Andrew Grevas
The wait is over. Tonight Netflix released the first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5, the final season of the groundbreaking hit series. This article will contain heavy spoilers for Stranger Things S5E1, the season premiere, which was written and directed by The Duffer Brothers. If you haven’t seen the premiere yet, proceed with caution. Now leaving Hawkins & entering the Upside Down.
While it’s been over three years since the penultimate season ended, time has moved slower for our beloved characters. Stranger Things S5E1 starts with a flashback of Will’s time in the Upside Down and then tells us that it’s now November 3rd, 1987, which means a year and half has passed for them. In the eighteen months that have passed, the town of Hawkins has become occupied by the military. The citizens are quarantined, even reliant on weekly food drops. It appears that our old friend Murray is the one making those deliveries, which makes me wonder about the qualifications required for such an important position.
The threat of Vecna still looms large. We can gather that nobody has seen him since the epic showdown that put Max in a coma and literally ripped the town apart. Max is still in her coma and Lucas still visits her, still playing “Running Up That Hill”, in hopes that it can rally her back to life. A year and a half is a long time to be in a coma and a long time to sit with someone you deeply care about who’s in a coma.
Dustin is still grieving Eddie. The jocks still want to end the Hellfire Club. Joyce and Hopper still appear to be an item, as do Nancy and Jonathan, as well as Mike and El. Robin got the girl and a much better job. She’s now the voice of Hawkins during the town’s darkest days as the local radio DJ, with her bestie Steve Harrington as her in studio assistant.
Stranger Things S5E1 effectively caught us up on everyone’s lives without lengthy periods of exposition, which was a plus. Waiting more than three years for a new season puts both fans and creators in a difficult position. Adding a narrative time jump further complicates the matter, but The Duffer Brothers got the point across that time marched on without beating us over the heads with backstory, which is a win/win for everyone.
Time
It struck me fairly early on in Stranger Things S5E1 that our recent Covid lockdown experiences were an influence on the writing here. The characters all to some extent were suffering as a result of not being free. That experience is a universal one at this point, so it does make sense that it would be incorporated into the story in a slightly subtle way. The backdrop of the military running our characters lives will likely take on a different meaning depending on which side of the political spectrum you fall on, but certainly will stir up emotion in all.
Holly, the no longer a baby younger sister of Nancy and Mike Wheeler played an important role in the story. Holly twice in this episode was visited by an imaginary man, who she described as someone trying to help her not be killed by monsters. She was also consistently seen holding and reading the book “A Wrinkle in Time”. Could this be a clue that whoever is visiting Holly is a time traveler, attempting to tell Holly how to save herself, her family & their friends? If so, who would be able to navigate time and space well enough to do this? Either someone who has already died (Dr. Brenner) or someone who will die this season in the battle to defeat Vecna. This is a thread to keep an eye on.
The Upside Down
One of the most memorable moments from Stranger Things S5E1 was when we realized that the military has a base in the Upside Down, as well as their presence in Hawkins. Both groups have the same agenda – to find El. A lot of our narrative tension stems from this, as our characters are consistently sneaking into the Upside Down to look for Vecna, but El can’t go with them. Back in Hawkins, El is feverishly working out in preparation for their inevitable showdown but it’s one that can’t happen without external threats from the military that wants to capture her.
While we have learned a lot about the Upside Down over the years, the veil is only getting more thin. More and more entrances are opening and one can’t help but think about all of the possible metaphors that could be being referenced here. I find myself wondering how far The Duffer Brothers will go in explaining what exactly it is. There is a certain power to leaving somethings a mystery.
Full Circle
Perhaps what Stranger Things S5E1 did best was bring our “Core 4” back to the center of our action. It’s how the show started and while there is a vast array of tremendous characters, Mike, Will, Lucas and Dustin are who we started this journey with and it’s who should be leading the action as we near the conclusion.
Seeing Dustin stand up to the jocks was an excellent nod to the pilot, when he and his friends didn’t stand up to the bullies. They took the abuse, but Dustin has come a long way and he’s not going to anymore. Neither is Lucas, who now feels empowered to stand up for his friends and himself. Will, who spent previous seasons not wanting to divulge when Vecna tapped into him, immediately told his mom when it happened here. No more secrets. No more spy. The experiences these kids have had over the years have stuck with them and in their own Joseph Campbell esque way, are becoming the heroes they were destined to be.
From Craven to Carpenter
Stranger Things Season 4 was a 9 episode love letter to A Nightmare on Elm Street – and told us that fact right out of the gate. Previous seasons were a little less heavy handed when it came to their inspirations, which left me wondering if Season 5 would come out and tell us which piece of nostalgia they were paying homage to. I wasn’t quite sure until Hopper first appeared on screen, looking exactly like Kurt Russell from John Carpenter’s The Thing.
That got my mind going. Stranger Things S5E1 didn’t seem to be exclusively paying tribute to Carpenter’s 1982 classic, although The Upside Down did strike a visual resemblance to The Thing. The radio tower and specifically, Joyce at the telecommunication set, conjured up thoughts of The Fog. It’s too soon to say if the whole season will be nudging and winking at the work of John Carpenter, but the premiere episode certainly was.
Final Thoughts
Stranger Things S5E1 was an effective return to the story. Typically this show picks up as the season goes on, but a lot of groundwork was laid here. Will’s connections to Vecna is going to be an issue. The love triangle between Nancy, Jonathan and Steve is heating back up. Our characters are all back together and no longer spread out across California, Russia and Indiana. The villain is lurking in the shadows and it’s going to take the full team to take him down. Stay tuned, as 25YL will be covering each episode of this historic final season. Thanks for reading.
