Fan theories have been emerging for years about how the long-awaited final season of Stranger Things would unfold. One thing was for certain: none of the outcomes of the fight against Vecna could be good. But if anyone had any doubts about how dark it would become, the graphic attack at the end of episode one (that escalates at the start of episode two) will swipe them out instantly. We are not in Hawkins anymore.
Major spoilers for Stranger Things season 5, episode 1 below
Stranger Things season 5 opens with a shocking, gory twist
The Netflix phenomenon has naturally matured as the child actors have grown up – and yes, they do look too old to be in high school, but just go with it – and Matt and Ross Duffer have never been afraid of leaning into the darker elements of this genre of sci-fi and horror. But there’s a distinctive shift in season five, when less than an hour into the season, there’s a savage attack on Ted (Joe Chrest), Karen (Cara Buono) and Holly (Nell Fisher) in the Wheeler family home by a Demogorgon.
Ted appeared on many fans kill list for Vecna. So, when he defended his family with a golf club against a Demogorgon, before being thrown through a wall to his death, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. His brief heroism – and the most action from Ted in all of the seasons – was over as quickly as it began. But as Holly and Karen attempt to flee, Karen slips in the kitchen with her still-dripping-wet feet from the bath and has no other choice but to face the monster too.
Despite her stoicism, Karen is a suburban housewife, so she does the only thing she can think to do: smash a wine bottle (which she downed the contents of earlier) and use it as a weapon. She even has her own Molly Weasley-style moment as she defiantly says: “Stay away from my daughter.”
As I watched this scene at the London premiere, the audience recoiled as the Demogorgon spliced through Karen’s stomach with one hand – in slow motion, the guts and blood drenching their kitchen – before delivering another devastating blow to her neck and face. In the series’ history, this is the first gruesome attack on a character we’ve known since the beginning (and within the first two episodes) and it’s hard not to feel profoundly shocked by this violent turn.
Since season one, Karen has been a supporting, but memorable addition to the ensemble whose character arc has grown across the seasons, as she came into her own as both a support for Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and as a woman who wants more from her life in the home. Her scenes have offered plenty of light relief over the years, as she flirts with Billy by the pool or finds joy at the nauseating fair rides, but she’s also been a source of comfort for Nancy (especially) as she begins to experience more of the sexism in the world.
The horror only deepens as Nancy arrives home to see a pool of blood and is confronted with her mother’s mangled body bleeding out on the kitchen floor. Unlike Joyce and Hopper, Karen has been predominantly shielded from the monstrosities in the upside down, but it also means she isn’t prepared for this fight. She hasn’t been training for months like Eleven or perfecting her aim with a shotgun like Nancy or been clued up on how best to fight a Demogorgon (with fire), so she never stood a chance. In an attempt to hold onto the final foundation of normalcy, Karen, Ted and Holly were left exposed and vulnerable and suffered horrendously for it.
In the past, it’s usually been a newcomer that has met their untimely end in a heroic attempt to fight against the evil in Hawkins, usually in the finale of each season. Bob (Sean Astin) was the victim of a shocking graphic death in season 2 by the demodogs, while Eddie was savaged by demobats (though many have speculated that he’ll return as a vampire in season 5). Billy’s end was another deep emotional blow, as despite being a complicated and sometimes unlikely man, he was Max’s brother and his loss had a profound impact on her in season 4.
Yet, the attack on the Wheeler household signals a tonal shift for the show, as it emphasises that nowhere is safe from Vecna now, not even their childhood homes. The Wheelers house provided refuge for Eleven, housed chaotic breakfasts and a place for the Byers to crash and was the place where the party’s Dungeons and Dragons games first began.
This attack in a supposed safe domestic space – contrasted with the everyday activity of Karen having a bath while listening to ABBA – shatters the show’s foundational comfort zone. It executed to perfection that the brutality of life-or-death scenarios in the upside-down (or experienced in the lab) now bleeds into every corner of their lives. These two worlds have completely merged now and one cannot be separated or kept safe from the other.
Karen’s attack is a warning that no one is safe now. She wasn’t a newcomer to the show, but a firm fixture right in the heart of this series. It raises the bar to ensure that the stakes have never been higher for this final season and intensifies the foreboding sense that audiences have that major deaths or attacks aren’t just possible, but very likely to happen. No one is untouchable anymore, and well, everyone (including the audience) is well and truly traumatised by it.
Let’s just hope the Duffer brothers don’t have Steve Harrington also marked on Vecna’s kill list…
The first four episodes of Stranger Things season 5 are available to stream on Netflix, with the next three episodes arriving on 26 December and the finale on 31 December.
