Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2: The Ending and Plan to Defeat Vecna, Explained

Warning: Stranger Things season 5, volume 2 spoilers, ahead.

Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) spoke for all of us when he was begging Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) not to get himself killed in episode six of Stranger Things season five. Unfortunately, their little “you die, I die” pact towards the end of episode seven means we’ll still be biting our nails throughout the two-hour-plus series finale that drops on New Years Eve.

Until then, we need to talk about everything that went down in the most recent batch of Stranger Things episodes. Okay, maybe not everything, given that there was over three hours of conflict and catharsis to parse through and we still haven’t saved Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) or even made it very far into The Party’s plan to save Hawkins and the world from merging with the Abyss (more on that in a minute).

For now, we can certainly explain their somewhat convoluted plan to take down Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), as well as what happened between Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) in that un-proposal scene, in case anyone is confused. Here’s what you need to know before the Stranger Things crew embarks on one last crawl.

Karen Wheeler saves the day, so the Party can save the world

I want to start by shouting out the MVP of episode six. After Vecna invaded Will Byer’s (Noah Schnapp) mind to find Max Mayfield’s (Sadie Sink) body in the real world, he sent a horde of Demodogs to her hospital room in Hawkins. Lucky for Max, Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) and her girlfriend Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) were able to warn Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) over the intercom to give them a chance to escape.

Unfortunately, the group was eventually cornered in the hospital’s laundry room and things were looking bleak…until BAM! Mrs. Wheeler (Cara Buono) limped out of her own hospital room to save the day by putting an oxygen tank in a machine dryer and blowing up the Demodogs. She was still too injured to join her son, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), and his friends on their quest to save Holly, but we think she earned a break.

Nancy and Jonathan broke up

Finally! Upon the brink of drowning in milky goo, Nancy and Jonathan admitted that, despite their love for one another, the relationship was floundering and they’d both been lying to themselves in an attempt to hold onto a feeling of safety after experiencing shared trauma. In what must be the most romantic breakup move of all time, Jonathan pulls out the engagement ring he thought would fix things, asking, “will you not marry me?” Once he throws the ring into the rising fluids, however, they both realize it’s hardened and are able to safely escape.