Ok so Stranger Things is back with it's fourth season that feels longer than the wait we
had between this and the last one.
I don't care, I love it and the entry is one of, if not my favourite season that we've
ever had.
One of the last genuine mega hits that Netflix have yet to cancel, The execs have changed
up their binge model and they've given us the first seven episodes with the latter two
dropping on July 1st.
In it we have several storylines going on such as Eleven taking a trip down memory lane,
Dustin and Co attempting to get to the bottom of a murder mystery, Joyce and Murray attempting
to save Hopper and Hopper trying to survive the harsh prison that is Kamchatka.
The first two threads in this connect together as do the last two and there's a lot that
we learn about in this first volume that perfectly sets things up for Volume 2.
Throughout this video we're gonna be turning it up to eleven, so sit back, relax and please
hit that thumbs up button.
Also make sure you subscribe as we're gonna be doing videos on the show every week in
the lead up to the second volume before we do a deep dive on that as well.
With that out the way, thanks for clicking this, now let's get into Stranger Things 4.
Now this is the story all about how Vecnas life got flip turned upside down cut that
cut tha
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So one of the most terrifying aspects of the new season is Vecna, a humanoid creature from
the upside down who traps his prey in a fantasy before he brutally murders them in eye popping
fashion.
In the build up to this the characters become lost in a fantasy and they start to see vivid
hallucinations that appear similar to a nightmare that they can't escape from.
I definitely got lots of Nightmare on Elm Street Vibes from this and we get not only
a mention of Freddie Krueger but also a cameo by Robert Englund at one point.
Given the name by the Hellfireclub, he's assigned this because in Dungeon's and Dragons Vecna
was a powerful wizard that became a lich aka an undead creature.
This actually turns out to be true as we discover his backstory through Eleven.
The season opens with her as a child apparently murdering all the other subjects in Brenner's
experiment but as the season goes on we discover this isn't the truth.
There's even a hint towards the eventual reveal in this moment as we can see a tear on the
wall behind her which we learn is where she sent Vecna into the upside down.
Early on Eleven really struggles to fit in at high school and after being publicly humiliated
she ends up losing her cool and attacking her high school bully.
This allows Dr. Owens to come to her as a friend and after he tricks her into working
with Brenner once more, she eventually agrees to go into a machine he's crafted called Nina.
This will apparently give her back her powers but I think Brenner also clearly wants to
know what really happened on the day that she wiped out all of his subjcts.
Now though Nina isn't explained in full the way it works is that it allows Eleven to somewhat
travel into her subconscious and she can revisit her childhood.
Going through the steps in which she gained her powers there will also revitalise them
in the future and allow her to possess her abilities once more.
Their disappearance is likely psychosematic and just like how Peter lost his Spider-man
abilities for a bit, she likely lost hers through stress too.
Now in Nina we discover how a friendly, totally not evil Orderly helped her with her bullies.
The bullies her of course reflect the ones she has in high school and ey, maybe he's
a nice guy.
Well he's not, and come the end of episode 7 we discover that he's actually the son of
Victor Creel, the apparent killer that butchered his family in an Amityville-esque night of
terror.
Creel moved to Hawkins with his family and as his powers started to develop he slowly
shut himself off from the world.
He found kinship with black widow spiders, potentially even setting up his future relationship
with the spider-like Mindslayer.
Now Creel disliked societal constructs and the basic nature of life.
He believed that people were stuck in a constant monotmous cycle, trapped reliving the same
day over and over until they died.
This explains why the clocks kept being seen by the other victims and why time becomes
such a big motif in this entry.
Creel couldn’t pretend to live a normal life and his true powers started to form.
He learned he could see into people’s minds and after seeing what his parents got up to
he decided that enough was enough and that he'd never forgive them for lying about Santa.
I'll never forget.
Also we actually get the music used in Watchmen for Doctor Manhatten's origin story to tell
his one which was a nice touch.
Now though we don't learn all the ins and outs of this I think we will probably discover
this more as we get into the second volume or they could potentially just leave it up
in the air.
We do know that his father had just come back from the second world war so there might of
been things that he did or witnessed over there and his mother...well f**k knows if
I'll ever understand what goes on in a womans head.
Am I right fellas, am I right ey?
Anyway one fateful night he murdered his mother and sister, however his powers overloaded
before he could finish the job.
His father had the crimes pinned on him and Creel was taken in by Brenner which is when
he started up his programme.
Creel is officially Number One and he's where it all Hawkins back to.
Now Brenner was unable to control him but he wanted to duplicate his abilities and thus
he started his programme to create 2 through to 11.
Brenner placed an inhibitor chip on him that made it so he couldn't use his powers and
he was enlisted as an Orderlie, unable to leave the lab.
His goal was simply to have this ripped out of his neck and thus he somewhat manipulated
Eleven into taken out what he called a tracking device so that the pair could both escape.
However upon doing this he started murdering the other test subjects and though he wanted
Eleven to join him she turned this offer down.
His and Eleven's arc culminated with her sending him through a tear into the upside down which
is where he's transformed into Vecna.
