Stranger Things Midseason-Finale Recap: The Kid With the Powers

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Okay, let’s talk about “Sorcerer,” but with a huge caveat: we’re only at the season’s halfway point! Seriously, the revelations just keep coming, each one more massive than the last, and it’s incredible considering we still have half a season to go. That action sequence in the MAC-Z? It felt like a finale-level set piece! Honestly, it’s leaving me completely drained – in the best way possible. I’m exhausted, emotionally and physically, and I can’t even imagine what the Duffer Brothers have planned for the rest of this season!

Usually, finding out what Max has been experiencing inside Henry’s mental prison would be a highlight, but this episode has so much going on that it feels less important. Sadie Sink does a great job delivering a lot of necessary information, but this storyline mostly serves as a pause in the action. Max explains everything that happened in season four to Holly, then fills her in on the events after Max’s death and revival, leading to her current comatose state. Essentially, Max figures out she’s stuck in a confusing labyrinth of Henry’s memories. We revisit the Hawkins Lab massacre (again), see a flashback to Hawkins High in 1959, and ultimately, Max finds herself confronting Henry’s memories of her.

Max nearly breaks free thanks to Lucas. Surprisingly, playing Kate Bush repeatedly at the hospital actually helps. When Max returns to the memory of the night Henry Creel attacked her, and hears the music, she finds a path to escape. She starts running, but the tape ends, and with the music gone, she’s trapped again. Lucas tries to rewind it quickly – a difficult task considering how old the tape player is – but Henry finds her before he can. Since then, she’s been hiding in a cave, a place or memory that Henry seems to fear, and won’t enter. (It’s reminiscent of the caves in Stranger Things: The First Shadow.) She’d given up on escaping the mental prison until Holly arrived. Holly has a plan, but needs more time. She sends Holly back to the Creel house, instructing her to act as if everything is normal.

While Max’s journey and eventual reunion with Lucas are significant, there are currently much more urgent problems happening throughout the rest of the story.

The Demogorgon finds the farm where Joyce, Will, Robin, and Erica are keeping the Turnbow family hostage, and immediately runs into Joyce, who is armed with a shovel. It’s clear the Demogorgon underestimated the mothers of Hawkins! Luckily, Joyce doesn’t have to fight it alone for long – Steve, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan arrive in the Beamer, crashing into the monster and forcing it to retreat through a gate that opens in a nearby silo. Steve continues to prove he’s a hero when it comes to saving people with vehicles. However, their victory is short-lived, as Will is deeply connected to the Demogorgon’s hive mind, meaning he feels the impact of the car crash just as much as the monster does.

It’s so frustrating watching the team! They’re completely focused on tracking the Demogorgon with that tag, and they have no clue poor Will is seriously hurt back at the barn. Then Steve gets this wild idea to drive through the gate at the silo, and honestly, I was relieved Nancy had his back – she just told him to go for it from the backseat. Seriously, these two need to just kiss already, but the timing is… complicated, to say the least.

Steve’s risky plan actually works, and they manage to enter the Upside Down, only to immediately crash into a massive wall. This crash, and the fact they’ve lost track of the Demogorgon, makes the already tense situation in the car even worse – everyone is upset with someone else. Despite this, they manage to contact Hopper and Eleven, asking Eleven for help getting the car unstuck. While Hopper and Eleven are busy with their own issues, Hopper provides a crucial piece of information: the tracking team has also hit the same wall, but in different locations. Dustin uses this information to figure out something complex – well beyond Steve and my understanding – that reveals the wall is actually a giant circle, with Hawkins Lab located at its center. It’s not a surprise that their journey is leading them back to the beginning, but it’s still exciting. They haven’t figured out how to get past the wall yet, but that’s a problem for another time.

Why are Hopper and Eleven focusing on a dangerous mission when their friends need help with a broken-down car? They’re determined to investigate a military base in the Upside Down, believing it’s where Vecna is being held. Hopper thinks this plan doesn’t make much sense, considering what they know about Vecna, but he supports Eleven anyway. He phrases it as wanting to see if their training will be useful, which is basically the same idea.

Getting into the base proves difficult, starting with the guards patrolling the perimeter. Eleven manages to leap over the fence and onto the roof, taking out a guard in the process, allowing the group to enter. However, this quickly alerts Dr. Kay, who is obsessed with Eleven, and she sends reinforcements. Once inside, Eleven is weakened by a powerful, amplified signal that disrupts her powers. Hopper steps in, easily defeating Kay’s men, but he’s suddenly captured by a vine from the Upside Down. Kay then begins to interrogate him while he’s being choked. She uses heat to torture him, exploiting the creatures of the Upside Down’s weakness. While Kay appears cruel and villainous when dealing with Hopper, her initial reaction to Eleven is surprisingly curious, leaving viewers to wonder if there’s more to her story and if a twist is coming.

