With the final episode of the most anticipated Stranger Things season finally out and behind us, its influence still manages to thrive within social media everywhere. While the majority of die-hard fans and audiences saw this final episode as a major disappointment. Other fans were devastated and heartbroken by one particular scene that has prompted not only TikTok trends but quite possibly one of the strongest off-shoot fandoms to ever come out of the Stranger Things franchise.
While the previous episode essentially served as set up for the finale, we are finally able to see these plans out. Starting off with the group in Hawkins, they enact their plan of using Max as a distraction while Steve, Robin, and Nancy attack from the inside out while Eddie and Dustin distract the bats. In campy over the top fashion, Eddie plays on his guitar a rendition of Master of Puppets by ACDC in order to get the bats to fly over, sprouting only the beginning of Eddie fan edit content. Ultimately with this plotline, Eddie ends up sacrificing himself to save Dustin. This death has single-handedly sprouted the largest uproar, off-shoots, and the birth of a brand new fandom. Fans were absolutely devastated by Eddie’s death despite the pattern of new one season characters dying at the end of the season, much like Bob’s death at the end of season two. Since the release of part two, fans of Eddie have been theorizing ways that Eddie could potentially come back for season four. But, unfortunately in a very long scene and in graphic detail, Eddie does in fact get eaten alive by Vecna’s upside down bats.
Amidst the fight, Will, Mike, Argyle, and Jonothan create a sensory deprivation bath in a Surfer Boy Pizza parlor for El to assist in the fight against Vecna, more specifically in Max’s battle against him. The entirety of this scene was full of action and drama, in particular a very lengthy scene of Mike once again laying his love for El out, this time around however Will seems incredibly uncomfortable. Throughout this season, there have been hints at Will potentially identifying as queer, as far as representation goes, the choice to incorporate this into his character was an excellent decision by The Duffer Brothers. Especially considering the age range of Stranger Things fans, having one of the main characters identify as queer is a powerful and positive plot that fans everywhere hope turns out to be true. Later on in the scene, El and Max seem to have the upperhand until Jason interferes, causing Max to get killed by Vecna in the process, another death that fans had already predicted.
After this, Murray, Joyce, and Hopper kill the rest of the demogorgons in Russia, weakening Vecna enough for the Hawkins gang to seemingly kill him. El at this time is also able to revive Max with her powers. However during the short period of time that she was dead, riffs were able to open all over Hawkins leading to the upside down. The episode ends on a bittersweet note with Max in a coma and Hopper finally returning back to Hawkins reuniting with El. Ironically, despite Eddie dying in the process, the group is still far from finished with Vecna. At the end of the episode Will once again feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and can fully still feel Vecna’s presence, prompting the segway into season five. Overall, this episode serving as the finale definitely felt like a let down in comparison to the action and drama of all the other episodes in the season. The events of this season felt a little rushed and mainly just answered all our questions going into the wrap up of the series, we were given a lot of information in a shorter amount of time, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but definitely unexpected. However, fans everywhere are already overhyped and overjoyed for the long wait to come for season five.
Rating: 6/10