Stranger Things

"Stranger Things" season four the monster-flighting gang from Hawkins, Ind. comes out scathed, very very scathed.

“There were so many monsters — an army — and they were coming into Hawkins, into our neighborhoods, our homes,” she tells the rest of the gang before they hatch their plan to set Vecna on fire while he’s in a trance-like state. Despite insisting that he is “no hero” when push comes to shove, Eddie sacrifices himself to the hell bats of the Upside Down to buy his friends more time to defeat Vecna. Dustin, an Eddie stan, holds his hero in his arms as he lay dying. They manage to destroy Vecna’s body but not before he claims his fourth and final victim, Max, which then opens the gates to the monster dimension. She understands then that he wants to merge the two realities, bringing the Upside Down to the real world. “I would very much like to show you where I am going,” he growls in her ear before transmitting a vision of a Hawkins on fire. Marked for death because of her dark memories, Max is initially saved by the singer Katie Bush. But to trap the Upside Down king, Max offers herself up as bait. Will does not come out this season but it is clear that he is figuring out his identity in 1986. Try as they might, the Scoop Troop, superhero El, Jim “The Hero of the Hawkins” Hopper, and the rest of the gang come out scathed, very very scathed. So Brenner (Matthew Modine) pushes his former charge to the brink of her origin story where she learns that Vecna, the evil ruler of the Upside Down behind the killings, is actually One, Brenner’s first test subject. One of the breakout characters this season was Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), the leader of Hawkins High’s local Dungeons and Dragons crew called “The Hellfire Club.” Eddie is a metal head and about two years past when he should’ve graduated. There’s an invisible murderer on the loose in Hawkins, and the good doctors think only El can help defeat him. Over nine episodes stretched across two volumes, the kids are no longer in Kansas, and the jet lag shows.

Now that the series has wrapped things up (for now), here's our look at the most valuable players.

In season four, he steps up for Eddie when everyone else deems him a killer—going as far as to convince everyone else on the team to take his side. But his actions in the finale immediately make him an MVP. If he hadn’t started flaming all the demodogs in the Russian prison at exactly the right time—once Joyce and Hopper drew them into the pit—Vecna wouldn’t have been weakened enough for El to take him down. Remember her Lenora school bully, Angela, and how El nearly went to jail for smacking her in the face with a rollerblade? So what if he ended up crashing the plane from Alaska to Russia? He impersonated Yuri and got them into the goddamn hidden prison. In season four, he really comes through for Joyce and travels with her to save Hopper, all while continuing to be a comedic joy. And then there’s everyone’s favorite babysitter, Steve Harrington, who is always ready to step up and be the hero.

While the two-episode conclusion to the series continues Volume 1's insistence on keeping the cast spread over several storylines, it finally begins to braid ...

The only real faltering is in its use of Jason’s (Mason Dye) crusader against the powers of Satanism. Despite the implication that he rallied a large portion of the town to his cause, he largely remains a solo crusader. On a stylistic level, Things is somehow both at its most referential and free-standing in these final two episodes. Schnapps kills the latter half of one of them with Wolfhard, and the entirety of his brother-to-brother chat with Heaton. However, the “I’m talking about El, but I’m really talking about me” -ness of the first one is painfully, thuddingly obvious that neither Schnapp nor Wolfhard can make it sing. Thankfully, Eleven’s escape manages to correspond perfectly with the arrival of Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Will (Noah Schnapp). Oh, and Argyle (Eduardo Franco)—the season’s other painful attempt at comedic relief—makes it too. Also, with a show already straining under the weight of its main characters, he goes from charismatic leader of a terrible movement to sweaty and sallow solo gunman with literally no in-between. Eddie (Joseph Quinn) accepts adulthood and responsibility despite the consequences. Max (Sadie Sink) refuses to let others suffer in her place despite having the magic bullet. It lets Harbour flex his action (and now quite real) muscles in a way that doesn’t just feel like a showcase of the actor’s new physique. Additionally, despite never convincing us it matters to Hawkins, the action matters to the characters there. The comedy never landed in Volume 1—it was like the friend at the party who laughs so hard at his own gags, hoping to inspire the same response in others. The better news is that ratio tips even further in favor of what’s enjoyable. There’s a bit about how fighting the Upside Down monsters the Soviet Union has cultivated will help Hawkins, but it is facile at best.

Plus, there's still the Upside Down particle monster/shadow that Joyce and Hopper glimpsed in Russia. All this sets up a pretty major final season for the ...

