# Stranger Things - Season 4 Part I (Episodes 1-7)



## Dave (Apr 30, 2022)

*This thread is for Stranger Things - Season 4. part I (episodes 1-7) *It will therefore will contain *spoilers for previous seasons* and they don't require spoiler tags. For anything* this season*, you still need spoiler tags here:

For earlier seasons go to:

Season 1 -- Stranger Things - Season 1
Season 2 -- Stranger Things - Season 2
Season 3 -- Stranger Things - Season 3

The fourth season of the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things, titled Stranger Things 4, finally has a release date and is scheduled to be released worldwide exclusively via Netflix's streaming service in two volumes, with the first set on May 27, 2022, and the second five weeks later on July 1, 2022. This season will have nine episodes in total.

I'm not sure about this. The children were no longer children in Season 3. It's three years later now (although apparently only six months later in story time and they are in High School.) Same cast so they are going to look old for High School. Soon, it won't even be the 1980's any longer (and X-Files will be on TV!)

Apparently, it's Spring Break! Which only makes me think of that Simpson episode when they go to Florida on Spring Break.


----------



## Mouse (Apr 30, 2022)

As long as we get plenty of Dustin and Steve hijinks, I'll be happy.


----------



## Wreath (May 1, 2022)

Mouse said:


> As long as we get plenty of Dustin and Steve hijinks, I'll be happy.


totally yeah


----------



## ctg (May 24, 2022)

> The fourth season of _Stranger Things_ is almost here—at least the first seven episodes since the release is split in two. So Netflix released a spooky final trailer, chock full of 1980s horror tropes, on the heels of the revelation last month that the season's Big Bad will be a _Dungeons and Dragons_ villain named Vecna.
> 
> We've previously reported that David Harbour is returning as Hopper, along with the rest of the main cast. Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), and Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield) all return.
> 
> ...











						The kids are older and not all right in final Stranger Things S4 trailer
					

This season's big bad is Vecna, a villain straight out of Dungeons and Dragons




					arstechnica.com


----------



## ctg (May 27, 2022)

Spoiler: Chapter 1  - HellFire Club



Oh man, the season stepped into the weird pool straight from the beginning. The psychic kids. We knew that 11 was abnormal, but back in the 1979, the Department of Energy had a punch of kids. All equally gifted. All going through same practices of developing Remote Viewing. 

Back then, it was a CIA funded operation and now in the 2020s it is still an ongoing thing, even though some Remote Viewers have left the program. But in the story it wasn't just that as DoE was also trying to develop other gifts, including telekinesis. At the heart of it was 11, putting an end to things.

Almost eight years later, the kids have grown out from the basement and moving into the high school, without mobiles and the angst. I felt so weird looking back at that time, as it felt a lifetime ago, almost like a different world. There are something's about the American high school culture that I'll never understand, no matter thought I've been watching it for a number of decades. 

It surprised me slightly that the name of the title refers to the AD&D club that one of the boys misses because of the basketball championship match. I know that the RPGs are accepted these days, but the Dustin Brothers captured essentially the madness that went around those games back in those days. 

I liked that the big evil also made an entrance twice into the episode, with somewhat classic spooky stuff that I'd associated with the haunting houses. The stuff I loved 11 losing her gift, her powers, as if she has an expiration date and Sinclair's little sister rolling a perfect 20. 

How did Hopper manage to send that package?



I'll try to do these one per day, since there's only seven of them in this half of the season.


----------



## Dave (May 27, 2022)

ctg said:


> the Dustin Brothers captured essentially the madness that went around those games back in those days.


I thought all those newspaper reports about D&D and devil worshipping were much earlier than 1986. The eighties was my decade. I played D&D from about 1980. Still, apart from that it was great, and while I had series doubts about how they would make this season, I no longer have that problem.


ctg said:


> I'll try to do these one per day,


I'm going to watch no more than one a day and savour them.



Spoiler



Number Six didn't die


----------



## ctg (May 28, 2022)

Dave said:


> I thought all those newspaper reports about D&D and devil worshipping were much earlier than 1986.


I started role-playing around that time, and my mum went mental over the newspaper pieces. They even showed in Finnish TV that terrible film of young man going bonkers, because he played a game. Didn't talk to mum for two weeks after she forced me to watch it. After that there was no talks about it. So, personally I recollect it being around that time.


----------



## HareBrain (May 28, 2022)

I've watched two episodes so far. One thing they haven't addressed that I'd hoped:



Spoiler



How the hell did the Soviets get Hopper to Russia? Though I guess that's no harder to answer than "How did the Russians build a base in Indiana without anyone noticing".


----------



## ctg (May 28, 2022)

Spoiler: Chapter 2 - Vecna's Curse



It still amazes me that Sheriff Hopper managed to survive the blast, and he wasn't thrown through the tear into that other world. It might have been in the plan as a writer I'd have sent him in that darkness and not into the Soviet Union. His back wasn't broken either. 

I liked that the new Sheriff was mostly clueless about the monster victim, but I was surprised that his call was picked up in a big listening center, instead of it going through the computers for a keyword search. It might be strange but that system was supposedly be working at late eighties and due to US laws, seeing a big listening centre draw parallels to the Stasi operations. 

I know it's a fleeting scene, but there's so much wrong about it. The media circus appearing straight after it also felt wrong, as I doubt Hawking's even has their own media company. The talking heads were trying to connect it to the Mall fire from last season,  but for the story reason, Nancy might be the one who really explodes the truth to the world. 

