The penultimate batch of Stranger Things episodes dropped over Christmas, and a lot went down in that trio. Along with big revelations about the Upside Down, audiences also got to see the characters reach some closure before the series finale.
Specifically, Jonathan and Nancy broke up and Will came out as gay to the core cast. In a big spoiler-heavy interview with Variety, creators Matt and Ross Duffer said they wanted to ensure everyone “really resolved those tensions or conflicts” ahead of the big fight with Vecna. “If the party’s actually going to be able to defeat this great evil, they have to be all working at the best of their ability,” said Ross Duffer. “Whether those conflicts are external with others, or internal with themselves, they all have to be on the same page.”
For Will’s scene, Matt Duffer called it the longest scene the pair worked on of the entire season. After cutting the scene in season four because there wasn’t space for it, they were “so concerned” about nailing it and ensuring it was “resonating and truthful” for Will’s actor Noah Schnapp. Duffer said he was brought to tears after reading it, and it came time to shoot, he “seemed to access something incredibly truthful. It didn’t feel like Noah was acting. I think he completely lost himself in that scene, and that take is what wound up in the show.”
As for Nancy and Jon, one of the longer relationship threads across Stranger Things, Matt said that was also something they’d wanted to wrap up for a while. To the Duffers, the two “needed” to break up and be their own people. “They do love each other very much,” he noted, “but at the same time, there’s a very real conflict in the sense that they have gone through something very unique and challenging. Can they ever form a connection with someone that is as meaningful as this? But also, how do you grow as a person on your own? You need that independence.”
The only character thread left hanging is Eleven’s and whether she can live without putting the world in danger. And the answer to that question will come in the final episode of Stranger Things, hitting Netflix on New Years Eve.
Stranger Things Season 5 hasn’t dropped any notable deaths so far, but the end of the relationship we’ve all been rooting for…hurts a bit more, no?
The gang is held up in a life-or-death situation, and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) made some heated confessions towards each other while being consumed by goo. Jonathan says he doesn’t like reading Nancy’s articles, and Nancy admits that she doesn’t like The Clash (one of Jonathan’s favorite bands, in case you forgot). So, it seems like they are incompatible in the long run.
Jonathan then reveals that he’s been carrying around a ring for her in case he does want to propose, but he brings up an “un-proposal,” saying, “Nancy Wheeler, will you not marry me?” The goo stops them from perishing, and the two embrace in a hug. Was it just mixed signals and in the heat of a moment kind of decision?
Did Nancy & Jonathan break up in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2?
Yes, the Duffer Brothers confirmed that one of Hawkins’ most beloved couples has broken up. “That’s a breakup,” Matt Duffer told People. “They are broken up.”
The Duffer Brothers knew about their fate for a while, and emphasized that the two characters are just not in the same place as they were in at the start of their romance. “It’s hard to recall when exactly that idea came, but I think us — and the writers — all felt that Nancy needed to end up on her own and be independent and have an opportunity to find herself,” Matt explains.
“I mean, how many people wind up with their girlfriend or boyfriend that they met in high school?” Matt continues, but it’s a little different with Jancy since they “have a little bit more of a complicated relationship than normal high schoolers.” Ross said that their relationship was tied together by a “trauma bond.”
Despite them being broken up on screen, Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton are still going strong. “It’s been a gift to work with my best friend,” he told Wonderland in November. “To be able to have a shared experience with your partner about the anxiety when you don’t get a job – I know what that feels like, she knows what that feels like.”
It’s been almost 10 years since Netflix dropped an original series that io9 took an interest in because of its overt riffs on Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. Initially, though, we weren’t sure if it was “io9” enough to cover. Would it actually contain bona fide sci-fi horror elements, or would it just be a fun little show about ’80s kids on their bikes having adventures?
Obviously, five seasons later, we know that Stranger Things is very much a supernaturally focused series, and it’s become a massive cultural phenomenon that regularly transcends its burnished spot on Netflix’s Top 10. Not only has it launched careers (remember when Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine were the biggest names in the cast?), its popularity has trickled into the realms of music, games, and even food.
Along with a fresh set of stats trumpeting Stranger Things‘ ever-rising ratings—boosted by its fifth and final season, which drops a fresh trio of episodes this week—Netflix has shared a press release examining the show’s impact beyond its staggering view count. (Though if you’re curious, seasons 1-4 “have garnered more than 1.2B views to date, the most views for any Netflix show”; meanwhile, the first volume of season five “has already reached 102.6M views globally, and all five seasons still remain in the Top 10 this week.”)
A fun note in the release calls out the show’s most-rewatched scenes, which are Nancy’s possession by Vecna in season four, episode seven (which contains some important details about Vecna’s future plans), and the big “NeverEnding Story” duet between long-distance sweeties Dustin and Suzie in season three, episode eight.
We already knew Kate Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” enjoyed chart-topping success after its repeated use in season four; it’s also already been reused in season five. Another song getting a boost specifically from season five is Diana Ross’ “Upside Down,” which “saw a 1,250% increase in global Gen Z streams.”
While every other generation waits in terror to see if a full-on disco comeback will follow, there have also been noticeable upticks in streams of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” (because pop stars do know about monsters, Holly!), the Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” (already a horror staple thanks to Halloween II), and ABBA’s “Fernando,” which is exactly the right song for a wine mom’s bubble bath before she has to fight a Demogorgon.
Netflix would also like you to know that “between the debuts of season one in 2016 and season four in 2022, the Dungeons & Dragons universe, which is a favorite of Eddie Munson and the Hellfire Club, saw a meteoric growth of 673%,” a claim that doesn’t mention, as Variety pointed out, that D&D has “made many big strides of its own over the last nine years, including a 2023 feature film, expansions to the game itself, and more,” though that does include some Stranger Things collaborations.
Netflix’s press release also touts the success of Stranger Things‘ many tie-in releases, including those red-filled Chips Ahoy cookies (the release doesn’t mention Peanut Butter Boppers or, oddly, Eggo waffles), Nike’s subtle-by-comparison Dunk Low sneakers featuring an upside-down logo, books and comics, and the immersive Stranger Things: The Experience.
As the show winds down (three episodes arrive on Christmas, then the grand finale hits New Year’s Eve), it seems likely that the merch train will continue to chug along for Stranger Things (have you seen the Creel House Lego set?)—and that Netflix will probably break some more viewership records before we see the last of Vecna. No doubt there will be more retro songs resurfaced in the remainder of the season. Plus, that animated spin-off arriving next year will surely also help keep Stranger fever alive.
While veggie chips, barbecue chicken, and economy-sized jugs of K-Y Jelly may sound like a shopping list for a very specific adult picnic, these items are also essential ingredients for creating Vecna, the big baddie at the center of Stranger Things, the hit Netflix show lurching eerily through its fifth and final season.
Barrie Gower, the makeup special effects department head for the show’s fourth and fifth seasons, was largely responsible for developing and executing Vecna’s look, both last season’s initial styling, which required Jamie Campbell Bower to don 25 overlapping pieces of full-body prosthetics in a seven-ish hour process, and what Gower and the team call “Vecna 2.0,” the character’s decidedly crispier and less solid current form, having been set on fire and, oh, blasted out of our dimension in the season 4 finale.
If Vecna’s tentacle-like vines, which occasionally spew viscous black goo in service of their master, aren’t enough to put you off your lunch, Gower’s comparisons just might.
“Vecna’s color tone is made up of vegetable chips,” he tells Vanity Fair. “I can see, oh, there’s parsnip, there’s the beetroot, there’s the so and so…we looked at so many beautiful, different things from the animal kingdom. We just reference real life.”
That grounding in organic materials and the real world is especially helpful because Vecna, like many of the ghoulish characters and effects on the show, is a hybrid creation of Bower’s performance, practical costuming and prosthetics, and CGI. Gower’s team collaborated closely with the visual effects department, led by Betsy Paterson, to synthesize real and fantasy elements to create the horrific world of Stranger Things.
“There’s a lot of back and forth with Barrie,” Paterson says. “We send them concept art. He sends back sculpts, and it just goes back and forth, and we try to figure out the best way that he can build things that will allow Jamie’s performance to come through, but also give us a really good base to add all the kind of moving detail on top of.”
Duncan Jarman adds the final touch—a coat of lube—to Jamie Campbell Bower’s Vecna. As Gower recalls, “He would tend to leave a little trail. It would be great seeing execs come on set and go up to Jamie and go to hug him and see him smile, thinking, they’re going to regret that.”Niko Tavernise/Netflix.
It’s December 10, 2025, and it’s time for another roundup of our favorite current trending songs on TikTok. From Usher to Post Malone, we’re celebrating some of our favorite artists climbing the charts this week. We’re hearing old songs we haven’t heard in a while, and some from our favorite TV shows (aka Stranger Things season five is finally here). What a week it’s been for pop culture!
Here are the viral trending TikTok audios we’ve been obsessed with this week.
‘White Iverson’ By Post Malone
With the 10th anniversary of Post Malone’s STONEY comes a resurgence of fans’ favorite song, ‘White Iverson.’ We love that Post Malone songs truly never die, especially on the internet, when we’ve all grown up with him and his music. Now it’s time to take it to TikTok! Grab a basketball, head to your nearest fast food stop, and participate in this hilarious trend.
Stranger Things 5is here, which means the song that started it all is back on the TikTok charts. Grab your air guitar because ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ is stuck on our FYPs and is definitely not going anywhere anytime soon. Make this trend extra Stranger Things-esque with the Upside Down filter in the back of your videos. Get to filming, Hawkins!
‘CHANEL’ By TYLA
If you haven’t posted to TYLA’s famous ‘Chanel’ dance yet, what are you doing? Seriously, this dance has been in our minds and all over our FYPs for the past few weeks. Now, we can’t stop listening to her new song and hoping for new music soon! Which popular TYLA song is your favorite?
Usher and Juicy J have dominated our feed this week, just like they dominated the early 2000s. ‘I Don’t Mind’ is just one of those songs that’s been stuck in our heads! But, hey, we don’t mind. Take to TikTok with this audio, sharing an embarrassing story or something you’re scared to admit but really don’t mind. Tag us so we can see!
Although Ariana Grande is everywhere lately due to Wicked: For Good, we’re bringing it back to the Thank U, Next era. ‘Needy’ was one of our favorite songs from this album, and we’re so, so happy it’s made its way back onto our feeds this week. Most importantly, it’s been finding its way into a lot of edit pages (keep the amazing edits coming!)
Which of these audios have you been hearing on your FYP this week? What are your predictions for trending songs for next week? Let us know by chatting in the comments or buzzing us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
The wait is finally over, and Stranger Things is back on our screens this holiday weekend.
