‘Stranger Things 5’ Vol. 2 Explained: What To Remember From Previous Seasons And ‘The First Shadow’ Play For These Three Episodes

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains major plot details from Volume 2 of Stranger Things Season 5 – Episodes 505-507.

Three more episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 have arrived, leaving just the two-hour-plus finale to draw the epic sci-fi series to its close. Volume 2 of the final season gets into the real nitty gritty of what the Upside Down actually is and sets the stage for the final battle with Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) etc. vs. Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).

Even more so than with Volume 1, Stranger Things: The First Shadow heavily connects to Episodes 505, 506 and 507. As Vecna’s whereabouts come into focus, Max (Sadie Sink) and Holly (Nell Fisher) happen upon some traumatic memories in his mindscape and he unveils his grand plan with the 12 children he has kidnapped.

Those needing a refresher of what lore has been established in previous seasons need look no further, because like we did with Volume 1, we will explain the connections building up to these three stacked episodes.

Episode 5 – “Shock Jock”

As viewers learned in the epic cliffhanger ending of Episode 504, aptly titled “Sorcerer,” Will has powers, and as Mike explains them through the lens of Dungeons & Dragons, there difference between his abilities and those of Eleven or Vecna. Will being a sorcerer means that his powers are innate, drawn from a higher being (in this case, Vecna himself). He doesn’t have to study or practice much in order to access his abilities, as evidenced by the relative ease with which he tapped into the hive mind. According to D&D, a wizard has to intensely study to gather intelligence and use their powers. Wizards are reliant on preparation, whereas sorcerers can summon their talent at will.

Particles & The Hive Mind

This connection comes into play when Joyce (Winona Ryder) suggests her son attempt to jack back into the Hive Mind and use Vecna’s powers against him. In order to do this, the Sinclair siblings come up with two different plans, and Lucas provides a good explanation for the way the hive mind is all connected. While popping some popcorn, he posits that the dormant particles within all hive mind participants can be energized or galvanized to make the connection more apparent. As has been key since Season 2, or really Season 1 when you think about it, particles seemingly from the Upside Down have connected Will, demogorgons, The Mind Flayer and more for better or worse. In Season 2 at the end of Episode 4, “Will the Wise,” the Mind Flayer infests Will with its shadowy essence, making him “The Spy.”

Lucas theorizes that these particles were also in Max’s step brother Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery), when the Mind Flayer possessed him in Season 3, which is why, when the kids trapped him in the pool sauna and cranked up the heat, it exposed inky black veins all over Billy’s body. Similar veins appeared on young Will’s neck in Season 2 when Joyce, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy (Natalie Dyer) did something similar to Will, exposing his body to intense heat to expel the Mind Flayer from his body. 

The veins appear on the dead Demogorgon’s body when Robin (Maya Hawke), Will, Mike, Lucas and co. shock the body to provide a way for Will to invade Vecna’s mind. As of Volume 1’s release, the gross fleshy tube that attaches to Will and the 12 children’s mouths apparently particalizes them with Mind Flayer molecules.

Vecna’s Plan

Meanwhile, in his eerily tranquil mindscape, Henry, posing as Mr. Whatsit, tries to persuade the 12 children he has taken that Max is a monster waiting in the woods. According to Henry, she is under control of the Black Thing, like from A Wrinkle in Time (The IT). He wants them to believe she is doing its bidding and would try to enslave the children, too. Sounds like he is really projecting himself and his intentions onto Max. He tells them, though, that his goal is to bring them “back to the light.”

In Season 4, we learned that Eleven sent Henry back to Dimension X, which is the desert-like expanse in which he found The Mind Flayer and demogorgons. He had initially been transported their by powerful technology he stumbled on when he was younger, returning with unexplained abilities. This is where The First Shadow comes into play, because that story fleshes out Henry’s childhood and the moments in Rachel, Nevada, when he stumbled upon the technology — we’ll get to this later because the memory itself appears in Episode 6.

Dr. Kay’s Motives

Back with Eleven, Kali (Linnea Berthelssen) and Hopper (David Harbour), viewers learn what Kali knew about Henry — everything except that he was still alive. Those who didn’t skip Episode 8, “The Lost Sister,” in Season 2 will remember that Kali’s powers manifest differently than Eleven’s and Henry’s in that she can cast illusions and make the mind see things that aren’t there. She does this while she and El and Hopper get away from the military base in the Upside Down, casting a mirage of herself still connected to that horrific machine she was immobilized in.

