Review: Stranger Things Season 5 Vol. 1

Editors: Max Smolarski and Ciara Teefey

Contains Spoilers

 

Last month, the fifth and final season of one of Netflix’s most popular Stranger Things premiered. It had been 3 years since the last season ended, which left fans with bated breath to learn about the fates of the main characters and everyone in Hawkins after the gates to the Upside Down were finally opened.

Stars of Stranger Things at the world premiere in Hollywood, California. Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty

It’s been almost a decade since the first season of Stranger Things premiered. Viewers around the world were captivated by the horrifying yet fantastical world that the Duffer Brothers created. Thanks to the show, the young generation has gained appreciation of the pop culture of the 1980s and fans have been given an impetus to think and act more creatively through coming up with their own theories, fanfictions and costume replications.

We’ve also had the pleasure of getting to know a talented cast of actors, including actors who were only twelve years old when they started, yet blew audiences away with their captivating performances. We have grown up with them, laughed with them and cheered for them. And now, we will get to do that for the very last time.

This season is set in 1987, about a year after the events of the fourth season. In the first episode, however, there is a flashback to 1983, when Will was lost in the Upside Down. Young Will is played by Luke Kokotek, who has Noah Schnapp’s digitally de-aged facial features mapped on to his face with the use of CGI (In my opinion, the VFX effects team didn’t do it as well as they did for Eleven in her flashback scenes in Season 4).

Anyway, Will hides in Castle Byers, only to be alerted to the presence of the Demogorgon, which Will distracts by shooting it in it’s face with a shotgun. He then tries to escape by climbing a tree and somersaults into another, only to captured by the Demogorgon. Even though he got caught, Will was a little badass! And there’s more moments like that to come this season.

In the next scene, Will is taken to Vecna’s (for lack of better word) lair where Vecna implants a tendril in his mouth that also pumps particles inside his body (“We’re going to do beautiful things together William”, he tells the boy), explaining why Joyce and Hopper found him in that condition at the end of Season 1.

Scene from Stranger Things Season 5. Credit: Clay Enos/Netflix

Back to present day (which is really 1987)

The Byers have moved in with the Wheelers and Ted is amusably unpleased with his new houseguests. Robin (AKA Rockin’ Robin) has become the new radio host of The Squawk! and fills us in with everything that has happened since the events of Season 4. Hawkins has been placed under military quarantine and people have to undergo (mandatory) free medical check-ups. Remember those four gates? They’ve been covered up with large metal slates across town. Robin introduces us to the Military Access Control Zone, or The Big Mac as she calls it, where the military work to prepare for a showdown against any threats from The Upside Down.

Robin is clearly very critical of the military efforts to deal with the supernatural threats from The Upside Down. Hopefully this doesn’t get her in too much trouble later. (I can’t be too hopeful though, because I’ve recently found out that one of the episodes for Volume 2 is called Shock Jock. Look up the meaning of Shock Jock if you want to understand my fear for Robin’s safety). Robin announces a secret code (during which she plays Upside Down by Diana Ross) on the radio for the main characters, which turns to be a code for a secret mission to enter the Upside Down.

Will now attends Hawkins High with Lucas, Mike and Dustin. The core 4 are back together again just like old times. But not everything is the same as it used to be. Dustin is in his depression era right now, obviously still reeling from Eddie’s death in the previous season. It looks like he’s no longer the upbeat, lovable nerd we’ve all come to now and love. Despite the fact that the town is under military quarantine, the jocks (including that a-hole Andy who tackled Erica last season) still hate the Hellfire club and blame the club for the deaths that occurred last season.

The jocks are now harassing Dustin, who appears to have emulated Eddie in his style and his attitude. Dustin doesn’t care if anyone, including his own friends, have a problem with him honouring Eddie’s memory and the Hellfire club. Eleven is still wanted by the military (especially Dr Kay, leader of the Wolf Pack) and lives in hiding with Hopper in Hawkins. Like the military, she too is preparing for the fight against the Upside Down, with an intensified hate for Henry AKA Vecna.

Everyone is preparing for this secret mission to sneak Hopper into the Upside Down (The Crawl) under the military’s watchful eye. Steve is still (sigh) not over Nancy. I got second hand embarrassment having to watch Steve and Jonathan engage in a cringey competition over whose the fastest one to climb the tallest tower. I hate Stancy. The ship has sailed and sunk. I just wish the writers (and Steve) would accept that and move on.

Speaking of ships, Robin has started to date her crush Vickie and makes plans with her to go to Enzo’s on a date. (Is that another bad sign for Robin?). Will ,at the hospital where Vickie works, accidentally sees Robin kiss Vickie and very unsubtly runs away. Murray has now become the group’s smuggler into The Big Mac and provides the characters with weapons and supplies they’ll need for their mission. He also gives Jonathan a music tape (which secretly contains a ring. An engagement ring for Nancy?!)

Photo of cast of Stranger Things Season 5. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

Holly Wheeler, who has been in the background for the last four seasons, has a new imaginary friend called Mr Whatsit. Given the fact that one of the episodes of Volume 1 is called The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler, this piece of information cannot be ignored. Karen is concerned about Holly’s imaginary friend but Ted as usual, isn’t fazed by this.

When Karen asks Ted how old she is (I’m not so sure either), Ted deflects and walks away from his wife, who has apparently become an alcoholic now. I seriously think Ted and Karen are going to get a divorce. The first episode ends with the lights flickering in Holly’s room and the Demogorgon breaking through Holly’s bedroom ceiling.

The next episode begins with Holly trying to escape her room to flee the Demogorgon. She runs to the bathroom to find her drunk mother, who doesn’t believe Holly is in danger until she sees blood on her head. The Demogorgon breaks into the bathroom where both Holly and Karen hid under the bubble bath in the bathtub. Ted, on the other hand, is playing golf and when he enters the home uses his golf club on the Demogorgon and then gets slashed in the chest and the Demogorgon catapults Ted into another room.

Ted isn’t entirely useless and lazy. He tried his best. He held his own. Karen and Holly try to flee the creature and when cornered, Karen faces off with the Demogorgon on her own, pushing Holly aside. She lets out a ferocious scream, breaks her wine bottle  and yells at the creature, telling it to stay away from her daughter. She then proceeds to stab the Demogorgon with her broken bottle. Let's go Karen!

Nancy and Eleven drive to the Wheeler house to find Karen seriously wounded and Holly absent from the scene. Once Nancy figures out where Holly could be, she orders Eleven to go to the Upside Down to save Holly. Both Cara Buono and Natalia Dyer deliver their acting chops as a fiercely protective mother and a scared daughter who thinks her own mother is about to die. Buono, in particular, gave it her all in this opening sequence. And let's not forget Nell Fisher’s acting in the opening. Very impressive for a 14 year old girl. Did you know Nell performed her own stunts for this episode?!

Hopper finds Eleven in the Upside Down and chews her out for being in public instead of using the tunnels to hide from the military. El, on the other hand, doesn’t care and seems to be acting more like a normal rebellious teenager. And El now has a kryptonite: sonic devices. Whenever it’s turned on, she’s weakened and is in too much pain to move.

The Wheelers are then rushed to the hospital and Lucas is able to figure out what Vecna’s new plan is: to kidnap all the children in Hawkins. But why children? Karen finally tells her children about Holly’s imaginary friend Mr Whatsit. Surprise, Surprise, it’s Henry Creel AKA Vecna. Cue Holly walking with Henry to his house. Cue Mr Sandman by The Chordettes playing in the ending credits. It’s a lot creepier than it sounds.

Part of the cast of Stranger Things Season 5. Credit: Andrew Cooper/Netflix

Holly, who is living her best life in Henry’s house, eventually comes across Max in the woods. Max. Who is supposed to be in a coma! Apparently, while she did die (clinically, and only for one minute), she somehow ended up trapped in Henry’s memories. And when she was in the memory of her escape from Vecna, she was very close to escape. Except she ignored the wise words of Kate Bush and ended up jogging up that hill, messing up her chance of waking up from her coma. She eventually gets chased by Henry in his human form into a cave, which Henry cannot enter for some reason. If you want to know, look it up online or watch the prequel play The First Shadow.