The reason why I bring out the media circus is that it might happen today, in our time, because we are so well-connected, but in the real world, back in the eighties, a trailer park body would not have crossed the threshold for the big media to send down a media crew, or four. 






Why they dressed up like a proper editor and a head journalist? Would eighties high school media crew dress according to the media dressing code? I also hate that Netflix loses information in the still, and it appears as pixelation, because the algorithm doesn't have enough of information to draw a sharp picture from the compressed files. 

Eddie's case, blown up media, having the whole police department after him, and Chrissy's death being so gruesome was definitely something he couldn't handle. And then having his stash of drugs in the trailer as well is overwhelmingly against it, but breaking all those bones, and twisting them to odd angles needs a lot of strength, and it's not really that easy. But nobody asked that question, because that information was only among the sheriff people, and the coroner. And Max definitely was barking the wrong tree. 

The curious thing is that the baddie was channelling through a police officer and getting into Fred's head, when the pair got at the trailer park. It's strange that he got so freaked that Fred actually closed up and Nancy didn't draw a connection. She has most of the pieces, but yet, she's still a bit blind.

She did right by Eddie uncle, as Nancy asked the right questions and wanted to write his side of the story. If she hadn't, she would not had got a clue about the similarities in the jailed murderer case.






I love the Hopper letter, but I also wonder how long it took him to get the letters, because as we know russians doesn't do Greek alphabets, unless it's needed. It must have taken ages, but it's also funny that the country code is also included in the phone number. 

Back then long distance, and especially the overseas calls were so hideously expensive. I also vaguely remember telephone booths in the airports and fancy hotels, reserved for such activity. These days, it would be abnormal to find such facilities. 

The dialogue broke a bit, when Murrey started deciphering the message and the fact that he believed that Hopper was atomized. He used word, "russians" instead of Soviets or "those communists," which would have fitted the timeline much better. After all, 86 was definitely time Reagan time and I really doubt russian fitted into their vocabulary. 

Joyce however was doing the right thing by hanging on the Enzo. Murrey did play the tinfoil hat man very well and, in his highest note, he actually believed that the KGB would be going through a complete historical download from the Sheriff that weren't really that intellectual that he'd remember every detail. And meeting at Enzo's would not have been an important detail for them to set up a ruse. 

Not that it turned out to be a complete ruse, just part of the corruption that has been going forever. That's one of the biggest reason why their army is in such a bad shape these days. In fact it's one of the most corrupted countries in the world, and with enough of money, Hopper could get out of from the Gulag and into Alaska. 

I also bet that the Bering Sea route was the way they got him out from the States. Stuffed in a boot, transferred to a fishing boat, driven to ocean and exchanged there with another vessel.






How to make a monster. I was waiting for Eleven to do go mental and turn to Stephen King's Carrie in the skate hall. I hated those teens doing gang bullying. I've never liked that in American culture, but so far it has been a steady diet as long as I have lived and we get subjected to each and every year. And instead of getting bollocking from a grown up, nobody did anything except Mike. 

Then again, he already knew that by pushing 11, bad things could happen. After all, she's still a teen, and she still can turn evil.  

The mob of Chrissy's boyfriends definitely had turned evil by forming a lynching mob without understanding the whole picture. When El smacked the b!itch I felt that she was a victim, and she'd pushed to her limits. That's why the bully got a broken nose.






A dark wizard. I like that. As a monster, he is quite extraordinary and dark wizard definitely fits the case.


----------



## Dave (May 28, 2022)

ctg said:


> a trailer park ... would not have crossed the threshold for the big media to send down a media crew, or four.


Except that despite the official secrecy, Hawkins probably still has a reputation for the bizarre and unusual stories, but I do agree with you that it wouldn't be a top priority for a TV station. Also, the other Newspaper had been and gone before Nancy and Fred even arrived. Plus, communication was slower; outside broadcasts needed vans with huge satellite dishes on the roof and cameras weren't very portable. I think that _Better Call Saul _(set in the 1990's) does a very good job with matching the period to the technology.


ctg said:


> He used word, "russians" instead of Soviets or "those communists," which would have fitted the timeline much better. After all, 86 was definitely time Reagan time and I really doubt russian fitted into their vocabulary.


Here I would have to disagree. This is Sting singing in 1985, one year earlier..






In the UK (I couldn't say about the USA or anywhere else) people generally (though wrongly) and frequently used "Russian" when they really meant "Soviet". They used them interchangeably. 

But apart from nitpicking the language, the technology, the pop culture, the fashions, and the hairstyles, otherwise it was good!


----------



## Mon0Zer0 (May 28, 2022)

Hmm. I'm not sure what's happened with the writing and directing this season but it seems to have taken a serious nosedive. I loved the first three seasons (except the attempt to shoe-horn a spin off into Season 2). As a fan of the original Nightmare on Elm Street series which S4 is most definitely, liberally borrowing from (including accurate sounding soundalike cues, sound effects and so on), it's a little too close in parts. 

In between all the homage it seems to have forgotten basic storytelling rules like "people shouldn't know information just because the plot demands it".  Some of the dialogue is eye-rollingly bad, including an all over the place monologue from hopper that looked like the actor was dialling it in. 