The epic final season of the Duffer Brothers’ smash supernatural retro series rips open the Upside Down to see how the threat arrived in Hawkins. Between Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) taking more kids and the government seeking out Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Stranger Things‘ gang of heroes must gather the troops and be ready for anything.
Nancy (Natalia Dyer) leads the charge alongside Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) in planning to kill Vecna—while also skirting government surveillance to find out what the military is doing in the Upside Down since the ground ripped open in their town.
Eleven hones her powers for a final showdown against Vecna, who is recruiting Hawkins youth while disguised as Henry and calling himself Mr. Whatsit; his targets include Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher). With both Vecna and the government causing chaos, Steve (Joe Keery), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Robin (Maya Hawke), and Erica (Priah Ferguson) all step up to be Hawkins’ saviors.
But it’s Will (Noah Schnapp) and Max (Sadie Sink), whose connections to the Upside Down may come in handy to back up Eleven, that really have us so hyped for the rest of the season.
Here are the things we liked about season five, volume one—and some of the things we didn’t like as much.
Will getting the “goosies” is how he taps into the hive mind, and that makes him this season’s secret weapon. His ability to access the shared consciousness that powers Vecna finally comes in handy, giving Hawkins’ heroes a man on the inside who can spot incoming threats.
Liked: The radio station
Robin works as Hawkins’ radio DJ and is the voice of the station she, Steve, and Nancy run. It’s a way to send covert messages to their team, including Murray (Brett Gelman) and Hopper, about the government’s moves—if you pay attention to her yapping in between the choice music played. Loved the Diana Ross “Upside Down” needle drop. The home base change is welcome and adds a new layer of nostalgia for the days before music streaming and the heyday of radio personalities.
Plus, it feels very Star Wars to jack into the radio signals to track the bad guys and figure out how to smuggle weapons and goods in and out of Hawkins. Steve gives us Han Solo vibes to the max when he drives the mobile station, intercepting radio signals of the Upside Down while Hopper is in there doing more spy business. Dustin, as his co-pilot and tech genius, wins our hearts.
Didn’t like: Jonathan’s obsession with Steve
Ever since his return from California, Jonathan has been focusing on Steve being better than him to a weird degree. Their competition for Nancy’s attention is tiring, and even Steve is sick of it. He rightfully calls out Jonathan for focusing more on him than Nancy because he just sucks as a boyfriend. Steve has demonstrated he has been in the trenches with the kids protecting them and has matured since his high school jerk days. It’s emotional growth Jonathan lacks and won’t be fixed by proposing to Nancy, which gave us the ick when we saw the ring Murray smuggled for him. I dread the moment he’ll pop the question.
Didn’t Like: Not enough Henry Creel origin explanation
Fans lucky enough to attend the Stranger Things: The First Shadow play (or, barring an actual theater visit, who scoured TikTok for recaps of it) will be more in the know about Henry Creel’s past than folks who just watch the series. We get a little glimpse of his younger years in the show, but not enough to really understand what his going to school with Joyce, Hopper, Bob Newby, and a random Harrington means. In the play, as he’s learning about his powers with Brenner, he’s fighting the mind flayer’s control with the help of Patty Newby, Bob’s sister.
Liked: Vecna as Mr. Whatsit
In the awesome Frank Darabont-directed third episode, we see Henry return to an idyllic version of his home, frozen in time within the period he was last there. His new plan is so creepy because while he is actually Freddy Krueger-like and stalks kids, he’s luring them as a friendly man in his Henry form who wants to save them from the monsters. It’s so eerie, and the Americana version of his mansion’s wonderland, where he acts like Mister Rogers around Holly Wheeler and others, is chillingly perfect.
Nancy becoming the de facto leader is giving Sarah Connor vibes—in a season where Linda Hamilton shows up to boot. Vecna taking Holly after attacking the Wheeler parents really changes her and makes her more interested in destroying Vecna than boys (thank god). She’s the brains behind the operation, guiding every player on the table to use their skills to defeat Vecna. Under her leadership, they figure out that Vecna is targeting kids and hatch a plan to protect them.
Didn’t Like: Not enough Dr. Kay
Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay is such an iconic choice, and her introduction was one we were anticipating as soon as we learned about her casting. Season five is juggling a lot of characters, so maybe it’s to be expected that we haven’t gotten much Kay so far. But knowing that she’s basically the new Brenner-esque big bad in the lab working for the government gives us the heebie jeebies. We want to know more about why she wants Eleven and whether or not she really intends to find a way to control Vecna.
Liked: Robin and Will’s connection
Will coming into his own with Robin’s help is such a sweet subplot. Will and Robin recognize one another in ways the others can’t, and it rings so true. Robin being a mentor to Will to help him embrace who he is, melding with his acceptance of his connection to the Upside Down, really builds to the best payoff in volume one.
Eleven’s training montage was sick, and seeing her really lean into her powers finally in the Upside Down was so cool. She’s grown up, and Hopper did good with his ward in helping her be empowered by those she loves. Whether or not she’s the one to deal the final blow (we presume) to Vecna, we can’t wait to see it.
Steve and Dustin still have our whole hearts; this show better not touch one hair or curl on their heads. (We know it will.) And that’s what’s so great about the show: every friendship dynamic, not just theirs, and even the new ones like Will and Robin, really feel relatable and that much more critical when they’re in danger. Plus, all the new kids, including Holly, get great moments to shine in their kidnapping plot, which feels very Amblin-meets-Wes Craven-by-way-of-Goonies. So many funny moments within the breakneck action!
Liked: Max lives (sort of)!
Max is alive, in a way; she’s living in Henry’s head and can see his memories as well as his plans. Seeing Sadie Sink’s return as a hero in the “dreamworld” realm of the Upside Down is freaking epic as she guides Holly away from Henry’s deceptions. She’s also a way in to seek out Vecna’s weaknesses and has survived long enough to outsmart him in his own mind by hiding in a cave.
Didn’t Like: The mysterious cave
Okay, so I found the introduction of the cave annoying because I know it’s where Henry first encountered the entity that powers the Upside Down, which is explained in the Stranger Things play. I know it’s still just volume one, but doling out incremental information doesn’t help viewers really understand why this setting matters and why Vecna gets super scared of the cave.
Eight is back! Turns out she’s who Kay has been using to seek out Vecna in the Upside Down base, much like how Brenner was trying to use Eleven to do the same in earlier seasons. Seeing her return is exciting and finally connects her missing thread to the action. It gives Eleven her sister back, which we love.
Will and Vecna meet face-to-face in the middle of the action, where the Demogorgons are snatching kids left and right. It’s terrifying and pulled off in a way where you think Hawkins’ heroes are taking another L, especially when Vecna says he picked Will because he was weak, just like the others he needs to take back with him. And just as you think the Demogorgons are about to kill Mike, Joyce, Lucas, and Robin—Will taps into the hive to take control of the Demogorgons, then destroys them with newfound psychic powers in the same way Vecna killed Chrissy. He successfully turns the tables on Vecna, and it’s such a great payoff to see him reclaim his agency against his kidnapper.
More Stranger Things season five episodes arrive December 25, with the grand finale dropping December 31 on Netflix.
The end is nigh for Stranger Things, as the first part of the show’s fifth and final season premiered on Netflix earlier this week. The final season is rolling out in three volumes, and so is the newly announced soundtrack. Legacy has today shared the first part of Stranger Things: Soundtrack From the Netflix Series, Season 5; the second volume is following on Friday, December 26, and the complete soundtrack arriving on Thursday, January 1.
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer curated the final season’s soundtrack with music supervisor Nora Felder. The compilation includes period-appropriate songs from Michael Jackson, ABBA, and others. Check out songs from the final season in the playlist below, and scroll down for a new trailer for the show. Head here to learn more about the music in Stranger Things.
Four new episodes of Stranger Things came out this week. Three more episodes air on Christmas, and the series finale premieres on New Year’s Eve. Each batch of episodes hits Netflix on 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the release date.
V/A: Stranger Things: Soundtrack From the Netflix Series, Season 5
From the start, Stranger Things has freely referenced elements of ’80s pop culture. Sometimes they’re simply used to establish where the series is in time. (If Mike’s singing Corey Hart’s “Never Surrender,” it must be 1985.) But sometimes they play a central role in the action, as with Max’s deep connection to Kate Bush, or they reflect and comment upon the events of the series. When the Hawkins boys dress up like little Ghostbusters, for instance, they may not realize they’re essentially playing similar roles in their own lives, but we do. And of course, Dungeons & Dragons has long served as a guiding force both for the characters and the show itself.
As the fifth and final season of Stranger Things kicks off, dark times have returned to Hawkins, Indiana. Darker than usual, even: After the explosive conclusion of Stranger Things 4, the town has (kind of understandably) been placed under quarantine. That doesn’t mean it has been totally cut off from the outside world, however. From its fashion to its snacks to its movie references, Hawkins remains very much a part of the 1980s, though older pop-culture items have played a more prominent role so far this season. Set in the fall of 1987, Stranger Things 5 leaps forward over a year in time from the end of Stranger Things 4, and while that’s not a huge jump, the new episodes contain plenty of references specific to that year alongside some golden oldies. To help parse which are simply of-the-moment Easter eggs and which may be this season’s “Running Up That Hill,” here’s an episode-by-episode guide (featuring lots of spoilers) to the pop culture that’s keeping our Hawkins crew connected to their right side up world.
Linda Hamilton As Dr. Kay Starting with Winona Ryder, Stranger Things has made a habit of casting ’8os stars, often to play parts that contrast with the roles that made them famous. The quintessential late-’80s teen, Ryder here plays a fretful mom. A heartless scumbag in Aliens, Paul Reiser showed up as a sympathetic scientist. And so on. The casting of Linda Hamilton continues that trend. In the Terminator films, Hamilton played heroine Sarah Connor, a damsel in distress who becomes a hard-ass warrior. We haven’t yet seen enough of Dr. Kay to make any definitive judgment about the character, but she doesn’t seem eager to help the Stranger Things heroes. In fact, she appears to be the driving force behind all the reckless tampering being done to the Upside Down. Sarah Connor would almost certainly not approve.
A Wrinkle in Time / Mr. Whatsit Madeleine L’Engle’s classic 1962 science-fiction-fantasy novel was rarely cited alongside Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, and others as a source of inspiration for Stranger Things until the Duffer Brothers dropped a pretty unmissable hint by titling this season’s forthcoming sixth episode “Escape From Camazotz,” a reference to a planet that plays a key role in the book. (Holly makes the connection even more clear in the fourth episode.) But the hints have been there all along: mysterious disappearances, travels through the fabric of space-time, dark forces that must be defeated by a family of heroes. The L’Engle influence is hard to miss once you start looking for it. Later, we learn Holly has named her imaginary friend — or more accurately, “imaginary” “friend” — Mr. Whatsit after Mrs. Whatsit, one of three mysterious figures who play key roles in the novel. (If you know only the 2018 Ava DuVernay film, she’s played by Reese Witherspoon.) Holly’s paperback edition was first published in 1976, and its striking cover will be instantly recognizable to readers of her generation. Yet the artist behind it remained a mystery until a few years ago when the Boston public-radio station WBUR’s Endless Thread, with the help of Adam Rowe, author of the Retro Sci-Fi Art newsletter, identified it as the work of prolific commercial artist Richard Bober.
