‘Stranger Things’ Season 5, Episode 4 Ending Explained

Stranger Things came out with a bang with the first part of the three-part fifth and final season. With most episodes running over an hour, it’s like watching movie after movie as you power through the conclusion of the gripping story. Season 5, Part 1 consists of four episodes, ending with “Chapter Four: Sorcerer,” which sets up massive changes to come in Part 2 and beyond and reveals a gigantic twist fans suspected all along.

The plot takes a complete 180, returning to how it all started. It reinforces the argument that the series is one of the most carefully written of this generation, with early hints pointing toward this direction. The final battle to finally defeat Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) won’t be easy, but a powerful new force has entered the mix.

Eleven Reunites With an Old Friend

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Through the final episode, the kids and adults are divided, each taking on a different battle. Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) have managed to get into the military base in the Upside Down. They are desperate to get behind a set of doors into a room that Eleven believes Vecna is being held in. She can feel it, her kryptonite. But an alarm goes off, emitting a high-pitched sound only Eleven can hear and stopping her powers before she can open the doors. New character Dr. Kay, played by Linda Hamilton, arrives, and as Hopper is being subdued by one of the large snake-like monsters, she presses him for information. What does he want?

Eleven musters enough power to help, and Hopper engages in a final struggle with Dr. Kay, though she survives. Hopper has her security pass now, however, and he’s planning to use it to go into the room on his own and kill Vecna, once and for all. Eleven, still unable to use her powers due to the ringing, realizes that he has outfitted himself with explosives. He’s going to sacrifice himself for her, and she doesn’t have the strength to stop him.

While she screams in agony and he tears up with memories of the death of his daughter, Sara, Hopper is ready to do what needs to be done. The power eventually goes out, and with her powers restored, Eleven attempts to unlock the doors and save her adoptive father. But she doesn’t need to. Hopper opens them with a despondent look on his face. She follows him inside, and what she sees shocks her to her core.

The camera pans, and it’s her sister Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), who fans may recall from Season 2, Episode 7, “The Lost Sister,” mounted to a machine, probing around her head. Many called the runaway episode featuring Kali one of the most purposeless episodes of the show. Now we see it was not: the plan for the show was really set out right from the beginning, every moment intentional. Kali is powering everything.

Max Is Alive Somewhere Else

Max lying in a hospital bed, Lucas holding her hand in Stranger Things.

Meanwhile, as Vecna continues to try to round up as many kids as he can to fulfill his desire for a new world, Holly (Nell Fisher) is still confused about finding Max (Sadie Sink) in the woods. She knows who she is, but also knows Max is in the hospital in a coma, as she has been since the end of Season 4. Max explains that she is indeed still there in a coma, but here is another place. She exists in Vecna’s memories. She’s stuck there like she’s in some sick and twisted prison, reliving all his memories. Holly instantly compares it to Camazotz from A Wrinkle in Time, a reference likely to send many kids back to the book.

Max explains that she has been traversing through Vecna’s memories this entire time, and finally came close to getting out. She could see herself lying in the hospital, Lucas by her side. She followed the music, of course, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” which Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) plays on repeat whenever he visits. But just as she was about to run through the opening, the tape stopped in the real world, closing the portal. Lucas having to rewind is effectively what prevented Max from breaking free, and he had no idea how close she was to returning to her body.

Vecna found her in that moment, and she ran until she came upon the cave where she resides now. Somehow, some way, Vecna was terrified of that cave. He refused to enter, so she realized she was safe there and had resigned herself to an eternity there. But when she saw Holly, she knew there was a chance of getting back home. She asks Holly to return to the house and make sure Vecna thinks she never left. That note in the mailbox, coaxing Holly to come to the rocks? That was Max who left it, not Henry. Max has a plan, and Holly will be a big part of it.

The Kids Are Not Alright

Derek with his hands up approaching military men in Stranger Things.

