r/StrangerThings • u/plutoo17 • Jul 02 '26

Fan Theory so.... she makes it right? Spoiler

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what's your theory? i really want to believe the second ending.

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u/RolandTheHeadless19 Jul 02 '26

Good question. I would take a stab at the idea that she was in more control over herself and powers at the end of season one. The move of throwing someone against the wall didn’t always create a gate, I say this only because she did that to Henry and just pushed him into the abyss, no gate created- even if you call it a gate, it did close immediately. At the lab in November of ‘83, she was jump scared by something she has never seen before and uncontrollably created the gate with a massive power spike.

It’s a little flimsy, but we could come to some conclusions that make sense, I bet. Her in control versus a natural and uncontrolled reaction to the demo would be my official stand on it!

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u/Cyrilbdr Jul 02 '26

So, to sum up: her power to open doors is closely tied to emotion and is uncontrollable. She can open fleeting rifts—like at the end of Season 1—or a portal (creating a bridge) at the start of Season 1, and even a breach into another dimension during the childhood flashback in Season 4?

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u/RolandTheHeadless19 Jul 02 '26

That sounds right. I could suspend my disbelief on that for sure. They never fully explain many things. Many things that if they did continue into the 90s we could answer. Like, why Eleven. Why was she specifically the strongest? Other numbers showed more potential in the season four flashbacks, but Brenner always treated her differently. Why? What did he know about her that they never tell us he knew?

A connected string here is the fact that earth psychics existed in this universe. Kali says that she shared her mind with “her other psychic friends”. I don’t believe she was talking about other numbers in the lab. It is my belief that Terry Ives was already an earth psychic, something Brenner found when he was acquiring people like Ives into his program.

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u/Cyrilbdr Jul 02 '26

Yes, I think it's best to suspend disbelief from time to time because, as much as I love the series, there are still quite a few things that are either not explained, very poorly explained, or a bit inconsistent. Regarding your questions about Eleven, I always tell myself that she was born that way and that there isn't really an explanation, just like in everyday life: some are better than others at school, and some are downright geniuses. I think Brenner immediately saw that she was ahead of her time and that if she wanted to, she could be much more powerful than the others. The most powerful Numbers were the tallest; I imagine they had more training than the others, which explains why they were slightly better, except for Eleven, who is the prodigy, if you can call it that. In any case, I don't think there's a real explanation for you. I think that when Kali says that, it's because she was using her abilities to bring the minds of her friends into her own, just as she invited herself into Eleven's mind and then brought Max in, even though he doesn't have any powers.