First Things First…
This is the finale of the first batch of episodes that dropped on Netflix from Season 4. And because the title indicates we’re finally going to learn the truth about the massacre, it should be a good one.
On top of that, I think we’ll finally get Hopper’s fight with the Demogorgon, and Hopper and Joyce’s reunion (assuming he survives—which, yes, I am assuming).
And we left Steve in a precarious position in the Upside Down. I’m sure he’ll find a way to escape that, but what we learn while there, and if we get more answers about Vecna, is anyone’s guess.
6 Things I Like
6. Stuck in the Past
“I think the reason that my guns aren’t here is because they don’t exist yet.”
Nancy
I admit, I haven’t figured out the significance of Nancy’s discovery that, in the Upside Down, they’re in the past. And normally when something like this happens that I don’t understand, I put it in the “Mixed” category until I can determine if it’s cool or worthwhile.
But I like how Nancy slowly puts the pieces together—first, finding shoes where her guns should be, then finding her study cards from sophomore chemistry, then noticing the wallpaper, mirror, and stuffed animal that shouldn’t be there, and finally realizing her last diary entry is from the day Will went missing two years earlier.
I don’t know how this makes sense, especially considering there are gates from Vecna’s recent kills. (Maybe only the Wheeler house is stuck in time?) But being back in time… and on that date, of all dates… it’s clearly significant.
5. Steve & Eddie
Steve and Eddie is a pairing we haven’t gotten before. But they have a great conversation here.
Eddie says to him…
“Henderson told me you were a badass. Insisted on the matter, in fact… Kid worships you, dude. Like, you have no idea. It’s kinda annoying, to be honest. I don’t even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, but, uh, I guess I got a little jealous, Steve. I guess I couldn’t accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually a good dude. Rich parents, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way, man. No way. That, like, flies in the face of all the laws in the universe and my own personal Munson doctrine.”
All this after Steve makes the first move by thanking Eddie for saving his ass from the Demobats.
I love the way these two guys who seemed to have, at minimum, nothing but disinterest for each other prior to this season, if not outright disdain, find common ground once they look past their own biases and try to see the other for who he really is.
But Eddie isn’t done being vulnerable. He offers Steve even more praise, and a little advice, when he admits it was only his own shame that got him to dive into the lake and go through the gate, because Nancy and Robin went in right after Steve.
And as for Nancy not wasting a single second in trying to rescue Steve, he says…
“Now, I don’t know what happened between you two, but if I were you, I would get her back. ‘Cause that was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen.”
I was already very partial to Eddie, but I like him even more after sharing all this with Steve, which he doesn’t have to do.
4. Remembering Barb
Vecna has a new target—Nancy.
And it’s tied to her trauma and guilt over Barb’s death.
I love that we’re going back to the beginning of the series to remember a pivotal moment of Season 1. It makes perfect sense to call back to it now, because Nancy’s trauma makes her as likely a target for Vecna as any of his victims.
And it’s smart to put another of our main characters in real peril, especially because—even though I don’t expect it to happen—I could see a world where they actually kill off Nancy.
3. Battle and Reunion
“I thought I was put here to pay for what I’ve done. But I might’ve been put here for some other reason. Maybe I… maybe I can still help El. Even if it’s the last thing I do.”
Hopper
Hopper says to Enzo before the battle that the mere existence of this Demogorgon here in their dimension means all this shit they’ve been dealing with still isn’t over.
I like that he recognizes this because it gives added stakes to the battle. And let’s face it—Hopper was never going to get killed here by the Demogorgon.
Still, it’s a fun scene. They use the old trope of the lighter not lighting at the most inopportune time, which is just stalling while the Demogorgon kills the rest of the prisoners.
This is also probably the most vicious Demogorgon we’ve ever seen, and it’s able to get around on two legs.
Most of the tension, though, comes from whether or not Enzo will survive. I wasn’t convinced he’d make it out of this. And I’ve grown to really like him.
Then, we get Hopper and Joyce’s reunion, which is pretty great. Hopper’s expression changes from bewilderment and disbelief, to relief, to pure love.
Now, can we please get them back with the rest of the cast?
2. Finding Light in the Upside Down
“That’s gotta be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled interdimensionally.”
Robin
As usual, I love just about everything in the Upside Down.
