Episode Review: Stranger Things 5x1 - "Chapter One: The Crawl"

Welcome back to the blog readers. In a show that was well before my time, Stranger Things (2016-25) has captured the imagination of a wide audience and created a whole new batch of stars like David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, and Joseph Quinn. The fourth season, marketed as Stranger Things 4, was by far the best season of the show thus far, and here's to only hoping this fifth and final season, marketed as Stranger Things 5, can end the show on a high note. What would this premiere episode, titled "Chapter One: The Crawl," written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer, entail? Stick around to find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

---

I was a bit nervous going into this final season for one reason: would the Duffers be able to deliver on a satisfying conclusion to a story that has been dragged on for nine years and felt bloated at points? The jury is still out on that verdict, since we have not seen the conclusion of the story quite yet. But I do have to say that this was a pretty good introduction to where our characters are at this very moment. And the ending of this episode was perfectly set up in my opinion, as was the performance of Gaten Matarazzo. Will this season be amazing? I cannot tell you that yet, but we definitely are getting off to a good start with this premiere.

I mentioned in the previous paragraph that I wanted to talk about the performance of Gaten Matarazzo in this episode, and what I think he is bringing to the role of Dustin Henderson this season as opposed to other seasons. Like many of the cast members of this show, this was the real breakout role for Matarazzo. Since the beginning, I have been attracted to the character's intense wit, knowledge, and charisma, brought on by the electric performance that Matarazzo puts on. However, we get a more reserved, bitter, and angry performance in this episode that really resonated with me. I will go more into story details later on in this review, but Matarazzo's portrayal of PTSD and guilt was really haunting and is going to lead to one of the best character arcs in this entire season in my estimation.

Now we have to talk about that story we got, because holy shit was it a good one. We start with a flashback to November 12, 1983, six days after Will Byers was originally taken to the Upside Down. He is seen singing "Should I Stay or Should I Go" before hearing a noise that startles him. After a brief pause, the Demogorgon makes its way into "Castle Byers," and Will uses his hunting rifle to shoot the creature in the mouth and run out of the fort. He climbs up a tree to escape the Demogorgon, and he thinks he has for a brief moment. Suddenly, the Demogorgon climbs up the tree, leading Will to jump from one tree to another to avoid the creature, but the branches can not support him, leading to him falling before his backpack stops the fall. That does not stay, and the backpack gives out, leading to Will falling to the ground, being knocked unconscious, and taken (presumably by the Demogorgon). Some time later, he is taken to the Upside Down version of the Hawkins library where he is greeted by Vecna, who exclaims that they can begin at long last. He uses his powers to put a tube/tendril-looking thing inside of Will, leading to things being put into Will as he chokes on the material. Vecna tells a tearful Will that they will do beautiful things together, "such beautiful things," as the opening sequence comes up.

After the aforementioned opening sequence, we are brought to the present of this episode: November 3, 1987. It has been eighteen months since the Rift incident at the end of the fourth season, and the Byers family has been crashing with the Wheeler family for an undisclosed amount of time. This is beginning to get to the parents of Mike, Nancy, and Holly, Karen and Ted, as Ted remarks when they will be leaving. Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley have a brand new job (again): hosting a radio show at the local radio station. As Joyce, Will, Mike, Jonathan, Nancy, and Holly leave the Wheeler house after a chaotic breakfast, Robin begins her show by catching the audience up to speed on what has happened since we last saw these characters in July 2022. Since the rifts opened up, Hawkins has been placed under military quarantine (with the area around the library being closed off and turned into a military zone), and the rifts have been covered by giant metal plates. Kids have begun using the plates for sledding, something that the military does not like, and every citizen has been forced to undergo mandatory medical check-ups. During the broadcast, which is celebrating Robin's 500th show, the connection is knocked out, leading the two to attempt to get in touch with Dustin Henderson to no avail; he is not willing to help because he has his own issues, so they get in touch with Jonathan and Nancy.

