Stranger Things 5 episode 5 needs to answer this one big question

Stranger Things 5 has finally arrived on Netflix, and fans everywhere are buzzing with excitement. What are your thoughts after watching the first batch of episodes? Did the final season hit the ground running and deliver the explosive start you were hoping for? For us, the answer is a resounding yes. From start to finish, our jaws were on the floor through nearly every scene of the first four episodes.

Now, we're ready for Stranger Things 5 part 2. Yes, there are plenty more episodes to come! Episodes 5 through 7 are set to be released on Netflix on Dec. 25. The fourth episode might have been action-packed and left us reeling with its epic showdown, but it also raised more questions than answers. In fact, there's one burning question that has been stuck in our minds on a near-constant loop since the episode ended.

Spoilers are ahead from Stranger Things 5 part 1.

How does Will have powers now in Stranger Things 5?

This is the big question that we desperately need answered in Stranger Things 5 part 2, specifically the fifth episode. At the end of the fourth episode, rifts begin to open throughout Hawkins again, with multiple Demogorgons bursting through from the Upside Down, attacking and brutally killing the military men at the base. Mike, Will, Joyce, Derek, and several other kids try to escape from the base, but find themselves attacked as well.

Meanwhile, Lucas and the two kids he recovered from the military are stuck in the tunnels because a Demogorgon blocks their exit. Elsewhere, Murray and Robin have a bunch of kids in a van trying to get them to safety, but are also in the crosshairs of a Demogorgon.

After a military man torches a Demogorgon at the base, the other Demogorgons start falling to the ground in pain. Will also collapses to the ground. Why? Well, remember the hive mind? Although Will thought his connection to the hive mind was severed, he found out that it wasn't once he landed in Hawkins after temporarily staying in California. Vecna controls the hive mind, and it links all the creatures and the environment of the Upside Down. So any damage to one part of the network directly affects the rest of it. Since Will is still connected to this network, he feels the same pain that the Demogorgons are experiencing.

Suddenly, a big portal opens at the military base and out walks a much leveled-up Vecna. The remaining military men begin firing at him with their weapons, but he kills them with ease. The Demogorgons rise up and start attacking again. Those who were chasing after Lucas, Murray, and Robin also resume attacking, but we later learn that Vecna has ordered them to grab the kids and bring them to the Upside Down.

With his powers, Vecna makes Will float toward him at the base. He begins explaining the reasoning behind his plan, revealing that the children he's kidnapped are “perfect vessels” because they are weak in body and mind. His plan is to create his own new world, one shaped and controlled according to his vision, using the children as tools to reshape reality. He then lets Will go before walking back through the portal he came through.

Will starts seeing visions of Demogorgons about to attack his friends. But then suddenly his eyes roll back and turn white. He's somehow gained powers similar to Vecna's and is able to control the Demogorgons. He makes the ones attempting to attack Mike, Lucas, and Robin levitate in the sky before snapping their bodies. He then collapses to the ground again, and his eyes return to normal. We're then shown his bleeding nose. Remember, this happens to Eleven when she pushes her powers to the limit. It looks like this is what happened to Will. The fourth episode ends here.

This was a pretty huge cliffhanger for Stranger Things 5 because how exactly did Will suddenly unlock these powers? Where did they come from? There was a scene earlier on in the fourth episode where Mike suggests to Will that maybe he can control the hive mind when he taps into it. He even jokily told Will that he's like Vecna. So, there was obviously some early foreshadowing. But has Will been able to do this all along without realizing it? Was he able to control the Demogorgons through tapping into the hive mind?

Whatever the answer is, Stranger Things 5 part 2 absolutely must explain how Will went from being a victim of the Upside Down to suddenly wielding powers strong enough to control and destroy Demogorgons.

The second batch of episodes of Stranger Things 5 is scheduled arrive on Netflix on Dec. 25.