The “snowflakes” that Holly sees in Stranger Things season 4's ending are actually spores from the Upside Down.
Not long after, the Upside Down's spores began to fall from the sky.
Then the snow starts to fall. Only it's not snow. It's the characteristic permanent ash rain of The Upside Down. As our heroes head outside, they see on the horizon roiling clouds and red lightning beneath the coming storm ashen land stretches as far as the eye can see.
After defeating the Demogorgon, Eleven wakes up in the Upside Down. She escapes through a portal which leads her back to Hawkins Middle School. With the government still searching for her, she is forced to hide in the forest. Eleven eventually finds the Eggos Hopper has left for her and seeks him out.
Behind the scenes
In an interview, visual effects artist Aaron Sims implies that the Demogorgon was feeding off an egg in this moment. Despite this, close inspection of the scene suggests that it was instead feeding on the wounded deer Nancy and Jonathan found earlier in the episode.
In season 4, Peter Ballard notes that Kali was no longer at the lab in 1979. Given Kali's powers, it seems pretty self-explanatory as to how she was able to escape the lab. She either made herself invisible or was able to escape after manipulating the minds and visions of the guards.
There's been debate as to whether or not this scene implies that Eleven created the Upside Down or merely opened the first gate to it. But according to Millie Bobby Brown, the Upside Down existed before El ever meddled with it. “I don't think that she created the Upside Down,” Brown told Variety in June.
We still don't know why Vecna waited seven years after being banished to the Upside Down before starting his murderous rampage.
While Vecna is the looming evil in the Upside Down in season 4, the mirror dimension has been a constant threat for the characters on Stranger Things ever since season 1, when Eleven came into contact with a Demogorgon and accidentally opened a gate to that realm.
At his empire's height, Vecna was betrayed and destroyed by his most trusted lieutenant, a vampire called Kas the Bloody-Handed, using a magical sword that Vecna himself had crafted for him, now known as the Sword of Kas.
There are many questions about Eleven, like whether Eleven created The Upside Down, and in the season 4 finale, she brings Max back to life. Eleven uses her telekinetic powers to get into Vecna's mind and battle him herself.
In episode 7, Vecna is revealed to be Henry Creel (played as a youngster by Raphael Luce), the son of Victor Creel (Robert Englund) and his wife Virginia (Tyner Rushing) shown in the 1950s flashbacks.
Brenner's words make it seem like Vecna subjugated the entire Upside Down and, thereby, created the realm's hive mind. In other words, the Upside Down's hive mind is actually Vecna's mind because everything that he dominates becomes a part of him.
One explanation for why time in the Upside Down is frozen, rather than flowing ahead to 1986 like in the real world, could be the impact of Eleven opening that first gate. The outburst of power she used and the deep emotions that were running through her were enough to shock the Upside Down into time standing still.
While intending to get his revenge on Eleven and Brenner, Vecna also goes after victims who have dealt with traumatizing experiences in the past (reminiscent of his childhood and his time at the Hawkins lab).
And while his usual modus operandi is to embody his victims' negative self-talk (another very real psychological phenomenon), this time he is telling Nancy his plans and then releasing her so she can report back to everybody—Eleven included—that the end is nigh, with the goal of discouraging and disempowering them.
However, within the red smoke of Vecna's Mind Lair, it wasn't the song itself that saved her, but the memories it conjured up. What broke through to Max was the happy, loving memories of her friends, particularly Lucas and Eleven, and these were what truly allowed her to break free of Vecna's grasp and escape.
Eleven has a memory during this episode and realizes that 001/Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower) wants her to join him on his evil journey, and she banished him to the Upside Down. 001 then transformed into Vecna, the horrifying Stranger Things villain.
While the source of Vecna's powers is never explained, there are some Stranger Things hints leading to the theory that Hawkins had a big part in awakening them. Vecna is revealed in season 4 to be the base cause behind all of Hawkins' unfortunate happenings for the past three years.
The many-legged creature manipulates and controls people's minds, but Vecna may be even deadlier. Fans of Stranger Things claim that Vecna is stronger than the Mind Flayer. Some claim that Vecna, in fact, made the creature because he said in Season 4, “And I found the most extraordinary thing of all.
Linnea Berthelsen (born 13 July 1993) is a Danish actress of Indian descent, who is best known for her recurring role as Kali, also known as Eight, the sister of Eleven in the second season of the science-fiction horror Netflix original series Stranger Things.
Brenner built himself up as a father figure in the mind of Eleven and seventeen other child test subjects, making them refer to him as "Papa". Kali Prasad, also known as Eight, managed to escape the lab before September 8, 1979.
In a flashback, he has a conversation with Eleven and briefly mentions Kali isn't present at the lab at that time. This means she escaped from Hawkins Lab before the massacre, hence, why she's still alive.