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Something that i am extremely fascinated about in Stranger Things is the government conspiracy angle of the series, and over the seasons, i felt that the writing started to give us less details about how the government agencies work in this universe. Also, many details of the lore are still unresolved, and i fear some of them might not be resolved in S5, so I decided to make an analysis of everything that involves the government in the show to create my own version of the timeline of the events involving the U.S. government, and gather information to hypothesize events that may have happened offscreen, the occupations of some characters within the government and what agencies are involved with everything that has happened in the show since S1. I hope you guys enjoy the read!
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PROJECT MKULTRA
- In 1953, The MKUltra program was officially sanctioned by the CIA, a multimillion-dollar initiative intended to develop mind control techniques. The experiments would be conducted in many hospitals, prisons and colleges across the U.S. Hawkins National Laboratory was one of many facilities in the U.S. where MKUltra was being conducted - Dr. Martin Brenner was the director of CIA operations at this laboratory.
- MKUltra is a real CIA-sanctioned research that was officially halted in 1973. And it was the basis for a science-based horror in the show's lore. But the Duffers never wanted to really dive into it, as the story they wanted to tell was mainly inspired by the Montauk Project and would focus in children with super powers and other dimensions.
There is a little talk about it in the official behind the scenes companion Worlds Turned Upside Down:

I wouldn't say we had done necessarily a deep dive into it. It was more a surface glance of seeing what they were up to and then using it as an excuse to have science-based horror in our narrative. — Ross Duffer

- The presence of the MKUltra in the lore is what canonically establishes the CIA as the bad men we see in S1 and briefly in S2. The agency is only mentioned once in the show when Hopper and Powell are investigating documents about the HNL/MKUltra, but we can confirm that the CIA was also responsible for funding Brenner's program as in the Worlds Turned Upside Down book we can see government cards with a "Central Intelligence Agency Clandestine Ops" badge in it.
PROJECT INDIGO
- Doctor Brenner's program. It's the main government project of Stranger Things, and although never mentioned in the show, the name of the program was supposed to be "INDIGO" which was also the proposed name of the show as stated by the Duffers in their MasterClass:

So we just came up with a bunch of ideas. We had The Keep, we had INDIGO which was gonna be the name of the government program, and amidst that we had Stranger Things. — Ross Duffer

It's unclear if the Duffers kept the name as it was never mentioned in the show, but the name is mentioned in the Suspicious Minds book, which was supervised by one of the show's writers - Paul Dichter.
Project Indigo is basically the Hawkins equivalent of the Montauk Project. While the MKUltra was the Duffers' basis for a science-based horror in the lore, INDIGO is where the most crazy, cutting-edge developments in science come in. The Duffers had the desire to play with the "sandbox" of elements that the Montauk conspiracy could offer. In the conspiracy, there were talks about children with psychic/psionic powers (which became the Numbers 001 to 018), other dimensions (like the Upside Down, Dimension X and the Hellscape), alien contact, monsters being unleashed (Demogorgon/DX entities) and even time travel, which is something that was originally part of the ST mythology as we can see in the document below:
The Montauk Pitch by the Duffer Brothers
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THE PROGRAM STARTS
- As we learned in S4, the beginning of the program happens in 1959, and is a result of Dr. Brenner discovering a boy with extraordinary psychic abilities, Henry, after his mother contacts him in the hopes of sending him to a facility where he would be locked away and fixed. Henry, knowing what his mother was planning, decided to kill his whole family, but would eventually fall into a coma due to not knowing his limits while using his psychic powers.
- Brenner knew what the boy did and also what he was capable of, and wanted to not just study but also control him. After the Creel House murders, Brenner would take Henry to the lab and the CIA would cover up anything that could compromise their operation. Victor Creel, the only survivor of the events in the house was declared legally insane, the records of what Victor claimed to have occurred in his house were sealed.
- Brenner eventually sold to the CIA a separate program that he planned to start, a program that would study Henry Creel who was presented to the government as a potential weapon against the Soviets as stated by Matt Duffer in this interview by Deadline.

He knew what this kid did and also what he was capable of when he was young. Brenner’s going, how can I mold this character, but not just into a weapon? That’s really how he sold it to the government, but for him as a scientist, it’s like, what other worlds can this kid show me about how our universe works? — Matt Duffer

- As a scientist, Brenner had the desire to not only mold Henry into a weapon but also use him as a means to reach other worlds/dimensions and understand how the universe works. That makes me think that, at the time, Brenner expected Henry to be able to do what he would later discover only Eleven could do, which was the capablity of opening a rift or tear in time-space via psychic energy.
- At some point, I would guess in late 1959 - early 1960s, an unknown event led Brenner to pacify Henry's abilities via Soteria. After that, Brenner would decide to evolve his program, replicating Henry's powers in other kids. This is something Matt Duffer confirmed that S5 will explore,

It’s something we will get into in Season 5. What happened to that program once Henry became involved and how Brenner evolved it into including multiple kids. We’re going to go back and see some of that in Season 5.

How Brenner tried to replicate Henry's abilities is unclear, but there's something mentioned in the Montauk bible that caught my attention and could be a brief explanation of how these preternatural abilities arise in some individuals:

ELEVEN was an orphan with telekinesis. her preternatural abilities have been linked to mutations caused by her mothers drug use.

In this version of the Eleven's backstory, the Duffers had not yet conceived El's mother being Terry Ives, the MKUltra involvement in the lore, and El's abilities being the result of experiments on her mother. Instead, we have genetic mutations caused by drug use.
If there's any chance this is an explanation to how some individuals are born with psychic abilities, i suspect that Brenner knew that drugs had the potential to cause such mutations and that via experiments and training, he would unlock these supernatural psychic abilities. Knowing that, Brenner would use the MKUltra (which mainly involved psychedelic drugs) as a means to new supernatural kids to be born, just like it happened to Eleven.
Virginia Creel's backstory
In episode 7, Henry mentions that his parents did "such awful things." and that he "held up a mirror" to show them who they really were, but we never got to see what Henry used against his mother. Whatever awful thing she did, is still a mystery in the show.
Also, Virginia somehow knew that Henry had supernatural abilities, so i think it's plausible to assume that, perhaps, Virginia knew it because of something dark in her past, something she believed resulted in her son being born with supernatural abilities and becoming a "broken" kid. The drug element that i mentioned before could also play a role in the origin of Henry's powers and whatever these dark memories of Virginia are.
In S4E7 script, we can see that the whole part where Virginia suspects Henry is the responsible for the strange happenings in the house and contacts Brenner to lock her son away is missing. Meaning the writers later decided to add more layers to this backstory that may be explored in S5.
The Duffer Brothers have confirmed in interviews that S5 will explore more of Henry's prequel story, and it was recently revealed in an article from BBC that the 'The First Shadow' stage play influences S5, so i'm hoping this means we'll see more of the Creels, specially Virginia.

