Breaking Down the Ending of Stranger Things Season 5 Vol. 1

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Okay, so it’s been nine years since Stranger Things first blew our minds, and honestly, it feels like the end of an era! The first part of the final season – four episodes – just dropped on Netflix, perfect for Thanksgiving viewing. The remaining episodes are coming around Christmas and New Year’s, but this first half isn’t about huge wins or heartbreaking losses. Instead, it’s really about setting the stage for the final showdown with Vecna. It feels like they’re carefully positioning all the players, getting everyone ready for one last, massive battle. And it looks like the story is going to come back around to where it all began – with Will Byers, Eleven, and the rest of those amazing kids.

Where does Stranger Things Season 5 begin?

If you’ve forgotten after Season 4, Vecna is the villain responsible for everything bad that’s happened to the characters since Will Byers first disappeared into the Upside Down in Season 1. His monstrous appearance is reminiscent of 1980s heavy metal album art – as Eddie Munson pointed out, fans of metal and Dungeons & Dragons have a lot in common. Vecna is actually Henry Creel, a former Hawkins resident with supernatural powers. His sadness and pain, combined with a fight against Eleven when he was known as “One” while they were both held in a secret research facility in the Nevada desert, turned him into the creature he is now.

The events of Season 4 were devastating: Eddie died, Max fell into a coma, and Hawkins was left deeply scarred after a near takeover by the Upside Down. Now, over a year later, the town is under military quarantine. Eleven is being pursued by a team led by Dr. Kay, while the core group of ten characters are venturing into the Upside Down to track down Vecna, using radios and secret codes to communicate during their dangerous searches.

What’s Vecna’s evil plan?

The first volume of the show often feels like a very long, four-and-a-half-hour movie, largely because so many characters need their moment to shine – as even co-creator Matt Duffer has pointed out. Beyond the show’s core group, we also see familiar faces like the somewhat annoying but helpful Murray (Brett Gelman) and Lucas’ sister Erica (Priah Ferguson). This time around, two new, younger characters join the team, mirroring the age of Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin when the series began in 2016: Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher, previously played by Anniston and Tinsley Price), Mike and Nancy’s little sister, and Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly), who gets a less flattering nickname.

These children are now being targeted by Vecna. He’s been appearing to Holly and Derek as an imaginary friend Holly calls “Mr. Whatsit,” inspired by her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time. When Demogorgons attack the Wheelers, Holly is taken to Vecna’s world, where she lives with him in a pristine, updated version of the Creel house. However, Max lures Holly to a cave within Vecna’s memories—some of which were explored in the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow—a place where she believes Vecna can’t reach her.

The group figures out that Vecna is going after Derek next, just as he did with Holly. Will’s unique connection to Vecna and the Demogorgons—that familiar goosebumps feeling—allows him to see through Vecna’s victims’ eyes and even experience the world from the Demogorgons’ perspective. While Derek is very different from Holly – he’s irritating and argumentative, unlike the cheerful Holly Wheeler – Vecna has chosen them both for the same reason: to create openings between his dimension and ours, just as he did with Chrissy and Max in Season 4.

Our heroes realize that “Mr. Whatsit” has been appearing to children at the same time the military starts to suspect something similar is happening. Kay orders approximately 73 young children to be gathered and held at the MAC-Z facility. Meanwhile, Hopper and Eleven attempt to enter a secret government base built within the Upside Down. When they discover Kay is using the children of Hawkins as bait, Mike, Will, Lucas, Joyce, Erica, and Robin work together to sneak the kids out of the base, inspired by The Great Escape. They hide them in a tunnel under the bathroom.

The battle at the MAC-Z

Things take a dark turn at the end of episode 4, “Sorcerer.” The attempt to rescue the children fails – highlighted by a memorable line delivered by Jake Connelly (“Ashley Klein is a snitch!”) – and only five kids are successfully hidden in tunnels and Murray’s van. The rest of the group is stopped at the base’s gate, but they can’t convince the soldiers about the danger before Demogorgons attack, causing chaos. Bullets barely slow the creatures down, and a flamethrower briefly stops one, also temporarily affecting the others due to their psychic connection. However, it also severely hurts Will, who collapses in pain, clearly showing his link to the Demogorgons.

Will unexpectedly becomes the key to stopping Vecna. After years of Vecna secretly connecting with him, Will discovers he can control the Demogorgons – a surprising twist in an otherwise bleak ending. Vecna enters the MAC-Z facility, strengthens his Demogorgon creatures, and pulls the kids into the Upside Down to begin opening twelve gates. He cruelly explains to Will that vulnerable children make the best hosts for demons, then sends his monsters to attack Will’s friends. Will manages to save Mike, Lucas, and Robin by using his newfound power, but only Mike witnesses what his friend can do.

Will and Eleven realize the truth in “Sorcerer”

Before heading into the tunnel, Mike tries to encourage Will, suggesting Will’s abilities might be stronger than Joyce realizes – he even compares them to a natural magical talent. This reminder makes Will think back to a conversation he had with Robin. She had talked about how she felt after her first crush, Tammy, unintentionally hurt her by dating Steve Harrington (who is currently leading a dangerous mission into the Upside Down). We’ll learn more about this connection and what happens next when the group explores Hawkins Lab in Volume 2.

Robin helps Will understand his identity by sharing that she used to search for self-discovery in others when she already had the answers within herself. This realization is emphasized through a series of home movies showing Will’s past, a typical but effective emotional technique used in Stranger Things. During moments of conflict, these internal discoveries manifest as a surge in Will’s psychic abilities, but more importantly, they empower him to take control and stop feeling helpless in a situation where he often felt insignificant. Will’s unique journey suggests that what makes him different isn’t a weakness, but a source of strength and heroism.

Eleven and Hopper break into a secret military base in the Upside Down, suspecting it’s not there for good reasons. They make progress until Eleven is weakened by a device that disrupts her powers, and a creature from the Upside Down attacks Hopper. Hopper eventually reaches a chamber believing Vecna is inside, and prepares to sacrifice himself with dynamite. However, it isn’t Vecna—it’s Eight, also known as Kali, a character Eleven briefly encountered in Season 2. Kali is hooked up to a machine that looks similar to the disturbing, vine-like tendrils Vecna uses to control his victims, like the ones seen in Will’s memories of his first encounter with Vecna. This connection is intentional—Kali seems just as eager to harm and torture vulnerable people with the same cruelty that drives Vecna.

“Sorcerer” isn’t the only episode that feels familiar; it’s hard to watch the children targeted in the story without remembering Mike, Will, Eleven, Dustin, and Lucas when they were younger. The Duffer Brothers are deliberately highlighting how vulnerable and in danger “the Party” used to be, especially as the current season focuses on complex storylines and a large cast of characters who are somehow still surviving. Essentially, “Sorcerer” shows us that our heroes are determined to prevent another group of kids from suffering the same fate as they did at the hands of Vecna.

How Vol. 1 sets up the finale

We’re looking ahead to the final battle with Vecna in Volume 2 and the series conclusion. It’s interesting that Season 5 hasn’t had any major character deaths so far. With Vecna now targeting more children and Dr. Kay proving to be a particularly cruel villain, the heroes face long odds. However, it feels right that Will and Eleven will be central to how things end. Not only do they share a unique psychic link with Vecna, but their early experiences with Henry Creel—and the trauma they endured—have been slowly revealed as the driving force behind the entire story.

Watching Vecna trap Max and drain Will’s life force felt incredibly dangerous, like either of them could die at any moment. However, discovering that being connected to Vecna’s mind is actually a strength – even for someone like Eleven who hasn’t used their powers in years – completely shifts the dynamic. While it’s still a tough fight, the first part of the season ends with a surprising number of characters gaining new abilities and becoming more powerful.

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2025-11-28 23:07