The Duffer brothers have said in interviews that a time jump is likely, in part because they have to cover for the fact that the cast keeps growing. For starters, Mike said El didn’t feel she was ready to fight Vecna again, and so she might have to train with Yoda more to access the true depth of her powers. Joyce and Hopper stumbled on a (now gone) lab of Demodogs, other Upside Down monsters, and a “particle monster” that resembled the primitive form of the Mind Flayer. While he might just have been that bent out of shape about the issues in Mike and El’s relationship, is it possible there’s something more happening with him and his own coming-of-age story? Though they were neutered as a plot element once Eleven downed their helicopter in the Nevada desert, they were (for a time) very concerned about how Eleven would handle her powers. When Eleven looks back at the town in the final moments of episode 9, it’s clear the Upside Down is starting to take over Hawkins. As Vecna told Eleven: “This is only the beginning. Ultimately, the Hopper rescue mission to Russia was vital, but it often felt pretty auxiliary to the rest of the season. He had already started the process of killing Max, suspending her in the air and systematically breaking her bones. While Stranger Things is known to inflate some episode lengths, there’s still a (relatively) limited window to wrap up the journeys of everyone in the cast. Plus, there’s still the Upside Down particle monster/shadow that Joyce and Hopper glimpsed in Russia. A few days after Vecna’s attack, many of the people of Hawkins are already moving away from the “earthquake” that caused the massive rifts through town. Upon its release, Stranger Things 4 part 2 was a doozy, and not just because of the run time.

The gang from Hawkins, Indiana found themselves in a deadly war with the treacherous Vecna, during the final two episodes. The group – consisting of Steve, ...

Steve has definitely had one of the most complex story arcs in all of Stranger Things. Starting as a cocky athlete and bully, he’s since transformed into a quirky, mature and sincere father-like figure. At least, that’s the vibe one would get after looking at a number of Twitter posts. Amid the drama, though there is one thing that a number of viewers are now taking comfort in, and it’s the fact that Steve Harrington has once again made it to the end of a season!

Papa does not tell the truth as Eleven faces Vecna in the intense final episodes of Stranger Things 4. (Spoilers!)

Papa does not tell the truth, and Eleven realizes that she opened the gate to the Upside Down not because she's a monster but because Brenner was trying to fix his mistake. A full-on shoot-out ensues, complete with a sniper in a Huey picking off Papa. Fortunately the pizza van crew are just in time to distract the chopper crew -- and Eleven doesn't need 30 minutes or less to spectacularly take down the helicopter. Sadly both of the show's gay characters are crushed by their crushes in this episode, as both Will and Robin realize they're in love with characters who appear to be straight. Robin spotting Vickie in a redneck gun shop called The War Zone is a contrived moment, but it still kind of gets me in the feels, so let's allow it. Eleven blows the door off the hinges, but Brenner drugs her. This has drawn criticism from fans who criticise the tired trope of depicting tragic gay characters forever doomed to unrequited relationships (and all this right after Pride Month, too). Still, maybe there's hope for Robin in episode 9, as her Molly Ringwald-esque crush Vickie at least looks conflicted when she spots Robin. Hopper shows what he thinks of their scientific method with a bullet, only to discover a whole lab full of monsters from the Upside Down and some kind of portal. Vecna, also known as Henry or One, stalks Nancy through a nightmarish vision of the massacre at Hawkins Lab that led to young Henry Creel being sent to the Upside Down. But the demon spares her -- instructing her to tell Eleven everything she's seen. Eleven reluctantly allowed Dr Brenner to reactivate her powers, in the process learning that she inadvertently created the demon when she zapped the Hawkins lab's first psychic teen, Henry Creel, into the Upside Down. Meanwhile sheriff Jim Hopper and Joyce tried to escape a demogorgon in a brutal Russian gulag. But in the meantime, as much as I've enjoyed Hopper's action-packed adventures behind the Iron Curtain (and the antics of the madcap Yuri), I'm starting to wish they'd just get out of Russia already. Now she knows her own backstory, she makes a choice to fight for her friends. The Duffer Brothers definitely know how to torture these characters (and us). Vulnerable moments between Mike and Will or Lucas and Max or Dustin and Eddie make you fear for the safety of these characters we know and love.

The ending of Stranger Things season 4 features plenty of heartbreak and sets up an action-packed final season to come.

Based on the events of this season 4 finale, it’s fairly easy to guess what route Stranger Things will go in its final act. To save Hawkins and to save the world at large, Eleven will have to summon all of her psychic energy and abilities to take out Henry Creel forever. Vecna makes clear that he has been the one pulling the strings this whole time. The Upside Down proper has come to Hawkins now and its influence is only expanding. Stranger Things season 4’s biggest lingering question is undoubtedly the fate of Max Mayfield. To put things bluntly: Max dies in the final episode and she dies horribly. We know that Will (Noah Schnapp) has been working on a painting that he wants to show to his buddy Mike (Finn Wolfhard). It’s also quite clear that Will is struggling with the reality that he’s gay and has a crush on his best friend. Based on the final scene of season 4, even the most rational of Hawkins residents may not have a choice in the matter much longer. Basketball captain Jason Carver is killed when the Upside Down dam breaks and his body is sliced in half. The first is Dr. Brenner when he sacrifices himself to help Eleven escape from the military. Recall that every time Vecna kills someone it opens up a gate between The Upside Down and Hawkins. Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) notes that the metaphorical wall between the Upside Down and Right Side Up operates like a dam. The two episodes that make up Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 had a lot to deliver on. Like all Stranger Things finales, season 4 episode 9 “The Piggyback” is a cathartic, action-packed spectacle.

