Stranger Things 5: The Quiet Trauma We’re Not Talking About Enough
- Heartscape Psychology
- Dec 6, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 8, 2025
By Heartscape Intern, Adele Phua
WARNING!!! Spoilers Ahead (Episodes 1–4)
The much anticipated fifth and final season of Stranger Things has finally arrived, and it’s safe to say that we are really feeling the emotional turmoil of the past nine years. Even though there are still a few episodes and the finale to come, it is already evident that the focus of the story has shifted.
The plot is no longer driven primarily by the visible wrath and danger of demogorgons and the Upside Down. Instead, Season 5 lingers in the quieter, heavier psychological reality of what it means to live in constant survival mode for so long.
From the beginning, Stranger Things followed a group of adventurous and lively children who became repeatedly exposed to threats far beyond what they were developmentally equipped to process. They moved rapidly from one crisis to the next, keeping both the characters and us as viewers in a constant state of alert. This fear was immediate, external, and relentless.
Now, we are instead asked to witness the characters living with the emotional wounds of what they have lost.
Dustin grieves Eddie by externalising his anger and relentlessly pursuing his bullies. Lucas carries overwhelming guilt about Max’s condition and spends every moment at her bedside, unable to move on. These beloved characters are no longer learning how to survive danger, but how to exist after traumatic events that cannot be undone.
This mirrors what adolescent psychology has consistently shown; chronic stress during childhood and adolescence is strongly associated with long-term difficulties in emotional regulation, relationships, and perseverance (McLaughlin et al., 2010). Crucially, they also tend to maintain a high level of social functioning and academic achievement, despite experiencing significant internal distress.
Season 5 captures this dissonance between what is seen and what is felt with devastating accuracy.
Max IS the Emotional Core of the Season
I wholeheartedly believe that Max’s storyline is one of the most grounded portrayals of adolescent grief on television. Following the death of her brother Billy, she feels immense guilt and begins to distance herself as a form of punishment and emotional protection.
We gradually see her detach from the world around her, despite the fact that her pain is never explicitly verbalised. Instead, it emerges as physical isolation, withdrawal, and emotional vulnerability that ultimately renders her more vulnerable to Vecna’s control.
This response is well documented in bereavement research. After sudden or traumatic loss, many adolescents internalise distress rather than express it openly. When grief remains unsupported or suppressed, the risk of depression, anxiety, and intrusive stress-related symptoms rises significantly (Melhem et al., 2013).
Although last season's bone-breaking scenes are hard to forget, what happens to Max is not exaggerated for television. Her quiet suffering reflects how grief often unfolds in young people who are still learning how to name and carry their trauma into adulthood.
How is Max doing now though?
One of the most notable dialogues of this season (so far) occurs when Max states 3 ways to interpret her situation:
she could give up,
accept being trapped,
or continue to fight for freedom.
Her decision to continue to escape does not come from an absence of fear, but from recalling her memories with Lucas and the hope seeing her friends again. Her connections anchor her to the outside world and remind her of who she is beyond her traumas and circumstances.
Resilience research refers to this process as active coping. This is defined as the ability to remain engaged in caring, meaningful relationships even while experiencing significant psychological distress (Masten, 2014).
By witnessing Max’s survival from last season (praise Kate Bush!), she redefines emotional resilience as her own decision to remain connected and caring despite her fears.
Vecna as a Metaphor for Trauma
This season provides the revelation that Max’s consciousness is actually trapped inside Vecna’s mind, while her physical body remains motionless. As she runs endlessly through his childhood memories, we are presented with a haunting depiction of what it feels like to be trapped inside a mental loop of ruminating thoughts.
This sense of psychological immobilisation is a recognised feature of trauma-related states (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). Survivors often describe themselves as being highly aware of their distress while simultaneously feeling an absence of agency.
We also see that what weakens Vecna’s ability to enter minds is not the character's physical strength, but their connections. Each time someone begins to fall under his psychological trance, they are brought back to reality through presence of another person or through music that evokes their happiest memories.
