Stranger Things 5 Episode 4 Review – “Chapter Four: The Sorcerer”

There are two thoughts of mind one can approach “Chapter Four: The Sorcerer” with – and as you might expect, both have to do primarily with the final ten minutes of Stranger Things 5‘s closing chapter to Volume I. Either way, Stranger Things 5‘s 86-minute mid-season finale is a strange, lumbering creature, a mash of stories and ideas, all of varying quietly, with their aims set at two very specific reveals to leave audiences hanging until Christmas: the reveal of Eight as the power behind the hedgehog devices shutting down Eleven’s powers – and of course, the big, Demogorgon-snapping debut of Will’s ability to tap into the powers of the Upside Down.

On the one hand, the reveal of Eight – which comes after a protracted sequence of Eleven and Hop breaking into the Upside Down lab, fighting and getting stabby with Dr. Kay along the way – is one that reeks a bit of every prestige series and the Lost dilemma they find themselves in; given the Duffer Brothers have been adamant about season five not leaving any major questions unanswered, it’s no surprise they would try and find a way to shoehorn the show’s most maligned character and episode (season two’s “Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister”) into the show’s final arc. And although it is a moment that will undoubtably have some dedicated fans peacocking about how they all knew Kali would return one day, it’s 11th hour inclusion feels more like a Marvel-type cameo reveal than a meaningful component of Eleven’s final arc as one of the three remaining subjects of Dr. Brenner’s research (which is revealing in the Stranger Things play to be motivated by his attempts to revisit the void his father spent twelve hours in, back in the 1950s. More on that in a bit, don’t worry).

What can the integration of Eight really offer Stranger Things 5 with only three episodes left in the series? If the answer was a good one, it feels like something the show would’ve included in the never-ending runtimes of season four (especially with the return of Brenner; despite being one of his subjects, we never see Eight and Brenner in the same room at any time in the series), had her character been one of actual import, not something to be shoehorned in at the last minute, where it feels more like a self-righteous ploy to try and retroactively justify the show’s most publicly maligned chapter, there could certainly be value to see how Eleven and a counterpart access and channel their powers in different ways… although we kind of already have that with Henry/Vecna/One/Mr.Whatsit (a list of names shitty Derek wisely points out), and the episode proceeds to open another one of these doors almost immediately with Will (though we can debate how and what Will’s powers are, for all purposes, it’s the same).

It’s also yet another time where Stranger Things overtly teases Hopper making a brave sacrifice to save everyone (this time, with bombs strapped to his chest to take out Vecna, who he thinks is still being kept prisoner by Dr. Kay) – a moment that turns into a slow-motion sequence to nothing, cutting away until we cut back to him walking back into the room, where Eleven then walks back down the hallway to see Eight strung up to Dr. Kay’s machines. Both of these components are mind-boggling; the lengths at which Stranger Things will go before revealing an incremental piece of plot sometimes are wild, and intertwining that with a rather naked attempt to build false tension into a scene with Hopper’s readiness to go out in a big bang, make for a strange combination – an ever odder, emptier one once you realize after Eight’s reveal that “The Sorcerer” is not returning to their story until the next episode.

Through this lens, it’s easy to view much of the rest of “The Sorcerer” as an underwhelming entry; like the Wet Wall, which becomes a literal wall around progressing the plot of Stranger Things 5 after Steve and company drive directly into it, and then deduce Hawkins Lab is inside the wall (where, of course, the story must end, as it begun). This general vibe hanging over the episode also makes Max’s reappearance feel incredibly cheap, as she stands around expounding on the journey she’s taken through Henry’s mind since the end of “The Piggyback”.

Max’s sequence is perhaps the most frustrating of them all; after handling her story and introduction into Vecna’s home in the Void so well during “Chapter Four: Dear Billy” (and using that to fill in gaps of Vecna’s backstory and domain, with a much subtler hand), this time it’s all a bunch of very sludgy exposition, killing the episode’s momentum as Max explains to Holly and the audience the very actions we watch her doing. In particular, her stepping into Henry’s memory palace in the 1950s should be an incredibly fun moment for Stranger Things 5; this is where The First Shadow really comes into focus (yes – we have to reference the play yet again), as Max hears the voice of young Joyce (in the play, Henry knows not only Joyce, but a young Hopper and Bob Newby’s sister that’s never mentioned in the series), in a brief moment as she moves between and through Henry’s memories.

(side note – both the spyglass and the cave figure into the Stranger Things: The First Shadow play, which I’m already tired of talking about this season. Either put it in the damn show or don’t!)

For a show that went to such great lengths to reveal Henry’s backstory in Stranger Things 4, sidestepping that to simply dump a bunch of nonsense in the middle of an important episode seems, at best, an inefficient use of time – and at worst, reeks of the Duffer Brothers struggling to figure out how to use Sadie Sink in some way, despite making the choice to leave her in a coma for most of the final season. Had “The Sorcerer” focused this moment down to one or two memories, and observed how Max got lost in them while she learned more about Henry’s plight, it would give so much scope to what’s happening between both Max and Vecna this season.

Instead, we get a lot of Max staring past the camera as she talks about her path exploring the three doors of possibility in Henry’s mind (which are suicide, settling in, or escaping his mind), with a lot of shots of Holly looking vaguely confused (or explaining A Wrinkle in Time to her) – until Max reveals she has a vague plan to get them both out of Henry’s mind prison, to which we then cut away from them, never to be mentioned again in the rest of “The Sorcerer”.

In these moments, the reductive nature of Stranger Things 5‘s worst elements saps a lot of the momentum from the first half of “The Sorcerer”. And it is a stark reminder of what this series, at its worst, has sacrificed over the years as it has shifted from being about character and atmosphere, to being about action, spectacle, and lots and lots of Plot; however, when chaos descends upon the military compounds on both sides of the void, Stranger Things 5 begins to crystallize, and if for a moment, reminds what it is capable of when it truly ratchets up the tension on its iconic main characters – and through perhaps its single biggest spectacle since “The Battle of Starcourt”, emerges Will, cast back into his role as the fulcrum of Stranger Things‘s story once again – except this time, not as the weak-willed wizard he’s always been known to be, but as the sorcerer his best friend very explicitly pushes him to be, in what’s quickly become the most talked about plot twist of 2025.

The episode’s ultimate reveal, that Will’s connections to the Upside Down allow him to tap into powers similar to Eleven and Vecna’s (though he can’t control Vecna himself, seemingly?), is not a surprising one; but after so many hours and hours of fumbling its way through a deeper understanding of Will’s character, and how it motivates the heart of its story about friendship and love. And it would be easy to view the sudden cutaway to home videos of young Will, while he remembers the emotional conversation he has with Robin but a few scenes earlier in one of Hawkins’s tunnels, as an incredibly cheap device to reveal an 11th hour Hail Mary to redeem arguably the show’s weakest, most superficial character; and yet, the delivery of that final moment, of finally resolving one of the show’s most undeservedly awkward and underperformed storylines, offers a last-minute lifeline to help restore a bit of its former glory, right as it prepares for its final endgame.

There are a lot of easy criticisms to level at the reveal of Will’s powers; it happens both too late in the series, and too soon after Robin implants the idea of just being himself in his head – and it certainly doesn’t work to retroactively fix the combination of poor writing and stiff performance that has defined Will’s scenes for the past two seasons. But as a character without much agency in his own story (remember how much he sulked around with that painting last season?), it was never possible for Stranger Things to approach fixing this with his character; we just get some vague nods to his sexuality while he cried in the backseat of Argyle’s van, left with only the vague teases in season two of Will’s potential importance to the overall story of Stranger Things (primarily “Chapter Four: Will the Wise”, of course).

How “The Sorcerer” builds to that moment, with Vecna stepping into the real world to kill some people and talk shit to Will for a bit, is a reminder of Stranger Things‘s ability to build to big moments – be it “The Upside Down”, “The Gate”, or “The Battle of Starcourt” – and ground them in big, shifting moments for characters. Though the conditions it requires to set the stage for this moment stretch the credulity of Stranger Things as thin as it can get (though all of this, from the plan to break through the bathroom floor to the group trying to navigate the Demogorgon attack, gives Mike a rare chance to shine), the result is a genuinely exciting moment – though one that immediately raises questions about the design of the series, both in what’s to come and how it informs the 30+ hours it took to get to this point.