The Fall John Coltrane, A Love Supreme Jonathan Byers’s love of punk and alternative music has factored into the series from the first episode. That he’s wearing a Fall T-shirt suggests he hasn’t lost his taste for the cutting edge. Formed in 1976 and hailing from Manchester, England, the Fall was essentially singer Mark E. Smith and whoever was playing with him at any given moment, though some lineups lasted longer than others over the group’s 42-year existence. While often lumped in with punk, the Fall experimented with multiple styles over the years, with Smith’s biting wit and inimitable delivery serving as constants. If Jonathan likes the Fall’s willingness to experiment and push beyond long-established musical boundaries, Murray is correct in suspecting he’ll love John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, the 1965 release that was the saxophonist’s crowning accomplishment (though most editions do not include the bonus material revealed in the show’s third episode).
Robin’s “Beam Me Up, This Place Sucks!” Sweatshirt Robin’s shirt is, of course, a reference to Star Trek, a ’60s show that was still very much in the conversation throughout the 1980s thanks to syndicated reruns; a film series (whose then-most-recent outing, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, premiered in the summer of 1986); and Star Trek: The Next Generation, which debuted just a few weeks before the events of this episode. Robin’s being a fan makes perfect sense, as does this sarcastic shirt. Its design seems original to Stranger Things (you can even buy your own in the Netflix store), but variations like “Beam me up, Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here!” have commonly been found on unlicensed merchandise for decades.
The Psychedelic Furs, “Pretty in Pink” Michael Jackson, “Rockin’ Robin” The Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go” Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill” Diana Ross, “Upside Down” Is WSQK an oldies station? Despite being staffed by high-school students and recent grads, Hawkins’s local doesn’t seem too interested in playing the hits of the day. The Psychedelic Furs’ “Pretty in Pink” is the most recent song on its playlist (at least that we hear). Recorded in 1981, it got a second life when John Hughes borrowed both the title and a newly rerecorded version of the song for his 1986 film of the same name. This helps explain why Robin sends it out to her sweetheart, Vickie (Amybeth McNulty), and why Vickie is styled to resemble Molly Ringwald.
Robin also plays Michael Jackson’s 1972 cover of “Rockin’ Robin,” a hit for singer Bobby Day in 1958. The track provides both Robin’s DJ name and her theme song, though she’s not the first Stranger Things character to get a song of their own. The opening scene serves as a reminder of the role played by the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in the lives of the Byers boys, and Lucas’s bedside vigil for Max finds him playing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on repeat. (It’s a great song, but isn’t it possible that even those in a coma could get sick of hearing it after a while?)
Finally, Stranger Things probably deserves some credit for waiting this long to feature Diana Ross’s “Upside Down,” a last-days-of-disco hit written by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards that topped the charts in September 1980 and soundtracks the closing credits of this episode. It came out after Ross starred 1978’s The Wiz, Sidney Lumet’s film version of the Broadway musical that transplanted The Wizard of Oz to an urban setting. Robin is correct in calling the movie a “flop-a-rooni”; Hollywood used its dismal box-office performance to dramatically dial back the production of films with Black talent for years. But The Wiz wasn’t Ross’s first big-screen venture. She’d previously starred in the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues and the 1975 drama Mahogany.
Lucas’s Hi-Top Fade In case you’d forgotten the Stranger Things timeline has moved into the late 1980s, check out Lucas’s hair. He was a little ahead of the curve last season when he started sporting the short-on-the-sides, tall-on-top hairstyle synonymous with late-’80s hip-hop and is still something of an early adopter in 1987 — the style’s high-water mark was 1988, when it figured prominently in music videos by, among others, Big Daddy Kane and Kid ’N Play (though as a budding basketball star, Lucas might also have been looking to the late-’80s NBA for inspiration). It’s a bold choice but one that makes sense: The events of Stranger Things have emboldened our heroes to stop caring what everyone else thinks and to be themselves, some by antagonizing bullies, others by trying on mold-breaking new looks.
Coca-Cola Classic In 1985, the Coca-Cola Company introduced a new formula that proved famously unpopular. “New Coke” figured into Stranger Things’s third season (which inspired a brief revival), but it took only three months in real life for the old Coke to return as the rebranded Coca-Cola Classic, the name seen on the can in this episode.
Jake the Snake The season premiere introduces an ill-fated snake named Jake. While it’s possible that he’s just called Jake because the name rhymes with snake, it seems highly likely that Jake is named for Jake “the Snake” Roberts, a wrestler then enjoying his first wave of popularity after making a splashy WWF debut in 1986. As his nickname suggests, Roberts made a trademark of bringing snakes to his matches. Though retired as a performer, Roberts remains active in the wrestling world despite a series of health problems.
Rainbow Brite Holly’s room is filled with items designed to appeal to ’80s girls, including images of the Care Bears and a poster for Don Bluth’s 1986 animated feature An American Tail. That Holly also likes Rainbow Brite, a Hallmark-created franchise that debuted in 1984, doesn’t seem especially surprising or even all that relevant. But hold on a second: What’s the premise of Rainbow Brite, again? As depicted in the animated 1984 prime-time special Peril in the Pits, it concerns a cheerful, colorfully attired girl named Rainbow Brite whose adventures take her to a dark underground land called “the Pits” (a place where things are kind of upside down, if you will). Is this foreshadowing? Is there any chance Holly will befriend a flying horse this season?
ABBA, “Fernando” ABBA’s 1976 hit, which plays as the Demogorgon invades the Wheeler house, recounts a conversation between two aging revolutionaries as they recall a decisive battle. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to connect its lyrics to the events of Stranger Things 5, which has already started to feel like Hawkins’s Last Stand. But that’s in the song’s English- and Spanish-language versions: The original Swedish lyrics are about a lovelorn guy named Fernando. Since ABBA is sort of active again, maybe the group can rework the words once more for the show. Can you hear the Eggos, El-ando? That doesn’t quite work, does it?
Peanut Butter Boppers Gone but not forgotten, these lunchbox-friendly snacks were essentially globs of peanut butter rolled into tubes and surrounded by candy. (Its crunchy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside structure will later provide a crucial bit of inspiration for Steve.) Yet because they were marketed as wholesome snacks by Nature Valley, they didn’t seem like junk food despite varieties with names like Fudge Chip and Cookie Crunch. Though an immediate hit, Peanut Butter Boppers didn’t survive past the ’80s, though Nature Valley’s site includes a recipe that empowers nostalgic snackers to make their own. Their inclusion here doubles as an homage to Joel Schumacher’s 1987 film The Lost Boys, in which they also make an appearance.
Flux Capacitor To work a scheme of their own, Robin and Will exploit Joyce having been too busy for the past few years repeatedly saving her family/the world from the dark forces of the Upside Down to take the time to watch the 1985 blockbuster Back to the Future. Come on, Joyce. Priorities! Thankfully, she still has two years to catch up before the release of Back to the Future Part II in 1989, and though we’ve yet to see it this season, Hawkins’s Family Video is presumably still in operation. In fact, the chain hung in there longer than most video stores. It was ultimately undone by the COVID-19 lockdown and shuttered its last outpost in 2021.
Lowrey’s Beef Jerky These days, beef jerky mostly comes in plastic bags, but it wasn’t always so, as Hopper’s can of Upside Down survival snacks reminds us. Though less ubiquitous now than in 1987, Lowrey’s still sells jerky in cylindrical packages that resemble those used for tennis balls, though the packaging has changed.
Play-Doh Creepies Despite the name, there’s nothing particularly creepy about Play-Doh Creepies. The sets provided molds kids could use to create little reptilelike animals (or, as the packaging dubbed them, “colorful critters”). Still, the inclusion of Creepies may not be accidental — we don’t yet know what Dr. Kay is up to, and we’ve certainly seen the Upside Down spit out its fair share of weird beasts over the years.
Tiffany, “I Think We’re Alone Now” Holly wasn’t alone in loving Tiffany in 1987. Born Tiffany Darwish in Norwalk, California, Tiffany attempted to break into country music and appeared on Star Search before recording her eponymous first album at the age of 14. Released in June 1987, Tiffany’s first single, “Danny,” stiffed, but the unusual gambit of touring shopping malls from coast to coast helped turn the album’s second single into an inescapable hit. A cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’s 1967 hit “I Think We’re Alone Now” made Tiffany a star thanks in part to a squeaky-clean, parent-friendly image that offset the song’s slightly naughty lyrics. (Though in this context, lines like “There doesn’t seem to be anyone around” take on a more sinister cast.) Changing tastes, legal squabbles, and the poorly received 1989 follow-up, Hold an Old Friend’s Hand, made Tiffany’s moment at the top short-lived, but she’s still hanging in there, continuing to record and tour while taking the occasional acting role and reality-show appearance.
David Bowie’s READ Poster In 1985, the American Library Association kicked off its popular ongoing Celebrity READ Campaign, a series of posters featuring famous faces encouraging kids (and everyone else) to read books. The first READ poster featured Bill Cosby, but Stranger Things has opted to spotlight a less problematic star: David Bowie. Issued in 1987, the poster finds a barefoot Bowie dressed in a letterman jacket and reading Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Bowie was an avid reader and his list of 100 favorite books features an eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction including everyone from Dante to Fran Lebowitz. Dostoevsky, however, didn’t make the cut.
Garbage Pail Kids G.I. Joe Pee-wee’s Big Adventure Masters of the Universe Transformers Derek Turnbow’s room doubles as a dumping ground of ’80s pop-culture items — it’s almost as if the show’s production designers used it to squeeze in all the references that wouldn’t fit into the rest of the show. Or maybe it’s not; maybe every item could reflect another aspect of the series. What are the wildly popular, controversially tasteless Garbage Pail Kids if not Cabbage Patch Kids from the Upside Down? Who are our heroes if not scrappy G.I. Joes standing up to Vecna’s Cobra Commander? (The key role played by Derek’s G.I. Joe lunchbox in the fourth episode only underlines this.) Along with G.I. Joe, both Transformers and Masters of the Universe were media properties that began as toy lines; like Holly’s beloved Care Bears and Rainbow Brite, they benefited from Reagan-era deregulation of the FTC that allowed the once-solid boundaries between programming and advertising to get extremely blurry. The Pee-wee’s Big Adventure poster suggests Derek has good taste but also brings to mind Pee-wee’s rival, Francis (Mark Holton), another rich boy with all the toys money can buy.
