Episode Review - Stranger Things 5x5 - "Chapter Five: Shock Jock"

Welcome back to the blog readers. While all of you idiots had to wait a whole month to find out what happens next in the final season of Stranger Things (2016-25), I only had to wait a week because of this blog and my inability to binge. The first four episodes left us on a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) cliffhanger with so many more questions to be answered. With only four episodes left, would we get all of those answers? Time will tell, but at least we could bide our time and talk about this episode, titled "Chapter Five: Shock Jock," written by Curtis Gwinn, and directed by Frank Darabont (again, !!!!!).

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

---

While last week's episode was absolutely wild in the sense that so much happened in just about 90 minutes, it left us with a lot more questions. In this next batch of episodes, we were promised answers regarding the true nature of the Upside Down, and the most brutal death in the show's history. None of that happened this week, but we did get another great episode of television this time around. I found myself gravitating towards the performances of Noah Schnapp, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Nell Fisher. And the story this week was incredible in my opinion.

I want to start by talking about the performance of Noah Schnapp. Last week, Schnapp really impressed me with what he was able to bring to the character of Will Byers on an emotional scale, but I also loved what he was able to do when it came to the quiet determination at the end of the episode (and yes, I am talking about when Will Vecna'd the Demogorgons). He brings both qualities to the role again this week. A quiet determination that evolves into a more confident and prepared person as he prepares for another mission. But earlier in the episode, the chemistry that he has with Maya Hawke's Robin is off the chains good. I did not know I needed to see this pairing until now, and I am so happy I did. I have a feeling I know where we are headed in these final three episodes with Will, and I cannot wait to get there.

Next up in terms of performances this week has to be that of Jamie Campbell Bower. I will admit that Mister Handsome over here never really had my attention before he took on the Herculean task that was becoming Henry Creel / Vecna / One / Mr. Whatsit on this show. But he has approached this role with such a power and such a grace that he has transformed into this character in a way I could never have expected. More of the same this week as he both charms and terrifies his way into another memorable performance as the character. I cannot wait to see what he does next, because it is going to be bonkers crazy in my estimation.

And finally, I want to talk about the performance of Nell Fisher. I first took note of how good Fisher is as a performer when she was in Evil Dead Rise (2023), a film so graphic I will never watch it again. She was incredible in that film, and she has absolutely made the role of Holly Wheeler her own in this season of the show. She absolutely crushes her performance this week, going from shaky and nervous in the beginning of the episode to scared and terrified of the future by the end of the episode. It was just a multi-faceted performance that promises to be more involved and more complex in these final three episodes, and I cannot wait to see how the saga of Holly Wheeler plays out.

Now that we have gotten the performances out of the way, we absolutely have to talk about the story offering we get this week, because it is excellent this time around. We pick up exactly as we ended last week, with Will Byers recalling what Vecna told him and what he was able to do, before getting swarmed by a shocked Mike and Joyce, who hug him and commend him for doing what he did. He laments that Vecna took not only the kids they were guarding, but the kids Lucas was guarding and the kids Robin and Murray were smuggling out of Hawkins. Mike tells the Byers that Will is a real-life sorcerer as a helicopter approaches and the three are forced to flee into the tunnels. Meanwhile, Vecna hooks the other eight children up to his spire as they, including Derek, wake up in "Camazotz" as Henry greets them and gives them the same speech he gave Holly (as she and Derek give each other looks). One of the kids smartly asks Henry how he plans on doing this, and he claims to have found another world that does not have monsters, and if he works with them, they can channel the energy and draw this world to theirs. Holly asks if he will be leaving again, but he says he will not be leaving them, and their work begins the next day. Meanwhile, in the Upside Down, Dr. Kay and her soldiers (including Akers) check the room where Kali is and find she is still there, but Kay is suspicious and notices Kali's hand is twitching. By the time she realizes Kali actually is not there, she drops the act and reveals she, Hopper, and Eleven are in a stolen Humvee miles from the base. Hopper tells Kali that that was a hell of a trick.

