Spoilers for Season 5 of Stranger Things are ahead! If you have not watched the final episodes yet, you can do so with a Netflix subscription.
We might be moving forward with the 2026 Netflix schedule, but many of us are still thinking about the final days of 2025 and the last episodes of Stranger Things. The ending left some wondering about Eleven and thinking about the fates of characters like Max and Dustin. However, there are also details from earlier episodes that are top of mind, too. For example, our viral clip of Jamie Campbell Bower saying fans missed something about Mr. Whatsit got fans theorizing in the comments.
What Jamie Campbell Bower Said About Fans Missing A Mr. Whatsit Detail
Ahead of the Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 release, CinemaBlend’s Sarah El-Mahmoud interviewed Jamie Campbell Bower, and she asked if there was anything specific about Mr. Whatsit’s costumes that fans should look out for. While he didn’t give a clear answer, the actor did note that there’s a detail he and director Frank Darabont (who helmed “The Turnbow Trap” in Volume 1) spoke about that fans hadn’t picked up on yet:
But is there anything specifically? There is one thing that was seen in Volume 1, actually, that nobody's picked up on yet. And I wonder – and it was a conversation, quite a deep conversation that myself and Frank Darabont got to have about yeah, a particular thing. It's not something that story-wise gets explored a ton. But it was definitely one of those things that we were like, ‘Ooh, wouldn't it be cool if and why?’ So yeah. There you go.
This comment came after Campbell Bower told us that there are few significant details, like his red tie. However, it was his statement about what we missed that got fans talking in the comments.
The Theories Fans Came Up With About Mr. Whatsit
Notably, when Holly gets to Mr. Whatsit’s world, she finds a Tiffany cassette tape and a boombox. That’s a detail about Vecna’s choices in this dimension that a lot of fans chose to focus on in our comments. For example, maryashton7 wrote:
Giving Holly the cassette player and cassette with her favorite song! Henry actually wants her to have a way to escape but doesn’t want the mind flayer to realize what he’s doing.
Of course, we’ve seen the end of Stranger Things, and while there was a moment of empathy for Henry and a minute where I thought he might help Will and co., that ultimately did not happen. However, the motivation behind the cassette tape and the boombox was never really discussed, and I can see what people were theorizing things like:
- Probably talking about mr whatsit giving holly the boombox and her favorite song -lncidensen
- Henry gave Holly a boom box and a tape of her favorite song. my theory: he gave it to her so she could find her way out like Max with the Kate Bush song. -jax
- Henry gave Holly his favourite song... what if Henry is trying to escape too. Honestly I think the Upside Down was a psychic prison Kali created after realizing how dangerous Henry was. Vecna isn’t the original villain, he’s just what Henry became inside her illusion. He’s not trying to destroy the world, he’s trying to escape it, and that’s why he needs Eleven. And Will being spared makes total sense too… he’s Vecna’s anchor, the one thing tying him to the real world, so killing him would mean losing his only way out. -siompao
Again, we now know that Kali was not bad and that Vecna and the Mind Flayer were indeed the ones doing all of this. However, I do have to wonder if the detail regarding the boombox and why Mr. Whatsit gave it to Holly is the thing Campbell Bower was referring to during our interview, especially since it did happen during the episode that Frank Darabont directed in Volume 1.
Although there are other theories I liked too. For example, in Episode 6, Holly realizes that the "M" shape of the cave and the cutout in her spyglass cap are the same. That ultimately leads her and Max to a tunnel that shows them the memory of Henry killing a man with a briefcase and the entrance to their exit from Camazotz. One fan realized this before Volume 2 came out (and long before Holly and me). Dreja also noted that Mr. Whatsit’s hat was the same shape, too, writing:
OMG THE TOP OF HIS HAT LOOKS LIKE THE SHAPE OF THE CAVE AND THE CAP OF THE TELESCOPE
Well, that just blew my mind, and lowkey, convinced me that this might be what Jamie Campbell Bower was referring to. However, there were other entertaining theories in the comments. For example, while it wasn’t directly related to Mr. Whatsit’s current outfit, one fan pointed out that Holly’s ensemble featured the red Boy Scouts tie that Henry wears in his memory where he killed the man with the briefcase. Yxen wrote:
Could be how Holly puts on Henry’s Boy Scout tie before heading into the woods.
I also think it's worth noting that Mr. Whatsit's outfit has the same color scheme as young Henry's Boy Scouts uniform, too.
Overall, these fans had some fascinating theories, and while we don’t know the answer (even after the show ended), these are all worth pondering.
Now that Stranger Things is over, I’ll be curious to see how the speculation about details like Mr. Whatsit’s clothes and choices continues. There sure is a lot to unpack, and I love that fans are doing just that on social media as they ask questions and share their adoration for this Netflix megahit.
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