Ultimately, the strained and imperfect bonds between the characters do not erase what they have been through; they simply make the emotional weight of their trauma more bearable. Social support through stable, meaningful relationships are a significantly powerful protective buffer against the long-term effects of adversities faced during childhood and adolescence (Masten & Barnes, 2018).
Holly Wheeler, Our New Favorite Character (and Vecnas...)
Most notably, Vecna’s presence this season is less defined by physical violence but more by his psychological access to young adolescence. He does not target his victims randomly — he seeks out those who carry guilt, unresolved grief, and emotional vulnerability.
We see this most clearly in his attempt to prey on Holly Wheeler, the younger sister of Nancy and Mike, who is all grown up. Although she has remained oblivious to the Upside Down until this season, Holly is already fighting to be taken seriously by those closest to her.
After witnessing repeated arguments between her parents regarding her so-called “delusions,” she begins to feel increasingly anxious and overlooked at home. She tries to speak about what she is seeing and sensing, but her fears are immediately dismissed as being 'imaginations' or just childish 'fantasy'. This drives Holly to isolate herself from her family, and she begins doubting whether her own feelings can be trusted.
All to our dismay, it is revealed that Vecna is Mr. Whatsit — Holly’s imaginary friend who she has been confiding in. He then proceeds to imprison her not through brute force, but by exploiting her developmental need for belonging and validation.
This reflects a central psychological reality of emotional distress, which accumulates around unprocessed traumatic experiences. Adolescents who internalise losses or ambiguous situations as their fault are significantly more susceptible to anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and cycles of self-blame (Compas et al., 2017).
I fear that the main battleground of Stranger Things 5 is no longer the Upside Down, but the internal minds of the characters.
So...what should we take away from the final few episodes?
Ultimately, this final season of Stranger Things reminds us that trauma, especially in adolescence, may not appear as dramatic breakdowns or outward rebellion.
More often, it appears subtly through quiet withdrawal, emotional distance, or the ability to keep functioning while feeling increasingly disconnected from oneself. Such covert forms of suffering are easy to overlook precisely because they are less visible to others.
If you recognise yourself or someone else in these patterns, remember that internalised distress carries the same psychological weight as visible pain and does not need to be loud to be real.
As we move toward the final conclusion of the series, the characters’ journeys remind us that surviving trauma is not just about getting through what almost broke you. It is about recognising the adversities we’ve overcome — and learning to let those we love help carry some of that weight.
All the best in watching the final episodes :)
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.; DSM-5-TR). American Psychiatric Publishing.
Compas, B. E., Jaser, S. S., Bettis, A. H., Watson, K. H., Gruhn, M. A., Dunbar, J. P., Williams, E., & Thigpen, J. C. (2017). Coping, emotion regulation, and psychopathology in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis and narrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 143(9), 939– 991. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000110
Entertainment Weekly. (2025). Jamie Campbell Bower unpacks Vecna’s Stranger Things 5
Deadline. (2025). Stranger Things 5: Max alive in Henry’s mindscape, Sadie Sink & cast
confirm. https://deadline.com/2025/11/stranger-things-5-max-alive-henrys-mindscape-sadie-sink-1236627416/
Masten, A. S. (2014). Ordinary magic: Resilience in development. Guilford Press.
Masten, A. S., & Barnes, A. J. (2018). Resilience in children: Developmental perspectives. Children, 5(7), Article 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/children5070098
McLaughlin, K. A., Green, J. G., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychiatric disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication I: Associations with first onset of DSM-IV disorders. Psychological Medicine, 40(5), 847–859. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709991117
Melhem, N. M., Porta, G., Shamseddeen, W., Payne, M. W., & Brent, D. A. (2011). Grief in children and adolescents bereaved by sudden parental death. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(9), 911–919. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.101
ScreenRant. (2025). Stranger Things season 5: Holly Upside-Down lights demogorgon mystery. https://screenrant.com/stranger-things-season-5-holly-upside-down-lights-demogorgon-mystery/
The Hollywood Reporter. (2025). Stranger Things season 5 review. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/stranger-things-season-5-review-netflix-1236435461/
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