“Stranger Things” is over. The show concluded after the newly released Season 5. The series can be found to watch on Netflix and Netflix only, as one of its most popular shows ever.
The show has been ongoing since 2016, created and written by the Duffer Brothers. The show includes some old great actors like Winona Ryder(Joyce Byers) and David Harbour(Jim Hopper). The Duffers also originally cast some very iconic child actors who have grown with the show, as well as their legacies. These include Millie Bobby Brown(Eleven/ Jane Hopper), Finn Wolfhard(Mike Wheeler), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp(Will Byers), Gaten Matarazzo(Dustin Henderson), and Sadie Sink(Max Mayfield).
The show takes place in the 1980’s in Hawkins, Indiana, and is so well known for its great betrayal of the time. The show is based on the game “Dungeons and Dragons” and contains some of the monsters from the game.
Speaking of “Dungeons and Dragons”, that’s how the show starts, with the four main boys playing it together, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will. When Will was biking back to his house, he was taken to the Upside Down by a Demogorgon, the monster the boys had just lost to in their game. The rest of the season is the group trying to find Will. The government fakes his death, his mom is going insane, the group finds a girl with superpowers named Eleven, and eventually, with her help, they track Will down in the Upside Down.
In Season 2, Will is back but is having visions of the Upside Down everywhere he goes. Eleven’s gone, but she’s just hiding with Hopper. Lucas and Dustin like the newly introduced Max. The government at Hawkins Lab has opened a gate to the Upside Down, and eventually it costs them. When Eleven comes back, she saves everyone and closes the gate. At the end of the season, everyone believes they’re safe.
In Season 3, it’s the summer, and the whole town of Hawkins loves Starcourt Mall. But no one would suspect that Russians have opened a gate to the Upside Down way below the mall. Will begins to have visions again, and rats act up. They turn into the Mind Flayer, which is controlling Will’s visions, and their whole purpose is to capture Eleven. They fight it off in the end, but it bites Eleven’s leg and takes her powers. Hopper is presumed dead, and the Byers with Eleven move away.
In Season 4, the Upside Down is closer than before. Mike visits Will and El in California. Teens are dying left and right due to Vecna. Max is his next target, and he almost pulls it off, but Lucas, Dustin and Steve save her by playing her favorite song. El gets her powers back and the group in Hawkins comes up with a plan to kill Vecna. In some ways it works, but it leaves Max in a coma. Vecna connects the Upside Down and Earth. Mike, Will and El return to find their town suffering. Joyce and Murray find Hopper, who was taken all the way to Russia after the events of Season 3. They eventually come back, and everyone’s quarantined in Hawkins.
Spoiler Alert if you have not watched Season 5
In Season 5 Volume 1, everyone in the group is back in Hawkins and is all searching for Vecna. They have a system called Crawls, where Hopper sneaks into the Upside Down looking for Vecna. They have no luck, but a Demogorgon attack occurs, making the plan go bad. Hopper is stuck in the Upside Down. Will is still connected to the Upside Down, and he sees the Demogorgon going to the Wheelers’ house. The Demogorgon is trying to take Holly the same way it did to Will in Season 1. The Demogorgon is again successful and takes her to the Upside Down. However, Holly is not kept in the Upside Down; she is taken into Vecna’s mind. In there, she finds Max, where she has been while in the coma. In the final episode of Volume 1, Vecna sends the Demogorgons to capture more kids, but the group is ready. Will is able to tap into the hive mind and kill the Demogorgons the same way Vecna killed in Season 4.
In Volume 2, Max is able to convince Holly that Henry, who is Vecna in human form, is evil. Max is able to escape, but Holly can’t and is stuck with Henry. Hopper, Eleven and her lost sister Eight(Kali) are in the Upside Down looking for Holly and also Steve, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan. Eventually, they make it back to Hawkins and develop a plan to defeat Vecna once and for all.
Eleven, Kali and Max go into Vecna’s mind to reach Holly and the kids. They do so just in time before the worlds collide. Vecna is able to get away. The group reaches the abyss and finds Vecna and the Mind Flayer and it is revealed that they have been one all along. The group defeats the Mind Flayer while Eleven fights Vecna. The group is successful in both and Joyce beheads Vecna for good measure. As they are making it back to Hawkins, they get caught by the military, who want Eleven. In a final sacrifice, she stays in the Upside Down as it is destroyed.
Then they make an 18-month time jump where it shows all the characters living out their lives while still grieving the loss of Eleven. The monsters and all of the Upside Down are gone and the episode ends.
This season got good ratings and some bad. Some fans are outraged, while some are happy. Rotten Tomatoes gives the season a 92% and ranked around an 8/10.
The final season was good but not great, as it felt like there were no stakes for the final fight. The two main monsters were killed by the group within 10 minutes, and not a single one in the group died, at least not from the fight. However, I still highly recommend watching the show, especially if you like a happy ending. The show is very popular and for good reason and very much worth a watch.
