"Chapter Four: Sorcerer" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things. The 38th episode overall, the episode was directed by series creators The Duffer Brothers and written by Paul Dichter. It was released on November 26, 2025, on Netflix alongside the previous three episodes as the finale of season five's volume one.
Set in November 4 and 5, 1987, the episode features the military rounding up the local children, leading Joyce, Will, Mike, Lucas, and Robin to launch a daring plan in order to rescue them and protect them from Henry/Vecna. In the Upside Down, Eleven and Hopper seek to infiltrate the military lab and find out what Dr. Kay is hiding, while Max tells Holly about where she has been following her brief death.
The episode received critical acclaim, with praise aimed towards the directing and the performances (particularly Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Jake Connelly).
Plot Joyce, Will, Robin, and Erica attempt to convince a terrified Derek that they are trying to protect him and his family from monsters, though he insists that they are lying. He attempts to escape, but Will senses that a Demogorgon has found them. Joyce is able to hold it off long enough for Dustin, Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan to run over it with Steve's car. The Demogorgon flees into the Upside Down, and Steve's group follows it. Will sees a vision of Holly and three other children restrained by Henry, with eight additional empty spots. Under Dr. Kay's orders, the military begin collecting the Hawkins children and bringing them to the military base in a ploy to lure out Eleven. Will's group sends Derek to the base to identify which of the children have seen Henry, planning to evacuate them through secret tunnels and have Murray take them to safety before Henry comes for them. As the group moves through the tunnels, Mike suggests to Will that he may have more power over the Demogorgon hive mind than he realizes. Robin, seeing Will's feelings for Mike, tells Will that her romantic interest was interested in Steve, and that she learned to accept herself rather than rely on anyone else for validation.
In the Upside Down, Steve's car crashes into the mysterious wall. Eleven and Hopper scout the Upside Down military lab, planning to break in and discover what is hidden inside. They make contact with Steve's group, and Hopper tells them to stay put. Dustin learns that the wall forms a complete circle around the Upside Down, with Hawkins National Laboratory at its center. Eleven and Hopper infiltrate the lab, defeat Akers, and knocks Dr. Kay out before discovering that Kali Prasad / Eight is being held inside a vault.
Meanwhile, Max leads Holly to the cave where she has been hiding. Max explains that they are in a world made of Henry's memories. Max has been exploring the memories ever since her brief death, trying to escape; she almost made it back to the real world after hearing Lucas play her favorite song at the hospital, but Henry found her. Fleeing to the cave, Max discovered that Henry is unable to follow and believes it to be associated with a memory too terrifying for him to face. Once she saw Holly at Henry's house, she realized the two of them had another chance to escape, and advises her to return to the house and play along with Henry's plan for now.
At the military base, the group extracts the children, but are discovered by Sullivan. Three children make it to Murray's truck with Robin; Lucas leads two others through the tunnels, while Joyce, Will, and Mike are arrested with Derek and two other children. Will collapses, sensing something racing towards them. Several Demogorgons and Henry in his Vecna form burst from the Upside Down, massacring most of the guards and burning Sullivan nearly to death. Henry tells Will that he has targeted children because they are "perfect vessels" that he can reshape in his own image. He taunts Will by explaining that Will's abduction in 1983 taught him what was possible. Henry returns to the Upside Down, taking all eight children with him. Three Demogorgons prepare to kill Mike, Lucas, and Robin. Remembering his earlier conversation with Robin, Will's happiest childhood memories with Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike flash through his mind. This unleashes psychic abilities within him as he freezes the Demogorgons in midair and kills them, saving his friends.
Production On August 31, 2025, Ross Duffer posted to Instagram, confirming that "Sorcerer", along with episode three, "The Turnbow Trap", were complete. Regarding the episode, he teased, "'Sorcerer' is MASSIVE — as big as any finale we've ever done, and the most logistically insane shoot of our lives. We're still recovering".
Writing The episode was written by series producer Paul Dichter, marking his fifth writing credit on the show.
The Duffer Brothers stated that Will Byers having powers was something they had been planning for a long time, advising that, "it was something we always intended to do", and clarified that Will is able to channel Vecna's powers due to being in close proximity to him, rather than having powers himself like Eleven does. Matt Duffer noted that, "he taps into the hive mind, and then he can manipulate anything within the hive" which explains why he can control the Demogorgons, but could not, for example, open a door since that is not part of the hive. Of the reasons he accessed his powers in the fifth season, they adopted a "now or never" approach with this season being the final one and referenced Will's conversation with Robin Buckley as a major impetus for Will, explaining that, "we began talking about why now, and why is he able to do it now. Some of it is mythology-based in terms of the hive mind's closer than it's ever been for him. But most of what we were talking about was how has Will changed. Throughout the seasons, he's been a little more fearful than the others. He hasn't been a leader. He hasn't accepted himself in the way that some of our characters have. So I think it was really talking about if he really is able to at least start to accept himself for who he is, will that give him the kind of strength that he needs in order to access these powers?" The Brothers felt that the "high" of Will's powers contrasted well with the "low" of the children being taken by Vecna, and that it was clear that the reveal was the right time to end the season's first volume. Noah Schnapp, who portrays Will, spoke of his excitement when he read the script for the episode, referring to it as a "whiplash of a reveal" and noting that the Duffer Brothers had been teasing some "big stuff coming up" for him while they were writing the season. Due to the differences in Eleven and Will's powers, Schnapp wanted to alter his physicality to make the two visually distinct, and stated, "I consistently channeled a 6,000-pound silverback gorilla. I would watch videos of how they walk and how they move and breathe, and just grunt and imagine it as I'm getting into that to show that's not Baby Will in there." He described the moment as "an interwoven superhero coming-out story", reflecting on Will's conversation with Robin earlier in the episode helping him to feel more confident in his identity, as well as his own public coming out as a gay man in 2023. He described Will as "one of the best gay characters we've ever received in media" and that "accepting his identity allowed him to unleash this strength within him. That's a trope that that goes way beyond queerness, and I think can resonate with so many people". This point in the season culminates when Will truly starts to embrace himself after spending the entire last season struggling with his feelings, which the Duffers crafting its story arc to this specific moment because Will realizes that his deepest secret is what Vecna preys him with due to his fears of rejection, eventually leading to his coming out scene in "Chapter Seven: The Bridge".
Regarding the reveal of where Max Mayfield has been hiding in the Upside Down, the Duffers explained, "we knew she was trapped in Vecna's mindscape, and we knew that was going to be part of her journey, at least for Season 5. But it finally clicked when we realized that Holly could be there as well, and then the other kids. That's when her storyline really came to life", and stating that the concept of a mindscape was partially inspired by the Tarsem Singh film The Cell (2000). Sadie Sink stated that she was "curious" about Max's storyline in the season, following her falling into a coma at the end of the fourth season and spoke positively of working with Nell Fisher and Jamie Campbell Bower.
When discussing the reveal of Eight, Ross Duffer stated that they partially chose to bring back the character because they didn't want the audience to feel frustrated that a storyline had been "dropped" after the second season with no resolution, that they also believed that her actress Linnea Berthelsen hadn't been served well by her season two appearance, feeling that the character's presence "really helped" them to wrap up Eleven's story. Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven, echoed their sentiments, stating, "I didn't know that she was coming back, so when I read it I was like, oh my god! Kali! It just felt like that storyline started and never actually got the closure it deserved. So I'm really excited. I think what's really exciting about the next volume is that she's back for a reason and it's pretty impactful". The Duffers specifically chose to bring Kali back to emphasize the dual threats that have been present in the show's run since the first season, with someone always replacing Dr. Martin Brenner, with Dr. Kay being that one this time around, so they opted to reunite Eleven with Kali so she could serve as a pessimistic but perhaps realistic contrast to her boyfriend's "butterflies and rainbows" worldview of what to do after dealing with Vecna, servicing Eleven's character arc leading up to the series finale.
Filming