(This article contains SPOILERS for ‘STRANGER THINGS’ 5×05)
For most night owls, it’s almost a late Christmas present. At two o’clock in the morning on December 26, the second volume of the last season of Stranger Things. Episodes 5, 6 and 7, now available for a Christmas marathon, dive into the final part of television’s most famous gang and they pave the way for the formidable final which begins in Spain on January 1st.
But as is the case with typical gifts, meals and celebrations on these dates, It is advisable to tackle each episode one by one so as not to end up drunk or suffocated. In other words, and given the warlike tone of this season, let’s go fight by fight. The fifth episode picks up the plot directly after the disastrous confrontation against Vecna at MAC-Z with which the first volume ended.
Mike and the others’ plan failed and Vecna managed to kidnap the children he needed to disrupt reality. But there’s no time to waste, there are barely 24 hours left before the dreaded November 6th with which the series began. The gang knows they must counterattack as quickly as possible and in record time, as only they know, “an emergency plan”, which is the title of the episode in Spanish.
In English it is called “shock jock”, a term used to refer to the most sensational radio hosts. Within the series It has several meanings and they are all deciphered by returning to the origin of Stranger Things. Because if this chapter confirms anything, it is that in times of war, knowing the past is the only way to ensure a future. A complicated family tree, an improvised resurrection and a black hole as old as the Upside Down: That’s all the fifth episode left us.
Forget Mr. Whatsit!
Netflix, a platform that arrived with the marathon as its flagship product, publishes the end of its flagship product in sections and nothing happens. They managed to proclaim Christmas 2025 like Christmas Stranger Things If only all contradictions were so pleasant! Now fully immersed in the second volume, we can affirm that this division into parts This suits the series very well to enjoy it little by little and leaves only a few errors like the one that opens this chapter.
In a flashback somewhat unnecessarily, we are reminded that Vecna has obtained his 12 apostles, the children he wants to use to end the world. The plot picks up just after the fourth episode and it seems that the division into volumes was not considered in the original writing. In any case, there will be those who, resigned to the very short attention span that social networks leave us, will have appreciated the summary. But back to Vecna, he is, in part, the shock athlete of the chapter.
Based on hoaxes, like the best of sensational advertisers, managed to penetrate the minds of children to capture them and steal their childhood. But at least in the particular hell, full of treats and movies, that he created in his childhood home, reading is forbidden. Through the book which structures the entire season, A wrinkle in time, He explains to the children that he has one day left to help him create a new dimension.
However, he counts among his audience two unconvinced listeners. Holly and Derek learn of their dark plans and with the help of Max (Sadie Sink), they hatch a plan to save the rest of the group. Derek will distract him and they will try to delve into Vecna’s mental maze to find a way out. In this search, one of the keys to the episode appears: the series’ fixation on nostalgia, not only for ’80s films, but also nostalgia for the beginnings of the series itself.
This season is the most self-referential and the Vecna Labyrinth demonstrates this perfectly. Stranger Things is a gigantic become of ageSO Its protagonists’ journey to physically travel and come to terms with their most painful memories seems the ultimate test of maturity. Halfway between Forget me! And The cell, Max and Holly’s plot in the maze provides some of the episode’s most creative moments.
It is inevitable to also think about Avengers: Endgame, in which the characters found the key to confronting the villain by going back into the past. A journey that worked to pay homage to the universe itself but also to rediscover the essence that defined it since its first film. The big enigma then is to know whether Stranger Thingswhich also plays with this metanarrative, will end with the same epic as the Avengers’ last battle.
Eleven, I am your father
This look at the past is also contagious in the rest of the subplots. Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) saved Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), his lost lab sister who played the lead role The lost sisterone of the most hated episodes of the entire series. They go to meet Steve and Dustin’s group at a church in the Upside Down but they don’t find anyone. So, in such a sacred place, The sisters decide to confess.
Eleven apologizes for forgetting her and at that point it seems like it was the Duffer brothers themselves who were speaking, who until that moment hadn’t picked up on Eight’s subplot. But for the grand finale of the series They are determined to come to terms with even the most uncomfortable parts of the story. Ocho explains the ordeal he experienced for years in Dr. Kay’s laboratory and delivers one of the big revelations of the episode.
