Will Byers, portrayed by Noah Schnapp, has been an integral part of the “Stranger Things” universe since its inception. His mysterious vanishing into the Upside Down in the debut season set the stage for the entire series. This sparked a desperate search by his mother, Joyce Byers (played by Winona Ryder), alongside his close friends Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo). As the series gears up for its fifth and final season, a major revelation about Will has come to light: he possesses special powers akin to those of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), potentially pivotal in the battle against the show’s main antagonist, Vecna, also known as “One” and Henry Creel, played by Jamie Campbell Bower.

Season 5 of “Stranger Things” centers around the efforts of Will, Eleven, Dustin, Lucas, and their allies, including Eleven’s adoptive father, Jim Hopper (David Harbour), Mike’s sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Will’s brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and the ever-reliable Steve Harrington (Joe Keery). Together, they confront the looming threat over Hawkins, Indiana. The town, believed by many to be hit by an earthquake at the end of Season 4, is actually being torn apart by Vecna’s powers as he seeks to merge the Upside Down with the real world. Will’s newfound abilities seem fitting, given his deep connection to Vecna and the Upside Down, second only to Eleven, who has wielded her powers since the beginning.

The premiere of Season 5, titled “The Crawl,” opens with a flashback to November 12, 1982, a significant date as it marks Will’s initial foray into the Upside Down during Season 1. In this chilling scene, a younger Will is pursued by Vecna within the eerie realm. Once captured, Vecna ensnares Will with his tentacles, initiating a process that appears to fuse their beings, complete with unsettling imagery of black goo. As Vecna ominously declares, “You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William!” the timeline shifts to November 3, 1987, heralding the true start of Season 5.

In the beginning of the premiere of “Stranger Things” Season 5 — titled “The Crawl” — we flash back to November 12, 1982, which fans of the series might recall is when Will was in the Upside Down back in Season 1 — and watch as a younger Will is chased through the dark and sinister realm by Vecna himself. After Vecna finally gets ahold of Will, he binds the boy with his freaky tentacles and starts doing something that certainly seems like some sort of merging between the two beings (it involves a lot of black goo and Will’s mouth, and it’s honestly very gross). “You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William!” Vecna exclaims before we return to November 3, 1987, which is when “Stranger Things” Season 5 properly begins.

This scene is obviously important because it’s something that ostensibly happened during Will’s initial time in the Upside Down that we’ve never seen before, but it’s also a pretty significant clue that Will is the key to bringing Vecna down once and for all. Eleven is obviously very strong — and seems quite a bit stronger throughout the first four episodes of Season 5, based on the fact that she can now fly, hover, and even snap necks — but she’s the only one with powers, and humans like Dustin, Lucas, Mike, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve can’t possibly hope to defeat Vecna without more supernatural firepower on their side. 

Will began “Stranger Things” with a connection to Vecna, and at this point, it seems like he might be the one to defeat this Big Bad. The show itself confirms this during the final episode of the first drop of “Stranger Things” season 5. By the end of that episode, “Sorcerer” — named for an idea that Mike has about Will potentially being able to overpower or even control monsters sent by Vecna — we definitively learn that Will can see through the eyes of the creatures known as Demogorgons and even stop them in their tracks.

How? Well, as Demogorgons invade Hawkins and try to attack Will’s friends after they escape from a military access control zone, something unbelievably shocking happens, even by “Stranger Things” standards. Vecna appears to Will after Demogorgons drag a group of captive kids into the Upside Down and speaks to him once again, telling him that when he, Vecna, originally took Will into this realm, it helped him realize the full extent of his powers. Apparently, this awakens something big within Will as well. Inspired by his love for his friends, Will accesses his inner strength and finds himself able to control all of the Demogorgons trying to kill his friends, and even though they’re scattered throughout Hawkins, he kills those same Demogorgons. Then, just to confirm everything, Will gets a nosebleed, the physical symptom that always accompanies Eleven’s powers.

We’ll have to wait until Christmas and New Year’s Eve to watch the next two drops of “Stranger Things” Season 5 and see how the show concludes; the first four episodes of the final season are on Netflix now.