It was highly anticipated and long-awaited. There was a huge buildup and so much promo, with so much merch. Season 5 Volume 2 of Stranger Things dropped 1am GMT Christmas Day Night, early Boxing Day morning. In true Stranger Things form, we get heart warming scenes that are truly beautiful and deeply moving, classic, lighthearted Steve Harrington moments and one-liners from Murray. What I love about this season so far, is that parts felt fully reminiscent of the spirit of earlier seasons like Season 2 and Season 3 – the warm, fuzzy, familiar feeling that Stranger Things provides. Some of my favourite moments from Season 5 so far has been Derek roasting Vecna and his mother, as well as everybody else, the truly moving scenes from Lucas and Dustin, the shock factor of Vecna still reaching new level of creep even after having the ability to break all the limbs of his victims. It has everything you would want in a final season, however, like many Stranger Things fans around the world, I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!

CHAPTER FIVE – SHOCK JOCK

What I love is that Volume 2 starts exactly where it left off, the end scene in Volume 1, with Will on the floor outside of the gate. What was kind of frustrating to me is that shortly after, we see Dustin, Steve, Nancy and Jonathan in the Upside Down Hawkins lab – I’m five seasons in across 10 years, as a fan of the show, I’m already past being all in at this point. Don’t give us Season 5 which is basically the road to Mordor, the end of the journey, without showing us the full journey to Mordor. You know? Please show us how the four of them got there! I don’t just want to see them walk through the door of the lab, I want the journey too. It’s like Lord of The Rings beginning The Return of the King without showing parts of the journey to Mount Doom, but having the on-screen characters refer to off-screen happenings. It’s a similar point to my kind of grievance with the gap in Season 4 and Season 5 – from a completely objective point of view, we are introduced to the fact that there’s been multiple crawls happening that we haven’t seen, we only know about that because the characters mention it. Usually, the gaps between seasons haven’t meant much before. For example, the start of Season 3 compared to end of Season 2, seen some of the group with jobs, Dustin met Suzie in Science Camp, the start of Season 4 we see the Byers family kind of settled in Lenora after the end of Season 3 where they left to move there. Season 4 ended with the military taking over Hawkins and Season 5 began with them fully occupying Hawkins, but nothing upside-down related. What does all of that have in common? No actual upside-down activity. All of a sudden in Season 5, the group have been through the tunnels and performed crawls multiple times, to the point where most of them do not necessarily see an imminent threat and actually imply that the crawl will be like ones in the past that has produced no result. There’s things that speak for itself, the ending of seasons such as Season 4 and the fact that Argyle probably won’t be part of the cast anymore as he is in Lenora. However, I would have liked closure regarding Yuri and Enzo, even Dr. Owen’s, from where we last left them.

Mr. Whatsit

I feel like more weight could have been added to the introduction of Mr. Whatsit, which in turn would have made the moment in Season 5 Volume 1 where Karen wrote ‘Henry’ and showed Nancy and Mike, that little bit bigger. It was frustrating to a certain degree that I had figured out it was Vecna before the characters did. After doing some research online, a lot of fans have said similar things. If woven into the story better, it would have made this even more believable and entered a true flow state – maybe, if El caught on to the fact that Holly had a ‘friend’ that others couldn’t see, it would feel more tied in, to me, at least. The signs of Holly becoming more involved were always there, from Season 1, she witnessed the lights flickering and the wall morphing… it just would have felt more narratively fulfilling if the whole invisible friend thing was more of an actual thing than what it was, rather than being underestimated, opposed to being introduced in season 5 and it being so pertinent to the story. After all, the group does know that Vecna is psychic, can reach people from another dimension, has targeted children in the past (Will and Max), that he can show people what he wants them to see, things that nobody else sees… That is exactly how the group discovered the link between Chrissy, Fred and Max visiting Miss Kelly, the school therapist. Arguably, they might not assume it is nefarious because they assume Holly has not (to their knowledge) experienced or is experiencing trauma for Vecna to be able to target her. However, that theory isn’t that strong, as Nancy herself says Vecna shown her a vision of her mother and her sister dead, so there is some threat against Holly.

Dark Magic & Introduction of The Abyss

Brenner’s journal – I personally found it a bit hard to believe that, now, they conviently come upon Dr Brennar’s diary in the lab. Only moments ago, we were formally introduced to the dark magic sphere that Nancy and Jonathan attack, then shortly later we are given exactly what it is and how it was created… what makes Max’s storyline so believable and convincing despite its absurdity, is that it was a slow build throughout seasons. I truly feel like something is missing that naturally provides exploration for this all of a sudden.

