11 unanswered questions we have after watching Stranger Things season 3

Why exactly were the Russians opening a gate in Hawkins?

The entire premise of the third season of Stranger Things revolves around the Russian military attempting to reopen the gate to the Upside Down, the same gate that Eleven manages to close at the end of season 2. The audience never gets a thorough explanation as to why the Russian military is interested in unleashing monsters from another dimension, though with the Cold War happening at the time, we can assume they were planning to weaponize them somehow.

More bizarre is the fact that Hawkins, Indiana is the place they choose to reopen the gate. Hawkins is a seemingly uninteresting town in the middle of nowhere, but as Alexei points out, the rift in the space-time continuum or whatever that Eleven closed in season 2 was still healing, so it’s easier to punch through here.

That raises the question of how the Russian military knows about the town’s history with the Upside Down. It doesn’t seem like the events of seasons 1 and 2 were widely publicized, and it’s doubtful they stumbled upon it by happenstance. One explanation could be that the Russians are working with Dr. Brenner, Eleven’s “papa,” who we haven’t heard from for awhile. Either that, or they got wind of what he was doing and followed suit.