Ghosts ’n Goblins Hang-On Derek’s room also includes an abundance of video games. He can be seen enjoying Ghosts ’n Goblins, the first entry in an ongoing franchise in which characters in a fantasy kingdom have to defeat a variety of, well, ghosts ’n goblins (and other foes). One lucky (or spoiled, depending on your outlook) first-generation gamer, Derek even has a full-size arcade game in his room: Hang-On, a 1985 racing game from Sega. Notable for its 16-bit graphics, it was part of the first wave of titles that would help the industry recover from its 1983 downturn.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) The gang’s booby-trapping of the Turnbow house may at first seem like an anachronistic homage to Home Alone, which wouldn’t hit theaters for another three years. It’s not: Stranger Things has been laying the groundwork for this moment from the start by dubbing one of its heroines Nancy, a name she shares with the protagonist of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Stranger Things owes quite a bit to Craven’s film, a debt the show tacitly acknowledged by bringing in Robert Englund, who originated the role of the dream-invading serial killer Freddy Krueger, for a part in the fourth season. In the film, Nancy outwits Krueger by drawing him into the real world, where he encounters a series of obstacles she learned to make after checking out a book titled Booby Traps & Improvised Anti-Personnel Devices from the local library. (Bowie would undoubtedly have approved.)
Tom Waits As an experienced Midwesterner, Robin knows to dress in layers when the seasons change, so beneath her Star Trek–inspired sweatshirt she sports a Tom Waits tee. Waits had been around since the early ’70s and quickly won fans with his Beat-inspired songs of life on the scuzzy side delivered in a raspy voice. In the ’80s, Waits started to take his music in a more experimental direction with a string of classic albums that included Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and, in the Stranger Things 5 year of 1987, Frank’s Wild Years. Robin seems like she’d be a big Tom Waits fan. In real life, Maya Hawke’s co-star Winona Ryder is a big Waits fan, even wearing her own T-shirt featuring him for her recent Hot Ones appearance.
The Sword in the Stone Not expecting the military police to show up and take their daughter away, the Miller family is enjoying a quiet night watching The Sword in the Stone, a 1963 Disney film that had just hit home video in 1986. One of its most famous scenes is a duel between two wizards, which seems relevant to this episode’s climactic moments.
Walden Two, by B.F. Skinner Max’s cave refuge contains a variety of knickknacks assembled seemingly at random and a copy of Walden Two, a science-fiction novel in which the psychologist B.F. Skinner depicted his idea of a utopian community. This seems to be there mostly to confirm, as she insists to Holly, that Max is living in a prison. Nobody reads Walden Two by choice.
The Chords, “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” Max begins her tour of 1959 Hawkins accompanied by the Chords’ 1954 doo-wop hit “Sh-Boom.” Like most doo-wop classics, it serves as easy shorthand to say, “Hey, it’s the 1950s!” But the whole “Life could be a dream” element takes on added meaning given Max’s current situation.
The Great Escape Not only does Robin have great taste in music, her knowledge of classic film allows her to help dream up a plan to rescue Hawkins’s imprisoned children. (All that time in the video store apparently paid off.) Released in 1963, the John Sturges–directed The Great Escape features a star-studded cast led by Steve McQueen that includes James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, and Donald Pleasence. They play inmates of a World War II P.O.W. camp who hatch an elaborate breakout plan involving, as Robin describes it, a system of tunnels. To drive the point home, this episode’s soundtrack features a snippet from Elmer Bernstein’s catchy theme song.
The group pulls a classic Home Alone on a Demogorgon, with mixed results. Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX
We’re three episodes in, and already, I am concerned about people’s sleep (or lack thereof). Admittedly, I’m always worried about whether people are getting enough sleep across all aspects of life because sleep is so important, especially for these teens! The initial crawl that went to shit was the night before, and there are no signs anyone is sneaking a nap anytime soon. The sleep deprivation, however, might explain why our group’s plans are getting more ludicrous by the hour. “The Turnbow Trap” and the plan it refers to really stretch the suspension of disbelief, but it is exciting to watch, so stretch it we will.
The other reason the crew’s plans are getting wilder and riskier is, as Will points out, because they don’t have time to play it safe. Now that Will knows he is tapping into the hive mind and getting glimpses of what Vecna can see, he and Robin have figured out that Vecna plans on kidnapping more children and his next victim is Dipshit Derek Turnbow. Don’t come at me for being mean about a little kid — everyone calls him that. And he is, in fact, a real dipshit. Not even Holly can stand Derek, and Holly seems pretty chill, aside from being so easily tricked by an evil wizard monster and blindly trusting a man no one else can see. Except for Hopper and Eleven, the whole team meets back at the Squawk to figure out what’s next.
It’s very sweet to see Will leading the discussions. He and Joyce do eventually have a heart-to-heart about their current dynamic, and Joyce apologizes for being overbearing but admits she is still carrying a lot of guilt and fear from the time he was taken. “What kind of mother doesn’t check on her 11-year-old?” she says. Winona forever, you know? She can let Will spread his wings to a point, but she is always going to be watching and looking out for him. I swear to God if Joyce sacrifices herself for Will at the end of this thing, I will be crying for days.
But now that Will knows about his connection to Vecna, and they know about Dipshit Derek, they need to figure out a way to protect him. Of course, it would be nice if they could figure out a way to protect Derek that would somehow help them in their search for Holly. And Mike might just have a way. Sure, it involves kidnapping an entire family, but it’s kidnapping to save lives, so Joyce, the only real adult in the room, is fine with it.
So, yes, Robin (with her new buddy Will) knows exactly where to find a whole bunch of benzos from the hospital, thanks to all the time she’s been spending there with Vickie. Then, they’re going to bake those benzos into a pie. Lucas and Mike have enlisted Erica — you knew she’d pop up at some point — who is best friends with Derek’s sister Tina, to be their inside woman. There is one small hiccup: Twelve days ago, they turned from best friends to archenemies because of some incident in gym and also because it’s middle school and that’s their prerogative. Still, Erica is on board once Mike explains that this isn’t really about Derek, it’s about saving Holly, and also, what they’re asking her to do will surely make it so Tina never wants anything to do with her again. A real win-win-win. That third win is for us because Lucas informs us that every member of the Turnbows is a menace, and he is not wrong. Knock ’em all out, I say. (Safely, of course.)
Erica’s the perfect person to send in to the Turnbows. She fakes a very sincere-sounding apology and offers Tina’s favorite pie as an olive branch. She’s also able to problem-solve quickly when Tina refuses to eat the pie, and though Tina’s parents and Derek have all passed out as planned, she needs a quick shot to put her to sleep. Erica has no problem administering this. (Is Erica a psychopath?)
Aside from the Tina debacle, surprisingly, almost everything else goes according to plan. Joyce, Robin, and Will take the now-fast-asleep Turnbows to a farm across town. The team shoves pillowcases on all of the Turnbows’ heads to make sure that even if they wake, Vecna can’t figure out where they’re hiding. Meanwhile, the rest of the team sets up a trap for the Demogorgon they’re sure Vecna will send for Derek once he’s believed to be fast-asleep. The goal is to get the Demogorgon in their trap long enough for Nancy to shoot a tracker into it, and then they’ll be able to follow the tracker on Dustin’s device, which will hopefully lead to Vecna and thus to Holly. The plan includes a mannequin in Derek’s bed, water balloons full of acetone to make the Demo highly flammable, some wood beams to injure the thing, and, yes, a giant square cut out of the living room floor so the monster falls down into the barbed-wire pit below, where Nancy can shoot it with the telemetry-tag tracker before Jonathan lights that baby on fire.
It all goes according to plan, more or less. It’s once the Demo takes off that there’s a problem. Our tracking team consists of Steve, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan in Steve’s now-souped-up BMW (do not even get me started on that), and the Demo is moving fast in the Upside Down. Steve has to blow through some fences and people’s backyards to keep up with it. Suddenly, Dustin sees on his equipment that the Demo has changed course — it has doubled back the way they came and is heading southeast quickly.
It’s Will who figures out what went wrong. Derek is awake and has managed to get the pillowcase off his head. It’s too late, he tells the group: Vecna knows where they are, and the Demogorgon is on its way. Dipshit Derek is really living up to his name.
Obviously, time is of the essence here, but it would be swell if the team up top could figure out a way to reestablish communication with Hopper and Eleven in the Upside Down. Those two are acting on theories they’ve hatched without updated intel, and it could prove dangerous.
We find the two of them still at the wall, but whatever that thing is made out of or whatever it’s hiding, they can’t figure out a way through; El’s powers aren’t strong enough to crack it open. They run out of time exploring it anyway. The military shows up, and they have a fancy new toy they refer to as “the hedgehog” — it emits some type of sonic blast that turns out to be El’s kryptonite (Hop’s word, not mine). As soon as it reaches her, she doubles over in pain. She can barely move, she can’t think, and she certainly can’t use her powers against it. This is a game changer.
Hopper hides them behind a collapsed billboard and tries to keep El as quiet as possible, but she is hurting. The incident almost ends without them getting noticed, but one of the military guys, Sullivan’s right-hand man, Akers, stops to take a piss on the wall and discovers a knife Hopper accidentally left behind. They turn up the power on the hedgehog, and El screams out in pain. The soldiers realize who’s there, and a shoot-out commences. I guess Hopper has been training with Eleven because he’s basically Rambo now. His grenades kill most of the soldiers, and he’s able to shoot at the hedgehog and disable it — a powered-up Eleven knocks out Akers, the last soldier standing.
Instead of just running for it, Hopper and Eleven take Akers prisoner. Hopper wants to interrogate him for info on when the next supply run is coming through so that he and Eleven can get unflipped, as it were. Eleven hates this idea — she wants to interrogate him about the wall. If he peed on it, he probably has some idea of what it is, and she is desperate to get through it. The father and daughter decide to compromise. Halfway happy, remember?
Hopper gets the face-to-face with Akers, but while he’s asking the guy for info that he really does not want to give up, Eleven is rummaging around in his brain. The soldier is terrified, begging her to get out of his head, but El’s very good at this now. She winds up in a memory of his in which he and Sullivan talk to Dr. Kay in her lab. She’s able to follow Dr. Kay down a secured hallway with a big, metal door at the end. It’s locked tight, like a vault, and Hopper presses, but Akers is adamant he doesn’t know what’s behind the door. It doesn’t matter. Once El bounces out of his head, she tells Hopper she could feel the kryptonite coming from behind the door, stronger than the machine the soldiers were driving around with. She thinks it has to be coming from someone with powers like hers — it has to be Vecna. She is convinced the military has him and is using him as a weapon. It certainly seems impossible, since we know Vecna has been freely moving around in his victims’ minds. So who or what is behind that door?
