Review: Stranger Things season 4, Volume 2

“Chapter Nine: The Piggyback”

The big two-and-a-half finale is here! Did it live up to the month of anticipation? Sort of! I liked “The Piggyback,” but I don’t think it had to be this long and I’m disappointed the show didn’t go further to sell how dire the situation is.

The episode does deliver some big moments we were all looking forward to, starting with a rematch between El and Vecna. We all knew this was coming, right? In order to make that happen, the Nevada crew is able to jerry-rig a sensory deprivation tank at a Surfer Boy Pizza location, which is a nice way to pay off Argyle’s existence. I liked that they cut him making a pizza in with the rest of the intense prepare-for-battle montage.

After she’s in the tank, Eleven projects herself to Hawkins, where Max has successfully baited Vecna into trying to kill her again. This episode is chock-full of dramatic speeches, but Max’s — where she gets frank with Vecna about there being some truth to his accusation that she wanted her brother dead — is the best. I fully bought Sadie Sink’s performance here, and my heart went out to Max. The bit where “Lucas” started to say horrible things to her was effectively creepy, too.

Anyway, Max tries to hide for a while in the happy memory of the Snow Ball from season 2, but Vecna eventually busts through, which is when El gets to have her come-to-the-rescue moment. It’s a fun bit — of course I love seeing El toss Vecna through gym benches — although the ebb and flow of the battle that follows is a little predictable. El starts losing the fight, because your hero can’t just win throughout, during which time Vecna reveals more of his origin story; after Eleven blasted him into the Upside Down, he became an “explorer” (check the Hellraiser vibe) and eventually found a big formless cloud of evil that he…I dunno, absorbed to make himself more powerful. He’s the Mind Flayer, basically, and his plan is to invade the real world (which I’m now calling the Right Side Up) and remake it in his horrific image. It’s fairly standard megalomaniacal villain stuff, but there’s nothing wrong with that when it’s sold this well.

But then, at the last minute, Mike talks Eleven back to confidence in what I’m gonna say was the third best dramatic speech of the episode; let’s call it the “you’re my superhero” speech. I was surprisingly moved by Mike’s earnest declaration of love and trust. I rate it three out of five ugly cries.

Anyway, Eleven gets back up and is able to lay Vecna out, which gives Steve, Robin and Nancy the opening they need to attack Vecna’s body in the Upside Down. Nancy looks great firing a sawed off shotgun and it’s fun watching Vecna go up in flames. Mission accomplished?

No! The twist is that Vecna actually does manage to kill Max before Eleven uses the power of love to uncoil the tentacles around her neck. This checks off everything on his evil shopping list, and the Upside Down does start to bleed into the Right Side Up in a way that nobody could possibly ignore.

Only they kind of do? Let’s get into some of the frustrating bits.

Strange half-measures on Stranger Things

So Hawkins is now riven with horrific flaming gashes that the news is writing off as the result of an “earthquake”…and people apparently buy it. Stranger Things wants to tell an epic story where the whole world is at risk, but it doesn’t seem to want anybody but this small group of Indiana kids helping to fix it. That means that a lot of people have to act very very dumb, most immediately the parents. When Mike and the gang returned to Hawkins in the final minutes of the episode and Mike’s mom made a big deal out of never letting him go again, I rolled my eyes so hard I swear I saw my own brain. Oh, so now you care where your kids are? They’ve been helping wanted criminals, faking their way into psych wards and fighting magic serial killers for episodes and you’ve barely lifted a finger. And doesn’t Max have a mother out there somewhere?

Oh, speaking of Max, she’s not dead. Well, she was medically dead for a minute, long enough to meet whatever standard needed to be met for Vecna’s “invade reality” plan, but then Eleven brought her back. Only she didn’t bring her back all the way, and now she’s in a coma.

This feels like a half-measure to me. I get that they want to keep Max around, but how many times can the show almost kill a character only to bring them back? (And if Max weren’t back in fighting shape for season 5, I’d be surprised.) If the show wants to tell a story with stakes, it’s gonna have to put some people in real danger. I don’t feel like Stranger Things is willing.