This links back to Season 1 and we learn that the entire landscape of the upside is exactly
the same as how it was on the day that Will was pulled into it.
Time doesn't actually progress in this dark dimension and everything there is exactly
the same as how it was on that fateful day.
Now I see this ending as not only being the supervillain origin story for him but it's
also very much the tale of Eleven getting her powers back.
This is of course setting up a massive showdown between the pair come the second Volume but
she's beat him once and she can beat him again.
I think that this will end up leading her back to Hawkins and she'll be reunited with
her friends once more and Joyce will possibly decide to remain there so that she can protect
the area from other threats like that.
However, whether Brenner is willing to give her up is another story altogether and I hope
she says Papa don't preach and that she also takes him out as he's still a bad guy, even
though this season doesn't paint him out in a slightly better light.
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I bid thee farewell my fellow noble and I shalt see you in the next part of the video.
Now though Eleven probably has her powers back, should Vecna prove more than a match
for her, there are other ways to take him down.
Early on in the season Max ended up being put under his spell and her friends tried
to figure out a way to save her before it was too late.
There was even one point where I thought the theories about Billy being Vecna were true
but these turned out to be just the creators playing with us as it was revealed he was
an illusion.
Still she tried everything that she could to clear her conscious over his death but
it wasn't enough.
In the end she's taken to the upside down and we even see a grave with Myers written
on it, a nod to Halloween and the serial Killer that Max also dressed up as.
Offtopic I also thought the name Byers was a twist on Myers but I digress.
Now it seems like it's curtains for her but due to the magic of friendship, yay, her pals
figure out that something you love can be used to tether you back to reality.
In this volume it's Running up that Hill by Kate Bush which she constantly listens to
so that Vecna can't get a hold on her.
However should this be destroyed I also think that Lucas might end up being the one to bring
her back in Volume 2.
In this season he's a far cry from what he was in the others and at the start of it he's
not really in their friendship group anymore.
Lucas is now a team member of the Hawkins Tigers and he ends up choosing their big championship
game over the Hellfire clubs Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
He gets replaced by his sister who continues to be one of the funniest characters in the
entire show.
Now the song by Kate Bush that allows her to leave the upside down matches the problems
that Lucas and Max said.
As Kate said:
“I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman can't understand each other because
we are a man and a woman.
And if we could actually swap each other's roles, if we could actually be in each other's
place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised!”
Can't do the voice but you get the idea.
Now Lucas slowly starts to drift back to them and I think that he's gonna be a pivotal person
in helping to defeat Vecna.
He might end up showing his love for Dungeons and Dragons which could be used as a weapon.
There's very much the idea that love will save the day when it comes to him and we have
a number of relationships in the season that could end up being used to defeat the bad
guy.
There's of course Lucas and Max, Joyce and Hopper who we'll talk about later on.
Steve and potentially Nancy, Eleven and Mike, Dustin and his girlfriend and yeah, just a
lot of characters.
We do learn that Dustin is still with his girlfriend and we get several war games references
during the hacking scenes.
Still bangs as well War Games.
There's also the new additions of Eddie and Argyle who both feel like love letters to
80s movies.
Eddie shares the name of the Iron Maiden Mascot and Argyle reminds me a lot of Spicoli in
Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
In the trailer we actually get a moment where Eddie can be seen thrashing his guitar in
the upside down and it is possible that he uses this as a method to help defeat Vecna
later on.
The party gets split as we have one side hunting Eddie who's framed for one of Vecna's murder
and the other side trying to prove it wasn't him.
Eventually they discover how to locate tears to the upside down and Steve, Robin, Nancy
and Eddie break on through to the otherside which is where they discover more about it.
On the otherside of this, Dustin and his pals find a way to communicate with them and they
launch an attempt to get them out.
However as Nancy climbs through she's taken by Vecna and not only does she discover Barbara's
body, she also learns about the bad guys past.
Now we don't actually see what happens to her and come the end of the Season she's likely
trapped down there with Vecna.
The Creel Home is often referred to as the boiler room and this could be a further nod
to Nightmare on Elm Street.
Vecna actually takes Eleven to one as well and as I've been saying it's either like poetry
they rhyme or it's all connected.
You can pick whatever punchline makes you hate yourself slightly less there.
I think that next episode we're gonna get Vecna filling in more of the gaps as he keeps
her prisoner.
He's also gonna torment her over the death of Barbara.
Could it, Could it finally be JusticeForBarb, probably not but we will see.
Now they might riff on Elm Street even more and have Vecna pulled into the real world.
In the films that was where Freddy was his most vulnerable and it is also where Eleven
defeated him.
I do think that Vecna will end up in the right side up as we know he can make tears anywhere
in hawkins and this could be used to launch his invasion.
I think once Eleven is reunited with Hopper who's story I wanna tackle for the next part
of the video before we move into our review and then I'll let you guys go home.
Now for the second time in less than a year we catch David Harbour in a Russian Prison
and we discover that he jumped down to a walkway during the Starcourt Mall explosion.
Captured and taken to Kamchatka, there he meets a friendly guard called Enzo, a man
who like American and does not care about country.
