With the second section of the fifth season hurled into the void in order for Netflix subscribers to consume it like rabid, voracious animals, we find that while the show is maintaining its usual patterns, only with the stakes ramped up to cosmic levels. With nothing less than an actual explanation of what the Upside-Down actually is due to be delivered at any moment and multiple superpowered beings wandering the playing field, we find that despite such massive playing fields to play with, the show now seems in danger of struggling to keep its feet on the ground.
With multiple realms to now keep track of, the fact that it’s time to contract the wandering cast doesn’t actually mean that we have any clue what the endgame is finally going to be. In the face of yawning, Lovecraftian, cosmic ramifications, is Stranger Things finally starting to lose its grip on its most important resource – the likability of its characters?
Considering that your average Stranger Things episode is packed with a ton of information and character moments as standard, you best believe that two episodes from the big finale, we’ve got a huge amount of stuff to get through – so I’d better get cracking. After crack shot Nancy shot one of those freakish things in the sky of the Upside-Down, Dustin’s warnings about him bring mistaken about their purpose comes way too late. In an explosion of something called “exotic matter” (yeah, tell me about it), chaos reigns that not only causes Hawkins Labs to start melting, but the shock waves weaken the giant, fleshy wall, causing a strong vacuum to attack Hopper, Eleven and Kali. While the three manage to locate a gateway that gets them back to earth, Steve, Dustin, Nancy and Jonathan have to contend with the repercussions of Dustin’s mistake and the shocking reveal that the Upside-Down isn’t actually a different dimension after all, but is, in actuality a worm hole that connects our reality with another.
While we frantically try to digest this (or even know what the fuck it means), everyone else is caught up in their own shit to worry about worm holes. After Will’s attempt to use his new powers to take put Vecna, the viney villain manages to capture Byers’ consciousness once more and uses him as a vessel to discover the location of that other thorn in his side – Max. While Holly and Max have seemingly cracked the riddle of Camazotz and are mere moments of getting Max out of Vecna’s mind prison and back into her own body, Lucas and Robin race to the hospital to protect her from a trio of Demodogs that’s been unleashed to tear the comatose redhead limb from limb.
Can Max return from oblivion with valuable information she’s wormed out about Vecna’s past as Henry Creel, or will the savage counterstrike thwart yet more plans? Once again, it’s down to warrior-mom Karren Wheeler to rise from her hospital bed to bitch-slap multidimensional beasties.
There’s a moment around the halfway point in Escape From Camazotz, that I was convinced that Stranger Things 5 was in deadly danger of disappearing up its own worm hole as the sheer weight of the multiple story lines seemed to be forgetting what the mission is supposed to actually be. With numerous groups of characters running around at least three different realities means that the season is struggling to get to the point. Take the massive revelation that the Upside-Down is actually scientifically made and is actually a worm whole that spans dimensions for example. While Dustin’s explanation and an extremely helpful long shot of the comic event succeed in getting the concept across, the whys and wherefores tend to raise more questions than answers – however, while you’d think that such an important dollop of exposition would dominate the entire episode, there’s so many things going on now, it doesn’t really have the impact you’d think. Rather than mull over the ramifications of such a gargantuan notion and let it really sink in, there’s simply too much else to forge on with to let it sink in properly. With Max and Holly wandering through an imaginary desert and discovering a childhood memory of Henry’s that could unlock everything, Will once again finding himself in the clutches of Vecna and the catastrophic results of Nancy’s shotgun blast, we get over half an hour of people running, wandering or screaming that worryingly fails to connect on any level other than being very, very busy.
If I didn’t know better, it feels like Stranger Things could be slipping into the trap that scuppered Game Of Thrones where the act of moving the massive plot to where it needs to be means that the characters are reduced to screaming avatars rather than resemble the character’s we’ve come to love over the last ten years.
However, out of nowhere, just when you think that Shawn Levy has potentially shit the bed after five seasons of consistently delivering great episodes, the second half of the episode finally remembers that we can’t take these characters for granted and we still have to spend some actual quality time with them before that big finish. Even stranger is that the main way Escape From Camazotz does this is by addressing possibly the least interesting relationship in the history of the show – the repeatedly sidelined pairing of Nancy and Jonathan. Is it faintly ridiculous that the two would have the most effective scene they’ve had since season one in order to mutually break up while their surroundings literally melt around them due to cosmic energies? Sure, but considering that that their coupling has been colder than dead Demogorgon for at least 5 years means that it finally allows them to have their big, emotional moment while still subverting expectations (“Will you *not* marry me?”). From here, tender character moments suddenly become contagious and Levy manages to pull the episode back from the brink with tearful, healing moments that not only sees Dustin break down and beg Steve to stop continuous risk his life lest he ends up like Eddie, but has Max and Holly engage in some girl-to-girl bonding to let her know that even if she escapes Camazotz, she’ll still awake in the Upside-Down, but that she’s far braver than she gives herself credit for. It may take a bit of time to get there (and Winona Ryder and David Harbour seem to be become utterly unnecessary along the way), but we finish incredibly strong when a cadre of Demodogs meet their end at the hands of a barely recuperated Karen who now has the survival skills of John McLean. Another thing, if Lucas and Robin survive, image how triggering they’re going to find the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park when it’s released in 6 years…
The sheer weight of still expanding plot is now starting to cause some noticable cracks to form, but just when you think that Stranger Things 5 is about to collapse into mediocrity at the final hurdle, the episode manages to keep its head just above the rising tide of melted, comic goop to continue to deliver the goods. But with only two episodes to go, and a lot of story threads to wrestle into one, cohesive whole, the powers that be better be prepared to bloody their noses if they want to telekinetically move worlds to get to the climactic razzle dazzle the show deserves.
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