Stranger Things Season 5 Sparks Backlash as Fans Spot Glaring Continuity Gaps

Stranger Things Season 5 is under fire as eagle-eyed viewers spotlight alleged continuity blunders—particularly in Will Byers’ backstory—sending criticism surging after Episode 4.

Stranger Things 5 is barely out and the fandom already has the magnifying glass out. The latest target: a couple of continuity hiccups, one of them involving a very specific memory about Castle Byers that longtime viewers know by heart.

The Castle Byers debate

Episode 4, 'Sorcerer,' gives us Will flashing back to a sunny, sweet day when he and Jonathan built Castle Byers. Cute moment. Also, apparently incompatible with what Jonathan told a possessed Will back in Season 2's 'The Mind Flayer.'

• Season 5, Episode 4: Will remembers a bright, carefree afternoon building Castle Byers with Jonathan.
• Season 2, 'The Mind Flayer': Jonathan says they built it the night their dad Lonnie left for good, in pouring rain, and they got so soaked they were sick for a week.

Fans on X (formerly Twitter) put the two versions side by side and basically said: these cannot both be true.

"Jonathan once said that when he and Will built Castle Byers, it was pouring rain and they both got so soaked they ended up sick for a whole week. And it also makes no sense for them to act so normal when it is literally the day their father left the house."

A few people tried to headcanon it away as a happier moment from earlier that day, before the skies opened up. But the general read online is that this is a straight-up production slip, which stings a little more because that Season 2 scene was a big emotional beat.

The age thing: 11 or 12?

Another Season 5 moment has Joyce saying Will was 11 when he vanished into the Upside Down. Eagle-eyed viewers immediately pointed to the original Season 1 missing persons poster, which lists him as 12. That little discrepancy reopened the whole 'Birthdaygate' wound from Season 4, when the show forgot Will's March 22 birthday entirely. The Duffer brothers already owned that mistake at the time, but it is now part of the same pile of deep-cut continuity gripes.

Why this is blowing up now

Five seasons made over nearly a decade means the lore has gotten dense, and the audience keeps receipts. Sometimes a sunny flashback is just a sunny flashback; sometimes it bumps into an earlier, very specific story the show itself told. With Volume 2 dropping December 25, expect fans to keep scanning every frame for answers, clues, and, yes, any more slips.