Stranger Things 5 Part 2: the review of the episodes leading up to the grand finale

Managing a 12-hour series finale is no simple task. Especially because if you constantly press the accelerator, you risk everything slowing down in the end (remember Einstein?). You need to know how to play with the brake and accelerator to maintain a rhythm that still manages to provide some jolts and keep attention alive, adding elements of interest and focus to the narrative that aren't sterile jumpscares. If you don't remember the finale of the first part, we've summarized it in this special.

And that's somewhat what happens in these three episodes of the central part of Stranger Things' enormous finale. After the first four episodes (here's the review), three more arrive that amplify, extend, and perhaps stretch out the farewell of this incredible series which, like it or not, has made television history.

Our heroes are still divided between the Upside Down, the real world, and worlds created by Vecna's mind, all focused not only on finding a way out but also on confronting their inner demons and breaking through the unresolved walls of their lives, as well as accepting the loss of their friends and heroes. Amidst all this, there's sacrifice for the common good, love for life, and wormholes. Not much, right?

Yet the Duffer brothers know a few tricks, and they manage to jump from one group to another without losing the thread of the narrative and always keeping everything together, amidst references to great classics like Nightmare, "Frankenstein," and even the key scene from Titanic (with an alternative ending). Not to mention, of course, Alien, to which the hive containing Vecna's young victims continually refers.

At the center of it all remains Will, who becomes increasingly aware of his powers, but which are still not enough to completely stop Vecna. But friendship is always the true engine of the series, and it will therefore be the sense of unity among the various protagonists that will bind them in mutual aid and guide them towards a final episode that promises to be something memorable.

So we can forgive some slight missteps and excessive stretching, but in the end, the core holds and the structure doesn't collapse, because just as friendship holds the group of friends together, there is something more solid and human amidst the inhuman, good amidst evil. And so Stranger Things is more than just a simple horror series. Amidst the monsters and the bestiary, it has always spoken of us, and it will be difficult to detach ourselves from it. At least a little.

And now let's prepare for the grand finale on January 1, 2026, and this time waiting until two in the morning will be much simpler. At least that.