Relaying a message to Joyce and Murray they travel to Russia and try to aid in Hopper's
great escape.
They even give nods to that movie and Enzo refers to Hop as Steve Mcqueen at one point
which is riffed on with his escape on a snowmobile that ends in a capture.
As we learned in the post credits scene of Season 3, The Prisoners are often fed to the
Demogorgon and there's even sadistic Gladiator Games that they throw the prisoners into.
After Enzo is found to have betrayed the Russians he's locked up alongside Hopper and it's easily
the most dour story in the entire Season.
Before getting to this entry I was expecting Hopper to get out early on but he remains
in the prison for the entire run time with us only getting his reunion with Joyce come
the close of his arc in episode 7.
This was a pretty standard affair story wise but I loved the last supper that the Russians
had making them believe that they were getting the treat of a life...sentence.
It was really just fattening them up so that they'd be better meals and to keep the demogorgan
entertained so that it didn't become bored and stop hunting.
The beast is still alive and potentially it might even be unleashed next time if it manages
to make it out of the prison.
It was such a brutal battle and watching the Demogorgan take out scores of people showed
how powerful it was.
At one point Hopper used a spear that he'd set on fire, harkening back to ancient battles
with beasts from myths and legends.
Dustin also has a spear at one point in the trailer, teasing at this motif potentially
showing up again for Volume 2.
Now I really hope that they don't waste too much time with him getting back to America
and with there being two episodes left I can imagine they'll move things along quickly.
I know those episodes are gonna be as long as feature length films but I think that come
the finale he'll be back in the good Ol' US of Strange.
Hopper is also another element that I think is gonna massively play into Eleven's abilities
and she's basically got these two father figures in her life.
Brenner and Hopper could both be used to strengthen her but one wants what's best for her whereas
the other wants what's best for him.
Who knows, we might even get a Hopper Brenner showdown but I think his reunion with Eleven
is gonna be a major aspect for the next volume.
Her becoming a teen and him becoming a quote unquote father to her caused a lot of issues
last season but now they've been through a lot together and will likely realise how much
they mean to each other.
Now there are a wide wide range of unanswered questions that this volume culminates in.
After venturing into the upside down, Max managed to draw what she saw which turned
out to be the Kreel house.
Will was also mentioned to have been withdrawn and weird by Eleven in the opening possibly
linking into this.
He clutched a painting at one point but we never saw what this was.
It might have been nothing but it could also be signifiicant as his drawings have been
major plot points in the previous seasons.
The upside down also seems to be tied to him quite a lot as it's been stuck in 1983 like
Sunderland.
Haha got you punks.
I bloody got ya.
It all feels like it's kinda tied to both Creel and Will and though the latter took
a bit of a back seat this season he is still really connected to the dimension.
The lights are also a mystery as they’ve played a key role in Will communicating with
Joyce in season 1 and we see how light or more specifically electricity is different
in the Upside down.
Lastly, the California lot were able to acquire the program of the NINA machine and this story
felt a bit lost amongst the rest of the storylines running but it will no doubt dovetail into
Eleven’s story.
I'm also interested to see if they keep up the coke narrative.
They have coca cola classic and she used New Coke in the last season and before that just
the regular one.
I do really wanna see the full gang back together and I think that they're all going to have
to reunite in order to stop this new threat in Vecna.
This first volume very much feels like it's pulling all the characters back together as
you have Lucas and the Hellfire club joining up.
Joyce and Hopper, Eleven and Brenner and come next time I think we will get an endgame esque
battle where they all unite.
As mentioned earlier that releases in July and it's gonna be interesting to see what
they do with it.
classic coke
Now as for my thoughts on the season, I really really enjoyed this one and I think that they
massively stepped up in terms of quality, storytelling, effects, acting and the overall
production of the show.
The series feels very cinematic throughout and it's constantly awash with incredible
visuals and moments that rank up there as being some of the best in the entire series.
Now the season is very long with almost all of the episodes being over an hour.
I didn't really mind it that much but I do think that they could've cut some things down
like the basketball team story and a lot of the earlier sections that didn't really go
anywhere.
I also really wish that Netflix had've released these episodes weekly as I think at this point
that's probably the best way to go about things judging off the strategies that the other
streaming services have.
Disney Plus, Amazon and HBO Max shows all remain bigger talking points for months and
months because they give us a slow burn and with almost all of these episodes ending on
cliffhangers I think that that would've worked way better.
It's just weird to me that Netflix replaced Blockbuster because they refused to alter
their business model and now Netflix are losing subscribers and their audience because they
refuse to do the same too.
Totally off topic and I know people hate weekly releases but for me this show would've hit
harder if I was sitting from Saturday to Thursday wondering what we were gonna get next.
Still though I can't really fault this first volume and it's got me so hyped up for what's
around the corner.
Overall this was brilliant and it gets a 9/10
I'd of course love to hear your thoughts so make sure you comment below and let me know
you punk.
We're running a competition right now and giving away 3 copies of The Batman On The
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If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming.
We break down the entire thing so it's definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time.
Take care, Peace