Stranger Things has cemented itself in Netflix history as one of their most watched shows of all time. In 2016, season one debuted as a hardly known show about nerds, dungeons and dragons and friendship. It began as a stand alone story but quickly amassed thousands of viewers and snowballed into a world-wide favorite. Over an almost 10 year span, the show produced five seasons and 42 total episodes. This year, Stranger Things has topped the charts as the number one show in the world, taking over the holidays as episodes one through four of season five premiered the day before Thanksgiving. Episodes five through seven release Christmas day and the finale hits screens on New Year’s Eve. Spoilers ahead.
Stranger Things follows the story of a community in Hawkins, Indiana. In 1983, Will Byers went missing, and the show takes on a mystery-horror-esque theme as his mom, Joyce Byers, as well as his friends Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair and Dustin Henderson, strive to find and bring him home. They encounter otherworldly beings such as what they dub ‘the demogorgon,’ inspired by dungeons and dragons, and discover an alternate dimension they call the Upside Down. Along the way they meet a girl named Eleven who they discover possesses telekinetic abilities and eventually plays a key role in bringing Will home. Throughout the seasons, the story continues to expand as more characters shine on screen and others pull heartstrings with upsetting deaths. Each season contains a new villain that seems to one-up the last. By the end of season four, the Upside Down bleeds into Hawkins and the show sets up a season to wrap up and defeat Vecna in the final episodes.
Season five immediately starts in chaos. Unlike previous seasons, the first episode, The Crawl, begins with intense conflict between the Upside Down and the real world. The military surrounds Hawkins to keep a close eye on supernatural dangers released by Vecna at the end of season four. The group finds a new discreet meeting place to discuss plans on finding Vecna called the WSQK radio station. The radio station allowed the audience to easily follow the 80s story line with entertaining decade appropriate music and decor. Experiencing grief from lost friends and an ultimately failed mission in season four, the group works diligently on a new plan called “The Crawl.” This plan involves the group sending Hopper, the former police chief, into the Upside Down to search for Vecna, while the others keep the plan running smoothly in the real world. The continuous way the group comes together to form plans to defeat the big bad sets the series apart and makes it so special. Even through conflict, the characters constantly collaborate and defeat the worst. Mike’s sister, Holly, causes growing concern; she claims to talk with a man named Mr. Whatsit, but to others Holly just looks like she talks to no one. Towards the end of the episode, the group meets at the radio station to begin “The Crawl.” Everything starts smoothly until disaster strikes, and Hopper suddenly runs into three demogorgons. The demogorgons attack, which leaves Will in a trance; he cannot understand what really goes on in his mind. Displayed multiple times this season, the show shifts focus from the other characters to Will’s connection to Vecna. After Will’s disappearance, the following seasons drifted attention away from him and onto introducing new characters. The final season brings Will back into the spotlight, highlighting him as the key to getting a true understanding on the Upside Down. The episode ends with Holly in her room quickly frightened by the dramatic appearance of a demogorgon from her ceiling.
Chapter two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler begins with dramatic horror as a demogorgon makes his way through the Wheeler’s house searching for Holly. In one of the most intense episodes of the series, the demogorgon leaves the house with Holly and almost kills both her parents Karen and Ted Wheeler. Before the release of Season 5 Stranger Things announced that the rating would go from TV-14 to TV-MA. The change in ratings definitely showed during the first few episodes. The demogorgons left absolute terror throughout the Wheelers house and the city of Hawkins, leaving many dead and severely injured. Episode two barely scratches the surface of what the demogorgons truly do to people. Shaken by the near death of their parents, Nancy and Mike Wheeler rush to their side with comfort and guilt. The group has a new question after the attack, “Why would the demogorgon take Holly?” Mike quickly realizes Holly’s imaginary friend Mr. Whatsit could explain her disappearance. Eleven and Hopper, trapped in the Upside Down, pursue a new task: locating Vecna and Holly. The pairing enhances the family aspect of the show although audiences often overlook them, favoring duos such as Dustin and Steve, or Mike and Will. The pairing enhances the family aspect of the show, although audiences often overlook them in favor of fan favorite duos such as Dustin and Steve or Mike and Will. Nancy and Mike question their badly injured mother for a lead on Holly’s location or companion as the episode ends. Karen gives them the first name of Mr. Whatsit, also known as Henry, or Vecna, leading to the dramatic close of the episode. The new addition to many of Henry Creel’s appearances enhances the audience’s ideas of his effect on the upcoming season.
Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap explores Will’s relationship with Vecna. He comes to the revelation that not only can he see through his eyes, but he now knows the next victim of Mr. Whatsit. The party plans the kidnapping of Derek Turnbow, the episode’s namesake, as well as his family in order to save him from Vecna. This episode provides plenty of silly moments as they split the characters up into iconic groups. This can prove entertaining in some instances, but can also lead to a noticeable problem throughout the seasons of balancing too many stories at once. Overall, the showrunners seemed to run into that again in this episode, as they struggled to balance plots in Hawkins and the Upside Down. This problem reared its head back in season four, as viewers often found themselves waiting for the plotline or character they deemed the most entertaining while the others seemed to drag. In this instance the ‘boring’ storyline sadly fell to Eleven and Hopper while they spent much of their time walking in the dark of the Upside Down. On the upside, the showrunners took the chance to explore relationships between characters like Will and Robin, who have quickly become a fan favorite. Their scenes together were especially enjoyable as Will gets the chance to truly bond with someone new and gain something of a mentor. Lastly, the highlight of the episode was absolutely the cliffhanger of Max returning in the dreamscape. The Duffer brothers did an amazing job of keeping Sadie Sink’s role a secret as most promotions of the final season excluded Max after the end of season four confined her to a hospital bed.
Five years prior, the show began with the vanishing of Will Byers. The writers have now made it obvious that it will end with him as well. Chapter Four: The Sorcerer picks up with the kidnapped Turnbow family, providing scenes that let Derek shine and win the audience’s hearts. Episode four also explores the new idea of seeing through the demogorgons eyes, a series of shots with a red filter when Will supposedly infiltrates the hivemind. This concept adds an entirely new layer to the intricacies of the show, and also sets up a variety of interesting situations for the upcoming episodes. The party finds out that the military stationed in Hawkins have rounded up the kids Holly’s age to basically act as bait. Derek, now recruited and dubbed ‘Delightful Derek,’ joins his peers with a plan to save those who see Mr. Whatsit. This storyline provides plenty of comedic moments as well as a bit of suspense as the military catches on. Simultaneously, the show diverts its attention to Holly and Max in the dreamscape as the zoomer explains how the past 18 months treated her, filling in all the gaps that audiences pondered on for the past three years. With a failed attempt to return to the real world, Max finds safety in a cave in a memory, hinting at the lore surrounding a recently confirmed canonical play. “The First Shadow”, playing on Broadway, explores the backstory of Henry Creel and the familiar characters of his peers. While it may seem difficult to understand the information revealed in this play, audiences can only hope that all will come to light in volume two. In the Upside Down, Eleven and Hopper find Eleven’s sister, Eight, but not before Hopper attempts to sacrifice himself yet again. While that trope seems to get weaker each time the show uses it, the connection back to season two makes for an exciting end to the series. At the military base, officers catch the party just as chaos unleashes with an attack from demogorgons and Vecna himself. This scene includes one of the most impressive shots in the season, a single shot that follows Mike and company around the active battlefield, seeking safety in the carnage. The filmography of the season went above and beyond, as usual, and watching a scene with that much detail and suspense satisfied and impressed audiences of all kinds. Though they do not make it to safety, interrupted by Will injured by the hivemind, the scene leads to the biggest cliffhanger of them all. In the face of danger and in order to save those he loves, Will Byers kills three demogorgons with the very same telekinetic powers Eleven and Vecna possess. The big reveal highlights the parallels between Will and Eleven, and the shots of both Mike and Will on the battlefield end episode four off on an exciting note.
As volume two quickly approaches, now just days away, audiences theorize and analyze every single second of the show that they can. After nearly ten years, Netflix holds hours and hours worth of content for fans to scour, along with the consistent teasers for the final four episodes and interviews with cast members. With a show of this magnitude, thousands of people will be seated over the holidays as the beloved ‘never ending story’ finally wraps up.
