Originally published on 11/28/25
Caution: Season 5 Volume 1 spoilers ahead!
Anyone who’s seen Netflix’s Stranger Thingsknows that the show loves a good nostalgic pop culture reference, and Season 5 Volume 1—which was released this week—is no different. In the four new episodes, there are tons of retro callouts, especially in regards to Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 novel, A Wrinkle in Time. Below, we break down what Season 5 called out from the classic young adult fantasy bestseller, including how it could impact Volume 2, which releases next month. Read on for more.
How ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ influences ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5
In Season 5 Volume 1 of Stranger Things, Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) is seen reading and carrying A Wrinkle in Time, but it’s not just the novel that’s important to her storyline; it’s the book’s character, Mrs. Whatsit, specifically.
In the books, Mrs. Whatsit is an ancient being who helps the three main characters on their journey. She can appear in whatever form she pleases, but her main appearance is as a human woman with red hair and blue eyes.
In Stranger Things, there is a Mr. Whatsit, who is a man and believed to be imaginary. The character is first mentioned by Holly after she is seen talking to him at recess. From there, she brings him up several other times, but is also dismissed by the adults on the show, since no one else can see him.
As time goes on, Mr. Whatsit is revealed to be Henry Creel/Vecna/001 (Jamie Campbell Bower), the show’s big villain who eventually kidnaps Holly and hides her in his mind prison, where he claims she will be safe from the monsters—a.k.a The Demogorgons. Mr. Whatsit also tells Holly, while she’s there, that he’s bringing in other kids who have seen him to the prison so they too can be safe from the monsters.
Sadly, viewers don’t ever see that happen because Holly decides to venture into the woods—where Mr. Whatsit told her not to go—and eventually runs into a comatose Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), who reveals that she, too, is stuck in the prison world. Max then becomes a sort of protector to Holly—which is very similar to Mrs. Whatsit in the books—and tells her that Henry is actually the bad guy, and despite trying, there’s no way to escape the prison world unless someone from the outside plays their favorite song.
The storyline ends there and doesn’t offer any insights into how exactly Max and Holly will fight Mr. Whatsit/Henry Creel/Vecna/001 in part two of Season 5; however since everyone else on the show now knows that the imagery friend of all the children of Hawkins, Indiana is actually the villain the finally battle/reveal/escape is most likely going to be explosive.
“I’m really excited for fans to see how it ends. I think it’s a fantastic ending. It’s really satisfying, tied up all the ends. It is perfect,” Nell told Glamour earlier this year. “The really interesting thing about Holly this season is that it’s coming of age. Holly has always been the baby of the family. She’s been the little Wheeler, and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) have been off doing their thing in the Upside Down. Holly has been ignorant of all of that.”
“This season we get to see her be the subject of the story and start to drive the narrative and come into her own,” she continued. “So, for Holly, it is sort of a coming-of-age story, albeit through a crazy series of events, which I thought was really interesting to be able to portray.”
What to expect in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5, Volume Two
Throughout her time in the prison world, Holly does discuss A Wrinkle in Time with Max, which could potentially be crucial to them getting out and defeating Vecna—especially since the Duffer Brothers, who directed, wrote and created the show—have confirmed that Holly is the key to the whole thing.
“A Wrinkle in Time was one of our favorite books growing up. And so as we were talking about Holly’s storyline, just as how our kids in Season 1 and in later seasons, use [Dungeons and Dragons] as a way to help explain and understand these crazy goings-on, for Holly, she doesn’t play D&D, but she needed something else to help explain what is going on in her world, in her storyline,” Ross Duffer said, per Deadline. “As we looked at various books and we looked into it, we went back and reread Wrinkle in Time. We’re like, ‘Well, this is perfect,’ because she can use it to help understand and comprehend all these weird goings on.”
Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 is available to stream right now on Netflix. Volume 2 comes out on Christmas and the finale airs on New Year’s Eve.
Link to original: https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/tv-shows/a-wrinkle-in-time-stranger-things-did-you-catch-the-connection
Carissa Mosness 
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