Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Stranger Things season 4, volume 1. 

Stranger Things season 4 has finally arrived on Netflix, but why is the series’ telekinetic superhero Eleven being called Jane by so many people? Since she escaped from Hawkins National Laboratory in Stranger Things season 1, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has saved the world twice, and in the process, she has discovered new friends and family. She has loved, lost, and returned to the people she cares about all while trying to discover exactly who she is and what her place is in the world.

Following the events of Stranger Things season 2, Eleven was taken in by Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour), remaining largely secluded from the world due to her powers. Following Hopper’s apparent death and the extinguishing of her powers by the Mind Flayer at the end of season 3, she relocated to California with Joyce (Winona Ryder), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Will Byers (Noah Schnapp). The hope was for a fresh start and a normal life for all of them, but, as it turned out, Eleven was soon being bullied by other children at her new school.

Related: Stranger Things 4 Fixes Everything That Went Wrong In Season 2

While the people who know her best still call her Eleven or El in Stranger Things season 4, the bullies, the teachers, and the police all refer to Eleven as Jane instead - and the reason for this is simple. Jane is Eleven's birth name, given to her by her biological mother, Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins). This was before Ives’ mind was destroyed by electroshock therapy performed on her by Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) at Hawkins Lab. At the End of Stranger Things season 2, Brenner’s successor at the lab, Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser), used his government connections to legally make Eleven Chief Hopper’s daughter, complete with a birth certificate saying her name was “Jane Hopper.”

Stranger Things- Eleven and Hopper

In many ways, Eleven only using the name Jane in public is a necessary safety precaution due to her past. Given her abilities and everything she has done, she is always likely to be a target or an easy person to blame. The events of Stranger Things season 4 certainly seem to back this up, given that some of the branches of the government are trying to blame her for the deaths in Hawkins that are being perpetrated by the terrifying Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).

Of course, Eleven's name change can also be considered more figuratively. In Stranger Things season 4, Eleven is initially negotiating her way through the world without the use of the superpowers she has had in previous seasons. She is literally an ordinary girl at the start of the season, and she has a regular name to reflect that change.

By extension, this may also provide the possibility that Jane Hopper is effectively a classic superhero alias for Eleven. What is increasingly apparent is that Stranger Things season 4 is leaning fully into the concept of Eleven being the superhero that Hawkins and, by extension, the world needs. Of course, that need cuts both ways, and it is made clear that Eleven wants her powers back and to be that hero again. This explains why she goes with Dr. Owens, leaving a note for her boyfriend, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), to say she has “gone to become a superhero again.” With Vecna being revealed as her original nemesis and a terrifying mirror to her powers, Stranger Things season 4 has already shown that Hawkins will need Eleven the superhero more than it will need Jane Hopper when the season concludes.

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