After ending on such a strong mysterious note, and after weeks of agonizing waiting, fans and audiences everywhere were finally gifted with the two part finale of Stranger Things season four. Despite the long wait for this episode’s release, not much truly happens in regards to big plot reveals or big changes, if anything it seems like this episode mainly serves as set up for the final episode of the season. Nonetheless the plot points of this episode were still incredibly entertaining to watch and most definitely incredibly satisfying, especially for those die-hard fans.
The episode picks back up where we last left off with Nancy still stuck in the upside down under the hypnosis of Vecna. Vecna reveals to Nancy a glimpse of the future where Hawkins is literally broken apart by various rifts before she is released. Afterwards the Hawkins gang brainstorms multiple ways to finally fight and defeat Vecna, eventually devising a plan to use Max as bait. From a story perspective a lot of the choices to show visions/glimpses of the future definitely felt unnecessary considering this narrative choice never really occurred in past seasons, with the exception of the mind flayer back in season two.
In classic Stranger Things fashion, El uses her powers to discover the Hawkins gang’s plan to lure Max and begs Owens to let her go. He gives in and agrees to arrange transit but is then confronted by ‘Papa’ who tells El she needs to stay behind to complete her training. The episode takes an incredibly dramatic turn when El realizes that Papa had been using her to find Henry AKA Vecna in the upside down the entire time. Once again, from a narrative perspective tying in the Vecna story with previous plot points that audiences has since forgotten about was a genius play in building even more excitement towards finally seeing the culmination of the season. Before anything can come from this, Sullivan, fully convinced that El was the one behind the murders still, attempts to kill her. Amidst all the madness Papa attempts to escape with El but in a satisfying fashion is shot dead from a helicopter. In self defense and perhaps some unclear revenge, El uses her powers to bring down the helicopter from the sky right as Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle show up.
In Russia, that story line comes to an end as Murray, Joyce, and Hopper escape the prison base. As they leave they discover more creatures from the upside down as well as fragments of the mind flayer. These scenes definitely sparked lots of speculation and conversations from fans debating on whether or not this will make a comeback, especially since many plot points from past seasons don’t seem to come back if they don’t land with die-hard fans. Overall this episode mostly served as set-up for the final episode, but still delivered some very satisfying scenes for fans, most notably Papa’s involvement with El finally coming to an end.
Rating: 7/10