Episode Review: Stranger Things 5x6 - "Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz"

Welcome back to the blog readers. I'm not sure about you guys, but I am very much enjoying this final season of Stranger Things (2016-25). The performances have been stellar in my estimation and I really have been enjoying the story we have been getting. I am very much looking forward to seeing how this all ends. Now that we are revving up towards the end of the end, how would I feel about this sixth episode, titled "Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz," written by Kate Trefry, and directed by Shawn Levy? 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.

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As I mentioned in the introductory paragraph, I have really been enjoying this final season. I personally do not see what all the hullabaloo regarding negativity is. People just love to hate for whatever reason without doing their due diligence. I have grown to love Shawn Levy as a director, and this episode proves that point tenfold. The performances were stellar (with Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, and Gaten Matarazzo proving Ross Duffer right), and the story was amazing this time around.

The first performance I want to talk about is that of Charlie Heaton. Heaton is a British actor that has never been in anything major aside from The New Mutants (2020), but his portrayal of Jonathan Byers has been eye-opening for me in every sense of the word. He brings such a grace and a warmth to the character that I personally cannot see anyone else playing him. This episode saw a kind of sadness and dejection that I have never seen from Heaton before, and it honestly made the character so much more believable in what he was doing (more on that later). You could feel the emotion, the desperation, the heartbreak, all of it, and Heaton gave the best performance in this episode by far.

Speaking of great performances, I have to give special mention to Sadie Sink. Sink got her start in the second season of this show as Maxine "Max" Mayfield, but she began to command attention for her roles in All Too Well: The Short Film (2021) and The Whale (2022), and will be in Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026). Sink has always had a power to her acting that not many people her age have, but this episode sees that power turned up to 11 (see what I did there?). In this episode, she turns Max into a bonafide leader, and her monologue at the end of the episode almost brought a tear to my eye because of the pure emotion and charisma. I really hope she has a big role to play in Brand New Day because she is going to be a special person in terms of talent as she ages.

And finally, we have to talk about the performance of Gaten Matarazzo. I praised his performance in the first episode for bringing a new dimension to his character Dustin Henderson, and I could really feel the rage and the anger that Dustin had been feeling. This week, however, we get a natural conclusion to that character arc and it is very emotional because it ties back to one of the more popular dynamics in this show. Matarazzo plays this new emotional angle with such passion and determination I really felt for this character, more so than I did for any other character in this episode. The fact that he can act, sing, and emote with perfection will go a long way, and Matarazzo will be able to become a triple threat in due time.

Now, we have to talk about the story of this episode because it is going to have some major ramifications for the final two episodes. We pick up exactly where we ended last week, where Nancy shot at what she thought was the "shield generator" that would bring the wall surrounding Hawkins down. Jonathan believes that she missed, but a giant burst of energy blasts across the sky into the wall, where Kali, Eleven, and Hopper are. Steve's car is sucked in, and the three are forced to flee into a gate opening when part of the church is also sucked into the wall. Dustin is racing up the roof, unaware the blast knocked out Jonathan and Nancy, and blows past Steve, who asks what happened. Dustin admits to having found Martin Brenner's journals and learning that Vecna did not create the energy or the wall: it was science, and it is a lot of exotic matter. Steve is confused, and Dustin tells him that since Vecna did not make the wall, Holly and the other children are not there. He tells Steve that everything they have assumed about the Upside Down has been wrong, as we see that it is a bridge between two worlds, and it will take everything with it if it collapses. We then see what appears to be a wormhole where the Upside Down is connecting Hawkins to a different plane, and outside of the wormhole is just space. Meanwhile, Erica and Murray are enacting their plan to have her teacher Mr. Clarke build her a telemetry tracker. The two discover he is sleeping with the librarian and use Dustin being in life-or-death trouble in order to get him on board.

In Henry's mindscape that Holly had nicknamed "Camazotz," Max and Holly run back through the door that they made it through at the end of last episode and into the cave that Henry will not go into. Max assures Holly that they are safe in the cave before Henry appears at the cave mouth, limping. He tries telling Holly that Max tricked her, but she does not believe him. He threatens to hurt Max if Holly does not return with him to the other children. Max calls his bluff, but Henry claims things have changed and there are new ways to get to her. He then tells Holly that Max's suffering will only stop when she rejoins him. Meanwhile, back in Hawkins, it is November 6th, the fourth anniversary of Will's disappearance, and he still has not woken up from his encounter with Vecna. Lucas, Mike, and Robin are talking; Lucas says they burned all the particles out of the Demogorgon so Will should be unhooked from the hive mind. Robin makes a discovery. the doctors never understood why Max was in a coma and makes the connection: Will, Max, and Holly are in three different locations but they are all unconscious. When Vecna captures someone they are put in a trance. This is why the doctors could never figure out what was wrong with Max: she was never in a coma, she was in a trance; and her mind could be in the same place as Will's and Holly's: in Vecna's mind. Robin and Lucas run to the hospital to try to get to Max, and Mike stays with Will and Joyce.

Speaking of Will, he wakes up to find himself trapped by Vecna in the library where he was found by Joyce and Hopper in the first season. Vecna asks Will if he remembers where they are and Will counters that Max and Holly got away. Vecna taunts Will and calls him his spy and his builder, revealing he used Will to build the tunnels under Hawkins while he slept. He commends Will for his strength, but reminds him it is his power that is flowing through him. He claims it is time for his vessels to lead him to a better world, but Will claims he does not have one of them. He counters that there are ways, and that Will is going to help him spy one last time, and the more he resists, the more it will hurt. Vecna puts his left hand to Will, and his eyes begin to bleed. Meanwhile, Max and Holly begin to argue about what they will do next. Max is convinced that it was Eleven that channeled herself through Vecna and wants the pair to stay put until she saves them, but Holly does not believe it was her. Max makes the point that there is nobody else that could have infiltrated Vecna's mind (oh, the things she does not know). Holly presses Max for a theory as to why Henry cannot come into the cave, and she comes out and says that she believes the cave represents a memory that he does not wan to face. Holly theorizes if Max is right, they can use this memory to escape, claiming nothing in this mindscape makes sense, and begins leaving the cave for the desert, leading Max to hesitantly follow her out.

Back at the radio station, Joyce is watching over Will when Mike notices a hearse pulling up to the station. The occupants of the hearse are revealed to be Hopper, Eleven, and Kali. El introduces Mike to Kali, and Hopper counters Mike's confusion with the claim that it is a long story, and it is best to tell it once. Hopper and El then learn about what Will did, and Joyce asks El if she can find him. Hopper talks to Mike about the wall and the missing pieces of the puzzle while patching up his wounds, to which Mike says that the missing pieces are in Vecna's mind and they have a way in. Kali mentions that El has not found anything and she is getting weaker. Hopper lashes out at Kali and claims she does not know her like he does, but she counters that they were raised together. He asks her why she cares since she claimed this whole thing was pointless and that she is probably throwing El off her game. Kali fires back that Hopper is the one that threw her off and he claims he was only trying to protect her. She says that El needs to know the truth, and that killing Vecna will not end this. Mike tries to interject but Hopper tells him Kali is just a kid and does not know anything. The lights flash, and all three run up to check on El, who cannot find Will. Hopper suggests strengthening her signal by using a "bathtub," their terminology for a sensory deprivation tank. Back in the Upside Down, Steve and Dustin argue about what they will do next, with Steve wanting to try to find Nancy to get a signal. Against Dustin's wishes, he heads up the stairs until he finds a hole in the stairs. At the same time, Jonathan wakes up in a conference room and finds that the "exotic matter" Dustin was talking about cut a hole in the roof. He frantically wakes up Nancy and the two try to make it through a closed door until the handle breaks off, leaving them trapped in the room with more exotic matter pouring in.

Robin and Lucas make it to the hospital, with Lucas making it to Max's room and immediately putting on "Running Up That Hill," while Vickie corners Robin and claims security is looking for her since she stole benzos from a patient. Hopper and Mike are preparing El's "bathtub" at Hopper's cabin, and Hopper notices Joyce still looming over Will. He assures her that El is going to fix this, and Joyce tells him that this was his idea. He tells her that she could have pushed him into a situation that they were not ready for, or she could have been overprotective like he has been, and Will would resent her. He tells her that this is not on her. Meanwhile, Mike and El speak about what Kali said, and she brushes it off. Mike tries to remind her that "friends don't lie," but she claims she is not. She tells him that he cannot help her and he tells her to let him be the judge of that. She tells him about the lab and how the military is restarting Brenner's experiments, and that Henry's blood is in her. She adds that she knows she is not a monster, but the military can make more monsters with her blood. He tells her that they always knew the military would be after her, and that is why they are going to stop them and move to a faraway land with at least one waterfall. She tells him that this is not like one of his campaigns, and that he does not get to write the ending, but he tells her that they will because it is their story.

