(Credits: Netflix)

Hawkins teaches kids to toughen up, but Stranger Things season five on Netflix dialled up the stakes for the youngest Wheeler sibling, Holly, in ways one cannot imagine.

In effect, Holly Wheeler has had her fair share of encounters with the elements of the otherworldly Upside Down. However, this time, the Duffer brothers didn’t hold back.

In the very first episode of the first volume, she greets an enigmatic figure right after setting the breakfast table at the Wheeler house, where Jonathan and Joyce are present as well. She is again spotted conversing with the same invisible “imaginary friend” back in school, where her mother has been summoned to talk to the teacher.

Meanwhile, Mike discovers Holly outside the classroom, reading A Wrinkle in Time, and advises her to be her own hero from “monsters in Hawkins,” something her invisible friend also warns about.

In a conversation with Deadline, Ross Duffer said, speaking of Holly’s character arc in the final season of Stranger Things, “As we broke season five, we realised that Holly playing a larger role, that’s really when the season started to take shape. What we really wanted to do, and what that scene with her and Mike is talking about, is, obviously, our cast is older now, but we wanted to bring back the show full circle to season one.”

To achieve that, they needed to have kids in there, and the best option was through Holly. As you might recall, the Wheeler sibling refers to her imaginary friend as Mr Whatsit, which is borrowed from the same name character from Madeleine L’Engle’s award-winning novel. But when the imaginary friend also appears to some of Holly’s classmates, they call him Mr Whatsit as well, since they have all read the book.

A Wrinkle in Time is no doubt a favourite of the creators. “So, as we were talking about Holly’s storyline, just as how our kids in season one and in later seasons use [Dungeons and Dragons] as a way to explain and understand these crazy goings-on, for Holly, she doesn’t play D&D, but she needed something else to explain what is going on in her world, in her storyline,” Ross Duffer explained.

Subsequently, they turned the pages of many books. However, it was A Wrinkle in Time that caught their eye as it completely fit the bill.

It soon turns out that Mr Whatsit is none other than Vecna, albeit in his human form. The Duffers went all out at unleashing the monsters this time, with a Demogorgon ripping Holly’s bedroom ceiling while attempting to abduct her, like Will was kidnapped in the first season, at the end of the first episode in volume one. “This was the cool thing about it being the final season because [we] could really let the cat out of the bag as far as the entire town is concerned,” Matt Duffer said.

Holly flees the clasp of the monster at first, running to her mother, who, at the time, was drawing a bubble bath. Although she tries to inform her mother about her terrifying encounter, Karen has a hard time believing until she finds stains of blood on her hand after cradling Holly’s head. Karen and Ted both have their short-lived moments of heroism in episode two, when the former breaks the empty wine bottle to jab them into the Demogorgon’s chest, and the latter makes the best use of his golf club.

The Demogorgon still manage to overpower them, taking Holly into the Upside Down where she meets Henry at the Creel mansion, which looks as polished as the day the Creels moved in. He also prepares Holly’s breakfast with her favourite fruit and favourite track to accompany. “This super refined, very nice version of who he is. It’s this very warm, nice, natural way of being that hopefully makes them feel at home. It’s so icky,” says Jamie Campbell Bower.

For the creators, bringing Holly into the main fold of all the horror was one of the biggest takeaways this season. “This youthful energy of her and her group of friends every day on set, just how amazed they were by this whole production – we’ve been doing this for 10 years – and to see it through their eyes again, it really brought us back to that feeling of when we were making season one.”

As the season progresses, more links between the Upside Down and A Wrinkle in Time are established, like that of Camazotz. Lastly, Shawn Levy, who directed ‘Escape from Camazotz’, explained to Deadline the approach, “They’re using these touch points to help explain to the characters and the audience some mythology that might otherwise be a little bit mind-bending. They use it both inspirationally, but also as illustrations that help the audience follow along.”