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Once upon a time, Stranger Things was a show about a group of kids. When one of them disappeared, the others met a girl with special powers and discovered that their small town’s government laboratory was entering an alternate dimension they dubbed the Upside Down.
From this relatively simple adventure “us against the world”, the series, which ends its broadcast after almost 10 years, five seasonsand unprecedented pop culture domination– has become more about “we’re saving the world.” It’s a task that has never been more urgent as the characters we’ve come to know (and in many cases, see grow from their teens into their twenties) discover the true nature of what they’re facing, which is the main focus of this second batch of episodes continuing the saga of season five.
The episodes dropped last night, and we won’t spoil any plot points here in case you’re still catching up over the holidays. Luckily for fans, volume two is an easier binge: just three episodes, with a total viewing time of around three and a half hours. (The finale, we already know, will last two hours and eight minutes.)
But while season five’s breaks between volume one, volume two, and the finale gave fans time to breathe, they might also make the viewer question whether that many minutes are really necessary — and whether Netflix and Stranger Things the creators, the Duffer Brothers, extend the last fight of the series. Volume Two suggests that this is partly what is happening; for every victory our heroes achieve, there are many more scenes of someone needing a pep talk, someone pleading for a festering beef from a previous season, or someone needing reassurance that the disaster that just happened wasn’t (entirely) their fault.
You could also center a drinking game around how many times someone says “We need a plan” and leave yourself more incapacitated than the Turnbow family was after eating that drug pie earlier in season five.
However, we understand. The end of the game is approaching. It’s high time to cut through the bullshit and figure out what’s most important; in the world of Stranger Thingsit’s often a combination of learning to trust others while realizing that you have to dig deep within yourself if you ever want to succeed. Additionally, given the timing, a lot Many plans need to be made, discussed, reorganized and implemented – and, inevitably, set aside once completed for the next challenge that arises.
And the Stranger Things gang faces plenty of challenges across these three new episodes (“Shock Jock,” “Escape From Camazotz,” and “The Bridge”), commensurate with the number of characters (tons) and side quests (ditto) that season five swirls through its narrative.
“Shock Jock” picks up immediately after “Sorcerer,” finding Will (Noah Schnapp), Joyce (Winona Ryder), and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) dazed and dazzled by Will’s sudden display of demo-destroying powers. We see Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in his stylish Henry disguise, feeding the children he has just kidnapped from his fairy tale about saving them from monsters and doubling his A wrinkle in time analogy, telling them that the world is threatened by something very similar to the fearsome black thing in the novel.
We find Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), who lost many soldiers in “Sorcerer”, seething when she realizes that Kali, aka Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), has escaped the Upside Down lab with the help of El (Millie Bobby Brown) and Hopper (David Harbour).
Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Steve (Joe Keery), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) are also still milling around in the Upside Down; rather than team up with Hop and company, they decide to investigate Dustin’s theory about the fleshy border wall, which leads them to the Upside Down version of Hawkins Lab.
The rest of the characters not mentioned above – Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Erica (Priah Ferguson), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Murray (Brett Gelman) – meet with Will, Mike and Joyce at WSQK, the headquarters of the good guys, to regroup and figure out what to do next.
And, yes, there’s another story on top of that, as Max (Sadie Sink) and Holly (Nell Fisher) also attempt to escape Vecna’s golden-hued mind palace, which Holly nicknamed “Camazotz” after the evil planet in A wrinkle in time.
It’s a lot, and for much of season five, volume two, there’s a frustration that comes from the fact that the audience knows so much more than the characters do, including the fact that everyone only has a sliver of information needed to effectively thwart Vecna’s plan. And Stranger Things realizes this, which is made clear when Hopper comes out and tells Mike, “I’m just as confused as you are… it’s like a piece of the puzzle is missing. A big piece.”
However, Stranger Things has a fixed end point, and it arrives quickly. Volume Two finally manages to put this puzzle together so that the show is ready for its finale. We get a much-needed, exposition-filled scene that describes exactly what’s at stake, involving a huge plot reveal so carefully explained (and then explained again) that you can almost ignore how much of a retcon it is.
We finally get to see some key members of the supporting cast, including Robin’s girlfriend Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) and Erica’s science teacher Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens), learn what’s really going on in Hawkins and contribute their own talents and skills to the cause. We also get a much-needed moment of catharsis from one of the main characters, a scene that Stranger things manages with the nuance it requires.
That said, we don’t get any nuance when it comes to Dr. Kay, a paper-thin cartoonish villain lacking the moral complexity of his predecessor, Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), or the sympathetic tendencies of Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser). Her true intentions are fully revealed in volume two, and while they are less extinction-level than Vecna’s, they are no less devastating. And his apparent motive, pushing the goals of the Cold War war machine of the 1980s to the extreme, is simply… to gain the upper hand in Moscow. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll learn Nothing more on her in the finale.
Volume Two ends exactly where you’d expect: about to embark on one last great battle, with greater urgency than ever. The Hawkins gang is finally united and ready to carry out their craziest plan yet. Their success in saving the world seems assured – does anyone really think Stranger Things would it dare end in a full-blown apocalypse? – but it will be a difficult road to get there.
Stranger Things season five, volumes one and two, are now streaming on Netflix. The final arrives on December 31.
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