Kali reveals that she previously tried to escape her confines, and in doing so, she discovered a series of pregnant woman being infused with her blood. She could tell that it was not having its desired effect, though, because the women were sick and dying and asking Kali for help. She realizes Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) was replicating Dr. Brenner’s experiments with blood transfusions in an attempt to create children with super powers. She even cast a vision for Eleven showing Henry hooked up to a pregnant woman, which was “Papa’s program” and how he created children like Kali and Eleven (008 and 011), giving them powers through Henry’s blood. She hints that since her blood wasn’t working, Kay is after Eleven for her blood because she could be more like Henry.

Dustin Connects the Dots

Dustin, Jonathan, Nancy and Steve (Joe Keery) have taken it upon themselves to investigate the Hawkins Lab in the Upside Down after Dustin determined that to be the center of the flesh-like wall encompassing the town. In the lab, he finds a map exactly like the one he drew to determine the central point, raising some red flags about the origins of the Upside Down.

He tries to tell Jonathan and Nancy not to disturb what he thought could be a shield generator, similar to the Death Star in Return of the Jedi (1983), but it wasn’t what he thought it was.

We learn throughout these episodes that the characters have been all wrong about what the Upside Down is and what’s been happening to them since Will disappeared on November 6, 1983. But, some of the most important lore to remember here is actually about Dr. Brenner’s experiments.

See our Vol. 1 mythological explainer if you need a refresher on Season 4 Episode 7, “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab,” which continues to heavily come into play in Volume 2.

Episode 6 – “Escape from Camazotz”

The Duffer brothers teased 506 as an emotional episode, and boy does it deliver while also dispensing truth nuggets that change the perspective of the Stranger Things universe. 

Dustin Explains The Upside Down

After he and Steve physically brawl, putting their relationship on the brink of collapse, the pair reunite to try and get to Jonathan and Nancy’s aid after Nancy shoots a suspicious force-field atop the roof of the Hawkins Lab in the Upside Down.

Turns out, The Upside Down is a wormhole that bridges Hawkins and Dimension X, where Henry’s powers originated. After going through Dr. Brenner’s mysterious journal that describes the angry red ball as exotic matter holding the wormhole together, Dustin reveals that everything they’ve thought about the alternate world is wrong and not due to dark magic, but science.

Dustin further diagrams all of this for the entire team in Episode 7.

Vecna Makes Will Spy One Last Time

In “Shock Jock,” Will hacks into Vecna and is able to stall him so that Max and Holly can escape after he threatens to kill Max and trap Holly once again. The invasion gives them enough time to escape, but once Vecna regains control, he uses his connection with Will to find Max’s body in the real world and send the demodogs after her.

Remember, Will has been “spying” for Vecna, and for the Mind Flayer, since Season 2. We broke that down in our Volume 1 refresher.

Max, meanwhile, is now out in the desert beyond the caves where she sheltered with Holly. She doesn’t know that it’s Will who has overtaken Vecna, assuming it’s Eleven, since she’s previously witnessed El’s ability to “piggyback” into other people’s minds. Since she and Holly aren’t privy to what’s going on back home, they have no idea that Will has these newfound powers.

Max & Holly Stumble Upon Henry’s Traumatic Memory

Out in the desert, where Holly draws the connection that the shape of the caves mimics the aperture in the spyglass, an M of sorts, she and Max literally almost fall down a mineshaft. M marks the spot for the reason Henry won’t venture into the caves — they witness his memory of stumbling upon the scientist who had defected from a government experiment. This is where Stranger Things: The First Shadow comes into play.

When Henry finds the scientist, he’s clutching a briefcase that contains stolen technology from an experiment that accidentally sent a group of men to a place they’ve called Dimension X. We know that Dr. Brenner’s dad was part of this experiment, and it’s basically the entire reason that Brenner has been experimenting on kids — to try to recreate that happy accident and get back to Dimension X.

The scientist is very paranoid while Henry, dressed in his boy scout uniform, only wants to help the poor man. After the man shoots Henry in the hand, Henry bashes his skull in out of fear for his life. The young boy opens the briefcase that the scientist attempted to guard with his life. Unfortunately, the camera pans away once he opens the briefcase, and we don’t get to see what happens next, but those that know Henry’s backstory can make some educated guesses.

In Stranger Things: The First Shadow, we learn Dr. Brenner was able to track Henry down because he left his spyglass in those caves. That’s how Brenner got Henry in his clutches, realizing that Henry had gone to Dimension X and returned with a unique blood type, a different personality and new powers. Season 4 reveals that Henry was 001, the first child that led to the MKUltra experiments where Brenner created more children with supernatural powers.

Presumably, all the answers about what happened to Henry in those caves are ahead in the upcoming finale.

An Emotional Escape

When Max and Holly make it into the red hellscape in Vecna’s mind, Max quickly realizes that she and Holly can’t escape together because their bodies are in different places. She gives Holly a rousing pep talk where Holly embraces her little figurine — Holly the Heroic — that Mike gave her. This helps her move past the fear that froze her when the Demogorgon attacked her mom and when Vecna almost killed Max to believe in herself and her power. 

Mind you, this is happening as demodogs close in on Max, Robin, Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) and an unconscious Max’s body as they hide in a laundry room below Hawkins Memorial Hospital in a scene quite reminiscent of the velociraptors closing in on Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello) in Jurassic Park (1993). Lucas doesn’t want to turn off the radio playing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” because he believes it’s the only thing guiding Max back to him, but the sound tips off the demodogs as to where they are hiding. The song saved Max in Season 4, Episode 4, “Dear Billy” and she had previously hinted that she could have escaped Vecna’s mindscape earlier if the tape recording hadn’t needed to rewind. But, as we learn in the final moments of Episode 6, it was never about the song, specifically, but the way it provided her an enduring connection to everything that she loved, which is what really gave her the ability to escape.

Episode 7 – “The Bridge”

“The Bridge” sets the team up for a crazy confrontation with Vecna as he aims to merge worlds by drawing The Abyss across the wormhole that is The Upside Down. 

Holly Wakes Up in Dimension X

After Max wakes up to an emotional welcome from Lucas, Robin and Vickie, we finally learn where Vecna is keeping the 12 children hostage — a skeletal looking fortress in an alternate dimension, where they are attached to fleshy feeding tubes. He hangs in the air connected to similar tubes, seemingly drawing energy from the kids. When Holly comes back into her own body, she rips the tube from her mouth, coughs up those pesky black particles and tries to escape from the fortress. Vecna tracks her down and somehow pulls her back from her free fall towards the Hawkins Lab, where Jonathan and Nancy see her briefly before she’s yanked back into the sky.

Kay Fully Admits Her Big Plan

In a cut to Dr. Kay in The Upside Down lab where she blames Lt. Akers for the kidnapping of the 12 children, Kay screeches that if she had already found “the girl” (meaning Eleven), the demogorgons and other monsters from Dimension X would be in Russia fighting the Soviets, instead of threatening the existence of Americans. 

This line is key, because it ties the whole show back around, particularly shining a light on the Russia plot lines in Season 4, where they were opening a gate in Kamchatka to try and replicate the success the Americans had had in harnessing the mysterious powers and beings lurking in these dark dimensions. This further explains why the Russians first came to Hawkins in Season 3 to try and crack open a closed gate underneath Starcourt Mall.

The fight for psychic children and access to the Upside Down and Dimension X can be boiled down to an arms race, of sorts. However, there are still a few missing pieces left to be answered on this front in the finale.

Dustin Diagrams The Upside Down

Back at WSQK, Dustin explains the Upside Down and its connection to a dimension he’s dubbed “The Abyss.” D&D players like Erica and Mr. Clarke know The Abyss as a realm of chaos and true evil, and that’s what this dimension looks to be.

Dustin theorizes that Eleven created the wormhole by making psychic contact with the demogorgon back in Season 1, which did open the gate, or rift, that led to a lot of the creatures coming into Hawkins. As Henry has already explained it vaguely to his prisoners, he wants to merge Dimension X into Hawkins and create a new world.

The team comes up with a plan to counter this action, and Steve Harrington is at the center of it for once instead of being the one who needs an explanation. Using a flashlight and a Slinky, he suggests they wait for Vecna to draw the worlds closer and let him until the top of the radio tower is poking into the dimension, giving them direct access. Dustin adds one note to the plan – to drop a bomb on the Upside Down as they escape one final time and, hopefully, do away with the whole mess.

Will’s Coming Out

In maybe the most heartfelt moment of Season 5 so far, Will braved coming out as gay to not only his close friends but the entire ensemble that has been fighting demons by his side since the day he got taken. This was prompted by a vision Vecna showed Will of a future where his friends worried about him living in a world not friendly to gay men, ultimately pushing his loved ones away as well. Will casted aside the shame so that he was no longer vulnerable to Vecna, who we know preys not just on weakness but specifically on guilt and shame in order to exploit his victims.

Will’s sexuality hadn’t been outright confirmed, but seeds were planted in the earlier seasons when Joyce pointed out the slurs that kids called Will, including queer. Will’s bullies, and even his friends, also often made jokes abut how he didn’t like girls. In Season 3, when Will wanted to play D&D while all his friends would have rather hung out with their respective girlfriends, Mike made a particularly hurtful comment, saying he was sorry Will didn’t like girls.

Will’s acceptance of his own sexuality, as well as his ability to make peace with the fact that Mike will likely not reciprocate those feelings, seems to be key to defeating Vecna in the looming finale.

RELATED: Noah Schnapp Teases ‘Stranger Things’ Conclusion For Will & Mike’s Relationship: “Real, Authentic Representation”