Almost ten years after its first season aired in 2016, the 5th and final season of Stranger Things is almost here. Naturally, there’s a lot of questions about this new season, and in this article we hope to help you get a better understanding of the show’s finale. 

RELEASE DATE

Unlike previous seasons, the final season of stranger things is going to be broken up in 3 different parts. The first of which will consist of episodes 1-4 on November 26 with episodes 5-7 being released on December 25th and the final episode being released on December 31st. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen this style of periodic releases slowly becoming more prevalent as streaming services want to increase interaction. Many people are wondering if this change works to build a more suspenseful and an ultimately climactic finale.  

Season Four Recap (SPOILER WARNING)

Since it’s been three years since the finale of season four, not everyone remembers how it ended. In the season four finale, the group goes to battle Vecna, also known as Henry Creel, who was Dr. Brenner’s first patient at Hawkins Lab. Eleven, who has reunited with the group after escaping from the Government’s custody in an isolated Nevada lab, uses her psychic abilities to battle Vecna in the Upside Down. Additionally, the rest of the group still in Hawkins go to the Creel house both in regular Hawkins and the Upside Down. After a lengthy battle, Max is killed which allows Vecna to open another gate to the Upside Down in Hawkins. Thankfully, Max is revived by Eleven, but she is shown to be in a comatose state. Vecna’s physical form is shown to be destroyed, however at the end of the season he’s said to still be alive and the final scene shows that the Upside Down has begun spilling over in Hawkins. Since that is a lot of information to digest, it is suggested that a rewatch of Seasons 1-4 will help bring you back up to speed.

Season Five Information Breakdown 

Right now, we don’t have a lot of information on Season Five, but we do know for a fact that it takes place in 1987, and that the start of the season coincides with the anniversary of Will Byers disappearance in the first season. Aside from that, we haven’t been told much by Netflix about the plot of the season. The next big release of information came in mid July and mid October when Netflix dropped the first teaser trailer and the main trailer. The Teaser starts by showing members of the group at a radio station. From what we know from season one, electrical objects can be manipulated from the Upside Down. This has started a theory that the group is using “Cerebro” to attempt to track activity in the Upside Down and other activity by Vecna. Another thing that is abundantly clear in the trailer, is the overwhelming military presence in Hawkins. However by the end of the trailer, it appears as if the military has been completely wiped out in the “final battle”. This is also supported by several scenes showing bodies of what appear to be soldiers in the background. Max is shown a couple of times throughout the trailer however she is shown as being

comatose the entire time, leaving the audience with no direct answers on her condition. With the trailer, Netflix has also released a list of episode names, which are good predictors of what may occur in the coming episodes. However, Netflix went out of its way to censor some titles, so until the release of the show, we might never know who disappears in episode two “The Vanishing Of …” However, in some unconfirmed spoilers, the last name of the person kidnaped could be Wheeler. However, this is still unconfirmed. Episode three also stood out to audiences. Episode Three is named “The Turnbow Trap”. After doing a little bit of research, Turnbow is the surname of a rumored character, Derek Turnbow, who allegedly runs a real estate business in Hawkins. This leads many to believe that he is in some way connected to Vecna, and that he is possibly who goes missing in episode two. Unfortunately, episode titles tend to change at this stage, or are directly made to be misleading. This was seen in Season​​ Three with episode titles changing several times before the show was released, so take this theory with a grain of salt.

WHAT DOES WAYZATA HIGH SCHOOL THINK?

After doing this research, I decided that it would be best to see what those around the school are thinking about this new season of Stranger Things. To get the best range of opinions, I talked to several different students to gauge what the school thinks. In an interview with student Betty P, she talked about how she’s very excited about the new season and thinks that this one will be the best. When asked why she liked the show, she said that she appreciated the deep character development and interesting storylines that make the show feel unique and she’s excited to see how they tie it up with Finale. Avery J. and Alaina P. both also enjoyed the show, believing that what makes it great is characters such as Steve, Dustin, and Robin. Plus, they are both really excited to see what happens to this group in its 5th and final season. However, not everyone is so excited about Season Five. Mr. Zylla said in an interview that because of how disappointed he felt with Season Four and how long it’s been since Stranger Things had an installment, he’s on the fence about even watching the final season. He stated that since the characters have grown so much, the show has a very different tone and demographic from what the original was. Overall, the feelings about this new season are generally positive, with most at Wayzata High School seeming excited to watch the new season. 

CONCLUSION

With Stranger Things being one of the best shows on Television right now, it’s no surprise that this final season is going to be heavily anticipated. This season is the culmination of over ten years of anticipation and planning. We can only hope that this final season is able to recapture audiences like the first season did, and cement itself as one of Television’s most fondly remembered shows of the 2010s and 2020s. 

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