Netflix’s most successful TV horror show, Stranger Things came to an end over the holidays. The final season of the show was released in three parts. The first four episodes aired on November 26th 2025, volume 2 that consisted of three episodes released December 25th 2025, and the season finale on New Year’s Eve.
The original plan by the Duffer Brothers was a single season tv show inspired by a real-life CIA project. The show was rejected by many tv networks before Netflix picked it up and they were not expecting it to get the attention it did. They released the first season in July of 2016. After the first season released and it was successful they decided to continue towards a series. They added three more seasons in 4 years and now they have finally come to an end.
Grabbing as much attention as they did they gained a huge fan base that has been watching from the beginning or picked up as the show gained more attention. Many people have said they have an emotional attachment to the characters in the show or call it their comfort show. It is sad to see the series end but fans are happy about having a complete series.
Trailers and spoilers circulated the internet leading up to season 5, and watchers were voicing what they thought the ending would be. Students around the school were eager to find out what would happen in the end. Majority of students thought all of the main characters wouldn’t survive and the other few thought only a couple of characters would make it to the end. A fan favorite character before the new episodes came out was Steve Harrington played by actor Joe Keery, while many others like Dustin played by actor Gaten Matarazzo.
The first four episodes of volume 1 were released at 8pm on November 26th and some big things happened. In the first episode “The Crawl” we see Eleven training to go in the underground tunnels with her friends and adoptive father, Hopper. A crawl is when they channel each other through underground tunnels to find Vecna. The government got involved after the giant crack in the ground formed at the end of volume 4. As the government guards the gate into the upside down they are doing experiments on the inside of their facility trying to capture Eleven for her powers. They show Holly Wheeler talking to an invisible man named Mr. Whatsit leading us into the next episode “The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler”. In episode two a Demogorgon attacks the Wheeler house injuring both parents and taking Holly into the upside down trapping her in the Creel house.
Max’s return to the screen happens in episode three “The Turnbow Trap” when she tricks holly into thinking Mr. Whatsit is in trouble. She helps Holly realize she’s trapped and they create a plan to escape. The rest of the cast was trying to protect Vecna’s next victim Derek Turnbow so they kidnapped his entire family and set a trap in their home to capture the Demogorgon. In the final episode of volume one “Sorcerer” Children from Holly Wheeler and Derek Turnbow’s school are taken by the government as they realize they can use the children as bait to catch Eleven but a couple of the characters help Vecna’s victims escape until they get caught and an army of Demogorgon’s erupt from the upside down. Eleven and Hopper discover who the government is holding captive behind the secret door, Elevens sister Eight who was introduced in season 2 episode 7 called “The Lost Sister”. Vecna appears from the open gate to confront Will about how weak and easily broken his spirit is. Vecna then he sends his Demogorgon’s after Mike, Lucas, and Robin to test Will on the power of love and friendship. Will gains a power to control the Demogorgon’s and saves his friends.
In chapter five, “Shock Jock” the characters figure out that Will is connected to the hive mind and they find a way to reconnect him to Vecna. Holly and max travel through Henry’s memories to find an exit while the powerful friendship between Dustin and Steve starts to crumble. Henry finds Holly and Max in a memory when Will reconnects himself to vecnas mind and saves Max. In the nexts episode max awakes from her comma while being hunted down by demogorgans and El tries to find a way to Will. In the last two episodes everyone comes together to track down Vecna and end his plan. After they defeat Vecna they escape the upside down but Eleven stays behind and gets taken away with everything. Friends and family of El grieve her as she gives her life for the people she’s loves. They all went on the graduate and agree to stay friends.
This new season was very emotional but had a great ending. There were a lot of different opinions about the last season all over the internet and majority of people did not agree with a lot of the ending stating that it could’ve been better. Despite all of the negative opinions there were many positive ones too. There were multiple actor award nominees from the new season. Even though there’s no more seasons there will always be an amazing fan base for the successful series and amazing actresses.
