Stranger Things Just Unveiled the First 5 Minutes of Season 5 — Watch Now

Netflix finally cracked open the door to Stranger Things 5, and the first five minutes are not shy about where this is headed: straight back into the trauma that started it all.

So what did they show?

During a virtual watch party, Netflix rolled out the opening scene of the final season. Episode 1 is titled 'The Crawl,' and it immediately drops us into 1983, inside the Upside Down forest just after Will Byers disappears. Yes, we are back at the beginning — but with a twist the show couldn’t reveal until now.

A de-aged Noah Schnapp appears as 12-year-old Will inside the Upside Down version of Castle Byers, frightened and quietly humming The Clash’s 'Should I Stay or Should I Go.' Then it turns ugly: guttural noises, a Demogorgon crashing through the fort, Will grabbing a rifle and getting off a shot, scrambling up a tree, and then getting yanked down and out of frame. Fade to black.

When the picture returns, we’re in the Upside Down’s Hawkins Library. The Demogorgon doesn’t kill Will — it delivers him. Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) steps out from the shadows, and the show basically retcons the chain of command in front of us. Vines pin Will to the wall. A tentacle reaches toward his mouth and releases some kind of substance while Vecna gently brushes Will’s forehead like a horror movie pep talk.

'At long last, we can begin.'

'You and I, we’re going to do such beautiful things together.'

It’s a creepy, efficient way to tie the ending back to the start — and to make it very clear who has been steering the nightmare.

Where the story picks up

After that flashback, Season 5 heads to present-day Hawkins, which is now under military quarantine. The official logline basically says that as the anniversary of Will’s disappearance closes in, that old, heavy dread comes back too.

Ross Duffer told Netflix Tudum the season sprints right out of the gate instead of building slowly. Matt Duffer added that life in Hawkins is anything but normal now — movement is restricted and there are surveillance cameras everywhere. Because of course there are.

When do we get the rest?

• The first four episodes drop November 26 at 5 p.m. PT
• Three more arrive on Christmas Day
• The finale lands on New Year’s Eve

Bottom line: the last lap is here, it’s leaning hard into Will’s original disappearance, and it looks like we’re in for a sprint to the finish.