Just when you think Stranger Things couldn’t possibly top itself, in comes the fourth season with the most cinematic episodes of the series yet (hence, the noticeably longer run times that everyone seems to be “complaining” about despite the fact that most people are just binge-watching half their lives away regardless). But the Duffer Brothers are meticulous and methodical in their pacing and buildup, and they’ll take however long they goddamn well need. Especially since Netflix is heavily reliant on a show like this to draw in viewership right now.
Commencing with the first chapter, “Hellfire Club,” the narrative kicks off six months after “The Battle of Starcourt,” wherein Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) sacrifices himself—in a move that would have been previously unprecedented based on his douchebag personality—in an epic display of gallantry as his stepsister, Max (Sadie Sink), looks on in horror. And that vision is at least part of the reason why she’s shut down and distanced herself entirely from everyone in season four, completely averse to the crew she once found herself getting so close to, including her romance with Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin). But it isn’t just Max who feels a growing chasm with the latter. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) feel it, too. Namely because Lucas has decided to shift his attention toward more jock-oriented things, like being a benched basketball player for the Tigers. The conflict of where his allegiance lies doesn’t truly come to a head until he has to choose between ditching a championship game or a Dungeons and Dragons session that marks the end of Eddie Munson’s (Joseph Quinn) campaign. As the ringleader of the Hellfire Club, Eddie absolutely refuses to reschedule the event, demanding that Dustin and Mike find a sub. This after he reads mockingly from an issue Newsweek that cites Dungeons and Dragons as pure evil. All part of the Satanic panic that was sweeping the nation in that decade. Apparently, modern capitalism really scared Christian fundamentalists while also allowing them to function quite exemplarily within it.
As much as we notice the divides both physical and emotional between the characters right from the start, we do see them having some moments of happiness. Like when Dustin gets Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) to change his Latin grade from an F to an A—in a scene obviously reminiscent of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which, yes, came out in 1986. Another quintessential 80s movie reference arrives when Steve asks Robin (Maya Hawke) on the way to the pep rally, “Do you know who pauses Fast Times at fifty-three minutes, five seconds? People who like boobies.” He mentions this to her with regard to her crush on fellow band geek, Vickie (Amybeth McNulty), being totally viable. But again, being a lesbian in a small town in the 80s wouldn’t exactly make any girl want to “take a chance on love.”
The Duffer Brothers are also sure to sell the time period with job choices as well. Most notably, Joyce sells encyclopedias (as Eleven puts it, “Joyce got an amazing new job. She gets to work at home”—clearly, a very ironic piece of dialogue post-pandemic). Eleven recounts this and other details to Mike in a heartfelt letter that she wants so badly to believe is true as she spouts on about how great her new life is in Lenora Hills, complete with “best friend” Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin) a.k.a. the biggest bitch in the world serving as El’s key tormentor. The one who urges all the others to mock “Jane” along with her… and they do because, well, she’s “hot.” The Regina George of Lenora Hills High.
Her bullying ways set El up for a major social fall in the next episode, among the strongest of season four, “Vecna’s Curse.” As the episode title indicates, it’s also in this part of the narrative that we’re introduced to the villain of the moment: Vecna. Like the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer, Vecna also hails from the Dungeons and Dragons universe. And it’s as Erica (Priah Ferguson) takes over for her brother in Eddie’s final tournament that the foreshadowing of Vecna’s real-life presence begins. This includes the Hellfire Club declaring they’ll “fight to the death”—not yet knowing how literal that’s going to be.
As we crosscut back to El’s inevitably doomed fate over spring break, Mike at last joins her in California all so she can take him to the Rink-o-Mania, which now feels vaguely like the new Starcourt in terms of being the ultimate 80s-era hangout. As such, El might have known that Angela and her posse of ghouls would also show up to ruin her time with Mike (and Will, who happens to be tagging along as the third wheel). In addition to decimating her lie to him that they’re friends. So it is that Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy” plays as we await Eleven’s fresh hell in the roller rink, and it’s a brutal, Carrie-esque one as we watch someone so devoted to the prank that they’re willing to risk skating with a giant video camera on their shoulder to capture her being circled by bullies as The Surfaris’ “Wipeout” plays, concluding with El doing just that after a milkshake is poured on her.
After watching El get attacked in this way, how can anyone be surprised when her response is to lob a skate at Angela’s head (what with her powers still missing in action)? While El grapples with her rage issues, her surrogate father, Hopper (David Harbour) is sent to Kamchatka, a “special work camp.” And as Hopper’s head is shaved and his body hosed down, it’s not hard to imagine Putin being the one to say the words, “You are no longer men. You are cogs in a machine. A machine in service of our great Motherland.”