Despite everything, Eleven manages to pull herself together and create a distraction, giving Hopper enough time to turn up the heat and free himself from the vines – a moment that seemed to remind him of past struggles. He quickly ties up Kay and takes her access card, which is the key to the vault. Eleven believes Vecna’s power is being drained and stored there. However, Hopper refuses to let Eleven confront Vecna. He tells her to find Nancy and connect with her, while he prepares to enter the vault alone. It’s then revealed Hopper has been secretly preparing for this moment – he’s rigged himself with dynamite as a last resort. He explains to Eleven that he can’t risk losing her. In a heartfelt scene, Hopper tells Eleven how proud he is of her and expresses his love, even calling her by her birth name, Jane. He is fully prepared to sacrifice himself.

Eleven calls out to Hopper as he heads down the hallway, but she can’t stop him with kryptonite radiating throughout the room. With his hand on the detonator, Hopper continues towards the vault, haunted by memories of Sarah. Is he really about to give his life?

Oh no, they tricked us again! Seriously, Stranger Things, how many times? It’s tough to stay mad when the reason Hopper didn’t sacrifice himself for his daughter is actually quite compelling. It wasn’t Vecna hooked up to the machine, but someone else entirely. The strange noises stop, and Eleven, who never actually left the lab and refused to abandon Hopper – a reveal that honestly made me cry – follows him down the hall and into the vault. There, she finds Eight, his sister, strapped to the machine.

That episode in season two where Eleven goes to find Eight wasn’t very good, but it does lead to something positive. After so much buildup, you might think, “It’s great we now have two people with superpowers to fight Vecna!” However, that turns out to be an overestimation – there’s actually one less superpowered person than we thought.

We still have to talk about Will the Wise.

When Will returns from experiencing the hive mind, he’s deeply shaken. He’s witnessed disturbing visions before, but this one is particularly horrific. Echoing a scene from season two, he frantically paints what he saw on the barn door: twelve massive red towers. He depicts Holly connected to one of these towers, similar to how he was connected in the library, and beside her are three other children Vecna has abducted while everyone was focused on Derek. If Will’s vision is accurate, Vecna intends to capture eight more children. The reasons behind targeting kids and the significance of the number twelve remain unclear, though Vecna’s obsession with clocks might provide a clue. We’ll likely need to wait for more answers.

Mike and Lucas burst into the barn with alarming news: multiple groups are now trying to find the children of Hawkins. Following Dr. Kay’s orders, the military has gathered the remaining 73 nine- and ten-year-olds in town and brought them to the MAC-Z barracks for safety. They believe Eleven is responsible for the disappearances, and Dr. Kay surprisingly admits she doesn’t care whether Eleven intends to hurt or help them. Regardless, all of Vecna’s potential victims are now in one location, and everyone realizes the military is powerless to stop the coming danger.

If you thought the Turnbow Trap was bad, prepare yourself. The team has devised an even more unsettling plan – this one involves kidnapping children, but this time, they’re taking inspiration from the movie The Great Escape. They’re sending Derek undercover at the MAC-Z facility, posing as a student. His mission is to identify which of the children have been spotted by Mr. Whatsit, as those kids are Vecna’s targets. Lucas perfectly captures how we’re all feeling, saying he can’t believe the world’s fate rests on Derek Turnbow. Despite everything, Joyce believes in Derek and encourages him to prove he’s capable of more than people expect.

While Derek keeps the children safe in the building, the rest of the team will use the tunnels running underneath it. They plan to break into a bathroom from below, signal Derek to begin bringing the kids to them, and then lead them through the tunnels to Murray’s truck for a quick escape from Hawkins.

Things are going smoothly for a while, and even Derek steps up when needed – everyone could use a friend like Joyce Byers! Surprisingly, there’s even time for some important emotional growth. Robin observes a conversation between Will and Mike where Mike starts to consider that Will might be able to control the hive mind, similar to Vecna. He suggests Will has natural abilities that could be helpful. Robin also clearly sees how much Will still loves Mike, which explains his interest in her relationship with Vickie.

