Stranger things 4 vol 2 SPOILERs - don’t read unless you’ve watched it all

[Rupertgrintismyguiltypleasure]

OMFG... what a show. Now we will probs have to wait 2 years for the next one but bloody hell they know how to end a season.
just a few questions

1. I was convinced Eddie was number 10, he still could be but I’m bummed we never find out and of course that they chose to kill him.

2 . Max was the star of the season. I almost thought she was a gonna and eleven wouldn’t save her. Close call

1. I’m so happy Joyce and hop finally got together. And how hot did hop look this season?


2. why am I convinced will is going to die in the last season. He was vecnas first ever kidnapping.


3. we need a robin and steve spin-off where they get new jobs at the beginning of every season.

any other points people need to get off thier chests 😋

One thing that’s just occurred to me about 008 is why doesn’t Eleven remember her? I’m pretty sure that, when she was introduced in season 2, it was framed as though El had no knowledge of her existence, but we know now that El was in the lab with numbers 002-010, so surely she and 008 would have interacted. Or is the idea that El had blocked all her memories of her time in the lab before she sent 001 to the other dimension?

I said this a few weeks back and still believe it will end up being the case.

Oops tried to quote the reader who said they had read a theory that Vecna is El’s biological father.

My dd reckons that the reason El couldn't see anything inside Maxs mind is because Vecnor has wiped all her memories or absorbed them.

I enjoyed seasons 1-3 and the first half of this season (despite it being overstuffed) but the last two episodes were so, so boring. Not much actually happened (and the good bits were a less effective retread of the end of episode 4) and it just felt like they padded the runtime with loads and loads of needlessly drawn-out sequences. Worst season so far (largely because of part 2) and I don’t hold out much hope for a return to form.

You’re looking for consistency between seasons in a show that had Hopper break his ankle early in the season, then spend the rest of it running around.

Also 11’s sister that she met in the real world wasn’t mentioned again was she?

Her memory was wiped when she had the fight with 001 and opened the upside down. That's why she couldn't remember what happened with 001, the other kids and could barely string a sentence together in season 1. I They did explain it very briefly. I think Papa mentioned it. He also mentioned 008 running away not long after El's mum came to find her. So El would have been about 4 then as well.

I think Max will be back at the very end. I think her consciousness is with Vecna but as he didn't fully kill her, as in her eyes didn't pop out like the other victims, he didn't fully get her. So she can come back to her body. Surely El will find a way. I think El might be a gonner at the end of season 5 as well, maybe saving for Max/killing old Veccy

I've read there may be time travel in S5 - few nods to back to the future setting it up as well as some theories about the clocks running forward and back. I really hope they don't, time travel is one of my most hated storylines.

I agree @NocturnalMe I feel like El may have to sacrifice herself to permanently stop vecna and close the gate...I could kind of get on board with ALL of them joining her to give her the strength. I can't see them killing everyone at the end but it would be a ballsy finish. Or maybe they all just get stuck forever in the upside down.

I just read the Duffer brothers saying they were originally going to kill of Enzo but change their minds...I liked him but I think a bigger body count in S4 would have the audience more on theirs toes about who could die next season, whereas at the moment it feels like they want to save as many characters as they can.

Just watched Vol2 for the second time with DH (who missed the first go-round with our teens on the 1st). It was good to fill in a few details I'd missed on the first viewing and consolidated some things for me.

Things I liked:

• The backstory on Hawkins lab and the slowly expanding lore on the Upside Down and where it came from


• ALL the Empire Strikes Back beats in Vol 1&2. El raising Nina with her newly restored powers was pure Luke raising the X-Wing, Brenner telling El not to rescue her friends and face Vecna yet because her training wasn't complete was Yoda warning Luke not to confront Vader yet, El appealing to Vecna to come back from the dark side only to have him reveal that they have a deeper/more complicated bond than she knew, and finally Max left "frozen in carbonite" - it was all red meat for the 80's Star Wars fandom.


• The 80s teen film "geeks vs popular kids" shout outs, as well as the references to the DnD/Satanic Panic and the repressed memory craze


• The almost period-appropriate raising of LGBT issues (more on that in a minute)


• The character ensemble is too big/split and the show lost focus in several spots as a result.


• The "bad popular kids vs good nerd kids" tipped over into being a bit pantomime. What was up with all the adults supporting the blatant bullying of El? I felt like they were just trying to push the audience's outrage buttons.


• Hopper's resilience bordered on ludicrous. He was starving on gruel and husks and literally broke his ankle to slip out of his shackles, but by Vol 2 was action-manning all over the prison culminating in a broadsword fight with the demogorgon. There's only so much wish fulfilment even I can take.


• I wish they'd put the LGBT storyline on Will OR on Robin, but not split it between them. Of course you can have more than one gay person in a population (duh), but in a plot that's already struggling to find things to do for all its characters it would have made more sense to have Robin be a one-season kick-ass girl who cracked the Russian code then faded into the background a bit, and make Will the focus of a story of what it was like to be a gay teen in the 1980s.

Marking place to read later!

We think this too. We think he is 11 and 8 natural father

Well that would certainly carry on the Star Wars thing!

Easy: get back to the 80s spirit, and forget all those focus groups telling you horror is good. They are trying to look mature, nothing else. What made "Stranger Things" great amongst all age groups is the 80s nostalgia and the non-denial of the ever present bullying element. The alternate reality of the "Upside Down" was useful to create the alternative heroes/heroinesses, nothing else.

Just finished. Need to think it through properly but initial thoughts;

The series could do without Robin. She's nice and all but I feel like she was introduced as a friend for Steve so he didn't look like a weirdo hanging out with kids all the time.

I think (hope) Dr Owens will help Max recover.

Jonathan is definitely dumped as soon as Nancy realises he's a stoner who isn't going to college with her.

I know a lot of people don't like Mike but I think he's adorable. Still looking after El, just like when they met. I'm glad they showed him having a bratty clueless teenage phase, not everyone manages to get through their teen years without being a bit of an embarrassing dick.

I love Eddie, he has such lovely genuine expressions. Interesting eyes.

I hope Rob Simonsen profits from his orchestral arrangement (not sure whether this is a leak of his version or fan-made). Adore Kate, always have, always will but Rob also deserves kudos here. Fans have wanted to buy for months now.