Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 1 was awesome.
Let’s break down the ending and speculate as to where the final two episodes of the
season are headed.
When Hopper threw Grigori into the machine at the end of Season 3, he yelled “Go to
Hell.”
On top of that, people spray painted that word over the Hawkins sign.
Low and behold, Vecna turned Hawkins into a hell.
He killed the cheerleader named Chrissie at Eddie’s trailer.
He killed Nancy’s co-worker in the woods, and he killed Patrick out on the lake.
Steve was pulled into the Upside Down through the Watergate, and Nancy dove in after him.
What a great friend.
Robin was not far behind, so Eddie followed as well.
Unfortunately, they had to run away from the Watergate since a swarm of the evil bats was
approaching.
In the real world, Dustin realized that a new gate was created every time that Vecna
used his psychic powers to kill people.
So Dustin told them to go to the gate at Eddie’s trailer, and they did just so.
On their way, one of the evil bats saw them, which meant that Vecna had seen them.
Robin climbed out, then Eddie climbed out.
But Nancy was not so lucky.
And here is why.
One of the reasons that Nancy had realized that they were in the past was because her
last diary entry was from November 6, 1983.
That was the day that Will had gone missing.
Keep in mind, Nancy’s best friend Barbara died two days later.
Nancy had presumably written a diary entry about that.
So, when Nancy read her diary in the Upside Down, she reflected on the past.
How she had been hooking up with Steve when Barbara was killed.
The feeling of guilt is like candy for Vecna.
So that is why he was able to enter her mind.
Nancy entered the same reddish world that Max had been in.
That red world is Vecna’s mind.
So Nancy got to see part of his childhood story.
Meanwhile, El learned about One while in the sensory deprivation tank called Nina.
So if, or rather, when Nancy and El connect, they will be able to figure out that Vecna
is One.
And here’s where it gets interesting.
So El regained her powers, but El does not yet know that Hopper is alive.
And that is a major problem.
Vecna preys on feelings of guilt, and El presumably feels guilty for Hopper’s death since she
didn’t have her powers at the time.
So if, or rather, when El goes back to Hawkins, her guilt puts her at great risk to Vecna.
To complicate matters, El may even feel guilty since she is the one who threw him into the
Void.
So she is the reason why he was taken over by the Mind Flayer.
And I know.
I get it.
He had tried to kill her.
But to be fair, One had tried to free El.
She chose to stay behind and remove the chip from his neck, and then, all that mayhem happened.
But the point is, One was not entirely bad.
He had tried to free El.
And that is a reoccurring theme of the season.
Dr. Owens freed El from the cops.
Lucas and Co. freed Max from Vecna.
Joyce freed Hopper from the Russians, and the kids helped Robin and Eddie escape the
Upside Down.
Just to name a few.
The point is, considering how many times Season 4 is hitting on the theme of freeing prisoners,
one has to wonder.
Will El try to kill Vecna?
Or will she try to free him from the Mind Flayer?
“What if I’m not good?
What if I’m the monster?”
“I believe you’re the cure.”
The Mind Flayer has taken over One, so now he is Vecna.
He is trapped in the red world of his mind.
A place of despair where his home has been shattered into pieces.
We saw something similar with Max.
“It's like you're not even here anymore.
It's...
It's like you're a ghost or something.”
Lucas stuck by Max’s side and assured her that he was there for her.
He helped her escape her darkness.
Since One’s father is still alive, he may end up playing a similar role as Lucas.
That’s step one.
Reminding Vecna who he once was.
The second step is to get him out of that darkness of his mind, and they know how to
do that.
Music.
“You played guitar, right?”
“Uh-huh.
Still do.
Still do.”
Sometimes, kids get picked on for not conforming.
Sometimes, that causes them to snap.
That appears to have happened to One or Henry.
“I know what it’s like to be different.”
Henry’s family moved to Hawkins for a fresh start.
It’s reasonable to assume that they had moved because Henry was being bullied.
Unfortunately, the same thing happened in Hawkins.
As an outlet for his pain, he started killing animals.
“With each life I took, I grew stronger.”
So Henry went down a very dark path as a result of being bullied.
But after Brenner put the chip in his neck, he was a pretty nice guy, at least, to El.
So the point I’m getting at is that One, or Henry, was the victim of bullies.
And he was not always a monster.
Since both Max and Nancy have entered Vecna’s mind, it makes me wonder if that will play
into the ending.
If El can convince Vecna to let go of his trauma, he might lose his powers.
But he might also find happiness.
Then, El can use her regained powers to throw him back into the real world.
Repayment for having thrown him into the Upside in the first place.
Or she could just kick his butt.
Either way works for me.