Before Eleven and co. walk into Max's hospital room, Lucas is reading Stephen King and Peter Straub's 1984 book "The Talisman," a dark fantasy novel about a boy who uses the titular item in an attempt to save his mother from cancer. Admittedly, any book could've been picked off the shelf, but this one takes place in a world of alternate dimensions inhabited by parallel individuals, or "twinners," to those living in ours. These twinners can possess their other selves (think Wanda in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness") and jump between worlds, but should one of them die, their doppelgänger becomes "single-natured." This allows them to jump between realities without needing a duplicate to inhabit.
With this page-turner in mind, could this hint at what's in store next season? Could Vecna still be alive even after being seemingly shot and burned to death, and if so, where is he? Might he still have what remains of Max, as Brennan suggested? Could Max be lost in another reality herself beyond the Upside Down? If so, a rematch for all of Max's marbles and the fate of the world could be in the cards for the final season of "Stranger Things." Our only hope is that it can top the most metal moment in history that was Eddie's rooftop guitar solo. Better get practicing, Eleven.
