Stranger Things Season 5 does something very sneaky and very smart. It turns Season 2 of the show into the emotional and story backbone of the entire show. Not Season 1.

However, viewers were kept in the dark until season five's second batch of episodes, now streaming on Netflix.

It's certainly satisfying to get the answers about the Upside Down that have evaded audiences for so long, but, in some ways, all of these explanations come with a new set of questions.

After four-and-a-half seasons of questions prompted by “Stranger Things,” in Volume 2 of the show’s fifth and final season, creators Matt and Ross Duffer offered answers aplenty, while also setting up the potentially tragic stakes of the series finale.

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 explains the true nature of the Upside Down, the Abyss, and Vecna’s hidden world in simple terms.