Stranger Things Season 5 Random Review (Part 1b): Max, Vecna, and the Turning Point | Original Geek

In Part 2 of our Stranger Things Season 5 Random Review of the first four episodes, the dice take us straight into the emotional and structural heart of the season.

We roll a successful Sense Motive check and land on one of the most debated arcs of the series so far: Max’s coma, Vecna’s memory trap, and whether the show is flirting with a storytelling risk it can’t afford to miss.

We break down:

• Why Max’s storyline is powerful and dangerous if mishandled
• Lucas as the emotional anchor of the arc
• The Wrinkle in Time parallels and why they matter more than people think
• How Episode 4’s spectacle marks the true turning point of the season
• Why the military presence was never real protection to begin with
• Will’s connection, Vecna’s control, and the moment the show flips the table

This isn’t nitpicking.
 It’s a deep-cut, Gen X–grounded conversation about stakes, structure, and payoff.

🎲 This is Part 2 of our Stranger Things Random Review.
If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, start there—then roll back in.

🎙️ Original Geek — Gen X geek culture from people who lived it.
Hosted by Steve Scarfo and Jeff Shaw.

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Transcript

Steve Scarfo (00:00)
All right, welcome to the original geek random review. This is where we take movies, TV shows, and we roll a D20. We let fate decide the topic. We don't know if it's gonna be hits, misses, fights, or full blown fandom wars. There's no prep and no safety net. It's time to roll for review.

right, so ⁓ I have to roll for you again. So we don't usually do two of these when we do part of a bigger episode, but because this is such a unique situation, we're gonna do two. So I'm gonna roll for Jeff a second time.

And let's see, this time I got an eight successful sense motive. Ooh, the Max and a coma arc. This is an interesting one too. So Lucas loyally playing Kate Bush, ⁓ sitting with Max as he, we find out is trapped in Vecna's memories. ⁓ Emotionally very impactful, but it is a storytelling risk. The subplot, which keeps a fan favorite character alive is seen deeply moving and gives Lucas a strong, you know, it sort of.

shows his character because he stood by her or sat by her. However, it's also noted that the trapped in a memory concept is familiar and it risks being amiss if it's not resolved properly. What think?

Jeff (01:18)
Yeah, and I get that. You get the risk of that you've killed someone off, but not really. ⁓ I think that's okay. I think they get a pass because they've killed off plenty of people in the four and now five seasons of Stranger Things. So yeah, we lost, ⁓ my God, ⁓ Sean Austin's character. Like, good guy. ⁓ and Munson there. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (01:32)
Yes

Eddie Munson.

Jeff (01:47)
Eddie Munson,

like we've lost some good, good people over the season. So I think, um, Max being in a coma and, um, being, uh, going into, you know, being kind of trapped in those memories. think that, um, gets a pass except for one scene when she is coming out, she sees the whole, cause there's running up that hill is playing.

Steve Scarfo (01:51)
Yeah.

Jeff (02:16)
And Lucas is there. And so that's great. We got, we got that love interest. Her mom, nowhere to be seen, does not care. Lucas is there though. So that's good. And, um, playing, running up that hill and she's like staring at this opening. I'm like, run the second you see that you run into like, get like, like, Oh, it's dramatic. And that's my only, but I feel like.

Steve Scarfo (02:16)
Yes.

Yes.

Jeff (02:43)
They're not just going to keep like drawing that out because she immediately ⁓ is there as potential as savior for Holly. So I feel like this this this will be redeemed. This will be a great episode. And it's named after ⁓ Kamazats, which is that's how I pronounce it. When I read ⁓ Wrinkle in Time ⁓ like that's a Wrinkle in Time reference and that's a

Steve Scarfo (03:06)
Wrinkle in time.

Jeff (03:12)
Holly's reading that book and yeah, so I think that that really, ⁓ I think it's gonna be great. ⁓ Other than that one moment when she should have just run and dived. Of course then we don't have someone saving Holly, but there it is.

Steve Scarfo (03:28)
Yeah, yeah, they draw it out and they make it, they do make you feel like she's been searching for so long that she finally sees him and was like, oh, and what to us and to me too felt like a holy shit just keep moving moment. It was probably only supposed to be a few seconds, right, that she just like, by the time she was like, oh crap, I gotta go, it went out because the tape, it was the tape that stopped.

Jeff (03:45)
Yes.

Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (03:56)
So ⁓ there's a lot of theories online about the Holly, Max storyline. ⁓ Cam is out, so Wrinkle in Time, he calls himself Mr. What's It, ⁓ who is, I guess in the book it's Mrs. What's It, right? ⁓ So there's a lot of stuff happening there where I'm very interested to see. I've heard a lot of different thoughts. ⁓

Jeff (04:10)
Yeah, miss what's it and yeah.

Steve Scarfo (04:24)
Time travel has popped up a few times because there's a lot of time travel themed stuff. They keep referencing Back to the Future. They talk about the wormhole and the clock, the wrinkle in time they keep talking. And then the thing that Will draws where the kids are set up, there's gotta be 12 kids, which of course matches the grandfather. All of this stuff is in everybody's theories. We're not breaking any ground, but just putting it out there that.

Jeff (04:27)
Yes.

in the wrinkle in time.

Yes.

Steve Scarfo (04:52)
This is something that could be very cool. This is one of the things I'm most interested in, because I agree the whole dreamscape thing, ⁓ it could completely suck if they do it wrong. Do you know what mean? It's like when Who Shot JR became, it was just a dream all along. Like you guys suck.

Jeff (05:10)
Well,

yeah, ⁓ and I do think it's interesting because when it happened, I was a little like, that's weird that he's leaving a tape and a song for her to play because they had established that that was a protection, essentially. Like that's a way back. ⁓ That's how you stop Vecna from taking you or keeping you. It's the only thing that saved his dad. It saved...

Steve Scarfo (05:26)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff (05:39)
Max the first time around. now it's like, why is he Holly something to save herself? So like, I see like the argument that maybe the Henry aspect of Vecna, the Mr. Watzit aspect might be good, except he's still abducting kids. He still stole her and sent Demi-Gorgons to murder her parents, essentially. So, I mean.

Steve Scarfo (06:05)
Yes, yeah, yeah,

that's definitely part of that whole Henry, isn't?

Jeff (06:09)
So I,

question mark, but not sure. It's interesting. Should I roll for you? All right.

Steve Scarfo (06:15)
Yeah, it's crazy. I think you should. I

could just keep talking for hours.

Jeff (06:22)
All right, I rolled a 19 and this is the successful charisma check, the spectacle episode four climax, heavy visual effects in the ending moment, Will using his connection, a massive thrilling payoff episode four, often called the best of the four episodes, culminates in a spectacular high budget action.

Steve Scarfo (06:27)
Hmm

Jeff (06:50)
that critics say make them want to stand on a chair, yell with joy, providing the show can deliver massive hype on the massive hype. So what are your thoughts on that spectacle ending?

Steve Scarfo (07:00)
Yeah.

I'm gonna step back for half a second because of the standing on a chair reference. So in the Max stuff, Max shows up at the end of episode three. The whole thing with Holly plays out and who is this? We think she's being chased by a bad guy and at the very end you see Max, right? I watched a bunch of them but two or three of these were fan reactions to Max showing up.

So was like a split screen. They showed the pan up to see Max's face. And then on other side was people, and they were literally jumping out of their chairs. Like, I'm not gonna say I wasn't like, holy crap, that's awesome. But these people were doing literally that standing on their chair thing. So ⁓ it's funny that it's in this particular phrasing in this question, because I agree, this was also a standing on your chair. I haven't watched any reaction videos for this one. ⁓

Jeff (07:48)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (07:59)
But this was the premise for me of the whole, this is really where the story turns. I think the Duffers did a great job. They built the first half of, know, anyone who's done any kind of screenwriting, story writing, act one, act two, act three. This is the epitome of the central point of act two. We've got a lot of exposition. We know what's going on. A couple of things have happened and we're at the major turn for our movie, for our show.

And this is the turn because we've been led to believe by the huge amounts of exposition, the military presence, fortified walls, metal plates on the ground, armored soldiers everywhere that, okay, well, maybe they kind of have it under control. Maybe, honestly, it felt like a bit of a cheat for a couple episodes, because I got really this, after all this, we're just gonna, the military is gonna swoop in and this is the episode where you realize, shit, no.

because it was only like three or four demogorgons. It wasn't like an army of, like when Eddie went down with the ⁓ literal swarm of bats, they were small, but there were like hundreds of them that tore him apart, right? This was three or four demogorgons just tore through a huge military presence in their base. And so this moment is where you start to lose

Jeff (09:14)
Yep.

Steve Scarfo (09:27)
It was a cool, I liked, I think it was a very cool moment because we got both the despair and the hope in the same scene. Yeah, it was huge VFX. How do you do the show without huge VFX, by the way? ⁓ I did watch a lot of these. Vekna, I'm losing the kid's name right now, the guy who plays Vekna, he would literally go through four hours of makeup a day. And it was mostly him in the suit and then they would do some VFX on him.

