Stranger Things returned this week with the first half of its final season. The Netflix series – one of the platform’s most watched titles since 2016 – delivers four nearly feature-length episodes that prepare the ground for its concluding act.
For those hoping for major developments before the show concludes in December, there are several. In fact, Volume 1 ends with its most significant narrative shift since the night Will Byers disappeared.
When the show began, Will (Noah Schnapp) was the boy who went missing. After the gang rescued him, he became the boy who lived. And in Stranger Things 5 Volume 1, the prophecy has finally been fulfilled. Will Byers is, and always has been, the main character.
Warning: this article contains spoilers
Recap: what happens at the end of Volume 1
The finale leaves Hawkins in collapse. The military presence fails to contain the Upside Down breach as Demogorgons break through, and the group prepares for a fight it cannot win.
Will has sensed Vecna’s return throughout the season – the familiar pressure at the base of his neck signalling that the villain is stirring again.
As Will himself explains: “Ever since he took me, it’s like I was permanently changed. These feelings of connection they come and go, but that summer after the gate opened, I felt him again. And I went away when I was in California. But the day after I got back, the feeling returned. And now he’s closer. He’s closer than ever before.”
Schnapp and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things season five.
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