So far, we’ve done a lot of chatting about Vecna and his plans, but do we see him in action at all in this episode? Sure do. Well, at least, we see him in his Henry Creel skin, being the most thoughtful host to Holly. He’s brought her to some vision or memory or other dimension-type place where the Creel house is shiny and new and contains everything Holly could want (aside from her parents, who Henry swears he’ll bring over once they’re healed). There’s a gorgeous breakfast with her favorite foods and all the dresses she could want, and he even gives her a tape player and a Tiffany cassette. He has to leave for the day — other children to kidnap, one assumes! — and gives Holly free rein, only warning her to never go out into the woods. (Let’s forget, I guess, that if this is Vecna’s world, couldn’t he, like, fix it so she can’t go into the woods? I’m just asking questions here!!)
Holly seems content to have some me time. But it doesn’t take too long for someone to start ringing that doorbell. When Holly opens the door, no one is there, but there’s a letter inside the mailbox. The note seems to be Henry asking for her help, but he needs her to meet him out by the rocks, which are, of course, through the woods. He even drew a handy map. Holly honestly seems like a smart kid, but she’s being real dumb at the moment. None of this adds up if you think about it for more than ten seconds, but still, Holly goes on her journey through the woods. (She is dressed like a hybrid Dorothy/Little Red, after all.)
She reaches the rocks, but instead of finding Henry, she thinks she sees a monster in the cave, and so makes a run for it. It is not a monster who runs after her, though; it’s someone in boots and jeans. And when Holly looks up, she finds Max Mayfield staring back down at her. Max lives — I mean, in this vision-memory-mind trap Vecna has built. But still: Max lives.
• Listen, I know Dustin is acting out because of his grief, but he’s so mean! There’s only so many times you can accept “he’s misplacing his anger over the loss of one brother figure and putting it on to his other brother figure,” okay? When he just drills into Steve’s car to install the telemetry system? What an asshole. These two better make up — it’s already become insufferable.
• Steve does clock Dustin lying to his friends about how he got so bloodied and bruised, so maybe he’ll be instigating an emotional chat sooner rather than later.
• Speaking of insufferable, Jonathan is really brooding over this Nancy thing. As suspected, Murray snuck an engagement ring in that Coltrane cassette and is confused when he discovers Jonathan hasn’t popped the question yet. That proposal is going to be a disaster, isn’t it?
• During the interrogation, Hopper screams at Akers that he would kill a thousand soldiers “to protect the one person that [he] loves.” It might make you tear up for a second until you realize that’s a potent piece of information to just hand over to the enemy, Hop.
• Ah! Another mention of wormholes! Mr. Clarke is teaching his class — which includes star student Erica Sinclair — about wormholes and the Einstein–Rosen bridge. In short: They’re very unstable!
• Robin and Will have another moment together at the hospital when Will asks how she knew Vickie was interested in her. She talks to him about little signs snowballing into an avalanche. They also make some jokes about Will’s bowl cut, which is nice for us.
Stranger Things is a show about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Aside from Eleven, the heroes of the show are a ragtag troop of tweens, teens and parents from the Midwest fighting off supernatural monsters. Amongst them are the mums, who, in my humble opinion, really deserve a special shout-out. Because not only are they taking on 9-foot-tall demogorgons, they’re also fighting battles on other fronts, too: they’re juggling hormonal teens, useless husbands (or ex-husbands) and a heavy dose of good old-fashioned 1980s small town America misogyny.
Courtesy of Netflix
Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) is the most obvious example of a badass mum. Mother to Will and Jonathan, her life is already hard enough before the Upside Down starts leaking into Hawkins. She’s a single mum working long hours at a local store to provide for her sons. The boys’ father is decidedly useless – especially when Will goes missing and his only interest is the potential payout. Joyce becomes convinced that Will is speaking to her through the lights in their home and begins raging around her quaint little town demanding answers and help. She is, of course, dismissed as the slightly nutty single mum who failed. It’s a stereotype that the people of Hawkins are all too ready and willing to embrace.
Courtesy of Netflix
Watching Joyce fight not only the supernatural forces threatening her family, but also the ignorance and judgement of her humdrum neighbours makes you want to throw a fist in the air and cheer her on. In season 1, she doggedly sets up Christmas lights and finds her son. Throughout the rest of the show, she’s continued to bring this steadfast, bulldog energy. She’s tiny, clumsy, and looks wholly unprepared for any battle. But, of course, as a mum, she throws herself in front of her boys without a second thought.
Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) is, in many ways, Joyce’s foil. The mother of Nancy, Mike and Holly, Karen is, in many ways, a stereotypical suburban housewife, complete with lazy, clued out husband, a million plates to juggle and a bit of an afternoon wine problem. She spends her blissful free time, of which there is not that much, soaking in a bubble bath with a dirty book or ogling the hot teen lifeguard at the local pool.
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 5, Volume 1 of “Stranger Things.”
In the battle that concludes Volume 1 of “Stranger Things 5” — in “Sorcerer,” written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer — it appears at first that all is lost. The murderous creatures of the Upside Down have breached the military zone, and begin a mass slaughter of the soldiers, who’ve underestimated their foes. Elsewhere, Robin (Maya Hawke) and Murray (Brett Gelman) try to bring some of the endangered school children of Hawkins to safety in a truck, as they’re chased by Demogorgons. Meanwhile, the good guys’ biggest assets, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Hopper (David Harbour), are in the base in the Upside Down, where they’ve made an important discovery: Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), one of the other telekinetic kids from the Hawkins Lab experiments, with whom Eleven bonded in Season 2, is alive and being held there.
During a lull in the battle, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) steps through the membrane of the Upside Down to survey his quarry, where Joyce (Winona Ryder), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and his original prey, Will (Noah Schnapp) — along with the remaining military officers and soldiers — seem to be no match for him. Vecna effortlessly extends his arms to turn their weapons against them, pushing fire back on the soldiers and pulling a pin on a grenade. He then levitates Will, and brings him to him, face to face. “Can you see them, William? Can you see the children?” he asks. “Do you know why I chose them to reshape the world? It’s because they are weak. Weak in body and mind.” He says this as the Demogorgons drag the kids Will and his friends had been trying to save into the Upside Down, where he’s already taken Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher). Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) helplessly watches from the escape tunnel as one child is sucked into the Upside Down through a wall, and Robin sees that all the kids in the truck are gone.
Vecna, taunting, calls the children “perfect vessels,” as he touches Will’s face almost gently. “And you, Will, you were the first,” he says. “And you broke so easily. You showed me what was possible, what I could achieve. Some minds, it turns out, simply do not belong in this world. They belong in mine.” He lets Will drop, and strides back into the Upside Down, confident that the Demogorgons will finish the job. But just as the massacre is set to recommence, Will remembers what Robin — to whom he’s felt bonded since realizing that she, too, is queer — had said to him earlier: that she’d always had all the answers within her, and she just needed to stop being scared of who she was Home movies begin to play in his mind. He remembers the first time he met Mike, who asked if he wanted to be friends; he remembers drawing things with crayons and showing them to a loving Joyce; he remembers building Castle Byers with Jonathan in woods near their home.
Noah Schnapp and Jamie Campbell Bower
Courtesy of Netflix
It’s then that Will accesses the powers he (and we!) didn’t know he has, stopping each Demogorgon in place before they kill Mike, Lucas and Robin. Will can see through their eyes, he realizes, and — as indicated through arm gestures — he snaps the Demos’ limbs, killing all of them. The final image of Volume 1 is Will raising his head, and wiping his nosebleed with his sleeve, as we’ve seen Eleven do a thousand times on “Stranger Things” — as he stares with purpose into the distance.
In a longinterview with the Duffer brothers for Variety’s Oct. 15 cover story, Ross Duffer said, “We’ve been talking about Will having powers for as long as I can really remember.”
Below, the Duffers delve into what those powers are, the season’s opening flashback sequence, why the climax of “Sorcerer” (and that oner!) was “logistically the most difficult thing we ever did,” how they deployed Max, the return of Eight, the attack on the Wheeler house — and much, much more.
We have to start with Will. Will! Does he have Eleven’s powers? Or is it something different?
Ross Duffer: It’s different in that he’s able to channel Vecna’s powers. But they’re all related. Vecna and Eleven, their powers are similar. The powers aren’t within him. He’s able to channel these powers from Vecna and use it, sort of puppeteering.
Matt Duffer: He taps into the hive mind, and then he can manipulate anything within the hive. You’ll see how far he can take it as you continue to watch. But that’s how he’s able to manipulate the monster. So he can’t open a door, because the door is not part of the hive mind.
Is this something that he always had that Vecna identified, or did he get it because Vecna grabbed him?
Matt Duffer: He got it because he got hooked into the hive mind.
Ross Duffer: If he’s not close to the hive mind, he’s not able to access or tap it.
Matt Duffer: It’s proximity based.
Had he not been taken to the Upside Down…
Matt Duffer: Never would’ve happened. So it’s very different from Eleven in that regard.
And how long have you known that this was something that Will had within him that you were going to build to?
Ross Duffer: We’ve been talking about Will having powers for as long as I can really remember.
Matt Duffer: He had a dark version of it in Season 2 — he was connected to Vecna. He could see what he saw, but he didn’t realize that at the time he was able to tap into it in a way and use it against Vecna. That’s something he doesn’t learn till this season. It took us a while to build there, but it was something we always intended to do. The details of it were a little rough until we started working on it.
Noah Schnapp and Maya Hawke
Courtesy of Netflix
What do you think came together for him after the gay pep talk from Robin and what Mike said to him about being a sorcerer? Do you have that thought out, or was it just a feeling?
Ross Duffer: We knew we wanted him to access these powers this season. Then we began talking about why now, and why is he able to do it now. Some of it is mythology-based in terms of the hive mind’s closer than it’s ever been for him. But most of what we were talking about was how has Will changed. Throughout the seasons, he’s been a little more fearful than the others. He hasn’t been a leader. He hasn’t accepted himself in the way that some of our characters have. So I think it was really talking about if he really is able to at least start to accept himself for who he is, will that give him the kind of strength that he needs in order to access these powers? That’s really where Episode 4 — and really the arc of the first four episodes — led for him.
Why doesn’t Vecna kidnap or kill Will in that moment?
Matt Duffer: You’ll see as it goes on, but he completely underestimates Will. He perceives him in the way that so many others have in his life, which is as weak, as nothing, as incapable of achieving anything great. So he completely underestimates him in that moment. Whether that’s going to happen again, you’ll have to watch Volume 2.
The home movie that goes through Will’s mind: How long were you planning to do that sequence?
