If you are reading this, then congratulations, because you have survived long enough to see the ending of Stranger Things. It was a long time coming, and it felt extra long because a bunch of the main characters were played by actors who were almost teenagers, and so Stranger Things almost ended up being like an accidental Boyhood. That movie wanted you to notice that 12 years had passed, but Stranger Things would’ve preferred you thought only a few years passed, rather than close to a whole decade.
Since, yeah, the first season came out in 2016, and then the fifth and final season was drip-fed to viewers throughout the last month or so of 2025. Season 1 was probably meant to just be a miniseries, but then it was so damn popular that the potential for money (dollar dollar bills yo) outweighed any notion of a one-and-done thing. Season 2 was good. Season 3 was ambitious but messy. Season 4 largely got things back on track. And then season 5… well, season 5 was something. All the episodes are ranked below. Like Russell Crowe at the end of Gladiator, now, we are free.
8
“Chapter Seven: The Bridge”
Image via Netflix
It just feels like a whole difficult thing to talk about the penultimate episode of the fifth season of Stranger Things, because people really don’t like “The Bridge.” Avoiding some of the reasons certain people don’t like it, what can be comfortably said is this: not enough happens. Yes, it’s a penultimate episode, and you don’t want a penultimate episode overshadowing a finale, but you gotta have a little more than this.
There needed to be a little bit more of a punch here, in “Chapter Seven: The Bridge,” or some kind of truly exciting cliffhanger.
“The Bridge” is Stranger Things at its most wheel-spinny. It’s also an episode that puts in the foreground just how crowded the main cast of this show has become, with all the wide shots probably meant to emphasize the power of teamwork and all, but instead, it just reminds you how many people are being juggled at once (again, too many). There needed to be a little bit more of a punch here, or a truly exciting cliffhanger. It didn’t need to be as shocking as, like, a Game of Thrones penultimate episode, but it’s not hard to see why many were left wanting more at this late stage in the show.
7
“Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler”
Stranger Things Season 5 The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler Karen Wheeler With a Wine Bottle in a Demogorgon Fight
“Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler” is probably most interesting because it was originally named “Chapter Two: The Vanishing of…”, keeping things a mystery until it turns out Holly’s the one who gets gone. And it also references the title of the first episode of the show’s first season, “The Vanishing of Will Byers,” which is where… well, you know, the strange things start happening and stuff.
Anyway, with this one, it gets some more conflict happening in the season, which is nice and all, but it’s silly how the Demogorgon here treats main and supporting characters so differently from random, nameless soldiers. It’s not the first time someone’s bested a seemingly terrifying monster in a kind of laughable way, but Karen Wheeler doing it with a broken wine bottle? Come on. It’s a reminder that Demogorgons really aren’t worth fearing anymore, at this point in the series, which means the overall level of tension takes something of a hit.
6
“Chapter Five: Shock Jock”
<source media="(max-width: 1023px)" data-srcset="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/stranger-things-season-5-2025-shock-jock.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" srcset="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wor
