Stranger Things season 5 Volume 2 uses that tension to show what the Upside Down really is now: not a battlefield, but a collapsing piece of architecture. That same “system” logic also reframes Vecna’s control. His influence is no longer framed like a curse that floats in the air. It runs along the hive network like a current.

"It gives me a headache trying to understand all this," Max (Sadie Sink) muses about midway through Stranger Things season 5, episode 7, titled "The Bridge."

Volume 2 of the final season gets into the real nitty gritty of what the Upside Down actually is and sets the stage for the final battle with Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten M...