After the cliffhanger of Season 5, episode 4 of “Stranger Things,” there are new revelations about the connection from Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) to Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). This will change what the heroes of Hawkins, Indiana, understand about the upside down and its creator. Add in a second cliffhanger that has brought back a character from Season Two, Kali Prasad (Linnea Berthelsen) #08, who is the person responsible for the wall around the upside-down.Also throw in Max (Sadie Sink) and Holly (Nell Fisher), and there are enough subplots to go around still in Season 5. How Vecna, Will, the children, Max, and #08 are all connected. I’m sure it will all probably be revealed in the next three episodes.It all stems back to the beginning of the show. That’s why my anticipation level for these new episodes is so high. The Duffer Brothers knew where the show was going to end before the other seasons, and they built towards that in each subsequent season after the first one. 

All the subplot progressed nicely, and with the failure from all of the Hawkins Heroes at the end of episode four, they are having a hard time adjusting to what happened. Some of them aren’t getting along with each other while others are expanding their reach, but at a cost, none of them could have seen coming. I’ve decided this is like the US version of Harry Potter without the whole Hogwarts thing. Vecna is like this version of Voldemort, and the kids are very similar in a way to the kids in that book/film series. The parents are like the teachers and so forth, and Will/Eleven are like the Harry Potter of the show. The Duffer Brothers have been planning the ending of this show for years, and they wanted to give the world their version of Harry Potter without the books, obviously, and they succeeded. Everything started small and similarly to the movies they and I grew up on as kids in the 80s. With kids on bikes getting into mischief and now it’s at a dark place threatening the lives of all the Hawkins Heroes and the world as a whole that exists in the series. 

With the episodes getting longer and the stakes getting higher and higher with each episode, the series gets more and more darker like the aforementioned Harry Potter. As a fan of 70s/80s cinema like ET: the Extraterrestrial, The Goonies, Stand By Me, and The Lost Boys, to name a few, I understand what The Duffer Brothers are going for. We grew up in the same era, so I get it. The nostalgia is real with me and many others who have grown up with this kind of material. Babyboomers, if you will. They made a show for people like themselves. Also, showing a new generation of young people what they grew up on will hopefully bring newer fans to older films and television shows similar to this type of series. Stranger Things will open a whole new door and I’m happy about that. 

With a lot of films and television shows, there is a thing about relationships that is a key to their success. “Stranger Things” has been developing relationships from the very beginning whether they be from boyfriend/girlfriend, mother/son, father/daughter or just friends in general relationships have been a core of why this show has been so successful. Many people can relate to these characters. I definitely can relate to the friends group and The Hellfire Club. That was me, my brother and many of our friends. I loved all of these kids, and they all have their own arcs in the series and have grown from the beginning of the show until now in Season 5. With seven episodes gone by, some of these relationships will have good conclusions, and others will have unresolved endings. Hopefully, fans of the series will be satisfied by what happens leading up to the series finale on December 31st. I’m more excited for the conclusion of this show than any I’ve ever watched in my lifetime. I know it has the ability to nail the landing, unlike some other shows I was looking forward to their endings in the past, such as Lost and The Sopranos, which were both underwhelming to say the least.

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen