Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers on Stranger ThingsImage via ©Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection
By
Amanda M. Castro
Published 29 minutes ago
Amanda M. Castro is a Network TV writer at Collider and a journalist based in New York. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Amanda is a bilingual Latina who graduated from the University of New Haven with a degree in Communication, Film, and Media Studies. She covers the world of network television, focusing on sharp, thoughtful analysis of the shows and characters that keep audiences tuning in week after week. At Collider, Amanda dives into the evolving landscape of network TV — from long-running procedural favorites to ambitious new dramas — exploring why these stories matter and how they connect with viewers on a cultural level.
Sign in to your Collider account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recapThis article contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1.Across nine years, Stranger Things has grown from a summer sleeper hit into Netflix’s flagship sci-fi epic — a supernatural adventure steeped in ’80s homages, adolescent angst, and monsters pulled from the Upside Down. Now in its fifth and final season, the series wastes no time reminding viewers why the long wait was worth it. Volume 1, dropping four episodes at the end of November, delivers high-stakes mythology, character reunions fans didn’t expect, and a cliffhanger engineered by the Duffer Brothers specifically to break the internet.
But for all the chaos, one question immediately shot to the top of fan conversations: After the first four episodes, who dies? The surprising answer — at least for now — is no one.
Hawkins Is Changed, and so Are Its Heroes
Hawkins' heroes in Stranger Things 5Image via Netflix
Volume 1 drops us back into Hawkins nearly two years after the gates tore open at the end of Season 4. What used to be a picture-perfect Midwestern suburb has transformed into a fortified quarantine zone. Barbed wire, military checkpoints, and constant monitoring have turned the town into a ghost of its former self, with only the most stubborn residents — the Byers family, the Wheelers, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Robin (Maya Hawke), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and Hopper (David Harbour)— still holding on.
Meanwhile, the Upside Down has become a battleground mapped through dangerous “crawls,” the new term for the team’s scouting missions into the dimension. When one of these missions goes wrong and traps Hopper, Eleven launches yet another rescue — but the reunion is short-lived. They learn that Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), operating out of a government-funded base in the Upside Down, is holding a captured Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) for undeniably shady reasons. The tension between scientific opportunity and moral horror frames much of Volume 1, especially as the kids uncover just how far the military will go to weaponize what they don’t understand.
Who Dies in 'Stranger Things 5' Volume 1?
Mrs. Wheeler tries to protect her daughter Holly in Stranger Things 5Image via Netflix
The big shock of Volume 1 arrives in Episode 4, “Sorcerer,” an installment the Duffers clearly engineered as the mid-season blowout. The episode packs in its share of twists: Forgotten characters reappearing at precisely the wrong time, Demogorgon-level showdowns, and a final moment so massive it was practically storyboarded for social media reaction clips.
Despite all that, fans expecting a pile of bodies were left guessing. Even Ted (Joe Chrest) and Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) — who seemed like they were being lined up for a tragic exit — survive their brush with danger. According to the Duffers, this restraint is intentional. In interviews, they’ve noted that Volume 1 needed a “low point” defined not by mass casualties but by the stakes of Vecna capturing the kids and Will (Noah Schnapp) discovering his long-teased powers. The emotional contrast — despair for the group paired with a cautiously hopeful twist for Will — is the thematic fulcrum of the break.
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Posts By Amanda M. Castro Oct 30, 2025The Beginning of the End of ‘Stranger Things’ Is Nigh
Vecna has the upper hand on Will in Stranger Things 5Image via Netflix
As the final season, Volume 1 also drills into the larger mythology the series has been building toward: a coming collision between the Rightside Up and the Upside Down, one that will determine which reality survives. The episodes wrestle with the show’s long-running themes of chosen family, psychic trauma, and the scars Vecna leaves behind, literal and otherwise.
Even with a table-setting premiere filled with necessary exposition, the remaining chapters ramp up quickly. By Episode 4, the series hits a cinematic stride reminiscent of its biggest swings — from the Battle of Starcourt to the Season 4 massacre in the Creel house. The production scale, the emotional stakes, and the ambition of the worldbuilding all remind you why Stranger Things became a global phenomenon in the first place.
And yet, the restraint around character deaths is deliberate. The show is giving its ensemble room to face their final arcs before deciding who lives, who falls, and what sacrifices the last three episodes — and eventual finale — will demand.
With Volume 2 arriving December 25 and the series finale closing out the year on December 31, fans won’t have long to wait before seeing just how dark the road ahead becomes.
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Stranger Things
TV-14
Drama
Mystery
Horror
Science Fiction
Release Date
2016 - 2025-00-00
Network
Netflix
Showrunner
Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
Directors
Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz
Cast
See All-
Millie Bobby Brown
Jane 'Eleven' Hopper
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Finn Wolfhard
Mike Wheeler
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Netflix
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