This review contains spoilers for the series.

“Stranger Things” season five is finally out, and it’s breaking viewership records. While the season takes a major leap from the previous ones, the intensity did not disappoint.  

Episode 1, reviewed by Kailin Quatela 

With a five minute flashback of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) in the Upside Down, the first episode of season five opens.

Despite trying to keep himself hidden from a demogorgon, Will is ultimately captured in the Upside Down version of the Hawkins Public Library by Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) — also known as Henry or One — to serve as a parasitic host for his plan that no one knows the true nature of.  

Jumping back to present day, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) are working on Robin’s new radio show, “The Morning Squawk,” which is being used to discreetly relay secret information to other characters about “crawls” — a tactic used to track demogorgons and Vecna.

Additionally, Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) is being bullied while grieving the loss of Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), a character who was killed in the previous season. He feels lost due to Eddie being one of his closest friends as well as the leader of their Dungeons & Dragons club, Hellfire. The club was wrongfully blamed in the previous season for causing “demonic activity” in Hawkins. 

Meanwhile, everyone is working on that evening’s crawl. 

Jim Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) are training with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) — otherwise known as Jane — to increase her stamina and agility due to her persistence in helping with the mission. 

Hopper secretly ventures to the Upside Down for the crawl with the military, where they are attacked by a demogorgon. 

Through this, the viewer sees that Will is somehow attached to the enemy through the eyes of the demogorgon. He goes into a sort of trance where he seizes and is used to track down the victims Vecna has chosen. This detail shows the connection Will has had to the Upside Down since the beginning, being a part of Vecna’s supposed plan to take over. 

Throughout the episode, we also see more of Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), Mike Wheeler’s (Finn Wolfhard) little sister. She has been hanging out with her imaginary friend, a man no one else can see, Mr. Whatsit (Jamie Campbell Bower). She carries on talking with him until danger strikes her: a demogorgon rips a gate — a portal connecting to the Upside Down — into Holly’s room in the Wheeler house. The screen cuts to black, leaving viewers in suspense. 

When I finished the episode, I was immediately able to recognize how much work went into the first half of the season. 

The depth of plot with each individual allowed me to reconnect with the characters and appreciate how they are adapting to the new life after Hawkins was destroyed. 

However, before I watched the remaining episodes, it left me with a ton of questions. 

• Who is Mr. Whatsit, and why can no one see him except for Holly? 
• Will Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) ever recover from her coma in the hospital to play a part in the next episodes?
• Is Will ever going to be released from his connection to the Upside Down? 

The plot expansion created suspense that leaves everyone feeling excited as well as nervous for what’s to come. 

Episode 2, reviewed by Kaitlyn Roozen

Episode two begins by picking up after the cliff-hanger seen in the episode prior: is the demogorgon going to attack the Wheelers?

The simple answer is yes, but much more happens in the scenes to follow. 

The demogorgon wreaks havoc on the Wheeler family, including critically injuring Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) and Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) and dragging Holly into the Upside Down — a mystery that will begin to unfold as the episodes continue. 

Both parents were rushed to the hospital: Ted, who fell into a coma, and Karen who sustained severe injuries to her throat, abdomen, and shoulder. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the kids assemble to perform a “crawl” by compiling tools and a solid plan. The remainder of this episode follows the team as they each perform their specific task, but things go wrong midway through when a demogorgon takes Holly. Because of this, Eleven goes in to save her, but it leads to herself and Hopper becoming stuck inside the Upside Down in the process.

As for the team still in the real world, they work to formulate a plan after things fail to go as they had hoped. Will and Robin develop a closer relationship too — something that has been a key aspect in Will’s personal growth this season. 

The introduction to a relationship between Robin and Will is an important aspect in the episode that I find crucial to the later plot. Robin is someone Will can confide in because they have experienced similar struggles with their identity, allowing Will to finally have someone who truly understands him. 

We also learn the true identity of Mr. Whatsit, who is actually Vecna, as the episode concludes. 

When I began to watch this episode, I was immediately drawn in because of the opening attack scene in the Wheeler household. I feel the action and violence really showed the more thriller aspect of the show and also how we, just like the actors, are no longer kids anymore. 

The reveal of Mr. Whatsit actually being Henry, although somewhat predictable, was still entertaining because it was done in a dramatic manner with the currently injured and mute Karen. 