Ross Duffer: The original draft of Chapter 4 did not have the flashback footage in it. When we read it through, it’s the same exact storyline with Robin, but because it’s such an internal shift for Will, we needed to be able to show that visually. That’s when we came up with the idea of Robin mentioning that she’d found these old tapes. So that was the only different thing that we changed about her monologue, but it allowed us to visually represent what was going through Will’s mind. Once we did that, we felt like the ending finally had the emotional kick that we wanted.
How much work was it to find the super young Will, Mike and Jonathan?
Matt Duffer: I know we were really scared about whether we were going to be able to find someone or not. I mean, initially, obviously there were conversations about, Do we do face replacement? Do we do what we did with Will at the beginning of the season? Budgetarily, it was impossible. It’s just very expensive.
Ross Duffer: The beginning scene he’s referencing, we were able to model it after Noah at that age, but this is even a younger age. So you start to get into uncanny valley world. It would’ve been extremely expensive, and also look creepy.
Matt Duffer: It was really fun, too, to film that with those kids.
So let’s talk about that opening of the season. Did young Eleven in Season 4 give you the confidence to make young Will in that opening sequence for Season 5? How did you pull that off?
Matt Duffer: We’re so proud of it. That’s all Weta. We’ve never worked with Weta before, but Betsy [Patterson], our visual effects supervisor, when she brought them on, she was confident that they would be able to do it. Usually when we’re writing this stuff, we don’t worry too much, sometimes to our detriment, about how we’re going to pull certain things off. It just felt absolutely right to start with a flashback of Will, and then you just turn to Betsy and then ultimately Weta to do it.
We did take a lot of learnings from the Eleven stuff last year, but this was more challenging, because we’ve all seen Will or Noah at this exact age before. We saw this scene, the very beginning of it, in Season 1. So it was very important that it was hyper-real. It’s the first visual effects work that was done on the show. They just did incredibly detailed work and then just kept honing and honing and honing. Sometimes you can’t figure out what’s wrong. You’re just like, “That’s not quite…” — usually it’s the lighting — and just work on every shot to death.
How long had you known that that had happened to Will in the Upside Down, that he and Vecna had actually crossed paths?
Ross Duffer: That’s an idea we’ve had for a while. I can’t remember exactly when, but when we first had that thought, immediately we started talking about Season 5: “That’s where we have to start. We have to bring it back full circle.” It sets up the season the way we want it to, which is everything is going back to Season 1, and everything is coming full circle. We thought there wasn’t really a better way to do that than to go back and see what Will had experienced.
In some ways, Dustin seems like the only character who’s having a natural trauma response to everything they went through in Season 4. How’d you decide that he’s the one who’s going to be carrying this stuff for them?
Matt Duffer: Well, he was the closest to Eddie. So the two who are most impacted by the events of Season 4 would be him and Lucas. But at least Lucas is trying, desperately, to keep hope alive [about Max], because it hasn’t been extinguished at this point, although he’s sort of losing it when we see him at the top of Episode 1. But Dustin has lost Eddie, so he’s struggling to remain optimistic because of their friendship and because of what he feels is a need to continue carrying that torch. It felt like the most interesting way to explore grief was through him.
Ross Duffer: When we talked about it with the writers, even in Season 1 when Mike and Lucas get in a fight, Dustin’s the one that pulls everything together. He in a lot of ways is the heart of that group. So it immediately puts all of our characters on edge, and the audience hopefully, too.
Nell Fisher
Courtesy of Netflix
How long have you known that Holly Wheeler would be a major character this season?
Matt Duffer: That was a new idea. We did not know until we started working on Season 5, probably pretty early in the process.
Ross Duffer: I don’t even think it was in the pandemic. Because we had so long [of a break] that we had time to not only finish [writing] Season 4, but pitch a version of Season 5. I don’t think she was even in that. That was the big breakthrough, having shot Season 4, coming back and realizing the drive of these kids getting taken. Once we realized that, we got really excited about making Holly the focus of that new group of kids.
How did you approach casting Holly Wheeler?
Ross Duffer: If you watch the previous seasons, Holly barely talks at all. So we didn’t really have much of a character there. She was just a little kid. Even Season 1, when we’re filming her, it was basically whatever one of the young twins would do, we would just try to capture it in real time. So we didn’t really have a voice for her.In the initial scripts, Holly was a little shyer and a little more withdrawn. And then as we found Nell, who’s such a character…
Matt Duffer: And more of an extrovert.
Ross Duffer: …we started infusing Nell’s personality into Holly.
Matt Duffer: We were really nervous about it. It is not like she had to look identical to the twins who were playing Holly in the past, but she had to resemble them enough that you weren’t totally confused. But more important than that, they have to be an incredible actor.
I remember seeing the “Evil Dead Rise” trailer and seeing her. I had not seen the movie. I just saw her in the trailer and I was like, “That’s Holly.” But then I didn’t remember that. [Our casting director] Carmen [Cuba] found her, brought her to us, and I was like, “I knew this like six months ago.” That would’ve saved us a lot of time.
Ross Duffer: Carmen’s going to get annoyed you’re taking credit for this.
Matt Duffer: She always thinks I take too much credit for the casting.
Nell Fisher and Cara Buono
Courtesy of Netflix
Speaking of the Wheelers, with the mauling of Karen and Ted in Episode 2, when they’re trying to protect Holly, how did you decide to bring these characters to the front who have been just around since moment one, but have been oblivious?
Matt Duffer: Oblivious! One of the early ideas was we finally had to bring them into the fold. It was easy, because we could bring anybody in the fold. It was the final season. Karen would’ve moved them out of Hawkins, had she learned any of this earlier. Finally, none of that mattered.
We’ve always wanted an attack on the Wheeler house, and to give Karen a killer badass moment, have her face down one of these monsters. Cara and Nell bonded. They got really close, and we just had an incredibly fun time shooting what is a very violent sequence. And yeah, Karen’s tough. She miraculously survives.
How did you decide when and how to reveal where Max is, and what’s going on with her?
Matt Duffer: We knew we wanted to keep her out of it for the first couple episodes, and we knew she was going to end an episode. At some point, we thought Episode 3 felt like the right time.
Ross Duffer: From the end of Season 4 when we kept her in the coma, we knew she was trapped in Vecna’s mindscape, and we knew that was going to be part of her journey, at least for Season 5. But it finally clicked when we realized that Holly could be there as well, and then the other kids. That’s when her storyline really came to life.
Matt Duffer: I can’t tell you how many hours are spent in the writers’ room discussing the movie “The Cell,” the Jennifer Lopez/Tarsem movie. It’s such a great concept, because they enter the mind of a serial killer. It was the closest thing we could think of that parallels what we were doing. Our serial killer mindscape ends up being pretty different, but it’s probably why we ended up having a desert in there. A lot of desert sequences in “The Cell.”
So Vecna’s mindscape is that in-between world?
Ross Duffer: Yeah. Holly’s nicknamed it Camazotz.
Matt Duffer: The boys are always referencing Dungeons & Dragons, and Holly doesn’t play Dungeons & Dragons, so we thought it’d be interesting if she’s referencing something she’s into.
The wall: Do we find out what created it?
Matt Duffer: You find out pretty much everything, is what I’ll say.I mean, there are still some mysteries. We don’t explain everything, but the wall, certainly, you understand.
Linnea Berthelsen and Millie Bobby Brown in Season 2 of “Stranger Things”
Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
The reveal that Eight (Linnea Berthelsen) has been kept captive by the military was a big surprise, in part because you were bringing back a storyline that seemed to have been dropped and set on fire and run away from. What was your thinking there?
Ross Duffer: Yeah, that’s two-fold. We want when someone watches through the entire show, it doesn’t feel like we dropped a storyline or a thread. That it all connects. You see how everything fits together. And that was definitely a loose plot strand.
But also, we really like Linnea and we felt that that episode [in Season 2] just didn’t give her a chance to do what we know she’s capable of doing. So part of it was to put her back in and give her a moment. But we didn’t want to just do it to do it. As we were breaking the season, we realized that bringing her back really helped us with the Eleven storyline and how we wanted to wrap her story up. So there was a real reason to do it beyond just to not leave this dangling plot thread.
Matt Duffer: We were shooting Season 2 really, really fast, because we were trying to hit this Halloween deadline. And the first script we wrote just flat out didn’t work, and then we had one week left to rewrite. I just don’t think we ever nailed it, obviously. I always felt bad that we didn’t figure that out for Linnea. But we felt we had something special with Linnea, so we wanted to bring her back. I think she’s awesome in the season, so I’m pretty excited about that.
The long battle sequence at the end of Episode 4: How long did it take to plan the extended oner shot in the battle?
Matt Duffer: Forever. It wasn’t originally written that way. We wanted it to feel very immersive, like you were in the middle of it. Ross and I hadn’t done anything like that before. The finale’s insane, but that sequence was logistically the most difficult thing we ever did.
The whole battle?
Matt Duffer: The whole battle, but specifically that oner, because it involved obviously a lot of stunts and visual effects and actors, but then also children. It is stitched together [from several shots]. I don’t want people to get mad at us when we call it a “oner,” because it’s at night and you’re working with children and stunts. We could only shoot about two hours a night. So we divided it up into, I think, four chunks, and we thought we could accomplish within the time that we had one chunk per night.
Ross Duffer: It was definitely the hardest thing we’ve ever done ever in terms of filmmaking.
No one dies in Volume 1, not even Ted and Karen, who seemed like goners for a second there. Did you contemplate having any kind of big death in this part of the season?
Ross Duffer: Once we decided we knew we wanted to do the Will power stuff this season, we knew that that’s how we had to end Volume 1. So there’s the low point of all the kids being taken, but the high point of Will has these powers. That was always the discussion. Vecna taking these children was the low point we needed for the end of Volume 1.
Will Volume 2 get bloodier?
Matt Duffer: I’ve said this before: The show is not “Game of Thrones.” I’m hoping it surprises people. But there’s no Red Wedding, if that’s what you’re asking. That would be depressing.
When Will gets that image of the temple that Vecna doesn’t want him to see, he sees Holly trapped inside that structure. Is that where Holly is actually physically located in that moment, or is he seeing something in the future?
Ross Duffer: Do we answer this?
Matt Duffer: I think this is OK.
Ross Duffer: Yes. That’s where Holly is at the present moment.
Vecna gets a real glow up.
Ross Duffer: That’s one way to put it!
Well, he’s looking good after almost being killed at the end of Season 4. Will we find out where he went after that?
Matt Duffer: Yeah, there’s a backstory to all of that that is actually never revealed in the show. The idea of it was based a little bit on the original “Hellraiser,” although it’s different than that. But yeah, he retreated to lick his wounds. Nancy blew holes all through his body, so he more or less rebuilt his body into something stronger and hopefully cooler. But it was a challenge because we also wanted his new design to reflect the fact that he had been injured. That’s why we ultimately had to go full CG on his body was because you see holes throughout his body. It was figuring out that balance took a long time.