Speaking of Dustin, he is still distraught over the death of his friend Eddie Munson, even continuing to wear the shirt of the Dungeons and Dragons club that Eddie ran: the Hellfire Club. Because of this, he is routinely bullied and ostracized by the basketball team run by the late Jason, who blamed Eddie for Vecna's killings and died in the old Creel house when the rifts opened. Dustin is not taking the abuse from the boys and even antagonizes them, but they hesitate in their response when Will, Mike, and Lucas Sinclair confront them. Lucas reiterates what police chief Jim Hopper told them: to blend in and not make a scene, but Dustin is not having any of it, leading the three to question his mental state. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Nancy arrive at the radio station, and Jonathan and Steve immediately attempt to outdo each other to gain Nancy's affection. They race each other to the top of the radio tower to restore the connection, but their little contest is interrupted by Murray Bauman, who has smuggled a bunch of goods from outside Hawkins, including intel that there is going to be a "burn" at 10:00 P.M., meaning that the crew may be able to attempt a "crawl" that night. Robin uses the return of the broadcast and the Diana Ross song "Upside Down" to relay the information obtained by Murray to the rest of the crew, including Joyce, Hopper, and Eleven.

Speaking of Eleven, the military is after her with the assumption she is behind all of this, and she is chased throughout the woods and is able to use a body double to escape them. She continues to train to do something with the hopes of joining her adoptive father on one of these "crawls." Hopper will not let El join his crawl until she beats an unspecified time. Joyce worries that she is pushing herself too hard, but Hopper is adamant she does not go. Talking privately, Joyce and Hopper discuss the crawls and his reluctance to allow her to go. The military is looking for her, and since Hopper is going on reconnaissance missions, he does not feel she needs to go. Joyce worries he only agrees to do these crawls so he can take down Vecna (calling him by his former name Henry), but he assures her he knows not to engage if he stumbles upon him. They kiss, and Hopper admits El smashed the time in her most recent attempt, despite lying that she did not. Back at the school, Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin go over the plan for their crawl and Dustin exclaims that he wants to see Vecna's head on a platter. Will suddenly begins to hallucinate and he almost passes out, claiming that the sky was spinning. Meanwhile, Dr. Kay (played by Linda Hamilton) is investigating a specimen from the Upside Down, and she expresses a need to bring El in to stop this from happening. The camera pans and we learn that this base is currently in the Upside Down.

Mike's younger sister Holly has been seeing someone that cannot be seen by anyone else, a man that she calls Mr. Whatsit. When she is at recess in school, she sees this man, but her teacher also sees her talking to herself, leading Karen to be brought in. Mike, who is supposed to pick up Holly, enters the school and is caught up on the situation. Mike tries to comfort his sister, telling her that she does not need to talk to this invisible man when she is scared, and brings up his D&D character in his own admission of fear. He gives her one of his figures, a cleric, and tells her she has the ability to take herself wherever her mind allows her to go. Meanwhile, Dustin enlists the help of one of the high school's snakes to get some revenge on Andy (the jock that has been harassing him), with the message "Hellfire lives." Later that day, Dustin visits Eddie's grave, which has been vandalized to read "Burn in hell." He attempts to clean the tombstone before Andy and some of the other basketball players approach him and mock him further. He initially stands his ground but finds himself viciously beaten by Eddie's grave. Lucas and Will are in the hospital visiting Lucas's girlfriend Max Mayfield, still in a coma after being killed by Vecna and revived by El in the fourth season finale. Will asks Lucas if he wants to play the song, which he eventually does. And the song is of course Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)."

