‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Volume 2 Review – A Bridge To Something Bigger, Hopefully

Stranger Things, like plenty of things has been a cultural phenomenon that has a hard time sticking the landing. Think about other properties, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (despite my glowing early review), Game of Thrones, The X-Files, there are plenty of things out there that have a difficult time ending. There’s plenty of weight on the shoulders of the writers of Stranger Things season 5 to not have it buckle under the pressure of ten years and millions (probably billions) of watch hours put into this saga. As an audience, we clearly care about these characters, so how do they end it?

Well, that question is best answered on New Year’s Eve when the finale for the series drops on Netflix. But the so-called bridge between the introduction to this season that happened on Thanksgiving and that time was a drop of episodes on Christmas Day. The three episodes, “Shock Jock”, “Escape From Camazotz”, and “The Bridge” all bring in more answers to some questions about the series as a whole. What is the upside-down? Why is Vecna/Henry doing what he’s doing? How are they going to stop him?

But like the best (and the worst) episodes of the series, there is plenty of emotion, but also plenty of over-explanation. Stranger Things Season 5, Part 2, for better and for worse, is an entertaining bunch of episodes, but the quality and how well they fare in the long run all depend on the finale. But for now, let’s jump into just a review of these episodes.

How Did Stranger Things Season 5 Part 2 Make Me Feel?

Like many of you, I was most worried about Steve Harrington. Luckily for all of us, Steve is fine, his pretty hair is safe on his pretty head. But all joking aside, this bunch of episodes was well done for the most part. It provided plenty of answers, but still left audiences wanting for more out of the finale. As I was watching, the scenes that stuck with me the most really all involved Max. Sadie Sink has been a powerhouse of emotion throughout this show, but from the end of season 3 and onward, she’s really been the best of the bunch when hitting it out with emotional moments. That’s no different here, where she captured my attention and my tears both when she was telling Holly about how to escape Vecna and her reunion with Lucas.

In both of those scenes, Caleb McLaughlin and Nell Fisher are equally as fantastic as Sink. Both of these scenes hit equally as hard as any other emotive moment in the series so far. On a lesser moment, the scene between Nancy and Jonathan as the room is filling with white goop, was almost as emotional, but didn’t hit quite as hard for me. It was more cutesy and didn’t feel quite like death was looming for them as much as it could have.

For those characters, there was plenty to do, but with a cast this large, it felt like others were more forgotten about, or in some cases, their characters forgot who they were. Hopper, Eleven, Mike, Joyce, and Kali all feel like they’re just kind of standing around or in the background. There’s some small development for Hopper as he copes with possibly losing El, and how he’s going to get around that mental block, but other than that, he’s just here to move around.

They Somehow Ran “Running Up That Hill” Into The Ground

Hearing “Running Up That Hill” in season 4 during “Dear Billy” was a moment that I’m sure most fans of Stranger Things will never forget. Now, in season 5, we’re hearing the song multiple times per episode, and that wouldn’t be as big of a problem, if this season didn’t completely tamp down that moment where the song nearly saved Max from Vecna. It’s nice to say that the real thing that saved Max was Lucas’s love, but it just seems like a lazy way to make an already DEEPLY emotional moment, more emotional. The emotion was already there, we didn’t need the extra added cherry of something that I know a lot of people feel about music, in general, to throw away.

The biggest issue with this block of episodes, though, is that it continues the problem that I’ve had for a while with Stranger Things, in general. I’m watching because I love these characters, this setting, the time period, everything, but the endings have been quite formulaic with plans being hatched, so that we can give characters that don’t have a lot to work with, something to work with. That plan is not going to go according to plan in the slightest, so they’re going to have to think on the fly how to fix it. They’ve done that multiple times already in season 5. Luckily for the show, the characters and performances are so deeply lovable that it shines through.

The visuals this time around still look decent, but you can notice the seams. I really don’t care for all the stupid nitpicking that goes on with this show. It’s a TV show, I know the budgets are huge, but someone’s wig or a visual that doesn’t look picture-perfect isn’t going to take me out of it. We’re here for the storytelling and seeing this whole thing finished.

But they’re going to have to do something different not to fall back on that treadmill in the finale.

Like I’ve always said about Star Wars, I do NOT envy the person who has to think about ending this story. I don’t envy the Duffer Brothers for how they’re going to end Stranger Things and the reaction to it. But they’re going to have to. While that’s a problem for another day, the part 2 to this ending story was not as strong as part 1 in my eyes, but still a solid foundation on how to build toward that ending. There are so many characters, so many emotions, all having to juggle while spinning plates, and for the most part, they still kept everything humming.

There were a lot of satisfying moments, including the ones I mentioned above, but also Will’s reveal to everyone about his sexuality, Steve and Dustin reconnecting, and Robin and Vicky’s moment in the hospital. I was satisfied with Part 2, but not as much as I would have liked. So here’s to hoping they stick the landing with the finale.

Stranger Things is available on Netflix and the finale airs on New Year’s Eve at 5:00 PM PT.

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