13th March, 2026.“Escape From Camazotz”.An Introduction.
It’s Friday.
And, as I start this review?
I’ve got dinner cooking: as I’d rather start it sooner, than latter.
I have music, playing: Jarre’s Oxygène, in case you’re wondering.
And, once those are done with … ?
I’ll be watching “Escape From Camazotz”: the next episode of Stranger Things’ fifth series.
Remind me to look ‘Camazotz’ up by the end of this post.
~≈🐙≈~
As an ongoing thought, for those who’ve been following me for a while … ?
I’m in receipt of various welfare benefits: I get Universal Credit, and Personal Independence Payments if you’re curious.
Here in the UK, house-holders are liable to pay council tax: a tax on property, owed to the relevant local council, that pays for local services.
Last year, the first year I was on PIP?
I was pleasantly surprised: as I was getting that specific benefit, I was exempt from paying the tax.
My bill for this year has just come through: and confirmed I’m exempt from paying, this year.
I’m grateful: it’s one less thing to worry about.
~≈🐙≈~
To get back to my original point … ?
It’s Friday: which means it’s TV night.
So I’ll be watching “Escape From Camazotz”: then writing my review.
Hopefully?
You’ll be reading this by Tuesday, 17th March, 2026.
Hopefully, it’ll make sense!
~≈🐙≈~
14th March, 2026.Part One.The Summary.
Chapter 6 — “Escape From Camazotz” — picks up directly from “Shock Jock”: showing us a desperate Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), trying to warn Nancy (Natalia Dyer) not to shoot.
A warning that’s far too late: as, when we see Nancy and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) staring at a sky that bursts into hideous electrical life, as Nancy lowers the gun that’s shot at the object in the sky: and set of a huge storm unlike anything she, or Jonathan, have ever seen.
A storm that slows … then expands: to blow the bewildered pair through the holes in three floors, holes caused … by the melting of the very walls …
~≈🐙≈~
Meanwhile … ? Erica (Priah Ferguson) bangs on the door of her former physics teacher, to see if he can help the team.
Back in Hawkins, Will (Noah Schnapp) remains unconscious: whilst Mike, Robin, and Lucas (Finn Wolfhard, Maya Hawke and Caleb McLaughlin) theorise about why Will is out of action.
It’s Robin who realises that Will has found Holly and Max, trapped in Vecna’s mind construct: but That all three can escape, if helped.
That help? Is down to them.
The only fact the three are missing … ? Is a simple one: that Will is conscious, being menaced by Vecna … and very aware of Vecna’s next step …
~≈🐙≈~
14th March, 2026.Part Two.The Ending.
Now … what did I make of this episode, of “Escape From Camazotz”?
Of — possibly — the second-best cliffhanger of the season … ?
Well, the ending is a good place to start.
It shows us both Holly and Max (Nell Fischer and Sadie Sink) running for their respective exits: exits that leads to their respective loved ones, and that could potentially close on them, before closing to black, and the closing credits.
Additionally?
I’ve just called this the ‘second-best cliffhanger of the season’, I’m not sure that I should.
Partly … ?
Because listicles — lists of the ten best cliffhangers, the five scariest monsters, the most annoying pot holes — has always struck as a stupid thing to do.
As well as something you can do for yourself: my list will differ from yours, after all.
Suffice to say, the closing shots of the episode, of Max and Holly, running for their lives, gives “Escape From Camazotz” a suitably dramatic ending: and one that will make me come back for more.
~≈🐙≈~
I should also add this: that I’ve called the last three episodes, called “Shock Jock”, “Sorcerer” and “The Turnbow Trap”, heist movies.
The teams assemble, the planned heist gets explained, and the job … goes steadily wrong, from there.
By contrast … ?
By contrast, ‘a heist’ is the last thing I’d call “Escape From Camazotz”.
It’s …
Well, I don’t know what I’d call it.
Except, possibly, the middle eight, or bridge: the part of a song that’s significantly different to the rest, that allows for a change in direction … before returning to the main structure.
In this case?
If the previous three episodes were the verse, and chorus, then “Escape From Camazotz” is the instrumental: the needed change in direction, before a last verse, chorus, and big climax.
And, yes: I think I can justify that.
As “Escape From Camazotz” concentrates not on a series of heists … but on character moments.
At least, on closing off arcs that have been playing for a long time.
Dustin and Steve’s reconciliation is a wonderful thing to watch: with Keery, as Steve Henderson, managing an understated reaction to Dustin’s, to Gaten Matarazzo’s tearful confession, is restrained: and make’s the pair’s performance a wonder to watch.
Mike and El’s happy ending piece?
Whilst not necessarily the highlight of the episode, is, again, a wonderful thing to watch.
Just before the episode’s climax, we see Max (Sadie Sink) given Holly (Nell Fisher) the pep talk of a lifetime. The scene was one I felt was a touch clichéd … but none-the-less, well performed.
Hop and Joyce, talking about parenting … ?
Was just wonderful.
But the highlight of “Escape From Camazotz”?
Was Nancy and Jonathan, Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton’s Unproposal scene, was the scene where they finally end their relationship …
It was possibly the most heartbreaking moment in this series … !
Especially as Heaton, as Jonathan, has been underused in this last series.
Up until this one scene: he has played a blinder, here!
~≈🐙≈~
16th March, 2026.Part Three.Sideways.
I think I can go sideways, at this point.
And tell you the little I know … about the episode’s title.
Or, at least, about the little I know about the name, ‘Camazotz’.
When I first saw a list of Stranger Things episode title — at least, the episode titles for this fifth series — I noticed the name, ‘Camazotz’, and guessed it was something from Dungeons and Dragons.
The game has been a recurring touch-point for the whole series, after all.
And, yes: Camazotz gets mentioned in the Greyhawk setting
What I didn’t know was that the name also features in a children’s novel called A Wrinkle in Time: it’s the name of the planet where the novel is set, a planet, appropriately enough, controlled by an evil, psychic entity.
It turns out the book’s writer, and the creators of the Dungeons and Dragons Greyhawk setting, got the name from ancient Mayan mythology.
Apparently?
It’s an ancient Mayan bat deity.
Make of that, what you will.
~≈🐙≈~
Part Four.Finally.
So … what did I make of “Escape From Camazotz”?
Of an episode that makes for a change of emotional note?
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Granted, I preferred earlier episode of this series.
But I am very aware of a couple of things.
One?
That we need a change of pace at some point in a series: and that, for series five, “Escape From Camazotz” is that change.
Two?
We need to close off at least some of the arcs in various character relationships.
Nancy and Jonathan’s, in particular, need that.
Third? And finally?
We needed a bridge to the last two episodes: one that covers ground, tells us what’s happening in Hawkins Lab and tells us what’s been causing the problems for all these years.
That episode … ?
Is “Escape From Camazotz”: the episode is a bridge.
And a well made one, at that.
“Escape From Camazotz”★★★☆
~≈🐙≈~
Part Four.Until Next Time.
That?
Is where I’m going to leave things.
But I will thank you for reading this post: or watching the video version, if that’s what you’ve done.
There’s a few last things, though.
Feel free to have a look at the rest of my content, to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and follow Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar.
If you like what I’m doing, free free to tip.
And finally?
I’m going to be watching the seventh episode of Stranger Things Five, the appropriately named “The Bridge” on Friday, 20th March.
I’ll have my written and video reviews up by next Tuesday, at the very latest.
I’ll see you next time.
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