It Looks Like Eleven Created the Upside Down, Doesn’t It?

Get ready for spoilers, since some people don’t binge an entire season in one day so that they can discuss it later. Hey, some folks have stuff to do and don’t sit and veg out in front of the TV that often. But for those that have seen Stranger Things season 4 at this point, there are a lot of questions that have been raised, especially when it comes to Eleven and what she’s meant to do against Vecna. What’s already been learned though is that Eleven is a lot more powerful than people realized considering that she might have very well created the Upside Down, or at least been indirectly responsible for giving it the form it has taken. That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of a young woman, but given the level of power that she possesses and the fact that she has entered the Upside Down and escaped it, there is a lot of opportunity to say that Eleven is capable of manipulating the Upside Down as she wants, but with a great deal of effort no doubt. 

Thinking that she has the power to create the alternate dimension is kind of a stretch, but thinking that she might be able to manipulate it, and open a gate between Hawkins and the Upside Down, is kind of simple since she’s done it already. But the creation of this dimension feels as though it would be too much for Eleven to take on. Sending someone to the dimension and thereby exiling them does feel like something she could do easily, but unless it’s a passive thing, the formation of the Upside Down doesn’t feel like it would be the creation of one individual unless it had been quietly building for years, perhaps coming into being as Eleven grew up, one small area at a time. To think that this would be possible, for her power to be creating this world bit by bit as she grew up, isn’t impossible to believe, but it’s still something that makes a person wonder how far things are bound to go. 

The Upside Down is a nightmarish version of Hawkins obviously, and by dint of watching season 4, it can be said that this is now Vecna’s realm. But one has to ask why he hasn’t attacked before, and what might lie beyond the Hawkins in the Upside Down, since if this town has been given a darker version of itself, one has to wonder if the world, in general, has a darker version of itself, or if the Upside Down is a pocket dimension that hovers just beyond the surface of Hawkins. That wouldn’t explain the Russian connection, unfortunately, unless there’s something that’s been missed. But trying to think that Eleven might be responsible for the opening of the Upside Down, while Vecna might have been responsible for the formation of the hellish version of Hawkins, does make a little more sense as after seeing how powerful Vecna is, it makes sense that he would be able to shape the Upside Down as he saw fit. So her ability to open the Upside Down is completely valid, but creating the world itself feels like something that might need another explanation. 

The Upside Down is a place that appears to have been nearly empty of anything other than whatever raw material was there to be utilized. When Vecna was thrust into an alternate dimension by Eleven, it would appear that he adapted and came to use the dimension as his own, but why the Upside Down came to resemble Hawkins is hard to say and trying to sort out what roles the Mindflayer and other creatures would seek to invade Hawkins on their own is hard to say. But there is a link between Eleven, Vecna, and the Upside Down, and hopefully, by season 5 we’ll be able to figure it out and deduce why Eleven can escape the Upside Down, and why she can send others across the barrier. There are still a lot of questions when it comes to Stranger Things, and much of it has to do with the Upside Down. How this will play out when the next, and possibly last season comes around is tough to say, but it’s no doubt going to be delivered in a manner that will get people excited, it’s fair to say that people will want more information. 

Just thinking that Eleven could rip open reality and create a new pocket dimension is kind of insane, but with the idea that her power is only bound to grow up until the end, it becomes easier to think that at her peak she could make this happen. With this in mind, the implications for a final showdown are that the stability of the Upside Down could eventually be up for grabs.