Spoilers Stranger Things Season 5 - SPOILERS

[Morrus]

Wow. So the Duffer Brothers took a look at Return of the King’s multiple endings and said “hold my beer!”

The main plot finished about an hour in, the there was an entire hour of endings!

 

[billd91]

As an aside, were public school 10 year-olds really that foul-mouthed back in the 80s? I started school in 1986, but I went to a private Christian school, so maybe I just wasn't exposed to as much swearing when I was growing up? My children complained about their peers swearing at school when they were 10 years old, so it's certainly the case now!

Public school kids? I was learning a lot more coarseness from my cousins in Catholic school than the public schools. Some religious schools may have been sheltered, but not all of them were.

But in any event, the cussing in ST is pretty mild compared to 1980s teen life.

 

[pukunui]

I haven’t seen the play that was labeled not required to understand the series, but I think it was kind of required. Since as I understand it it explains how the military got involved.

The military was trying to cloak a ship with special technology and ended up sending the ship to dimension x. Which is how that rock got i to the scientists case in that cave.

So the military was involved for decades and were trying to learn more about dimension x. And they knew something from dimension x created Henry and used him to make more psychics.

It was less the military and more Dr Brenner. His dad was involved with the Philadelphia Experiment, which in this universe sent the USS Eldridge to Dimension X (not to the multiversal junkyard like in Loki). Dr Brenner became obsessed with opening another portal to Dimension X. The experiment in the caves that Henry stumbled on was part of that. Dr Brenner then found Henry and started testing him. Dr Brenner's the one who created the exotic matter thing that created the wormhole and so on and so forth.

It was Dr Brenner all along.

 

[Basic Expert]

Kay did explain, but if you blinked you missed it. The original goal was to open gates and send demogorgans into Russia.

Yeah, I did catch that. But...why? How does that serve the US's geopolitical interest, even in the context of Cold War late 1980s? The USSR had a huge territory and hundreds of millions of people. What the heck are a handful of presumably unguided killing machines do? Even if they run rampant and kill 1000 soldiers each, it's not like they are indestructible. They will be destroyed. Not worth the investment, not to mention the proven danger.

The making more "numbers" as Elle called it is more plausible, since the powerful ones like Henry or Elle could presumably spy on foreign leaders. However, the previous disasters of the program would seem to indicate that getting cooperation from potent superhumans is a fraught endeavor at best. Also, good luck keeping the Hawkins Operations remotely secret. At that scale, there are thousands of people that likely know enough to be serious whistleblowers. The US military occupying a town at all, let alone for an extended period of time, would be a huge news story and I doubt their cover story would last long.

I actually think they buried the more intriguing "Exotic Energy" plotline. If the government had the capacity to harness some sort of exotic energy to keep the Upside Down from collapsing, that points to a profound understanding of the nature of reality. Wouldn't a program based on the study and application of transdimensional physics garner far more potential benefits than a psychic-breeding program? But no, this wondrous invention is reduced to a simple a plot device to allow our heroes to destroy the Upside Down.

 

[HatWearingFool]

Yeah, I did catch that. But...why? How does that serve the US's geopolitical interest, even in the context of Cold War late 1980s? The USSR had a huge territory and hundreds of millions of people. What the heck are a handful of presumably unguided killing machines do? Even if they run rampant and kill 1000 soldiers each, it's not like they are indestructible. They will be destroyed. Not worth the investment, not to mention the proven danger.

The making more "numbers" as Elle called it is more plausible, since the powerful ones like Henry or Elle could presumably spy on foreign leaders. However, the previous disasters of the program would seem to indicate that getting cooperation from potent superhumans is a fraught endeavor at best. Also, good luck keeping the Hawkins Operations remotely secret. At that scale, there are thousands of people that likely know enough to be serious whistleblowers. The US military occupying a town at all, let alone for an extended period of time, would be a huge news story and I doubt their cover story would last long.

I actually think they buried the more intriguing "Exotic Energy" plotline. If the government had the capacity to harness some sort of exotic energy to keep the Upside Down from collapsing, that points to a profound understanding of the nature of reality. Wouldn't a program based on the study and application of transdimensional physics garner far more potential benefits than a psychic-breeding program? But no, this wondrous invention is reduced to a simple a plot device to allow our heroes to destroy the Upside Down.

It’s not clear the military knew about the exotic matter. They (Dr. Kay and the boots on the ground) didn’t seem to know about dimension x nor vecna. They were just focused on 011. If they had known 001 was hanging around he would clearly have been a higher priority target since he was the functioning source of the original baby project.

 

[Ryujin]

Yeah, I did catch that. But...why? How does that serve the US's geopolitical interest, even in the context of Cold War late 1980s? The USSR had a huge territory and hundreds of millions of people. What the heck are a handful of presumably unguided killing machines do? Even if they run rampant and kill 1000 soldiers each, it's not like they are indestructible. They will be destroyed. Not worth the investment, not to mention the proven danger.

The ability to drop what is effectively a pack of rabid super-wolves into the heart of The Kremlin? Or literally any secure facility via a rift? That's a weapon that can't be defended against. Forget nukes. Or remember them and that you can quietly place them in someone's basement.

The making more "numbers" as Elle called it is more plausible, since the powerful ones like Henry or Elle could presumably spy on foreign leaders. However, the previous disasters of the program would seem to indicate that getting cooperation from potent superhumans is a fraught endeavor at best. Also, good luck keeping the Hawkins Operations remotely secret. At that scale, there are thousands of people that likely know enough to be serious whistleblowers. The US military occupying a town at all, let alone for an extended period of time, would be a huge news story and I doubt their cover story would last long.

Someone always seems to think that the chimp isn't going to rip their face off.

That's the sort of thing that's at the heart of any conspiracy theory: You have to assume that hundreds, if not thousands of people can keep a secret. It's ridiculous, but it's also what conspiracy theorists seem to believe. Using it in something like this show doesn't stretch beyond that premise.

I actually think they buried the more intriguing "Exotic Energy" plotline. If the government had the capacity to harness some sort of exotic energy to keep the Upside Down from collapsing, that points to a profound understanding of the nature of reality. Wouldn't a program based on the study and application of transdimensional physics garner far more potential benefits than a psychic-breeding program? But no, this wondrous invention is reduced to a simple a plot device to allow our heroes to destroy the Upside Down.

Unclear that they knew what was actually anchoring the Upside-Down. It was, after all, created via an experimental accident.

 

[Umbran]

However, the previous disasters of the program would seem to indicate that getting cooperation from potent superhumans is a fraught endeavor at best.

The tropes of the period do not include the US military learning much from mistakes.

I actually think they buried the more intriguing "Exotic Energy" plotline.

The term used was exotic matter, not energy.

And that bit matches real-world physics. Einsteinian Relativity does allow for wormholes, but they aren't stable unless you have matter that has properties unseen in the everyday stuff than makes up the ground, you dinner plates, and pet dog. Thus, "exotic".

Wouldn't a program based on the study and application of transdimensional physics garner far more potential benefits than a psychic-breeding program?

Well, the only other dimension they've ever reached is filled with a monster that wants to destroy everything, so... maybe not?

And when that one monster is still an ongoing concern, do you really wanna start opening more portals to other realities? Maybe not.