It doesn't feel "Stranger-thingsy" to me. It's lost the "kids on bikes" feel and the cast is so split that you don't get enough time with them to really feel any of their predicaments. I get the sense of too many ideas fighting for attention, throughout, and all the subplots with various agencies and the soviets all fighting each other detracts from the plot. Everything is at a break neck speed and I'm beginning to not care. The nearest analogy is the latest Star Wars movie, imho - complete with unearned overpowered antagonist.


----------



## Dave (May 28, 2022)

Mon0Zer0 said:


> As a fan of the original Nightmare on Elm Street series which S4 is most definitely, liberally borrowing from (including accurate sounding soundalike cues, sound effects and so on), it's a little too close in parts.


I haven't yet reached those episodes with the specific points you complain about, but it is clearly very deliberate to make it a homage to all those '80's Horror movies (which was why I mentioned _The Simpsons_ 'Spring Break' episode in the first post.) I don't think it's a spoiler to point out that Robert Englund is a cast member! You may not like it, and you may think it is a mistake, but it isn't accidental.

I agree with you that it can never recapture the original series again with the 'kids on bikes' _E.T._ feel, which was exactly why I was very unsure about this season. The kids have now grown into teenagers and this is the natural progression for the story to make too.


----------



## ctg (May 29, 2022)

Spoiler: Chapter 3 - The Monster and the Superhero



In the above shot, one created the situation and the other one is tasked to solve it. Which one of them is the superhero? The doctor or the major?

It is a tough question, because there are more of dirt on the doctor than on the major. He even claimed that the doctor was responsible for allowing the Soviets to invade Hawkins, because the military had nothing to do with it. They were just blind about everything, which sounds super ridiculous. 






11 is most certainly not a monster. The boffins tried to make her into one, and it sounds about right that the major claimed that the DoE project was to create Mind Assassins, as that's what the real world documents from that period claims were happening. Even the Manchurian Candidate could be slotted under those projects. 

But she wasn't feeling it. Instead, the supposed monster couldn't get rid of the thought that she had hurt the bully. In the past, what she did to save the town would firmly put her into the superhero category. Yet, she's horrified about her past, about everything, while the real monster in the other world is getting more powerful in every passing moment.                                                                  
So why is she feeling so down, when she should feel like a winner for showing the bully the teeth of a tiger? I don't get it. 

Mike did the stupid thing by opening his mouth and not defending her, even though they're supposed to be partners. In his defence, all I can say is that the teen boys do what they can, because they don't know any better. But at least, after a good night of sleep, he was able to find his bollocks and try to make amends. 

His attempt, "I've been bullied my whole life. You've seen what's it a like. So I understand..."

"No," El answered. She didn't even look at the boy. "You don't."

"What I don't understand?" 

"I am different. I do not belong." 

Oh man, I've been personally in that situation in so many times. And no matter what you say or do, it won't change the opinion. Not straight away. When women blame themselves, it almost impossible to get it fixed. You have to be so patient and keep building the foundation, so that eventually you can pull them out from the hole and show that the world is nice outside the darkness of those murky thoughts. 

Luckily, Mike went on that with autopilot. He did not back out even though 11 were rubbing his failures in his face. What I don't understand is why the police were dicks about the assault? It was not a murder or a manslaughter. It was just a battery, after the bullying incident. The mistake that they did were by not telling where they were taking her to questioning.

The biggest one was doing the questioning without a lawyer or a parent in present, and in the way they were doing it, was a fishing expedition. And then the sergeant-at-the-desk told the kids exactly that. I wanted to scream. The whole situation made me so frustrated. 

I bet Mike was feeling the same way. 

The twist was with the Doctor Owens, coming to rescue, explaining that the 11 was the only one who would could not only offer for a salvation, but also to being able to give her major powers. I vote for turning 11 up to eleven. Bring on the Doom!






I'm so glad that the scoopy gang is back together and on the same page, minus Sinclair doing the stupid thing. I just don't get what he is really doing with the bullies? What does he expect to get out from those guys? A status? 

At least the girls were able to find information on the big baddie ... at the Weekly World News. *facepalm*

But is Max going to be the next victim? The cuckoo clock seems to say so.


----------



## REBerg (May 29, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.1 Hellfire Club






Mon0Zer0 said:


> Hmm. I'm not sure what's happened with the writing and directing this season but it seems to have taken a serious nosedive. I loved the first three seasons (except the attempt to shoe-horn a spin off into Season 2). As a fan of the original Nightmare on Elm Street series which S4 is most definitely, liberally borrowing from (including accurate sounding soundalike cues, sound effects and so on), it's a little too close in parts.


Holy horror!
I also got an intense_ Elm Street_ vibe as Chrissy met her grisly death. The only differences I noticed were that the victim did not need to nod off and that the new Freddy didn't need knife fingers to do his thing.
This is much darker than I remember the previous seasons being. Is this an adjustment for older central characters? The closest this came to matching the old tone was the D&D victory.
I hope this season gets noticeably more upbeat, or I probably won't be watching.


----------



## Dave (May 29, 2022)

Thanks for all the spoiler warnings here, guys. However, damn Twitter is spoiling _Stranger Things 4_, by showing clips because it has put Kate Bush's _Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)_ into the Spotify charts 



REBerg said:


> This is much darker than I remember the previous seasons being.


