ST: The Black Widow Theory
Disclaimer: I have pretty bad arachnophobia (just writing this is making me paranoid and I feel like things are crawling all over me) - I can't even stand to look at pictures of spiders - so I've had to rely on my friend researching for me.
I was really interested in why the creators decided to use black widow spiders in S4 because the classic use of black widow references in media doesn't exactly fit Stranger Things. They could have used a different kind of spider, or just spiders in general.
We know that Henry was obsessed with them, and later used his powers to morph the shadow monster into the shape of a spider. So what's the significance of black widows?
I think the big bad in S5 will not be Vecna or the Mind Flayer, which I think most people agree on. I think there is a creature hiding in the library's basement, and the vines and the hivemind operate as the creature's web.
The obvious - vibrations. Will gets a tingling in his neck (his lil spidey-sense) whenever the threat of the Mind Flayer is close. But also, I think the vines represent the threads of the web. If you touch the vines, then it sends signals to the center - and I'm pretty sure someone in the show said in S4 that if you touch the vines, Vecna knows where you are - and I'm pretty sure it was Steve?? - but I couldn't find that exact moment. This isn't exactly a black widow specific thing though - just a spider thing.
IMO I think parts of the Upside Down's vine system, especially at the library, look like webbing.
It looks like the webs have been there a while, especially in the library, and looks like a place where a spider would rest and/or lay their eggs - IMO.
I have my own theory that the library is the center of the hivemind, which I will be posting very soon. So, it would make sense that the creature stays hidden there - resting or hibernating at home like it hasn't "really woken up yet".
Unrelated side note: something I despised is that after volume 2 was that my tik tok feed suddenly had a lot of spider related content and I was SO UNHAPPY I contemplated deleting the app.
[picture below] I would definitely say the vine system is irregular, tangled, and it looks pretty sticky.
Black widows, as stated above, live in a nest near the ground, in "dark, undisturbed areas". Like under a desk, furniture, or…………. a basement.
When Henry found the nest of black widows - he found them under the floorboards in his house. A nice, dark, undisturbed area. [insert the creepy cgi'd spiders that crawl onto henry's hand after he stuck his hand in the nest].
I think there is probably a basement or something equivalent in the library where this big creature resides. It's dark, it's in the ground, and it's completely undisturbed. Maybe it's even boarded off in the real world - so definitely undisturbed. I can imagine the gang investigating it in S5 and it's just DUSTY as heck.
What I found most interesting if you can't tell by the red highlight, is that black widows hang upside down near the center of its web until something wanders in and gets stuck in the web.
Hangs upside down = literal reference to the Upside Down. Near the center = the library is the hive centre [my theory is here].
There is also constant use of the Wheeler's basement throughout the seasons to constantly have us thinking of basements.
TL;DR - The big bad monster for season 5 is hiding in the library basement in the Upside Down like a black widow spider would do in its nest.
ALSO…..! Something bad is going to happen to Will and Mike at the library is season 5 - please check my evidence here and again here in my hivemind theory.
Is this... library gate?
