‘Stranger Things’ Writers Say Eleven Was Originally Going to ‘Mercy Kill’ Her Mom in Season 2 (2024)

As fans get ready for the much-anticipated final season of “Stranger Things,” the writers of Netflix’s hit sci-fi series are sharing the wild storylines that almost happened in the show’s earlier seasons.

“Crazy sh*t that almost happened #2: In season 2, Eleven was going to mercy kill her mother,” the show’s writers wrote on their verified Twitter account. In the second season of the series, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), decides to hunt down her birth mother, Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins). She eventually finds Terry in a catatonic state and is able to access her memories, discovering that Terry was a test subject in Dr. Brenner’s lab experiments.

Previously, the “Stranger Things” writers shared that a possessed Will Byers was initially supposed to kill Bob. “Crazy sh*t that almost happened #1: In season 2, a possessed Will was going to kill Bob,” they tweeted on Oct. 5.

Played by Sean Astin, Bob was a fan-favorite character who appeared in Season 2 of “Stranger Things,” dating Will’s (Noah Schnapp) mom, Joyce (Winona Ryder). At the end of the season, when they all got trapped in a laboratory, Bob used his computer skills to help Will and Joyce escape, but in the process he was killed by a Demogorgon.

After being pulled into the Upside Down, Will becomes possessed by the Mind Flayer in Season 2. According to the show’s writers, things could have gotten even darker with a tormented Will murdering his own father-figure.

Thankfully, after his friends and family realize that Will is being controlled by the Mind Flayer, they sedate him so that the monster can’t track them down. They then set on a mission to defeat the Mind Flayer and close the gate between the Upside Down and the real world without killing Will. Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Joyce light fires and turn on the heater in the room that Will is stationed in, which in turn forces the monster (which prefers cooler temperatures) to fight against the heat. Eventually, Nancy heats up a poker in the fireplace and stabs Will with it and the Mind Flayer leaves his body in a tornado of dark smoke.

The writers’ room announced it has started working on the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” at the beginning of August. Season 4 of “Stranger Things,” which premiered in two batches, released in May and July, became Netflix’smost streamed English-language season of television, and the second most streamed after Korean-language phenomenon “Squid Game.” In addition, the season also picked up 13 nominations at this year’s Emmy awards, winning five.