Stranger Things S4 Left Fans With More Questions About The Upside-Down's Rules

After Will's (Noah Schnapp) traumatic experience in the Upside-Down, it seems unlikely anyone would purchase their summer home there. But as demonstrated in Season 4, time in the Upside-Down is even stranger than we think. The desolate wasteland is not just a mirror image of our universe but frozen at the exact moment that Eleven ripped open the portal for the first time. And just as nothing can change in the alternate universe, neither can Redditors' penchant for asking questions. 

"[M]ultiple objects that are added to the real world as the seasons progress are also reflected in the upside down as the seasons progress, which would have led us to believe that The Upside Down had a parallel timeline with the normal Hawkins," u/Unplugged_Millennial posted. Noting a substantial plot hole, they went on to write: "[T]he Christmas lights that Joyce sets up in her home to communicate with Will during season 1 would not exist in the November 6, 1983 version of The Upside Down for Will to communicate back to Joyce."

Luckily for the original poster, a helpful fan of the series came to the rescue. U/SqueakyTuna52 explained: "It would seem as though matter doesn't change and can't be directly transmitted between dimensions (without the help of a portal) but waves (whether light or sound) can. This is why they can talk to each other and see light." As useful as this information was, other questions were not so easy to explain.