I thought that the end of Season 3 was pretty dark with the Upside Down World breaking through and the apparent *death* of a major character. Admittedly, I've only seen two episodes of this and it does appear to get much darker yet.


----------



## HareBrain (May 29, 2022)

Just finished E7. I had my doubts at various points during this season (and there's one strand I still have doubts about) but for me it very much rescued itself in the last episode. It's annoying that we have to wait a month for the rest, not least because in that length of time I'm quite capable of forgetting almost everything that's happened so far.


----------



## Dave (May 29, 2022)

I've seen E3 now. Okay, I agree that there are quite a few more deaths than in previous series, and I couldn't watch that scene with the broken foot! 

So, there were three different stories going on, and now they are beginning to come together. All that nostalgia was great, but I'm disappointed  that it's going nowhere very fast, and left thinking that if the end of season 3 hadn't wrapped up everything so well, then we wouldn't have needed three episodes to untangle it. and to get the scooby gang back together again.

Also, why are E1 and E2 90 minutes long, then E3 only 30 minutes?



HareBrain said:


> I'm quite capable of forgetting almost everything that's happened so far.


I have the same problem. Another item for the "Those moments when you realise how old you are" thread.


----------



## Judderman (May 30, 2022)

The first 3 episodes were pretty good, but definitely diminishing returns over the years. Hard to compensate for that jolly, cute factor of the first seasons with the kids being about 17 instead of 10! (As with the kids on bikes comments above). Though Fred Benson and Nancy could be out of a cartoon.
So far the Russian stuff is diluting the good parts of the show, but I'm sure it will come together. The Dark Wizard is suitably disturbing. Still plenty to like.


----------



## HareBrain (May 30, 2022)

Dave said:


> Also, why are E1 and E2 90 minutes long, then E3 only 30 minutes?


E3 is over an hour! Were you watching it on 2x speed?


----------



## Dave (May 30, 2022)

That's was a mistake. I was tired. It was about 63 minutes. I meant to write 60. Not very much happened though. I don't think I'll stick to watching one a day and from now just watch them when I can


----------



## ctg (May 30, 2022)

Dave said:


> I meant to write 60. Not very much happened though.


I agree. Not very much of content. A lot of talk about all sorts of things, but in reality nothing really much happened, and I think it's a problem when the cast is split in three, California, Hawkings and russian gulak/alaska. They tried to give all of them screen time, but it didn't translate to much of story, did it?


----------



## Dave (May 30, 2022)

From the spoilers, episode 4 ramps it up a little more. I'm tiring of images of ticking clocks and the old house. One interesting revelation is that the weirdness began in the 1950's and not with the arrival of Eleven or the Russians.


----------



## ctg (May 30, 2022)

The Stranger Things kids’ terrible haircuts, ranked from best to worst
					

After a three-year wait, the fourth series of Stranger Things has finally dropped. But we were too distracted by the cast’s dodgy ’dos to concentrate on what was actually going on.




					theface.com


----------



## Judderman (May 30, 2022)

A very specialist article! .. But Will's and 11's are rather bad.


----------



## ctg (May 30, 2022)

Spoiler: Chapter 4 - Dear Billy...



I know there are a lot of impossible situations in this series, and rightly so, because without them, it wouldn't be dark urban fantasy. But the government barking into your house, telling you to keep quiet or else, because of an invisible monster, is stretching it a bit. 

I know they've done it, because of the aliens, but if I'd find a boss lady and two suits in my living room, telling me to keep quiet, I might as well act like Will, and not keep quiet. At least the boss lady came prepared...






Bless her cotton socks. It's hard to argue with that letter. The only thing in Mike's shoes that I'd do is to fly back to Hawking's and get on with the rest of the business, after I'd tell the boss lady, "Okay."

The babysitting suits made me laugh, "You're not under arrest." Them being glued to tellie, just opens up so many opportunities. But Will was stupid. His actions of grumbling and throwing away El's letter just proved that his heart wasn't in the business. Admitting that they fought, and he couldn't understand anything about it, just unfortunately point out that he isn't going to be El's boy forever. That superwoman is going to move on and find some other guy. 

I loved that Argyll was recruited to provide the boys an escape vehicle. But I never saw that the US Army was going to launch an assault on the boys. What the h*ll they were thinking? Thank God, Argyll appeared at the fight in the last minute to rescue them. 

I've never seen a pizza driver going so fast.  






Oh man, Max's story made me shiver. In her shoes, I would have run as far as I can. She didn't. None of them had a chose to flee. And I don't think it would have really worked, as in the horror stories it really never does. You just don't have any other chance but fighting. 

The plan, learning what you can from an institutionalized schizophrenic, while acting like star students from Notre Dame. "Hopefully Victor can have some answers..."

The opposition, a doctor, a fellow of American psychiatric association and a Harvard scholar. Oh man, social engineering a doctor and a scholar is going to be hard work. 

He believed that paper work, and after he told that there was a process-of-approval, he observed disappointment. I loved that the whole situation was social engineered with a summer camp story and the doctor took the hook, with a line and a sinker.

The actual meeting with the Victor reminded me a bit about the Silence of Lambs. His story, many horror stories, but it was also original one. Too bad the doctor did what people should do with the security incidents and he cleared the background. Poor girls did not get much of chance for winning with their action.






Hopper weren't limping. He wasn't showing strain. He wasn't even sweating, because of the pain in that chain gang line. Not only that, but he showed true bollocks, by claiming, "she's not my woman," despite all the evidence. 

