Stranger Things creators pick four episodes to re-watch before Season 5 premieres

Stranger Things is finally heading into its last season, and the creators have basically handed us a tiny cheat sheet. Before Stranger Things Season 5 drops, the Duffer brothers want fans to re-watch four particular episodes.

The essential re-watch list, according to the Duffer brothers, includes:

1) Season 2 Chapter 4 “Will the Wise.”

2) Season 2 Chapter 6 “The Spy.”

3) Season 4 Chapter 7 “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab.”

4) Season 4 Chapter 9 “The Piggyback.”

These 4 Stranger Things chapters are the ones that matter most for the big finish, because they quietly set up the entire mythology of the show, Vecna, the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer, and where Season 5 is actually heading.

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Start your Stranger Things re-watch in Season 2 with “Will the Wise” and “The Spy”

If you are trying to figure out where to begin a Stranger Things re-watch for Season 5, the Duffers are very clear. They keep pointing straight back to the early years in Hawkins. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Ross Duffer said,

“If you’re going to rewatch anything, I would definitely rewatch those early seasons because it really is about tying [everything] back to seasons one and two.”

He also explained that -

“[Those] are the seasons we referenced the most, because we really wanted this to be circular and to come full circle. There are a lot of mysteries we set up and then intentionally did not answer in those early seasons.”

That is exactly where “Will the Wise” and “The Spy” come in. Both of these Stranger Things episodes are packed with Will Byers, the Shadow Monster, and the creepy “now-memories” that connect Will to the Upside Down.

In Stranger Things Season 2, Chapter 4 “Will the Wise,” Will is basically living in two different realities at once. His friends find him frozen outside the school, his mom rushes him home, and nobody fully understands what is happening inside his head.

He draws strange tunnels, he's seeing visions/having "PTSD episodes", and is feeling something evil spreading under Hawkins. When Joyce shows him his sketch of the monster, he breaks down and calls it more of a feeling than a thing, which already hints that this threat is not just a regular monster.

At the same time, Stranger Things uses this episode to show the depth of the Upside Down roots. Hopper and Joyce literally cover the house with Will’s drawings, only to realise they are not random scribbles, but a map of the vines crawling through the town of Hawkins.

Hopper follows those clues, digs into a rotting pumpkin field, and falls straight into the tunnels. You can feel the show starting to set up something huge.

Ross Duffer tells THR that from season 1, they kept questions alive on purpose. He said,

“I mean, season one, we didn’t even know we were going to get a season two, but we still kept some mystery in there. For instance, what is the Upside Down? Why was Will taken, which obviously is why this season begins with a flashback to his time in the Upside Down.”

Watching “Will the Wise” now, these words hit even harder, because so much of Stranger Things Season 5 seems ready to circle back to why Will was chosen in the very first place.

“Will the Wise” also builds up Eleven’s side of the story. While everyone is dealing with Will’s connection to the Shadow Monster, Eleven is stuck in the cabin with Hopper after he grounds her. She is angry, she lashes out with her powers, and then she finds the box labeled “HAWKINS LAB” under the floorboards.

This curiosity eventually leads her to her mother, Terry Ives, and to the truth about her past. Season 5 of Stranger Things is clearly going to dig deeper into Eleven’s history and how it connects to Vecna and the Upside Down, so seeing the moment she starts searching for answers again makes this Stranger Things episode feel extra important.

By the time you get to Season 2 Chapter 6 “The Spy,” the tension from “Will the Wise” explodes into something way bigger. Will is now fully used as a weapon/as a spy by the Shadow Monster.

He is in the lab, hooked up to machines, and he reacts in pain whenever they hurt the Upside Down. When Dr. Owens burns a piece of the tunnels, Will screams, which pretty much confirms that the monster and Will are deeply linked.

The episode even shows how the monster tricks the humans using Will’s visions, sending soldiers into a trap in the tunnels. The demogorgons swarm them, and the lab realises they have walked right into the enemy’s plan.

“The Spy” is also key to the hive mind idea that Stranger Things leans on again in Season 4 and clearly will do so again in Season 5. When the demodogs attack, and when Will says “he made me do it” and apologizes as the soldiers die, you really see how this thing uses people as spies and puppets. The idea of one mind controlling multiple creatures is a straight line to how Vecna later operates through the Upside Down.

At the same time, the episode balances the horror with character stuff that still matters. Dustin teaming up with Steve over Dart, Lucas and Max getting closer at the junkyard, and Nancy and Jonathan finally acting on their feelings all happen here.

Stranger Things consistently keeps the friendship and romance narratives parallel to the monster story. That is why rewatching “The Spy” before season 5 is useful. You are not just remembering the plot. You are reminded of how the party communicates, how they make plans, how they protect each other, and how badly things can go when the enemy is one step ahead.

Matt Duffer told THR,

“Season two is when we really started to build out the mythology and started to dive into everything, and how this was going to be an ongoing [series]. That’s where we started to really plant the seeds for the mythology, and I think probably that’s why that is as relevant as it is.”

When he says that, “Will the Wise” and “The Spy” are basically what he is talking about. These Stranger Things episodes are like the roots under Hawkins. If you understand what is happening with Will, the Shadow Monster, and the tunnels here, Season 5 of Stranger Things will make a lot more sense.

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Jump to Stranger Things Season 4 with “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” and “The Piggyback”

Once your Stranger Things re-watch takes you through Season 2’s key episodes, the Duffers want you to skip ahead to Season 4. Matt told THR,

“Season four is also highly relevant ‘Massacre at Hawkins Lab’ is a good one.”

