‘Stranger Things' season five volume two receives major blow

Stranger Things season five and volume two which premiered on Christmas Day, dealt with a crushing blow.

While its volume was met with plenty of fanfare, the new episodes was unable to hit the mark.

Volume two comprised of episodes five, six and seven, with latter being the penultimate episode of the entire series.

Episode five – seven saw Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) breakup, audiences learned that the Upside Down is actually a wormhole, connecting Hawkins to Dimension X, and Max (Sadie Sink) woke up from her coma (which turned out to be a Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower trance), and Will (Noah Schnapps) reveal his sexual identity.

The new episodes initially disappointed the fans with the run time, only two-hour (and a few minutes), much shorter than many were expecting.

In addition to that the Duffer Brothers, along with several other Stranger Things stars, had also teased an emotional, action-packed and eventful volume, with the Duffers even promising a “dark” Christmas. Because of these comments, audiences were expecting some major character deaths and massive reveals.

Yet, the Rotten Tomatoes ratings revealed the current rating score as 73% which is a full 13 percentage points lower than the show’s next-lowest rated season (season 3).

Fans on X (formerly Twitter) also shared their disappointment on the new season.

One wrote, “Filler scenes.. cringe writing... boring monologues in the middle of a world ending event... 0 deaths.. eleven still nose bleeding with her powers... all the reunions having no emotional weight.. CGI Vecna with 0 aura, no twists, and we waited years for this sh-t.”

“They spent OVER A YEAR writing this sh-t. We waited over THREE YEARS for this sh-t. Let that sink in for a second. One year, and this is what they came up with,” said another.

Stranger Things' final episode will have limited screenings on December 31, timed to its global premiere on Netflix and will run through January 1, 2026.