They were able to adjust some of the "things in the play" and said that working on it had given them ideas for the upcoming season five.
Matt Duffer added: "Some of the mythology stuff is a little bit trickier, but like Ross said, it's been fun to have the play influence the show, and the show influenced the play,

1960's - THE PROGRAM EVOLVES
- The evolution of Brenner's program logically took place during the 1960s, and some of that was already hinted in S2 when we discover that Terry had documents about people she believed were like her daughter. In some of those documents we get to see that Kali was abducted in London, a Cleveland teen girl who was seemingly abducted in Indiana, and a newborn boy was taken from a hospital. The baby was in the care of a nurse who was found dead in her home.
- in 1969, Ray Carroll started working at HNL as an orderly.
1970's
- At some point in the early 70's, Terry Ives got involved with MKUltra. (In the Suspicious Minds book, we learn that Terry was involved with MKUltra in 1969 but i'm not considering any information from the book due to the huge amount of inconsistencies.)
- After Brenner kidnapped Eleven in 1971, the BreneHNL would face charges and lawsuits from Terry Ives but they were denied due to lack of evidence.
- In 1973, the MKUltra was officially halted.
- In 1974, Terry would try to take Eleven from the laboratory. Brenner ordered Terry to undergo an eletroshock therapy, ordering Ray Carroll to set the voltage up to 450 and then proceeded to electrocute her until her brain was damaged.
- In 1979, One succeeded in having El "free" him by removing the Soteria from him. Regaining his psychic abilities, Henry kills all the Indigo numbers except for Eleven who would eventually banish him out of our dimension. After the attack, El falls into a coma, and Brenner doesn't dare bring another number to the lab. Instead, Brenner focuses the experiments on Eleven, who has repressed not only her memories of the past events but also her powers after waking up from her coma. Brenner knew that Eleven's abilities weren't lost but needed a "spark" to be restored.
1983
- Brenner believed that One was somewhere out there, "hiding in the darkness", and in 1983, after Eleven's powers were restored, Brenner would eventually use her abilities to find him.
- In one experiment, El hears a strange sound that would get Brenner's attention. Despite El getting scared and the experiment being aborted, Brenner would repeat the experiment with the intention of making "contact".
- On the night of november 6, 1983, El makes psychic contact with the Demogorgon in the Void, inadvertentely creating TUD, opening the mothergate and unleashing the monster. She eventually escaped the HNL that night.
- On the next day, Brenner and the CIA receive a visit from agents that according to the S1E1 script were NSA. CIA and NSA agents would eventually work together to find Eleven and cover up anything that would compromise the secrecy of their clandestine operation.
- Brenner and his team of agents along with MPs would go to the Hawkins Middle School in order to find Eleven after Hopper revealed her location. For their surprise, the Demogorgon appears in the school, distracting the agents and MPs, allowing the kids to run away from the CIA with Eleven. Brenner is brutally attacked by the Demogorgon, but survives the attack.
- After the events in the school, we see hopper entering a black sedan with CIA agents.
- CIA agents go to the Wheelers House searching for Eleven. This is the last time we see Brenner's men in the show. In the next season, the HNL would have a new director and a new staff.
- In a clipping at Hawkins Police Station, there's information on the aftermath of the events in november, 1983, where we learn that Joyce Byers publicy alleged that Will was the subject of a secret government program. Joyce's allegation comes amidst the investigation into the past allegations of the lab's involvement with mind control experiments (MKUltra).
- As to where Brenner and his entire staff were after the events in november, it is unknown, but i suspect Owens knew about what happened to them as in S2 he seems to be certain that Brenner's men were gone.

The point is, mistakes have been made. Yes. Abundant mistakes, but, the men involved with those mistakes, the ones responsible for what happened to your brother and Miss Holland's death, they're gone. They're gone, and for better for worse, i'm the schmuck they brought in to make things better. — Sam Owens

I've come to suspect that after the events of November '83, when the entire HNL staff was replaced, everything documented/recorded about the CIA's clandestine operations was securely locked away by CIA or DOE operatives, likely in the decommissioned Nevada Silo. (One alternate possibility is that those documents and recordings were stored in the Silo after the HNL was closed in december, 1984)
Something that I find interesting is that both the Silo Lab and Owens' residence are located in Nevada, and in S4E5, when Eleven is taken to the Silo, originally the titles "Ruth, Nevada" appeared on the screen, that was later removed, but it implies that both the Silo and Owens' residence were close. This leads me to suspect that long before Owens and Brenner conceived of the NINA program, Owens already knew about the abandoned Silo in Nevada and decided to used it to store every TOP-SECRET documents/recordings of the CIA operations at HNL.
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One interesting detail is that the idea of ​​the government securely locking away videotapes is something the Duffers planned for their original Montauk conception, which most of it was a prototype for what we've seen in Stranger Things. In The Montauk Experiment, the O.S.S. would securely lock away film cannisters with recordings of everything that happened in Camp Hero after the experiments ended in a blood-soaked event. Details in the document below:
The logline for 'The Montauk Experiment'
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DOCTOR SAM OWENS' POSITION IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
- Sam Owens is a high-ranking member within U.S. Department of Energy as mentioned in the first official description of his character. Sometime between late 1983 - early 1984 he would be brought to HNL on a ‘clean-up’ assignment, tasked with containing the mess left by the CIA in 1983 and making things better.
- As I previously mentioned, Owens may have been responsible for locking away all the documented CIA experimentation at HNL, and he also may have known the whereabouts of Brenner and other scientists and CIA operatives who worked with him all along. I would even assume that Owens and Brenner may have been in contact all this time.
- During his time as director of the operations at HNL, Owens was involved in Will's treatment and in containing the spread of TUD.
- In November 1984, during the Demodogs invasion, Owens met Eleven, who eventually closed the gate, ending TUD invasion.
- A month later, the operations at HNL were officially shut down and the lab was closed after the release of the tape recording Owens' "confession", and Owens decided to help Eleven have a normal life under Hopper's care, giving him a forged birth certificate, and recommending Hopper to "let things cool off" for a year. This, of course, was done without the knowledge of the U.S. government.
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FACTONS WITHIN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
After the events os S2, in addition to the CIA Clandestine Ops and the DOE, other different agencies were introduced in the story:
- US Army/Pentagon that briefly appears at the end of s3 (although we've seen the Military Police in the previous seasons which is a branch of the Army), and would be an antagonist faction in S4.
- FBI agents who are presented as friends of Owens and allied to our main characters in S4.
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SULLIVAN'S FACTION
- At some point after the HNL was closed, Doctor Owens, in addition to his high-ranking position in the DOE, also gained some position within the U.S. Army/Pentagon, probably tasked with monitoring and maintaining security in Hawkins after the lab was closed and the military presence left town. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sullivan was involved in this, and it's possible he and Owens worked together.
- An interesting detail is that the arm patch on Lt. Colonel Sullivan's uniform confirms that he's an United States Army Criminal Investigation Division operative, hence his associaton with the Pentagon.
- At some point (i assume 1985), rumors about Eleven being alive and receiving help from someone within the U.S. government began to surface within the Pentagon, this would affect Owens' reputation.
- It's also worth mentioning that in S4E6, Sullivan seems to imply that he knew or at least believed Brenner was alive.

