We really aren’t in Hawkins anymore.
It’s been nearly three long years since the battle at the Star Court Mall. Nearly three years since Eleven and her gang of friends battled the darkness that is the Upside Down and won… While also losing a lot. For Eleven, she lost her powers and the only man who’d taken care of her… Her substitute father Jim Hopper.
But season four, with months and months of online teasers and sneak peek trailers has finally made good on all that it’s promised. Giving diehard fans another absorbing, action-packed and horror-filled story that bursts with new character revelations.
I’d like to thank the Duffer brothers for keeping us in such a long sense of suspense because once the Netflix episodes dropped, we inhaled all that they had to offer. The latest world built by the brothers’ imagination has simply grown, with new characters, emotional storylines and dare I say, a darker and more haunted element that was definitely not there in the three seasons before it.
Hardcore. That’s the word I’d most likely use to define season 4. Haunted elements aside, the season sees characters being tested in ways you wouldn’t imagine. Whether it’s Eleven’s high school bully, Jonathan and Nancy’s long-distance relationship (this wasn’t greatly elaborated on) or the town of Hawkin’s latest brush with death, the show is one that will have you staying up all night and bingeing the seven-chapter season before daybreak the next day.
Season four begins about six months after the events of its season 3 finale, with our favourite kids Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Max (Sadie Sink), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) all doing their best to find some sense of normalcy after their last battle with a being from The Upside Down.
Meanwhile, we’re also treated to Eleven’s earlier years at the Hawkins Laboratory and also the night she escaped (this really does close in a full circle).
Each new location offers viewers a glimpse of how the kids and adults are now handling their latest Upside Down villain Vecna, while also learning to live in a world where El is no longer there to protect them.
However, our beloved set of friends just can’t seem to move on and they do try – move on I mean. And that’s not all, the characters are literally all over the world. We get a set of them in California, a few in Hawkins and some make their way to Russia!
In California, we have the Byers trio and a powerless El. Will and El are in the same grade in high school and Eleven is trying her hardest to adjust to her ‘normal’ new life as Jane Hopper. Jonothan can be seen engaging in the perks of the late ’80s, passing dutchies between himself and his new fried Argyle (Eduardo Franco).
Meanwhile back in Hawkins, Lucas is trying to branch out and make new friends by joining the basketball team. Mike and Henderson join the high school’s D&D club: the Hellfire Club which is led by the too-old-to-still-be-in high school Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). And Max silently struggles to get past the death of her stepbrother Billy.
Simultaneously, Joyce receives word that Hop is in fact alive and is held captive by the Commies (we find this out for ourselves too when we see him battling the guards and a Demogrogen in Russia)
Now while the show does tend to ping-pong between California, Hawkins, Russia and Eleven’s laboratory days, not one of those settings drags and so you don’t lose track of the storyline nor are you bored by what’s being narrated.
Like every other season before it, Stranger Things fans will agree that episode 4 is always the climactic one. Dear Billy is no different. From the epic theme song featuring Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill to Max almost dying (sorry for the spoilers folks!) the episode is by far my favourite and I guarantee will leave you in chills!
While I end up pouring out my love for the latest season over here, I expect viewers will be biting on their nails, blushing at Steve Harrington’s (ahem) transformation and awaiting the final two episodes for season 4 when it comes out in July.
And to those newcomers hoping to see what all the fuss is about, might I suggest a refreshers binge on seasons 1 to 3 before attempting season 4? Otherwise, you truly won’t understand the show.
Ashwini spends her time writing about movies and Colombo’s favourite personalities. A lifestyles writer by day, Ashwini escapes reality at night by diving into a good novel. Her favourite genres include contemporary romance and thrillers.