Episode 3, reviewed by Kaitlyn Roozen

After the identity of Mr. Whatsit is revealed, episode three continues along the plot of this new side of Vecna as Mr. Whatsit by showing his next target: Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly). 

Derek is the brother of Tina Turnbow (Caroline Elle Abrams), ex-best friend to Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson), which is a helpful connection for the group working against Vecna in the real world. 

The group hatches a plan to kidnap the Turnbows using Erica, a pie, and a bunch of sedatives, to protect Derek from Vecna. When the plan is put in action, the scene itself provides humor through Erica’s actions, a nice element in an otherwise dark plot, and one of my favorite scenes in the season. 

As the kidnapping turns into a success, Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), Steve, and Dustin follow a demogorgon that was unable to be captured only to discover it is heading directly towards the others. 

Still stuck in the Upside Down, Eleven and Hopper work to gain information from a government official that they gained custody of after fighting his comrades off. The pair is looking for more information on Vecna in order to save Holly, who is now trapped somewhere in Vecna’s mind.

As the episode wraps up, we see Holly running from the Vecna’s childhood home, The Creel House, in which Holly was unknowingly trapped in, only to come across none other than Max — a character known to be in a coma due to last season’s attack orchestrated by Vecna.

I found this to be the perfect ending to the episode because it left me wanting to immediately keep watching to know more. Finding out Max also exists in this domain is a hopeful occurrence, especially considering her physical condition as of late. 

This reveal proved to be exactly what I, and many others, were hoping for in the new episodes. Having not known the fate of Max for so long and finally having a small piece to her puzzle is now something to cling to as the episodes continue their release in the future. 

Episode 4, reviewed by Kailin Quatela 

Following a fake display of trust towards Joyce after being kidnapped, Derek tries to run away and is almost attacked by a demogorgon, who uses Will’s vision to find them. 

Thankfully, Steve, Joyce, Jonathan, and Dustin hit the monster with their car, before deciding to crash through its gate to the Upside Down to follow it.

Moving back to Max and Holly in Henry’s “prison,” Max admits to writing the secret letter Holly was sent and brings Holly to her cave, mysteriously the only area of the realm Henry won’t enter. This mind realm is a recreation of the cave where he first met the Mind Flayer, a shadow entity that rules the Upside Down. 

Max has discovered that the prison in his mind seems to be a psychological scar of Henry’s, and she is trapped there due to the coma she endured after almost losing her life in season four. 

In the Upside Down, Hopper and Eleven break into a laboratory being run by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), a military scientist leading an operation to find Eleven. Inside, Eleven faces danger when a loud, piercing noise is played, debilitating her powers. 

Eventually, both of them defeat Dr. Kay and her men in order to discover Eleven’s weakness — Dr. Kay’s own version of “kryptonite” that stops Eleven from overpowering her. 

Behind the door, they find Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), otherwise known as Eight – Eleven’s sister, who appeared in season 2, and hasn’t been seen since. She had been hooked up to machines by Dr. Kay in order to channel her power to purposefully interfere with Eleven’s. 

Meanwhile, the others — who still have Derek — devise a plan to break all of the kids out of the military base before they’re dragged to the Upside Down too. 

Unfortunately, only a few of them had made it to safety with Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Robin when danger struck — the military found them.

Mike, Will, and Joyce are taken somewhere when demogorgons begin erupting from gates everywhere, killing everything in their path. 

Vecna enters through the gate and confronts Will, describing that the children are easy vessels to use and that Will was the first to help him realize it was possible to control the real world. 

He leaves through the gate, but that doesn’t guarantee their safety. Lucas, Robin, and Mike are about to be attacked by demogorgons when everything freezes. 

Something had stopped them in time, or rather, someone. 

Will, standing his ground, eyes turned white, froze the demogorgons and made them rise up in the air simultaneously, breaking their bones and ultimately killing them all, saving his friends. 

His eyes roll back to his pupils with blood dripping from his nose. 

Starting the season with Will presented as vulnerable and taken advantage of versus ending with his new, powerful self is genius. 

I believe that this was the perfect ending to the first chapter of season five. The Duffer Brothers not only begin tying together all of the loose ends from previous seasons but also leave new ones for fans to try to decipher while waiting for the second chapter. 

I found the section to be incredibly well put together, and I believe I can speak for a lot of the fans when I say that everyone is excited to see what happens next.