A subtle yet intricate detail from the highly-anticipated fifth and final season of the Netflix series "Stranger Things" has left fans reeling. Eagled-eyed viewers have noticed that a flashback scene in volume one of the series does not quite mesh with an earlier account of the same memory from season one.
In the season five retrospective, Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp) and his older brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) construct a fort in the woods named Castle Byers, a pivotal location in the debut season. However, the flashback depicts the brothers building the fort in the sunshine during the day, which is markedly different from Jonathan's recollection of the events as told in season one.
"Do you remember the day Dad left? We stayed up all night, building Castle Byers, just the way you drew it," Jonathan recalls to Will in the 2016 episode. "And it took so long, because you were so bad at hammering. You'd miss the nail every time."
He continues, "And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We were both sick for like a week after that. But we just had to finish it, didn't we? We just had to."
One fan on X (formerly Twitter) noted how the brothers' cheerful demeanor in the season five flashback clashed with Jonathan's previous account. "It also makes no sense for them to act so normal," the fan wrote, "when it’s literally the day their father left the house."
This is not the first mistake viewers have noticed in the Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer series. As another pointed out on X, "They literally forgot Will's birthday last season; fans had to remind them." Even the "Stranger Things" writers have acknowledged the gaffe. "Some friends forget to play dnd and some forget birthdays," the writers' room's official X account shared in 2020. "It happens."
While superfans may be able to spot these minor inconsistencies in the show, there are many behind-the-scenes details that viewers might not know.
