Stranger Things season 3 episode names come with big hints

Netflix released a new teaser trailer for Stranger Things season three over the weekend, and it comes with more than a sneak preview of the delayed season. Embedded within the clip are what appear to be big hints at the story to come.

Unlike the show’s second season, which included nine episodes, it appears that season three will only have eight as the teaser lists what are mostly likely those episodes’ titles.

Here’s the full list:

• “Suzie, Do You Copy?;”
• “The Mall Rats;”
• “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard;”
• “The Sauna Test;”
• “The Source;”
• “The Birthday;”
• “The Bite;”
• ”The Battle of Starcourt.”

We don’t know much about the plot of this new season of the show, after the show’s young heroes help save their hometown — and maybe the whole world — at the end of last season. However, the first teaser released for the season, which was released earlier this fall, featured an ’80s-style commercial about the town’s new Starcourt Mall. Combined with the the episode titles and the recently announced tie-in game, we get a sense that the mall may be the backdrop of most of season three — including the battle the last episode seems to promise. Fans are already attempting to decode the titles for further references and possible inspirations for the season, including George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and John Carpenter’s The Thing.

The teaser ends with this line: “In the summer of 1985, the adventure continues.” This is likely a pretty big clue as to when the show will be set, but it may also be a tease of when next year we’ll actually be able to see the upcoming season. Stranger Things is set to return sometime in the summer of 2019.