Explanation two, Dr. Brenner's special little pet has gone rogue again and he and his lackeys are now seeking to cover it up. Perhaps in the hopes of selling their pet to the Soviets. — Lt. Colonel Sullivan

There's also this interview with Sherman Augustus where the interviewer asks him if Sullivan knows that Brenner is still alive, and Sherman's answer implies that Brenner being alive is something that wouldn't surprise Sullivan, Maybe because it was rumored within the Pentagon too. Basically, there's nothing that Sullivan doesn't know or expect about what's been happening in Hawkins and within the government since the events of S1.

I'm pretty sure he knows that there's certain elements... because he says in the dialogue "there's rumors that she's getting help from someone on the inside". So there is nothing that he is not, you know, equating in that situation, he's not surprised. Whatever it is, you have to be a really strong and dynamic individual to be able to go in and try to kick E.T in the butt. — Sherman Augustus

- In July 1985, Owens would find out about a foreign government invasion in Hawkins, and would go to Hawkins with Army/Pentagon forces to deal with the invasion, only to find an empty Soviet bunker.
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OWENS' FACTION
- After the events in July, Owens got fired from his position in the miitary for failing his assignment to monitor security at Hawkins, i believe the previously mentioned rumors about him may also have played a role in his dismissal.
- Owens, knowing that El had lost her powers, feared a further re-emergence of the TUD, which led him to begin developing a means to restore her abilities and bring them back stronger than before.
- Owens would ally with Brenner to develop a way to restore Eleven's abilities, and Brenner convinced Owens that the only way to do so was via a process of re-experiencing her repressed memories in a program that they would later call NINA. It's unclear when Brenner and Owens' alliance started, but i personally believe they knew each other for longer than we initially thought, and shortly after the July events, Owens' looked for Brenner's help in order to develop a means to restore El's powers.
- Despite being fired from his position in the military, Owens was still a DOE member and also had connections to the FBI (Ellen Stinson and other agents), and he used his power to clandestinely provide Brenner with the necessary resources to establish the NINA Project. For the program to be sanctioned, he had to compromise his principles, and risk his life and that of his family. Something worth noting is that in the episode 7 script, the dialogue where Owens expresses his disappointment with NINA's progress is a little different:

I've given you all the resources you've asked for, i've given you your people, i've compromised my principles, i've risked my life, my family's life, all because you assured me this would work. That this was the only way. — Sam Owens

By "i've given you your people" we can confirm that Owens gave to Brenner his old HNL staff, who as we saw in S4E8, were loyal to him. And we can also confirm by Sam's words that he had to give Brenner resources, meaning, wherever Brenner was after the events oF S1, he was left with no resources and access to his old staff.
- Owens and Brenner would establish NINA in the same abandoned Silo in Nevada where Owens presumably locked away all the video tapes and documents from HNL.
THE FACTION CONFLICT
- After Owens' dismissal, Sullivan apparently became the responsible for monitoring Hawkins and maintaining the security in the town.
- In March 1986, a supernatural murder in Hawkins comes to Sullivan's attention, and after an autopsy is performed by Army medical doctors, Sullivan concludes that the murder was done remotely, which tied in with the rumors about Eleven being alive and getting help from someone within the U.S. government who he, and probably other operatives within the Pentagon believed was Sam Owens.
- Upon that conclusion, Sullivan would begin a clandestine military operation in order to investigate Eleven's whereabouts, and this leads him to Owens.
- Something worth noting is that when we are first introduced to Sullivan, he arrives in Indiana in an U.S. Army helicopter to investigate the circumstances of an unusual murder, but when he begins his operation to hunt down Eleven, he goes to Ruth, Nevada in an unmarked black helicopter, alluding to the fact that this is a clandestine military operation:
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Sullivan arrives in Indiana
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Sullivan leaves Owens' residence in Nevada
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Something interesting about the scene where Sullivan visits Owens that adds some information on what the U.S. government has been up to is the dialogue between Sullivan and Owens from this audition tape which is a bit different from the dialogue from the show:

There were no signs of an attacker. No bruises, no signs of any struggle. It's as if her attacker was a ghost. — Lt. Colonel SullivanSo what is this, really? I mean, why are you here? all of the sudden you want to help again? — Sam OwensDr. Owens, 30 civilians died last year, a foreign government our country all under your watch. There had to be consequences, you've got to understand that — Lt. Colonel Sullivan

