Stranger Snooze.
The fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” dropped Volume 2, its second batch of episodes, on Dec. 25.
Now streaming, episodes 5, 6, and 7 — respectively called, “Shock Jock,” “Escape from Camazotz,” and “The Bridge” — were a bland stretch of the show. They include a breakup, a big Will reveal, and more underwhelming moments.
Spoilers below for “Stranger Things” Season 5, episodes 5, 6, and 7.
The episodes include the gang continuing to battle the evil Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), and working to get Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) back. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer)’s little sister continues to have a bafflingly outsized plot importance in the final season, for a random minor character.
Overall, Volume 2 of the final season is tepid. There are no major deaths, and few big surprises or interesting turns.
Of course, there are still stand-out good moments, such as Steve (Joe Keery) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) making up — after having friction earlier in the season — and sharing a sweet hug. But after a strong start, Season 5 is having a sophomore slump in its middle stretch.
The biggest developments are Max (Sadie Sink) finally waking up from her long coma. Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) gets a badass moment, as she kills some demogorgons, saving Robin (Maya Hawke), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and their other pals. Will (Noah Schnapp) comes out as gay. And Dustin stumbles on a twist about The Upside Down.
While perusing Dr. Brenner’s (Matthew Modine) old journals, Dustin finds out that the Upside Down isn’t an alternate dimension, but rather, a wormhole – a bridge between our world and a sinister world called “The Abyss.”
“I’m sure some scientists will poke plenty of holes in the way we are depicting this,” series co-creator Ross Duffer told EW.
“Yes, obviously, this is science-fiction, but at the same time, it’s grounded in some way in ideas of science,” he continued. “There aren’t ghosts here. We’re playing around with real things because, to us, that made the horror that much scarier.”
Vecna’s evil plan is to bring the Abyss into the regular world, using children to help him do it.
Meanwhile, in more personal matters, Lucas and Max are the strongest relationship in the show. He’s been sweetly devoted to her through her coma, and is tending to her as her body is weak.
Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) break up – but they did it in such a loving way that many viewers were left confused.
After they fess up about the things they’ve been pretending to each other – for example, Nancy tells him that she never liked The Clash – Jonathan gets out a ring and says, “I figure that I have screwed up enough with you that it’d be nice to get something right for once, in the end. Nancy Wheeler, will you not marry me?”
He calls it an “un proposal” and they kiss.
“That’s a breakup,” Matt Duffer told People. “They are broken up.”
Alrighty, if you say so.
He added, “It’s hard to recall when exactly that idea came, but I think us — and the writers — all felt that Nancy needed to end up on her own and be independent and have an opportunity to find herself.”
Nancy makes it clear that she’s not going to get together with Steve, either. She notes that although he has great hair, he wants “six kids,” which isn’t what she wants for her future.
Many fans weren’t impressed. Posting footage of the Nancy and Jonathan breakup scene on X, formerly Twitter, one outraged fan wrote, “you’re telling me that after this love confession, we only found out they broke up through an ARTICLE? you gotta be kidding me.”
Towards the end of Volume 2, Will comes out as gay. He gathers all his friends and family and tells them: “I don’t like girls.”
It’s a nice moment, but placing it at the end makes it feel like a big plot climax. That’s odd. This show isn’t “Heated Rivalry,” where a “come out” moment is crucial to the plot. It should have happened as a scene in the middle — like Dustin and Steve’s hug, or Nancy and Jonathan’s breakup.
Noah Schnapp told Variety that when he saw the script, “I was just in tears. It was perfect.”
“The cast was so gracious,” he went on. “I’ll never forget how supportive they were on that day and how respectful and giving they were to me, because they had to sit there through an entire night just hearing me ramble.”
For anyone frustrated that the show had no major deaths, the Duffer brothers hinted that perhaps you should adjust your expectations.
“It’s not ‘Game of Thrones.’ We’re not in Westeros,” they told The Hollywood Reporter. “I love ‘Game of Thrones,’ but it’s just a very different type of show than that. There’s not going to be a Red Wedding situation. I think some things happen in the finale that are very surprising, but we’re not trying to shock or upset anyone.”
The two-hour series finale of “Stranger Things” premieres on Netflix at 8 p.m. on Jan 31, and in select theaters.