While trying to escape, the bloody and abrupt cuts that accompany his actions add positives. flashbacksEight discovered the origin of all the children in the laboratory. Until now, we knew little about Eleven’s mother, but now it’s revealed that she and Eight came from the same experiment. The already deceased Dr. Brenner had injected the blood of Henry Creel, that is to say Vecna, into various pregnant women. to try to reproduce and control its power in new subjects.
That’s eleven and eight girls? daughters-in-law? sisters? of Vecna. Either way, it presents the grand family tree that will determine Hawkins’ fate. Let the Starks, the Sopranos or the Roys tremble Successionbecause the Creels want to become the most dysfunctional family on television. Now, release dates are better understood: comparing them, it’s easy to overlook all the tensions that appear during Christmas dinners.
Dr. Byers and his FrankenGorgon
In Hawkins, the gang of protagonists organizes their revenge with an ace up their sleeve. Will became the Wizard after discovering the power he wields over the hive mind of Vecna. and they are ready to make the most of their power. But first it’s time to make a dirty dinner, because it’s always Stranger Things. The meetings of the characters to discuss their projects are the heart of the series and, even though we have seen them a thousand times, the Duffers manage to continue to surprise us.
In this case, the gang can’t come up with a convincing solution and, as if it were a desperate writers’ room, they decide to have a treat. While waiting for popcorn to be made, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) gets the idea that they can resurrect one of the Demogorgons killed in battle. so that Will connects to the hive mind and thus attacks Vecna.
Inspired by Frankenstein’s monster, They electrocute the Demogorgon – as if the poor thing hadn’t already been through enough ordeals – to bring it back to life using the power of the radio. From there also the shock of the chapter title. Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) finally trusts her son to take on the entire hive mind and Will instantly hits his target.
Vecna found Max and Holly in his mental maze and is about to finish them off, but he doesn’t realize that there is someone capable of playing with his same power. Will learns quickly and, in an instant, A clear homage to the mythical Luke Skywalker training on Alderaan, he manages to channel his strength to stop Vecna and save Max. The problem is that this particular Darth Vader He realizes Will’s power for the first time and expels him from his mind.
The gang has lost its surprise trump card, but Will seems to get stronger as he learns more about his powers. As Master Yoda would say: “Do it or don’t do it, but don’t try.” » The wizard does it well.
The laboratory of death
THE references to Star Wars They don’t stay there. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) uses Return of the Jedi explain to Steve, Nancy and Jonathan that the laboratory Hawkins is like the Death Star of the movies. Somewhere he must hide the protective shield that the Upside Down wall has erected. If they manage to destroy it, they will also destroy Vecna’s defenses.
It’s partly true that this season’s reiteration of enemies feels like the fixation of Star Wars for repeating the first, second, and third Death Star. But as happened in the movies, the essence of the characters manages to save this narrative loop. Returning to Hawkins’ lab, where it all began, meets the same nostalgic look of the season, but in this chapter it also functions as a therapeutic chair.
In searching for that shield, Dustin and Steve resolve their tensions with blows and leave behind one of the most emotional scenes yet. Dustin is still trying to come to terms with Eddie’s (Josph Quinn) death and Steve feels displaced by the situation. Their relationship is one of the show’s biggest surprises and it doesn’t look like this is the last blow they’ll receive this season.
For his part, Jonathan and Nancy finally face their relationship crisis. But the discussion is interrupted when they discover traces of what looks like a nuclear explosion. They walk through a trail of melted bodies, like those left by the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones, and on the roof they discover their private ark: a gigantic invisible sphere. Early in the season we saw how Mr. Clark explained the black holes and this sphere seems to fit the definition perfectly.
Dustin tries to warn Nancy of the danger of trying to destroy him, but walkies -condemn walkies– they don’t work and it still pulls. Will they completely destroy the Upside Down? Or will they end up traveling to the past? And what about the Creel family? Does Vecna know about all the brothers he has on the loose? Has he just discovered a new weak point in the hive mind? We continue the analysis in the next episode.
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