What Do Those Mysterious 'Stranger Things' Season 2 Trailer Clues Mean?

Just when when we call back we were out , they pull us back in . Today , the shadowy government physical body at Netflixofficially announced a second seasonofStranger thing , the streaming company’ssummer achiever storyandBarb - related viral depicted object mill . In addition to a creepy flushed computer graphic , the announcement also came with something even more exciting : potential episode titles !

It ’s wild speculation time . While it ’s likely that the 2d time of year of the show will continue to mine thereal - life conspiracy theoriesandfictional reference pointsthat rooter love , these titles also let on where the Duffer comrade ' minds are headed as they develop Season 2 . Let ’s take a closer look at each one and see if there are any dark enigma to uncover .

Episode 1: “MadMax”

For a show that traffics in unapologetic eighties nostalgia , naming the first episode of your second time of year " MadMax " feels a bit like the tv set - creator equivalent of Babe Ruth calling his shot with a baseball chiropteran . ( Was " Steven Spielberg Rulez ! " already take ? ) Anyway , the originalMad Maxcame out in 1979 , its first sequelThe Road Warriorarrived in 1981 , and the underratedMad Max Beyond Thunderdomerode into theaters in the summer of 1985 . What does that mean for the show ?

The second season will take position in the fall of 1984 , a full year after the event of the first season , so it ’s unlikely our favored mystery - solving adolescent will be attending a showing of one of George Miller ’s masterpieces . Could this be a reference to Eleven ’s Imperator Furiosa - inspired haircut ? Or to Chief Jim Hopper , also a fuzz like Mel Gibson ’s title character , easy going mad ? Or maybe the Upside Down has its own edition of Thunderdome ? So many theory .

Episode 3: “The Pumpkin Patch”

While Season 1 took blank space before Thanksgiving and cease with a coda set properly around Christmastime , this title suggests that next time of year should harness an even creepier holiday : Halloween . Who goes to a Cucurbita pepo patch up any other clock time of the yr ? That would go along with the announcement that the season will take place in the gloaming of 1984 , which would make it the pure time for the show to riffle on a whole newfangled solidifying of Midwestern image – haunted hayrides , skittish b , give up farms – that went undiscovered in the first season .

Another possibility : director John Carpenter beget a serial of yell - outs in Season 1 ofStranger thing , from the creepy synth score to the poster forThe Thinghanging in the basement , but the director ’s most celebrated picture , Halloween , was n’t as explicitly referenced ( unless Nancy ’s name is an allusion toHalloweenactress Nancy Loomis ) . What I ’m really hoping for is that we finally find out Matthew Modine ’s Dr. Martin Brenner character and his whole Hawkins Laboratory crew are part of aSilver lesser yellow trefoil - similar plaything conspiracysimilar to the plot ofHalloween III : time of year of the Witch . If you ’re going to steal from ' 80 shit , slip from some less notable classics too ! ( Plus , you know , Charlie Brown . )

Episode 4: “The Palace”

It ’s potential this rubric refers to some sort of palace realm within the world of the Upside Down . What if the Demogorgon , whichcould be the flip side to Eleven , has some sort of passe-partout ? And that master lives in a really shuddery castle ? The word " palace " also link up back to Dungeons and Dragons , which published an adventure mental faculty calledPalace of the Silver Princessback in 1981 . If you ’ve got an hour to spare , take a looking at that PDF , and peradventure you ’ll expose some clew to what time of year 2 might have in storehouse .

An alternative possibility : Stranger ThingsSeason 2 will be likeThe Leftoversand change locations during Season 2 , but rather of taking the show to Texas , our favorite inner circle of enigma - work preteenswill travel to England , where they discover that the Queen of England herself is the Demogorgon after spend fourth dimension in her royal abode . Also , Dustin gets cast in the West End product ofLes Miz , which , queer enough , had its premiere in 1985 . Coincidence ? I opine not .