Yuri's meeting in Alaska was nice, but I would not have trusted the man with the money. Joyce and Murrey were fine with it. Hopper's fight, with the exploding shed and the ride with a snowmobile, was a gorgeous piece of action. It was much better than the mall fight. 

The whole flight and finding a church full of contraband items, including peanut butter, was some of the best writing in this season. I also loved that Yuri betrayed everything for a chance to make a lot of cash. It's what they are. You simply cannot trust them. Not ever. 






I liked the grave yard scene and Billy being the avenger. In the dialogue, he was blaming Max for being too weak. Not putting up enough of a fight. But how do you flee from the evil domain, when there is no portal back to our world?

The music was a nice touch, but this scene...






It reminded me of horror masters. Many of them. But like in many American classics, love was the key to win the evil. I thought it was a nice touch.



The best episode so far.


----------



## REBerg (May 30, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.2 Vecna's Curse






ctg said:


> was waiting for Eleven to do go mental and turn to Stephen King's Carrie in the skate hall. I


The Duffer Brothers don't seem to be shy about "borrowing" from classic horror. Pig blood, chocolate shake -- both are tough stains to remove.
Clouting the bully in the face with a roller skate didn't quite rank with locking all the rink doors and incinerating her tormentors, but El made her point. That's going to leave a mark.


----------



## ctg (May 30, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.2






REBerg said:


> Clouting the bully in the face with a roller skate didn't quite rank with locking all the rink doors and incinerating her tormentors, but El made her point. That's going to leave a mark.


Well, at least it was a satisfactory smack and it gives a story for the bully. Although with her background I suspect a visit or two to a plastic surgeon and she's going to be fine. But here's a question for you, would the police have bothered to come investigate it?


----------



## REBerg (May 30, 2022)

Spoiler






ctg said:


> But here's a question for you, would the police have bothered to come investigate it?


No lack of witnesses. I'm expecting a PD scene next episode.


----------



## Dave (May 30, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.4



I wanted Hopper to come home so much, I trusted Yuri too, even though it was a bad idea right from the doll and the phone call at the start.


ctg said:


> The actual meeting with the Victor reminded me a bit about the Silence of Lambs.


Only a bit? It was another deliberate homage. Only the _French and Saunders_ spoof did it better.


Much better episode, if still too slow to tell the main story.


----------



## ctg (May 31, 2022)

Spoiler: Chapter 5 - The Nina Project



Two things, the suit in the pizza van was lucky that he made it all way to desert. The guy in the kitchen, I don't know how he survived longer, having his lung filling with blood and all the other damage. 

What I don't get is that military involvement. They assaulted the house, lost people to suits, and then they went bonkers on tossing up the house. Only the major was clever by finding the letter that the stupid boy left behind. "If you wanna live, you'll tell me where she is..."

With that hole in the chest, it's an easy choice. 

I loved that Argyle was freaked out about them putting the dead suit in a shallow grave ... in a bloody desert. "We need to go to cops, and tell them about your superpowered girlfriend. No, no. They might kill us, if we do that." What happened to that dutchy pod he was supposed to have after the job?






The secret location. Well, that is totally secure with nothing but desert that keeps going forever and again. Taken that it's not green, I assume it was filmed in the winter time, while the show is supposed to be happening in spring, with things greening. 

It surprised me how big and deep that base was, and that the ******* doctor Brenner had made it to be in charge of what seemed to be like an army of scientists. It didn't surprise me that they pumped 11 full of chemicals. It's what they do. 

Locking her into a room, shaving her head, all shock tactics. Dr Oven kept insisting that 11 was more powerful than an atomic bomb, and he wasn't exactly happy that they were drowning her in an extreme sensory deprivation tank to draw out her powers. 

Brenner were fascinated about the whole event. To him, there were no limits.  I hate him.






"What did I tell you American? No run. Now it's going to hurt." Robbers, liars, rapists, torturers. It's what they are and have been ever since they killed off their Tzar for communist ideas. You cannot trust them, but you can trust that if you're involved with them, it's going to hurt. 

I liked that Hopper ended in the same cell as the betrayer guard, but I hated that Murrey and Joyce ended in the flight "behind the Iron Curtain." Hopper wasn't happy about it. In fact, knowing that Joyce was captured, drove him suicidal. 

"Closer she is, more danger she is," he claimed. "I used to think I was cursed. Since I was 18. Got a letter of induction in mail. Uncle Sam wants me to go to fight some war in the jungle. Charlie's moving south like a plague, cause commie bastards like you, and... You know, I'm happy to go. Prove to my old man I'm not a piece of sh*t he thinks I am. They put me in Chemical Corps. I'm just ... a kid, you know. 18 years old, 8000 miles away, and I'm mixing up these... 55-gallon drums of Agent Orange. With just kitchen gloves, you know."

Bloody h*ll. I don't think any of us had an idea of how much of hell he had been through before his time in the Hawking's PD. I would have felt so guilty after the war. It no wonder why he ended up finding life in the bottle. 

"Everyone I love, I hurt. See, I was wrong all this time. I wasn't cursed. I am the curse."

Oh Hopper, if I could, I would help you. And then Antonov said, "I don't know if you're cursed. But one thing you're right, we are going to die in here."

It would have been better if he had kept his mouth shut.

