This article contains SPOILERS for Stranger Things 5, volume 1.
In the fourth episode of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, “Sorcerer,” a long-held fan theory is confirmed: Will Byers has powers. The character, played by Noah Schnapp, has been integral to the series’ overarching narrative from the very beginning, with his disappearance in the very first episode, “The Vanishing of Will Byers” being the event that kicked off everything that has been unfolding ever since. While this reveal was a triumphant one within the narrative of the series, closing out the first volume of this final season in fittingly dramatic fashion, it does beg a central question: does Will having powers kind of ruin Stranger Things?
From the very opening moments of season five, its apparent that Stranger Things creators and showrunners, the Duffer Brothers, have some big plans in store for Will Byers. The entire opening prologue of the season’s debut episode is devoted to using a litany of visual effects methods to de-age Schnapp and portray a 1983-set conflict (the year the first season was set) between the freshly-vanished Will and the forces of the Upside Down. Here, he runs away from a Demogorgon and even comes face-to-face with Vecna, the series’ now-primary antagonist who didn’t first appear until the fourth season. Going to all of this effort makes it clear that the team has plans to reveal more about the nature of Will’s initial disappearance, and the motivations behind why he was taken in the first place, with Vecna even telling an unconscious Will how important he is.
All of this culminates in the fourth episode of the season, where, as the Hawkins gang faces dire straits and looks all-but-certainly doomed, Will comes into his own, has an emotional breakthrough, and demonstrates that he has psychic powers, much like Eleven and Vecna. This was much more concretely setup earlier in the episode, when Mike Wheeler, Will’s best friend and not-so-secret romantic crush, essentially told him that he believed he had powers that would come to light. This theory Mike floats is also one that has been circulating online for years, dating all the way back to the second season of the show, and its one that gets validated when Will uses his powers to destroy three Demogorgons simultaneously to save his friends, all of whom are in different locations throughout the town.
This would seem to indicate that not only does Will have powers, but he’s got insanely strong powers. For all of Eleven’s displays of powers over the years, audiences have never seen her demonstrate strength like this from this far of a distance. But far more pressing of a matter than this to me is the monotony of it all. Having Will get powers in the same episode that Kali, Eleven’s lost sister, finally returns to the series after years away makes this point stick out all the more. In the second season, it was thrilling to meet Kali and realize that not everyone in Eleven’s group has the same set of powers; Kali wasn’t telekinetic like El, she was able to use her powers to affect people’s perceptions of reality. So when Will is revealed to have powers that are so similar to Eleven’s that they even go so far as to have the final shot of the episode be him wiping his bloody nose just like Eleven always does, it just feels kind of same-y.
I’m fully onboard with Will Byers as a character getting something to do in this season of Stranger Things. In season one he was kidnapped, in season two he was possessed, in season three he was just kind of there, and in season four he had the worst haircut Netflix has ever sanctioned and a repressed love story; he deserves to get a little bit more involved in the story in a proactive way. But to think that the only answer to that is to give him copy-paste powers of Eleven and Vecna feels disappointing. There’s any number of ways Will could have really come into his own as a lead character this season, and I was excited to see that, but this makes me extremely nervous that we’re going to get a final battle that is just Eleven, Vecna, Will, and maybe even Kali all holding their hands out at one another and screaming while they get bloody noses. I really, genuinely hope to be wrong, but after sitting with it for weeks, I can’t get the sour taste of that final shot out of my mouth.
Stranger Things season 5 volume 2 premieres December 25 on Netflix at 8:00 p.m. ET. After that, The Finale drops on New Years Eve, bringing it all to a close.