(Credits: Gage Skidmore)

Before we even get into this, let’s just all take a deep breath and agree that we are officially three weeks closer to Stranger Things 5. What’s to discuss here is that people have been arguing online about the three-part release of the show. Sadly, we are not getting it all at once.

Netflix has officially decided to release the final season in three parts, but this time, the Duffers are saying it is all part of the plan.

Ross Duffer, co-creator of the show, recently defended Netflix’s decision, explaining that the split release wasn’t a last-minute stunt. According to him, it was something they knew about from the very start of production. And while half of the internet is currently grieving the loss of the binge-watch era, Ross swears this three-part plan will make the ending bigger, cleaner, and more emotional. Basically, he wants us to trust the process.

Here is how it is going to work: the first four episodes drop the day before Thanksgiving, the next three arrive on Christmas Day, and the grand finale lands on New Year’s Eve. Yep, three major holidays. It is like the Duffers looked at our emotional stability and decided to destroy it in phases.

Each part, Ross says, has been written like a movie, with its own build-up and climax. Volume 1 will apparently feel like a “mega-movie” with a huge midpoint twist, while the finale, which Ross describes as “the hardest thing we have ever done”, will hit right at the year’s end. Which, emotionally, feels rude but also kind of poetic.

The split might sound like torture, but Ross insists it is not about dragging things out. The plan, according to him, was to design Stranger Things 5 like a trilogy or one massive story told in three bursts. In his interview with SFX Magazine, he even admitted that he cried multiple times while filming the finale, which says a lot for a man who claims he only cries during Pixar movies. If the creator of the Upside Down is crying, we are in danger.

Still, fans are torn. Some say the weekly drop format keeps the excitement alive, while others miss the fun of a full-season binge. Stranger Things has always been one of those shows people devour in one sitting, and now Netflix wants us to wait between cliffhangers? Cruel. But also… kind of brilliant?

Because here is the thing: it feels like the end of something huge. We have grown up with these characters and survived Demogorgons, malls, Mind Flayers, and bad haircuts. Maybe it makes sense that the goodbye should take its time. Maybe the Duffers are right to stretch out the heartbreak instead of giving us one brutal goodbye.

So, will the three-part release drive fans insane? Absolutely. Will we still watch it the minute it drops? Also absolutely. Whether it is spread across holidays or dropped all at once, Stranger Things is Stranger Things. And when that final episode hits on New Year’s Eve, we already know how it ends with the entire internet crying.