Netflix delivered a big surprise on Wednesday morning, starting off the annual Stranger Things Day celebration by revealing the episode titles for the hit show’s fifth and final season. Fans have been anxiously awaiting any nuggets of information about Stranger Things 5, which has been shrouded in mystery for the last two years. We still don’t know a lot, but these episode titles pulled back the curtain enough to get fans theorizing once again, especially when it comes to the second episode of the season.
The biggest eyebrow-raiser of the bunch was the title for Episode 2, which was halfway redacted by Netflix in its reveal teaser. The second episode is titled, “The Vanishing of [Redacted],” with the name of a character blurred out. Somebody is going missing, but we’ve got no idea who it is, or what kind of context will surround their disappearance.
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This episode title is obviously a major callback to the Stranger Things series premiere. Released way back in 2016, the very first episode of the show was titled “The Vanishing of Will Byers.” Will’s disappearance set in motion the events of the entire series, and it might be a clue as to what happens in this cryptic Season 5 episode.
When Will disappeared, he vanished without a trace, leading the entire town of Hawkins, Indiana on a hunt to find him. It was later revealed that he’d been transported to the terrifying alternate reality known as the Upside Down.
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Given the exact wording of the callback, it’s safe to assume that the character disappearance will directly mimic that of Will’s back in Season 1. It’s clearly going to be different this time around, seeing as how everyone knows about the Upside Down and what it is capable of. If a character randomly disappears, the Upside Down will be one of the first places anyone will think to look.
Which Stranger Things Character Will Go Missing?
Don’t bother trying to zoom in and decipher the blurred title in the Stranger Things, it wouldn’t be like Netflix to leave actual clues out there in regards to this series. For now, all we’ve got are ideas and theories.
This disappearance could once again be someone in the Byers family, bringing the whole show full circle. It would be interesting to see the shoe on the other foot, with Will trying to find Joyce or Jonathan. Then again, it would make a lot of sense for it to be Will once again. Will has become a much bigger focus over the last couple of seasons, so seeing him lost to the Upside Down again would pack an even bigger emotional punch.
Of the group of young friends at the center of Stranger Things, it would make the most sense for Max to be the one who vanishes at the start of Season 5. If you recall, Season 4 ended with Max still unconscious from her bout with Vecna in the Upside Down. We don’t know if she’ll still be out when the start of Season 5 rolls around, but it’s safe to say Max is currently the most vulnerable member of the group, just as Will was in Season 1. She also has a real connection to the Upside Down, creating a genuine, in-story reason for her to be taken back there once more.
If the character’s name in the title is blurred to hide the biggest surprise for fans, we have to consider that it might be Steve Harrington who vanishes in Season 5. There’s not exactly a big story reason for it, but Steve is easily one of the most beloved characters in Stranger Things, and revealing that he’s in danger would have viewers on pins and needles waiting for the episode to drop.
The last, and arguably most likely scenario here is that the name in the episode title is someone from the past. Season 4 finally dug into the tragic history of Vecna, the Creel family, and Hawkins’ connection to the Upside Down. There are more questions to be answered and Season 5 could do that through more flashbacks. Perhaps we’ll see what happens to one of the very first people to venture into the Upside Down.
There are a lot of possibilities out there. Unfortunately, it’ll be 2025 before we get the real answer from Stranger Things.