Back in Hawkins, Will, Mike, and Joyce reunite with Lucas and realize he is injured. Joyce goes to patch him up and Lucas apologizes for not being able to protect the kids. While he does this, Mike tells Lucas what Will did, and the two friends begin geeking out over their other friend. Will reveals that he is not like Vecna like the two speculate, but that he can siphon power from the hive mind and does not believe Vecna will be back since he has his vessels, revealing what Vecna told him. Before they go up, Joyce asks Will to tap into the hive mind and use Vecna's powers against him, apologizing to him and promising to never doubt him again. In the Upside Down, Hopper, Eleven and Kali make it to the church they learned Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin were in but are stunned when the four are no longer there. Where did they go? Hawkins Lab, where this all began. Dustin believes that somewhere in this lab is the key to disabling or destroying the wall surrounding the Upside Down, comparing it to the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi (1983). After some contention regarding what pairs to split into, Nancy makes the call to split themselves up in their normal pairings: her and Jonathan, Dustin and Steve. Back in "Camazotz," Holly sneaks out of the Creel house where all the children are playing, and reunites with a furious Max, who chastises her for leaving and not sticking to the plan, despite her pleas that she was not followed. Turns out, someone did follow her, and it was Derek, who reveals what has happened and that he knows everything. Max tells him he cannot come with them, but he can be of use to them, but Holly needs "Dipshit Derek" instead of "Delightful Derek" now.

At the radio station, Joyce shares her plan with Will, Mike, Lucas, Robin, Erica, and Murray. Robin and Murray are not sold, with Robin more worried about Will's use of powers. The group decide to put their plan on pause and grab something to eat. While they are gathering their snacks, Erica sees a picture of Dustin with her science teacher Mr. Clarke, and decides to use him to recreate Dustin's telemetry tracker, since he taught Dustin everything he knows. Lucas makes popcorn, and has his own idea: he remembers from when the kids locked Billy in the sauna to activate the Mind Flayer particles in him and theorizes they can do that with a dead Demogorgon in order to jack Will back into the hive mind. They argue as to which plan to use before Joyce suggests they use both. Back in the Upside Down, Dustin and Steve elected to go downstairs and find themselves in the Rainbow Room of the lab (aka where the massacre happened), before they argue and Dustin leaves Steve in the room to further investigate. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Nancy went upstairs and are searching before Jonathan claims Dustin might be wrong and asks if he did anything to upset Nancy. She claims that she is on eggshells because her sister is missing, and asks if he wants to solve their relationship issues there, to which Jonathan says that he just wants them to be a team and that he is scared, and that he wants Nancy to be honest with him. She asks if he means the same way he has been with her and walks off. He then finds a door with a melted doorknob and tries to bust the door down, which he does. The door opens to a set of upwards-leaning stairs.

Hopper tries and fails to contact Jonathan's group while Kali and Eleven talk. El tries to convince Kali to help her find and Kill Vecna so they can live normal lives, but Kali says that they will never be free. She then explains that the military found her since El left her and killed her friends and took her. It was at this point that Kali realized that Kay wanted her blood, and she made Kay think she had taken her power away but she did not. She then tells El that if she knew what was on the other side of the door, then she never would have left. After mowing through a bunch of soldiers, she discovers that her blood is being used to infuse it with pregnant women and their unborn children. After running through about a dozen of them, she is knocked out by soldiers and tased unconscious. The two conclude that Kay is restarting Brenner's experiments and that their powers did not come from Brenner; they came from Vecna. Despite this, nobody adapted to his blood like El did, and when Kay catches El, she will only use her to restart the experiment, showing El an illusion of her hooked up to the same machinery. This is why Kay wants her, and she will not stop until she gets her hands on her.

