Stranger Things S5 Vol 2 Review: Does Netflix’s Biggest Show Stick the Setup?
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 arrives under the enormous pressure of closing one of Netflix’s most defining series, and it carries that burden in every frame. After nearly a decade with these characters, the sense that the finish line is finally in sight is both exciting and surreal. Volume 1 began the season with heavy momentum, pushing straight into conflict without hesitation. Volume 2 largely maintains that pace, but it also reveals the reality of the show’s structure: this is unmistakably the middle chapter of a larger ending rather than a complete narrative segment of its own.
The season resumes without pause, with the cast still scattered across Hawkins, the Upside Down, and Vecna’s mindscape. Max and Holly remain trapped on the border of both consciousness and geography, heightening immediate tension as their fates depend on reconnecting with their bodies. Those trapped in the Upside Down begin making discoveries that reshape what viewers thought they understood across previous seasons, while the Hawkins group turns its attention directly to Will Byers. For the first time, Will is positioned not purely as someone haunted by connection to the Upside Down, but as someone whose link to the hive mind may be strategically useful. The narrative makes one thing increasingly clear: Stranger Things is now in territory where no character feels genuinely protected, and the season leans into that instability.
At the same time, Volume 2 exemplifies what critics often call “middle movie syndrome.” The episodes are long, densely plotted, and largely efficient, but the purpose is clearly to set up the series finale rather than provide satisfying resolution. Character arcs are extended, mysteries deepen and intertwine, and tension escalates, but closure remains withheld by design. Given the scale of the story, this structural choice makes sense, yet the viewing experience is affected by the split-release strategy. After long production delays and the division of the final season into multiple drops, the suspense sometimes feels manufactured, and the repeated promise of “the end is coming” becomes undercut by the necessity of waiting yet again for it to actually arrive.
Where Volume 2 unquestionably succeeds is in its emotional execution. Many long-running character dynamics finally surface in direct and unfiltered ways. The material given to Will is especially notable, as the show intertwines his personal identity struggles with his supernatural connection to Vecna and the Upside Down. Dustin and Steve continue to ground the series with believable chemistry and emotional sincerity, while Max remains one of the most compelling emotional anchors. Extended sequences in the Upside Down involving Dustin, Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve create pressure-cooker environments that force long-delayed conversations and confessions, giving the actors substantial dramatic material. However, the sheer size of the ensemble now works against the show. Not every character receives deserved attention, and some storylines feel compressed or sidelined. Even Eleven—ostensibly the face of Stranger Things—spends surprising stretches reacting from the margins rather than driving the narrative, an odd contrast considering how central she has been historically.
Volume 2 does begin delivering answers to questions built since Season 1, particularly regarding the Upside Down, Vecna’s long-term plan, Eleven’s past, and Will’s lingering connection to the darkness. Yet the storytelling approach frequently replaces resolution with expansion. For every revelation, new layers of mythology are opened, many of which overlap with material explored in the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow. The series now leans into a broader transmedia storytelling strategy, which creates an unusual outcome: viewers familiar with the play may already anticipate major developments, while others will sense that information is being withheld for another medium. That places a heavy burden on the upcoming finale to not only tie off plot threads, but to unify canon introduced across multiple formats.
One of the most noticeable challenges in the recent episodes is character overcrowding. Stranger Things became a phenomenon because of its ensemble, but the reluctance to write characters out of the story has now created narrative congestion. Several supporting figures function less as characters and more as exposition-delivery systems or emotional placeholders, existing on the margins of scenes without substantial arcs of their own. The real emotional core remains concentrated in Eleven, Will, and Max, and the series is most focused and compelling whenever it prioritizes them directly. When the narrative diverts too long into peripheral players, momentum thins.
The season also leans more heavily than earlier years into dialogue-driven explanation. Plans are laid out in detail, mythology is re-stated, and themes are verbalized instead of being played visually or subtextually. To its credit, the show is in its final chapter and must answer mysteries that have lingered for years. However, this tendency toward over-explaining sometimes dulls the dramatic edge, particularly when viewers are told how high the stakes are moments before watching them unfold anyway. Ironically, when the show quiets down and simply stages its set pieces—particularly in the Upside Down or within Vecna’s psychological spaces—it remains visually confident and technically impressive.
Overall, Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 is a strong but clearly transitional installment. It is emotionally engaging, mythologically dense, and narratively ambitious, but it also exposes creative strain: too many characters, too much exposition, and the limitations of stretching a finale across multiple release windows. It succeeds at building tension and emotionally preparing audiences for the ending, but it does not aim to satisfy on its own terms. Instead, it functions as an extended bridge to the final chapter.
The legacy of Stranger Things will now depend almost entirely on whether the finale can deliver closure that matches the years of buildup that led to it. Volume 2 puts all the pieces on the board. Whether the show can move them into a conclusion that feels earned is the final—and most difficult—test still ahead.
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 ultimately feels like the deep breath before the plunge — an ambitious, emotional, sometimes uneven setup for the end of a cultural milestone. It reinforces why audiences connected with these characters in the first place, while also revealing just how much narrative weight the finale must now carry. The mythology is richer, the tone darker, and the risks finally feel real. What remains to be seen is whether Stranger Things can translate this buildup into a conclusion that feels both satisfying and earned. After nearly a decade of Demogorgons, synth beats, heartbreaks, and heroic bike rides into danger, the series stands on the edge of its final chapter — and the world will be watching to see if it sticks the landing.
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