Owens' question implies that Sullivan has been helping him at some point, probably in monitoring Hawkins like a mentioned before, which would explain how he knew so much about what has happened there all this years.
And Sullivan's response implies that after Owens got fired, it became his responsability to maintain security in Hawkins, which is why he was there, asking Owens Eleven's whereabouts.
- Owens refuses to tell Sullivan Eleven's whereabouts, and Jack decides to do things "the hard way", taking multiple items from Owens' house in order to investigate everything Sam has done and everyone he has spoken to in 1985 and luckily, be able to find where Eleven is.
- Owens knew that the former Indigo test subject One was back when he saw pictures of Chrissy's body, and via a DOE intranet, he requests the immediate acceleration of NINA. He makes it clear that their secret program and facility were compromised and that the Pentagon was involved. And for the security of their program, Owens implements a communication lockdown.
- Owens uses his FBI connections to have agents help him find Eleven, maintain the secrecy of the operation and protect people closely associated with Eleven who could be found by Sullivan. Some of those agents are Ellen Stinson, who seems to be Owens' right hand, Agent Harmon, and Agent Wallace.
- In the meantime, Sullivan/the Pentagon was able to find out that Owens moved Eleven to Lenora Hills, CA, and would eventually send a group of agents/soldiers to find her.
- After finding Eleven with a group of agents and convicing her to go with him in order to get her powers back, Owens takes El to the Silo Lab while Agents Harmon and Wallace would stay with Mike, Jonathan and Will to protect them, and Agent Stinson would be closely monitoring Hawkins with 2 more agents.
- Sullivan, after a shootout in the Byers' house takes Agent Wallace to a black site to torture him in order to find out where Eleven was, and after a long time of torture, Wallace gave away Eleven's location.
- After NINA succeeded in restoring Eleven's abilities, Owens, believing she was ready, would call Stinson to have her prepare the transit from Nevada to Hawkins, Indiana through her connections at Nellis.
- Brenner would eventually betray Owens and considered killing him in order to stop Eleven from leaving the Silo Lab. After the conflict between Owens and Brenner, the Pentagon finally arrives at the location revealed by Agent Wallace and a conflict between the U.S army and the MP soldiers resulted in the death of Brenner, his men and all the scientists in the Silo Lab, except Owens.
- Eleven escapes the Pentagon with her friends, and we see Sullivan and some of his soldiers for the last time in S4, in the Nevada desert.
Episodes 8 and 9 made it clear that El still needs to hide and Sullivan's faction is still after her. It's worth mentioning that Sullivan was the only villain in ST4 not to be killed or at least injured, so it's almost certain that this guy will be back in ST5 to kick E.T's ass. Specially know that a full-scale TUD invasion is about the happen in Hawkins.
POSSIBILITIES FOR S5:
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Sullivan investigates the video tapes in the silo lab
S4 ended without us knowing what happened to Owens and Sullivan after eleven escaped, but we do know that both characters are in the Silo Lab and that Sullivan now has access to a vast amount of video tapes that he would certainly investigate and this would create many possibilities for the Pentagon's role in S5.
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Sullivan's Mission in Hawkins
Sullivan is still responsible for monitoring Hawkins, and at some point he will probably learn about what is happening in the town (which is also where El is hiding now), possibly via the military presence in Hawkins that we saw in the ST4 epilogue.
Something that caught my attention was the presence of a Research Lab vehicle on the set of downtown Hawkins, this vehicle never appeared in the show, and it was not mentioned in the script of episode 9. But it makes me think that at the end of S4, the Military is not just trying to help Hawkins citizen after this "federal disaster", but also researching into TUD, which perhaps is an operation led by Sullivan? let me know what you guys think.
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S1 parallels
If we have Sullivan in Hawkins in S5, we most certainly will get more Government vs Eleven scenes, which would parallel Brenner and the CIA in S1. I particularly believe that S5 will have many parallels with what the Duffers planned for the first season of Montauk,

ACT THREE (episodes 7-8) will climax with characters working together to outsmart the military, venture into this alternate dimension, save Will, and, hopefully, close this "tear" once and for all.

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Doctor Owens in 1959 flashbacks
Something I found extremely suspicious is that in S4, Owens seemed to know more than we initially thought.

He's claimed three victims so far, and when i saw the eyes, i knew... i knew that was him. He was him. He was sending us a message, letting us know he's back.

This sentence from Owens confirms that he somehow knew Henry's killing manner. It's plausible to assume that Owens learned about Henry and the other Indigo Numbers after being brought to the lab to "make things better". But I personally believe that there must be a greater reason why he was brought to HNL after S1, I believe Owens was already aware of the clandestine operations that had been happening in the HNL for years (at least some of it) and had known Dr. Brenner since the 1950's. I would even consider the possibility that Owens has been involved in clandestine government operations in the past and that somehow led him to find out about the HNL and Brenner's program.
In this interview by The Wrap, Ross Duffer's words about Brenner and Owens' alliance caught my attention because the way he puts it felt like Owens has known Brenner for longer than we think.

Once that first kill with Chrissy happens, then their fears are realized and that’s what jump starts their whole storyline. I mean, that is why Owens is collaborating with Brenner, a man he also does not like. He respects him, but despises the man, because he also knows he’s the key to stopping One, to stopping Vecna.

By my suspicion, i came up with the theory/fanfic that Owens could have worked with Brenner in the 50's and was aware of what happened in the Creel House in '59. Maybe he even met young Henry and interacted with him after he woke up from his coma. If there's any chance that i'm right about it, i would imagine the Owens and Henry interactions would parallel the scenes with Owens and Will in S2.
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Stinson becomes the new Owens / Her alliance with the adults
Agent Stinson was apparently Owens' right hand in S4 and also the leader among the agents of Owens' faction, being involved in the operations in Nevada, Hawkins and even being responsible for driving Hopper and Joyce to Hawkins. Imo, Stinson has the potential to become the "new Owens"/Main government operative to help our main characters while Owens is MIA. She could also send some agents to investigate what happened to Owens. I have a personal theory that Stinson will join the adults in S5 and help them on a mission to outsmart the military. And i think the "knowing nod" between Hop and Stinson in S4E9 might be a hint of a possible team up for S5.

Something that i am extremely fascinated about in Stranger Things is the government conspiracy angle of the series, and over the seasons, i felt that the writing started to give us less details about how the government agencies work in this universe. Also, many details of the lore are still unresolved, and i fear some of them might not be resolved in S5, so I decided to make an analysis of everything that involves the government in the show to create my own version of the timeline of the events involving the U.S. government and gather information to hypothesize events that may have happened offscreen, the occupations of some characters within the government and what agencies are involved with everything that has happened in the show since S1. I hope you guys enjoy the read!
​
PROJECT MKULTRA
- In 1953, The MKUltra program was officially sanctioned by the CIA, a multimillion-dollar initiative intended to develop mind control techniques. the experiments would be conducted in many hospitals, prisons and colleges across the US. Hawkins National Laboratory was one of many facilities in the U.S where MKUltra was being conducted - Dr. Martin Brenner was the director of CIA operations at this laboratory.
- MKUltra is a real CIA-sanctioned research that was officially halted in 1973. And it was the basis for a science-based horror in the show's lore. But the Duffers never wanted to really dive into it, as the story they wanted to tell was mainly inspired by the Montauk Project and would focus in children with super powers and other dimensions.
There is a little talk about it in the official behind the scenes companion Worlds Turned Upside Down:

I wouldn't say we had done necessarily a deep dive into it. It was more a surface glance of seeing what they were up to and then using it as an excuse to have science-based horror in our narrative. — Ross Duffer

- The presence of the MKUltra in the lore is what canonically establishes the CIA as the bad men we see in S1 and briefly in S2. The agency is only mentioned once in the show when Hopper and Powell are investigating documents about the HNL/MKUltra, but we can confirm that the CIA was also responsible for funding Brenner's program as in the Worlds Turned Upside Down book we can see government cards with a "Central Intelligence Agency Clandestine Ops" badge in it.
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PROJECT INDIGO
- Doctor Brenner's program. It's the main government project of Stranger Things, and although never mentioned in the show, the name of the program was supposed to be "INDIGO" which was also the proposed name of the show as stated by the Duffers in their MasterClass:

So we just came up with a bunch of ideas. We had The Keep, we had INDIGO which was gonna be the name of the government program, and amidst that we had Stranger Things. — Ross Duffer

