The characters on Stranger Things have grown up a lot in the four years that have passed since Will Byers was abducted on Nov. 6, 1983 (and nine years since the show premiered). That includes Mike and Nancy Wheeler’s baby sister Holly, who plays a much more important role in the final season of the show.
A glimpse inside Holly’s room shows that she shares her brother’s love of science fiction and fantasy: she’s got an ALF poster, Rainbow Brite sheets, and a Care Bears doll. But her most prized possession is a well-worn copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 YA science fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time.
The Duffer Brothers always pepper Stranger Things with nostalgic references, with the kids playing with Star Wars toys, dressing up as the Ghostbusters, and singing The NeverEnding Story theme. But the showrunners have also used these touchstones to spotlight bigger parts of a season’s plot. Mike, Lucas, Max and Will sneak into a screening of George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead in season 3, foreshadowing both the secret Russian base behind the Starcourt Mall and the way the Mind Flayer is effectively building a zombie army. A Wrinkle in Time serves a similar role in season 5.
Image: Netflix
Like Stranger Things, A Wrinkle in Time is a story of good versus evil focused on young heroes, family bonds, psychic powers, and traveling between worlds. It follows Meg Murry, a 13-year-old girl who goes on a quest to rescue her missing father with the help of her brother, Charles Wallace, her classmate, Calvin, and a trio of mysterious supernatural beings dubbed Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. Young girls were rarely the heroes of science fiction or fantasy books when L’Engle was writing, and her book served as a gateway to geekdom for a generation of young readers.
During Meg’s quest, she encounters worlds under attack by a formless shadowy being known as The Black Thing. The worst of these is the planet Camazotz, where a telepathic entity known as IT controls everyone’s actions. The arrogant Charles Wallace allows himself to be hypnotized by the Man with Red Eyes, who serves as a sort of avatar for IT, because he believes it will help him learn his father’s whereabouts. He does, but under IT’s sway also nearly gets the rest of his group captured. But by focusing on her love for her brother, Meg is able to shake him free of IT’s control.
[Ed. note: The following contains major spoilers for the first half of Stranger Things season 5]
Rather than appearing in his terrifying true form as Vecna, Henry Creel spends the beginning of season 5 psychically contacting children in the guise of Mr. Whatsit, promising them salvation from the monsters attacking Hawkins. But his plot is actually to drag them into the Upside Down and plug them into the hive mind, trapping their minds in a prison made from his own memories. Holly refers to the realm as Camazotz, a metaphor that is clearly going to continue given that episode 6 is called “Escape from Camazotz.”
Image: Netflix
Vecna fills the role of the Man with Red Eyes while the Mind Flayer is IT and Will Byers is Charles Wallace. Will was connected to the hive mind when he was first abducted, and during the season 5 mid-season finale finds a way to use that link to his advantage and become a “sorcerer” capable of controlling the Demogorgons and stopping their attack on Hawkins. The love that gave him the focus he needed didn’t come from a sibling but from within. With Robin’s guidance, he was able to fully accept himself and what he’s been through and embrace his power.
The dynamic between IT, the Man with Red Eyes, and The Black Thing in A Wrinkle in Time could also hint at what’s really going on in the Upside Down. Vecna/Henry Creel is afraid of something in his own memories – the desert cave where Max winds up hiding. In the prequel stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, that’s where he has his first encounter with the Upside Down and gains his powers. Henry later claims to have effectively created the Mind Flayer when he was banished to the Upside Down by Eleven, so what is the dark presence he first connected with as a child?
It could be something akin to The Black Thing, a supreme force of evil responsible for both Vecna and the Mind Flayer. Figuring out how to stop it would be key to saving Hawkins and the world. Much like how Mike has used his knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons to understand and fight the forces of the Upside Down in past seasons, Holly seems poised to use her love of A Wrinkle of Time to play a heroic role in the show’s final showdown.