You know, so when you see the veins, the vines, the vines crawling and growing, that's obviously VFX, but mostly he's really there in the suit. And the Demogorgons were, ⁓ they had stand-ins, stuff like they do for VFX, right? But thank you, Jamie Campbell Bauer, who's amazing in this. ⁓

Jeff (10:10)
Jamie Campbell Bous.

Yeah, he can do that voice

without assistance, which I think is one of the most amazing things. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (10:21)
He does, that's him. I saw that too. I was like, holy crap,

that's just, he's got that, I don't know, I can't do that Vecna voice. yeah, I mean, was a ton of VFX, but it was amazing. think the story turn, again, we find out that our protectors can't protect us. And then at the very last moment when we think, holy shit, here they go, because we're all expecting people to die, right? This isn't like The Walking Dead. This show is not shying away from killing characters. ⁓

Jeff (10:26)
That's amazing.

Steve Scarfo (10:51)
Even with the Max loophole, you know what mean? This was not, she still got tore up and technically died. ⁓ And everyone was like, wait, they killed Max? You killed Max, really? Because the kids, our kids, our group seemed to be immune, ⁓ but they weren't. And in the last moment, Will, of all people who's just been afflicted by his connection, can't control it, falls to the ground in pain, finally stands up and goes,

Jeff (10:56)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (11:21)
Nope.

Jeff (11:22)
Yeah, so for me, ⁓ some high special effects that I thought were a highlight here and a very low effect was equally as great. The demigorgons, like killing them all in the way that Vecna killed the humans that he killed with raising them up in the air and then snapping all their bones. Like that was super cool. Great special effect. However, the elimination of his bowl cut, low special effect.

But the tousled hair, the bull cut gone when he becomes who he really needs to be in fully actualized, powerful, sorcerer character. That bull cut's gone. Tossled hair. It's awesome. I don't want to see that bull cut ever again. And we need the tousled hair. Go, go Will.

Steve Scarfo (12:15)
They do talk a lot about the bowl cut. make fun of it in the show too. It's just funny. At one point, I think it's actually in.

Jeff (12:19)
It's A, transformed

like the Phoenix.

Steve Scarfo (12:24)
It's actually still there at the beginning of season five though, right? Because I think it's a

Jeff (12:28)
yeah, no, it's,

he falls to the ground with a bowl cut, rises up. It's, it's tousled. Yes. It's still a bowl cut, but instead of being those clean, that clean line all around, it's tousled.

Steve Scarfo (12:34)
and he's got the good cut. Right, but it's a little more stylish. Well, I think it's great, because when he goes

to the hospital, ⁓ Maya Hawke's character, ⁓ Robin, he finds her with her girlfriend and he runs, and then later she confronts him and he goes, yeah, and she goes, I thought that was your bowl cut. And he goes, yeah, they're not as popular as they used to be. And it was hysterical. ⁓

Jeff (12:52)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (13:05)
I I could keep going, but we're even edited. This is gonna be longer, but here's the deal. ⁓ This is a very cool spot because it's a show I've liked forever. I know you have too, and I think it's important to find out what you guys think. ⁓ wherever you see this, like, subscribe, follow us, add Original Geek.

Jeff (13:09)
Yeah, longer than we thought.

Steve Scarfo (13:34)
forzalineakpodcast.com. I will put the chart that we rolled on up on the website. So if you're interested in actually seeing what the other options were, go check them out. Maybe I'll even throw them up in a post on Facebook so you guys can just take a quick look. If there's something else you want us to talk about, let us know. ⁓ But I'm dying to see these last few episodes. Christmas Day is gonna be a little bloody for me because...

Jeff (13:47)
yeah, that's good idea.

Steve Scarfo (13:59)
I don't know that I'll be able to stop myself once, you know, once the kids get their presents and once we do, you know, dinner. But I think Stevie's gonna spend most of late Christmas night ⁓ as much.

Jeff (14:01)
Hahaha

And when it's

all said and done, last episode done, we'll have to do one more Stranger Things random review for the ending.

Steve Scarfo (14:21)
Yeah,

it'll be at 2026. It'll be our kickoff, because the last one doesn't come out until New Year's Eve. well, if you like our review, like I said, check us out. Like, subscribe, follow us. I'm @SteveScarfo everywhere.

Jeff (14:39)
Awesome. All right, OG's we will see you on the other side, on the upside down.