CHAPTER SIX – ESCAPE FROM CAMAZOTZ

I’m loving the introduction of Mr. Clarke being added to the rebellion. I love silly, unnecessary stuff that adds to the lore – the librarian being romantically involved with Hopper and now Mr. Clarke. What’s so touching about this episode is that we see Dustin speak on the grief he is experiencing. Like Max, the Duffer Brothers have done a lovely job in portraying grief and how it affects people differently. For Max, in Season 3 after witnessing her brother, Billy, murdered in front of her by The Mind Flayer, we see Max suffer. Not only tormented by Vecna throughout Season 4, but having to attend therapy sessions, alienating herself from her friends and not attending any social events at school that the other kids attend. After Eddie dies in front of Dustin, we see the first glimpse of Dustin’s grief in Season 5. Rather than getting help, like what we seen with Max, Dustin turns to anger and frustration, which as we know, Dustin is one of the most, if not the most intelligent out of all the kids and is out of character for Dustin.

Nancy & Jonathan

The Duffer Brothers confirmed Nancy and Jonathan broke up – I know it probably annoyed them to have to confirm what actually happened regarding the on screen portrayal, but for good reason. Maybe it wasn’t that clearly executed if fans worldwide are interpreting the scene in ways differing than the intended purpose. It wasn’t clear to me, it took the creators of the show to have to confirm that – from a story-telling point of view, that isn’t great. It was also the introduction of the white, paint-like goop filling up the room that they are trying to escape.

Vecna, Demogorgons and The Mind Flayer

At this point, I had more questions. Again, as a huge fan of the show and somebody who’s followed the franchise for a few years now – should I have to go to London to watch the Stranger Things play just to understand the story of the villain in the TV series? Sure, he is creepy enough to be believed as a villain on his own merit without true explanation of how and why, but why do we only get parts of that story despite its relevance and there’s only 1 more episode until no more seasons. It feels like kind of a miss. Obviously, in The First Shadow, there will be information relative to Vecna as Henry Creel, as he is one of the main characters of the play. I wonder if the Duffer Brothers assume the fans/audience has seen the play, before going into the final… but one thing I do know, a five season show shouldn’t have the above questions lingering around before the finale, right?! Especially considering how technical the show is, the narrative and even the understandings and explanations surrounding the happenings of the plot and its many complex layers. As we know from Game of Thrones, finales can truly make or break a well loved series. Speaking as a fan of the show, I wanted to have understood the concept and reason of The Mind Flayer and its origin enough for it to not still feel like a mystery this close to the end. I would have also liked to have actually seen more of The Mind Flayer, throughout the seasons, we have only had a few seconds, maybe minutes combined of it actually on screen. I feel there’s no explanation of where the demogorgons and demobats are in this final season, I would have personally liked the story to have been moved along more so that so many questions weren’t lingering for the last season. Part of the fight should have already been fought so that the finale could just be about wrapping up.

CHAPTER SEVEN – THE BRIDGE

What stood out to me is how much I enjoyed the group scenes, we actually haven’t had enough of them all together. It’s kind of a rare occasion, maybe once or twice towards the end of the season to plan and strategise we see everybody together. This season is packed with large cast moments, where they’re in the same room, opposed to separate groups approaching different problems and requiring differing solutions. In this episode I kind of suddenly realised that Mike hardly had any large speaking parts. Will, Lucas and Dustin all had moments in season 5 that are considered memorable and character profession to a certain degree: Will becoming a sorcerer, Lucas with Max and Dustin regarding Eddie… also, no more mention of Ted?

Some fans say that Season 5 Volume 2 is too slow, I think, a lot happened in such a short amount of time compared to other seasons, it’s almost too fast. Part of me knows that, it’s a bit of a shame that Netflix did not agree to a weekly release of the Season 5 episodes, although, respect to them for staying true to their binge culture – maybe taking in and digesting the show might have been different if it was weekly release, as that also means theories, concepts, debates and ideas amongst fans would have been spread across 1 episode a week over 7 weeks, opposed to 3 Volumes, weeks and then days apart. Sure, it meant it was a Stranger Things Christmas and merchandising dream, however, it seems as though the pacing in Volume 1 and Volume 2 is a little off. Release dates and episode timing has nothing to do with substance, it does not explain that questions I have in the narrative structure and plot of the show itself, those questions still remain. If anything, I have more questions now. I was expecting more answers opposed to more questions, however I’m on board for the ride.