As they walked through the tunnels, she slowed down and began to share her personal journey of self-discovery. She spoke about a past relationship with someone she called Tone-Deaf Tammy, explaining how losing Tammy felt like losing herself. She described watching an old video of her younger, confident self and realizing how much she’d changed. It sparked a realization that she’d been searching for answers about her identity, trying to understand why she felt incomplete and afraid of the truth. With tears in her eyes, she told Will, “I already knew the answers, I just needed to overcome my fear.” Once she did, she felt liberated and empowered. Will understood why she was sharing this with him, and even with everything else happening, her words resonated deeply and gave him exactly what he needed to hear.

The plan to rescue the eight kids from the barracks was going smoothly, despite some awkward and inappropriate jokes (it’s worrying that Lucas thinks it’s okay to joke about that!), until they accidentally hit a water pipe, flooding the bathroom. Even with a brave attempt from Will, Mike, and Derek, a snitching kid exposed them, and they were caught mid-rescue. Robin managed to get the first three kids to Murray, and Lucas followed close behind with two more through the tunnels. Unfortunately, Mike, Will, Joyce, and the remaining kids were trapped inside the MAC-Z.

That’s the signal – the Demogorgons are here. Whoever decided flickering lights should warn us of their arrival deserves an award; it instantly creates suspense and a chilling atmosphere. The lights in the MAC-Z start going wild, and Will can feel the hive mind buzzing at the back of his neck. The metal barrier they erected over the gate to the Upside Down, which seemed hopeful but ultimately foolish, proves useless. Demogorgons begin breaking through it, one after another. It was never strong enough to contain them. Dozens of soldiers try to fight them off, but as Derek pointed out, they’re completely outmatched.

The barrier between the real world and the Upside Down is weakening, and Demos are opening portals everywhere. Three emerge and pursue Murray, Robin, and three of Vecna’s former victims in a truck, while two more appear in the tunnels, trapping Lucas and two other kids. Meanwhile, at the MAC-Z facility, Mike tries to guide Joyce, Will, and the remaining children to safety, but Will is intensely feeling the effects of the soldiers’ attacks on the Demos. The entire scene is filmed with shaky handheld cameras, making it incredibly chaotic and intense.

For a brief time, it looks like the heroes might actually succeed. A soldier uses a flamethrower, disabling the Demos—and unfortunately, Will as well. It briefly seems like they have a chance at victory.

Vecna enters through the gate, and it’s clear he’s become even more powerful since we last saw him. He effortlessly throws people around and uses his mind to summon explosive devices, even completely incinerating Sullivan. He’s incredibly brutal, at one point impaling someone with his fingers and gouging out their eyes – a tactic he clearly enjoys.

Okay, so the tension really ratchets up here. Vecna unleashes his demonic creatures, the Demos, and starts snatching the kids he’s been targeting, pulling them into the Upside Down. Then, he gets right in front of Will – the one person he really wanted to confront. Joyce tries to intervene, bless her heart, but she’s just swatted aside like an annoyance. It’s chilling. Vecna then lifts Will into the air and lays out his twisted logic: kids are vulnerable, easily broken, and he can control them. He reveals that Will was his first successful experiment, saying he ‘broke so easily.’ It’s a truly terrifying moment, and we understand that Will wasn’t just a victim, but a key to unlocking Vecna’s power. Will proved to him what was possible.

The idea that children are helpless is actually the opposite of what Stranger Things is all about. The show has always focused on the courage of kids – they’re the ones who stand up for what’s right and don’t give up, even when facing danger. It’s fitting that the villain misjudges this, underestimating the most powerful characters, like Will Byers.

It was awful watching Vecna just drop Will like that and slip back into the Upside Down. It’s terrifying knowing he’s already got all the kids he needs for whatever he’s planning, and he’s sending them after Will’s friends! Seeing Will there on the ground, so broken… it was heartbreaking. But then he remembered what Robin said – that he already has the answers inside him. That if he stops being afraid and trusts himself, he can break free. It gave me so much hope to see him start to realize that.

The scene shifts to a home video showing young Will meeting Mike for the first time. We see him discovering his passion for drawing and building Castle Byers with Jonathan. He appears genuinely happy and carefree.

Just as the three Demogorgons are about to attack Will’s friends, Mike opens his eyes, bracing for the worst. But instead of being attacked, he sees one of the creatures frozen in mid-air, held back by an unseen force. He looks over at Will and realizes Will is the one stopping it. Will’s eyes are distant, as if he’s connected to another world, and he’s using a power similar to Eleven’s. He’s holding all three Demogorgons back, and then, just like Vecna, he breaks their bones, causing them to fall. Will collapses to his knees, wiping away a nosebleed. It’s clear Will has powers of his own, and he’s no longer afraid to use them.

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2025-11-28 22:58