Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2 breaks with precedent to the emotionally rewarding effect

The Stranger Things Season 4 disjointed, jumbled ending is wrangled into a mostly successful climax by the 80s nostalgia trip.

No one can dispute the fact that Stranger Things Season 4 continues to be abrasively its own throughout. Its final two episodes, which are standalone feature-length movies, serve up everything that was enjoyable about the first seven episodes along with everything that annoyed and irritated viewers.

The good news is that the undesirable aspects continue to be a side dish rather than the main course. The better news is that the ratio continues to lean more toward pleasurable activities.

The two-episode series finale finally starts to weave them together:

While keeping the ensemble dispersed over numerous tales, as Volume 1 insisted, the two-episode series finale finally starts to weave them together. The Russian plot, which follows Hopper (David Harbour), Joyce (Winona Ryder), Murray (Brett Gelman), Yuri (Nikola Djuricko), and Dmitri (Tom Wlaschiha) as they try to return to the United States, is the one that has remained the most obstinately distinct. There is some discussion of how protecting Hawkins from the monsters the Soviet Union has bred in the Upside Down will benefit him, but it is at best flimsy. Even though the editing attempts to weave it with previous battles, it never seems to have an impact.

Thankfully, though, it quickly gives up on trying to provide the show’s comic relief. The humor didn’t quite fit in Volume 1; it was like the party friend who laughs so loudly at his own jokes that he hopes others will do the same. Its removal improved the series. Additionally, even though Hawkins never makes it clear that it matters to him, the activity there matters to the characters. In a way that doesn’t merely feel like a demonstration of the actor’s new physique, it allows Harbour to flex his action (and now pretty genuine) muscles. Even though a quick makeout sequence feels a little forced, Ryder and Harbour’s chemistry is at its peak in this scene.

The arrival of THE OTHER mysterious government organization:

The Eastward Journey of the California Crew and Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) Underground Bunker Adventures are introduced much more quickly. The arrival of THE OTHER mysterious government organization—the one without Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) and Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser)—is a little hurried, but it’s definitely for the best. Papa Modine was realistically out of options for threatening, intimidating, and chemically restraining Brown.

Thank goodness, Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Will arrive just before Eleven manages to flee (Noah Schnapp). Oh, and Argyle (Eduardo Franco), the season’s second valiant effort at comic relief, succeeds as well. So that’s there. After a chest freezer, numerous fast-food salt bags, and a visor constructed of pizza boxes, this group finally arrives in Hawkins, via the astral plane.

Additionally, this narrative provides Schnapp with the strongest indications of Will’s queerness to date without letting him declare it out loud. Five years into the A.I.D.S. problem, it is historically reasonable to assume that a 15-year-old Indiana boy would likely remain secretive. But that doesn’t necessarily make the contrived ambiguous revelation moments of The Duffer Brothers any less grating. Schnapps ends his brother-to-brother conversation with Heaton and the last half of the one he had with Wolfhard. But it’s painfully, thuddingly evident that neither Schnapp nor Wolfhard can make the first song because it’s “I’m talking about El, but I’m really talking about me”-like.

Hawkins is still the best part:

The best part of the season is still Hawkins, though. The only serious weakness is in how it uses Jason’s (Mason Dye) crusader against Satanism. He appears to have won over a sizable chunk of the community to his cause, yet he primarily still fights alone. He transitions from the charismatic head of a dreadful movement to a sweaty and sallow lone gunman with essentially no in-between, which strains a program that is already struggling under the weight of its key characters. It’s unfortunate that a compelling supporting antagonist ends up the target of violence.

But what about the rest of Hawkins? As it clicks. Even though she has the magic bullet, Max (Sadie Sink) won’t let others suffer in her place. Regardless of the consequences, Eddie (Joseph Quinn) embraces adulthood and responsibility. (Stranger Things depicts this as a rejection of cowardice; yet, given his mentoring of Dustin and a late-game statement about graduating, maturation is the way more intriguing and fair perspective on his journey.) The transformations of Nancy (Natalia Dyer) into an action heroine, Robin (Maya Hawke) into a fully functioning member of the group, and Steve (Joe Keery) into the best dude ever all take place at the same time.

The final two episodes are stylistic:

Things’ final two episodes are stylistically where it is both most self-referential and independent. Vecna still has a Freddy Krueger-like appearance. The blood-filled balloons from IT, the wall of the missing from a dozen catastrophe films, Jason’s transformation into a fully-realized Stephen King figure, allusions to Red Dawn, and more are all present. However, it doesn’t seem exclusive or like a list is crossed off. Those moments are less underlined. Overall, it feels like a television episode with a broad enough scope and distinctive enough aesthetic to be justified.

Some people might not like the beat denouement of the final episode. It does, however, feel both deserved and essential following a somewhat disorganized two-part season. Relations need to be stabilized. We must reaffirm the stakes. After all, the gang is finally together for the last season, which is what awaits.

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