SPOILER ALERT: This piece contains major spoilers for the first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5, aka the entirety of Volume 1.
It’s the beginning of the end for Netflix‘s Stranger Things, with the first of four episodes of the fifth and final season now streaming.
Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) still aims to bring a radical transformation to Hawkins in Stranger Things Season 5, though instead of targeting teenagers like in Season 4, he has moved to younger children between the ages of 9 and 11, which echoes his successful plot to take Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) when he was just 11 years old on November 6, 1983.
Holly Wheeler exposes another layer of Vecna via his slightly more human alter ego Henry, who she calls Mr. Whatsit. Her kidnapping in Episode 502 also brings into question why Will was originally taken, setting up for an interesting exploration of Vecna’s grand scheme with the help of Holly’s favorite novel, A Wrinkle in Time.
Watch on Deadline
“They should feel like what they’re doing is holding onto their chairs going, ‘No, no, no,’ that’s how I want them to feel, particularly with what I’m up to,” Bower told Deadline when asked how fans should feel going into Volume 2. “I think Volume 1 is, it’s funny, because it’s like, I want to call it a setup, but it is an explosive setup to what continues to happen in Volume 2 and subsequently [the finale].”
Read below for what we can expect from Volume II — the next three episodes of Season 5 — when it launches Christmas Day 2025, and, eventually, the finale according to the Duffer brothers, Noah Schnapp and more cast:
More Clarity On Why Will Was Taken, What The Upside Down Actually Is And The Nov. 6, 1983 Time Freeze
Holly Wheeler’s (Nell Fisher) bigger role this season will likely help with the answers to the questions we still have about The Upside Down, as well as the importance of Will’s disappearance.
“Especially as we get into Volume 2, we start to answer more and more why Will was kidnapped and how it ties in with Holly and all of this. Everything sort of comes full circle,” Matt Duffer told Deadline.
There are a few connections that seem to be brewing but haven’t quite been drawn yet, including between Dimension X, which was introduced in Stranger Things: The First Shadow directed by Stephen Daldry, and The Upside Down as well as Vecna and The Mind Flayer. Ross Duffer teased that “pretty early on” in Volume 2, we really start to understand everything about the Upside Down.
“That really is a Volume 2 thing, where we really get into the Upside Down, and we explain what it is,” he said. “Again, this is something that has been planned for 10 years now, and it just now, obviously is the time to reveal it.”
A Different Manifestation of Will’s Powers
As revealed in a major cliffhanger moment at the end of Volume I, Will the Wise is indeed a wizard, or sorcerer, if you go by the title of Episode 504. D&D debate about the source of his powers aside, viewers can expect more instances in which he displays them, though Noah Schnapp teased that it might look different.
“It was originally supposed to work in the same way that Eleven’s powers do because, as you read the scripts in Volume 2, it comes in a different way than hers,” he told Deadline. “So making sure that the physicality of that shows, that it works different.”
The actor spoke to the challenge of “knowing how to let [the ability] evolve and change,” especially because the upcoming moments in later episodes were his first time displaying Will’s powers vs. the scene that we have now seen first.
“This season was difficult because we filmed it out of order. So that Episode 4 one was the second time I did it. So then when I did it later in the season, it was the first time, and I was still not really sure how to do it,” he added. “The Duffers weren’t on set, so I was like, ‘Oh I have to figure this out without them.’ So I was like, FaceTiming. Like, ‘Does this work?’ I love everyone, but I trust the Duffers more than anyone ever and like I need their final stamp.”
Both Schnapp and Brown emphasized that Will’s powers are different from Eleven’s. Schnapp also specifically highlighted similarities regarding the connection between Will and Vecna and that of Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, which will become more apparent in Volume 2.
“For Will, we start to learn the parallels between Will and Vecna, and it almost felt very Harry Potter to me that I had to go back and re-watch the movies, because the Harry Potter-Voldemort relationship felt very close to Will and Vecna,” he said. “So just kind of exploring those parallels and what that means.”
A Tipping Point Between Max And Vecna (and Very Likely Holly)
The Duffer brothers remained tight-lipped when asked how Holly was lured to the Creel mansion after she was very horrifically kidnapped by a Demogorgon. They did assert that Holly’s vanishing should remind viewers of that of Will.
“We wanted to bring [the show] full circle. A lot of things are echoing what happened in Season 1. So that’s another reason with Holly, some things are playing on repeat on purpose,” Matt said. “In some ways, this season was always built as a true follow up to Season 1.”
Jamie Campbell Bower, whose big bad Vecna certainly leveled up this season, hinted at a big moment for his character thanks to Max, who we now know is alive and trapped in his mindscape.
