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Endings are hard – waiting for endings is sometimes even harder. As sick as we are of waiting for the final season of Stranger Things to come to Netflix, we’re sure the cast and crew are sick of being asked about it. Not just because it is repetitive but because, on some level, the actors who have brought Hawkins to life probably don’t want to see Stranger Things come to an end. Just like their characters, they’ve become friends over the years and that is what makes the show work.

Think about your friendship circle, either now or when you were navigating the hormonal hellscape called high school. How many of those people would you travel to a parallel dimension to save? Fight the Mind Flayer or Vecna to bring them back to life? How many would do that for you? Probably not many, and that’s okay. Those kinds of friendships are rare, which is why shows like Stranger Things build themselves around presenting these relationships in such a light.

Of course, telling us that the Hawkins gang has this kind of friendship is one thing; the real art is convincing us and that is something the Duffer Brothers have apparently taken pains to foster within the Stranger Things cast. While they’ve been filming Stranger Things season five, the cast has been living in the same Atlanta neighborhood, allowing them to spend time with each other during their downtime. This is probably why Joe Keery has said of the final season, “It’s a great excuse for me to get to hang out with these people who have had such an important part in my own life. They’re like family at this point. So I love to see them, love to work with them, and hopefully we can get this thing out soon for people.”

When you follow the show as closely as we do, you get the sense that Keery isn’t putting on this friendship act for the cameras. In the six years since the show debuted, there haven’t been any major behind-the-scenes scandals. No major egos blowing up sets and disrupting filming. I can’t remember even hearing about tension on the set from a legitimate source. It feels like these young people (calling them kids now feels patronizing since they’re now in their 20s) have fostered a genuine friendship, which is why I believe them when they charge off into a murder dimension filled with tentacle monsters to save each other.

It is also why I have stopped being in a hurry for them to finish filming this final season. Barring a reunion event, a sequel series, or another show with very specific casting requirements, there will never be another time with all of these people are in the same place at the same time, working together on a show that has captured the public’s attention in such an intense way. Let these cast mates, who have clearly become friends, savor these few months as they spend their working days running from monsters and their downtime fostering the chemistry that has made the show such a success. Because even if we don’t all have friends like the Hawkins gang right now, the fact they even exist feels oddly comforting.

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"