So Jamie Campbell Bower is in a motion-capture suit?
Matt Duffer: He was just in a leotard, basically. But the important thing is they match his movement. And his face is completely him in makeup. We don’t touch that at all. That’s fully Jamie.
Do we know yet what Vecna wants?
Ross Duffer: No.
Matt Duffer: Nothing good.
He says that the kids are the way he’s going to remake the world.
Matt Duffer: Right. What does that mean?
It’s safe to assume it’s not a nice world that he wants.
Matt Duffer: I mean, depends on your perspective, you know?
Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin
Courtesy of Netflix
Will we be seeing more of Vecna’s memories in Volume 2?
Matt Duffer: Yes, that’s what we call our new Russia storyline, because it’s very few characters. They’re kind of isolated off on their own, Max and Holly. We’re very happy with how it integrates with the other storylines.
How much of all of that is real vs. a set?
Ross Duffer: The forest is real.
Matt Duffer: And the desert’s real. We went out to New Mexico to shoot any of the desert sequences. You’ll see more of them. The inside of the interior of the cave is a set build. That main outside of the cave is a set build right outside the forest. And the forest is the summertime set. That’s why we had to shoot some finale there when the leaves were green.
In “The First Shadow,” the prequel play that’s on Broadway and in the West End, there’s a reference to a cave in Nevada near an army base where a young Henry Creel first encountered something connected to the Upside Down. Is that the same cave?
Matt Duffer: Yeah. When we were working on the play with Kate Trefry, we had Henry’s backstory worked out. There was always a balance that we had to find in terms of how much we were going to put in the play. [The director] Stephen [Daldry] and [the produce] Sonia [Friedman] were always pushing for more and we were pushing back and saying, “Well, we have to wait to reveal that in the show.” You’ll see, especially as you reach the final episode, there’s more overlap with the play.
Ross Duffer: And, like, Max finds that “Oklahoma” poster, which people who haven’t seen the play are maybe like, “Why is Henry in ‘Oklahoma’?” But I think it’s nice for us to start to tie those two together.
Matt Duffer: But you absolutely do not have to have seen the play to understand. They’re Easter eggs more than anything.
Finally — and you may not want to touch this, so just going dive in — in the play, it felt like the real evil is the Mind Flayer. It’s what seduces Henry to accept what’s in the Upside Down into himself and ultimately what seems to have transformed him into Vecna once Eleven pushes him into the Upside Down. Are we barking up the right tree here?
Matt Duffer: You’re asking a question that will be answered in the final episode. The next spoiler talk we do, I’ll address it.
Stranger Things is back for its fifth and final season. And unlike the seasons prior, we don’t really get a chance to sit with the kids from Hawkins. Instead, we’re thrown right into the mess of Vecna.
Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) faced off at the end of season 4 but it wasn’t enough to kill him. Instead, the Upside Down was connected more to Hawkins than ever before. And now, with the first four episodes of season 5, we get to see just how deep Vecna’s world goes. And what his plans are for the rest of Hawkins in the meantime.
Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Will (Noah Schnapp) are still at Hawkins High but things aren’t perfect. Dustin isn’t over the death of Eddie (Joseph Quinn) and despite what all of Hawkins saw, it wasn’t enough to have anyone in this Indiana town take things seriously.
But what is typically a check in with Hawkins at the start of a season was quickly switched into what amounts to an exposition drop of what our favorite characters were doing since the end of season 4. Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery) work at a radio station that they use to send codes when needed to everyone, including Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour) and everyone does “crawls” into the Upside Down.
Which is where we find ourselves for most of the season. One crawl goes wrong and when a demogoron attacks the Wheeler family, the latest victim of the Upside Down ends up becoming Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) and the rest is Stranger Things history. It is both a return to form for season 1 of the series while also being four episodes of a lot of explanation.
A lot went down in four episodes
(Netflix)
When you compare season 1 of Stranger Things to season 5, the amount of plot that happens in the final season far surpasses the first four episodes of its premiere season. In fact, I’d argue that there was enough plot in the first four episodes to cover the first two seasons and part of season 3. Now, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that we lose part of the charm of Stranger Things in order to get through it all.
There were a lot of unanswered aspects of the series heading into the final season. What happened to Max (Sadie Sink) after she faced off against Vecna? Is Hawkins okay? What is it with Will and feeling the Upside Down? And the show throws us right into answering a lot of questions while throwing more our way. But in order to achieve that, they forego a lot of the character dynamics we love to get through a lot of exposition.
And then, the volumes final moments try to really rely on our love and compassion for them
Fun, exciting, but the least “Stranger Things” feeling season start
(Netflix)
Despite having a good majority of this season take place in the Upside Down, this season feels like it is missing a lot of what makes Stranger Things fun. If Dustin and Steve weren’t there and they didn’t call a young child “Dipshit Derek,” it wouldn’t be that fun at all. We’re missing the back and forth between all these kids and it takes Erica (Priah Ferguson) showing up to really bring the humor back to it.
Part of that is because Dustin is not really his bubbly self (rightfully so) but they don’t allow the other characters to carry that missing weight. So what would be a fun season and an interesting start to Stranger Things‘ conclusion often feels like a show just trying to speed us to the end. Still, there are some highlights throughout these 4 episodes.
Look, it is hilarious watching Will and Mike try to fix a leak and help kids escape from a government building. And Steve and Dustin fighting? Cute! But at times, it isn’t enough to carry the darker parts of this season like previous seasons of the series.
There is still a lot of Stranger Things to come and Volume 1 sets up a lot of fun storylines, I just hope that the kids in Hawkins have a little more of their beloved banter when it comes back in December.
Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 is streaming on Netflix.
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is the Editor in Chief of the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.
Netflix has crashed for what seemed to be thousands of viewers after the first four episodes of Stranger Things season 5 went live for streaming. Downdetector started getting an unusual number of outage reports at around 10 minutes before 8PM Eastern time, when the episodes were scheduled to hit the service. The numbers climbed up to almost 14,000 before they went down over the next few minutes.
According to Entertainment Weekly, affected viewers were getting an NSEZ-403 error, which means their accounts couldn’t connect to Netflix. They were seeing “Something went wrong” and “Sorry, we’re having trouble with your request” messages on their screens. For the NSEZ-403 error, in particular, Netflix advises switching to a different device. It’s worth nothing that the show’s creator previously said that Netflix increased its bandwidth by 30 percent to avoid a crash for the season premier. The company has told Engadget that some members briefly experienced an issue streaming on TVs, but that service has been restored for all accounts within 5 minutes.
In season 5 of Stranger Things, the Hawkins gang is set to face Vecna one last time. After these first four episodes, Netflix is dropping three more on December 25 and then the finale itself on December 31.
Update, Nov. 26, 2025, 10:56PM ET: This story and its headline have been updated to include the information Netflix shared with Engadget.
The conclusion to Netflix and the Duffer Brothers’ pop culture phenomenon Stranger Things begins with an epic first volume that’s now streaming for your binging pleasure.
Action and horror propel the return to Hawkins in volume one as our heroes race to find Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), hoping to vanquish him once and for all. In the time since the Upside Down ripped open in season four, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has been training with Hopper (David Harbour) to strengthen her powers. Seeing Eleven’s growth into a strong as hell young woman from her early days throwing bullies off her friends is such a joy. Clearly, that’s thanks to Eggo waffles.
Meanwhile, the non-superpowered, led by Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Joyce (Winona Ryder), unite in pursuit of Vecna. This time around their HQ moves out of the Wheeler basement and into the town radio station operated by Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery), who use their show, “The Squawk,” to relay secret messages through the station’s needle drops and otherwise government-sanctioned yapping.
It’s a delight to see Hawkins’ heroes use the resources available to them to not just prepare for battle against the Upside Down but also to evade the martial law stronghold on their town. Everyone in the cast shines with their skills we’ve seen develop over the past few seasons, and everyone gets a standout moment as the anti-Vecna campaign builds.
Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) uses radio signals to hack into the lines being used by the government base in the Upside Down, guiding Hopper’s clandestine search for Vecna with the help of Steve’s van, which has been transformed into a mobile radio station. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Erica (Priah Ferguson), and Will (Noah Schapp) also support using the web of tools from the station; it’s almost as if the town has become a real D&D table to play on, which is a really clever payoff to how it all began with the kids in the basement. All of this moves the action at a breakneck pace and is matched by the horrors of the Upside Down that are intent on preying on Hawkins.
The Demogorgons are back, and Vecna’s foot soldiers begin to collect children for his mysterious new plan by ripping through anything and anyone that stands in their way. The threat gets too real when Holly Wheeler (now played by Nell Fisher) is lured by Vecna, appearing with his normal Henry face to warn her the monsters are coming, and it’s so creepy to see Bower play up his charms, which are very Mister Rogers meets Freddy Krueger. It’s an awesome concept that really digs into that Amblin kid adventure feel but also dips into an ’80s horror tone, harkening back to early Wes Craven and John Carpenter.
The frights feel real, and the situations are horrific with no holds barred. When the Demogorgons come to collect Holly at the Wheeler house, it’s a bloodbath and a declaration of war against Nancy and the gang’s efforts to catch Vecna.
And that’s just the Upside Down threat; the government is also there to make things difficult for everyone. It’s still after Eleven, who’s being painted as the fall guy for the horrors. She can’t show her face in Hawkins; officials are combing the town for her to take her to the base now run by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton). The iconic ’80s action heroine is a stone-cold baddie, and frankly we’d be okay with her taking us captive any day.
Kidding—sort of—but her presence here is very welcome. The Duffer Brothers enlisting Hamilton as their final season antagonist is so inspired, and while she’s not in volume one as much as we’d hoped, Dr. Kay really gets established as the main obstacle to finding Vecna first. The government seems to be picking up where Dr. Brenner left off, and the motivations behind the search for Eleven suddenly become clearer. It’s such a powerful message that really speaks to the overarching themes of how we only have our communities to count on for our protection, because, well, those in power might just be seeking more dangerous ways to try and further their control.
The Duffers and producer Shawn Levy have enlisted some great filmmakers for this season to really capture the cinematic scope of Stranger Things for its final outing. Frank Darabont’s work on the show this season is primed to be some all-time great television, and the Duffers’ feature-length closer to the first drop of episodes really raises the stakes.
But it’s really the relationships that solidify Stranger Things as a true pop culture beast. The younger cast has grown up before our eyes, and the power of their love for one another has helped make the show one of the most compelling sagas of this generation. We want to see everyone Eleven cares about be okay, but we also know things can’t be wrapped up neatly if Vecna has his way. Imagining the horrors that could potentially befall Steve’s pretty head (not to mention his co-pilot, Dustin) feels just as stressful as ever. But the core friendship between Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin is what really ties Stranger Things together, and we can’t wait to see how their campaign against the Upside Down ends.
