Stranger Things 4 ‘s emotional “Dear Billy,” the episode where Max escaped Vecna’s clutches, showed where the Upside Down came from. It’s not just a dark realm of monsters that exists on its own. It’s a mirror dimension of our world devoid of hope and warmth because it’s the tangible manifestation of human suffering.
It exists—always has and always will—because human pain exists. That revelation was horrifying yet hopeful, because as I wrote, “ There cannot be light without darkness, nor pain without joy . We would not feel guilt like Max, or experience grief like Nancy, if we did not also feel love.
” And if our negative emotions can physically materialize as the Upside Down, that means our positive emotions can materialize, too. What would that dimension actually look like? Stranger Things 5 might show us in the show’s series finale titled “The Rightside Up.” On its own, the name “The Rightside Up” is enough to conjure up the idea of the Upside Down’s counterpart.
That series finale title implies the show’s sinister mirror realm of darkness has an opposite utopian mirror dimension full of light. It especially seems conceivable, maybe even likely, because season four already raised that possibility. The show’s fourth installment marked the first time any characters even questioned where the Upside Down came from or why it exists.
We got answers as we learned about Henry Creel/Vecna, Max’s own descent into his realm, and how “all evil .
