Stranger Things Season 5's New Romance Highlights One Of The Show's Biggest Problems
This article contains spoilers for "Stranger Things" season 5, episode 6 — "Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz."
There are many great late-game additions into the world of "Stranger Things," and Maya Hawke's Robin Buckley is up there with the best. A key season 3 addition who makes friends with Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) as they drift through customer service jobs together, she soon becomes tangled in the supernatural mysteries that plague the show. Come season 5, Robin is the resident DJ at the Hawkins radio station WSQK and has finally gotten the girl: She's now happily together with her crush, Vickie Dunne (Amybeth McNulty).
Unfortunately, this happiness ends up becoming another moment in the highlight reel of an ongoing "Stranger Things" season 5 issue of the show's supporting characters pretending that nothing is wrong — despite a rift to Upside Down tearing the town in half at the end of "Stranger Things" season 4, volume 2, not to mention the fact that the town is actively surrounded and patrolled by a powerful military force. In "Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz," Robin meets Vickie at the hospital and attempts to explain the ongoing supernatural situation, which seems like the sensible thing to do in the conditions they live in. However, Vickie doesn't want to hear any of it; instead, she immediately assumes that Robin is on drugs.
It's great to see one of the best "Stranger Things" main characters finally get her career and romantic life together, even if it's in a military-controlled situation where the threat of Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) looms above all. It's just sad to see the show use the opportunity to make Vickie the latest recurring character to completely fail to notice that there clearly is something very fishy going on in Hawkins, Indiana.
Stranger Things still tries to pretend its status quo hasn't changed permanently
The end of the "Stranger Things" season 4 closer, "The Piggyback," shows ominous portals ripping through Hawkins as giant chasms that cause untold damage and all but confirm the Upside Down's increasing influence on Hawkins? Yeah, "Stranger Things" season 5 turned that wild cliffhanger into a massive disappointment.
Apart from the military presence, the ruins, and the massive metal strips that seal the chasms, Hawkins seems to be doing alright as far as John Q. Public is concerned. Every non-main character seems to have just accepted the military presence and the assorted weirdness, and goes on about their day as usual. Sure, the media portrayed those season 4 chasms as an earthquake, but somehow, the people of the town — many of whom must have witnessed the extremely ominous portals first-hand — just behave like there was nothing wrong in the world instead of drowning in worry, fear, and conspiracy theories like an average person might after being subjected to such sights.
Narratively, of course, the show's desire to keep the ordinary people largely oblivious to the horrors around them is understandable. That's how "Stranger Things" has always operated, so why not retain the theme for the swan song season? Still, it's uncomfortable to see the show turn Vickie into yet another example of a supporting character who refuses to believe a main character about the supernatural situation of the town's predicament despite all that's happened. Fortunately, Vickie understands the situation later in the episode, so maybe the people of Hawkins are able to see the truth of their predicament after all ... even if the main characters have to explain it to them one by one.
"Stranger Things" season 5, vol. 2 is streaming on Netflix.