This episode features the return of two beloved Stranger Things characters who have yet to be seen this season: Erica and… Max Mayfield- the show’s rebellious prodigal daughter who, at the end of the last season, was thrown into a deadly coma.

Be warned: spoilers ahead

Eleven and Hopper are in the Upside-down, trying to force their way through the fleshy wall they discovered in the last episode. Neither of them is successful. They’re interrupted by military men barreling down the street with a radio mounted on the top. The radio paralyzes El’s abilities, forcing her to fall to the ground. At the same time, Joyce catches Robin and Will after their daring escape from the Squawk. Joyce yells at the pair but Will stops her and explains that they need to start taking more risks, and that they believe Vecna’s next target is Derek Turnbow.

After the credits, Holly Wheeler and Henry Creel enjoy breakfast in the Creel house. Henry tells her that he’s bringing all of her friends to the Upside-down to join Holly. He warns Holly to not leave the house, under any circumstances, or else the monsters will attack.

Back in the Upside-down, Hopper comforts El as she struggles under the military’s radio suppression. The military men find traces of Hopper and El and continue to search for the pair. El gives away their location as Hopper shoots the radio, limiting El’s power. El is able to knock out most of the opponents, leaving one alive for questioning.

At the Squawk, Dustin, Steve, Jonathan, Nancy, Mike, and Lucas reconvene. The whole crew discusses how to protect Derek. Will reveals that he’s still tapped into Vecna’s hive mind. They devise a plan to sneak into Derek’s house and save him before Vecna’s kidnapping. They also plan to shoot the Demogorgon with a tracking device to hopefully track the monster back to Holly in the Upside-down.

In the Upside-down, Holly hears a knock at the door of the Creel house. In the mailbox, there’s a note from Henry telling Holly to meet her in the woods, directly conflicting with Vecna’s earlier warning. Higher-ups in the military find the men they dispatched to find El and Hopper all dead as Hopper and El interrogate the one soldier they left alive.

Erica is now in Scott Clarke’s science class when Lucas and Mike approach her. She’s tasked with going to Derek’s house and making up with his older sister, Tina. While there, she’s to drug the family with benzodiazepams as the rest of the crew devises a plan to trap the Demogorgon.

In the Upside-down, El invades the soldier’s mind as Hopper interrogates him about the fleshy wall. The soldier insists he’s just a grunt worker. El finds a door in the soldier’s memory. When she tries to go through the door, she can’t. El deduces that Vecna is behind this door. Meanwhile, Holly works up the courage to go into the woods despite Henry’s warnings. 

At the Turnbow house, Erica successfully drugs the entire family. The group summons the Demogorgon and lures it into their trap. Nancy shoots the Demogorgon with a tracker as the monster returns to the Upside-down. Dustin and Steve can track it using their radio car, but end up losing it. At the same time, Joyce and Will reconcile over his sneaking out of the Squawk and agree to be more trusting. Suddenly, Will warns his mother that the Demogorgon is headed their way to take Derek.

Holly continues to walk through the forest, eventually coming across a red-stone crag. She nervously approaches the cave when Max Mayfield appears. Then, the episode ends.

This episode was the best of the season. The Turnbow trap was reminiscent of the season 1 episode “The Upside Down”, when Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy teamed up to trap and attack the Demogorgon. This time around, the team was much more prepared and much larger; it felt like a full-circle moment for everyone involved.

What stands out most from this episode is the amount of screen time the Demogorgon had. Compared to the first season, the show has grown significantly in scale and budget, a testament to its success as a series. The amount of large-scale set pieces and monster screen time this season has given the fans exactly what they wanted from this final season: an action-packed, high-budget piece of media.

Rating 9/10