It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a message from the Upside Down. So long, in fact, that we were beginning to wonder whether our Christmas lights might be broken. But today, Netflix dropped another teaser for the upcoming fourth season of sci-fi sensation Stranger Things, and we’re hard at work trying to decode every image from the cryptic clip.
The teaser shows a bunch of kids in hospital gowns—reminiscent of the one Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) wore in Season 1’s flashbacks—playing in a familiar fluorescent-lit facility. A clock ticks as sinister music plays, and we see someone who appears to be Matthew Modine’s mad scientist Martin Brenner enter from behind, bidding the kiddies a good morning and promising something “very special” that he’s planned for them.
The camera then pans to a door with the number 11 on it, and we hear what we can assume is Brown’s character panting as the soundtrack builds in intensity. Then the screen cuts to black and we hear Modine: “Eleven? Are you listening?” The final image is of Brown’s eyes flying open, her face lit by the same sickly green fluorescent light as the other children.
So, what can we make of all this? Well, it’s safe to assume that the new season will further explore Eleven’s backstory. In the show’s second season, we learned that she wasn’t the only psychically gifted kid in Brenner’s “care.” It’s possible we’ll find out what happened to Eleven’s fellow super-tots in flashbacks—which is what this teaser appears to be. Or we could meet some in the present—or, you know, the 80s, the retro dayglo era in which the show takes place. It wouldn’t be the first time. In Season 2, Eleven traveled to Chicago where she met Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), aka Eight, a tween with power to project images into people’s minds. Who knows how many more of these brats might be out there? Or what kind of creepy crawly monsters might be after them!