'Stranger Things' season 4, Volume 2 featured a throwback to season 1 with the song 'When It's Cold I'd Like To Die' by Moby and Mimi Goese, which came out ...

The heartbreaking moment when Max's friends think they're losing her is scored by the haunting "When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" by Moby, featuring the heavenly vocals of Mimi Goese. The song is the final track on the electronic musician's third studio album, Everything Is Wrong, which was released in 1995, nearly a decade after Stranger Things season 4 takes place. In the season 4 finale, which dropped Friday on Netflix, Max (Sadie Sink) is once again in Vecna's deadly mind lair — this time voluntarily to lure him in for a fight — but with her trusty Walkman crushed, her friends aren't able to use her favorite alt-pop tune to snap her out of it when Vecna goes in for the kill. Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" may have been the rightful theme song of Stranger Things season 4, but it wasn't the only musical through-line to come up in Volume 2.

Warning: Only a real mouth breather would keep reading, knowing as one must that the following is going to be wall-to-wall spoilers for Episodes 8-9 of ...

But were they?) As Will sensed Vecna’s presence — he was down but not out — otherworldly particles began to turn Hawkins into the Upside Down version of itself. But with Max’s “passing,” Vecna’s final gate opened, ripping Hawkins to shreds (and Jason with it). In the aftermath, Hopper was reunited with El, Joyce with her family and Jonathan with Nancy. (They were fine, she assured him. But the bigger reveal was his speech about being different, which played like a muted coming out (at least to an eavesdropping Jonathan). So the Hawkins gang hatched a four-phase plan that they hoped would make killing One as easy as “slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin.” In the desert, before Owens could grant Eleven’s request to return to Hawkins to protect her friends, Brenner intervened… The goosebumps have only started to die down after our binge of the jaw-dropping final two episodes of Stranger Things Season 4. Then you can hit the comments with your reactions, questions, quibbles — the works.

From left: Natalia Dyer, Gaten Matarazzo, Joe Keery, Joseph Quinn, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Sadie Sink, and Caleb McLaughlin in Stranger Things Season 4, ...

Sadie Sink anchors the final episode, with the long-suffering Max finally admitting to some of her darkest thoughts and potentially sacrificing herself to Vecna as part of the plan to save Hawkins. Her solitary struggle created some of the best moments in the preceding seven episodes, and that continues here. This is a show steeped in ’80s nostalgia with dorky, D&D playing boys ostensibly at the helm, but the biggest and best characters here are the girls. Though Hopper (David Harbour), Joyce (Winona Ryder), and Murray (Brett Gelman) are all reunited, they don’t end up back in the States until the season’s final minutes. The ripped-from-Riverdale varsity vigilantes throw a wrench into things, but it’s hard to take them seriously when a monster covered in muscle tissue is killing people. The Russia storyline continues to stall as the adults have to break back in to the place they spent an hour trying to escape from, and then it’s neatly wrapped up with a bow at the end. Eleven’s ultimate send-off (or lack thereof) is a nice exercise in restraint for the show, but it comes too late after an episode that waves farewell to her “Papa” from the get-go.

In the season finale of Stranger Things 4 volume 2, Eleven and the Hawkins crew gather their weapons -- flamethrowers, pizza and Eddie shredding Metallica.

But the handsome, popular douchebag is one of the biggest '80s movie tropes, so it's fitting he plays a key role in this '80s-obsessed show. Hopper and Joyce have a tearful reunion with Eleven, who searches a dark and empty mindscape for Max -- who it turns out is alive but in a coma. But the victory is bittersweet as Eddie dies in Dustin's arms. In a flashback, we see Vecna/Henry/One explore the Upside Down, a realm he sees as unspoiled by humans. In the Upside Down, Robin and Steve and Nancy are all grabbed by choking tentacles as Eddie and Dustin go into bat-tle. But Mike and El's love letters, Hopper's dream of date night, Max's notes, Mike calling to Eleven as she in turn reaches out to Max -- these are all people shouting their love for one another, refusing to let their connection fade. (Battle, geddit?) To help Dustin escape, Eddie heads back into the Upside Down for a sword fight with a swarm of demon bats. Finally, Vecna makes his presence felt by cruelly impersonating Lucas and then Billy. Meanwhile, Eleven is already projecting herself to the Creel house, and then takes another step into Max's mind as she finds herself amid a memory of Max skateboarding. Max finds herself in the Hawkins Middle School Snow Ball of 1984 as The Police's 1983 mega-hit Every Breath You Take plays -- just like at the moment when Lucas and Max kissed at the end of season 2. Steve, Nancy, Robin, Dustin and Eddie Munson tool up to infiltrate the Upside Down and stake Vecna in his coffin, while Lucas and Erica enter the terrifying Creel mansion to offer Max as bait. In Russia, Yuri keeps stalling (literally) as he pretends to work on his helicopter Katinka. Nearby, Joyce and Hopper undress in tandem, revealing the toll taken on Hopper's body by his stay in the brutal gulag. Dustin and Eddie know they're decoys, but as soon as someone says "We are no heroes," you just know they're going to pull some pretty heroic crap before the credits roll.