- - “Stranger Things” Fans Spot a Crazy Easter Egg for Final Season the Duffer Brothers Placed Way Back in Season 1

Angel SaundersJanuary 2, 2026 at 7:33 AM

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Finn Wolfhard in season 5 of Stranger Things -

Stranger Things fans spotted Easter eggs from earlier in the series as the hit show came to an end

The Netflix series premiered in July 2016, and aired its final episode on Dec. 31, 2025

The show's creators also included elements to honor past characters in the final episode

Eagle-eyed Stranger Things fans have spotted an Easter egg from season 1 that paid off in the show's series finale.

As the fifth and final installment of the hit Netflix show debuted on the streamer on Wednesday, Dec. 31, fans across the globe credited Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer for the way the co-creators honored the show's roots as it came to an end.

And one clever fan noted an image seen in season 1 that looks strikingly like the hive in the finale's Abyss.

Netflix (2)

Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in 'Stranger Things'

“So you are telling me we already saw this in s1?” they wrote in a YouTube Short after the finale aired.

Their video included a mashup showing Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) looking at the massive creature in The Abyss from season 5, volume 2, and flashes to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) in Mike's basement looking at something beneath a Dark Crystal movie poster in season 1, episode 2.

The Abyss is nearly identical to the drawing in the Dark Crystal poster.

Universal Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

The Dark Crystal poster from 1982

“That’s a dark crystal poster. I was wondering why that scene in the ‘abyss’ looked familiar!! Which adds to my theory that Mike is writing/telling/ dreaming a story on how things would’ve been after his best friend went missing,” another fan wrote on Facebook under a similar discussion.

The Dark Crystal is a 1982 fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and features animatronic characters created by Henson.

In an interview with Tudum by Netflix, the Duffer brothers opened up about their Easter eggs and other season finale gems.

Ross explained that Dustin’s (Gaten Matarazzo) “rebellious valedictorian speech” also had a special meaning.

“A lot of it was inspired by Eddie [Munson] — even at the end where he rips the diploma and flips off the principal, which is something that Eddie said he wanted to do,” Ross said. “A lot of it is honoring Eddie and what Hellfire had been."

Joseph Quinn’s guitar-playing character Eddie Munson was introduced in the fourth season of the Netflix hit series, but seemingly sacrificed himself to the Upside Down to protect Dustin from the Demobats at the end of that season. That sacrifice meant Eddie never made it to his high school graduation.

When Dustin graduated in season 5, his speech was a nod to Eddie previously saying that when he walked across the stage, he planned to flip off the principal, “snatch that diploma,” and “run like hell.”

Netflix

Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson in 'Stranger Things'

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“Everyone has these assumptions of who Eddie is, all of which are proved to be wrong. The point of Dustin’s speech is that because of everything that happened, it thrust people together who never would have interacted in the first place and enriched their lives because of that," Ross said. "I think many people in this world are unfairly judged just because of the way they look or the way they’re perceived. We like the idea that so many of the characters transcend what you might initially think of them.”

Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix. The Dark Crystal can be streamed on Pluto.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”