Stranger Things 4 ends by trusting in the season’s best and worst instincts - The Verge

Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 finishes with a deadly bang and a glimpse of the apocalypse. The final two episodes of the fourth season of the Netflix show wrap up major plot points, tease the final season, and only have a few missteps along the way.

Though Netflix hyped Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 as being its own standalone season of the Duffer Brothers’ nostalgic sci-fi opus, its two extra-long episodes are truly just the final chapters of Vol. 1’s story about what’s really been hunting Eleven and her friends. Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 puts a period on this season’s introduction of Vecna, and sets the stage for its psionic hero and villain to take on even larger roles in the series’ future. As a season finale focused on emotional payoff, Vol. 2’s manages to rise to the occasion and deliver. But it does so while also leaning into some of Stranger Things’ worst instincts that have plagued the series from the jump.

While Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 does actually sneak in a solid couple of jokes that succinctly summarize the important bits of Vol. 2, the episodes pick up immediately after the ones preceding them without losing any of the story’s momentum. After going out of its way to lead you into thinking that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) murdered all of the other child test subjects at the Hawkins Lab, Stranger Things 4 revealed that her first terrifying show of power as a young girl came during a fight with Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower), the man who would go on to become Vecna. Vol. 2 opens with Eleven coming to fully understand her relationship to Henry/Vecna, and choosing for herself how she wants to deal with his murderous plan to escape the Upside Down.

By stripping Eleven of her powers, separating her from her friends, and introducing even more unexamined lore, Stranger Things 4 has been purposefully taking the series back to its roots when both the show’s audience and its characters were generally in the dark about what was going on. That finally changes with Eleven’s decision to stand up to Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine), her first — and incredibly abusive — adoptive father who returned to Stranger Things with the promise of restoring her lost abilities.

Courtesy of Netflix

By foregrounding how abuse defined Eleven and Brenner’s relationship, Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 is able to frame her rebelling against him as an act of empowerment and recognition of the genuine love she was able to find after originally escaping the lab. Millie Bobby Brown has been consistently riveting to watch this entire season, but in Vol. 2 there’s a rawness to her performance as Eleven that perfectly splits the difference between a weary action hero in their final act and a scared girl who just wants to be back with her family.

In the buildup to Eleven and Henry’s final showdown, Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 makes a great deal out of how much their overall development — both in terms of their powers and evolving identities — began with them choosing to defy Brenner. Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 has its choice few moments where Brenner’s rendered as an even more menacing, sadistic presence than before. But Modine stands out most in scenes where his character is lashing out and clearly operating from a place of fear — fear of the monster Henry’s become, and of how he can no longer control Eleven.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/2/23192070/stranger-things-4-volume-2-review


Post ID: 493da4e7-b6b5-4aee-8f8e-933b7ce16db2
Rating: 5
Updated: 1 year ago
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