What to expect from ‘Stranger Things’ season 5, volume 2 and the finale?
The only rule of survival in Hawkins is friendship, but even with the close-knit gang taking the centre stage, the first volume of Stranger Things season five on Netflix confirms: it’s the beginning of the end.
The Duffer brothers undeniably raised the stakes, and so did Vecna with his new mission of taking young children hostage instead of teenagers, which reminds viewers of his successful plot of taking Will Byers when he was just 11 years old on November 6th, 1983.
In addition to Will, also playing a pivotal role this season is the youngest Wheeler sibling, Holly, who exposes a new scheme of Vecna, through his human form, Henry, whom she calls Mr Whatsit, named after the character from her favourite novel, A Wrinkle in Time. Her subsequent abduction in the second season further raises questions about why Will was originally taken to the shadow dimension all these years ago.
In a conversation with Deadline, Jamie Campbell Bower said, “I think volume one is, it’s funny, because it’s like, I want to call it a setup, but it is an explosive setup to what continues to happen in volume two and subsequently [the finale].”
The Duffers, Noah Schnapp, and other members of the cast also chimed in to reveal what viewers can expect from the second volume, which premieres on Christmas Day, followed by the finale on New Year’s Eve.
What to expect next from Stranger Things?
More answers surrounding Will’s abduction and the Upside Down
Holly Wheeler’s larger role is expected to bring more answers about the Upside Down in Stranger Things season five, alongside answering the questions surrounding Will’s disappearance. “Especially as we get into volume two, we start to answer more and more why Will was kidnapped and how it ties with Holly and all of this. Everything sort of comes full circle,” Matt Duffer told the tabloid.
So far, several connections seem to be in the works, but haven’t developed quite yet, including between Dimension X, which was introduced in Stranger Things: The First Shadow and The Upside Down, Vecna, and the Mind Flayer. But according to Ross Duffer, “that really is a volume two thing, where we really get into the Upside Down and explain what it is. Again, this is something that has been planned for 10 years now, and it just now, obviously, is the time to reveal it.”
A different manifestation of Will’s power
The first volume of the fifth and final season came with a climactic tenterhook we could barely imagine when Will the Wise turned out to be a wizard or sorcerer. But this may not be the only time he has to harness them, as viewers can expect more such instances to come. However, Noah Schnapp already teased that his power’s manifestation will be different to that of Eleven’s.
“It was originally supposed to work in the same way that Eleven’s powers do because, as you read the scripts in volume two, it comes in a different way than hers. So making sure that the physicality of that shows that it works different,” Schnapp said. But displaying those powers was actually a tricky challenge for the actor, and he explains why.
“This season was difficult because we filmed it out of order. So that episode four one was the second time I did it. So then, when I did it later in the season, it was the first time, and I was still not really sure how to do it.” What made the sequence harder was the Duffer brothers’ absence from the set that time. As a result, he finally turned to FaceTime. “I love everyone, but I trust the Duffers more than anyone ever and like I need their final stamp,” he added.
Schnapp and Brown both doubled down that Will’s and Eleven’s powers are different. In fact, the former actually stressed the similarities in the connection built between Will and Vecna with that of Harry Potter and Voldemort. The commonalities are expected to become more visible in volume two. “For Will, we start to learn the parallels between Will and Vecna, and it almost felt very Harry Potter to me that I had to go back and re-watch the movies, because the Harry Potter-Voldemort relationship felt very close to Will and Vecna,” he said.
A watershed moment between Max and Vecna
The Duffer Brothers may have been tight-lipped when asked about how Holly ended up at the Creel mansion after the Demogorgon kidnapped her, but they did suggest that her vanishing should remind fans of Will’s disappearance. “We wanted to bring [the show] full circle. A lot of things are echoing what happened in season one. So, that’s another reason with Holly, some things are playing on repeat on purpose,” said Matt Duffer.
In fact, this season is constructed entirely as the true follow-up to the first season of Stranger Things. Bower also teased a big moment upcoming for Vecna regarding Max, who is alive and caught in his mindscape. “I can’t say too much about how it frustrates him [that Max is there], because there is a huge moment that happens later on in the story and she is 100% a catalyst for something,” Bower said.
What adds to Vecna’s frustration is that he’s trying to use Holly for his benefit when Max keeps dragging her away. The sixth episode, ‘Escape from Camazotz,’ might have the answers or feature a confrontation.
Dr Kay’s reasons behind hunting Eleven
Dr Kay replaced Dr Brenner, who is pretty much six feet under, according to the Duffer brothers. But Linda Hamilton, the actor who plays the character in the hit Netflix series, believes everything going on in Hawkins is because of Eleven. Unlike Dr Brenner, she doesn’t understand what actually went down with Henry, and she’s definitely not trying to solve an enigma. Instead, she sees Eleven as a weapon, whom she wants at any cost.
“So these events are happening, but she’s not trying to figure it out, and I think that’s what makes her so scary. She’s just relentless in her pursuit of this one person in order to achieve her goal, which, as we move into volume two, we start to understand, really, what that goal is and why she wants Eleven so badly,” Ross Duffer explains. The question Eleven confronts most significantly in volume two is how to stop the cycle, referring to Dr Brenner’s replacement in this case.
Kali’s return
Kali’s reunion with Eleven becomes a major point of Stranger Things season five. As you might recall, Kali also had her genesis in the Hawkins Lab, but her powers differ from those of Eleven or Vecna. She can cause hallucinations to others and coerce them into believing in an alternate reality. The Duffer brothers admitted that no closure was ever in the cards for the show without Kali’s return.
It is in the second volume that the audience will get their full disclosure on Kali’s importance in the story and Eleven’s life. When we find Kali, she’s trapped in Dr Kay’s experimental base, tied to some wires, and a blood bag drips. Hence, viewers can expect answers about her captivity and whether what Dr Kay has been doing to her has anything to do with Eleven’s power being neutralised by the satellites.
More musical scenes
Music was always crucial in the story of Hawkins. And it will remain so in the second volume of the fifth season, although not to the extent that season four was. “We decided very early on, let’s not chase that and try to do it again. This is just going to seem like a watered-down version of it or diminishing returns, but there are some really cool, but very different musical moments in volume two,” as well as the finale, Matt Duffer confirmed.
The military’s reaction to Vecna
While the military blamed Eleven for all that’s happening in Hawkins so far, with Vecna’s reappearance in the MAC-Z, they will hopefully realise that Indiana has bigger threats to pay attention to. So, will the military shield be expanded after being caught off guard by Vecna? Well, viewers have to find that out for themselves in the second volume.
The Finale
Sadie Sink and Noah Schnapp both expressed satisfaction with their character arcs, the finale, and how things end for every member of the cast. Executive producer and director Shawn Levy, whose episodes are yet to come in volume two, also conveyed Finn Wolfhard’s excitement about the finale, which is going to theatres and landing on streaming simultaneously on New Year’s Eve.
“I’ll say something that I think Finn said, but I’ll say it with even more fervour, having watched the finale episode recently. It’s one of the best finale episodes of any show that I’ve ever seen. And I am so knocked out by the mastery the Duffers show in the finale episode. I can’t wait for the world to see it,” Levy said.