season five<\/a> building on his dreadful connection to Vecna, the hive mind, and the Upside Down. But how this reveal plays out makes Stranger Things such a thrill to watch despite its flaws. Much like Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard), I was immersed in the moment when Will single-handedly defeated the demogorgons before they could attack his friends. Through sheer willpower and force, he breaks these creatures to mirror how Vecna killed people like Chrissy\u2014bending and crushing their bones, dropping them from a height, and so on. Episode four\u2019s closing shot of Will, with a drop of blood running down his nose, has me excited for the rest of season five in a way I wasn\u2019t until now. I\u2019m even willing to (mostly) forgive the 70-to-80-minute episode runtimes.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe journey to get here in \u201cThe Turnbow Trap\u201d and \u201cSorcerer\u201d is thankfully amusing. The third outing, written by Caitlin Schneiderhan, sees Stranger Things embrace its goofy and gory leanings. Mike comes up with a plan to rig the Turnbow house with booby traps, so when the demogorgon comes to nab \u201cdipshit Derek,\u201d Nancy (Natalia Dyer) can shoot it with a tracker. That way, they\u2019ll find out where this monster runs off to, hopefully leading them to Vecna\u2019s lair. It\u2019s all very silly yet digestible, considering a 16 year old came up with it. Joyce, the only real adult involved, knows she\u2019s out of her depth. Her attempts to keep Will safe under her control backfired in \u201cThe Vanishing Of Holly Wheeler,\u201d since he ran off with Robin to do some investigating of his own. And he was right! So now, she goes along with the teens\u2019 plan. I still think Stranger Things doesn\u2019t utilize Ryder\u2019s prowess, but Joyce\u2019s heart-to-heart with her son proves why she\u2019s the ensemble\u2019s shining star. Give her more to do, damnit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Circling back to the events of these episodes, Erica (Priah Ferguson) proves to be a crucial addition to the team once again\u2014and it\u2019s not just because the girl\u2019s always got quips. She visits the Turnbow house under the pretense of making up with her old friend, Tina, who happens to be Derek\u2019s older sister. She serves the entire family a pie laced with benzos that Robin stole from the hospital. Once the Turnbows lose consciousness, they\u2019re wheeled away to an isolated barn under the care of Joyce, Will, Robin, and Erica. At the same time, Nancy, Steve, Jonathan, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin (who\u2019s mercifully back with his friends) modify the Turnbow home with tripwires to ambush the incoming demogorgon. Their fight with Vecna\u2019s pet goes down as smoothly as you\u2019d imagine, which is not that well at all. The creature escapes, and, instead of letting the bullet tracker do the work, Steve follows it all the way into the Upside Down with Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin in tow. It\u2019s a ridiculous choice, but Steve does have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So now, the four of them are trapped in hell, with his beloved car stuck in the same slimy wall that Hop and El came face-to-face with in episode two. And no one has made any progress so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n
El and Hop at least try to get information out of a military soldier to find out what, exactly, the government has been up to. They ultimately go straight to the source, infiltrating the military base under the assumption that they\u2019ve got Vecna trapped in there. El can\u2019t use her powers because they\u2019ve set up a device that weakens her, so Hop decides to venture behind locked doors, unsure whether he\u2019ll survive his meeting with the devil. Cue another heartfelt goodbye between the surrogate father-daughter duo, except I didn\u2019t find their tearful exchanges as moving. Stranger Things has already played this card before. El \u201cdied\u201d in the season-one finale, and Hopper turned to ash at the end of season three. Except they both survived because this show is too scared to lose main players. So I wasn\u2019t shocked that Hopper didn\u2019t die. Instead, he figures out what\u2014or rather, whom\u2014the military has kept in there and takes El inside to reveal that, bam, it\u2019s her \u201csister\u201d Kali Prasad (Linnea Berthelson). Remember Kali, right? El went to Chicago in season two to meet the fellow Dr. Brenner survivor, only for Kali to give her a goth makeover and then never be mentioned again. Well, here she is, trapped by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) for who knows what nefarious reasons. For most people, including yours truly, Kali\u2019s debut hour, \u201cThe Lost Sister,\u201d stands as the show\u2019s weakest. So I\u2019m curious to see what the Duffer Brothers have in store for this duo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kali isn\u2019t the only surprise return. Sadie Sink is a sight for sore eyes, especially because I assumed Stranger Things would hold off Max\u2019s return for its December episodes. Technically, she\u2019s not really back, but she does meet Holly in Vecna\u2019s mind, where they\u2019re both currently trapped. Don\u2019t be fooled by the scenic, sunny mountains where they are. Max walks Holly through the danger they\u2019re in, revisiting how she\u2019s spent the past 18 months in