Back in the real world, after managing to save Vecna’s next desired victim, Derek (Jake Connelly), the group is now frantic to relocate him. Will (Noah Schnapp) senses that Vecna knows where they are. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) arrive in the car just in time to knock down the Demogorgon, who has arrived. But there’s something strange. When it was approaching Joyce (Winona Ryder) to attack and get to Derek, it wasn’t fighting with the fury it usually would. It was like something was holding it back.

The quartet in the car decides that, since the hole to the Upside Down the Demogorgon went through is still open, they should try to speed through it. They do, but eventually end up crashing into the same creepy wall Hopper and Eleven were trying to break through, except they were on the opposite side. After some investigating and tapping into his knowledge of algebra (see kids, listen in math class), Dustin figures out that the wall is actually a circle, encapsulating the whole place. What’s at the center? Hawkins Labs.

As they grapple with this discovery, the others decide to rescue the kids Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Lucas saw being taken by the military. While the military is presumably trying to protect these kids, the group doesn’t have faith that it will work. So, they concoct a plan to use Derek as their “man on the inside.” He will tell them the precise location of the bathroom, find all the kids who have spoken to this mysterious Mr. Whatsit, and encourage them to go to the bathroom one by one. There, Lucas, Mike, Joyce, Robin (Maya Hawke), and Will are waiting to pull them down through an opening they’ve made in the ground.

But they accidentally hit a pipe while breaking ground, and water starts splashing everywhere, trapping them. While a few kids escape with Robin and Murray (Brett Gelman), who are waiting with the getaway van, everyone else is now in the possession of the military. They’re in trouble, but it doesn’t matter, because that tingly feeling in the back of Will’s neck tells him they’re here. Demogorgons are coming for these kids.

Will Taps Into a Power He Didn’t Know He Had

A battle straight from a video game ensues as Demogorgons crash through the ground and eviscerate the military members who think they can fight them with guns and even fire. As one Demogorgon is sprayed with fire, however, Will screams and writhes in pain. He sees it all, he feels it all.

Vecna arrives to confront Will, telling him that Will was his first and that he was someone who broke so easily, proving to Vecna that he could accomplish his plan. Why does he target children? Because he views them as weak in both body and mind. They’re vulnerable, impressionable, simple targets, vessels to use as part of his hive to reshape the world. His reason for showing up to the party seems only to be so he can let Will know how weak he is. And that some people are too weak for this world, referencing his friends and some of the people at the top of the list of those most likely to die this season.

As Vecna departs, the Demogorgons rise back up. One is approaching Mike. Another Joyce. And a third Robin. All the kids have already been captured and taken away. It seems all is lost for these three until something clicks. Will recalls a conversation he had with Robin, who has clearly figured out that Will is grappling with his identity and his complicated feelings for his best friend. She tells him a story of the first girl she had a crush on, and how it broke her when that girl started dating Steve. She recalled that while in her funk, she watched old tapes of her as a child and realized how confident and fearless she was back then. She was looking for herself in someone else when she had the power to be who she needed to be all along.

Thinking of his own childhood and his deepening friendship with Mike, Will finally takes her advice. Mike looks on at certain death only to see the Demogorgon frozen in the air, unable to approach. He looks over at Will, and his eyes are in the back of his head, his hand out like Eleven controlling the Demogorgon. The other Demogorgon is approaching Joyce, and Will holds out his other hand. The same is happening to Robin in another location, and Will cranks his neck to stop it. He’s now controlling them all, seeing what they’re seeing through his eyes, his friends and family members in shock and disbelief.

Earlier, Mike had a conversation with Will, questioning the battle between his mom and the Demogorgon. I know your mom’s a bad**s and all, he says, but clearly Mike noticed the Demogorgon could have taken her out in one fell swoop, but it didn’t. Something else was happening. He thinks maybe Will is a sorcerer or some kind. He doesn’t just see through their eyes and tap into their minds; he might even be able to control them. Will laughs it off, saying he might be a sorcerer in Dungeons & Dragons, but not in real life. But Mike was right. Vecna may have created the very monster that takes him down in the end. Season 5, Part 2 of Stranger Things premieres December 25, 2025, with three more episodes. Stream Stranger Things on Netflix.