Did it not feel incredible to finally have our questions and queries answered in these final two episodes? For four seasons, I have been wondering to myself: is this going to make sense and add up at some point? Is it too far gone? Are they hoping we have forgotten about *this* or *that*? But the Duffer brothers delivered. Thankfully they did have a story that added up and that has been interwoven within the previous series all the way up to this point. Brilliant. And what a relief! It could be too easy for them to just fill the episodes with new monsters, fight scenes and teen relationships which would distract us and be enjoyable still, but it is so frustrating when writers start with an idea and lose it as a series goes on. Thankfully they have avoided this.
Threads that seemed so incongruent in Volume 1 came together well for the most part. I would still argue that Hopper and Joyce’s Russian escapades, whilst enjoyable, still felt somewhat forced— especially in the final episode, where some masterful editing enables the viewer to keep up with each group as well as follow how their actions affect each other.
There’s actually fairly little plot going on in these final two episodes – it’s all about the build-up, and establishing stakes, making it all the more devastating when things don’t go to plan. Though the 150-minute finale runtime is undeniably self-indulgent on paper, it is (almost) emphatically earned on screen. Here I find a minor gripe. I wrote about the length of the Volume 2 episodes in my last review, and although they allowed for some deeper character development which I undeniably loved, the pace of the final episode just kept slowing down, especially in the final 20-30 minutes. Keeping the pace up through a movie-length finale of a TV show was always going to be hard, and the only reason I can think as to why they didn’t split it into 3 episodes is that it helps Netflix out with their algorithm issues.
Though the season delivers in many ways, there is indeed something anticlimactic in the way Season 4 ultimately concludes with most fan favourites still standing, ready to fight
another day. I know this makes me sound morbid, but I do wish they would kill off more characters. If they were to kill them off though, it would be good if it were for a reason. At this point I’d like to remind the reader of the predictions I made for Season 4 Volume 2 in my previous review:
There is a moment in episode 7 where Eddie speaks to Steve and laments his lack of courage. What better way to prove one’s bravery than to distract some monsters in the Upside Down and let your friends escape?
This is *almost* what happens in Volume 2. Eddie, who always felt like the obvious sacrifice - Bob and Billy say hi - ended up dying. But, in a way that had no impact on the overall mission. It would have felt much more emotive and effective had his death meant something, to any part of the plot, but no, they had to kill him for literally nothing – he saves no one. To add insult to injury, he also died with the hope to redeem himself for something of which needed no redemption. Running away from monsters doesn't make a coward – it is smart. Though the scene was emotive and Joseph Quinn’s improvisation was moving, the writers should have given him an actual meaning and reason for his death, or let him live. Because at that point, I was so ready to be devastated by his death, but instead I was just annoyed.
Talking of deaths, Max’s near-demise was quite horrifying to watch. I thought there was no way they could get her out of this now, but of course she falls into a coma. Sadie Sink is arguably is the best actor and (Max) character in the show, close with Steve and Eddie, so I understand why they don’t want to kill her off, but putting her in a coma does seem like a bit of cheap writing to give the audience the shock factor of her near-death, but still keep her for the final season.
Sink, McLaughlin and Schnapp, in particular, carry Vol. 2. Sink's quiet determination is so effective it almost feels like things are going to work out for everyone, which makes Max’s near-death all the more shocking - Max, who gets to break fans' hearts when she pleads that she doesn't want to go. Importantly, the moments we gain from the long episodes give screen time to those characters left behind through the first half of the season. Schnapp does the most with these quiet moments. Will's sexuality has been a point of disagreement with fans, and though the show continues to treat him and his feelings in a way that feels accurate to a boy in the 80s, there is a lot said between words that it feels like Schnapp is going out of his way to give us an answer the script isn't yet prepared to put into words.
The ‘final battle’ with the montage of the different groups fighting in their separate locations with the rallentando remix ‘Running up that Hill’ with the Stranger Things leitmotif, that was just *chefs kiss*. Incredibly emotive and exactly what we as an audience had been waiting for.
Here are my theories for the final season:
Kate Bush's album ‘Hounds of Love’ (of which Running up that Hill features) is a concept album, it follows a story about being hunted by love. It is a concept of Witch-hunting and the fear of women’s power. From this concept alone, I am hoping for the powerhouse women of the series to come together and save the day. Furthermore, the final series will be a witch-hunt, especially if we are denoting that Vecna is the Wizard from Dungeons and Dragons. Alongside this, being hunted by love recalls Will’s clear love for Mike and his suffering in silence, perhaps we will finally get an answer to our questions on Will’s attraction to Mike: is it purely platonic or is there something more there?
The other side to this album is called ‘The Ninth Wave’, it is a separate concept piece about a group of people shipwrecked at sea and is a metaphor for the final wave before drowning. Season five is the final wave of Stranger Things. One can pluck parallels with the Hawkins gang drawing their final breaths before their last battle in the series finale, we can only hope they do not drown.
If the group of teens are using Dungeons and Dragons to predict each new villain that comes along, then the worst is yet to come. Season 1 brought us the Demogorgon, season 2 introduced us to an even more terrifying Mind Flayer, and season 4 gave us Vecna (Henry, aka 001), an associate Hawkins Laboratory patient with psychic abilities that harness the Upside Down's power. This is not far off his character in D&D, being a Wizard who turned himself into an alarming undead creature to gain immortality. Despite the chaos, death and destruction he brought into Hawkins – Vecna is not, in fact, the most powerful villain in Dungeon and Dragons. According to the D&D Dark Sun Fandom, the most powerful villain is a Red Dragon by the name of Borys. Borys has scales that glow red with the heat of magma and clouds gather beneath his wings like a storm of fire. Is this ringing any bells? In the final moments of season 4, we see dark clouds roll over Hawkins, red lightning, and fire beginning to consume the city. Nancy told the gang that when Vecna showed her his evil plan, she saw ‘a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins, downtown on fire, dead soldiers, and this giant creature with a gaping mouth.’ I will now remind you of Will’s drawing he finally shared with us in Volume 2: it is Mike fighting a red dragon. Therefore, my death prediction for the final series is sadly… Mike. Potentially even at the hands of or with the help of Will, who started to scratch his neck again which was a sign of Vecna (the Mind Flayer- the Wizard) controlling him.
A final theory I will note, though it is somewhat hopeful on my part purely because Eddie is my new favourite, is that Eddie could be revived through time travel. Remember when they enter the Upside Down and Nancy realises that it is in the past, as her diary was only filled up to the date Will disappeared (November 6th 1983)? Vecna clearly has the power to control time, and if Vecna has this power, perhaps it can be used by one of the other GM superhumans. It couldn’t be Eleven or one of the Hawkins kids as Vecna has the power to see into their minds, however, this would give the Duffer brothers a chance to finish off the perhaps forgotten plot from season 2 when the other ‘numbers’ were presented, 008 for example. Even if this doesn’t come to fruition, Ross Duffer himself said in an interview with Variety that the demobats cannot kill, so perhaps there is hope for Eddie yet.
We will see! The show clearly knew what fans wanted because, by the end, it delivered on almost every character and relationship. With the real end of this story now closer than ever, viewers can only hope that moving forward, Stranger Things remembers that this story has never been as much about the monsters as about the people and the relationships.
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