[Warning: Spoilers for volume one of Stranger Things season 5!!]

“Stranger Things” season five came to Netflix on November 26. I was very excited for this new season especially because I’ve been watching it since I was very young. The episodes that came out in this first volume were, Chapter One: The Crawl, Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler, Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap, and Chapter Four: Sorcerer. My favorite from these episodes so far has to be Chapter Four.

During my first watch I found it crazy that in the show, the fifth season is supposed to be four years after the first season aired, which in reality happened nine years ago. In the show, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) are supposed to play 15-17 years olds when their real ages range from 21-24. I could definitely see how much older they were in the show. Also, other characters like Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) are supposed to be playing 20-21 year olds and their real ages range from 27-33. I found this weird watching it, but I got used to it later on. Now let’s dive into the episodes.

“Chapter One: The Crawl” starts with a flashback of Will Byers when he was in the Upside Down. This part showed some things that we didn’t get to see when he got taken in season one. It showed Will being hunted down by a petal-faced demogorgon, and brought to the lair of none other than Vecna himself. He hooks Will up to the super gross Upside Down mainframe, and talks about how he and Will will do “beautiful things” together. It then goes into the present time in November, 1987 in a military-quarantined Hawkins, Indiana. I really enjoyed this episode. I thought the transition from season four to five was very good. It was very entertaining the whole time, no part of it was boring. I would rate this episode a 4.5/5. I was very impressed.

Next up, “Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler.” This episode focuses on a Demogorgon attack at the Wheeler home, leading to Holly’s disappearance, with Vecna’s human form revealed as the shadowy figure, “Mr. Whatsit,” who targets children. Once again I really enjoyed this episode. I really liked the scene of Karen and Holly Wheeler in the bathroom, hiding from the Demogorgon. I think part of me only really enjoyed this scene because I really like the song “Fernando” by ABBA. This episode brought a lot of spark to the show and really got things going. I would have to rate this episode a 4.9/5.

Now on to “Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap.” Once the gang realizes that “Mr. Whatsit” is Henry/Vecna/001, they also find out he is coming for children. The next kid the demogorgon tries to find is Derek Turnbow, also known as Delightful Derek. Vecna has the ability to see through these kids eyes to know where they are to capture them. They find this out through Will. The team then makes a plan to get Derek out of his house and to somewhere safe so Vecna can’t capture him. They start this plan with Erica Sinclair, going over to the Turnbow residence to apologize to Tina Turnbow. She brings a pie, with drugs, to the house to ask for forgiveness. The plan was to drug the family to get them out of the house. Soon after, they set up a “Home Alone” style trap to try and take down the Demogorgon. Their plan ends up failing when the Demogorgon finds out where the family actually is. Do I even have to say it again? Another amazing episode. I would rate it a 4.8/5.

Lastly, the best episode of this season so far rating 5/5, is “Chapter Four: The Sorcerer.” This episode shows Hopper and Eleven infiltrate a secret military base in the Upside Down, where Dr. Kay’s anti-Eleven tech weakens El. After Vecna traps all of these children, Will, Mike, Joyce, Robin, Lucas and Murray try to rescue them. During this insane scene of trying to fight the demogorgons and bring the children back to Hawkins, Vecna makes an appearance. Then, what we think is that Vecna is going to curse Will, but then we find out that… WILL HAS POWERS! Vecna gives Will his powers while the demogorgons attack Robin and Murray, Mike, and Lucas. This scene was absolutely amazing. The acting was better than ever. Everything about this was just insane. I would obviously rate this episode a 100/5. I am very happy with how this volume ended, and I can not wait until Christmas for the next volume.

Overall, this is an amazing season so far. I have so many predictions for the next couple episodes and I can’t wait to see if they are true. There was not one bit I disliked about this season.