With the first volume of Stranger Things Season 5 dropping on Netflix in India on Thursday, many fans have been eager to brush up on the story that unfolded over the last 34 episodes.
Re-watching all 34 episodes of the show is a time-consuming task, but Stranger Things makers have made it easier for viewers.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer recommended four key episodes that must be revisited before one watches Season 5.
These four episodes are Episode 4 and 6 of Season 2, and Episode 7 and 9 of Season 4.
The beginning of the end is near for the fan-favourite Netflix show that has enthralled Gen Zs and Millennials alike since 2016. What started it all was a mysterious creature creeping out of the Hawkins laboratory and a 12-year-old Will Byers going missing.
“Season two is when we really started to build out the mythology and started to dive into everything, and how this was going to be an ongoing [series]. That’s where we started to really plant the seeds for the mythology, and I think probably that’s why that is as relevant as it is,” Matt said in the interview.
“Season four is also highly relevant — ‘Massacre at Hawkins Lab’ is a good one,” he added.
Season 4, Episode 9, titled The Piggyback, is a must-watch on the list. This is where the Hawkins gang battles Vecna in a coordinated “four-way split” attack to defeat him, while the Russian group takes on a Demogorgon and Eleven, separated in California, piggybacks into Max's mind to fight Vecna there.
“That [episode] starts unveiling some of the Upside Down mythology and starts giving some answers, and, of course, all the stuff with Henry and Eleven continues to resonate throughout season five,” Ross Duffer explained. “Those are some good ones to revisit.”
The four episodes are crucial to understand Will being trapped in the Upside Down, Eleven’s traumatic past and their strange connection with Vecna. They hint at Eleven and Will being at the centre of the underlying mystery in the show.
The first five minutes of Stranger Things Season 5, dropped by Netflix earlier this month, took viewers back to the beginning — 12 November, 1983 — when Noah Schnapp’s Will Byers went missing in the first instalment of the Duffer brothers-created sci-fi series.
Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Stranger Things began in 2016 with the disappearance of Schnapp’s Will Byers in the pilot episode. This sparked a chain of events which culminated in Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) defeating Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the murderous antagonist from an alternate dimension, using telekinesis in the final episode of Season 4.
The cast of Season 5 also includes Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler, David Harbour as Jim Hopper, Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, and Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair.
The fifth and final instalment of the Netflix supernatural series will include eight episodes titled The Crawl, The Vanishing of…, The Turnbow Trap, Sorcerer, Shock Jock, Escape from Camazotz, The Bridge and The Rightside Up.
The first four episodes will release on 27 November at 6.30am IST, while episodes 5 to 7 will premiere on 26 December. The finale will drop on New Year.
