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The following story contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 5, part 1.
IN MANY WAYS, the events of Stranger Things began with Will Byers, and it’s starting to look like they’re going to end with him as well. We got our very first look at the supernatural oddities of Hawkins, Indiana when Will disappeared at the beginning of the first season, lost to what we would later learn were the deep excesses of the Upside Down. And while Will’s connection to that terrifying place was made clear at the end of the first season (when he coughed up a slug/baby Demogorgon into his bathroom sink) and throughout the second (when his connection to the Mind Flayer and the monsters of the Upside Down became very apparent), he also seemed to fade a little bit from the primary focus and narrative of the show throughout the course of seasons 3 and 4.
That clearly changes right from the jump in season 5, which opens with a prolonged flashback that depicts exactly what happened between Will and Vecna when he was first taken. A frightening first encounter between a young Will and Vecna—a relationship that will ultimately prove very important, we now assume—resulted in Vecna basically pumping Will through his mouth with something from his world. Who knows what this really was, but it’s become clear that at the very least this was connecting him to Vecna’s hive mind, a hive mind which also includes the Mind Flayer and all the different Demogorgons.
As Stranger Things marches through that final fifth season, the show reiterates this connection, with Will’s goosebumps on the back of his neck being often used as a tool for the party to know when Vecna (or any of his minions/underlings) are near. But this hits a real peak when Will, after receiving a touching, vital pep talk from Robin, is able to really tap into something new at the end of season 5, episode 4, “Sorcerer.”
When Vecna makes his grand return through the Upside Down portal (looking scary, strong, and svelte after his season 4 encounter with our heroes), he’s wreaking havoc on everyone and everything—and that’s when Will has a major ‘Come to Jesus’ moment and figures out what he’s really capable of. Not only does his ‘Hive Mind’ capability allow him to sense when one of Vecna’s Upside Down army is near, but it allows him to quite literally control any of the same creatures that Vecna controls. In realizing who he really is, and feeling comfortable in his skin and knowing how important his friends (particularly Mike) are to him, Will is able to become his full, powerful self for the first time.Through this newfound ability, he is able to stop multiple Demogorgons, and save his friends.
What’s going on here? Well, it certainly seems clear that Will now has powers. But are they the same powers as Eleven? The same as Vecna? Entirely different? There are lots of questions to answer, and while Stranger Things will likely answer even more when it returns for season 5, part 2, there are many we can conclusively answer right now.
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Does Will have powers in Stranger Things season 5?
The end of Stranger Things season 5, episode 4 makes it abundantly clear that Will Byers, through his experience with Vecna and the Upside Down and after Robin’s speech about self-discovery and fulfillment, can now use some very impressive powers—and did so to save his friends and family.
“He taps into the hive mind, and then he can manipulate anything within the hive,” Stranger Things co-creator Matt Duffer told Variety in an interview. His brother, Ross, clarified that Will’s powers come through channeling/puppeteering Vecna’s powers, and that they’re similar but not identical to Eleven’s.
The duo also clarified that these were not powers that were always buried within Will—he only had these abilities because he was kidnapped by Vecna and taken to the Upside Down. He got it because he got hooked into the hive mind, and if that hadn’t happened, Matt said, Will’s abilities “never would’ve happened.”
“He got it because he got hooked into the hive mind,” Matt added.
The brothers elaborated that while they’ve been slow-playing it, the plans were always for Will to have these powers and abilities. Ross went a bit deeper in the Variety piece:
Throughout the seasons, he’s been a little more fearful than the others. He hasn’t been a leader. He hasn’t accepted himself in the way that some of our characters have. So I think it was really talking about if he really is able to at least start to accept himself for who he is, will that give him the kind of strength that he needs in order to access these powers? That’s really where Episode 4—and really the arc of the first four episodes—led for him.
With Will’s powers now on the board (to put things in D+D or board game terms), things really change as we get into the final four chapters of Stranger Things. Mainly, as the party gets ready to take on Vecna in what will probably be an ultimate epic battle, they don’t just have to rely on Eleven’s powers to match the chief villain—Will can now contribute too. It’s hard to imagine he’s going to have much control of his powers, given that we’ve seen Eleven honing in on her training for five full seasons in order to get where she is now… but any powers are better than nothing. And given that Will just saved everyone, it’s certainly going to come in handy.
Plus, hey, we saw how resourceful the party could be in trapping the Demogorgon in the Turnbow house in season 5, episode 3—that was a mighty impressive trap. Smart strategizing plus a newly powered friend? Vecna might start trembling soon. We’ll see soon enough, when Stranger Things returns for the second and third parts of its final season.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
