As is tradition, Netflix has dropped a teaser for the upcoming new season of Stranger Things, revealing the titles for the next batch of episodes. Watch it above!
As for those episode titles, they are:
- “The Crawl”
- “The Vanishing Of…”
- “The Turnbow Trap”
- “Sorcerer”
- “Shock Jock”
- “Escape From Camazotz”
- “The Bridge”
- “The Rightside Up”
The next season of Stranger Things, the show's fifth, is also its last. What do these titles tell us about the final visit to Hawkins, Indiana? Sleuths on Reddit are already coming up with theories.
"The Crawl": We've known about this title for a while. My best guess is that it's a play on the idea of a dungeon crawl, games of Dungeons & Dragons having been important to the characters on Stranger Things for years. If you'll remember, the fourth season ended with the ooky-spooky Upside Down dimension leaking into our reality, so real life may well seem like a dungeon crawl to our characters.
"The Vanishing Of...": This is a pretty clear reference to the title of the Stranger Things series premiere, "The Vanishing Of Will Byers," wherein Will was snatched away to the Upside Down. No word on who might vanish this time.
"The Turnbow Trap": Fans have spotted the name "the Turnbow Land Development & Realty company" on a billboard in the Upside Down. Whatever the Turnbow Trap is, it probably relates to that company.
“Sorcerer”: This may be another Dungeons & Dragons reference. Both Will and Eleven have been associated with spell-casters throughout the series. It could also be a reference to Vecna, the wicked creature from the Upside Down who is serving as the main baddie heading into the final season.
“Shock Jock”: Remember that Stranger Things is set in the 1980s, when radio personalities known as shock jocks jolted people out of their sleepy sluggishness on their morning commutes. In season 5, we'll be exploring a new location: the WSQK Radio Station. This episode is probably set there.
“Escape From Camazotz”: This is the most intriguing title. “Camazotz” is a Mayan bat spirit in service to the lords of the underworld, which recalls the demobat demons the kids have fought in seasons past. Camazotz is also the name of the planet where IT, the evil villain from Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wrinkle in Time, resides. Given how much Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer love referencing pop culture, I'm betting they had the second meaning in mind.
As for the "escape" element, "Escape from Camazotz" recalls the title of the 1981 action movie Escape from New York, where New York City has been quarantined and turned into an open-air prison. Has the government quarantined Hawkins after the Upside Down leaked into it? The characters, dorks that they are, may refer to this new, cut-off Hawkins as "Camazotz." They do love their nick-names for stuff.
"The Bridge": This title is so general it could mean just about anything. Is it a literal bridge somewhere in Hawkins? A metaphysical bridge between realities, an emotional bridge between two characters? All of the above? No idea.
"The Rightside Up": And this one is pretty straightforward. For the whole of the show, the characters have been tormented by beings from the Upside Down dimension. One hopes that in the movie-length series finale, they can set things right...side up.
from the set of ST5 📷 #StrangerThingsDay pic.twitter.com/evRVBmBYzO
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) November 6, 2024
Stranger Things 5 will take place a year after the end of Stranger Things 4
This teaser also comes with a tag: “In the Fall of 1987, one last adventure begins.” Per The A.V. Club, the fourth season took place in March of 1986, so over a year will have passed when season 5 starts up.
If we're right and the government has quarantined Hawkins, that means the characters will have been living isolated from the rest of the world for a good long while when we catch up with them, and this after they spread all over the map in season 4. It raises questions about what will happen to characters like Max, who ended season 4 in a coma. Will she have been in that coma for the whole year, or will she already be up and about when we rejoin the group?
There are practical considerations, too. Many of the young cast members started working on the show just as they were hitting puberty and now they're in their early 20s. A time jump could help explain why they suddenly look so much more mature.
The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is due out on Netflix sometime next year.
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