Back in "Camazotz," Derek begins to make his way into the woods with Max's map, in view of some children that run into the house to tell Henry. Max tells Holly that as long as Derek makes it to her cave, he will be safe. Holly asks how long it will take to find an exit, but Max tells her she is the only guide they need, since she has been in this "mind maze" for two years. Holly leads Max back to where she woke up, and the two of them find a white door floating in the air. The two go through the door and find themselves in a memory of Holly watching scary movies with her friend on Halloween. Vecna was watching them through the window and Max flips him off before closing the blinds. Holly says the first time she met him was in the library, and the two find themselves there. Back in Hawkins, the crew is preparing to enact their plan to shock the dead Demogorgon. Robin and Will are talking; Robin thanks Will for saving her life. He tells her he should be thanking her, because it was her words that gave him the inspiration. Will asks her if she eventually got with Vickie after her situation with Tammy, and Robin says she did not do it immediately since she was not ready to share that part of herself with someone quite yet. It was only after Tammy that she felt comfortable telling someone about her sexuality: it was Steve in the third season when she was injected with truth serum, but saying it out loud felt like a weight lifted off her shoulders. He jokes about her having any left.

Back in the Upside Down, Dustin returns to the Rainbow Room and finds Steve playing with a Rubik's Cube. The two begin another argument in which Dustin criticizes Steve for chasing after someone else's girl, to which Steve counters that Nancy is his friend. Steve realizes Dustin's entire demeanor revolves around Eddie and hits him where it hurts by countering Dustin's claim that Eddie saved everyone by saying Eddie didn't save anyone and decided to play hero that night. This is Dustin's breaking point, and he begins attacking Steve. Steve does not swing at Dustin, but he does grab at him, and the two of them tumble over a counter and Steve's grip over Dustin is broken. Steve declares that he is done, and Dustin tearfully screams at Steve, telling him off. He leans up against the wall and finds a door that leads to a hidden room. In "Camazotz," Derek continues to walk into the woods but is confronted by Henry, who threatens to kill Derek's family unless he tells him who gave him the map. Max and Holly watch the memory of Holly talking to Henry during recess that we saw in the first episode, and Max makes her replay the memory in her head. They wind up going though the merry-go-round whose center has changed colors, leading to the memory of when she was taken by the Demogorgon.

The Hawkins crew begins their plan by getting a dead Demogorgon up onto the roof of the utility building and attaching cables into it, planning to shock it enough to get Will a connection into the hive mind. At first, it doesn't seem to work, so Robin cranks up the voltage. He instantly sees through the eyes of Derek and learns that Vecna is searching for Holly and Max. As this is happening, Holly and Max see Karen attacking the Demogorgon but Holly cannot do anything. They try to go to the exit, but Vecna confronts them. Max tries to bust a window down but Vecna grabs her and almost chokes her out. Suddenly, Vecna notices that his grip on Max is fading, and Will reveals he was able to connect to Vecna. He snaps Vecna's leg and turns his head towards the two of them. He tells Max that if she can hear him, they need to run, much to Lucas's delight. Vecna is able to repair his leg and force Will out of his mind, knocking him out. While this happens, back in the Upside Down, Jonathan and Nancy make it to the roof of the lab where they notice something strange. Jonathan throws a pipe at it and notices something seems off about it, leading to the whole sky lighting up. He tells Dustin that they found the shield generator. Dustin, who has been reading the notes and realizes something is wrong, cannot hear Jonathan. He sees something and immediately starts panicking. He screams for them to not touch it because he was wrong about it being a "shield generator" and they will all die if they touch it. He races up the stairs and tries to strengthen the connection to no avail. Just before Nancy is about to unload a shotgun pellet into it, Jonathan stops her and asks her if she is sure about this. She says no and pulls the trigger anyway as the screen cuts to black.

Stranger Things return from a near-month layoff with a character-focused episode that promises to build to a wild conclusion (that may end up bloodier than we think). Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.