A Quick Recap Of Stranger Things 5 Volume 1 Before You Watch Volume 2
Honey wake up, Volume 2 of Stranger Things 5 drops December 26.
Over the next two weeks, the finale episodes of Stranger Things will drop on Netflix and mark the end of an era. Leading up to the series’ finale, fans have been getting treat after treat. This past November 6, fans celebrated Stranger Things Day. A callback to the day that started it all in Stranger Things: the day when Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp) went missing. To honour the end of one of the most watched shows on Netflix, fans got an extra treat for Stranger Things Day: the show’s world premiere that took place in Los Angeles, and a sneak peek of season 5’s first episode.
On November 27, 2025 — three years after season 4, and nine since it first premiered in 2016 — the first volume of Stranger Things 5 finally aired and left fans in a tizzy with a major cliffhanger. In just a few days, Volume 2 drops the day after Christmas in Singapore. Here’s a quick recap of what went down during the first four episodes of Stranger Things 5.
Are we getting end-game Eleven (played be Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (played by Finn Wolfhard)?
A Quick Recap (Spoilers Ahead)
Following the events of season 4, season 5 begins with Hawkins under lockdown: the entire town has been cordoned off and quarantined by the US military, with a whole military base and research facility built to hunt down Eleven. Speaking of, Eleven and Hopper are training to strengthen Eleven’s powers to defeat Vecna while in hiding. Meanwhile, the rest of the party (sans Max, who is in a coma) is trying to hunt down Vecna by monitoring the Upside Down through radio frequencies, with the help of Robin and Steve’s radio show, Rockin’ Robin’s Morning Broadcast.
Some key developments from Volume 1:
- While Max is still in a coma in the human world, we later discover that she’s trapped in Vecna’s psychic prison after he takes Holly Wheeler. We later learn that this prison is actually Vecna’s memories from when he was Henry Creel, to his time in the research facility as Number 1.
- Eleven sent Henry Creel into the Upside Down where he transformed into Vecna. After he loses a psychic battle to her, she sends him to Dimension X (which we and the party know as ‘the Upside Down’). Basically, Eleven indirectly created Vecna.
- Will discovers just how intimately he is connected to Vecna’s hive mind. He wasn’t just taken by Vecna, he was marked. He’s connected to the Demogorgons and Vecna himself, which is why he’s been able to see what they see and experience what they experience. It’s through this connection that Will is able to awaken his powers. Or, as it’s been speculated, borrow Vecna’s powers.
- Speaking of Vecna kidnapping Will, by the end of Volume 1, he’s kidnapped twelve other young children, including one of this season’s stand-outs, Derek Turnbow. They’re his “perfect vessels” to reshape the world — probably alluding to Nancy’s vision of monsters razing Hawkings to the ground.
Obviously there’s a lot more that happened so far, especially for each characters’ relationships and individual developments: Dustin is taking Eddie Munson’s death particularly hard, Mike and Eleven have been forced apart due to the situation with the military, Will comes to terms with his sexuality and feelings for Mike after a pep talk with Robin, Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship is very strained this season, Steve still seems pretty hung up on Nancy, and devoted Lucas has been visiting a comatose Max and playing music for her (especially Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill).
What We’re Looking Forward To In Volume 2
The second volume drops on Netflix on December 26 in Singapore, with three episodes before the series’ finale on January 1. Talk about starting the year with a bang.
As things heat up ahead of the group’s final stand against Vecna and his creatures from the Upside Down, there are so many arcs that I’m excited to see play out. How will Max wake up and get herself and Holly out of Vecna’s spire? How will Will’s powers be used to defeat Vecna and save the world from the Upside Down? And exactly how much of his powers are borrowed from Vecna and his connection with him? And most importantly, how much of the party will survive this final battle?
A First Look At Stranger Things 5
Are you ready, nerds? At the Stranger Things 5 world premiere, Netflix dropped the first five minutes of the new season’s first episode: a young Will Byers in the mysterious Upside Down, facing off with the show’s big bad, Vecna. Will we be getting an in-depth look at what Will really went through when he first disappeared into the Upside Down?
Where To Watch Season 5
Season 4 left Max (played by Sadie Sink) in critical condition. Where will season 5 take her, especially with her romantic tension with Lucas (played by Caleb McLaughlin)?
All eight episodes will be available on Netflix and will be released in three phases: Volume 1 (comprising four episodes) will premiere on November 27, 2025, followed by Volume 2 (three episodes) on December 26, 2025, and finally, the series’ finale on January 1, 2026. Each volume will drop at 9am SGT.
Scroll on for more stills from Stranger Things 5.
