As we bask in the afterglow of Stranger Things season 5 volume 1, there’s a lot to think about while we wait for the next batch of episodes later this month. For one thing, it seems Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is potentially even more powerful than Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and, strangely, he has Robin (Maya Hawke) to thank for it — though that definitely wasn’t her intention.
First appearing in season 3, Robin quickly became a fan favorite and an example of what being a queer teen in the 1980s could be like. That’s why, when she sees the way Will looks at Mike, she understands on a level nobody else does. It reminds her of her first love, a girl named Tammy she thought was her perfect dream come true, only to realize she was building a fantasy world around someone who didn’t feel the same way.
“I would finally be able to be myself, you know? All of myself,” she says to Will in episode 4. “I thought if Tammy loved me, all of me, I wouldn’t be so scared anymore.” And while she was devastated that this fantasy dissolved before her eyes, a video recording of herself as a child, fearless and self-loving, helped her realize something. “It was never about tone-deaf Tammy,” Robin continues. “It was always just about me.”
Looking for answers in another person was pointless. She had the answers; she just needed to be brave enough to embrace them. Robin says this to Will because she sees the way he looks at Mike, a friend who will never become anything more. She sees her younger self in Will and, being slightly older and wiser, wants to help. And she does, though certainly not in the way anybody expected.
Stranger Things has never been shy about Will’s connection to the Upside Down, or his lack of control over that connection. In season 5, Will realizes that Vecna has maintained his grasp ever since their encounter in season 1. However, with Robin’s pep talk, Will finally understands the answers aren’t going to come from his mom or his friends. He’s had them inside all along. With a wave of his hands, he uses the powers imbued in him by Vecna’s hold, easily killing a trio of Demogorgons attempting to kill his friends.
It’s a spectacular moment and one that’s been a long time coming. Will’s experience is what started it all. And yet, the character was largely underserved until season four, when Will made it clear to the audience that he was in love with his best friend, Mike. That was a dramatic shift from earlier seasons, where Will sometimes felt like little more than a MacGuffin for the rest of the characters. Now, in the home stretch of the series, instead of fighting Vecna’s hold, he’s using it to access the monster’s powers and wield them as his own.
Still, with only four episodes of Stranger Things left — counting the feature-length finale — there is not a lot of real estate for major character development, especially when some of said real estate is being filled with even more new characters like Dipshit Derek, who is seemingly part of the gang now. And that’s not a complaint; he truly is Delightful Derek. Perhaps introducing him in the final hours of the series wasn’t the best idea, though.
Series creators the Duffer Brothers have set the table with Robin’s speech to Will. It’s up to them now to deliver a proper conclusion to that story. Will’s been through hell repeatedly since the first season of Stranger Things. If anyone in this entire story deserves a happy ending, it’s unquestionably him. But as Robin’s speech makes clear, that happy ending needs to go beyond just defeating Vecna and his evil forces. Will deserves to love himself for who he truly is, outside of the Upside Down, outside of his friends, and definitely outside of his relationship with Mike.
Stranger Things season 5, volume 2, comes to Netflix on Christmas Day, Dec. 25.
