Spoilers follow for the first four episodes of the fifth season of Stranger Things , which debuted November 26 on Netflix.

Stranger Things has stuck to a core maxim over five seasons: Anyone in Hawkins can be a hero. This time, it’s Karen Wheeler’s (Cara Buono) turn. In the dramatic fight scene during second episode “The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler,” Karen gets up close and personal with a Demogorgon, stabbing the monster over and over again with a broken wine bottle to save her youngest child, Holly (Nell Fisher). The fight ends with Holly getting taken into the Upside Down and Karen close to death, but the information she gives her other children, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard), about who took Holly guides the siblings and their friends closer to figuring out how to def

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