The show does kill off Eddie, which is a shame cause he’s fun, but he was a character introduced this season. That’s kind of the show’s MO: Barb died in season 1 a few episodes after being introduced. Ditto Alexei in season 3. Now it’s Eddie’s turn.

Although I have to mention that Eddie does have a very fun moment before his death. He and Dustin try and lure the Demobats away from the Creel house by fortifying Eddie’s trailer in the Upside Down and then having Eddie shred away on Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.” Any image from this scene would make a great cover for a heavy metal album; it was cool.

I don’t know why Eddie had to die, though. The Demobats start making their way into the trailer so Dustin escapes back to the Right Side Up. But Eddie elects to stay to “buy more time.” So he runs out of the trailer and has the bats follow him…but they were already going at the trailer very hard; why was a further distraction needed? It felt like the writers wanted to kill a character but didn’t wanna sacrifice any of the main players, so they inserted a half-hearted plotline about how he’s “not a hero” and came up with this. Meh.

I did get a little choked up when Dustin told Eddie’s uncle about his nephew’s death, though. Gaten Matarazzo brings it.

Oh, Jason the basketball asshole also dies in a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment when the gash in reality bisects him at the stomach, but don’t tell me anyone’s going to miss him.

Stranger Romance

What else can I complain about? Well, now that I’ve seen the whole season, I stand firm in my belief that bringing back Hopper was a mistake. I liked the bit at the beginning of the episode where he and Joyce flirt — Winona Ryder and David Harbour have winning chemistry — but I don’t think the show got enough out of his resurrection to justify what it lost. The Russia plotline was consistently the least interesting thing about season 4, Joyce looks like a negligent dolt for leaving her kids behind during this disaster, and it would have been better for the development of the other characters if they didn’t have Hopper to lean on.

Oh, and the episodes could have been shorter. And where did Hopper get that sword?

Circling back to romance, I kind of feel like the renewed Nancy-Steve affection came out of nowhere, or at least from far away. I don’t remember any hints that he was holding a candle for her in season 3, but there’s clearly more of this to come.

I did like Max and Lucas reconnecting through primitive text message. That was cute.

Oh, and we have to talk about Will for a moment. So, Stranger Things isn’t required to have LGBT representation, but it’s odd that Robin gets a full story arc about having a crush on a girl (the finale preserves hope on that front, by the way) but that it tip-toes around Will having a crush on Mike for nine episodes and doesn’t give us a resolution. And I’m not making this up; that is clearly what the show is hinting at, but apparently it’s too timid to follow through? Why? They even had a perfect chance to bring it up during Jonathan and Will’s heart-to-heart at the pizza place (the second best dramatic speech of the episode, for the record), but just sorta…didn’t.

Verdict

For all my whining, I did enjoy watching the episode. Stranger Things is a frustrating show to me, because it’s full of talented people who clearly care about what they’re doing and lavish every scene with hand-crafted detail, but it also makes these broad strokes mistakes that rub me the wrong way. I’m still looking forward to the fifth and final season, which could feel less constricted now that the writers don’t need to keep everyone around for next time.

Stranger Bullet Points

• I loved Robin’s Guardian Angels battle beret.
• “I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer.” Okay, that made me laugh.
• The balloons bursting into blood at the Snow Ball is very IT. And of course Lucas is reading a Stephen King book at the end.
• For the record, Lucas’ mid-fight speech to Jason about how “wanting to be normal” was a mistake was my least favorite of the episode. I like the sentiment, but it seemed overwritten considering what was happening at the time.
• Vecna: “You have already lost.” Eleven: “No, you have.” I think you can write a better stinger than that, guys.
• Erica Sinclair is always fun to watch, but she had way too little to do this season. She was more short-changed than Jonathan.
• A lot of people screamed “son of a bitch” this episode.

Episode Grade: B

– Dan Selcke

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels