{"id":724959,"date":"2025-11-22T14:52:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T11:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=724959"},"modified":"2025-11-22T14:52:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T11:52:29","slug":"the-five-stranger-things-episodes-to-rewatch-before-the-final-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=724959","title":{"rendered":"The Five Stranger Things Episodes to Rewatch Before the Final Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TV & Movies<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Five Stranger Things<\/em> Episodes to Rewatch Before the Final Season<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Radhika Seth<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

November 22, 2025<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo: Curtis Baker\/Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n
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Almost a decade after its Netflix debut, Stranger Things<\/em> is hurtling towards its epic conclusion, with the first four episodes of the eagerly-awaited fifth season dropping on November 26, the next three on Christmas Day, and the blockbuster finale on New Year\u2019s Eve. In her cover interview for British Vogue<\/em>\u2019s December 2025 issue, star Millie Bobby Brown admits that she began to weep 20 pages into reading the script for the latter. She and her co-stars then \u201call huddled and cried for five minutes straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before we get there, given it\u2019s been a gob-smacking three years since our last trip to Hawkins, a refresher is essential. If you can\u2019t quite commit to a full rewatch, however, these are the five unforgettable episodes to stream now\u2014one from each season, plus a reminder of where it all began.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Billy\u201d (Season 4, Episode 4)<\/h2>\n
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Stranger Things<\/em> always brings it with its sweeping series finales and jaw-dropping, plot line-colliding penultimate episodes, but this gem, smack bang in the middle of the last season, is truly unparalleled\u2014and even more so because we just didn\u2019t see its impact coming. It features Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and Will (Noah Schnapp) getting caught up in an at-home shoot-out; Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Robin (Maya Hawke) interviewing a tormented Victor Creel; and, of course, Sadie Sink\u2019s Max being brought back with the assistance of Kate Bush\u2019s \u201cRunning Up That Hill,\u201d which promptly went to number one on the charts. It\u2019s heartbreaking, terrifying, and then life-affirming. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Battle of Starcourt\u201d (Season 3, Episode 8)<\/h2>\n
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The neon-drenched mall at the center of the third season is the setting for one hell of a showdown in this gripping closer. As the Mind Flayer prowls the halls in the style of the T. rex in Jurassic Park<\/em> and Eleven (Brown) finds herself powerless, all hope seems lost. But then the gang come through with an arsenal of fizzing fireworks, as does Dacre Montgomery\u2019s Billy with a tear-jerking sacrifice. The emotional beats are handled masterfully\u2014is David Harbour\u2019s Hopper dead?!\u2014but it\u2019s the eye-popping visuals that keep me coming back to this one, including incredible special effects that demand to be seen on the biggest screen you can possibly find.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mind Flayer\u201d (Season 2, Episode 8)<\/h2>\n
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Kicking off with a possessed Will and a gruesome Demodog lab attack, this second-to-last chapter of the show\u2019s second installment never lets up. The brutal death of Sean Astin\u2019s Bob, as witnessed by Winona Ryder\u2019s screaming Joyce, is genuinely horrific, after which our heroes get to grips with their nemesis and communicate with Will via Morse code. In the episode\u2019s final seconds, the slippery corpse of a Demodog then hurtles through the window of the Byers\u2019 house, and the front door swings open, revealing its killer: a bloody-nosed Eleven. Chills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bathtub\u201d (Season 1, Episode 7)<\/h2>\n
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The Season 1 finale, \u201cThe Upside Down,\u201d is excellent\u2014from Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve (Joe Keery) setting the Demogorgon on fire against the backdrop of twinkling fairy lights, and Hopper and Joyce journeying to the Upside Down, to Eleven disintegrating her enemy\u2014but don\u2019t overlook the episode just before it. In \u201cThe Bathtub,\u201d the kids go on the run with Eleven in tow, and through the use of a makeshift sensory deprivation tank, she discovers the fates of both Barb (Shannon Purser) and Will. It begins with one of the most heart-in-your-throat moments of the whole show: as Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) and his cronies pursue and then drive head-first into Eleven and Mike, she causes their van to fly skywards, flip over, and crash to the ground. Cue the opening credits. There\u2019s no bigger flex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vanishing of Will Byers\u201d (Season 1, Episode 1)<\/h2>\n
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To understand how this sci-fi behemoth became the cultural phenomenon that it has, you need look no further than the opening episode. The classically Spielbergian first sequence, the remarkably assured performances from the talented young cast, the eerie abduction of Will, and the introduction of our favorite telekinetic escapee\u2026 with totally absorbing, taut storytelling; immersive world-building; and a generous dose of edge-of-your-seat horror, we\u2019re immediately transported to \u201980s Indiana. How anyone can see this and not proceed to devour the next four seasons is entirely beyond me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/5-stranger-things-episodes-to-rewatch-before-the-final-season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TV & Movies The Five Stranger Things Episodes to Rewatch Before the Final Season By Radhika Seth November 22, 2025 Photo: Curtis Baker\/Netflix Almost a decade after its Netflix debut, Stranger Things is hurtling towards its epic conclusion, with the first four episodes of the eagerly-awaited fifth season dropping on November 26, the next three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":724960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-724959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=724959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/724960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=724959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=724959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=724959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}