It’s been a long, long wait, but the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is almost here. Stranger Things season five debuts on Wednesday evening with four episodes making up the first of three parts of the show’s big finale. And, if you’re like us, you’ve been preparing for months. We’ve been recapping all four seasons of Stranger Things, going back to July. But, if you haven’t been quite as on top of things, the Duffer Brothers are here to help.
The Duffers are the creators of Stranger Things, and in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, they have given the four key episodes they think fans should rewatch before season five. If, of course, you can’t just watch everything. “If you’re going to rewatch anything, I would definitely rewatch those early seasons because it really is about tying [everything] back to seasons one and two,” Ross Duffer said. “[Those] are the seasons we referenced the most, because we really wanted this to be circular and to come full circle. There are a lot of mysteries we set up and then intentionally did not answer in those early seasons.”
But if you can’t watch even the first two seasons in the next 48 hours or so, here are the four episodes the Duffers recommend:
- “Will the Wise” from Stranger Things 2, episode four
- “The Spy,” also from Stranger Things 2, episode six
- “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” from Stranger Things 4, episode seven
- “The Piggyback” from Stranger Things 4, episode nine
That last one, being the most recent episode, is the only one that we can understand without even asking. As for the others?
“Season two is when we really started to build out the mythology and started to dive into everything, and how this was going to be an ongoing [series],” Matt Duffer said. “That’s where we started to really plant the seeds for the mythology, and I think probably that’s why that is as relevant as it is. Season four is also highly relevant—’Massacre at Hawkins Lab’ is a good one.”
“That [episode] starts unveiling some of the Upside Down mythology and starts giving some answers, and, of course, all the stuff with Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) continues to resonate throughout season five,” Ross Duffer added. “Those are some good ones to revisit.”
If you want to rewatch those episodes, head over to Netflix and do that. You can also read our recaps for season one, season two, season three, and season four here.
Stranger Things 5: Part One debuts at 8 p.m. ET on November 26. Part Two arrives on December 25, and the finale hits on December 31.
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