Season 5 - 8 episodes (2025)
Watch Stranger Things Season 3 on Netflix
Created by: Matt Duffer , Ross Duffer
Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery,Maya Hawke, Linda Hamilton, Nell Fisher
Rated: TV-MA
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Plot
Season one was set in 1983 where a mother tries to find her son after he disappears mysteriously in the small town of Hawkins.
Season five occurs in 1987 with Hawkins under quarantine and Vecna having fractured reality by opening rifts in season four. Eleven and the gang unite for a last stand against a powerful darkness.
Verdict
How can you not watch the final season of a show that's spanned nearly a decade? The ending is sufficient. It's not easy to end a show that should have ended long ago and has continued to reinvent itself with new villains. This season is mostly action with the new plot device being just that. Vecna has a goal but only because the plot needs it. This does provide a nice enough epilogue, but overall it isn't a good season. My enjoyment stems mostly from the closure it provides.
It depends.
Review
Season 4 introduced the terrifying villain Vecna, revealed as Dr. Brenner's first test subject Henry Creel/ One (Jamie Campbell Bower). From the Upside Down Vecna targeted traumatized teens like Max (Sadie Sink). Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) must regain her powers while she's in California to fight him after losing them while fighting the Mind Flayer in Season 3. Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray rescued Hopper (David Harbour) from a Russian prison.
New character Eddie Munson is wrongly accused of Vecna's murders and ultimately sacrifices himself to save his new friends, though the season ends with massive Upside Down gates ripping open in Hawkins which sets the stage for war. Season 4 retconned Vecna and his plan into the show, previously he was an unknown character. We're introduced to yet a new villain with a plan to do... stuff. Season 3 introduced the new villain the Mind Flayer that wanted to merge Hawkins and the Upside Down.
Thankfully the first episode begins with a recap provided by new radio DJ Robin (Maya Hawke). The military has invaded Hawkins, patched the rifts, and are actively searching for Vecna in the Upside Down. The Hawkins kids are also searching the Upside Down for Vecna while Eleven trains for the eventual face off. I thought the kids looked old in Season 4, but now they could easily play college aged. Mike's sister Holly seems to be the target of the Upside Down, but why? I barely knew she was a character in previous seasons.
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| E2: Nell Fisher, Jamie Campbell Bower play Holly Wheeler, Henry/Vecna |
These kids have beaten the Upside Down so many times. Last season attempted a soft reboot with a new villain that's been just off screen the entire time. Eleven heads back down to search for Holly where Hopper is already there looking for Vecna.
This season is a lot of gunfire and action courtesy of the military. There's lots of collateral damage. Hopper and Eleven have teamed up while the rest of the team must save Derek, as unlikable as he is. He's Vecna's next target. They stage a trap at Derek's house to fight a demigorgon.
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| E3: Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, Gaten Matarazzo play Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, Dustin Henderson |
It turns out Vecna didn't want just Holly, he wants all the children. He's going to use them as weapons somehow.
This season was released as three parts comprised of episodes 1-4, 5-7, and 8. In episode four Will (Noah Schnapp) realizes he received some of Vecna's power. He just needed a dire situation to unlock that ability. He's basically Eleven, and faces off against the military base in the Upside Down that's overrun with demigorgons.
Last season Vecna wanted revenge against Eleven. Now he's back with a new vendetta, though it's a bit flimsy. Will only has powers when he's connected to the hive mind, so the team must resurrect a demigorgon to act as an antenna. Also it turns out everything we've known about the Upside Down is wrong. It frequently feels like the show pulls the rug out from under the viewer just to prolong the story. At first the Upside Down was just an alternate dimension. They it was an underground evil world, and now it's something different. It's only a bridge. The question remains, what is it connecting?
Episode six does provide a nice moment for Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) who's been insufferable for the first half this season. He's grieving Eddie and how he's remembered as a criminal despite his heroics last season.
This season frequently goes big; action set pieces and gun fights. That replaces character development and triumphant moments. Well, not entirely. Will's coming out monologue is clumsily integrated. What should be inspiring is just awkward. I don't have an issue with the concept, but shows typically set it up better, providing scenes that hint at it. While scenes from other seasons hint at this in retrospect only, I can't remember benign scenes spanning over a decade. It's also strange placement when the group is preparing to save the world. It creates odd pacing. I wonder if it's a scene related to the actor's own orientation, but this could have been done so much better.
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| E4: David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown play Hopper, Eleven |
The final episode was released a week after part two, and also appeared in several theaters. This finale is nine years in the making. We know the plan is to use the radio tower to gain entrance to the abyss, though I doubt anything will be as straightforward as we assume. It's an intense episode. The other world is dropping, Eleven and Kali enlist Max to attack Vecna directly while the other kids are on the radio tower ready to breach, and Holly and her classmates try to escape Vecna. Cutting between these stories makes the pacing quick. The show is pulling out all the stops.
Vecna wants to use these children's minds as extra power. It seems inefficient. It's revealed that Henry gained powers due to an alien rock. That's a new one. How does that square with Eleven sending him to another dimension? It's an answer, but it's not satisfying. If the rock gave Henry powers, how does Eleven have powers if she was generated from Henry's blood? And with this revelation about the Upside Down and the abyss, why are there no monsters in the abyss?
It's amazing to think where this show ended versus where it began. It doesn't even look like the same show. That's not a bad thing, but this is also a story that kept having to go bigger, sacrificing what made the first season so engrossing in an effort to achieve that scale. The big fight occurs half way into the episode, and then there's also the military. Linda Hamilton played one of the commanders, but she's completely underutilized as a token villain. I kept wondering when she'd get her moment. It never arrives. This season's end mimics the first season and for similar reasons too.
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| E8: Vecna, Eleven |
The episode is also a lot of fan service with a several flashbacks. The epilogue is nice, as we get to see where everyone lands. I don't understand how Hopper is a cop again. Did the military let him skate? We get to see the kids graduate as well as what the older kids are up to now. Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas were twelve when the show started, and now they're eighteen and graduating. They play a game of Dungeons & Dragons where Mike tacks on a nice story about Eleven, but I can't help but think it's just a story, something to make them feel better as wishful thinking. Is this coda all fan service? Sure, but I can't blame the show. I enjoyed that aspect of it. The show has been around a long time, even if we don't have that many episodes. It's a good enough conclusion. There's no good way to conclude this as it's clear it was never planned for multiple seasons and plots were invented for each season as needed. The plot and villain machinations have bounced around so much. I think this season could have focused more on the characters instead of gun fights. The first season did explore middle school issues. Later seasons, and this one in particular, could have focused on high school issues and the parallels. Still, it's sufficient.
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