‘Stranger Things’ 5: The Calm Before The Finale, Or A Missed Opportunity?

Careful. 🚨 Major Stranger Things 5: Volume 2 Spoilers Ahead.

At this point, Stranger Things is no longer just a Netflix series; it’s a television text. Five seasons deep, it carries its own internal mythology and an audience trained to read between the lines. Which is precisely why Volume 2 feels so frustrating: not because it’s bad television, but because it understands its own language so well, and then refuses to speak it fluently. If you understand what I mean.

This volume was meant to be the escalation. The moment where the show tightens its grip, raises irreversible stakes, causes heartbreaking damage, and begins the march towards a definitive end. Instead, Volume 2 plays like a hesitant middle act that feels stretched only to be rich in emotion. There are flashes of brilliance, performances that remind us why these characters still matter, a brim of ideas and concepts that could have been genuinely terrifying. But as a whole, the writing feels uneven, and the ending strangely muted for a show standing on the edge of its finale.

What Volume 2 ultimately does is leave us with more questions than clarity, not in an intriguing, puzzle-box way, but in a “how is all of this meant to be resolved?” sense. With the finale still to come, these unanswered threads now carry the full weight of the show’s legacy.

Has Vecna Lost His Terror?

Vecna was once Stranger Things’ greatest creative achievement: a villain rooted not just in horror aesthetics, but in psychological cruelty. Season 4 made him frightening because he was somehow patiently inevitable. In Volume 2, however, that dread is conspicuously absent. His presence is more eerie than powerful.

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The candle ritual involving the children should have been a chilling culmination of his ideology. Instead, it feels underexplained and emotionally distant. Is this ritual meant to consolidate power? To anchor the Upside Down to Hawkins? To create a psychic circuit using the children as conduits? The show gestures towards significance, but never fully articulates it.

For a villain whose power once lay in control and clarity of purpose, Vecna now feels oddly abstract, more of a symbol than a threat. If the finale is to work, it must re-establish why he is dangerous, not just that he exists. Or maybe give us the 'misunderstood' part Noah Schnapp talked about.

The Absence of Death...

Perhaps the most jarring choice in Volume 2 is the complete lack of major character deaths. After seasons of escalating peril, and deliberate narrative bait suggesting sacrifice, the refusal to follow through feels less merciful and more evasive.

This isn’t about shock value. It’s about narrative credibility. When a story repeatedly signals danger without consequence, the tension erodes. Once the audience anticipates survival instead of loss, suspense gives way to certainty. For a final season, that’s a risky trade-off. The finale now bears the weight of restoring belief — that consequences still matter, and stakes are more than implied.

Emotionally Coming Through

Despite its structural issues, Volume 2 shines when it slows down and lets its characters breathe.

The Steve Harrington–Dustin Hendearson moment is a standout precisely because it abandons heroics. Henderson breaking down, pleading with Harrington not to be hasty like Eddie Mudson was, both of my favourite characters finally talking things out was a peak experience.

Similarly, the Lucas Sinclair–Max Mayfeild reunion is handled with remarkable restraint. The scene had tears rolling down my cheeks. Mayfeild and Sinclair absolutely deserve the best endgame; they have been through too much together.

Mayfeild’s connection to Holly Wheeler, comforting a child who feels invisible in a fractured world, mirrors her own emotional history. It’s a quiet act of empathy that reinforces her role as one of the show’s emotional anchors.

Will Byer’s coming-out scene is another high point, though it’s worth noting that the power of the moment rests almost entirely on his performance. He delivers vulnerability with precision and dignity, even as the writing itself feels rushed — a lifetime of internal conflict condensed into a single exchange. The intent is admirable; the execution less so.

Kali And El: A Troubling Dynamic Left Unexamined

Kali’s influence over Eleven in Volume 2 is deeply unsettling, and not in a way the narrative appears prepared to interrogate. Her encouragement of El towards what reads as self-erasure is framed as radical empowerment, but it lands uncomfortably close to manipulation.

The issue isn’t that Kali is morally ambiguous; it’s that the show doesn’t acknowledge that ambiguity. El’s journey has always been about reclaiming autonomy after years of being weaponised. Allowing another character to push her towards self-destruction without consequence feels thematically inconsistent and potentially harmful if left unresolved in the finale.

Romantic Ambiguity Or Narrative Avoidance?

Jonathan Byer and Nancy Wheeler’s relationship dissolves into uncertainty without emotional punctuation. Are they broken up? Do they both recognise it? The ambiguity doesn’t feel intentional; it feels unfinished. Even though emotionally, their 'confession scene' really came through. I feel it's best to have Nancy by herself for the Finale.

Meanwhile, the emotional inertia between Mike Wheeler and Eleven is increasingly difficult to justify. The absence of physical intimacy isn’t a restraint; it’s avoidance. For a relationship that has survived dimensions, death, multiple separations, and the same trauma, the lack of progression feels narratively hollow.

As for Will Byer and Mike Wheeler, Volume 2 makes its position clear: this is not a romantic endgame. That in itself is not a failure, but the emotional resolution of Will Byer’s arc now rests entirely on whether the finale allows him space beyond longing.

Too Many Loose Ties, Too Little Time

Perhaps the most pressing concern is scale. Volume 2 expands the mythology when it should be narrowing it.

We’re left with:

An unresolved Upside Down wormhole
Vecna’s unclear endgame
The fate of the captured children
The true nature of the Mind Flayer
Will Byer’s evolving connection to the Upside Down
El’s final reckoning with her power

These are not minor threads. They are foundational. And with only the finale left, the risk is not that the show won’t answer them — but that it will answer them too quickly.

A Series At Crossroads

Stranger Things 5: Volume 2 is thoughtful and emotionally rich, but not powerful enough. As the penultimate chapter of a defining television series, it lacks the urgency and decisiveness such a position demands.

The finale now carries an immense burden. It must impose consequence and bring coherence to a mythology that has grown increasingly dense. More than anything, it must remind us why Stranger Things once felt the way it did — not just nostalgic or emotional, but genuinely unpredictable.

Because after all this anticipation, a safe ending would be the greatest risk of all.

See you on January 1, I guess.