It's unclear if the Duffers kept the name as it was never mentioned in the show, but the name is mentioned in the Suspicious Minds book, which was supervised by one of the show's writers - Paul Dichter.
Project Indigo is basically the Hawkins equivalent of the Montauk Project. While the MKUltra was the Duffers' basis for a science-based horror in the lore, INDIGO is where the most crazy, cutting-edge developments in science come in. The Duffers had the desire to play with the "sandbox" of elements that the Montauk conspiracy could offer. In the conspiracy, there were talks about children with psychic/psionic powers (which became the Numbers 001 to 018), other dimensions (like the Upside Down, Dimension X and the Hellscape), alien contact, monsters being unleashed (Demogorgon/DX entities) and even time travel, which is something that was originally part of the ST mythology as we can see in the document below:
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The Montauk pitch by the Duffer Brothers
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THE PROGRAM STARTS
- As we learned in S4, the beginning of the program happens in 1959, and is a result of Dr. Brenner discovering a boy with extraordinary psychic abilities, Henry, after his mother contacts him in the hopes of sending him to a facility where he would be locked away and fixed. Henry, knowing what his mother was planning, decided to kill his whole family, but would eventually fall into a coma due to not knowing his limits while using his psychic powers.
- Brenner knew what the boy did and also what he was capable of, and wanted to not just study but also control him. After the Creel House murders, Brenner would take Henry to the lab and the CIA would cover up anything that could compromise their operation. Victor Creel, the only survivor of the events in the house was declared legally insane, and the records of what Victor claimed to have occurred in his house were sealed.
- Brenner eventually sold to the CIA a separate program that he planned to start, a program that would study Henry Creel who was presented to the government as a potential weapon against the Soviets as stated by Matt Duffer in this interview by Deadline.

He knew what this kid did and also what he was capable of when he was young. Brenner’s going, how can I mold this character, but not just into a weapon? That’s really how he sold it to the government, but for him as a scientist, it’s like, what other worlds can this kid show me about how our universe works? — Matt Duffer

- As a scientist, Brenner had the desire to not only mold Henry into a weapon but also use him as a means to reach other worlds/dimensions and understand how the universe works. That makes me think that, at the time, Brenner expected Henry to be able to do what he would later discover only Eleven could do, which was the capablity of opening a rift or tear in time-space via psychic energy.

• At some point, I would guess in late 1959 - early 1960s, an unknown event led Brenner to pacify Henry's abilities via Soteria. After that, Brenner would decide to evolve his program, replicating Henry's powers in other kids. This is something Matt Duffer confirmed that S5 will explore:

It’s something we will get into in Season 5. What happened to that program once Henry became involved and how Brenner evolved it into including multiple kids. We’re going to go back and see some of that in Season 5. — Matt Duffer

How Brenner tried to replicate Henry's abilities is unclear, but there's something mentioned in the Montauk bible that caught my attention and could be a brief explanation of how these preternatural abilities arise in some individuals:

ELEVEN was an orphan with telekinesis. her preternatural abilities have been linked to mutations caused by her mothers drug use.

In this version of the Eleven's backstory, the Duffers had not yet conceived El's mother being Terry Ives, the MKUltra involvement in the lore, and El's abilities being the result of experiments on her mother. Instead, we have genetic mutations caused by drug use.
If there's any chance this is an explanation to how some individuals are born with psychic abilities, i suspect that Brenner knew that drugs had the potential to cause such mutations and that via experiments and training, he would unlock these supernatural psychic abilities. Knowing that, Brenner would use the MKUltra (which mainly involved psychedelic drugs) as a means to new supernatural kids to be born, just like it happened to Eleven.
​
Virginia Creel's backstory
In episode 7, Henry mentions that his parents did "such awful things." and that he "held up a mirror" to show them who they really were, but we never got to see what Henry used against his mother. Whatever awful thing she did, is still a mystery in the show.
Also, Virginia somehow knew that Henry had supernatural abilities, so i think it's plausible to assume that, perhaps, Virginia knew it because of something dark in her past, something she believed resulted in her son being born with supernatural abilities and becoming a "broken" kid. The drug element that i mentioned before could also play a role in the origin of Henry's powers and whatever these dark memories of Virginia are.
In S4E7 script, we can see that the whole part where Virginia suspects Henry is the responsible for the strange happenings in the house and contacts Brenner to lock her son away is missing. Meaning the writers later decided to add more layers to this backstory that may be explored in S5.
The Duffer Brothers have confirmed in interviews that S5 will explore more of Henry's prequel story, and it was recently revealed in an article from BBC that the 'The First Shadow' stage play influences S5, so i'm hoping this means we'll see more of the Creels, specially Virginia.

They were able to adjust some of the "things in the play" and said that working on it had given them ideas for the upcoming season five.
Matt Duffer added: "Some of the mythology stuff is a little bit trickier, but like Ross said, it's been fun to have the play influence the show, and the show influenced the play,

​
1960's - THE PROGRAM EVOLVES
- The evolution of Brenner's program logically took place during the 1960s, and some of that was already hinted in S2 when we discover that Terry had documents about people she believed were like her daughter. In some of those documents we get to see that Kali was abducted in London, a Cleveland teen girl who was seemingly abducted in Indiana, and a newborn boy was taken from a hospital. The baby was in the care of a nurse who was found dead in her home.
- in 1969, Ray Carroll started working at HNL as an orderly.
​
1970's
- At some point in the early 70's, Terry Ives got involved with MKUltra. (In the Suspicious Minds book, we learn that Terry was involved with MKUltra in 1969 but i'm not considering any information from the book due to the huge amount of inconsistencies.)
- After Brenner kidnapped Eleven in 1971, the HNL would face charges and lawsuits from Terry Ives but they were denied due to lack of evidence.
- In 1973, the MKUltra was officially halted.
- In 1974, Terry would try to take Eleven from the laboratory. Brenner ordered Terry to undergo an eletroshock therapy, ordering Ray Carroll to set the voltage up to 450 and then proceeded to electrocute her until her brain was damaged.
- In 1979, One succeeded in having El "free" him by removing the Soteria from him. Regaining his psychic abilities, Henry kills all the Indigo numbers except for Eleven who would eventually banish him out of our dimension. After the attack, El falls into a coma, and Brenner doesn't dare bring another number to the lab. Instead, Brenner focuses the experiments on Eleven, who has repressed not only her memories of the past events but also her powers after waking up from her coma. Brenner knew that Eleven's abilities weren't lost but needed a "spark" to be restored.
​
1983
- Brenner believed that One was somewhere out there, "hiding in the darkness", and in 1983, after Eleven's powers were restored, Brenner would eventually use her abilities to find him.
- In one experiment, El hears a strange sound that would get Brenner's attention. Despite El getting scared and the experiment being aborted, Brenner would repeat the experiment with the intention of making "contact".
- On the night of november 6, 1983, El makes psychic contact with the Demogorgon in the Void, inadvertentely creating TUD, opening the mothergate and unleashing the monster. She eventually escaped the HNL that night.
- On the next day, Brenner and the CIA receive a visit from agents that according to the S1E1 script were NSA. CIA and NSA agents would eventually work together to find Eleven and cover up anything that would compromise the secrecy of their clandestine operation.
- Brenner and his team of agents along with MPs would go to the Hawkins Middle School in order to find Eleven after Hopper revealed her location. For their surprise, the Demogorgon appears in the school, distracting the agents and MPs, allowing the kids to run away from the CIA with Eleven. Brenner is brutally attacked by the Demogorgon, but survives the attack.
- After the events in the school, we see hopper entering a black sedan with CIA agents.
- CIA agents go to the Wheelers House searching for Eleven. This is the last time we see Brenner's men in the show. In the next season, the HNL would have a new director and a new staff.
- In a clipping at Hawkins Police Station, there's information on the aftermath of the events in november, 1983, where we learn that Joyce Byers publicy alleged that Will was the subject of a secret government program. Joyce's allegation comes amidst the investigation into the past allegations of the lab's involvement with mind control experiments (MKUltra).
- As to where Brenner and his entire staff were after the events in november, it is unknown, but i suspect Owens knew about what happened to them as in S2 he seems to be certain that Brenner's men were gone.

