Stranger Things

'Chapter Nine' makes everyone feel connected in taking on Vecna, even with no conceivable way of getting everyone physically in Hawkins for the final ...

Listen, if a frantic makeout during a time of crisis when neither of you have showered in days is good enough for Hopper and Joyce, it is good enough for these two!! Everyone heads over to Hopper’s cabin to clean it up so that El can use it to hide out since on top of everything, you know Sullivan and the military are still on the hunt for her. Steve, Robin, and Nancy are able to get to Vecna’s physical body and they light that piece of shit up with some molotov cocktails before Nancy takes out her sawed-off shotgun and blasts that guy so hard, he falls out of the window. But then the tide turns all at once: Joyce, refusing to let another man she loves be eaten in front of her, saves Hopper. They’re able to get all the demogorgons back in the pit and Murray burns their asses to the ground with a flamethrower. They saw those demogorgons and that Upside Down dust back at the prison and they know that those monsters are all part of one organism. Steve, Robin, and Nancy are running out of time (and air!). In the Soviet Union, Hopper is trapped by a demodog. Everyone is well aware that Yuri is dicking them around with his claim that the helicopter isn’t working, but even if he were able to get them out of the Soviet Union right then and there, they still would never make it back to Hawkins in time. It takes a little work, but eventually Max’s plan of hiding in her happiest memory works and we find her back at the Snow Ball, where she had her first kiss with Lucas. This season has been chock full of callbacks to Stranger Things moments big and small, so it feels right that we’d revisit such a memorable one for the big climax. I guess it’s hard to fault him too much since this time the yammering he does reveals information that completely rewrites everything we thought we knew about the Upside Down and … all of Stranger Things, really. Through one of Owens’s agents, Hopper and Joyce learn that Eleven and the Byers boys are en route to Hawkins to fight some sort of evil and no one has been able to make contact with them. And yet still, Stranger Things has found a way to make everyone feel connected in taking on this season’s villain, even if there was no conceivable way of getting everyone physically in Hawkins for the final showdown (this show isn’t really concerned with the physics of space and time, but I’m glad they didn’t push things too hard), and the way they do it is through hive mind. Traditionally, Stranger Things likes to scatter its cast around Hawkins and then eventually bring the whole crew together by the end of the season to fight whichever Upside Down monster is plaguing them at the moment.

The series holds the record for Netflix's most-watched English language series of all time.

Viewers also documented the crash on social media, with some sharing videos of the “Problem Connecting” error message or an endless red loading symbol. The mass convergence around Stranger Things’ midnight (PST) drop actually doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given the cultural command the series wields. Even after splitting up this season of Stranger Things into a two-part binge, Netflix still found itself with quite the hangover.

In the final two episodes of 'Stranger Things 4,' characters come full circle back to Hawkins.

The Duffers expected audiences to stay on the hook for a season in which the core characters — and thus key “Stranger Things” dynamics — were fractured; they set up a slow-burn reveal of Vecna’s true identity that paid off nicely, and ended the season with the most dynamic character clinging to life. And yet there’s an insecurity at the root of the more recursive decisions “Stranger Things” makes: For all the show does that works, there seems an unwillingness to accept that allowing character beats to have appropriate weight and gravity means leaving something out. Often, though, this seemed to extend to the show’s form as well as its content: Like a teenage diarist uncertain of which part of the story is most important, “Stranger Things” can’t help but underline, emphasize, doubly describe, and circle back. Will, whose growing isolation from his ever-coupling straight friends has reminded many queer viewers of their own teenage lives, shows the painting to Mike amid Mike’s nervous venting about trying to maintain a relationship with someone as special as Eleven. We see in Schnapp’s performance that Will is on the outside of this pairing in more ways than one. (This brings an end to a storyline, and a performance, that never quite transcended the literal.) Perhaps it’s Eleven’s new freedom that helped provide Mike (Finn Wolfhard) an opening to confess his love to her as she battled season villain Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). Will (Noah Schnapp) has made gestures toward talking about whatever it is that’s on his mind with his brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and unfortunate Max (Sadie Sink), the linchpin character of the season, lies in a coma watched over by Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), after having proven her mettle, and her goodness, in a battle against darkness. This is likely not an episode that many franchise fans this side of standom will watch in one go, thus diluting the season’s cumulative power and impact in the name of creating a monument to just how much Netflix will allow.

"Stranger Things" has taken the idea of playing the long game to heart a bit too literally, capping its super-sized fourth season with two sprawling ...

Where does that leave the show? The third-season cliffhanger that sent Hopper (David Harbour) behind the Iron Curtain also dragged on too long, even if revisiting the Cold War proved unexpectedly timely. "She's special.

Stranger Things season 5 won't be released on Netflix in July 2022 along with Stranger Things season 4 vol. 2. But here's the latest on the final season.

After finishing Stranger Things season 4, The Duffer Brothers completed an outline for season 5 and have the final run fully mapped out ahead of production. The season definitely won’t be released one calendar year from now. Stranger Things season 4 has come to an explosive end with the release of volume 2 on Friday, July 1, 2022.

Will there be a 5th season of “Stranger Things?” Here's what co-creators the Duffer Brothers have said about the last season of the Netflix show — with a ...

“We do have an outline for Season 5 and we pitched it to Netflix and they really responded well to it,” Ross Duffer said. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last.” But don’t expect to wait as long as the break in between Season 3 and 4. “There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of ‘Stranger Things,’” the creators continued. And the Duffer Brothers recognize that. Sadie Sink, for example, is a 20-year-old actress portraying Max Mayfield, who was 15 years old in Season 4.

Stranger Things season 5 will happen, but when can fans expect to tune into it on Netflix? Will there be any more new episodes this summer?

What did you think of Stranger Things season 4, part 2? Unfortunately, Stranger Things season 5 won’t be hitting Netflix this summer. Season 4 will no doubt be on the minds of fans for a long time to come, but that doesn’t mean they can’t set their sights on season 5 too.

Jump to category: Final Season; Potential Release Date; Plot; Spin-Off. Quinci LeGardye. By Quinci ...

"During the six-month pandemic hiatus, we outlined season 5 and pitched it to Netflix," they said. "I’m sure we will do a time jump," Ross Duffer told the outlet. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last." In fact, the Duffers told Variety last month that they already have a plot mapped out for season 5. "We really want to stick the landing. The Netflix paranormal hit's horrifying fourth season has come to a close, and the Duffer Brothers have confirmed that we just have one season left with the Hawkins gang.