The entirety of Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 5 “Shock Jock” you’re holding your breath because there’s this creeping sensation that someone is going to die. And it’s the best kind of TV. Thank God no one died in this episode. But there’s the sort of buildup in this episode that speaks of terrible pain coming. Terrible pain coming for Joyce. Terrible pain coming for Steve and Dustin. And even terrible pain is coming for Will, Max, and the rest of the gang. Oh and especially Eleven.
This episode also shows more clearly than ever before how the kids that we knew in Season 1, they’re the young adults protecting the smaller kids. And those smaller kids are going on the same kind of adventures that Mike, Eleven and the rest of the gang did in the beginning. It’s this never-ending circle of kids standing up for what’s right because adults are messy and continue to seek one thing: power.
MORE: Need a refresher of what happened in the last episode? Read our review of Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4!
Will the Sorcerer Stepping Up
Before I dive into the Will of it all, I have to talk about Will’s mother, Joyce. She’s got written “I’m going to die” all over her face. She’s giving Will advice and believing in him. There are all these conversations happening and she is essentially letting him fly in a way that she never has before. And in the same way that we feared that Hopper was going to die in Episode 4 when he was saying such nice things to Eleven before they entered the facility in the Upside Down, I feel the same way for Joyce here. She’s going to die.
Ok, back to Will.
Focusing specifically on the character and not the actor, I love Will’s journey. I love how he continues to get up every single time, no matter how hard he falls. That’s the symbol of a true hero. And I also love how honest he is about his limitations here. Because Mike and Lucas were rightfully excited about his powers. But Will kind of tempered the limitations of his powers and cleared up things in a way that didn’t lead to miscommunications, something that conveniently happens all the time in TV shows.
Will is a survivor. And he’s taken that pain and channeled it to figuring out how to save others so they don’t have to go through what he did. And that’s the kind of hero’s arc that we love to see and cheer on. Even the small moments of self-reflection for Will, felt like big hero moments. He’s not hiding away from who he is when he’s trying to tap into Vecna’s mind. But he’s also accepting who he is when he has a conversation with Robin about how she got to the point she’s at in her life now.
All of this is set up for some really good things coming down the line. And I can’t wait to see what comes next while dreading what will happen to him when Joyce dies. Or Jonathan.
Then There’s Dustin and Steve
I will admit that in my early reviews for Stranger Things Season 5, I was a little bit hard on Steve. Looking back I can now see Steve was at the end of his rope. I can also see that Steve’s frustration continued in Episode 5 until it boiled over. And I think it was the right thing for Stranger Things to do this because we have also been holding our breath when it comes to these two.
Dustin and Steve have been really good friends ever since Dustin kidnapped him when he was bringing Nancy flowers. And in the beginning of Season 5 of Stranger Things, Dustin had absolutely pushed Steve away, because of Eddie’s death. And I know some people are going to be really angry with Steve because of what he said about Eddie. But Eddie wasn’t perfect. Eddie took a risk and he paid for it. Dustin needed to hear that.
The fight that came afterwards with Dustin and Steve was hard to watch. Why? Because it feels like they are on the brink of collapse. That explosion was a flood of emotions similar to what Dustin felt when he got into that fight with those jocks. Dustin wants to feel something and he knows he’s safe feeling these emotions with Steve. It just ends up with Dustin being really unfair to Steve. Luckily for Dustin, it’s not over just because Steve walked away. Steve was just as overwhelmed as Dustin at that moment. But people who love each other fight. And these two love each other.
Eleven’s Happy Ending
The conversation between Eleven, or maybe we should call her Jane for this, and Kali is a complete contrast to the conversation Jane had with Mike and Episode 1 of this season. In Episode 1 she talked about a possible happy ending away from Hawkins. One where she defined her future and this power business was on the back burner. And Kali acts as the wake-up call that none of us wanted to hear.
