Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
This review contains spoilers.
By the end of “Stranger Things” season five, I trusted fan theories more than the show itself. When audiences start explaining a story better than its writers, you know something has gone seriously wrong.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, “Stranger Things” is a Netflix science-fiction horror series set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. The show follows a group of kids who uncover government conspiracies and a parallel dimension known as the Upside Down. Since its premiere on July 15, 2016, the series has relied on emotional stakes and fear to drive its story. After nearly a decade, season five carried the responsibility of finishing the storyline.
The season was released in three volumes. Volume 1 premiered on Nov. 26, 2025, Volume 2 on Dec. 25 and Volume 3, the finale, on Dec. 31. As a viewer, I appreciated having time to sit with each volume and think about what came next. But while the staggered release allowed time for reflection, compressing all three volumes into the holiday season fractured the audience. Many viewers fell behind as travel, family commitments and end-of-year obligations disrupted consistent viewing, weakening audience engagement and leaving the season without a stable narrative direction.
Volume 1 succeeds where later volumes struggle by establishing momentum, clarity and a sense of progression. Opening with an 18-month time jump from season four, the largest time jump in the series, the show finally allows the characters to visibly age and mature.
One of the most effective results of the time jump is the recasting of Holly Wheeler. Previously played by twins Anniston and Tinsley Price, Holly is now portrayed by Nell Fisher, who plays a prominent role in this season. Fisher brings a level of presence and emotional weight that makes Holly feel essential rather than incidental. I also enjoyed the introduction of Derek Turnbow, played by Jake Connelly. His humor and energy feel natural rather than forced, and it is easy to see why he quickly became a fan favorite.
Volume 2 exists mostly to reposition characters for the finale. The plot’s momentum stalls as characters move into place without narrative consequence, making it the least memorable section of the season.
For a show that once thrived on fear, Volume 3 is too tame. “Stranger Things” used to be terrifying. In season one, Demogorgons ripped bodies apart in dark hallways. In season four, Vecna twisted his victims into unnatural shapes, snapping bones and stealing eyes in scenes that were intentionally difficult to watch. In season five, that intensity is gone.
The finale is not frightening because the danger is performative. Each scene suggests consequence and then withdraws it. Steve survives the seven-second blackout. Nancy survives being used as bait. Will survives Joyce’s confrontation with Vecna. Scenes staged as lethal resolve safely, stripping them of urgency. Even the Upside Down itself feels hollow. The creatures that once defined the threat are largely absent, leaving the setting visually empty and emotionally inert. That lack of danger carries into the final battle. After years of buildup, Vecna is defeated in a confrontation that lasts only minutes and leaves Hawkins unchanged.
The emotional emptiness also extends to the show’s handling of queer representation. Volume 1 strongly hints at a romantic arc between Will (Noah Schnapp) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) through performance choices by Schnapp, who himself is gay. Those choices create intentional expectation, making the lack of payoff feel especially pointed. Will’s coming out in Volume 2 names his identity without allowing it to meaningfully alter any relationship dynamic. That hollowness deepens with the use of “Purple Rain” in the final scene before the epilogue. Written and performed by Prince, the song has long been associated with gender nonconformity, vulnerability and queer self-expression. “Stranger Things” borrows that cultural weight to manufacture emotion without doing the narrative work to earn it. Together, these choices suggest progress without commitment, resulting in representation that gestures toward importance while remaining shallow and dismissive to the LGBTQ+ community it claims to include.
Lastly, the epilogue introduces confusion instead of closure. Graduation scenes feature inconsistent robe colors, an incorrect graduation year and the unexplained disappearance of characters like Vickie. The ending feels rushed and imprecise. These details fueled “Conformity Gate,” a fan theory that quickly gained traction on TikTok, Instagram and Reddit and argued the finale was intentionally misleading rather than simply unfinished.
Many fans believed a secret episode would be released, a true final battle in which Vecna finally wins. Early in the season, the writing explicitly encourages viewers to assume that every detail matters. In episode two, Lucas Sinclair (played by Caleb McLaughlin) says, “I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t believe in coincidences.” While not a literal fourth-wall break, the line directly addresses the audience’s expectations. It trains viewers to search for meaning in small details and to trust that nothing is accidental. When the finale leaves major inconsistencies unresolved, that trust collapses.
The theory intensified with the release of the documentary “One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5” on Jan. 12, 2026. Many fans hoped it would secretly include the real ending. Instead, the documentary revealed that the Duffer Brothers entered production without a finished script for the finale. Rather than debunking the theories, the documentary confirmed why the ending feels incomplete: for a season that took nearly three years to produce and reportedly cost more than $300 million, the absence of a finalized ending constitutes an avoidable creative failure.
Part of this incompleteness stems from the finale’s reliance on “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a prequel stage play currently running in London’s West End and on Broadway. While not officially required viewing to understand the plot, the play fills in major narrative gaps the series leaves unresolved, including the origins of Henry’s powers. Expecting audiences to seek out an expensive and geographically inaccessible production to fully understand a television ending breaks the show’s implicit contract with its viewers.
The Duffer Brothers leave belief up to the audience, allowing viewers to decide what version of events they accept as real. Season five closes on the familiar refrain, “I believe,” as the characters insist that Eleven is not dead. Belief has always driven “Stranger Things,” but it is also how Vecna wins. He does not need to kill to triumph; he only needs to replace certainty with doubt.
I do not believe another episode is coming. The finale we saw is the finale that exists; however, the epilogue is not a reliable telling of the story. It presents a version of events the season does not support. By refusing to define its own reality, “Stranger Things” makes the audience its final character, responsible for completing a story the series no longer will.