With the release of the fourth season of the popular Netflix show, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the synchronicities and references I’ve enjoyed over the course of the show. While I’ll attempt to be as spoiler-free as possible, consider this a warning if you aren’t caught up.

If you have never watched the show, here is a brief summary:

Hawkins is a fictional town in Roane County, Indiana. The sleepy town would have continued to be sleepy if not for one thing: the Hawkins National Laboratory, which was operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. The building was a relic of the scientific experiments being conducted during World War II. The Laboratory is the source of the portal to the Upside Down that was discovered by the lead characters in season 1, which released the monstrous Demogorgon upon the town.

The above synopsis could easily be replaced as follows: “Oak Ridge is a town in Roane County, Tennessee. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. Oak Ridge was instrumental in building the atomic bomb during World War II. Currently, the Laboratory is the source of experiments in discovering Mirror Dimensions (more on that later).

One of the first things we should mention is the masterminds behind the show are Matt & Ross Duffer, known professionally as “The Duffer Brothers”. Their birthplace was none other than Durham North Carolina. This will play a deep part in the connections to East Tennessee as Durham is direct as the crow flies from Oak Ridge.

Most of the series is filmed south of us in Atlanta and the surrounding areas. In fact, the Hawkins National Laboratory is the now-closed Georgia Mental Health Institute, while the actual ORNL is a sprawling still used high-tech center.

The series creators were inspired by the Montauk project, a story so strange it brings mind experiments into time travel and even connects to the Philadelphia Experiment. Our friends over at Tales from the Dark made a great primer video for Camp Hero and its connections to Stranger Things, it’s definitely worth a watch:

While it’s easy to bring up references on the show, like the “Etowah River”, which is close to the shooting areas of the show and south of Oak Ridge itself. In Season 3, at the Roane County fair, a 1982 World’s Fair shirt from Knoxville is shown for a brief moment. But the strangest connection is what is actually going on at the ORNL, namely looking for our own “Upside Down“.

At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee, physicist Leah Broussard is trying to open a portal to a parallel universe.

She calls it an “oscillation” that would lead her to “mirror matter,” but the idea is fundamentally the same. In a series of experiments she plans to run at Oak Ridge this summer, Broussard will send a beam of subatomic particles down a 50-foot tunnel, past a powerful magnet and into an impenetrable wall. If the setup is just right — and if the universe cooperates — some of those particles will transform into mirror-image versions of themselves, allowing them to tunnel right through the wall. And if that happens, Broussard will have uncovered the first evidence of a mirror world right alongside our own.

Scientists are searching for a mirror universe. It could be sitting right in front of you. – By Corey S. Powell

Certainly, parallels could be imagined between this mirror world and the Upside Down. That this is even happening while a show is exploring those very same subjects makes me want to go stock up on bear traps in case something makes its way through.

This season of Stranger Things also touches on the Satanic Panic of the late Eighties. I wrote a bit last year about my experiences back then and how it was in full force (some argue it still is) in this area. It is important to remember that the West Memphis Three case was spurred by this misinformation and happened on the border of Tennessee and Arkansas.

The second part of Season 4 returns to Netflix in July. I can’t wait to see it. While the show may take place in the fictional town of Hawkins, Stranger Things lives in the heart of East Tennessee.