Three months after it dropped on Netflix, Andrea and I finally watch the 4th season of Stranger Things. It was a major investment of time with eight 1.5 hour long episodes and a 9th episode season finale that clocked in at 2.5 hours. Well, there's a lot of territory to cover.
I mean that geographically. Besides Hawkins, Indiana, we have to cover locations in California, Utah, Nevada, Alaska and the friggin' Soviet Union.
Joyce, Jonathan, Will and Eleven are living in California where life is not that great. Jonathan spends a lot of time getting toasted with his buddy Argyle at Surfer Pizza.
Will is pensive and quiet. He's got stuff he can't tell and no one to tell it to. (The assumption is that Will is gay and struggling with that. It remains an assumption as nothing is ever explicitly said.)
Eleven, derived of her powers after the events of season 3, is getting bullied at school mercilessly and relentlessly. A visit from Mike which should be a good thing just adds to her stress. (For his part, Will's reaction to Mike's visit is also strained. See above paragraph for assumed reasons.)
And Joyce gets a package from Russia that indicates Jim Hopper is alive. She pairs up with Murray to go on a rescue mission. There will be betrayals and set backs along the way.
And yes, Jim Hopper is alive. On the plus side, being tortured and brutalized in a Russian prison has led to Hopper losing a lot of weight. He's ripped now. And that is the only plus side. See "being tortured and brutalized in a Russian prison".
And there are two competing factions within the US Government who have different ideas about Eleven. Dr. Owens knows there's some deadly supernatural shit going down in Hawkins and Eleven getting her powers back may be the only defense against said deadly supernatural shit. Dr. Owens is a nice guy but his plan to restore Eleven's powers involve working with Dr.Brenner ("Papa") who was a dick before and remains a dick now.
The other faction in the US Government is a military operation led by a stern, single minded martinet of a general whose orders assume Eleven is the source of the deadly supernatural shit going in Hawkins and he needs to stop her by any means necessary including shoot to kill.
Meanwhile in Hawkins, well, as I mentioned, deadly supernatural shit is going on. Rising up out of the dismal hell that is the Upside Down is Vecna and he's killing young people in Hawkins one at a time.
He chooses his victims carefully, people suffering from concealed trauma. His first victim is Chrissy, a pretty cheerleader who is dating Jason, the captain of the Hawkins High basketball team. Life should be good for Chrissy except her mother lives rent free in her head perpetually reminding her she is fat. Chrissy is not fat but the bulimia she suffers as a result of her mother's abuse is real. So are the nightmares that Vecna is inducing her brain.
In desperation, Chrissy seeks out Eddie Munson to buy some drugs to ease the pain and perhaps shut out the nightmares.
Eddie the Freak people call him. Three years into his senior year at Hawkins, Eddie heads up a D&D group known as the Hellfire Club (someone's been reading their X-Men comics). When Vecna decides to move in for the kill while Chrissy is in Eddie's trailer to buy weed, Eddie the Freak and his Satanic cult are to blame for her brutal and grotesque murder.
Jason's quest for vengeance against Eddie and his gang of weirdos will ultimately doom Hawkins. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Life in Hawkins has evolved a bit for our young warriors against the unknown. The guys are in high school now. Lucas is on the basketball team in a bid for normalcy and popularity.
Robin has a crush on a girl in the school band. It's 1986 so it's not the best time to take chances that the other girl feels the same way.
Nancy's looking past graduation to going to college, checking off some boxes working as editor of the school newspaper.
Steve is out of high school, working at the video store. He's spinning his wheels a bit. Events will transpire that Steve will see Nancy has a potential romantic partner once more but Nancy still seems dedicated to her long distance relationship with Jonathan.
Dustin's still a D&D guy, now in Eddie's Hellfire Club. Eddie and Dustin have a solid brotherly vibe but don't fret, we'll still get some clever Dustin/Steve banter that we've come to know and love.
And then there's Max. She's shut herself off from the gang, deeply scarred by brother Billy's horrific death in season 3 and the feeling the absence of Eleven. She's having bad dreams and it seems Vecna has her number as another victim.
Some random thoughts and observations:
The whole Joyce and Murray go to rescue Jim Hopper seems to be part of a whole other show. The storyline does have it's moments: seems Murray can be quite the badass with some unexpected karate skills and a flamethrower.
Eddie is a fascinating character with many unexpected layers. He can be strange, off putting but ultimately he's a good guy who puts himself at risk to protect Dustin and find justice for Chrissy.
Argyle can be a one note joke, a perpetually stoned guy who says dude a lot. But he is astonishingly helpful and even insightful.
Max is in a deep dark place but her determination to not succumb to Vecna's darkness is inspiring. Spoiler alert: things do not end completely well for Max.
I hope you like "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush because it gets played a lot. It's Max's favorite song and it helps her resist Vecna's dark thrawl. Meanwhile, Kate Bush made over $2 million in streaming royalties along with taking the spot for number one song around the world (for several weeks) for the first time since its initial release. Pretty damn cool!
The fourth season ends on a major game changer. Hawkins is fundamentally changed in a way that cannot be ignored. Vecna has been defeated but it's only a set back.
The season ends with our gang all finally back together in one place but it's not a happy ending. At least, not for long.
What's next for the 5th and final season of Stranger Things will probably take us 2 years to find out.
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