The point is, mistakes have been made. Yes. Abundant mistakes, but, the men involved with those mistakes, the ones responsible for what happened to your brother and Miss Holland's death, they're gone. They're gone, and for better for worse, i'm the schmuck they brought in to make things better. — Sam Owens

I've come to suspect that after the events of November '83, when the entire HNL staff was replaced, everything documented/recorded about the CIA's clandestine operations was securely locked away by CIA or DOE operatives, likely in the decommissioned Nevada Silo. (One alternate possibility is that those documents and recordings were stored in the Silo after the HNL was closed in december, 1984)
Something that I find interesting is that both the Silo Lab and Owens' residence are located in Nevada, and in S4E5, when Eleven is taken to the Silo, originally the titles "Ruth, Nevada" appeared on the screen, that was later removed, but it implies that both the Silo and Owens' residence were close. This leads me to suspect that long before Owens and Brenner conceived of the NINA program, Owens already knew about the abandoned Silo in Nevada and decided to used it to store every TOP-SECRET documents/recordings of the CIA operations at HNL:
https://preview.redd.it/xh9e7lxqye3b1.png?width=1334&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=eafda108e43adbb8ff115ac586a13add1f1e8442
One interesting detail is that the idea of ​​the government securely locking away videotapes is something the Duffers planned for their original Montauk conception, which most of it was a prototype for what we've seen in Stranger Things. In The Montauk Experiment, the O.S.S. would securely lock away film cannisters with recordings of everything that happened in Camp Hero after the experiments ended in a blood-soaked event. Details in the document below:
The logline for 'The Montauk Experiment'
​
DOCTOR SAM OWENS' POSITION IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
- Sam Owens is a high-ranking member within U.S. Department of Energy as mentioned in the first official description of his character. Sometime between late 1983 and early 1984 he would be brought to HNL on a ‘clean-up’ assignment, tasked with containing the mess left by the CIA in 1983 and making things better.
- As I previously mentioned, Owens may have been responsible for locking away all the documented CIA experimentation at HNL, and he also may have known the whereabouts of Brenner and other scientists and CIA operatives who worked with him all along. I would even assume that Owens and Brenner may have been in contact all this time.
- During his time as director of the operations at HNL, Owens was involved in Will's treatment and in containing the spread of TUD.
- In November 1984, during the Demodogs invasion, Owens met Eleven, who eventually closed the gate, ending TUD invasion.
- A month later, the operations at HNL were officially shut down and the lab was closed after the release of the tape recording Owens' "confession", and Owens decided to help Eleven have a normal life under Hopper's care, giving him a forged birth certificate, and recommending Hopper to "let things cool off" for a year. This, of course, was done without the knowledge of the U.S. government.
FACTONS WITHIN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
After the events os S2, in addition to the CIA Clandestine Ops and the DOE, other different agencies were introduced in the story:
- US Army/Pentagon that briefly appears at the end of s3 (although we've seen the Military Police in the previous seasons which is a branch of the Army), and would be an antagonist faction in S4.
- FBI agents who are presented as friends of Owens and allied to our main characters in S4.
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SULLIVAN'S FACTION
- At some point after the HNL was closed, Doctor Owens, in addition to his high-ranking position in the DOE, also gained some position within the U.S. Army/Pentagon, probably tasked with monitoring and maintaining security in Hawkins after the lab was closed and the military presence left town. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sullivan was involved in this, and it's possible he and Owens worked together.
- An interesting detail is that the arm patch on Lt. Colonel Sullivan's uniform confirms that he's an United States Army Criminal Investigation Division operative, hence his associaton with the Pentagon.
- At some point (i assume 1985), rumors about Eleven being alive and receiving help from someone within the U.S. government began to surface within the Pentagon, this would affect Owens' reputation.
- It's also worth mentioning that in S4E6, Sullivan seems to imply that he knew or at least believed Brenner was alive.

Explanation two, Dr. Brenner's special little pet has gone rogue again and he and his lackeys are now seeking to cover it up. Perhaps in the hopes of selling their pet to the Soviets. — Lt. Colonel Sullivan

There's also this interview with Sherman Augustus where the interviewer asks him if Sullivan knows that Brenner is still alive, and Sherman's answer implies that Brenner being alive is something that wouldn't surprise Sullivan, Maybe because it was rumored within the Pentagon too. Basically, there's nothing that Sullivan doesn't know or expect about what's been happening in Hawkins and within the government since the events of S1.

