Stranger Things (Season 5)

Creators: The Duffer Brothers
Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gelman, Priah Ferguson, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Campbell Bower, Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, Cara Buono, Joe Chrest, Randy Havens, Linnea Berthelsen
Original Airdate: 2025

**This Review Contains Major Plot Spoilers**

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★) 

Just as an experiment, it would be fun to show Stranger Things' fifth and final season to viewers who only watched the series' first eight episodes back in 2016 and log their reactions. Before fully processing those lengthy gaps between seasons, all the main characters still being alive and how much older the actors look, they'd probably be most surprised by the sheer size of it. And what roles all these new faces play in serving a story that's now exponentially larger in scope, with many more moving parts. But as inevitable as some of these developments look in hindsight, it wasn't always that way. 

The rare series about kids also aimed at adults, the Duffer Brothers creation hit every key demographic, possessing the kind of broad appeal most networks and streaming services only dream of tapping into. While captivating tween and teen audiences with its high stakes adventure, it simultaneously provided a huge dose of 80's nostalgia for Gen Xers who quickly found themselves hooked. As the foundation on which Netflix was built and the impetus for an enormously successful Broadway stage play, the show could seemingly do no wrong. 

Unfortunately, with massive popularity comes the pressure and expectation of topping yourself, regardless of how much time you're afforded to write and plan. If anything, it ups the ante, giving showrunners more opportunities to change their minds multiple times before filming. When this happens, pressure mounts to be bigger and better than before as we've seen this Spielbergian coming-of-age mystery/adventure in the vein of The Goonies and Explorers evolve into a full blown sci-fi spectacle that features twice the amount of heroes we started with. 

In a fifth season that gifts us the two best cast additions imaginable, the lack of subtraction still manages to stir debate up until the series' final minutes. If killing off characters raises the stakes, risks also accompany who goes and when, which helps shed light on the Duffers' decision making process. But it can still get unwieldly when overlapping storylines collide with an increasingly convoluted supernatural plot, leaving only a certain amount of space for character beats and moments. So if Season 4 proved to be a critical turning point for the series with longer episodes, deeper mythology and Vecna's reveal, this is the main event, as the team prepares to do battle for the last time. And it's a wild ride.  

It's fall 1987 and after Vecna/Henry Kreel (Jamie Campbell Bower) opened the rifts in Hawkins, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) finds herself being hunted by the U.S. military, who quarantine the town and set up base in the Upside Down under the directive of Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton). As Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) train Eleven in hiding, Will (Noah Schnapp), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) try to stop a distraught Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) from provoking fights with the school's jocks over Eddie's memory. 

Meanwhile, Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) are working at local radio station WSQK, organizing "crawls" with Murray (Brett Gelman) and the rest of the team to sneak Hopper into the Upside Down and locate Vecna. But he has other plans, appearing in human form as Mike and Nancy's little sister Holly's (Nell Fisher) imaginary friend, "Mr. Whatsit."

When Henry takes Holly, it's clear this is only the first step of his master plan involving the kids of Hawkins. But help comes in the form of a still comatose Max (Sadie Sink), who's trapped alongside Holly within Henry's memories. As the pair attempt to navigate their way out of the Upside Down, Eleven readies herself for a showdown with Vecna while Will summons the strength and courage to do the same, unlocking the powers he's possessed since his November 6, 1983 vanishing breached the barrier between worlds.

It's a strong start, with the writers laying the groundwork for everything to converge as the group splits into various factions, but remains unified in achieving the primary goals of rescuing Holly and destroying Vecna for good. Of course, that's assuming he doesn't get to them first. Despite a dizzying amount of cutting back-and-forth between locations, the pacing remains perfect throughout the first few episodes, which balance huge action set pieces with smaller character building moments. 

Will, who was relegated to the sidelines for the past few seasons, is again front and center, the ramifications of his first season disappearance finally being exploited as the series' inciting event, haunting him in ways that weren't fully addressed until now. It's also a relief to have the old Mike back, resuming the leadership role he used to occupy, even as Eddie's death continues to take its toll on an angry, inconsolable Dustin, whose feud with former best friend Steve leads to one of the season's better payoffs. 

For Jonathan, Steve's presence is only putting a further strain on his already fractured relationship with Nancy while DJ "Rockin'" Robin finds renewed purpose with their challenge ahead. And for the overprotective Hopper, he'll have to learn to trust El and loosen the reigns a little if she's to have a chance at defeating Vecna. But chapters two ("The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler") and three ("The Turnbow Trap") is when business really starts to pick up. 

