Stranger Things Season 5 breaks Netflix records
Stranger Things Season 5 set a record for an English-language Netflix series with an astonishing 59.6 million views in its first five days.
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Spoiler alert! The following includes details about Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 5, “Shock Jock.”
Well, the Hawkins kids don’t get it right every time.
Stranger Things returned for the second of three parts in its fifth and final season, but after waiting an entire month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, fans were left with a rather unsatisfying run for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Mataraso), and others.
We are at a moment in the story when everything goes wrong and our heroes encounter a major setback. This works, but not on “Stranger”. On the other hand, every story needs to be difficult or I’m not interested in watching it. On the other hand, the way “The Stranger” season 5 is structured, it might feel like a case of one step forward, two steps back.
Either way, we know it will come to an end by the New Year’s Eve finale.
Another day in the paradise of Vecna’s heart palace
So, when it’s all said and done, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) gets the kids anyway.
His little 1950s fantasyland now has a quorum of little bastards running around gassed by “Mr. Watshit” to help him with his evil plan to “draw new worlds to ours,” whatever that means. Just as Lucas predicted, everything goes wrong on November 6th, so the kids have time to fool around in the house. But Vecna isn’t going anywhere. Holly (Nell Fisher) and Max (Sadie Sink) have a difficult escape plan, but luckily they now have Delightful Derek (Jake Connelly) on their side.
However, Hopper (David Harbour), Elle, and their missing sister Eight/Carly (Linnea Bertelsen) manage to escape in the final episode, using Eight’s illusionary powers to escape from Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) and his henchmen. Elle is happy to have met her supernatural brother, but is furious at Hopper’s plan to kill Vecna with a suicide bomb, and does not believe this was not his plan from the beginning. Their battle is interrupted by the disappointing news that Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Steve (Joe Keery), and Dustin are not waiting for them at the original Upside Down church.
No, that dysfunctional quartet is in an upside-down version of Hawkins Laboratory. Because Dustin thinks it hosts some kind of “shield generator” that is building a wall of flesh, and if they destroy it, they will destroy the wall and get to Holly. It’s a half-decent “Star Wars” inspired plan based on what they know at the moment (with unfortunate consequences later on), and everything would be fine if these four weren’t so incredibly awkward and manipulative. But who can put aside relationship drama (romantic or platonic) at the literal end of the world? Apparently no one was there.
Project “Young Frankenstein”
On the ground, everyone is working together more and Will is very excited about his newfound superpowers. However…Will says that’s not the case. his He has powers, but rather he steals powers from Vecna when connected to the hive mind. This plot development is extremely disappointing from a storytelling and character standpoint. Will tapped into these powers by reaching a deep moment of self-actualization in Part 1 of the season. Will has come to terms with himself that he is gay and that his unrequited love for Mike (Finn Wolfhard) is not as important as coming out. The supernatural powers he has acquired are borrow It weakens the emotional arc and returns Will to the weak victim he has been throughout the series. This is a major narrative flaw, and it’s probably only going to get worse from here.
But at least thanks to his borrowed psychic powers, his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) no longer treats Will like he’s made of glass, and even helps Will formulate a plan to kill Vecna for good. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) comes up with the details. Electricity from a radio station illuminates the dead Demogorgon, connects Will to the hive mind, and mentally attempts to kill Vecna (which, as the characters explain, makes some sense). His sister Erica (Priah Ferguson) also suggests enlisting the help of Mr. Clark (Randy Havens) to build a new telemetry tracker to locate all those lost in the Upside Down.
In Upside Down, Steve, Dustin, Jonathan, and Nancy are bickering as they search Hawkins Lab. Nancy and Jonathan argue over who is or isn’t honest in their relationship before finding a strange melted door that they think is worth investigating. Steve and Dustin fight over Dustin’s reaction to Eddie’s (Joseph Quinn) death in Season 4, with Steve even badmouthing the deceased. The two brothers actually receive a physical blow that breaks a handheld radio and takes Dustin to an office full of very interesting science-related materials.
Elsewhere, Elle and Carly become much better friends, but Carly tells a very sad story about how she ended up in Dr. Kay’s lab. The military found her, killed her friends, imprisoned her, mutilated and tortured her, and repeatedly stole her blood. At one point, Carly almost ran away, but instead she discovered a room where dozens of pregnant women were being injected with blood. Dr. Kay’s plan is revealed. She is trying to create more supernatural children. And it looks like the source of Elle and Carly’s powers isn’t drugs, but good old Henry/Vecna blood. And while Kali’s blood has no effect on pregnant women, Kei is convinced that Elle’s blood does.
the end of the world as we know it
All the different groups carry out their plans as the episode approaches its climax. Derek distracts Vecna while Max and Holly try to travel to the exit using Vecna’s Holly-based memories. Unfortunately, Vecna quickly captures Derek and threatens his family until he confesses what is going on. (P.S. Where is Derek’s family? Last time we saw them, they were drugged and tied up in a barn. Did Joyce and the others just leave them there? Is someone going to bring them food and water?)
Around this time, the team on the ground lights up the demo, and Will suddenly jumps into Derek’s mind (sure enough) and realizes that Vecna is targeting Max and Holly. The duo finds the correct Holly memories for the exit, but Vecna finds them first and nearly kills Max. But then Will takes him in and tells Max to run, and Vecna and Will have a creepy little battle of wits. This isn’t the final episode yet, so of course Vecna wins and Will gets trapped in Vecna’s fantasyland (in his mind anyway), but that’s the gory part.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Nancy and Jonathan find what appears to be a “shield generator” on the roof of the lab and decide to fire a shotgun shell at it (sure enough). Just then, Dustin runs up to them, yelling that if he destroys it, he can kill them all. Cut to black.
Everyone is okay, right?