Stranger Things 5 Volume One is now streaming on Netflix. The remaining episodes arrive December 25 and 31.
It’s been a long, long wait, but the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is almost here. Stranger Things season five debuts on Wednesday evening with four episodes making up the first of three parts of the show’s big finale. And, if you’re like us, you’ve been preparing for months. We’ve been recapping all four seasons of Stranger Things,going back to July. But, if you haven’t been quite as on top of things, the Duffer Brothers are here to help.
The Duffers are the creators of Stranger Things, and in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, they have given the four key episodes they think fans should rewatch before season five. If, of course, you can’t just watch everything. “If you’re going to rewatch anything, I would definitely rewatch those early seasons because it really is about tying [everything] back to seasons one and two,” Ross Duffer said. “[Those] are the seasons we referenced the most, because we really wanted this to be circular and to come full circle. There are a lot of mysteries we set up and then intentionally did not answer in those early seasons.”
But if you can’t watch even the first two seasons in the next 48 hours or so, here are the four episodes the Duffers recommend:
“Will the Wise” from Stranger Things 2, episode four
“The Spy,” also from Stranger Things 2, episode six
“The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” from Stranger Things 4, episode seven
“The Piggyback” from Stranger Things 4, episode nine
That last one, being the most recent episode, is the only one that we can understand without even asking. As for the others?
“Season two is when we really started to build out the mythology and started to dive into everything, and how this was going to be an ongoing [series],” Matt Duffer said. “That’s where we started to really plant the seeds for the mythology, and I think probably that’s why that is as relevant as it is. Season four is also highly relevant—’Massacre at Hawkins Lab’ is a good one.”
“That [episode] starts unveiling some of the Upside Down mythology and starts giving some answers, and, of course, all the stuff with Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) continues to resonate throughout season five,” Ross Duffer added. “Those are some good ones to revisit.”
If you thought Netflix was done teasing the beginning of the end for Stranger Things now that we’ve finally hit the week that the first part of season 5 is coming out, think again.
This morning the streamer dropped one more glimpse of what to expect in the first four episodes of Stranger Things‘ fifth and final season when they drop this Wednesday, and while past looks at the season have teased the horrors descending on Hawkins, here, they’re well and truly in full swing. It’s demogorgons a-go-go!
Aside from giving us lots and lots (and lots, seriously, they’re everywhere) of demogorgon action as the Upside Down begins to bleed more and more into reality, this new look does give us a better look at the kids slowly but surely starting to hatch their plans to take out Vecna once and for all.
Just what those plans are, we’re going to have to wait and see when the new episodes drop, but instead of teasing the reaction to the horrors to come, this trailer is definitely about everyone going on the offensive—whether it’s the boys committing to getting Vecna’s heart on a platter, Eleven and Hopper storming bases, or, well… Steve seemingly driving a car straight into a closing Upside Down tear? Everyone’s ready to do or die now that we’re in the endgame, it seems… now it’s just going to be a case of waiting to see who makes it out in one piece.
Stranger Things‘ fifth and final season finally begins this Wednesday, November 26, with the first four episodes hitting the streamer at 5pm PT.
As previously reported, the two-hour series finale of the series – the last episode titled “The Rightside Up” — will premiere on Netflix and in more than 350 movie theaters on Dec. 31, starting at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET, playing through Jan. 1. This marks the first time an episode of a Netflix series will also be exhibited theatrically.
“This has been a dream of ours for a while,” Ross told me Thursday night at the world premiere of the series’ fifth and final season at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Netflix announced the plans just days after Variety published an interview with Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria in which she insisted the streamer had no plans to release “Stranger Things” in theaters. “A lot of people — a lot, a lot, a lot of people — have watched ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix,” she said. “It has not suffered from lack of conversation or community or sharing or fandom. I think releasing it on Netflix is giving the fans what they want.”
Praising Bajaria for her “poker face,” Matt said, “Ross and I just folded. The truth is…this was in the works for a long time. Netflix came to us with the idea. It was their idea to have the finale on a separate day and we thought that was cool, specifically because we thought we could pitch this movie theater idea, which we had never pitched before, honestly.”
He continued, “It never really made sense to us because everyone will always ask about it. I’m like, ‘Well, it’s kind of not fun because no one’s in sync. People will have seen the episode, some people won’t have seen the episode, it’s not the same. This actually recreates and is a real movie moment because everyone’s experiencing it at the same time together. I think that’s what we’re excited about it and it’s the first time we had that opportunity.”
Star Millie Bobby Brown explained that she wore a black custom Rodarte gown to the premiere as an homage to the end of the series. “It’s for the funeral of the show,” she said. “This dress kind of embodies the darkness of the show this season. I’m really excited for everyone to see how dark it gets. I hate to say it because I say it every season, but this is definitely the darkest and the more intense season.”
See more photos from the “Stranger Things” premiere below.
Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Variety via Getty Images
Finn Wolfhard at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Variety via Getty Images
Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere After Party.
Variety via Getty Images
Caleb McLaughlin attends Netflix’s “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Getty Images for Netflix
Gaten Matarazzo, left, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp attend Netflix’s “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Getty Images for Netflix
Noah Schnapp at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Sadie Sink at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Charlie Heaton at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Joe Keery and Maya Hawke at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Nell Fisher at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Season 2 put up another 9.4M views in its first full week on Netflix, from October 27 through November 2, placing it in first among English-language TV. Viewers were also revisiting Season 1 last week, boosting it to No. 7 on the weekly rankings with 2.4M views.
The Season 2 performance is slightly down from the first season, which was at around 26M views through its first 11 days. The second season is currently sitting at around 18M for that same interval, which is still strong despite the notable drop off.
The Witchercame in at No. 2 on the English TV rankings with 7.4M views for Season 4’s opening weekend. The latest eight episodes, which landed on Netflix on October 30, introduce Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia, taking over from Henry Cavill. It’s worth noting that this is a sharp decline from Season 3’s 15.2M views in the first four days of release.
Third place on the weekly rankings went to Season 9 of Selling Sunset with 4.2M views, while Boots continued to perform well with 3.7M views, good enough for fourth place.
Although new episodes of Stranger Thingswon’t debut until the end of the month, audiences are already preparing, it seems. Season 1 snagged tenth place on the English TV charts with 1.8M views. It’s likely that this trend will continue as the premiere date for Stranger Things 5Vol. 1 nears.
Netflix’s most-watched TV show of the week was actually a Danish thriller, The Asset, which debuted atop the non-English TV charts with 11.3M views.
Judging by the amount of HUNTR/X costumes on Halloween, no one will be surprised to learn that the hugely popular animated film Kpop Demon Hunters is still putting up monster numbers. It came in second place among English films last week with another 14M views, marking its 20th week in the Top 10.
Morbid curiosity continued last week with two serial-killer related offerings among the Top 10. In films, the documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, about Aileen Wuornos, a rare woman serial killer who murdered seven men between 1989 and 1990, came in at No. 3 with 10.1M views. Among series, Monster: The Ed Gein Story hung onto sixth place with 2.8M views.
Also in film the Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton-starrer Ballad of a Small Player debuted at No. 4 with 6.9M views.
All is allegedly not well in Hawkins, Indiana. According to the Daily Mail,Millie Bobby Brown reportedly filed a lengthy complaint about David Harbour before they began filming the final season of Stranger Things.
A source told the outlet that Brown, who plays psychic test subject Eleven on the hit Netflix series, filed a harassment and bullying claim against Harbour—who plays Eleven’s adoptive father, ex-police chief Jim Hopper—before season five began shooting in January of last year. “There were pages and pages of accusations,” the source told the Daily Mail. “The investigation went on for months.”
The outcome of the investigation and the details surrounding the claims are currently unknown. According to the Daily Mail, Brown’s allegations against Harbour “did not include claims of sexual impropriety.” Brown was reportedly accompanied by a personal legal representative on set at all times while filming the show’s final season. Harbour’s Jim Hopper adopts Brown’s Eleven, and their rocky father-daughter relationship is a central theme of the show—which means they share significant screen time.
This is not the first time such allegations have plagued the Stranger Things set. A grip claimed in 2018 that two members of the Stranger Things team were creating a toxic work environment, with some believing that series creators Matt and Ross Duffer—a.k.a. the Duffer brothers—were responsible. According to CBS News, Netflix conducted an investigation and found no wrongdoing.
Outside of Stranger Things drama, Harbour is in the midst of a public split from singer-songwriter Lily Allen. Allen recently dropped her first album in seven years, West End Girl,inspired by their messy separation. On the album, Allen graphically details alleged intimate aspects of their relationship, including various alleged betrayals committed by Harbour. Per the Daily Mail’s source, the Stranger Things workplace complaints were completely unrelated to Allen’s grievances with Harbour. “Lily supported him throughout it all,” the Mail’s source said. “It was a brutal time.”
The 21-year-old Brown recently married actor Jake Bongiovi, son of rocker Jon Bon Jovi, and adopted a baby girl.
Stranger Things’ final season will be released in three parts, with the first four episodes dropping on Netflix on November 26. Three more episodes will debut on Christmas, with a two-hour finale episode released in select cinemas and on Netflix on New Year’s Eve.
Vanity Fair has reached out to Brown, Harbour, and Netflix for comment.
It’s been around three and a half years since season four of Stranger Things premiered. We finally for the fifth and final season of Netflix’s retro-soaked adventure series. It’s a good thing, as the first batch of episodes drop on November 26.
As previously mentioned, this is a real trailer with tons of footage and not a teaser. It’s over two minutes of Hawkins-based goodness. This is an action-packed affair that’s heavy on emotion and light on the type of 1980s-style humor the show has become known for. That seems right, given the stakes are higher than ever.
If you just clicked on this and don’t plan on actually watching the trailer, this is when I go into some light spoilers. It looks like the gang is trapped in Hawkins following the events of season four. There’s a military enclosure around the city and, surprise, Vecna is back and looking for vengeance.
There’s a very scary scene in which the entity looks to be controlling or torturing poor Will and we don’t even know if he has a cassette player loaded with Kate Bush just out of frame. It’s all very tense.
While the show premieres on November 26, this isn’t a one-and-done season drop like many Netflix shows. It’s being split into three installments. The first batch of episodes are set for November 26, with another batch dropping on December 25. The final episode will air on December 31 and is even . It’s a holiday miracle.
The showrunners do promise that this season will finally tell us , which is something to look forward to. While Stranger Things is ending, the franchise will continue on. Netflix for the future, but they won’t have series creators the Duffer Brothers on board as showrunners. The pair recently .
