Season five, volume one of “Stranger Things” was released at 8 p.m. on Nov. 26, 2025. So far, this season has four released episodes; each episode has a runtime of one hour or longer. The next three episodes will be released on Dec. 25, 2025 and the show’s finale will be released on Dec. 31, 2025.
In volume one, the main goal of the show’s characters was to destroy Vecna. Vecna is played by Jamie Campbell Bower and served as season four’s main villain. The creature used peoples’ bad memories to hurt them and break into Hawkins, the town where ordinary people live. Season five also focused heavily on the characters Will Byers and Holly Wheeler, played by Noah Schnapp and Nell Fisher, respectively. Throughout the season, viewers followed Will and Holly into Hawkins and the Upside Down, as well as to Hawkins High School.
The first episode of season five showed the state of Hawkins following the damage Vecna and the Upside Down inflicted upon it. Shortly after Vecna’s destruction, the main group of characters — Mike, played by Finn Wolfhard, Eleven, played by Milly Bobby Brown, Lucas, played by Caleb McLaughlin, Dustin, played by Gaten Matarazzo, Max, played by Sadie Sink, and Will — split up. Now, they all feel that something strange is happening again.
The other characters featured in this season are Hopper, played by David Harbour, Joyce, played by Winona Ryder, Nancy, played by Natalia Dyer, Steve, played by Joe Keery, Jonathan, played by Charlie Heaton, and Robin, played by Maya Hawk.
Beginning volume one, Dustin and the Hawkins High School basketball players are at each other’s throats because Dustin’s friend, Eddie, was believed to have killed one of the basketball player’s girlfriends. Eddie, played by Joseph Quinn, was the leader of Hell Fire, a Dungeons and Dragons playing club.
This tension left Dustin unable to make it to the crawl, which are missions into the Upside Down to defeat Vecna. When Hopper goes on the crawl, he gets help from the main group to find Vecna. During their mission, Will gets possessed while putting himself in a trance to see Vecna’s perspective.
While Will is possessed he uses a Demogorgon — a monster controlled by Vecna — to destroy Vecna’s plans of finding him. The Demogorgons are tall, veiny and scary creatures, with faces that open up like a flower with a lot of sharp teeth.
The first episode served as a well-executed set up for the rest of the season. It was interesting to see the current state of Hawkins after the “Great Earthquake.”
Still, Hopper was definitely being too harsh toward Eleven throughout the episode, although it was clear he was only trying to protect her from the military people. The military people wanted to use Eleven to make more kids like her.
In the second episode of season five, Holly gets taken by a Demogorgon while her parents suffer life threatening injuries. Because of this event, Eleven goes into the Upside Down to try and find her. While there, Eleven finds Hopper and the location Holly should be, but she cannot reach Holly due to a big wall blocking her way.
Meanwhile, Nancy and Mike snuck into the hospital room of Karen Wheeler — Holly’s mom, played by Cara Buono — about Holly’s imaginary friend, named Mr. Whatsit. From Karen, they find out that his real name is Henry, better known as Vecna, and that he wants to take Holly’s classmates to the Upside Down.
While this is happening, Max gets stuck in Vecna’s mind, seeing exactly what Vecna is seeing.
Episode two started off with a bang by showing Holly getting taken and subsequently meeting Max in Vecna’s mind. It also generated excitement among fans, who wanted to learn more about Mr. Whatsit and his intentions.
In the third episode of season five, Max goes into depth while telling Holly about her close but unsuccessful attempt at escaping Vecna’s mind. Holly and Max make a deal, resolving to work together to defeat Vecna.
Meanwhile, Nancy, Steve, Jonathan, Robin and the rest of the kids set traps in the Turnbow House, aiming to implant a tracker in a Demogorgon so that it hopefully leads them back to Vecna and Holly. Steve, Nancy, Jonathan and Dustin even decide to follow the Demogorgon to the Upside Down. Afterwards, they try to come into contact with Hopper and Eleven, but are unsuccessful.
Episode three had a similar feel to “Home Alone,” particularly while the kids were setting up traps. At first it also seemed as if Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and Dustin were taking too big a risk by following the Demogorgon into the Upside Down. However, later on it became clear that it was necessary.
In the fourth episode of season five, the soldiers on the military base in Hawkins gather all the kids in Holly’s class and take them to the base. With the help of Holly’s bully, Derek — known as Jake Connelly — Joyce, Lucas, Mike, Will and Robin break into the military base to help save the kids who have seen Mr. Whatsit — who is really Vecna.
Their plan goes sideways, though, when Demogorgons come to Hawkins from the Upside Down. The Demogorgons took the kids that had seen Mr. Whatsit and were about to kill Robin, Mike, Lucas and Joyce when Will defeated them through some kind of telekinesis.
It was a really surprising and shocking moment to find out that Will had powers, as well as a moment of great character development. It was also interesting to see how much Lucas, Will, Mike and Robin cared about the kids who had seen Mr. Whatsit.
Fans thought that the volume one episodes were thrilling; each episode made them feel as if they were on the edge of their seats. They also found the character development this season to be well thought out and executed. Overall, fans are very excited for volume two and the last episode.
So far this season, the acting has been excellent. Jamie Campbell Bower’s acting was especially impressive; his performance as Vecna was both haunting and chilling. Noah Schnapp also did an amazing job, especially in episode four.
The first few episodes that were released exceeded fans’ expectations, leaving them anxiously anticipating what will happen next, who will die, who will survive and ultimately, how the story will end.