The same seems to go for Vecna’s army. The one he’s building in a very Nightmare on Elm Street-inspired manner by infiltrating the minds of his victims before obliterating them from the inside. That’s why he prefers to target those with trauma. It makes for a field day re: mind fuckery, and effortless manipulation. That’s part of why he homes in on Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien), the seemingly quintessential cheerleader. But the haunting visions she keeps having every time she goes into one of Vecna’s trances are enough to make her “atypical” of the usual cheerleader trope in that she goes to Eddie in search of some drugs to take the edge off, ketamine to be exact. Unfortunately, she never gets to sample his wares as Vecna snaps her bones in half from the inside and gouges out her eyes right before Eddie’s very own. So naturally, he’s quick to run.
The next episode, “The Monster and the Superhero,” bears a dichotomous title that relates to how El feels about herself as she reckons with the consequences of her outburst (a.k.a. being provoked into a rage by that cunt Angela). It’s also the aftermath of Eddie’s own unexpected “showdown” with Vecna-as-Chrissy. Hiding out at a friend’s house (nicknamed, clearly, Reefer Rick—who becomes a Tino from My So-Called Life figure in that we never actually see him), Eddie washes Honeycombs down with Yoo-hoo, gustatorial delights of the 80s heyday. As is to be expected, Eddie is panicked and paranoid. Worried sick that he’s going to be accused of brutally murdering Chrissy. Mercifully, Dustin, Max, Steve, Robin and Nancy all come to his rescue—in addition to cluing him in on the existence of the Upside Down. As the “shortest” episode (at about one hour and four minutes), “The Monster and the Superhero” sets up the crux of each character’s conflict for the remainder of the season, with El being taken in by Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) as she’s being hauled to the juvenile detention center for her “crime” against Angela. Upon intercepting her, Sam informs her of the new grave threat to Hawkins, and that he has a plan to help her restore her powers so that she might combat the latest evil.
Perhaps thinking to herself that she’s better off as a “monster” posing as a superhero than continuing to try to be normal, especially since Mike won’t just tell her that he loves her (signing everything “From:”), she’s overly amenable to the assignment. That is, until she finds out that Martin “Papa” Brenner (Matthew Modine) is still behind the project, and that he plans to make her live out her most traumatic memories in the lab until she recalls the incident she suppressed. One involving the killing of all her fellow numbered children… which is why the intro to the first episode comes with a “trigger warning” as the season was released less than a week after the elementary school shooting in Uvalde. But El or whoever really committed the atrocities ain’t usin’ no gun to get the job done. It’s straight-up supernatural. And that’s precisely the kind of firepower needed to take on Vecna.
By the fourth episode, “Dear Billy,” he’s already gotten hold of Max’s mind, making her his next victim. And according to her calculations, she has about a day left to live. Luckily, Lucas hasn’t gone entirely to the jock dark side as he leads Jason (Mason Dye) and his basketball goon squad off the trail of Eddie, who they’ve taken a shine to “hunting” for the purposes of claiming their own vengeance. For Jason has convinced everyone that Eddie is the culprit for killing his girlfriend. After Lucas leads them to Hopper’s old cabin instead of Eddie, he rushes back to the school (a poster mentioning Halley’s Comet in the background gives further credence to the sense that we’re in 1986) to find the others.
As all this unfolds, the fact that Joyce and Murray (Brett Gelman) go to Alaska so that a criminal named Yuri (Nikola Đuričko) can make the ransom exchange to bring Hopper back from Russia is all very Sarah Palin saying “I can see Russia from my house.” Hopper, who has been in league with one of the guards at the prison, does actually manage to escape after some brutal scenes of him removing the chains from his feet. Heading to the agreed-upon church where Yuri is meant to collect him, Hopper inhales a jar of Jif peanut butter (in the glory days before it was being recalled) and then sits on a mattress in front of a stack of VHS tapes, one of which is titled, fittingly, Runaway. For the moment, he can relax.
A calm before the storm of “The Nina Project,” showing us that, after Max has survived what should have been her final death blow with Vecna (all thanks to Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”), she’s lived to draw in detail the setup of his lair. One that Dustin sums up as, “Like Freddy Krueger’s boiler room” in terms of Max managing to infiltrate a part of the other world that Vecna didn’t want her to be in. And yes, there are plenty of Nightmare on Elm Street parallels in this season, the apex being Robert Englund’s appearance as Victor Creel. The subtle presence of 80s pop culture is also manifest in an “I’ve Been Slimed” Ghostbusters pin on Dustin’s backpack at the beginning of the episode.
Meanwhile, Eleven is trapped in a Sisyphean nightmare simulation, spurred by a water-filled sensory deprivation tank much like the one that appeared in Reminiscence (that little-loved film of 2021 that ought to have been more appreciated). With the help of this tank, called “Nina,” we see that the memory Eleven is forced to relive occurs on the date that the security camera shows us: 9/4/79. As for the name of the tank, “Papa” explains that he chose it in honor of the Nicolas Dalayrac opera, Nina, ou La folle par amour (Nina, or The Woman Crazed with Love). It is within this opera that the eponymous character chooses to ignore the fact that her beloved Germeuil has supposedly died in a duel. Suffering from Eleven’s same form of psychogenic amnesia, she goes to the train station to wait for his return, selectively forgetting that he won’t be coming back. And so, with the help of this cleverly-named tank, “Papa” hopes to restore Eleven’s suppressed memory of the children’s slaughter that day. For he believes it also holds the key to restoring her powers.
