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In Part 2 of our Stranger Things Season 5 Random Review of the first four episodes, the dice take us straight into the emotional and structural heart of the season.

We roll a successful Sense Motive check and land on one of the most debated arcs of the series so far: Max’s coma, Vecna’s memory trap, and whether the show is flirting with a storytelling risk it can’t afford to miss.

We break down:

• Why Max’s storyline is powerful and dangerous if mishandled
• Lucas as the emotional anchor of the arc
• The Wrinkle in Time parallels and why they matter more than people think
• How Episode 4’s spectacle marks the true turning point of the season
• Why the military presence was never real protection to begin with
• Will’s connection, Vecna’s control, and the moment the show flips the table

This isn’t nitpicking.
It’s a deep-cut, Gen X–grounded conversation about stakes, structure, and payoff.

🎲 This is Part 2 of our Stranger Things Random Review.
If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, start there—then roll back in.

Welcome to Original Geek—the podcast for anyone who rolled their first d20 on shag carpet, waited hours for a comic book JPEG to load on dial-up, and wore the label “geek” back when it got you mocked, not monetized.

Hosted by stand-up comic Steve Scarfo and Forever DM Jeff Shaw, we dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the '70s and '80s—and how that underground culture became the mainstream multiverse we live in today.

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