Stranger Things Season 4 Finale is Shorter Than You Heard

As Stranger Things fans dove into Season 4, Part 1, they accepted everything from One’s transformation into Vecna to Mrs. Wheeler’s new hairdo.

But they couldn’t get behind the fact that, in flashbacks to Eleven’s time at Hawkins Lab,

she’s so much more articulate than the kid that we met way back in Season 1.

“What gives?” viewers asked. “Were her verbal skills set back by witnessing Peter’s rampage?”

Speaking with TVLine, the Netflix hit’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer

AKA the Duffer Brothers — offer up an answer.

The trauma [of the massacre] definitely affected Eleven,” begins Ross.

“Ideally, when we were writing the flashbacks, the goal was to mimic her speech, with the breaks, with the limited words

No other anyone, really. Eleven has “no interaction aside from occasionally her quote-unquote Papa,” notes Ross.