The first volume of the much-awaited final season of the horror/sci-fi show Stranger Things is finally here, and the internet is already losing it. While it was always expected that the creators, the Duffer brothers, were going to do their best in order to ensure that the show finishes with a bang, some of the things revealed in the first volume are just not for the faint-hearted. Here’s all you need to know about volume one of Stranger Things season 5.
Max Mayfield is back, but is she?
As season 4 was concluding, Vecna had a hold on Max’s mind. While Eleven managed to break that hold and bring Max back to life, the character went into a deep coma. The three years between the seasons proved that much more frustrating for the fans because they wanted to know what happened to Max. At the start of the season you see her back in the same bed, but we soon realise that her body is well and alive. Actually Max is stuck in sort of a memory palace created by Vecna, and another one of his captives is Holly Wheeler, Max and Nancy’s youngest sister.
Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield and Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair. (Photo: IMDb)
They both try their best to escape, but they soon realise that Vecna and his mind have now become more powerful. He doesn’t need people to come to him in order to control them, as he can now trap them in memories which seem harmful at first but are just mental prisons.
Will Byers doesn’t need protection anymore
This all started 9 years ago with the abduction of Will, and the Upside Down world has had a claustrophobic and disturbing control over him ever since. In the final episode of volume 1, Vecna elevates Will and brings him closer to him. He tells them that the reason he chose kids to be his vessels was because he knows that they are weak. Vecna reveals that he is going to take all the kids that the gang are trying to save to the same place he has kept Holly in. He calls Will his first vessel and says, “You broke so easily. You showed me what was possible, what I could achieve. Some minds, it turns out, simply do not belong in this world. They belong in mine.”
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers. (Photo: IMDb)
Vecna goes back into the Upside Down as the kids are sucked into his world. Mike, Nancy and Lucas are all under attack from Demogorgons with nowhere to go when Will realises something. He recalls the words of Robin, who told him that all answers were hidden deep inside of them. A montage of flashbacks from Will’s life plays in his head, and suddenly he gets up, his eyes turn white, and all the monsters who were about to kill his friends stop dead in their tracks. Mike and Lucas realise that they aren’t stopping willingly, and in fact it’s Will who is controlling them.
This full circle moment for the boy who has been under the control of a twisted world since the start couldn’t have come at a better time. Will kills the beasts without moving a single inch, and that’s when he wipes off his bleeding nose (just like Eleven!!!) and he stares into the distance, ready to fight.
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Eleven discovers a new enemy
Remember actor Linda Hamilton, from the Terminator. The famed actor made an extremely surprising appearance as Dr Kay in volume 1. Just like Brenner from the past, she wants to use Eleven as a weapon, but being from the military, she has no feelings for the kid. She is experimenting with a deadly technology that turns psychic powers against the very people who possess them.
Linda Hamilton as Dr Kay. (Photo: IMDb)
That’s when Hopper and Eleven realise that Eight, another one of Brenner’s experiments, is actually alive and is being held captive by the military. With another friend in the mix, her powers back (hopefully improved) and Will’s new revelation about his own powers, the whole gang finally look prepared to take the fight to Vecna. Also surprisingly, no one actually dies in volume 1, which is a nice change of pace for the creators.
Created by Matt and Ross Duffer, the second volume of Stranger Things season 5 is releasing on Christmas. Its cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Gaten Matarazzo, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery.