The Demobats are badass… we get the cool discovery about being in the past… the physics-defying scene of getting through the gate in the roof of Eddie’s trailer… plus there’s definitely something to the “gold dust” they use to communicate with the kids in Hawkins through a Lite Brite.
Eddie says it tickles, and Robin says it feels good when they put their hands in it. We’ve never really seen anything good or light in the Upside Down. It’s just monsters, and falling ash (?), and disgusting killer vines, and thunder and lightning. Everything is dead and decaying. But this is different.
Much like the time discovery, I don’t know what this means yet, but I’m sure it’s significant.
1. The Massacre Ties It All Together
Well, I was right that the friendly orderly would be the one really responsible for the massacre. It was never El.
But oh boy, there’s so much more to this story…
In fact, there are layers to his true identity.
I’m disappointed I didn’t figure out he was Number One. It seems fairly obvious in hindsight.
But it would’ve taken some really close paying attention and some stellar detective skills to realize he also is Henry Creel, Victor’s son. (They did an incredible job casting a 20-somethine actor and a child actor who look like they could be playing the same person.)
And that’s still not the whole story…
Never would I ever have guessed this guy is actually Vecna. I never thought we’d even find out Vecna has a prior identity. I just assumed, based on his appearance, he was native to the Upside Down.
This is brilliant, though. It explains why the attacks on Victor Creel’s wife and daughter happened decades earlier, and then Vecna stopped for a long time. It also tells us there didn’t have to be a gate back in the 50’s, since Vecna was in the real world, still just a little boy who happened to have special powers and a hatred for humanity.
It also shows us that the gate El opened in Season 1 wasn’t the first gate she opened—which means Brenner must’ve been aware of the Upside Down long before then, too.
And what might be most interesting is that, even though El didn’t commit all the murders, she is ultimately responsible for creating Vecna.
As for El’s fight with the future Vecna, one thing worth noting is that, when she tries to draw strength from her angry memories—like being bullied, and watching her mother be taken from her—she fails, and he almost kills her. It’s only her memory of being born, of hearing her mother say “Jane, I love you” that fortifies her so she can turn the tables and defeat him.
And when she tosses him through the mirror and has him pinned against the wall, she lands in a superhero pose.
Maybe there are monsters and superheroes, after all.
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. Negligence
The 80’s were a different time. I remember being allowed to ride my bike throughout the neighborhood as long as I was with friends or siblings, my mom knew where I was going, and I checked in once in a while. That’s always been good cover for how these kids could get up to so much trouble without their parents knowing.
But now, the town believes there’s a murderer on the loose. The cops catch these kids at the scene of a murder a day later, way past curfew. And after clearly lying about what they were doing, they sneak out right under the noses of the cops and all the parents. Erica even slashes a cop car’s tire on the way out.
Playing the parents for oblivious fools has been fine up until now. But after what the kids pull here, there’s no way they can just accept BS excuses anymore without being fully negligent. They need to be pulled into Hawkins’ secret underbelly, at least to some degree.
1. Dustin’s Theory
“There’s one thing we’ve never understood. Which is why Vecna’s killing people. What’s his motive? Killing teens. It always just seemed too random. Too prosaic. On top of that, how does the Mind Flayer figure into all this?”
Dustin
I was shocked when Dustin invokes the Mind Flayer out of nowhere. Are we still dealing with him? What even makes him think the Mind Flayer does figure into all this?
Vecna is by far the best villain the show has given us. So, even though Dustin presents a compelling theory, I’m not sure I’m cool with Vecna being the five-star general under the Mind Flayer.
However, I love that Dustin deduces that Vecna’s psychic connection with his prey is so strong it rips a hole between worlds every time he kills.
In other words, he can open gates. That alone might make him more powerful than the Mind Flayer anyway.
I definitely want to explore this idea more in the final two episodes of the season before I decide whether I’m on board with the Mind Flayer, who they’ve already beaten twice, returning.
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. How Fast Do Gates Take to Open?
Maybe I’m just nitpicking unimportant logistics here…
But after Vecna killed Chrissy, Eddie’s uncle was still living in that trailer at least a few days later. We saw the gate starting to form, but it still didn’t look like a gate. The guy just thought it was mold.
Yet here’s a full gate at the bottom of the lake the very next night after Patrick was killed there.
Maybe they felt this doesn’t need to make sense, and they just wrote each one in a way that worked for the story. But I don’t like these kinds of inconsistencies.
Tim Matassa
