Recap contains spoilers.
Things are surprisingly calm in the town of Hawkins, Indiana.
Stranger Things just dropped the first four episodes of its final season, and its first episode is doing the heavy lifting of centering us back in the Upside Down (and its real-world counterpart, the Rightside Up). It’s been three years since Season 4, and even the most dedicated fans of the hit series might find the details a little hazy. But we do remember how high the stakes were in last season’s finale: Max (Sadie Sink) was dead for a full minute, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) almost destroyed everything our favorite sort-of teenagers hold most dear, and, even though they think they’ve managed to take him down, the gates of the Upside Down had ripped a giant canyon through their hometown.
Episode 1, or The Crawl, does its best to ease us back in, although it does have a problem balancing the finale’s gory, high-stakes with the nostalgic coming-of-age charm that first made Stranger Things such a hit.
It opens with a quick flashback to November 12, 1983, the day a digitally de-aged Will (Noah Schnapp) was kidnapped by the Demogorgon. Except, lo and behold, we discover that Vecna was behind his abduction all along. As Will is held down by the Upside Down’s many, many tentacles, Vecna proceeds to use a tentacular proboscis to shove an unknown substance down the preteen’s throat. Needless to say, Will is not okay.
But then we’re immediately whisked to the fall of 1987, a year and a half after the events of Season 4, and it’s more or less business as usual in Hawkins. The show’s signature feel-good synths play in the background, and we’re watching as Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) bangs on the bathroom door for someone to hurry up, his mom Karen (Cara Buono) gets food ready, and the Byers join the Wheelers for breakfast. The dining table is a chaotic, loud mess, the kids zip off on their bikes to school, and, if I close my eyes, this part of the episode sounds more like a scene from Season 1 rather than the show’s apocalyptic final stretch.
The Squawk
The episode doubles down on this feel-goodness by shifting to Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery), who, as usual, are getting up to something silly. The former Scoops Ahoy duo have pivoted to a career in radio jockeying, manning a local station they lovingly call The Squawk. Robin cracks some jokes, and Steve handles sound effects; however, things are (finally) not as bright and cheery as they may seem.
Robin’s using her morning report to take a stab at the military officers posted all around Hawkins, making it impossible for anyone to enter or leave. They’ve called last season’s disaster an “earthquake,” and they’ve patched up the geographical gash left behind with giant plates of metal. The “men with guns” are also heavily guarding the portal into the Upside Down (or the Military Access Central Zone, or the “Big Mac,” as Robin calls it), and no one knows what’s going on underneath.
The kids, meanwhile, are going through it at school. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) hasn’t fully processed Eddie Munson’s (Joseph Quinn) death just yet, and the obnoxious, varsity jacket-toting high school jocks are giving him the roughest time for it. Mike, Will, and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) are holding him back, but it’s only a matter of time before the former Hellfire Club member does something reckless. El (Millie Bobby Brown) is pushing herself to her limits for a possible final showdown with Vecna, while Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) can do nothing but watch.
Things end on a more sinister note when everyone decides it’s time to enter the Upside Down once again, scouring the alternate reality to make sure that Vecna is dead once and for all. The final act of the first episode finally feels like we’re entering real, darker terrain, and that’s a blessing considering how much ground this final season will need to cover in order to give us an ending that, hopefully, ties up the show’s many loose ends.
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
