They Hid So Much In Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2

Contains spoilers through "Stranger Things" Season 5, Episode 7 — "The Bridge"

Ever since "Stranger Things" started its massively successful run on Netflix in 2016, it's kept audiences captivated — and it's also consistently chock-full of references to 1980s culture. Honestly, the show is so jam-packed with cultural references that you might have missed a couple here and there, and if you check out the video above, we're breaking just some of them down here at Looper.

As brothers Will and Jonathan Byers (Noah Schnapp and Charlie Heaton), their mom Joyce (Winona Ryder), siblings Nancy and Mike Wheeler (Natalia Dyer and Finn Wolfhard), and their friends Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) — plus Eleven's father figure Jim Hopper (David Harbour) — prepare to take down Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) once and for all, the show's creators, the Duffer brothers, make sure to reference other pop culture milestones. A perfect example is in the final season's sixth episode, "Escape from Camazotz," where Demogorgons from the Upside Down chase Lucas, an injured Max, Robin, and Robin's girlfriend Vickie Dunne (Amybeth McNulty) through a hospital kitchen. If it looks familiar, it's probably because it's a very obvious homage to the velociraptor scene in "Jurassic Park."

Honestly, some of the references are ... less than obvious. If you're one of the lucky few who saw the stage play "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" in either London or New York City, the final season of the series references it quite a bit, including that mysterious scene with a young Henry Creel (Maksime Blatt) and a man holding a briefcase. Don't worry, though; the play isn't required viewing! So what else should you look out for in "Stranger Things" Season 5 Part 2?

Mike and Nancy Wheeler might be brother and sister, but the show usually splits them up; Mike is usually with Eleven and his guy friends, and Nancy is typically hanging out in the show's big love triangle with Steve and Jonathan. What you might not notice about "Stranger Things" Season 5 Part 2 is that the two finally get to team up, especially now that their younger sister Holly (Nell Fisher, taking over the role from twins Anniston and Tinsley Price) has been captured by Vecna and is being held with 11 other children in his bizarre mind palace. It might be brief, but this Wheeler union is still nice to see. Speaking of Vecna, he reveals something pretty big you might have missed too.

We know that Will and Vecna have always shared a strange connection, but in this batch of episodes, Vecna clears up something pretty significant: those tunnels underneath the fictional and supernaturally plagued town of Hawkins, Indiana were created by Will himself in his sleep. Not only is this terrifying to think about — specifically, a little kid accidentally forming entire structures during his REM cycles — but it does give Will a home-court advantage, so to speak ... which could help him bring down Vecna. Add in the fact that other characters keep specifically saying that Will is a "sorcerer" — a reference to the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, probably the biggest influence on "Stranger Things" as a whole — which could mean something big for the show's conclusion.

As for that conclusion, we'll have to wait until December 31 to see what happens; in the meantime, check out Looper's video and see what references you might have missed.