Episode 5: “The Storm”

Inthe Holy Scripture of Stephen King , violent storm play an important role in keeping eccentric trapped in terrifying situation . Of naturally , there ’s the monolithic snowstorm that hits Colorado ’s Overlook Hotel inThe shine , the lightning attack inThe Dead Zone , and the snow that keeps Paul Sheldon waylaid inMisery , but King also write a miniseries for ABC in 1999 calledThe Storm of the Century . judge from Season 1 ’s King obsession , I ’d suspect a similar instinctive disaster to hit Hawkins in Season 2 . ( Or it could just bean X - Men matter . )

Episode 6: “The Pollywog”

One of the most evocative title of Season 1 was " The Flea and the Acrobat , " in which the boys learned about interdimensional travel from their science teacher , Mr. Clarke . pollywog refer to the larval stage for frogs and toad frog , so it ’s possible that this episode will also contain some sort of scientific object lesson , potentially about the slug creature that Will coughed up at the remainder of the episode . Really , the possibility are endless : the polliwog could have-to doe with to the Demogorgon , Eleven , or any of the boy themselves .

There ’s also a military intension to the term " tadpole " that could end up being important . In the US Navy and many naval organisation , " pollywog " is used as a term to name any sailor who has yet to pass the Equator . After a " foil the line " observance , the leghorn are refer to as shellbacks . An clause on theNavy ’s websitesays that the observance would include " a series of installation religious rite involve harrowing and often embarrassing tasks , gags , obstacles , physical severity , and generally soundly - humored mischief . "

Presumably , in the existence of the show , anyone who has not go into the Upside Down – persona like Steve or Karen Wheeler – would be pollywogs until they too cross the line into the other dimension .

Netflix Stranger Things Season Two

Curtis Baker/Netflix

Episode 7: “The Secret Cabin”

Again , like " The Pumpkin Patch , " this title is clearly play on some classic horror - movie tropes . Movies likeEvil Dead(which also gota poster shout - out in Season 1),Cabin Fever , andCabin in the Woodshave all used secluded menage in the woods to terrorise witness . Here are the crowing interrogation : is the cabin in Hawkins or in the Upside Down ? And who is living there ? Why is it secret ? Does it have central heating ?

Episode 8: “The Brain”

Maybe this sequence will take us into the mind of Dr. Martin Brenner ? later on seasons of mythology - fat shows incline to take us further into the ( often tragic ) backstories of ostensibly villainous characters like Matthew Modine ’s silver - haired bureaucrat . Think of howThe X - Filesslowly reveal the closed book that made the Cigarette Smoking Man check mark , or howLosteventually test the motif behind twine figures like Ben Linus . With his unexplained connection to Eleven and her female parent , Brenner is the perfect prospect for a deep - dive flashback episode , and this could be that . gravely , how did his hair get so white ?

Episode 9: “The Lost Brother”

This is the most remindful title in the whole clutch . It seems unlikely that the Duffer brothers will once again put us through another time of year of the boys searching for their ally Will , so who will be the Modern " lost " crony this season ? There ’s the possibleness that " lost " could mean miss , or it could signify – brace yourself , Barb fans –dead . What if the finale of time of year 2 delivers a big character decease ?

While Mike , precocious brother to Nancy Wheeler , is of course a opening , I mean the smart money has to be on Jonathan Byers , the misfit brother to Will and Nancy ’s other wild-eyed suitor . I do n’t remember the Duffer brothers will kill off one of the younger characters on the show – the series will need to keep its Amblin - like tone of sinlessness – but I think some of the old fictitious character could be on the chop up stop for Season 2 , and Jonathan seems the most probable to give himself to either save Nancy , his brother , or even Eleven , if she ever returns from her Eggo - filled sabbatical in the Upside Down .

Either way , there ’s going to be some scandalous maturation for Winona Ryder ’s Joyce Byers to unravel . Get out your Christmas lights .