Friendship Is Still Magic in Stranger Things Season 5

Stranger Things Season 5 was always going to have to serve many masters.

From wrapping up a sprawling, five-season story and crafting satisfying endings for nearly a dozen main characters to simply reminding viewers why they should still care about the world of Hawkins, Indiana, after so many years have passed between seasons, there’s just… a whole lot to cover as the clock ticks down to the series finale. 

In truth, there’s likely no version of this final batch of episodes that would ever make everyone happy, but if the first volume of Season 5 is anything to go by, the show is sure as heck going to try.

Unfortunately, Netflix’s irritating release schedule, which sees the final episodes released in three chunks over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, means that the overall flow of the season isn’t particularly straightforward. Its first volume ends on a fairly major plot twist that fans will have to wait a month to see the other side of. 

Will it be worth it? It’s hard to say. It helps that Season 5 essentially concludes with a sequence that’s so emotionally satisfying it almost manages to rewrite the frequently uneven hours that have come before it into something that feels purposeful and deliberate. 

So maybe Duffer Brothers really do have a plan. If anything, Season 5’s initial episode makes you want to believe. 

Don’t get me wrong, Season 5 has…. well, it’s got its fair share of problems so far.

There’s a lot of set-up in these initial episodes, which are not only heavy on the exposition but on talking, generally. Multiple expansive planning meetings take place, in which various characters argue about stakes and threats, detail and repeat mission specifics, and constantly insist upon the ever-present threat of danger in a way that feels like nothing so much as a stalling tactic.

The episodes are too long, too much of Vecna’s nefarious plot to kidnap and manipulate children feels like a retread of what we’ve seen before, and too many fan-favorite characters are rarely given the chance to interact for any significant amount of time. The world-building aspect of a Hawkins suddenly under martial law runs from sloppy to nonexistent. 

Lots of twists don’t make much sense if you look at them too closely, and some of the story beats just feel tired. (I am, admittedly, a Steve and Nancy shipper, and even I find the exceptionally childish execution of the awkward love triangle between the two exes and Nancy’s current boyfriend Jonathan, generally exhausting.) 

But what ultimately salvages this initial volume — and makes the spectacle that is Stranger Things something still worth watching — are the warm and lived-in friendships between the characters at its center, which are as strong and multifaceted as they’ve ever been.

Stranger Things has always been a show powered by feelings more than facts.

A fever dream of 80s nostalgia and big nerds will inherit the earth energy, it’s a story powered by the bond between a group of Dungeons & Dragons-loving friends who find themselves drawn into a world of mysterious government conspiracies and murderous shadow monsters. 

But as much as the show is about Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Eleven dodging demogorgons and plotting to take down Vecna, at its heart, it’s still a story about the traditional trials and challenges of growing up. (Particularly growing up as someone considered different or other in a world that values particular forms of conformity.)

And a big part of that journey really is the friends we make along the way.

Whether the story is set in Hawkins, Leonora Hills, or the Upside Down, Stranger Things is a story about the power of friendship, specifically the formative bonds of youth that shape so much of how we decide who we want to become.

In this world, it’s your friends who help you learn to be your best self, and it’s the unshakeable bond between the series’ core group that helps ground the show’s most outlandish plot twists in real, human stakes. 

Their utter refusal to give up on one another saves countless lives, including their own on multiple occasions. And that’s more true than ever in this final outing, where it’s clear that the show is counting on both our well-established affection for these kids and their abiding love for one another to carry the day. And, mostly? It works. 

Teamwork repeatedly makes the dream work in Season 5, as the gang repeatedly manages to pull off several complex plans by determinedly working together and deftly incorporating everyone’s specific skill sets. (The bit where they booby trap a house in the hope of successfully capturing a rampaging monster is chef’s kiss perfect.)

They trust one another to pick up the slack if someone else fails. They show up for one another, even and maybe most especially at the most dangerous moments. 

If nothing else, Season 5 is a great reminder of why we care about these kids as a unit, even if we’ve maybe (probably?) forgotten a whole bunch of specific Upside Down and Vecna-related lore. 

And the smaller character moments are still Stranger Things shines brightest, from Dustin’s continued struggle to process Eddie’s death to Lucas’s refusal to leave Max’s bedside, and the warm, mentor-like bond that flourishes between Will and Robin as she helps him navigate his feelings about both his own sexuality and his longtime best friend, Mike. 

But it’s the closing moments of Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4, “Sorcerer,” that are what everyone is (rightfully) going to remember. 

They’re some of the show’s most powerful — and not just in Season 5 — precisely because they pay off literal years of investment in these characters and relationship development. 

No matter how you feel about the rest of the story that’s come before, you’ll undoubtedly still find yourself cheering when Will Byers steps forward to claim a hero moment that’s been five seasons in the making, even as his actions raise more questions for the season’s next volume to answer.

But the biggest part of the reason the climax of “Sorcerer” is so effective is simply because the show ties everything about Will’s choices — his actions, his sudden abilities, his decision to fight back in a way he never has before — back to the people he loves best.

Sure, there are some bizarre still-outstanding plot threads and questions that none of us are sure if the show will manage to answer before the final credits roll. But if Stranger Things can approach its grand finale in a way that’s similarly grounded in the preexisting love and connections viewers have already invested so much time in, I think we’re all going to be satisfied, no matter what happens.

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 is now streaming on Netflix. 

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