Ross backed him up and said,

“That [episode] starts unveiling some of the Upside Down mythology and starts giving some answers, and, of course, all the stuff with Henry (Bower) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) continues to resonate throughout season five. Those are some good ones to revisit.”

Stranger Things Season 4 Chapter 7 “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” is the episode that rips the mask off the whole story. A true revelation, if you will. Now, up until this point, the show has treated Eleven’s past in the lab as this blurry trauma, and the massacre itself is like a nightmare she cannot fully look at.

In this episode, inside NINA, Brenner pushes her to relive the day of the killings, and we finally see what actually happened. We learn that the quiet, orderly who has been helping her is not just some random guy. He is Number 001, the first test subject. He is Henry Creel.

Stranger Things Season 4 Chapter 7 slowly reveals how Henry and his family moved into the Creel house in Hawkins in March 1959, how Henry saw himself as a human black widow, and how he developed his powers. Through his story, Stranger Things shows that he used to torment his family with visions, killed his mother and sister, and collapsed after trying to kill his father.

Brenner then takes him in, tattoos him as “001,” and tries to control him. All of that is laid out in “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab,” and it completely changes how the Upside Down is framed. It is not just a random evil realm. It is tied directly to Henry, to Eleven, and to the moment she fights back and sends him into another world known as Dimension X.

The battle between Eleven and One (Henry) is the emotional heart of the episode and a massive setup for Season 5. At first, he acts as if he understands her more than anyone. He tells her about the chip that weakens him, she pulls it out with her powers, and then he reveals his true nature when he slaughters the other children.

He wants her to join him, but she refuses, and he attacks. We see a younger baby, Eleven, fighting back by focusing on the memory of her mother telling her she loves her. That is when she blasts him through the wall and opens the first gate, watching him fall into that stormy red landscape.

At the same time, the rest of Stranger Things Season 4 is moving in parallel. While Steve and the older teens are stuck in the Upside Down, the kids in Hawkins are figuring out how Vecna’s gates work, and Hopper is fighting a demogorgon in Russia.

Joyce and Hopper finally reunite in this episode, which is important because by Season 5, they are back with the kids as everything converges. You can literally see the show pulling every thread toward one huge endgame moment. That is why the creators are so focused on this chapter. It is where the Henry and Eleven story fully fits into place.

Then there is “The Piggyback,” the Season 4 finale that basically sets the board for Stranger Things Season 5. If “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” is the origin for Henry Creel/Vecna/001, “The Piggyback” is the current state of the war. Think of it as an Infinity War moment before we get to the Endgame, i.e, Season 5.

The entire gang is split across Hawkins, Russia, and California, and they all attack Vecna simultaneously. Eleven comes up with the piggyback plan when she remembers how she once went into her mother’s mind and into Billy’s. She sees the piggyback ad on a billboard and decides to enter Max’s mind from a Surfer Boy Pizza shop freezer.

While she does that, everyone else takes their position. In Hawkins, Max and Lucas sit in the Creel house and silently wait for Vecna. Dustin and Eddie prepare to lure the demobats in the Upside Down trailer. Nancy, Steve, and Robin prepare to hit Vecna in the attic.

The Russia group goes back into the prison to attack the hive mind particles. It is a four-level plan that portrays how the entire Stranger Things story has turned into a massive fight across dimensions.

“The Piggyback” is also an episode full of emotional turning points, which is exactly why it is important to watch it again before you can finally get to Season 5 of Stranger Things.

There is Hopper and Joyce finally getting to be together after everything, only to realise the Upside Down is now breaking into Hawkins. There is Eddie’s last stand, where he plays Master of Puppets by Metallica, runs from the bats, then chooses not to run anymore, only so Dustin can live, and the other kids can buy some more time.

Dustin holds Eddie in his arms as he dies, and it is one of the most heartbreaking Stranger Things scenes ever, and it still matters because Season 5 has to deal with the fallout of that town hating the person who actually saved them.

On top of that, the Max and Vecna showdown is directly tied to where Season 5 is heading. Max uses her guilt about Billy dying to bait Vecna. He attacks her mind again, breaks her limbs, and basically kills her until Eleven steps in at the last second.

El restarts Max’s heart, but when she goes into Max’s mind later, it is empty. That detail is definitely not random. Watching it again before the final Season will make it easier to catch up on any small clues about what happened to Max’s soul and how Vecna’s powers really work.

The finale of Stranger Things Season 4 also ends with Hawkins cracked open, red lightning in the sky, and spores drifting down onto a dying field. Will feels the presence of Vecna again and realizes the fight is far from over. The Upside Down has started its invasion. That final walk across the field is basically a trailer for Season 5 inside the show.

All of that context makes these four Stranger Things episodes feel even more essential than ever. They are not random picks. They are the steps that lead straight to the end.

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If you want a focused Stranger Things rewatch before the final season, the creators have basically built the playlist for you. Start in Season 2 with “Will the Wise” and “The Spy” to understand Will’s bond with the Shadow Monster, the tunnels under Hawkins, and how the mythology started to grow.

Then jump to Season 4 with “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” and “The Piggyback” to see Henry’s full story, Eleven’s role in creating the first gate, and the moment Hawkins actually breaks. With those four Stranger Things chapters fresh in your mind, Season 5 will not feel confusing at all.

It will feel like the last piece of a puzzle you have been building since the very first missing kid.

See you in Hawkins on Nov. 26.

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Stay tuned to Soap Central for more updates on Stranger Things Season 5.

Also read: Stranger Things Season Five: Everything you need to know about the show's final season before it's premiere