The Hawkins team decide to prevent other children from getting kidnapped by the Demogorgons by killing the Demos and also by taking families hostage by drugging them so they can kidnap the children themselves. But it’s okay because they are doing it to save their lives. To do this, Robin decides that they need to steal sleeping pills from the hospital where Vickie works.

Will and Robin form an unlikely alliance after Will disregards Joyce’s plan and carries out his role in the mission in his own way. Will tells Robin that he saw her kiss Vickie (“I knew that was your goddamn bowl cut”, Robin tells him). It seems like Robin is the Steve to Will’s Dustin. And we need this adorable older teen- young kid dynamic because Steve and Dustin are growing distant from one another and it’s breaking my heart.

Back to Robin and Will. They both figure out that Will (who does neck grabs whenever a creature from the Upside Down is near) has a telepathic link to Vecna’s hive mind (a psychic network of the Upside Down that controls its creatures).

Remember Dustin? He meets Steve and Jonathan in Steve’s car all bloodied up after being beaten up by Andy and the other jocks. Steve and Dustin proceed to fight over his absence. I love Steve, but he’s really getting on my nerves with how he’s treating his grieving friend and how he’s trying to one-up Jonathan every time Nancy is present.

One of Vecna’s possible kidnapping victims is a boy (appropriately) referred to as Dipshit Derek. The team drug him and his family but he regains consciousness surprisingly quickly.  He eventually decides to help the team save the other children and to do this he needs to become Delightful Derek.

Lucas, Mike and Will sneak into the Big Mac to evacuate all the children, who’ve been housed in a bunker by the military. You’ll have to endure some really unnecessary and weird jokes about penises during this plotline. Sounds bizarre but I’m not making this up. No offense to the writers of this show, but the script for Volume 1 was kind of terrible. Some of the lines were so awkward and hard to listen to.

Steve, Nancy, Jonathan and Dustin race to The Upside Down to chase a Demogorgon they fought in Derek’s house. There, they make contact with Eleven and Hopper who, through torture and intimidation of military personnel, managed to sneak into The Big Mac so they can kill Vecna. Eleven proves to be formidable even without her powers as she stabs Dr Kay in a fight with her. And Hopper almost fake sacrifices himself again to save Eleven and Hawkins. Eventually both Hopper and Eleven find out that the source of Eleven’s kryptonite is really her sister Eight. Remember Eight? From that episode in season 2 that everyone hates? She’s back!

Meanwhile, the Hawkins team get caught trying to evacuate the children and it is in that moment that the Demogorgons arrive at The Big Mac and engage in battle with the military. The military are no match for the Demogorgons, who have become agile and vicious since the first season. Seriously, these guys are tossing dead, mutilated bodies towards each other like NBA players in a basketball game. Vecna joins in on the massacre with a new (and let’s be real slimmer) build and destroys the military men, even clawing through the eyes and mouth of one guy. Damn.

After ranting to his old pal Will, Vecna retreats to the Upside Down and it looks like to Demogorgons are going to kill everyone. Then suddenly all the Demogorgons go frozen. It’s not Eleven who saved everyone. It’s Will. Remember his link to Vecna? Now, he has psychic powers as well and obliterates the Demos Vecna-style. A moment I’m sure had viewers hooting and hollering at their screens. Eight is back and Will now has powers?! With Eleven, they’ll make an unstoppable trio! A golden trio like Harry, Ron and Hermione. AHHHHHH!

I can’t wait for Christmas so I can watch Volume 2. None of the major characters have died yet but it has been confirmed that there will be five deaths in Volume 2. It’s so hard to pinpoint who will live and who won’t. I’ll admit, the writing for Volume 1 wasn’t so great but the Duffer Brothers made up for it with awesome stunts, battle scenes, plot twists and cliffhangers.

I’ll give Volume 1 a ★★★ rating. But I don’t doubt that Volume 2 will be an epic, satisfying conclusion to the series.