Alrighty, because not even a week has passed since the remaining two episodes in Stranger Things‘ fourth season dropped on Netflix, I am calling out big SPOILERS for the rest of this review. So be warned.
We left off with El still in the lab, our small pizza gang trying to find her, Hopper’s been found, and Nancy is under the curse of Vecna at the moment. Let’s just start with her. It doesn’t appear that Vecna actually wants to kill her, more just like using her as a warning of what’s to come. Nancy looks horrified by what he shows her, but instead of giving up, our Hawkins clan forms an elaborate plan to take Vecna down for good (hopefully). El is essentially help prisoner by Brenner because he thinks she isn’t ready to go save her friends. How conflicting! Yes, he strangely wants to help her save Hawkins, but he’s also a selfish and evil man still. He’s just not as evil as some other things out there. With the accidental help of the government and Mike and company showing up at the right time, El is able to escape the lab, as well as Brenner for good. Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of Owens though!
Anyways, over in Russia, the group manages to escape the prison, but need to find a way back to America. That requires a great deal of waiting and dealing with the extremely squirrely, Yuri. When they realize they won’t make it back in time to help with whatever is going on in Hawkins, Joyce realizes they just need to torch the piece of the Upside Down that’s being housed in the Russian prison. That means they need to get back in, which ends up being a piece of cake since a bunch of demodogs slaughter every last person in there. It’s all a lot of coordinating, but as shows that want some heroes, the timing is perfect with what else is cooking in the other groups.
Max is going to be the bait for Vecna with the help of Lucas and Erica while Dustin, Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie head to the Upside Down to take out Vecna. Eddie and Dustin are the decoy for the weird bats swarming the house, while the other three head over and getting ready to torch a distracted Vecna. Obviously, things don’t go smoothly, but somewhat luckily, El and company make their own sensory deprivation tank so El can “piggyback” (hence, episode title) into Max’s mind to destroy Vecna and help her friend. It’s all really down to the wire, and while things do work out in the end, at least a little bit, there are still some monumental failures in the plan. Eddie dies while warding off the bats, Max dies but Eleven tries to revive her, and Vecna, though seriously injured, is still very much alive.
In the end, everyone still on two feet reunite in Hawkins, but it’s clearly just going to be a brief time to regroup before they have to face Vecna again. Maybe it’ll be on their home turf next season? Regardless, this battle is far from over, and Max’s life still hangs in the balance. Um…what?! That was what I was asking out loud to no one for most of the season finale. I’m kind of shocked the tears never came, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t sniffling a good four separate times. As devastating as it was to see fan-favorite, Eddie, go, that seems to be how it works for new characters on this show. While Max could potentially be out for good, I don’t really believe that will end up being the case. But calling back – Steve lives! I know there will be plenty of action next season, but I will be interested to see where the personal lives of all of these characters end up settling. There’s clearly something lingering with Will and Jonathan tried his best to be there, but that reveal remains to be seen. It’s deeply upsetting that there will be so much time between seasons again, but after this incredible ride, I have no doubts that it will be a worthy ending to the series.