Popverse's top stories of the day

• How the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier campfire scene encapsulated and inspired everything we love about the Marvel Studios movies & TV shows
• WATCH: Yellowstone: John Dutton's fate, Kevin Costner's exit, and season 5's biggest surprise revealed
• Creature Commandos at NYCC '24: The weirdest, wildest & Weasel-est moments from DC & Max's James Gunn-led panel

You can learn a lot from a title, so we’re excited to get confirmation of the Stranger Things season five episode titles. Each one gives a potential hint at what may come, but Netflix is typically coy about what each one means. Stranger Things is a series built on mystery, after all, so they can’t play their hand too soon.

Netflix has released the teaser trailer above, which shares the titles for all eight of season five’s expected episodes. Some appear to be references to the show’s D&D roots (The Crawl, Sorcerer) while others appear to hint at locations where the action might take place (Shock Jock, The Turnbow Trap, The Bridge). The most interesting, though, are The Vanishing of REDACTED and Escape from Camazotz.

In the Dungeons & Dragons lore that has featured so heavily in Stranger Things since season one, Camazotz is a creature from the Greyhawk setting. He is the god of bats and evil, so it makes sense that he’d be associated with the Upside Down. It is worth speculating that this hints at the return of Eddie Munson, but this time enthralled by Vecna in an undead form, though Joseph Quinn has (kind of) denied his return for the show’s final season.

The series began with Will Byer’s disappearance into the Upside Down and we know that the light board that his mother used to communicate with him during this time has been seen in some behind the scene’s photos, so it makes sense that Will or someone else will be trapped in the Upside Down again. Who the title refers to and how they got trapped remains to be seen. The first episode of the show is called The Vanishing of Will Byers, so this is almost certainly a reference to this and a full-circle moment for the series.

Speaking of full-circle moments, the final episode of Stranger Things season five is called The Rightside Up, a reference to the final episode of season one which was called The Upside Down. It could mean a return to normalcy for Hawkins after so long dealing with the horrors of the Upside Down, but it could also be talking about a place that is the polar opposite. Somewhere beyond our world that is peaceful and safe and filled with things that don’t want to eat you.

The Stranger Things season five episode titles (in order) are:

• Episode 1: The Crawl
• Episode 2: The Vanishing of REDACTED
• Episode 3: The Turnbow Trap
• Episode 4: Sorcerer
• Episode 5: Shock Jock
• Episode 6: Escape from Camazotz
• Episode 7: The Bridge
• Episode 8: The Rightside Up

Most of this is pure speculation on our part. There is no way of knowing what each title refers to until we see the final season of Stranger Things. That won’t happen until Netflix releases it sometime in 2025.

As we all collectively wait for Stranger Things season 5, here's the keys to getting ready:

• How to watch Stranger Things in chronological or release order
• Getting to know the Stranger Things season 5 cast
• There needs to be more death in Stranger Things, says co-star Gaten Matarazzo
• The Stranger Things time jump between season 4 and 5 has been confirmed by Netflix - and it raises some serious questions
• "They land the plane," David Harbour describes the Stranger Things finale, which he calls its "best episode"