Back in "Camazotz," Holly and Max are looking around and cannot find anything, until Holly realizes her telescope's cap lines up with the entrance to the cave that they were just in. She tells Max that it may be a map that leads them to a secret location, but Max points out that although she likes her theory, there is still nothing but sand. Holly backs up a bit and falls through an opening in the ground, leading Max to pull her up and the two to begin investigating the clearly visible mine. The two reach the bottom of the shaft and they find blood and glasses. Max reminds a scared Holly that this is only a memory and nothing here can hurt them, but to still stay behind her. They then come upon a man with a gun. The man sees Henry and tells him to get away while asking who sent him. A young Henry tries to tell the man that nobody sent him, but the man shoots him in the hand anyway. He tries to shoot at Henry again, but Henry bull-rushes him and bashes his head in with a rock. Max finds out that she can hear Kate Bush and begins to dig through a sunken passageway as Holly watches Henry pick up the man's briefcase and look inside of it. Max gets Holly away from the image and the two of them remove as much of the rocks as possible.

Nancy pulls a piece of the chair that is in the room with them off and uses it to try to break down the door, but more exotic matter begins to pour through the opening and flood the room; the two yell and scream for help. Steve finds a ladder that he uses to bridge the gap but Dustin pleads with him not to go, finally admitting that he cannot handle another one of his best friends dying, especially not him, and hugs him while crying. Steve consoles him as the ladder falls through the stairs. Jonathan and Nancy decide to sit on a table to drag out their death as long as possible, and the two of them begin to admit things to each other: Nancy hates the Clash and never read Slaughterhouse 5; Jonathan hates reading her articles and never read Anna Karenina. They keep going until Jonathan reveals he never applied to Emerson and explains he felt like he was doing something wrong by leaving her. She then tells him she could have gone to Lenora with him but admitted to needing space. He asks her if it was to be with another guy, but Nancy says Steve is a great guy and it was never like that. Steve knows what he wants and she does not. He then reveals the John Coltrane tape and the engagement ring, admitting that while he may have messed up with her, he hoped he could do something right by proposing to her but then realized doing this would only make things worse. He asks her to not marry him, and she accepts as they embrace and Nancy throws the ring away. They notice that the matter has frozen solid, so the two of them embrace and celebrate that they will not die today.

Joyce thanks Eleven for going into the "bathtub," and she promises that she will find Will. She tries to get Will to tell her where he is, and she finds him trapped in the library with bloody eyes. She is able to free him and he tells her that Vecna is coming for Max at the hospital. When the two of them come to, Will tells El that he tried to stop Vecna but could not, then tells everyone that Vecna is coming for Max at the hospital. At the hospital, Robin had been cornered by two members of security after unsuccessfully admitting everything from Vecna to drugging the Turnbows to Vickie (who thinks she is drunk and high). The lights begin to flicker and Vickie sees a Demodog that wipes out the two soldiers. Robin takes Vickie and the two flee, but not before getting on the intercom and warning Lucas that Demodogs are searching for Max. Karen Wheeler is waking up as all of this is happening, and she takes out her IV. By the time that the Demodogs make it to Max's room, her and Lucas are gone. Lucas makes it to the elevator and is able to make it to the basement, where Robin and Vickie have made it to. The four are hiding behind an industrial washing machine, and Robin tells Lucas to turn off the cassette player. Lucas refuses because he still has hope that Max will wake up. As three Demodogs approach the washing machine, they are distracted by a dryer going off and something clearly inside of it. They notice it is an oxygen tank and it explodes, destroying the dryer and killing the Demodogs. As the three make it to their feet, Karen limps into frame with a determination never-before seen.

Meanwhile, Max and Holly have made their way to the "void" area of the mindscape where they are about to make their exit. Max notices that her little portal has appeared where Lucas is holding her body. She tells Holly that she cannot come with her since this exit leads to her body, and that she has to find her own connection to the real world. Holly comments that she does not have a boyfriend or Kate Bush to connect her to the real world, and when her mother was attacked and when Max was being attacked by Vecna, she could not do anything. Max tells her that she is smart, smart enough to go into the woods against Henry's wishes. She went back in the face of danger without hesitation, and she is the reason Max will be saved. She says that Holly the Heroic will always be here with her despite what she thinks. Just then, Holly's exit appears. Max tells Holly that she will still be in the Upside Down when she wakes up and to find her house and hide there until they come for her. As an orchestral version of "Running Up That Hill" plays, Max and Holly run for their respective exits as the screen fades to white and then cuts to black as the episode ends.

Stranger Things gives us a character-driven episode that delivers the thrills and chills that we have expected from the Duffers and Shawn Levy. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.