The decision to recast and age up Mike and Nancy's baby sister Holly proves crucial, mainly due to Nell Fisher's breakthrough performance as the youngest Wheeler, conveying a mix of poise, fear and vulnerability when Holly's abducted after watching mom Karen (Cara Buono) get mauled by a Demogorgan. 

This leads to part one's strongest stretch, while also introducing us to the season's most entertainingly hilarious addition in Holly's school bully, "Dipshit" Derek Turnbow, played by Jake Connelly. Complete with Transformers bed sheets, his G.I. Joe lunchbox and unmatched comedic timing, he kills every line like foul-mouthed, live action Eric Cartman. 

The group using Vecna target Derek and his dysfunctional family as bait leads to that spectacularly funny dinner table scene where a no-nonsense Erica (Priah Ferguson) proudly drugs them all, enabling the team to use their Nightmare on Elm Street inspired booby traps. Both Derek's reaction to the unfolding chaos and his enthusiasm in going undercover to help save his classmates completes his "Delightful" transformation into our new favorite character. But like so many of this season's best laid plans, that rescue mission goes sideways, or rather Upside Down. 

Held captive by Henry at the Kreel residence, Holly's journey is part A Wrinkle in Time, part Alice in Wonderland with even a dash of Little Red Riding Hood as she ventures into the forbidden woods and encounters Max. This bond forms the crux of the whole season, with Sink and Fisher emerging as its co-MVPs when their characters unite to escape, discovering horrifying details about Henry's past in the process. With Lucas continuing to keep vigil at Max's bedside in the real world, she'll realize it's him making all the difference rather than Kate Bush, who doesn't hurt either. 

The somewhat controversial return of El's "sister" Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) has been predicted for a while, giving the Duffers a second chance to potentially close this creative loop, making sense of her overall purpose in the story. And they do, with Kali exposing Dr. Kay's intentions to restart Brenner's program, with El as the centerpiece.  

While Hopper can't trust Kali and she rarely gives him reason to, El does, even if her sister's proposed suicide pact sets off all sorts of alarms. But it isn't until the final episode that we fully appreciate the predicament El's in. There was always a suspicion she might make the ultimate sacrifice, and now that they've gone down that road, it's obvious the strain it's puts on her relationship with Hopper, whose own history losing a daughter informs his every action and emotion. 

If El is to defeat Vecna, it won't be alone, as "Will The Wise" harnesses the full extent of his telekinetic abilities, at least partially due to an emotional talk with Robin. With Will snapping Demogorgin limbs and killing them with his telekinetic powers, the spectacularly staged military base scene provides the ideal cliffhanger heading into part two. In battling the combined forces of El, Mike, and the rest of the team, Henry's biggest liability is his own tortured past. 

Various plans are made, discussed and abandoned in the last four episodes, sometimes creating repetitively awkward pacing issues and jarring transitions. While Jonathan's "un-proposal" to Nancy in the melting room is a clever conceit that honestly addresses their incompatibility, it's overlong. Dustin and Steve's reconciliation hits harder, with Gaten Matarazzo's work effectively charting his character's evolution from resentful, self destructiveness to eventual acceptance upon realizing he can't bare to lose another best friend. 

Dustin's explanation of how the Upside Down functions as a wormhole to the "Abyss" actually makes sense without contradicting any of the other information we've previously gotten. Once Vecna's intentions to use the 12 kidnapped children to merge worlds comes into view, his ability to capitalize on anyone's worst fears is bad news for Will, whose big secret can easily be exploited as a weakness. While it won't come as news to anyone watching that he's gay, the Duffers do manage to make his coming out feel somewhat jarring and unexpected, at least in terms of the execution. At first, it looks as if Will's preparing to tell just Joyce and maybe Mike before pouring his heart out to the entire cast of characters. 

You could argue all day whether a moment like that would take place in 1987, but if it did, there's little doubt those in that room would support him without question. That's why this needs to be viewed as sort of wish fulfillment for how its creators and fans would want Will's confession to play out in the eighties. But the focus on Will's fear of being abandoned by his friends, Noah Schnapp's performance, and those reaction shots of Jonathan and Robin overcome the speech's sappier elements, preventing it from becoming a public service announcement.

Everything involving Max and Holly's attempts to evade Henry and exit the Upside Down doesn't miss, especially their trip through his past, which contains elements from The First Shadow stage play. Wisely though, the writers avoid going too far down that rabbit hole, instead using it as a jumping off point to deepen his story without alienating the uninitiated. 