I'm pretty sure he knows that there's certain elements... because he says in the dialogue "there's rumors that she's getting help from someone on the inside". So there is nothing that he is not, you know, equating in that situation, he's not surprised. Whatever it is, you have to be a really strong and dynamic individual to be able to go in and try to kick E.T in the butt. — Sherman Augustus

​
- In July 1985, Owens would find out about a foreign government invasion in Hawkins, and would go to Hawkins accompanied by Army/Pentagon forces to deal with the invasion, only to find an empty Soviet bunker.
​
OWENS' FACTION
- After the events in July, Owens got fired from his position in the miitary for failing his assignment to monitor security at Hawkins, i believe the previously mentioned rumors about him may also have played a role in his dismissal.
- Owens, knowing that El had lost her powers, feared a further re-emergence of the TUD, which led him to begin developing ways to restore her abilities.
- Owens would ally with Brenner to develop a way to restore Eleven's abilities, and Brenner convinced Owens that the only way to do so was via a process of re-experiencing her repressed memories in a program that they would later call NINA. It's unclear when Brenner and Owens' alliance started, but i personally believe they knew each other for longer than we initially thought, and shortly after the July events, Owens' looked for Brenner's help in order to develop a means to restore El's powers.
- Despite being fired from his position in the military, Owens was still a DOE member and also had connections to the FBI (Ellen Stinson and other agents), and he used his power to clandestinely provide Brenner with the necessary resources to establish the NINA Project. For the program to be sanctioned, he had to compromise his principles, and risk his life and that of his family. Something worth noting is that in the episode 7 script, the dialogue where Owens expresses his disappointment with NINA's progress is a little different:

I've given you all the resources you've asked for, i've given you your people, i've compromised my principles, i've risked my life, my family's life, all because you assured me this would work. That this was the only way. — Sam Owens

By "i've given you your people" we can confirm that Owens gave to Brenner his old HNL staff, who as we saw in S4E8, were loyal to him. And we can also confirm by Sam's words that he had to give Brenner resources, meaning, wherever Brenner was after the events oF S1, he was left with no resources and access to his old staff.
- Owens and Brenner would establish NINA in the same abandoned Silo in Nevada where Owens presumably locked away all the video tapes and documents from HNL.
​
THE FACTION CONFLICT
- After Owens' dismissal, Sullivan apparently became the responsible for monitoring Hawkins and maintaining the security in the town.
- In March 1986, a supernatural murder in Hawkins comes to Sullivan's attention, and after an autopsy is performed by Army medical doctors, Sullivan concludes that the murder was done remotely, which tied in with the rumors about Eleven being alive and getting help from someone within the U.S. government who he, and probably other operatives within the Pentagon believed was Sam Owens.
- Upon that conclusion, Sullivan would begin a clandestine military operation in order to investigate Eleven's whereabouts, and this leads him to Owens.
- Something worth noting is that when we are first introduced to Sullivan, he arrives in Indiana in an U.S. Army helicopter to investigate the circumstances of an unusual murder, but when he begins his operation to hunt down Eleven, he goes to Ruth, Nevada in an unmarked black helicopter, alluding to the fact that this is a clandestine military operation:
Sullivan arrives in Indiana
​
Sullivan leaves Owens' residence in Ruth, Nevada
​
Something interesting about the scene where Sullivan visits Owens that adds some information on what the U.S. government has been up to is the dialogue between Sullivan and Owens from this audition tape which is a bit different from the dialogue in the show,

There were no signs of an attacker. No bruises, no signs of any struggle. It's as if her attacker was a ghost. — Lt. Colonel Sullivan
So what is this, really? I mean, why are you here? all of the sudden you want to help again? — Sam Owens
Dr. Owens, 30 civilians died last year, a foreign government our country all under your watch. There had to be consequences, you've got to understand that — Lt. Colonel Sullivan

Owens' question implies that Sullivan has been helping him at some point, probably in monitoring Hawkins like a mentioned before, which would explain how he knew so much about what has happened there all this years.
And Sullivan's response implies that after Owens got fired, it became his responsability to maintain security in Hawkins, which is why he was there, asking Owens Eleven's whereabouts.
- Owens refuses to tell Sullivan Eleven's whereabouts, and Jack decides to do things "the hard way", taking multiple items from Owens' house in order to investigate everything Sam has done and everyone he has spoken to in 1985 and luckily, be able to find where Eleven is.
- Owens knew that the former Indigo test subject One was back, and via a DOE intranet, he requests the immediate acceleration of NINA. He makes it clear that their secret program and facility were compromised and that the Pentagon was involved. And for the security of their program, Owens implements a communication lockdown.
- Owens uses his FBI connections to have agents help him find Eleven, maintain the secrecy of the operation and protect people closely associated with Eleven who could be found by Sullivan. Some of those agents are Ellen Stinson, who seems to be Owens' right hand, Agent Harmon, and Agent Wallace.
- In the meantime, Sullivan/the Pentagon was able to find out that Owens moved Eleven to Lenora Hills, CA, and would eventually send a group of agents/soldiers to find her.
- After finding Eleven with a group of agents and convicing her to go with him in order to get her powers back, Owens takes El to the Silo Lab while Agents Harmon and Wallace would stay with Mike, Jonathan and Will to protect them, and Agent Stinson would be closely monitoring Hawkins with 2 more agents.
- Sullivan, after a shootout in the Byers' house takes Agent Wallace to a black site to torture him in order to find out where Eleven was, and after a long time of torture, Wallace gave away Eleven's location.
- After NINA succeeded in restoring Eleven's abilities, Owens, believing she was ready, would call Stinson to have her prepare the transit from Nevada to Hawkins, Indiana through her connections at Nellis.
- Brenner would eventually betray Owens and considered killing him in order to stop Eleven from leaving the Silo Lab. After the conflict between Owens and Brenner, the Pentagon finally arrives at the location revealed by Agent Wallace and a conflict between the U.S army and the MP soldiers resulted in the death of Brenner, his men and all the scientists in the Silo Lab, except Owens.
- Eleven escapes the Pentagon with her friends, and we see Sullivan and some of his soldiers for the last time in S4, in the Nevada desert.
Episodes 8 and 9 made it clear that El still needs to hide and Sullivan's faction is still after her. It's worth mentioning that Sullivan was the only villain in ST4 not to be killed or at least injured, so it's almost certain that this guy will be back in ST5 to kick E.T's ass. Specially know that a full-scale TUD invasion is about the happen in Hawkins.
​
POSSIBILITIES FOR S5:
Sullivan investigates the video tapes in the silo lab
S4 ended without us knowing what happened to Owens and Sullivan after eleven escaped, but we do know that both characters are in the Silo Lab and that Sullivan now has access to a vast amount of video tapes that he would certainly investigate and this would create several different possibilities for the Pentagon's role in S5.
​
Sullivan's Mission in Hawkins
Sullivan is still responsible for monitoring Hawkins, and he will likely learn about what is happening in the town (which is also where El is hiding now), possibly through the military presence in Hawkins that we saw in the ST4 epilogue.
Something that caught my attention was the presence of a Research Lab vehicle on the set of down town hawkins, this vehicle never appeared in the show, and it was not mentioned in the script of episode 9. But it makes me think that at the end of S4, the Military is not just trying to help Hawkins citizen after this "federal disaster", but also researching into TUD, which perhaps is an operation led by Sullivan? let me know what you guys think.
​
S1 parallels
If we have Sullivan in Hawkins in S5, we most certainly will get more Government vs Eleven scenes, which would parallel Brenner and the CIA in S1. I particularly believe that S5 will have many parallels with what the Duffers planned for the first season of Montauk:

ACT THREE (episodes 7-8) will climax with characters working together to outsmart the military, venture into this alternate dimension, save Will, and, hopefully, close this "tear" once and for all.

