The Hawkins gang isn’t fighting the Upside Down from the outside anymore. They are inside the nightmarish world in Season 5 of Stranger Things, and Will Byers, Netflix’s very own ‘The Boy Who Lived’, is finally channeling the main character energy he deserved since 2016.
After almost four years, the Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things returned on 27 November with its final season and instantly reminded us why it has endured through the streamer’s longest build-up yet. Besides the monsters and mayhem, the show has always been about innocence battling darkness, memories outlasting fear and strength cracking through the walls of old wounds. And at the centre of its long-awaited comeback is Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) — the quiet, ever-haunted survivor who once escaped from the clutches of Vecna and never truly came back.
The first four episodes of Volume 1 yanks Hawkins straight into chaos. It opens by rewriting the event of Will’s disappearance in Season 1 as the origin point of his connection to the Upside Down rather than a random abduction.
Meanwhile, the Hawkins landscape has changed. After Vecna’s world spilled into Hawkins from all four gates, much of the population left the town. The fissures have been patched with sheets of metal and the military has taken over, turning the place into a quarantine zone for their own secret agendas.
Following their gigs at Family Video and Scoops Ahoy, Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery) are now working at the local radio station — making for one of the most non-chalant moments of the season. The Byers, on the other hand, have taken up shelter in the Wheeler house with nowhere else to live.
Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), fiercer than ever, is hiding from the military forces organised by Dr Kay (Linda Hamilton), who has taken over from Dr Brenner after his death. While the military is determined to capture the “freak” at all costs, El lives under the strict protection of Hopper (David Harbour), who, as usual, goes to great lengths to save her.
The Nancy-Jonathan-Steve triangle is chaotic as ever, only this time, the two boys have no choice but to team up in their fight against Vecna. Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (Harbour), too, are together, with the two of them sharing a swoon-worthy moment as well. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and El are very much in love, although they work in separate teams in the first four episodes.
Max (Sadie Sink) is still in a coma and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) continues to play Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill by her hospital bedside. Dustin, however, chooses to keep the legacy of Eddie (Joseph Quinn) alive by wearing a Hellfire T-shirt and maintaining his grave, even if that means getting beaten up by bullies and missing an important spying session on the military base.
Our big bad guy Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) doesn’t show up for the most part, even after the several “crawls” our Hawkins gang has carefully conducted via tunnels throughout the town. That is until Nancy and Mike’s sister Holly is kidnapped into the Upside Down and Vecna makes his presence felt through Will, who can now see the victims through the Demogorgon’s perspective. Soon, more kids are abducted by Vecna’s minions, kicking off a thrilling ride once again in classic Stranger Things fashion.
For the first time, the show reveals the interiors of the Upside Down to viewers, who have only ever seen it in bits and pieces. This time, the Hawkins group — Hopper and Eleven as one team, and Steve, Jonathan, Nancy and Dustin as another gang — enter Vecna’s lair directly to find Holly, while the outside world turns into a demogorgon battlefield.
Teeming with heartpounding sequences, bonechilling twists and more gore than ever, Season 5 cranks it up a notch and shows Will’s explosive awakening that fans have been awaiting since 2016. Instead of being a flashy hero, Will becomes the flip side of Vecna — one that doesn’t prey on weakness but rises from it instead. He is part survivor, part sorcerer with innate abilities — as cleverly described by Mike with a Dungeons & Dragons reference.
Beyond the visibility and agency that he channels, Will also strikes an unlikely bond with Robin, forming the emotional heart of Volume 1. Season 5 pairs the two characters who have long carried invisible burdens on their shoulders. Robin becomes an unexpected, grounding presence for Will, who is constantly haunted by fear. With a bond that is steady and tender, Will finally finds the strength to accept himself and let go of his fears.
As Vecna’s curse seems to take over the rest of Hawkins, the first four episodes set the stage for an epic showdown, with Will no longer in the shadows and Eleven fighting to hold the world together and harder than ever.