Serious question : What is the Upside Down ? Throughout four seasons of Netflix ’ s Stranger Things , we ’ ve only become vaguely acquainted with the metaphysically inverted , floaty dust particle reality beneath Hawkins , Indiana — and , presumably , all of space . Part Dante hellscape , part real-world application for skills acquired playing Dungeons and Dragons , the Upside Down is also uniquely adolescent . While adults , soldiers , and scientists enter the space , only kids seem to be inexplicably drawn to it , trapped inside it , possessed through it . The monsters come for them .
The Season 4 Part 1 finale gave us even more insight into this inverse realm , which may be the key to understanding not just Part 2 , but also the series itself .
From its first season , Stranger Things has been about childhood . It ’ s about friendship and belonging . The conflicts are monster-driven , sure , but they ’ re primarily interpersonal ; they involve those things that stand in the way of friendship . Lies . Betrayal . Ostracization . The real monsters are these things that threatened belonging , which is why features like bullying , alienation , and outcasts figure so prominently into the seasons ; more than monsters , these things are what kids fear . Facing the slimy pubescent horrors of the Upside Down — which is maybe a metaphor for adulthood or simply a creepy-ass place that reflects , impressionistically , all our adolescent anxieties — is nothing compared to horrors of actually getting older , and potentially growing apart .
In season 4 , it took seven episodes for the gang to re-enter the Upside Down . What they found could change everything we know about that world . How the Upside Down works may now be the central question of the series . So before Part 2 rolls around , let ’ s take stock of some of these new discoveries .
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