​
Doctor Owens in 1959 flashbacks
Something I found extremely suspicious is that in S4, Owens seemed to know more than we initially thought...

He's claimed three victims so far, and when i saw the eyes, i knew... i knew that was him. He was him. He was sending us a message, letting us know he's back.

This sentence from Owens confirms that he somehow knew Henry's killing manner. It's plausible to assume that Owens learned about Henry and the other Indigo Numbers after being brought to the lab to "make things better". But I personally believe that there must be a greater reason why he was brought to HNL after S1, I believe Owens was already aware of the clandestine operations that had been happening in the HNL for years (at least some of it) and had known Dr. Brenner since the 1950's. I would even consider the possibility that Owens has been involved in clandestine government operations in the past and that somehow led him to find out about the HNL and Brenner's program.
In this interview by The Wrap, Ross Duffer's words about Brenner and Owens' alliance caught my attention because the way he puts it felt like Owens has known Brenner for much longer than we think.

Once that first kill with Chrissy happens, then their fears are realized and that’s what jump starts their whole storyline. I mean, that is why Owens is collaborating with Brenner, a man he also does not like. He respects him, but despises the man, because he also knows he’s the key to stopping One, to stopping Vecna. — Ross Duffer

By my suspicion, i came up with the theory/fanfic that Owens could have worked with Brenner in the 50's and was aware of what happened in the Creel House in '59. Maybe he even met young Henry and interacted with him after he woke up from his coma. If there's any chance that i'm right about it, i would imagine the Owens and Henry interactions would parallel the scenes with Owens and Will in S2.
​
Stinson becomes the new Owens / Her alliance with the adults
Agent Stinson was apparently Owens' right hand in S4 and also the leader among the agents of Owens' faction, being involved in the operations in Nevada, Hawkins and even being responsible for driving Hopper and Joyce to Hawkins. Imo, Stinson has the potential to become the "new Owens"/Main government operative to help our main characters while Owens is MIA. She could also send some agents to investigate what happened to Owens. I have a personal theory that Stinson will join the adults in S5 and help them on a mission to outsmart the military. And i think the "knowing nod" between Hop and Stinson in S4E9 might be a hint of a possible team up for S5.

While many countries now offer bank payments in the blink of an eye, moving funds between accounts in the US can still take days. Electronic platforms such as PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo and Block Inc.’s Cash App offer various workarounds to speed up the process, but they are essentially intermediaries that interface with the slow banking system. Now the Federal Reserve has created a high-speed transportation lane that allows for bank transfers within seconds. Here’s what you need to know about the new service, FedNow, which launches in July.

1. Why are US bank payments so slow? Transfers using the Automated Clearing House — the legacy system invented in the 1970s — can take days to complete, partly because it lumps transactions together and processes them at specific intervals. Newer instant-payment tools like Venmo are fine when you’re doing something like buying a hot dog or sending cash to a friend who uses the same app. But when you want to pull money back off those platforms, the funds grind their way through the legacy banking system before they show up in your account. The same thing happens when you receive a paycheck or pay a utility bill. A survey by American Banker in 2021 found that 21% of consumers had abandoned a financial transaction or account opening because it took too long. The current slow transfers often lead to late fees for missed bill payments or penalties for overdrafts. So for the millions of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, the delays can be costly.
   
2. Why can’t banks solve the problem themselves? All the income from those overdraft and other fees meant banks had little incentive to come up with a faster solution on their own. A bank can also temporarily sweep transfer funds held overnight into short-term securities to earn a yield. US banks have the right to hold your money for as long as 10 days for the purpose of making sure it is not the proceeds of a crime. A group of big US banks did come up with a rapid-settlement platform of their own, known as real-time payments, or RTP, but have marketed it mainly to business customers because they already offer a peer-to-peer system called Zelle for consumers. While this is sold to consumers as a real-time transfer service, in some instances the transfers are settled over the legacy batch system and the banks in effect extend short-term credit until those payments settle.
   
3. How will FedNow work? FedNow will offer instantaneous payments from one bank account to another 24/7, all year round. Because payment occurs instantly, customers will know right away if the transfer has completed or failed. The person receiving the funds will be able to use them almost instantly. The flip side is that, unlike a check, you can’t put a hold on a FedNow payment or cancel it. Once you’ve made that payment, the money is gone for good. And unlike a credit card, there are no rewards, points or fraud protection.
   
4. What are the fees for using FedNow? Payments will cost a few cents, but it’s not clear who will pick up the tab — the bank or the customer. With ACH, it’s often the bank that pays the fees unless the customer is making a large number of payments.
   
5. How can I sign up for FedNow? You can’t, as there won’t be a FedNow consumer app. First your bank will need to sign up to use the system and plug it into the back end of its own banking website or app.
   
6. Will this kill providers like Venmo or Cash App? That’s certainly not the goal: The Fed has always said consumers are best served by a competitive payments landscape with multiple players. FedNow will both complement and compete with existing electronic payment systems. Almost 10,000 US banks and credit unions will be able to join and use FedNow, giving the country’s patchwork of regional lenders and credit unions a better chance of vying for payments business against giant banks and financial technology firms.
   
7. Is the US leading the way here? Europe’s Single Euro Payments Area already allows instant payments across 36 countries, while the UK introduced instant payments in 2008. One limitation of FedNow is that it doesn’t allow for “pull” transactions in which utilities, phone companies or other service providers can trigger a payment from a customer account on an agreed date, a capability that makes it easier for those businesses to manage their cash flow.
   
8. How soon will my bank offer FedNow? Fed officials expect the adoption to be slow and gradual, and it could be many months before FedNow shows up on a bank’s website or app. While there were just over 100 banks in a FedNow pilot program, there’s no obligation to use the service and it’s not known how many will choose to do so.
   
9. Will FedNow invade my privacy? Since this will be a bank-operated system, the same privacy infrastructure that exists around other payment systems will apply. Like it or not, your basic information is all over your non-cash payments, from your credit cards to your bank checks, which have a lot of information about you written right on them. If you want more privacy, stick with dollar bills.
   
10. Is FedNow a step toward a digital currency? Various commentators on social media have suggested FedNow is a scheme to phase out physical cash or part of a plan to introduce an official, government-backed digital currency to replace the dollar. (Some politicians, including long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have seized on some of those talking points, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has railed against the idea of a central bank digital currency in the US.) The Fed denies this, saying the new payments service will simply be a faster way to move deposits and that it will continue to provide notes and coins for those who still want to use cash. The people most responsible for the declining use of hard currency are consumers themselves. Commercial payments in cash dropped to about 20% in the pandemic year of 2020 from 30% in 2017.