In the meanwhile, Murrey confessed that he had never been in a real world fight. It totally suits his persona. Murrey is just wimp, a smart wimp. If only God had blessed him with mighty bollocks, instead of tiny ones. Well, at least he put up a good fight and even better crash landing in the middle of nowhere, without giving out a mayday-signal.






Max definitely has artist talents. Most of the people cannot do that level of recall, or even drawing illustrations that would correspond fairly accurately to the hellish landscape of Upside Down world and the broken mansion on the hill.

She was not frightened, shocked or even in a need for a holiday or two. Instead, they were all pretty normal, as if scoopy do'ing is a normal thing. 






It surprised me that the house was mostly intact. I was expecting it to be ruins or a blackened husk of a burned down mansion. In the scoopy shoes I would have broken open every single window, before entering into the house. The gang was braver. Not that any of them had any clues about what they were searching. If it had not been the electrics, they would have not known about anything. Not that they could have done anything to stop another murder. 

At least now, they can't blame the gamemaster.


----------



## REBerg (May 31, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.03 The Monster and the Superhero






ctg said:


> I don't understand is why the police were dicks about the assault? It was not a murder or a manslaughter. It was just a battery, after the bullying incident. The mistake that they did were by not telling where they were taking her to questioning.
> 
> The biggest one was doing the questioning without a lawyer or a parent in present, and in the way they were doing it, was a fishing expedition.


My feeling is that they built the bullying up to such an intolerable level that they had to give viewers some satisfaction. It would have been better to wait until El had recovered at least some of her superpowers -- enough to trip Angela while she skated and escape blame.
As far as El's needless arrest went, wouldn't it be great to have feds swoop in and make any lower-level charges go poof?


----------



## REBerg (May 31, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.04 Dear Billy






ctg said:


> Oh man, Max's story made me shiver.


Not knowing how willing the showrunners are to sacrifice a major character in this dark season, I dreaded the possibility of seeing Max twisted into a pretzel in mid-air. Whew!


ctg said:


> The actual meeting with the Victor reminded me a bit about the Silence of Lambs.


As if the similarity to _Nightmare on Elm Stree_t wasn't sufficiently obvious, they cast none other than Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund as Victor Creel. He did a little less damage scratching that table without his knife fingers. 


ctg said:


> Hopper weren't limping.


He was sprinting* (SPRINTING!)* through the snow on that broken foot. That could be the least believable scene in the season. 

I've got to wonder, at this point in the season, just what purpose will be served if Hopper succeeds in escaping from Kamchatka and returns to Hawkins? I do feel sorry for him. I've had bad work situations in my life, but nothing quite as bad as the labor camp.
When are they going to unionize? 


ctg said:


> Yuri betrayed everything for a chance to make a lot of cash.


I wondered why Yuri bothered to actually count the ransom cash, instead of just accepting it, as a show of trust, when he planned to keep it all. Had he not advanced his treachery beyond the original plan at that point?


----------



## ctg (May 31, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.03






REBerg said:


> As far as El's needless arrest went, wouldn't it be great to have feds swoop in and make any lower-level charges go poof?


Well yeah, but they are always shown in poor light. Never as saviours.


----------



## Dave (Jun 1, 2022)

We decided to change this thread (on the suggestion of @HareBrain) and create a new spoiler thread for the last two episodes of this season, so that you can discuss these episodes without spoiler tags. Stranger Things - Season 4 part II (episodes 8-9)
@HareBrain will move some posts across


----------



## ctg (Jun 1, 2022)

> After a three year wait, a new batch of _Stranger Things _episodes has been unveiled to the masses, taking bingers on another trip to the Upside Down and beyond. Season Four is being split into two different volumes, a seven-episode set that was released over the weekend and two extended episodes that will hit Netflix on the first of July. Producer Shawn Levy says he's gotten to see the final two episodes of the season, and applauds the gut punch they'll bring to fans of the series.
> 
> "I'll just tell you that we are hard at work on volume two. There's so much being written as far as the runtimes of these episodes, and the hefty runtime of episode nine, in particular," Levy said in an extensive interview with THR. "Having seen both those finale episodes, they are as emotional as they are cinematic. Holy sh*t, they are definitely a treat for the eyes, but they punch you right in the heart. So, that's what I'll say about that."
> 
> ...











						Stranger Things 4 Producer Shawn Levy Teases How New Season Sets up the Netflix Finale
					

After a three year wait, a new batch of Stranger Things episodes has been unveiled to the masses, [...]




					comicbook.com
				




Some of our criticism is striking through, the final bit is because they want to have a STRONG ending. So, it is not all about catching beginning, because it also about finishing strong, or giving it a satisfactory ending in the best way you can.


----------



## HareBrain (Jun 1, 2022)

Dave said:


> We decided to change this thread (on the suggestion of @HareBrain) and create a new spoiler thread for the last two episodes of this season, so that you can discuss these episodes without spoiler tags. Stranger Things - Season 4 part II (episodes 8-9)
> @HareBrain will move some posts across



I've moved two posts of mine and one by @therapist discussing the whole season so far, and removed spoiler tags.

(Therapist, if you'd rather yours was left in this thread, I can replace it.)