But for now, it allows Stranger Things 5‘s first volume to end on a signature sequence, debuting new score cues for Vecna (which I love, especially those heard as he’s blowing everything up when he steps out of the Upside Down), giving Joyce a very brief moment of relevance, and finally, finally making Will a useful part of a story that, once they brought him into the light in season two, has often struggled to make him a compelling part of.

Will this require both writing and performance to improve greatly in Stranger Things 5‘s pair of incoming volumes for it to work at all? Of course it will, but I think this big twist gives the series a rare late-era opportunity to reinvigorate itself creatively, an acceleration of a character arc where so many have slowed or completely stalled out over the seasons. But for a brief moment, seeing Will become the hero and save everyone is a great moment, perhaps the one satisfying development of Stranger Things 5 that can stand to shake the feeling of stagnation that’s affected so much of these elongated final two seasons.

Regardless, “The Sorcerer” ends in a much stronger place than it begins – even if only on spectacle alone, it appropriately sets the stage for the second half of the season to save Holly, Max, and the rest of Vecna’s victims from the nose-less monster ready to finally Be All He Can Be. There’s still work to be done if this Eleven/Will/Eight team up is going to have emotional resonance with any depth – but as the show circles back around to Will, a weird kid never quite able to find his place in the world, there’s at least a glimpse of hope that after all these years of expanding and expounding, Stranger Things 5 is finally ready to look inward again as it heads down the final stretch. At this point, what more can we hope for?

Grade: B-

Other thoughts/observations:

• Yes, Robin’s speech to Will should’ve happened like two episodes ago, without all the goofy score and crying that happens when they’re trying to chase monsters through the tunnels below Hawkins. But you know what – it gives Robin a repreive from the comedic role she’s been in all season, and lets us see the earnest, sanguine woman who is rightly an audience favorite.
  
• The big unanswered question of this episode’s reveals: will Noah Schnaap’s performance be able to hold up to the new significance it has been given? Watching him fumble through dramatic dialogue these four episodes has… been challenging, but hopefully this opens character and performance alike in the final three entries.
  
• Boy, Steve is putting the Beemer through its paces this season.
  
• I don’t even want to put this out in the world, but the vibes that either Robin or Steve are going to die this season are strong, and I hate them.
  
• Why is the thunder on an exact timer in the Upside Down? Seems odd!
  
• Still can’t believe the Big Wet Wall is such… literal plot armor around the climatic arc of the series lol.
  
• Want to hear Holly explain Camaztoz?
  
• Derek’s ability to step up in the moment is great, though his inclusion this season has definitely been one of the show’s weaker attempts at filling out its secondary cast.
  
• um…. should we be putting all of the kids seeing the school psychologist on the same bus together? I know this is pre-HIPPA, but still.
  
• Lt. Sullivan, the world’s most useless plot device, ends “The Sorcerer” lit on fire… maybe he’ll come back slightly disfigured, ala Brenner in season four?
  
• Boy, if Will’s whole thing is he really just had to accept his gayness to tap into his powers… well, folks, that is just kind of silly.
  
• We see that Holly has some of that Wheeler lady fortitude in her, which is nice to see.
  
• Nancy agrees with Steve, which sends Jonathan into a mini emotional spiral. Sure, propose to her, can’t see how this goes wrong!
  
• As soon as Hopper launched into an impromptu “I’m proud of you, kid” speech, it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to die immediately. Ya gotta do better than that, Stranger Things.
  
• … if Max has spent a year and half in Henry’s memories, wouldn’t she be able to learn everything about him to defeat him? Seems a shortsighted plan, for his part.
  
• Wait… Mike tried to get a mohawk freshman year? Why does this bit of throwaway story ring so horribly false to me? This feels like something Dustin might do, not Mike.
  
• Hey, another scene of Joyce on a radio!
  
• … and that’s a wrap on Volume I. Have fun holiday shopping, and we’ll see you back on Christmas for reviews of episodes five and six!