That all culminates in Max's movingly motivational speech to "Holly The Heroic," who must find her own way out while not feeling all that courageous. Further establishing all Fisher's done with her role and why Sink is still the show's biggest breakout, the rug gets pulled out when Max escapes and Holly again falls into Vecna's clutches, bringing him closer to his ultimate goal. 

Steve's radio tower plan is no crazier than anything else we've seen in these eight episodes, but filled with numerous obstacles, twists and unforeseen complications that diminish its chances of success. With Eleven, Kali, Max and Will all infiltrating Henry's mind to varying degrees, we get the big answer as to how exactly he acquired his powers and why he fears the cave. Like Will, he was merely a vessel, with the key difference being that only one of them chose evil.

Jamie Campbell Bower's chilling turn is one of the finale's biggest strengths, as Henry wages a battle within himself and the Mind Flayer, who doesn't want him seeing how he was manipulated. But his ugly desire for control is what finally pushes him into that cave and past Will's best efforts to get through to him. Whatever remained of that young, scared boy scout was already long gone. They'll be no Vader-like redemption arc for Henry, as it should be.  

An even more consequential conflict exists between Hopper, El and Kali once Vecna gives him a frightening glimpse of El's suicidal intentions to stop Dr. Kay or anyone else from continuing what Brenner started. Now Hopper will need to trust El enough to make a choice his late daughter Sara never had. And that longstanding criticism this series doesn't kill off enough characters is front of mind when Kali dies protecting El, who rejoins the team to take down Vecna and a super sized kaiju Mind Flayer. 

As the only season to take place almost entirely in the Upside Down, everything in "Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up" feels bigger, including the effects, which have rarely looked as impressive than in this closing fight. Punctuated by Rambo Nancy leading the charge with some serious fire power and a pissed, ax wielding Joyce taking her frustrations out on Vecna, the finale's first hour fires on all cylinders.

Exciting and breathlessly paced, the episode reaches its initial climax when El makes her choice to stay in the Upside Down as it explodes, apparently giving her own life to ensure a better future for Hawkins and her friends. And while saying her goodbyes to an apoplectic Mike, we hear Prince's "Purple Rain," marking the song's first officially licensed use in a TV series or film, joining Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" and David Bowie's "Heroes" among the season's definitive needle drops.    

The 45 minute epilogue that catches up with everyone 18 months later could have been tighter, and even if you understand the temptation to give them all an extended goodbye, that rooftop scene with Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and Robin drags on forever. 

This isn't to say there aren't worthwhile moments, like seeing Steve as the Hawkins High baseball coach or Mike being consoled by (Sheriff?) Hopper, who seems at peace with El's decision, unwilling to let anger engulf him again. His advice to Mike hits a touching chord, as does valedictorian Dustin's graduation speech, or at least the part where he pays tribute to Eddie with a clever callback. 

If there's a reason to go hard on some of the Duffers' creative choices, it's because they delay an incredible closing scene that not only feels earned, but brings the story back to where it began and belongs. Seeing Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max reconvening in the basement to complete their Dungeons & Dragons campaign as Mike envisions their futures feels perfect. Will puts his trauma behind him, college student Dustin reunites with Steve, Lucas and Max get their movie date while Mike embarks on a writing career. 

In saving the biggest reveal for last, Mike spins his theory as to how El could have survived the explosion when we see her arrive at the waterfalls, presumably settling into a more peaceful, isolated existence away from her friends, but no longer fearing for their safety. Whether that's the story he tells himself to accept her death or a credible account of what actually happened, we'll never know. Like these characters, fans are free to believe whatever they want, with the writers leaving that door cracked open just a little, like the best finales do.

When the kids tearfully close their binders for the last time and put them on the shelf, they're saying goodbye to their childhoods just as these actors are. But the real kicker comes when Holly, Derek and friends come storming down the basement stairs to replace them, beginning their campaign and reminding us what the show was truly about the entire time. And with Mike proudly watching on, the realization hits that we've come full circle.    

Two things can be true at once. Episodes can have flaws and you can still love the series for what it is, mainly because we've never seen anything quite like this. It felt like a huge deal going in but somehow seems even bigger when those illustrated end credits start to roll. And while no one wants to hear it, basically every season but the first falls within a similar realm of quality, including the suddenly respected fourth, which was mocked by fans when it first premiered. Given some time and distance, the dust will settle again, freeing this from the constraints of recency bias so it can age on its own merits. A worldwide phenomenon, Stranger Things is sure to enjoy a long shelf life, but also leaves behind an undeniable cultural footprint that guarantees it'll be rewatched and appreciated for years to come.