We, as the viewer, want Jane to be happy. We’ve been there since day one where she appeared out of nowhere, all tiny and scared. But these adults, they want that power. And they don’t care what kind of terrible pain they have to inflict on actual human beings, particularly women, to get what they want. Just so happens that Dr. Kay is a dollar store version of Dr. Brenner, who was also evil, but seemingly pretended to at least love them a little bit and treat the children like actual humans instead of blood bags.
But I still think Jane has a chance to achieve that happiness. Maybe it’s not Dr. Kay’s happy ending or Jane’s best case scenario happy ending. But we don’t watch these kinds of stories to accept there’s going to be only a bad ending. Jane is going to create her own happy ending. Maybe that will be with Will or maybe that will be with Hopper, who she was rightfully angry with because he had chosen to die without telling her. But whatever may come, Jane is going to live the rest of her life on her own terms. And that right there is a happy ending in itself.
Max Guiding Holly
In my never-ending appreciation for how Max and the gang have grown up, we spend the entirety of “Shock Jock” seeing Max guide Holly. Holly has gone through this incredibly traumatic thing, just like Max has. But Holly’s the younger one. She’s more vulnerable. And I love that Max, even in the middle of all of her heartache and loneliness, she guided Holly with the kind of gentle parenting maybe she wished that she had growing up. Or maybe she treated Holly the way she wished her sibling would’ve done.
“Shock Jock” also gave us a surprisingly delightful moment with Derek encountering Max and Holly. And it goes to show you that all you need is someone to show you some semblance of kindness and believe in you for you to change your life. For Derek, he just met Max and he has been an absolute menace to Holly. But he still chose to help. And helping them led to Holly and Max having a real chance of getting out of this illusion that Vecna has them trapped in.
My main concern now is what they’ll find at the end of the road for Holly. Because Max doesn’t know that Holly’s body is trapped in this creation by Vecna. She probably thinks that Holly is asleep in the hospital just like Max is. And I think that moment, that realization for Max that no matter if they get out, Holly is still trapped, is going to break Max. And it just goes to show you how strong of a woman Max is and how much she’s grown since the Mad Max we saw with her skateboard in the beginning of her journey on Stranger Things.
MORE: Already watched the next episode? Read our review for Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6!
Additional thoughts about Stranger Things “Shock Jock”:
- Nancy Wheeler has never met a problem that a gun couldn’t solve.
- Also Jonathan, we’re in the middle of a rescue mission and you want to talk about relationships?
- But it’s all about relationships isn’t it? Look at the tussle that Steve and Dustin had.
- I do think Nancy was right as well in calling out Jonathan for hesitating. He thinks that they are on one page, and she can tell that they’re on two separate ones. They really have no business possibly getting engaged.
- Kali is probably going to die but mannnnn I don’t want her too. She’s suffered just like Jane has. I want her to have her happy ending too.
- Shout out to Jamie Campbell Bower, he was absolutely terrifying coming down those stairs and also capturing delightful Derek. It’s like at the drop of a dime he completely transforms into someone so unrecognizable. Acting.
- Also shout out to Rockin’ Robin over here. She didn’t have someone to have these conversations about queer topics with. So she’s making sure that Will is not alone in this. Steve is great and all, but it takes someone queer to understand you a little bit better. And that’s what Will is.
- Hopefully the show will actually have Will have a conversation with his loved ones about his new found discovery before he (possibly) dies. And I’m talking about all his loved ones. That could be Joyce or Mike. Or even Lucas. But just like there was liberation in Will accepting himself in Episode 4, there’s liberation in letting others know you for who you are.
Stranger Things Season 5 Episodes 1 through 7 are now available on Netflix.
What did you think about Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 5 “Shock Jock”? Let us know in the comments below!
Read all our reviews for Stranger Things Season 5 below:
- Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 1 Review: “The Crawl”
- Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 2 Review: “The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler”
- Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 3 Review: “The Turnbow Trap”
- Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 4 Review: “Sorcerer”
- Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 5 Review: “Shock Jock”
- Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6 Review: “Escape From Camazotz”
- Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 7 Review: “The Bridge”