----------



## REBerg (Jun 1, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.05 The Nina Project



Loved the fight on the plane. I didn't expect Murray's black belt skills to prevail in the real world. I'm assuming that they crashed on Russian soil, although it wasn't clear how long they had been in flight.
With all the Vecna carnage the gang has experienced, I'm amazed that they seemed so calm as they investigated the Creel home. Of course, what would a horror story be if defenseless teenagers didn't venture into a place that screamed "do not enter"?








​


----------



## ctg (Jun 1, 2022)

Spoiler: Chapter 6 - The Dive



I wonder if Hawking's PD has any memory, because it's kind of strange that they'll have all these unexplainable events and nobody can recall anything about what happened in the past. Nobody was even questioning why all the bodies look the same, that they're all broken beyond conventional means!

None of them even referenced to the past events, the monster corpse found in the mall fire! It's as if all of it has been scrubbed away and nobody has been allowed into the details.






Major said, "I can make the pain end. Where's the girl?"

The tortured suit gasped, "I don't know..."

"There are two proposed explanations for what's happening. Explanation one, an invisible boogeyman from another dimension is slaughtering these kids. Explanation two, Dr Brenner's special little pet has gone rogue again, and he and his lackeys are now seeking to cover it up. Perhaps in the hopes of selling their pet to the Soviets. Now, which explanation sounds plausible to you?"

First one Major, cause for a patriotic doctor to go rogue the government has to become tyrannical. But the suit never offered that one. Instead, he opted for more torture. Good man goes to hell for good causes. Bad man yields and laughs, as the madness descends on him.






Chemicals, videotapes and a sensory deprivation tank. What could go wrong? Dr Brenner offered an explanation in the form of PTSD's and memory blocks. I most certainly have a few of them, and I just don't want to remember them. El to gain her powers back through a recall, would mean that she had her powers all her life and none of the kids in the Hawking's basement were a test-tube designs. Even though the number suggests such a thing.

"You have demons in your past. That's why we have to go through one memory at the time. If we go too fast, I'm afraid you could become lost in the darkness. And if you're lost... so are we all."

That is such a chilling line, because it suggests that there's nothing we can do to dimensional beings.

In the memory training, we learned about the Number 1, but not about what happened to him. El didn't approach the question either, about where he came from, as I doubt that the Number 1 was the first one. He might have been the first one that they tested things, but not the first that did things.

The biggest revelation was that "Papa never tells the truth." Not all of it.

He said nothing about the real objective, in the circle-of-strength test. What makes 11 and 1 specials out of all kids? Was the aid Number 1?

At least now we know that bullying makes her see red.






They need a better transport. Maybe a green hippie bus would do it, because they're monster hunters, like the Scoopy Gang. Expect they don't have a dog.

I facepalmed and laughed when Eddie called in the walkie and the gang answered right next to sheriff's media brief. Why they didn't turn it down or told him, "I call you in a minute...?" No, just answering and yelling into thing, "Where are you?"

I guess we are lucky that nobody was listening or doing Signal Intelligence. Although I suspect that some ham operator, which was popular back in the eighties, could have been listening in, but no action was taken to inform the authorities.

The whole town turned moron's when Jason opened his mouth at the Town Hall meeting. Why is that they don't have any clue about what their kids are doing or what the roleplaying club means?

Jason went and spread out lies at front of sheriff and the Hawking's officials. Nobody telling him to back up his fabrications on the truth.

At least the Scoopy gang, in the meeting with Eddie, finally understood the correlation between electrics and the demon breaking into our dimension. All thanks to Dustin realising that his compass wasn't wrong, but actually pointing towards a dimensional gate to Vecna's h*ll.






They do not look like they drove all night long in a pizza van. Ironed shirts. Washed hair. Clean clothes. I absolutely loved that Argyle fell for the lady in the house, Eden. It was so funny, but that's how fast chemistry works when you're a young adult.

What I didn't approve was Suzy doing engineering. It just didn't fit the picture. But when she told the story about the computer, I got her. I just wondered why she had not got her machine back all on her own.

When she started talking about tracing IP and datamining back in the 86 ... I just dropped the pen and focused on enjoying Cornelius pranks. The details writers, the details!

Traceroute, 1987!




__





						traceroute - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org
				




Data mining, goes back 1960's, but was first time introduced in the IT jargon at 1990! It didn't become a popular word until much, much later, around 95 and in the peasants, after 2015.








						Data mining - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org
				



















Fitting punishment for the traitor. I hoped Yuri froze his balls, while he sat on the ground. No such luck. At least Joyce found hers, as she used Yuri's unfortunate condition against him. It worked fast as the ******* offered guys, cars and a plan to attack the prison.

Why would you trust him? They kept him tied, but not gagged until Murrey sprang his plan.

In the prison scene, somehow Hopper had found polished shoes, and he wasn't limping again, even though you could assume that those shoes were rubbing his wounds. But he most certainly had the right attitude (get absolutely wasted) before facing the monster. If his theory is correct, then why the monster would bother with a drunkard that can't even stand up, than getting that thrill of hunt from other ones?

But Hopper had a better plan. Getting into the fight and thrown back into a cell before facing the monster. What a man.

Is Steve going to survive his trip to hell?


----------



## Judderman (Jun 1, 2022)

ctg said:


> Stranger Things 4 Producer Shawn Levy Teases How New Season Sets up the Netflix Finale
> 
> 
> After a three year wait, a new batch of Stranger Things episodes has been unveiled to the masses, [...]
> ...