While Eleven is thrust into the past, Joyce and Murray are thrust into being prisoners of Yuri, who has betrayed everyone involved in the deal for the sake of, what else, more money (ain’t commies always the most capitalistic, after all?). Joyce, determined not to die—or lose Hopper again—notices the potential in Yuri’s box of contraband Jif. Which, back then, had its jars made out of glass, ergo being useful for the purpose of cutting her and Murray’s binds with the broken shards. And here, again, the brand gets some really good product promotion considering what’s happening with it right now.
Still unaware of their mother’s true location, Jonathan and Will have taken to life on the run with Argyle (Eduardo Franco) and Mike after a warring government faction against El infiltrates the Byers’ California home. The agent that saves them dies in Argyle’s car, but not before giving them the number to contact “Nina.” A number they dial at a pay phone, only to hear a series of then-unusual dial-up sounds. “Does that remind you of anything?” Mike asks. Will listens to the dial-up sounds and instantly replies, “WarGames.” He geeks out, “We’re not calling a phone, we’re calling a computer.” Enter Dustin’s beloved, Suzie, who they seek out in the next episode, “The Dive.” In which, as Eleven endures her “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” phase, she must reconcile with the little girl version of herself once and for all. “It’s important for you to not just see your past, but to fully re-experience it,” “Papa” instructs. Of course, that would be many people’s worst nightmare.
That, indeed, is why “Papa” also adds, “Our brains have a defense mechanism in place to protect it from bad memories. From trauma.” By now, Eleven isn’t the only one in the group to have that issue, with Steve, Nancy, Robin, Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Max, Jonathan, Will and, now, Argyle and Eddie, all subject to the traumatic memories invoked by being roped into the Upside Down. Luckily, Suzie hasn’t ever had to endure that by her mere association with Dustin. And as Mike, Will and Jonathan try to locate her within her own Salt Lake City house, the Mormon stereotype is in full effect as we’re shown a house full of unruly kids of varying ages. One being Eden (Audrey Holcomb), age-appropriate enough for Argyle, who falls instantly in love with her, an Ally Sheedy lookalike.
Upon the “successful” commandeering of Yuri’s plane—meaning they crashed it—Joyce and Murray get him to take them to Kyrzran, where Hopper will supposedly be. Nonetheless, Hawkins continues to be the location with the most activity going on as Steve unearths a “snack-sized” gate at the bottom of Lovers’ Lake. When he bursts up from his dive (again, now you see where the episode title comes from), Steve suddenly gets pulled back in by a tentacle. Sucked through the gate and into the alternate dimension, he’s viciously attacked by three bat-like creatures that won’t stand down. This ending leads us into the most epic-in-length episode—the grand finale (until July)—“The Massacre at Hawkins Lab.”
Picking right back up with Steve’s attack, the others dive in to rescue him, Nancy being the first to do so without even thinking (one of many moments used to set the two up for getting back together since Jonathan is constantly MIA). Steve goes full-on Ozzy as he bites the bat-esque creature that was the most stubborn about attacking him, a moment that Eddie calls out later when they’re walking together.
As the newly reunited quartet navigates the Upside Down and how to communicate with the other world, Nancy realizes everything at her house in the Upside Down has been frozen in time from the date of November 6, 1983—the day Will disappeared. The group is suddenly inspired to take a page from Will’s season one playbook, communicating with Dustin, Lucas, Max and Erica through the lights. Soon, a Lite-Brite becomes the new version of season one’s Christmas lights (so maybe Lite-Brites make a comeback). Dustin’s wheels turning, he decides that there must be other mini-portals between worlds at the murder sites of Vecna. So it is that Nancy, Steve, Robin and Eddie opt to test that theory by high-tailing it to the nearest murder location: Eddie’s trailer in the Upside Down.
All while Eleven contends with startling revelations of her own, including the true identity of the orderly who has been so “nice” to her this whole time, giving her tips on how to better navigate her dormant powers. That orderly, as it turns out, is the folkloric One (Jamie Campbell Bower). Who also tricks her into removing a tracking device from his neck (“Your Papa calls it Soteria,” he informs her). Something that will become rather useful to One when he disappears into the Upside Down to become Vecna. In effect, he is not two, but four people: The Orderly, One, Vecna and, before everything, Henry Creel, son of Victor. And, to quote another Morrissey lyric, the more you ignore Vecna, the closer her gets. So while Eleven might have “won” her tussle with him in 1979, all she really did was give him an opportunity to lie in wait. To bide his time and become the ultimate “five-star general” of the Mind Flayer. It is with the final two movie-length installments of season four that we’ll see what Eleven is truly made of when it comes to battling pure evil. For it was so much easier in the 80s to be black-and-white about such classifications.
