Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 recap: Will’s connection to the Upside Down deepens in unexpected ways

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 is titled Sorcerer.

It explores more mysteries in Hawkins. Strange forces are threatening the town. The group keeps uncovering the truth about the Upside Down.

Tensions rise, and the stakes get higher. The episode mixes suspense, action, and supernatural events. It shows the dangers in Hawkins and beyond.

The episode also shows the main characters’ personal struggles. It highlights their courage, friendships, and will to protect each other. There are clever twists and emotional moments, and a sense of urgency keeps the story moving.

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 sets up important events for the next episodes.

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Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 recap — Sorcerer

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 is full of action and important events. It gives answers about Max. It shows the horrors of Vecna’s plan. It also hints at shocking news for Will.

The episode mixes many storylines. It balances Upside Down action with memories and inner thoughts, and sets up the second half of the season.

Max’s journey in Vecna’s mindscape

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 starts by showing Max’s fate after Season 4. She is trapped in Vecna’s mindscape, a prison made by Henry Creel. Each victim’s memory becomes a maze of horrors.

Max tells Holly, who finds her, about her experience. When she died, she felt something calling her. When she came back to life, she was in the Rainbow Room. She saw Eleven’s deceased siblings around her. She soon realized she was just watching a memory of Hawkins High in November 1959.

Max tells Holly about the “prison of memories.” In this place, most doors are closed. Only three doors are open: Door 1 is taking your own life. Door 2 is accepting your fate. Door 3 is escaping.

At first, Max chose Door 2. She believed she would be stuck forever. But Holly’s arrival gives her new hope. Holly becomes a sign that Door 3, escape, is possible. Max searches through many memories. She hears Running Up That Hill, which helps guide her. She finds a portal that leads to the real world. Max almost reaches her hospital bed, where Lucas is sitting beside her. But the portal closes right before she can touch him.

Max then finds a cave inside the memory. Henry cannot enter this cave, and it becomes her safe place. Max makes a plan to escape for real. She tells Holly to return to Henry’s area to distract him and give them more time.

Dustin, Joyce, and the demogorgon hunt

Meanwhile, the story in Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 moves back to Hawkins. Joyce, Will, and the group are trying to help Derek. Derek does not want their help at first. He thinks he can handle things on his own.

But everything changes fast. A Demogorgon suddenly breaks into the barn. The group panics as the monster charges at them. Joyce grabs an axe and swings at it. She helps push the creature back.

Steve, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan arrive just in time. They use Steve’s car to crash through a rift into the Upside Down. Once inside, they begin tracking the Demogorgon.

Will gets another vision. He sees Holly and other children trapped in strange, flesh-like spires. They look like the earlier victims taken by Vecna. The vision warns the group that the danger is much bigger than they thought.

Dustin makes a big discovery in Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4. He learns that the wall of the Upside Down forms a huge circle around Hawkins. At the very center of this circle is Hawkins Lab.

This is not an accident. Dustin realizes the Upside Down was shaped on purpose. It connects directly to the secret experiments done at Hawkins Lab. The group now understands that the Upside Down may have been created, or controlled, by forces tied to the lab from the very beginning.

Hopper and Eleven vs. Dr. Kay

Hopper and Eleven begin a dangerous mission outside the military tower in Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4. They want to uncover what Dr. Kay is hiding. Their goal is a locked vault deep inside the lab.

Eleven uses her powers to distract the guards. Hopper slips into the lab, but things go wrong. A noise device hits Eleven and weakens her. Hopper is left alone and vulnerable. Akers attacks him, and a tentacled creature from the Upside Down appears.

Dr. Kay confronts Hopper. Hopper must fight through pain and memories of his daughter, Sarah. He keeps going and reaches Eleven just in time. He frees her, and together they unlock the vault door.

Inside, they find Eight, Eleven’s sister, hooked up to strange machines. No one knows why she is trapped there. The scene ends with a mystery that will be answered in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2.

Military action and the children of Hawkins

Elsewhere in Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4, the military starts rounding up the children of Hawkins. Dr. Kay orders the operation. He believes Eleven is the one taking the kids.

Mike, Will, and Joyce are captured. Most of the other children escape. They flee through the tunnels beneath Hawkins. Derek guides them, and Lucas, Robin, and Murray help them move fast.

The tunnels lead to safe extraction points. But the military interferes for a moment, and panic erupts. The group is forced to move quickly and improvise to keep the kids safe.

Vecna’s plan unfolds

Vecna appears in Hawkins in Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4. He calls the children of the town weak and easy to control. He says they are perfect vessels for his plan to remake the world.

He shows his power by throwing the army aside. He attacks Joyce. He lifts Will into the air and explains that children’s minds break easily. Will was his first example. Now he plans to take more children.

After proving his control, Vecna slips back into the Upside Down. He leaves fear and chaos behind.

Will’s transformation and powers

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 ends with a major shift. Will starts to show powers that look like Vecna’s.

Robin reminds him to be himself. Will thinks about his childhood. He remembers playing as Will the Wise. These memories help him unlock something inside him.

Will uses his new powers in the Upside Down. He freezes Demogorgons in midair. He twists their bodies with his mind. Then he collapses from the effort. His nose bleeds, just like Eleven’s and Henry’s. It marks the start of a dangerous new chapter in his connection to the Upside Down.

Historical and lore connections

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 also explores Henry Creel’s past. We learn more about his early life and how he changed. The story connects back to November 6, 1959. This was the night Henry acted in Joyce’s Oklahoma show.

Henry was exposed to a shadowy force during the Nevada Experiment. After this, he gained telekinetic powers. He later became the first test subject at Hawkins Lab. These events explain why he fears Max’s cave sanctuary.

The episode also brings back Kali, Eleven’s sister. Kali, also known as 008, can create illusions and fake images. This helps explain why Eleven finds her in the military compound inside the Upside Down.

D&D and thematic symbolism

The title of Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4, Sorcerer, points to Will’s natural powers. A wizard learns magic, but a sorcerer is born with it. Mike first calls Will a wizard. Later, he realizes Will is a sorcerer because his powers come from within.

Holly is described as a cleric. A cleric’s power comes from a higher force, not from training. This D&D idea shows the episode’s big themes. Some powers are learned. Some powers are innate. Some choices come from courage. Some are shaped by destiny.

Will’s hidden powers start to show, and Vecna’s plan for Hawkins becomes easier to see. It leaves everyone excited, nervous, and ready to find out what happens next in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2.