Will leaves the room to get a soda but sees Robin enter the hospital and enter a room where she meets Vickie, working there as a candy striper. Robin tells Vickie they had to cancel their date for that night, but says she booked them a reservation at Enzo's for the next night. The two begin to tease each other and passionately kiss, a visual Will stumbles upon. He gets flustered and drops the soda, leading Robin to realize he knows about them. At the radio station, which is doubling as the headquarters for the party, Mike has a conversation with Eleven on the roof where he laments Dustin's being late (nobody knows he was savagely beaten at Eddie's grave) and Hopper's changed demeanor. He holds out hope that this will be the night that they finally kill Vecna. Since nobody knows where Dustin is, Will offers to take his place in the radio station's truck, something Joyce vehemently denies, having Jonathan take Dustin's place instead. Their plan is to ensure that the crawl goes off without a hitch:

• Hopper will be stowed away in a convoy of soldiers that are going to make their way to the Upside Down.

• The military makes their way into the Upside Down by burning the gate that opened in the library with two people wielding flamethrowers.

• The convoy goes to a specified area that Hopper scours to try to find and kill Vecna.

• Mike and Lucas are to ensure Hopper gets into the convoy without being spotted.

• Jonathan and Steve are to follow Hopper's signal while he is in the Upside Down to make sure he is okay.

The plan appears to be going off without a hitch. Hopper is able to make it into the convoy without being seen, despite a straggler soldier taking his time. Jonathan and Steve are able to track his signal but it takes them a minute to get it right. Things are going well until Will suddenly starts seizing up and seeing visions, leading to a Demogorgon wiping out the convoy and Jonathan and Steve briefly losing Hopper's signal. Hopper is able to recoup and escape the attacked convoy, but is currently stuck in the Upside Down. Will sees a vision of something approaching the Wheeler house and collapses. When he comes to, Joyce asks him what he sees, and Will exclaims that they are in trouble while looking at Nancy. She and El leave and tell Robin to alert Mike and Lucas of what is going on. Back at the Wheeler house, Karen and Ted have been fighting over Holly all night, leading her to go into her room and start crying after making her new D&D figure into a necklace. Karen loads herself up on wine as we see another Demogorgon creating a rift in Holly's bedroom as the young girl screams in terror and the screen cuts to black.

What a cliffhanger to leave us on for next episode, am I right? It kind of fills in the title of the next episode that we had gotten leaks regarding. But there are some individual things I want to talk about before I let you guys go, and the first one is in the characterization of Dustin. In seasons prior, Dustin has been the one to be the gateway between the villains' motivations and the audience, with his expansive D&D knowledge usually coming in handy to understanding Vecna, the Upside Down, and the Mind Flayer. But we see in this premiere episode that Dustin is still reeling after the death of Eddie, and why wouldn't he be? Eddie was one of the only people that unconditionally accepted Dustin and Mike when they first got to high school, and Hellfire was the only place where the outcasts could be themselves. Eddie's name was smeared through the mud and Dustin was targeted because of it, and Dustin even watched Eddie sacrifice himself to see the mission through. Some people online have criticized the characterization of Dustin this season, but it makes total sense that he would pull a Season 4 Max and retreat into his own mind. Maybe he'll be targeted by Vecna.

I next want to talk about Will and how I think it starts and ends with him. Based on the opening five minutes that were released a few weeks before this batch of episodes, Vecna knew who Will was when he was taken to the Upside Down. It is clear to me that Will was targeted in 1983, and whatever Vecna put into Will is going to come back and possibly be the reason that Vecna is defeated. I did have some outside help on this theory, but I believe Will is going to act as a "Horcrux" to Vecna: Vecna cannot die until Will does. I have maintained this theory for years, and I think it is going to turn out true. Speaking of Will, I do think Robin is going to be the vessel in which Will comes out of the closet and admits his feelings for Mike. People want Will and Mike to get together, but I do not think they are going to sacrifice years of building a relationship between Mike and Eleven just for some fan service. It truly makes no sense to me (unless Eleven dies and Mike realizes he has feelings for Will, which I do not think will happen either).

Stranger Things's first episode starts off with a bang: giving us new character dynamics and new tidbits to get us going for the next set of episodes. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.