The second part of the three-part final season of Stranger Things was so hyped up, had fans bracing themselves for massive events, that it really needed to deliver to live up to expectations. Unfortunately, it didn’t achieve this. Part 2 fell flat in so many ways, over-promising and under-delivering. The three episodes, which ran collectively for over three and-a-half hours, weren’t necessarily bad. But they were packed with drawn-out filler and frustrating moments that went nowhere. Heavily dialogue-driven scenes were painfully slow. While there’s still one more feature-length episode left, due out Dec. 31, 2025, the finale will really need to kick the story up a few notches to end the show on the high note that it deserves, and that fans crave.
‘Stranger Things’ Season 5’s Long, Drawn-Out Scenes Fall Flat
The episodes in the record-breaking season of the show included a few especially long, drawn-out scenes that didn’t deliver any payoff, even if that meant sparing the lives of characters fans thought might meet their ends.
Nancy and Jonathan’s Heart to Heart
The first comes when Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are stuck in a room in the Upside Down, slowly filling up with some type of gooey substance, facing what seems like certain death. They have a heart-to-heart conversation, pouring out their feelings and revealing truths. As expected, Jonathan presents the ring he bought for Nancy and successfully un-proposes to her, realizing either that they aren’t at a point in their relationship where they should get married, or maybe even not get married at all. But they love one another, and if this is when they die, he wants to solidify that. In a big surprise, they don’t suffocate to death under a mass of goo. The substance miraculously hardens, sparing them until Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve (Joe Keery) arrive to knock out a wall and break them free.
Max’s Far-Too-Long, Ill-Timed Pep Talk
Perhaps the most frustrating drawn-out scene is when Max (Sadie Sink) and Holly (Nell Fisher) find the exit, their escape from Camazotz. But as it turns out, it’s only Max’s escape. Holly has to find her own. Before rushing to the opening where Max can see Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) with her comatose body, she engages in a good five-minute conversation with Holly to try to help her find her strength. It must be tough to leave the young girl on her own, but viewers were collectively screaming at their screens for Max to run and get through that opening before it closes. That’s already happened once, so you’d think she’d want to do everything in her power not to get so close and lose out again.
Even once Max has successfully convinced Holly to find her inner strength and her own portal opens, the two begin walking slowly towards their collective openings. Run, sprint, get out of there as fast as you can! Why would Max be so laissez-faire about it, knowing how she came inches away last time before the music stopped and she lost her opportunity? Perhaps the answer is with the speech she gave Holly, realizing she didn’t need the music after all, but just her confidence. She felt convinced the portal wouldn’t close this time. Still, it seemed like a conversation they should have had long before finding the openings. In waiting until the last minute, it came across as though Max was using Holly to find her way out, only to drop this gauntlet at the end. Sorry, girl, but you have to do this for yourself, now, too.
Will’s Coming Out Was Supposed to be Part of the Story, Not The Story
The third unnecessarily drawn-out scene is at the end. The emotional moment the actors and creators referenced in Episode 7, “The Bridge,” was clearly Will’s (Noah Schnapp) coming out to his friends and family. While finally admitting the truth about his sexuality was an important part of his journey, the difficulty in doing so should not be minimized, especially at the time the story takes place in the ’80s, which left fans feeling cheated. It wasn’t supposed to be the story. The looks on most everyone’s faces suggested that they already knew, and the fact that Will “doesn’t like girls,” as he put it, didn’t matter much to them. It’s a wonderful example of how such a conversation should go. It was clearly important for Will to do it now because Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) was using this secret to manipulate Will into thinking everyone would abandon him if they knew the truth. But it was not at all what fans were expecting as the big, emotional moment of this episode and this second part.
The speech was a part of the narrative that fans knew was coming sooner or later. It was teased through Will’s many prior conversations with Robin (Maya Hawke), his clearly unrequited crush on Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and how it tied directly to Will’s ability to finally harness the hive mind’s power. But Will officially coming out to his friends and family could have been part of the aftermath of them defeating Vecna, even a side conversation as they were all devising next steps. To make it the “big moment” in the episode, arguably in the season, took away from bigger parts of the story.
Stranger Things has never been about the personal journey of any singular character, not even Eleven. It’s about the collective journeys into an unknown world as they all come together and beat the bad guys. This took away from that, especially since the emotional response the episode was teased to elicit was interpreted by many to relate to someone’s death, not Will’s lifted emotional weight.
Small Wins Only Raise More Questions
The episode did have a few small wins. Mr. Scott Clarke (Randy Havens) is finally brought into the fold to know what’s going on after so many years of being unknowingly integral to many of the plans. The idea of shocking a Demogorgon back to life so Will could tap into the hive mind and try to control Vecna was brilliant, as was Dustin’s discovery of what the Upside Down really is: a bridge between Hawkins and the actual dark place where Vecna and the Mind Flayer reside. Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) got yet another strong mom moment, hilariously “doing the laundry” at the hospital to save some of the crew from otherwise certain death by Demogorgons. Sadly, Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) seems to be still holed up in a hospital bed, blissfully unaware of what’s going on, no one daring to explain what that terrifying creature is that he tried to fight off with a golf club on his front lawn. Hopefully, he’ll get some closure by the end.
Even the big revelation is disappointing, perhaps partly because it doesn’t fit any of the most promising theories. Vecna isn’t really the big villain, nor is the Mind Flayer. It’s Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) who is effectively the new Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), trying to breed a new generation of kids with powers from Henry’s blood. This leads to Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) warning Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) that the only way to break the cycle is for Kali and Eleven to sacrifice themselves after the group successfully takes down Vecna and blows the bridge from the Upside Down to smithereens. Eleven’s only other alternative is a life on the run, always looking over her shoulder and putting her loved ones at risk. The military did, after all, kill all of Kali’s friends to get to her. And they’ll do the same to Eleven, even if it’s a new Dr. Kay taking her place.
Based on the constant teases for these three episodes that panned out to be nothing more than just teases, fans aren’t convinced that Eleven will follow through with the plan. But the revelation means taking down Vecna is the easy, obvious task now, while how Eleven solves this mystery without dying becomes the bigger question. Even the idea of a redemption story for Vecna, who, Max brings up, is still human underneath his monstrous façade, is now less important. It wouldn’t matter anymore because if Dr. Kay and the military are still out there, Vecna seems more like a nuisance than a real threat.
Sadly, it seems that Part 2 has placed Stranger Things into a box that is setting fans up for disappointment, no matter which way it goes. If Eleven sacrifices herself, all her work for the last decade was for not, coming full circle to end a cycle with Vecna that she inadvertently started and ending one Dr. Brenner began all those years ago. If she doesn’t, there’s no alternative unless, somehow, the Men in Black arrive to spray the government and military so they lose all prior knowledge of Dr. Brenner’s work and Eleven’s existence, and she can start anew. If someone else dies, it won’t have the impact it would have had in Part 2.
There are still glimmers of hope for redemption, like an arc that sees Will continue to fight back against Vecna and succeed in proving the man wrong about him being weak and easily manipulated. It could be in Eleven inspiring hope in Kali so she isn’t set on the pair plummeting to their deaths to prevent others from suffering their same fate. Whatever happens, Part 3 will really have to pull out all the stops to make up for this lackluster, disappointing Part 2.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
