‘Stranger Things’ Season 5, Volume 1 ending, explained: What just happened with Will?

Look up “jam-packed” in the dictionary, and you’ll find stranger things The finale of Season 5, Volume 1, titled “The Magician.”

fourth episode stranger things‘ The final season threw everything at the giant fleshy wall in the Upside Down… and then some. Max (Sadie Sink) makes a triumphant return, revealing that she’s been living in a prison of Henry Creel/Vecna’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) memories this whole time. Kali/Eight (Linnea Berthelsen) returned after being away for several seasons. And Vecna ​​and his Demogorgons return to Hawkins to kidnap all the town’s children for Vecna’s new nefarious plan.

But the most exciting – and dare I say it, Strange – The development of the entire episode had me glued to my screen as none other than Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) unleashes his own psychic powers in a final sequence. So what are Will’s powers, how did he get them, and what’s next for him stranger thingsLet’s break it down.

What do the will powers consist of? stranger things Season 5?

Throughout Season 5, Will is repeatedly forced into Vecna’s Upside Down hive mind. This means he is able to see through Vecna’s eyes, and through the eyes of the Demogorgons that Vecna ​​has unleashed on his victims. Every time he has had a vision, Will has been a passive participant. But in “The Magician”, when Vecna ​​mocks him for being weak, Will decides to show that no, in fact, he is not weak. As the Demogorgons threaten his friends, Will takes control of the hive mind. He holds the Demogorgons still in mid-air, then picks them up and crushes their bodies, just like Vecna ​​did to his murder victims in Season 4. This means Will will share Vecna’s telepathic powers, putting him on the same playing field as Vecna, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Kali. He’s moved on from his scary neck-raising days and is now in the big leagues.

So, how did Will get these powers?

Will got these powers as part of his connection to Vecna, which has been going on since the beginning stranger thingsAs we learn in Season 5, Episode 1, Vesna interacted with Will during the Upside Down in Season 1, He stuck one of the Upside Down’s tentacles into the unconscious Will’s mouth and then began to puff it up like nasty Upside Down goo, This is how Will ends up coughing up an Upside Down Slug at the end of Season 1, Similarly, he also became connected to the Upside Down hive mind,

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As of Season 5, Vecna ​​is repeating the tentacle process with Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) and the other Hawkins children she captured. As he explains to Will in the “Wizard” finale, he chose children to “reshape the world” because they are “easily broken, easily reshaped. Easily controlled. Perfect vessels. And you, Will, you were the first. And you’re so easily broken.”

While Vecna’s plans to reshape the world, presumably in the image of the Upside Down, have yet to be fully explained, the mention of children as “ships” is particularly fascinating. Are the kids going to be the recipients of Vecna’s power? More eyes to look out for him? If so, that means Will was the original Vesna host. And in “The Magician”, she realizes that her relationship with Vecna ​​is not one-sided. If Vecna ​​can channel its power through Will, Will can capture it and use it for himself.

In “The Magicians”, Will is inspired to realize this by a pep talk given to him by Robin (Maya Hawke) in the episode. Throughout the season, Robin realizes that Will is also queer, and is having difficulty accepting himself (and that Mike is not interested in him). In a heart-to-heart, she tells him that, to come into my own, “I just had to stop being afraid of who I really was.”

These are the words Will remembers when he freezes the Demogorgons. They also present a flashback montage of his friendship with Mike (Finn Wolfhard), starting from their first meeting as children. (Yes, the Byers Bowl cut is still around.) Between Robin’s words and Will making a big show of his powers, the scene is presented as Will coming into his own as a person. Yet the sequence is muddled: Robin’s words relate specifically to Will’s strangeness, but stranger things Setting them in a different context makes them lose some of their power. Is the show reconciling Will’s acceptance of his weirdness and acceptance of his powers? Otherwise it’s a strange move to bring the episode to a close.

What’s next for Will and his powers?

Will having Vecna-style abilities bodes well for Hawkins’ party, as they now have another powerful (if untrained) psychic user. However, can Vecna ​​take back control of her powers from Will? And then use him as a vessel for his powers in the real world? There are still a lot of unanswered questions about how this might play out.

The most interesting element moving forward may be less about Hawkins’ fate, and more about what these new powers mean for Will as a character. The title of the episode, “Wizard,” is a reference to Will’s new abilities. As Mike tells him in the first episode, Will’s Upside Down connection makes him the equivalent of a dungeons and dragons Wizard This means that, unlike a wizard, who gains magical powers through study, one is actually naturally magical.

Will is original dungeons and dragons The character, Will the Wise, was actually a magician. But now that Will is metaphorically jumping into a different situation dungeons and dragons Class and going into full wizard mode, could this represent a complete change in who he once was, in terms of accepting his quirk and his powers?

Volume 1 of stranger things Season 5 Now streaming on Netflix. Volume 2 will premiere on December 25, and the series finale will air on December 31 at 8 PM ET.