Note: This story contains spoilers from “Stranger Things” Season 5, Volume 2.
“Stranger Things” is coming to an end, but Season 5 Volume 2 had plenty of big moments to reflect on and refresh before the finale.
The second batch of the show’s final episodes had a lot of lore dropping back to back – what The Upside Down really is, what Henry/Vecna plans to do with his stolen kids, what Team Hawkins plans to do in response, and more. There were a lot of balls in the air and even with the finale dropping less than a week after Volume 2 it’s never a bad time for a refresher.
Here is what you need to remember before the “Stranger Things” series finale.
Vecna’s Final Plan
Vecna managed to get his 12 kids at the end of Season 5 Volume 1, and it was thanks to Holly’s spying that the group figured out what he plans to do with them. Much like he did with Will years ago, he wants to siphon power from the kids to enhance his own abilities to enact his final plan.
After cracking Hawkins open in the Season 4 finale with this sacrifice, Vecna has been diligently doing the same in Dimension X/The Abyss. His plan is simple: to move the entirety of that dimension through The Upside Down bridge and merge it with Hawkins and the rest of the real world. That means a planet full of Demos, Mind Flayers and who knows what else – if the Earth even manages to survive a convergence like that in the first place.
The Upside Down’s True Purpose
The Upside Down’s real purpose was finally revealed. Dustin discovered Brenner’s notes in Hawkins Lab that explained it all – The Upside Down was never an alternate dimension but rather a wormhole to another dimension.
The exotic matter hovering over the lab that Nancy shot disrupted the wormhole but didn’t destroy it. If it’s destroyed in the wrong way it would not only collapse The Upside Down but also both the real world and the other connecting it. This is why The Upside Down is stuck on Nov. 6, 1983 – it’s the day the wormhole was made. And also how Henry/Vecna, the Demos and The Mind Flayer made contact with the real world again after El threw Henry into Dimension X/The Abyss. The Upside Down became the bridge between those worlds.
Max Escapes Camazotz
It might have taken the majority of the season – and two years of in-universe time – but Max is finally back in the real world. Thanks to Holly cracking the code on Henry’s mind prison, the two found a way for them both to get out. While the two worked to get back to their real bodies, Lucas, Robin and Vickie were hunted by Demodogs in the Hawkins Hospital.
Hiding in the laundry, Lucas refused to turn off the radio playing Kate Bush to guide Max back. With a fiery assist from Karen Wheeler, the Demos were taken care of right as Max found her way home. She might be in a weakened body after nearly two years in a bed but she’s back with the rest of Team Hawkins and ready to help spill the beans on everything she learned while inside Henry’s mind.
The Team’s Beanstalk Plan
It’s not Dustin, it’s not Hopper, it’s not even the newly inducted Mr. Clarke who comes up with the final assault plan against Vecna – it’s Steve. While the rest of the team tries to figure out how to fly to the top of The Upside Down bridge to get to The Abyss, Steve wondered why not let The Abyss come to them. They could use the radio station antenna as a platform or beanstalk to wait atop for Vecna to bring his dimension close enough for them to reach.
Once that happens, El will attack Vecna with her mind and halt The Abyss’s progress to merge while the rest of the team moves up and into his lair to rescue the kids and kill the big bad once and for all. It’s all happening on a time crunch, as Lucas pointed out Vecna wants to make his move on November 6 – the anniversary of when Will was taken and The Upside Down was created.
Kali’s Suicide Proposal
Dr. Kay’s experiments with her blood to try to turn the babies of pregnant women into the next generation of super-powered humans has Kali worried in Part 2. Her blood was not doing much more than slowly killing the women being infused with it but since El was the only person of Brenner’s initial group of kids to truly take to Henry’s initial blood infusions she may be the key to the next wave of souped-up children.
Kali realized that El is the key to this and, whether they stop Vecna or not, she knows that if it’s Dr. Kay or the next military person in line they won’t stop trying to replicate Brenner’s work. The only way forward to Kali is if they both kill themselves and take away the option entirely. So on top of everything else weighing on El’s mind heading into the final battle, she is struggling with whether or not she’ll always be looking over her shoulder, waiting for the military to show up, trying to use her for more experiments.
Kali doesn’t seem to be the kindest person after her years of torture, but suicide seems like a harsh hardline to draw. Here’s hoping El figures something else out.
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