First Things First…
I’m psyched to finally, fully catch up on this show, and to see how this season wraps up!
I’m not expecting resolution with Vecna, although I guess it could happen. I’m also anxious to see if something more comes of Dustin’s theory about the Mind Flayer still being the Big Bad of the whole series.
Besides that, I’ll just be happy to—hopefully, finally—have everyone back in Hawkins.
10 Things I Like
10. The Start of Something Beautiful
After returning last episode with boyfriend in tow, Vickie is here again at the end of this episode. She’s volunteering in the disaster relief in the exact same spot Robin gets assigned to—making PB&J sandwiches.
After an awkward greeting, we finally get a sense of Vickie’s personality. Turns out, she’s another Robin. She talks a mile a minute, rambles, and gives way too much information—and it’s all very cute.
During her rambling, we learn she and her boyfriend have broken up. And though we don’t know for sure that Vickie likes girls, there’s a spark between her and Robin—just like we’ve glimpsed in the past.
Seeing Robin in a relationship would be a lot of fun. And I’m curious how two people who are so similar would work together. I’d like to see this turn into something next season.
9. Holy Shit—Argyle Comes Through AGAIN
“I know a magical place that has all you need, my brave little superpowered friend.”
Argyle
I can’t believe it… this is two episodes in a row where Argyle is useful!
This time, he comes up with the idea of going to a Surfer Boy Pizza for El to do the “piggyback” because they’ll have a giant freezer that can be turned into a tub, and they’ll have enough salt.
And if having the idea wasn’t enough, he helps procure use of the kitchen because the dude closing up the restaurant for the night could be his long-lost brother. Argyle speaks the same lingo. And his Purple Palm Tree Delight—along with a little ingenuity from Jonathan—seals the deal.
It’s another good moment that makes Argyle feel like an important part of the team.
8. Reunions (Emotional AND Awkward)
Everyone reunites in Hawkins far later than I wanted them to. But it’s good to see them together again.
Hopper and El have the most emotional reunion because this is when she learns he’s still alive. Mike and his mom have a surprisingly emotional reunion because this is probably the first time in the whole series we see him act lovingly toward her.
But the most interesting reunion is the awkward one between Nancy and Jonathan.
I’ve never been a big fan of their storylines together, including earlier this season when they were totally not on the same page. But now, with Steve reforming their love triangle from earlier seasons, it’s actually interesting.
In particular, Jonathan says something about them having to babysit Steve if they’d been together through everything that just happened, and Nancy defends Steve, saying he’s grown up a lot. Forget being a badass—that’s less important. More important is that Steve is a leader, and he’s as courageous as they come.
Meanwhile, Jonathan is still lying to Nancy, and still worrying about losing her. At this point, it’s clear that not only does Nancy prefer Steve, but Steve is the better, smarter choice for her.
7. Being a Big Brother Again
It’s fascinating that Jonathan still hasn’t grown up and told Nancy the truth—he’s still hiding from his own problems—after he was amazing with Will.
Jonathan tells Will he misses Will coming to him for help. He takes responsibility for being distant, and he says NOTHING could ever make him not be there for Will.
Again, it’s all in the subtext. Jonathan never explicitly says he’ll still love Will even if he’s gay, but in telling him that he’ll love him and be there for him NO MATTER WHAT, it’s clear that’s what he’s saying.
Regardless of the reasons, it’s good to get these two talking like this again and being there for each other. Jonathan has always been at his best as Will’s loving, protective big brother.
6. Battling Vecna, Buoyed by Love
I thought the fight with Vecna would be higher because it’s such a big part of the episode. But although I liked it… and it’s cool to see them battle in Max’s memory and then in Vecna’s reddish hellscape… it’s a little weird because it doesn’t seem like an evenly matched, back-and-forth fight. It’s more like, El is way stronger at first, then Vecna is way stronger—so much so that he has El trapped by vines as he tortures Max—but then, as El is strengthened by Mike professing his love for her, she escapes her shackles and easily overpowers Vecna.
The weirdness of how the fight plays out isn’t enough to make me take it out of this category, because I enjoyed the scenes. And the idea that love strengthens El is a consistent theme. But it’s odd, and not as epic as I hoped it would be.
5. Cuteness Overload
Max and Lucas have a great scene in the Creel house, waiting for their cue so Max can bait Vecna.
Tension is crazy-high, considering how dangerous what they’re about to try is. And to ease that tension—and because they’re not allowed to talk—they use pads and markers to communicate
It starts with a simple, “Hi,” and then, “I’m glad you’re here.”
But soon, Lucas gathers up his courage and asks Max out to see a movie together. He takes a big deep breath and nervously waits as she responds, even trying to peek over the top of her pad to see what she’s writing.
It’s a goofy picture of them holding hands. It’s perfect for the moment. And it makes Max’s fate all the more heartbreaking.
4. Vecna’s Vessel
They usually do a nice job of teasing the next season in the season finale. This is no different.
When they’re back in Hawkins at the end, Will reveals that Vecna isn’t dead. He’s hurt, and licking his wounds, but not dead. And he’s coming back.
Will’s voice and demeanor change radically as soon as he tells Mike he’s been able to feel Vecna since they got back to Hawkins. And he reaches for the back of his neck while goosebumps pop up, which is shorthand for him feeling Vecna’s presence.
Now that we know about the Vecna/Mind Flayer connection, there’s a strong chance Will becomes possessed again. I don’t know if there’s something special about him, or if it’s all related to his time in the Upside Down in Season 1, but he seems marked to be Vecna’s vessel.
