WTF is going on with Holly?

Let’s back up a second. Like everyone else in the known universe – or at least everyone on the internet – I loved Stranger Things. The whole thing was a delight.

And, like most others, I’m hopeful that the many unanswered questions of Season 1 will be addressed when the show returns next year: What exactly is going on with Will? Is Eleven still alive and in contact with Sheriff Hopper, or is he just putting frozen waffles in the woods for no reason? Was Eleven really the Monster? Will the Byers find a phone that lasts? Was Eggo participating in a profit share?

But the biggest mystery remains just what the deal is with Holly, Mike and Nancy’s little sister. She doesn’t really appear much in Season 1, but when she does it’s riddled with QUESTIONS.

Let’s present the enigmas that surround Holly:

She doesn’t talk

Zoom In

Not once. And this girl is at LEAST three, pushing four, years old based on the length of her hair (or at least that’s what three friends that are preschool teachers tell me).

She displays a bizarre emotional disconnect

When confronted by the monster, she does this:

Zoom In

We’d s*** our pants, and we’re not even in diapers (which Holly may or may not be, as her developmental stage remains a mystery). Holly just stares. Is she capable of emotional reaction, you ask?

On the contrary, she DOES react in the many fight scenes that take place at her family’s dinner table, wisely seeking cover from the wrath of Nancy’s raging hormones.

Zoom In

So we know Holly is capable of fear. So why be scared of her sister and not the monster!?!

She displays curious eating habits

Observe. Holly is capable of quenching her own thirst.

Zoom In

Yet, below we see she her being fed by her mother (the line Mrs. Wheeler says here is actually “Now swallow.”).

Zoom In

Is she capable of drinking and not eating? Or is this indicative of a co-dependent relationship, similar to Munchausen’s-by-proxy, where Mrs. Wheeler is trying to cope with Nancy and Mike’s growing independence by keeping Holly in a regressed state? After all, observe how confused Holly is!

There are so many questions:

*Is Holly actually the monster?

*Did Holly kill Barb?

*Is Holly ACTUALLY Barb but time-displaced?

*Is her father actually Matthew Modine?

*Can she communicate with the Upside Down?

*Will she remain more confident than the man who plays her father?

*Will she ever start talking, and will her first words be “Holly out”?

