This post is going to have spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4. Lots of them. All of them. If you haven’t watched it yet, stop reading.
I wasn’t quite sick of Stranger Things when Season 4 dropped, but I was close. I loved Season 1, which felt so fresh and new, but Season 2 felt forced and I struggled to care about any of it. Season 3 was saved by the presence of new characters, particularly Steve’s ice cream buddy Robin, but what I remember about those episodes is the mall, not the actual plot. (Max’s brother…got possessed, or something. There was a big fight. The fight was cool.) It wasn’t bad, per se, it just felt like stuff happening because Season 1 was a hit and they needed to find reasons for Eleven to stick her hand out and strain.
So when Season 4 came along, I wasn’t really all that excited about it. Oh, I was going to watch it, of course, but it had been delayed for so long and really, were we still supposed to care about whatever monster was invading Hawkins this week and OH MY GOD WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO THAT CHEERLEADER???
It seems like the Duffer Brothers were aware that things had started to feel a little samey and decided to crank up the dial all the way to “Oh, you like horror? Have some.” Eleven’s backstory time as a test subject was — told via some highly effective CGI that recreated her young self — was a fascinating counterpoint to the supernatural murders and investigation into Vecna, the creature committing them. The show earned the intersection of those two storylines, giving Eleven ample reason to ask is she a monster or a superhero? (The answer is “Yes.”)
The Russian storyline existed pretty much just to give the grownups something to do out of the way of the kids, but it was a fun vehicle for Murray and hey, who doesn’t like seeing Jaqen H’ghar pop up? The kids were split up into more and less important groups, a side effect of having a cast this freaking massive. As a result, we got a new stoner pizza delivery pal with incredible hair, an asshole basketball team captain and his violent cronies, and Eddie. Our dear, dear Eddie, the metalhead DM with a heart of gold.
Let’s pause for a moment and talk about Eddie’s death and why it’s a problem. Not because he died — look, I love him, too, but if he’d lived, he was facing multiple murder charges and they absolutely would’ve convicted him — but because his sacrifice was about as necessary as John Krasinski’s in A Quiet Place. (Whoops, guess that’s another spoiler.) A monster is threatening Krasinski’s kids, so he makes a big noise to draw its attention and give them a chance to get away. Which in and of itself is fine and a situation that is fully authentic to the world the movie created, except my dude is standing next to a big tool shed. He could’ve picked something up and thrown it to make a noise, but nah. He’s just gonna yell. Makes no sense to me.
Eddie’s death is similarly pointless as it’s portrayed. He’s also Team Diversion, playing Master of Puppets on the roof of the Upside Down version of his trailer to draw killer bats away from Vecna’s house so that Team Death can sneak in and off the creep. The diversion is necessary because Team Death has to cover open ground to get to the house. Once they’re inside, they’re…well, not safe, but the bats aren’t an issue anymore. Eddie draws the bats to the trailer, playing right up to the last second before ducking inside with Dustin. The plan is for the two of them to batten down the hatches and then zip through the portal back to the real world and safety. Eddie sees Dustin through, then cuts the rope so Dustin can’t come back, hops on his bike and starts pedaling away. Why? “To buy more time,” he says. But time for what, exactly? The bats are busy trying to get into the trailer, so it’s not like they’re headed back towards the mansion and Team Death — they don’t even know Team Death is there! So maybe he’s afraid they’re going to make it into the trailer and thus through the portal into the real world? That’s a fair concern, but the show doesn’t do anything to explain that’s his worry. Maybe he just wants them away from Dustin, the little kid he absolutely adores and wants to protect — again, perfectly valid, but not something the show communicates. Or maybe it’s just because he hates himself for always running away and simply wants to feel. I’m honestly ok with any of those reasons, but the show does nada to point in any particular direction and as a result, it all feels just a bit empty.
Not as empty as Max, though. I’m still pretty pissed about the whole “Eleven brings Max back from the dead” thing, because what the actual fuck. Except…well, that makes for a good segue to
PREDICTIONS FOR SEASON 5
Max Becomes a Portal for Vecna
So Vecna is in the process of killing Max (and ticking pretty much every box) when the gang intervenes and cuts off his access. But Max is so far gone, with broken limbs and wrecked eyes that she nonetheless dies in Lucas’ arms. But Eleven is in her mind at the time and brings her back. Or so it appears, anyway. Eleven wasn’t alone in Max’s mind, she was fighting Vecna in there, and given that Vecna was the force behind everything that happened in Seasons 1-3, it seems highly unlikely he’s actually dead. Far more likely that he’s hiding in a dark corner of Max’s comatose mind, biding his time and gathering his strength before coming at Eleven from some unexpected direction.
Nancy Chooses….Nobody
The love triangle of Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve has been useful for developing the personalities of the older characters, but it’s run its course. Rather than choose one or the other, Nancy will instead choose herself because she’s outgrown both of them. Her friendship with Robin works far better than her romances with either boy from a story perspective, too, so I think Season 5 will see the end of that particular thread. And thank god, because lord, it’s so boring.
The Team Is Divided
Hats off to the Duffers for coming up with reasonable ways to split up the enormous cast into different groups, but now they’re all back together in Hawkins and something’s gonna have to give.I can’t imagine Argyle will come back (he does live in California, after all) and I’ll bet Lucas’ little sister Erica will be sidelined, as well. Murray and Dmitri won’t be part of the main action, though it wouldn’t surprise me if either one makes a quick cameo. That said, it seems all but guaranteed that Robin’s band crush will join the gang in one fashion or another. Even if Max is unconscious for most of the season, there are still just way too many people to fit in scenes, so something’s going to have to split them up. Most obvious guess is some of them go to the Upside Down (or, more likely, Max’s mind) while the rest are in reality with shotguns as monsters come through portals. Too obvious? Yeah, maybe. Small possibility they end up back in the lab after discovering that Papa was working with a new batch of kids. Oh, and while we’re at it…
Papa Isn’t Dead
Sorry, but he’s not. There’s going to be some big dramatic reveal in S5 that he’s alive, repentant, and there to help end things once and for all.
So those are my thoughts. We’ll see how close I get when S5 drops…uh…well, eventually. Agree? Disagree? Let me know!
I think Max is gone and they are nursing Vecna back to health, and also there is a fragment from Russia still out there, right? Finally, the giant cloud thing is gonna be a player - so like half the town turns into deadites?