captivity, striving to escape before resigning to her fate. The wall\u2014that goddamn wall\u2014is the only place where Vecna can\u2019t hurt them because even he\u2019s too scared to enter. What secrets and memories does this place hold for him? Regardless of the questions her appearance raises, I loved getting Max back this soon into season five after Sink\u2019s performance in season four blew me away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the land of the living, an initially angry Derek joins the team after witnessing the demogorgon arrive. When he attacks everybody, Joyce bravely steps in front of the kids, and you\u2019d assume she\u2019d get lightly scratched or something. Nope. It\u2019s clear that even if he doesn\u2019t know it, Will tapped into Vecna\u2019s hive mind and made the demogorgon leave. At this point, do we think he\u2019s potentially stronger than Eleven? With Derek safe for now, they plan to hide all the other kids who\u2019ve been seeing \u201cMr. Whatsit\u201d so that Vecna can\u2019t take any of them. But they\u2019re too late because the military has already wrangled them under its protection. In another classic Stranger Things move, the crew comes up with a slightly unhinged plan to rescue them: Derek will walk right into the barracks so he can be kept with the other children, and from inside, he\u2019ll lead them into the tunnels in the bathroom. There, Mike and Lucas will be waiting to guide them out, so Murray and Robin can drive them out of town. Good? Good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Everything goes fine, and most of the kids are well on their way out of Hawkins. But this is Stranger Things we\u2019re talking about, so things go awry as soon as the demogorgon army shows up. And it\u2019s an army, alright. Multiple creatures jump out of multiple gates, clawing into every human being they see. A few chase after Murray\u2019s van, and a couple of them run after Erica and Lucas in the tunnels. Mike, bless his heart, steps up and tries to shield the younger ones from the demogorgons. But no one stands a chance once Vecna strolls out and coolly crushes those still alive and standing in his way. (Don\u2019t worry, no one important is hurt\u2014duh.) He then talks solely to Will in a scene staged to replicate the premiere\u2019s cold open. Vecna confirms he wants weak children to mold them into his soldiers, using them to reshape the world. Whatever that means. I\u2019m still unclear on the end goal. Does he want to turn everything into the Upside Down, and if so, why take the kids? And why does he walk right back after conversing with Will, not bothering to check if his resurrected demogorgons killed anyone? If he had stayed, Vecna would\u2019ve seen Will take them out in that fantastic closing scene. \u201cSorcerer\u201d ends on such a high note that I can\u2019t believe we have to wait for a whole month to see what happens next.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stray observations\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 So whatever happened to the rest of the Turnbows? Are they still drugged and unconscious in that barn? I\u2019d hate to be them when they wake up and discover Derek\u2019s vanished into the dark pits of the Upside Down.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Er, I really need them to explain whatever\u2019s going on with Sadie Sink\u2019s wig or hairstyle, and why they chose to make it so distracting?\u00a0
\n\u2022 The many pop-culture mentions and references in season five so far include The Great Escape, Mission Impossible, and Miami Vice.\u00a0
\n\u2022 I hope the show has something cooler in store for Linda Hamilton.\u00a0
\n\u2022 If somehow anyone still cares, Jonathan has purchased a ring for Nancy, hoping it\u2019ll be the Band-Aid over their relationship issues. Sure, dude.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Max tells Holly to go back to Vecna\u2019s house and pretend everything is fine because she has a new plan for both of them to escape. It gives Holly a new challenge, and I think Nell Fisher is up to the task. She\u2019s a remarkable addition to the cast.\u00a0
\n\u2022 While it\u2019s nice that Karen and Ted Wheeler are somewhat involved, I need to know what Dustin and Lucas\u2019 respective families think they\u2019ve been up to for the past couple of days.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Everything is so intense that I feel like episodes three and four are lacking in banter a bit, particularly with Steve\/Robin and Steve\/Dustin. At least the Sinclair siblings remain reliably funny together. But I need Stranger Things to remember its true powers lie in the electric dynamic this group shares with each other, as evidenced in the point below. \u00a0
\n\u2022 It\u2019s beautiful that Will, when it\u2019s time to use his powers, reflects on his conversation with Robin earlier in the episode. While strolling in the tunnels, she talked to him about her first crush, realizing that she\u2019s a lesbian, and how she found herself in the process. I\u2019m not sure where Will\u2019s feelings for Mike stand, but it\u2019s certainly important that his powers peaked after the montage of his childhood with his pal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Editor\u2019s note: The A.V. Club will return to recap Stranger Things on December 25.]\u00a0 He has risen. I\u2019m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-156201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}