“I can’t say too much about how it frustrates him [that Max is there], because there is a huge moment that happens later on in the story, and she is 100% a catalyst for something,” he told Deadline. “It’s incredibly frustrating for him, considering also, given the fact that, he’s trying to use Holly, and she’s taking Holly away. That’s a vexation for sure. So yes, to have Max doing what she’s doing is … it’s annoying.”
Context clues point to Episode 6, “Escape From Camazotz,” which was directed by Shawn Levy, as the potential segment that will contain some sort of showdown and/or answer these questions.
More About Dr. Kay’s Motives For Tracking Down Eleven
The mysterious Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) came about as a replacement for Matthew Modine’s Dr. Martin Brenner, who is very much dead, according to the Duffers. Hamilton’s formidable military scientist stands out from Dr. Brenner, though, in her disconnection from what Brenner knew due to his experiments. Thus, she thinks Eleven is responsible for all the horror happening in Hawkins.
“What’s interesting about Dr. Kay and Linda’s performance is that she’s not trying to solve a mystery here. Unlike Brenner, she has no understanding of what really happened with Henry in all this. What she sees is Eleven as a weapon, and that’s all she wants,” Ross Duffer said. “So these events are happening, but she’s not trying to figure it out, and I think that’s what makes her so scary. She’s just relentless in her pursuit of this one person in order to achieve her goal, which, as we move into Volume 2, we start to understand, really, what that goal is and why she wants Eleven so badly.”
Matt added that the cycle of someone coming in to harness Eleven’s powers for potentially nefarious reasons will also be big for Eleven in the coming episodes.
“Brenner has been replaced, right? There’s always a replacement. So how do you ever stop this? How do you ever stop this cycle?” Matt said. “And that’s a question that Eleven wrestles with in Volume 2.”
Kali’s Return
Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) returned to the show in the final episode of Volume 1 in a major moment for both her and Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven. Eleven’s sister of sorts, whose numerical identity in the Hawkins Lab experiments was 008, has different abilities than 011 and 001 in that she can give people hallucinations and convince them of an alternate reality.
“We didn’t feel like we could end the story of Stranger Things without bringing her back into the fold. And I think as you get into the second volume, you really see how she fits into the narrative and Eleven’s journey,” Ross Duffer said. “She plays a really important role moving forward, and Linnea’s awesome, so it’s definitely a big swing for this season, but one we’re excited about.”
Kali was hooked up to some sort of machine with blood bag drips and wires, so viewers can at least expect an explanation of what Dr. Kay is doing with Kali and if it factors into Eleven’s powers getting neutralized by those satellites.
More Musical Moments
Matt hinted that music will play a big role in Volume 2, though not exactly in the way it did in Season 4 with what he described as the “lightning in a bottle” moments for Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in Season 4.
“We decided very early on, let’s not chase that and try to do it again. This is just going to seem like a watered-down version of it or diminishing returns, but there are some really cool, but very different musical moments in Volume 2,” Matt said. “I guess I can say that. And in the finale.”
The Military’s Response to Vecna
Will the military double down after being woefully unprepared for Vecna’s arrival? They thought Eleven was responsible this whole time, but hopefully after Vecna’s appearance in the MAC-Z, they realize there are bigger threats at hand.
“That’s a good question. I guess you’re gonna have to tune in to find out. Can you say ‘tune in’ with Netflix? That’s actually not accurate,” Matt Duffer teased. “You’ll have to click on it.”
The Finale
Stars Sadie Sink and Noah Schnapp both said separately that they are “satisfied” with their characters’ endings as well as the conclusion for the whole cast.
“I feel very satisfied and excited for all our characters and how the show wraps up,” Schnapp said. “I think it does a great job closing everyone’s individual story and doing a service to all of them.”
Sink similarly said “I was satisfied with the whole thing. I think everyone’s really — the Duffers did an amazing job. I think we all got the closure that we wanted.”
Executive producer and director Shawn Levy, whose two episodes are still to come in Volume 2, paraphrased star Finn Wolfhard’s enthusiasm about the Season 5 finale, which will be screened in theaters and land on Netflix on New Year’s Eve.
“I’ll say something that I think Finn said, but I’ll say it with even more fervor having watched the finale episode recently. It’s one of the best finale episodes of any show that I’ve ever seen,” Levy said. “And I am so knocked out by the mastery that the Duffers show in the finale episode. I can’t wait for the world to see it. I can’t wait for them to see it on the biggest, loudest screen possible, because that’s what it deserves.”
Added Wolfhard, “Couldn’t have said it better myself, something that I’ve said myself.”