Welcome back to our spoiler-filled thoughts on Stranger Things 5, now covering the second batch of episodes, released December 25, 2025, in the run-up to the finale’s release on New Year’s Eve.
Written by the Duffer brothers
Directed by the Duffer brothers & Shawn Levy
The party reunites, but Holly and the other children kidnapped by Vecna are still missing. As the heroes of Hawkins figure out how to kill Vecna and destroy the Upside Down, they also try to seek closure before embarking on a battle none of them might return from.
Sorry Holly
Poor Holly wakes up in the gooey nightmare that is Vecna’s lair in (what Dustin soon christens) the Abyss. (The creators have dubbed Vecna’s palace the Pain Tree, although it does look more like his hand, almost as if it was inspired by its D&D namesake.) She manages to enter the Upside Down, only to find herself hurtling to her death over the shadow version of the lab. We’re left in suspense for a diabolically long time, as we only follow everyone in Hawkins until they reunite with those in the Upside Down, and find out Vecna pulled her back up.
Not to be ungrateful that Holly isn’t dead, because there was no way her sister and the others would’ve been able to grab her before she died, but there are worse things than death. It somehow gets even worse back in Camazotz, where Vecna persuades the other children Holly’s been brainwashed, leading to a shockingly brutal fight between the kids, that even results in her losing the miniature connecting her to her brother. You’d have hoped Derek would step in, but unfortunately the threat facing his family is too strong. The creepy kicker is how no one thinks to place a bandage over the poor girl’s head injury during the denouement.
Speaking of lies and deceit, it is remarkable Vecna didn’t resort to his usual bag of tricks to tear the children apart, besides the gilded cage he’s crafted for them: he’s gone from being Freddy Krueger to Sauron, the title villain of The Lord of the Rings himself. Incidentally, Jamie Campbell Bower has been cast in The Rings of Power season three, presumably as Galadriel’s husband Celeborn, or Balrog-slayer Glorfindel, and it’s going to be so weird that he won’t be portraying another face for the Dark Lord.
A literal alien world
This is technically not the Abyss’s first appearance, since it was introduced in season four when we thought it was the same place as the Upside Down (and we’ve had interior shots of the Pain Tree in the meantime), but it’s still wild to see an honest-to-god alien planet on the show. Aliens is such a big part of the DNA of Stranger Things, but who could’ve imagined space becoming an actual factor in the plot? It really is the final season, because there’s no way the show can keep topping itself when it comes to scale and scope, unless the entire multiverse (not just the Upside Down) came into play.
The party grows, save one member
Mr. Clarke is finally let in on the teens’ secret after Erica initially opted not to elaborate on Dustin’s disappearance, and Vickie officially joins the gang to keep an eye on Max’s recovery. However, Karen is told to stay in the hospital because she’s still a high-risk patient, and reluctantly agrees after Mike persuades her that she’s done enough. It’s a lovely moment that reinforces sometimes you can only do what you can, and that children always have the capacity to surprise and surpass us in wisdom. It’s funny, given Mike’s D&D title is “the Brave,” but as we’ll discuss later, this season has also seen Will the Wise become a braver person.
Her absence means there’s one less person to account for when everyone gathers at the WSQK station, which Shawn Levy has admitted was a difficult scene to shoot because of how many actors are present: just think of how many times it had to be filmed, with all the required lighting and camera changes, and continuity checks, for the close-ups alone. Like the setting expanding to an alien world, the way the cast has ballooned, and the reluctance to write out more of them, really does cement this as the final season. Still, it’s always fun to see the whole band get back together for the finale, and to have Hopper be annoyed by D&D references again.
Beanstalk!
Inspired by the reference to Jack and the Beanstalk, Steve comes up with the plan to reach the Abyss by climbing the Upside Down’s version of the radio tower. Way to go Steve, you’re not just a bodyguard after all! The fact a “beanstalk” would factor into the show did make me laugh, as I often privately joked following the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 (an official D&D video game) and Dragon Age: The Veilguard (a sequel to one inspired by D&D) that Stranger Things 5 would also feature the heroes climbing something analogous to the Elder Brain, or the blighted Archon’s Palace. I’m not familiar enough with D&D to understand the trope, although it probably stems back to Frodo and Sam climbing the stairs of Cirith Ungol in The Lord of the Rings, a major inspiration for the game.
Closure
Dustin and Steve reconcile, the latter essentially admitting he was in the “anger” stage of grieving for Eddie too. The pair acknowledge they might not return home, preparing us for a very scary prospect in the finale. Kali and Eleven similarly continue to debate if there’ll be anywhere safe for them to come back to, with the former proposing ruling in Hell after they depose Vecna. Hopper is understandably wary of Kali’s influence on his daughter, similarly asking us to steel ourselves in case events get worse before they get better.
One character who achieves full closure before potentially dying is Will, who decides to come out to his mother, and then that he needs to tell everyone. It’s an earnestly awkward scene, where he babbles on about how similar he still is to his friends, before indirectly admitting he’s into boys. They all embrace, reminding him they’ll always love him, regardless of his sexuality: they haven’t defeated Vecna with the power of friendship, but they have used it to destroy the fear he wielded against Will.
Not being a LGBT+ person, I need to cede the mic to writers like Daniel D’Addario at Variety, for thoughts on how the scene makes them feel as part of that community. That said, it does feel extraordinary that so much of this blockbuster show is ultimately about a gay child discovering how brave he is, and that’s not something we can take for granted: not only does it feel a corrective to how heteronormative the work of Steven Spielberg (who, so we’re clear, is my favorite filmmaker) that inspired the series is, we may never know the extent of the impact it is having on similarly scared children right now.
P.S.
I really didn’t want to dignify the behavior of some viewers with a response, but it has to be said: the downvoting of the episode on IMDb, where it’s (at the time of writing) rated 5.4/10, really is ridiculous, and another nail in the coffin of the credibility of that creaky old website. It’s absolutely understandable that someone might think this didn’t send us into the finale on the strongest note, that it felt merely like a “bridge,” but let’s not be skeptical about how easy it still is for homophobes and other bigots to game sites like IMDb. Like I don’t know what to say if you really think this is worse than Game of Thrones‘ penultimate episode — I truly wouldn’t know how to respond to such a claim.
See you soon for the series finale, “The Rightside Up.” As the Bard wrote, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”
