really understand. Now that we know what The Upside Down really is, we understand why it must truly be destroyed. It’s not another dimension or world. It’s a bridge to a place even worse.
Stranger Things 5 Volumes 1 and 2 are now streaming on Netflix. Stranger Things 5, Volume 3, or Stranger Things 5: The Finale will arrive on December 31 at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who doesn’t want to run up or down any hills. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
The post What Is the Upside Down? STRANGER THINGS 5, VOLUME 2 Finally Explains All appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Fady Askharoun Samy Askharoun
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