I thought season 4 was going to be the last one. Hopefully season 4 progresses well to justify a season 5 it on an entertaining story point of view.


----------



## Judderman (Jun 2, 2022)

Episode 5 was very good stuff overall. A bit more of the “kids” together.


----------



## REBerg (Jun 2, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.06 The Dive



Season  4 is finally hitting its stride.
I find Steve's dive to the lake-bottom Upside Down gate more interesting than  El's dive into her memories. I wish there was more of the former and less of the latter.
I'm impressed by the continuing positive development of Steve's character. It would seem that all the negative elements of his character have been transferred to Eddie.


----------



## ctg (Jun 2, 2022)

Spoiler: Chapter 7 - The Massacre at Hawkins Lab



If you get bit at a weird dimension, will you get a weird infection or are just fine? Steve was mostly fine from his initial encounter with the giant bats. He even put up a good fight, smashing one to the ground and tearing its head off. But the question about bogies was brought up in a form of instant, lethal rabies. 

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one thinking these questions. 

I don't know how they didn't get swarmed again. Maybe the vampire bats don't really hunt, but are guided to their victims. The stranger thing was that Nancy confessed having guns in her bedroom, and because the Upside Down dimension is an analogue to the real world... they opted for it.

Except the guns weren't there, because the whole town had been locked to a moment when the original gate had opened in the season 1. Why?






Oh, the training. I have tried to do the same thing. The object never moves before I do, and 11 looks about the same. The objects aren't listening. Her power comes from anger, from bad memories. 

Dr Owen put it, "All I see is a frightened little girl. No progress." El claimed that she was a monster, while Dr Brenner were claiming that it was "her choice," but she had to go through it, face the reality, about what she had done, or she would never be whole again.

That girl, braver than many, chose not to leave the program but go back into the tank to see the horrors of the past. What a hero. I hated that she had to live through another video, this time one that dealt with the aftermath of the rainbow room beating incident. 

It felt confusing because we'd seen the massacre, and her blanketing it. The interrogation of Number 2 was horrible and also, another example of bullying. It seems to be the theme around 11's past, survive the bullying and become a superhero, who takes out super bullies.

I was blown away, when my theory about the assistant turning out to be the Number 1 turned out to be true. It surprised me that they'd put an isotope tracker in him and after 11 ripped it out, he was able to commit to a revenge against Dr Brenner's guys. 

So it was never 11 who did commit to the slaughter, it was number 1. He opened the portal, and became the "five star general" Vecna for the Upside Down. So brilliant. 

I loved that 11 showed 1 who's the boss in the real world.






"What were you doing at the lake?" Sheriff asked. 

The kids looked at each other. "We were just going for a walk..."   

Oh man, the explanations. I loved that Erica burned the gang for lying, because their explanations honestly sucked. Pulling out the sex answer would have solved the problem and caused some issues. 

In fact, Erica did that with her brother Sinclair, as she used the playboy collection against him to find out the truth about the dark side of Hawkins. I laughed out so much that I missed the dialogue. But at least Dustin draw together the dots and explained why the "Watergate" had happened in the Lover's Lake. 

His theory about all murder scenes being a portal to the other dimension was brilliant. I loved so much when they poked a hole into the other dimension and the portal between dimension worked without flaws. 

"Bada-bada-boom," as Dustin said.  






The monster slayers. I liked that they were talking about the daddy issues, while they waited for the final call. The thing about the molotov's and alcohol is that it really doesn't work the same without the petrol and long polymer bonds. Without them, alcohol just splashes around, burns relatively fast and without doing much. 

So I was glad that Murrey managed to successfully portray as Yuri and get into the prison complex through the gates. But that was just a small step in the whole scheme of things.

I don't know how he managed to fool the warden, because for an American he pulled such a believable russian stunt that I was fooled. But he took an awfully long time to get his act together. I was yelling at my screen for him to do something when the monster was approaching. 

I loved that the fight was quick and brutal. But I loved Hopper's reunion with Joyce even more. He was so stunned by it that he could not get a word out of his mouth. Brilliant.


----------



## ctg (Jun 2, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.06






REBerg said:


> I find Steve's dive to the lake-bottom Upside Down gate more interesting than El's dive into her memories. I wish there was more of the former and less of the latter.


Just watch the next one. All will become clear. It's brilliant.


----------



## Phyrebrat (Jun 2, 2022)

Is there any more after episode 7? I feel like it's not addressed the big bad at all


----------



## REBerg (Jun 2, 2022)

Spoiler: 4.07 The Massacre at Hawkins Lab






ctg said:


> Just watch the next one. All will become clear. It's brilliant.


Triple whammy!!
The lab assistant turns out to be Victor Creel's superpowered psychotic son, No. 001 *AND* Vecna. As you stated: "Brilliant".
Still, a little less time could have been spent on El's time in the lab; but I could be alone in that opinion.
My only remaining gripe is the second installment of the season consisting of only two episodes instead of another seven. Didn't fans earn more than that for their long wait after the third season?
What the ....?


----------



## REBerg (Jun 2, 2022)

Phyrebrat said:


> Is there any more after episode 7? I feel like it's not addressed the big bad at all


Two more episodes to be dropped July 1.


----------



## Dave (Jun 3, 2022)

REBerg said:


> Two more episodes to be dropped July 1.


Extra long episodes (apparently).


----------



## REBerg (Jun 3, 2022)




----------

