The first five minutes of Stranger Things 5 were incredibly uncomfortable to watch

In celebration of the Stranger Things 5 premiere in Los Angeles on November 5, Netflix welcomed fans across the globe to join the action via a special livestream event. The night was full of amazing interviews with the cast and creative team behind the show, who offered up some teases of what to expect from the season. It also brought about a special surprise for the fans tuning in, bringing the debut of the first five minutes of the season premiere. 

Heading into the night, I couldn’t wait to see what the Duffer Brothers had in store for us, and was counting down the minutes until the first look at the Stranger Things 5 premiere dropped. Now that I’ve seen those five minutes, I wish I could unsee them. 

Warning, spoilers ahead. 

The season opens with us returning to the Upside Down as we see a de-aged Noah Schnapp taking refuge in Castle Byers as he sings “Should I Stay or Should I Go” to himself. As Will sings to himself, he begins to hear noises from outside and a Demogorgon bursts into the fort. 

Will is able to get away from the creature, racing off into the woods after shooting the Demogorgon with a hunting rifle. He climbs to the top of one of the trees in the Upside Down to try to get away from the creature, looking down below as the Demogorgon searches for him in the fog. It looks like Will managed to escape, but the creature quickly begins scaling the tree. Hoping to get away from the creature, Will tries to leap to another nearby tree but he fails to grab hold of the branch and falls to the ground. As Will’s world goes dark, so does the scene. 

We next cut to what appears to be the Hawkins Library – or rather the Upside Down version of the library – as the Demogorgon drags in an unconscious Will. The creature leaves Will lying on the ground as he begins to walk away and in walks Vecna. 

All of this is amazing, we’re getting to learn a pivotal piece of information in discovering Vecna met Will in the Upside Down, but that’s when things take an uncomfortable turn. 

“At long last, we can begin,” Vecna chillingly states as the tentacles that have engulfed the building hoist Will up against the wall. We then watch as a tentacle emerges and attaches to young Will’s mouth, pumping an unknown substance into his body as Vecna watches on. 

“You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William,” Vecna confides in Will as he strokes his face, all while the tentacle continues to pump more of the unknown substance into Will’s body via his mouth as he chokes it down. The clip then cuts away, leaving us with more questions than answers and also feeling more uncomfortable than I was prepared to feel after watching the first five minutes. 

It’s clear that this scene is designed to begin to tell the story of why Will was brought to the Upside Down all those years ago, but watching a young Will be – for lack of a better term – assaulted by the Vecna and the Upside Down made me feel icky and uncomfortable. It was just a weird scene to use to hype up the season and the sight of an unconscious minor having an unknown substance pumped into his mouth via a tentacle of the Upside Down was a bit too much for my taste. Could we really not come up with another way to depict the moment? 

Look, I’m excited for the final season and to see what the Duffer Brothers have cooked up. However, those first five minutes did not leave me wanting more. They left me wishing I could unsee what I just witnessed and cringing at the uncomfortable nature of the scene. I guess the good thing is we can only go up from here.