I’ve often said I think Noah Schnapp is the best actor of all the kids, but Will was sidelined a bit this season as the California storyline took a backseat to the horror in Hawkins, El with the doctors, and even the Russia plots. But it seems he’ll be central to Season 5, which is probably the endgame. I’m excited for this to play out.
3. Eddie’s Sacrifice
Any of my top three for this episode could’ve easily been #1, including this.
Even though Eddie is a new character this season, he made a huge impact. And seeing him go out heroically, helping make this plan work and running straight into danger instead of running away from it, is beautiful. It was clear the past few episodes that, despite Eddie’s fear, he didn’t feel good about himself because he wasn’t facing things head on. Now, he goes out like an absolute champ. And at least Dustin got to witness it and tell him he did good, and then share Eddie’s heroics with Mr. Munson later.
2. Max’s Gambit
Max serves herself up to Vecna to try to make Vecna vulnerable in the Upside Down while attacking her psychically. But Vecna sniffs out their plan, and Jason finds them at the Creel house and incapacitates Lucas—Max’s failsafe—at the absolute worst time.
It all leads to an electrifying scene where Max rises like a marionette, her limbs snap, and though she doesn’t lose her eyes, she’s blinded before dying in Lucas’ arms.
Ultimately, El literally brings her back to life, but she’s in a coma that doctors say she might never come out of.
Of course, I’m pretty sure she will come out of it—if not when Season 5 begins, then certainly at some point during the season. I don’t know what type of role she’ll play, but they really raised the stakes by doing something so horrific to her.
1. Master of Puppets
“It’s like… she was destined for an alternate dimension.”
Eddie
This is a precursor to Eddie’s death scene. And I loved Eddie shredding on his Upside Down guitar on top of his trailer, drawing the bats away from the Creel house so Steve, Robin, and Nancy could infiltrate Vecna’s lair.
“Master of Puppets” is the perfect song to use here—firstly, because it’s awesome, and Eddie is guaranteed to be a Metallica fan, but also because it fits the idea of Vecna being the puppet master, pulling everyone’s strings all along, not just this season but in previous seasons.
And we don’t just watch Eddie the entire time he plays. We get an incredible montage that cuts from Eddie… to Max being chased through her memories by Vecna, which feels like a sinister Scooby-Doo sequence, where every door she opens is a dead end… to Erica being chased and subdued by one of the basketball players. This is a pantheon Stranger Things scene.
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. Lucas Vs Jason
“I thought I wanted to be like you. Popular. Normal. But it turns out, normal’s just a raging psychopath.”
Lucas
Jason seems like a minor threat when compared with Vecna. But in the real world, he can still shoot a gun and kill people, so he’s a real threat. That’s why I’m glad they paid off this storyline by making him a factor of consequence. If not for him, things might not have gotten so dire for Max, because Lucas would’ve been ready with the Kate Bush as soon as she started rising off the floor, just like he promised.
But I do have one major problem with it. Lucas gets his ass kicked the whole time, and rightly so. Jason isn’t that big, but he’s older, more athletic, and a raging psycho. But Lucas makes his comeback by knocking Jason out with just a few punches. It’s unrealistic and feels like a poorly executed way to finally get Lucas over to help Max.
1. The Vecna/Mind Flayer Relationship
I’m not sure I entirely understand how these two relate. When Vecna tells his story, they comment that it’s been him all along, and they talk about him as if he IS the Mind Flayer. But when he explored the Upside Down, he found that shadow dust that we came to know as the Mind Flayer—the stuff that possessed Will in Season 2, and that we see some of in the Russian lab. So they’re clearly two separate entities.
Is it just that Vecna controls that shadow dust? Like, it wasn’t literally Vecna crossing over into Hawkins to possess Will (or Billy in Season 3), but he was pulling the strings? I want to be able to make sense of this.
3 Things I Don’t Like
3. Do the Parents Care?
Last we saw Dustin’s mom and Lucas and Erica’s parents, their kids ran away midway through a police questioning after they’d been caught at a murder site the night after a murder. Erica even slashed a cop car’s tire as they left. Days have now passed, and we don’t know if they were frantically searching for their kids, or furious with them, or what.
And with the opening of the gates, things are even more dire in Hawkins. But again, we have nothing from these parents, and they have no explanation for their kids’ actions. At this point, this feels like an egregious blind spot for the show.
2. Prison Break-in
“There is a fine line between courage and stupidity, and this falls very far on the side of stupid.”
Murray
The episode opens in Russia, with this storyline, and it immediately dampened my excitement.
Here I thought we’d finally have Hopper, Joyce, and Murray fighting side by side with the kids.
Nope.
When they realize they can’t make it home in time to help the kids fight Vecna, they break back into the prison to fight the demo-dogs and shadow smoke. Their thinking is that, with the Upside Down’s hive mind, this is their best chance of giving the kids an upper hand.
Breaking back into a prison after spending multiple episodes trying to break out isn’t compelling storytelling. And with such a long runtime—meaning more time to devote to each character set—I got so frustrated every time we left Hawkins to be in Russia.
Yuri stalling on fixing his Katinka is a metaphor for this entire storyline.
1. Scattered Fighting
So Joyce, Hopper, and Murray join the battle in Russia… El does a “piggyback” to fight Vecna psychically from a salt bath in Nevada, or wherever they’ve gotten to (with Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle’s help) … and then the rest of them are in Hawkins (proper and Upside Down).
Logically, all these things make sense. But not having everyone reunite for the final fight isn’t nearly as satisfying.
Tim Matassa
