Let's talk about the ending of Stranger Things 4: Part One (2023)

This story contains spoilers forStranger Things 4: Parte Um

the first half ofWeird stuff'The penultimate season arrived, and since it's a Netflix show, all seven episodes were canceled at once. Season 4, which has been split into two parts since the second half consisting of two super-long episodes arrives in July, was full of long episodes. So even the most dedicated will take a while to reach the end. But once you get there — or if you're just curious and want to skip ahead to the spoilers — here's an explanation of what happened in the midseason finale, what it reveals about the season's big bad, and what it might mean.Stranger Things 4: Parte Dois.

AsWeird stuffend of season 3?

shortenknapprecap where we left offend of season 3, all different characters - including newcomers Robin (Maya Hawke) and Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) -Gathered at the Starcourt Mallto fight the flesh monster Hivemind that the evil Mindflayer sent after them. Turns out the mall was built over a top secret Soviet base investigating a portal to the Upside Down. The gang defeats the monster, closes the gate and destroys the base, but at a cost. Billy, possessed by the monster, sacrifices himself in front of his half-sister Max (Sadie Sink). Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) seems to have lost her powers, and she and the Byers family leave Hawkins and move to California. and Hopper (port of david) sacrifices himself to destroy the gate and is presumed dead...strictly speakingwas transported to the USSR, where he is imprisoned in a labor camp.

what happens insideStranger Things 4: Parte Um?

Now, before we get to the midseason finale, let's recap what happened in the first six episodes ofWeird stuffSeason 4. There is atonof characters inWeird stuff, so it makes more sense to divide them into three main groups. There's a team in California, a group in Hawkins, and a few characters who spend the season in desolate, snowy Siberia. Let's start with the west coast.

Let's talk about the ending of Stranger Things 4: Part One (1)

WEIRD STUFF. (Left to Right) Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler and Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair in STRANGER THINGS. Kr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

Cortesia da Netflix – © 2022 Netflix, Inc.

What happens to the California team?

Eleven (Brown), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) moved to California, and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) visited Eleven during recess. But after Eleven, who was ousted following the events of Season 3 following a confrontation with the Mind Flayer, attacks a bully, the authorities come knocking on his door. While one faction of the government wants to eliminate Eleven, another, including Doctor Sam Owens (Paul Reiser), wants to reinvigorate her, believing her to be their best hope against the Upside Down. She goes with them and Will, Mike, Jonathan and Jonathan's new stoner friend Argyle (Eduardo Franco) try to find out where she is. Eleven is taken to a secret facility where she is reunited with Matthew Modine's Doctor Brenner (who is still alive!) and is placed in a sensory deprivation tank so that she can relive memories that will restore her powers - and answer some questions. questions.

What's going on with the gang in Hawkins?

Back in Hawkins are Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Max (Sink), Robin (Hawke), Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and newcomer Eddie (Joseph Quinn), the Dungeon Master of The gang's Dungeons and Dragons group, wrongfully accused of murder, tracked down anew threat from the Upside Down they call it Vecna. Vecna ​​formed psychic bonds with his victims, tormenting them with visions and then gruesomely killing them by breaking their limbs and causing their eyes to explode. Max almost succumbs to Vecna's influence, but is saved when music - particularly Kate Bush - brings her back to reality. While tracking Vecna, Steve, Nancy, Robin and Eddie enter the Upside Down through a gate that opened where one of Vecna's victims died.

What's up with Max and Kate Bush?

As previously mentioned, Max was targeted by Vecna, who tormented her with psychic visions of her dead half-brother Billy (Montgomery, who briefly returned in a cameo). When the time came to kill her as she had killed the others, he transported her consciousness to her realm in the Upside Down. But at the last moment, Robin and Nancy discover that a previous victim was saved by Vecna ​​because he heard her favorite song and it drew him back. Lucas, as Max's ex, knows that his current favorite artist is the iconic English art-pop singer Kate Bush, and in the real world, they put headphones on her comatose body and blow them up.1985 Lied "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)",which allows you to escape. Great song, don't be shocked if it goes back to the charts nowWeird stuffback in the spotlight.

Let's talk about the ending of Stranger Things 4: Part One (3)

WEIRD STUFF. Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair in STRANGER THINGS. Kr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

Cortesia da Netflix – © 2022 Netflix, Inc.

What's up with Hopper? He is alive?

Meanwhile, Joyce receives a package from the Soviet Union back for her from Dmitri (Tom Wlaschiha), a corrupt prison guard in Siberia who wanted to rescue Hopper while alive but trapped in a Soviet labor camp. Joyce and Murray (Brett Gelman) travel to Alaska to get him, but Dmitri's smuggler betrays them. Demitri is arrested with Hopper and Joyce and Murrary are taken to Siberia, but they are able to turn the tables on their captor and enter the labor camp just as Hopper is about to engage in a cage fight with a Demogorgon. captured.

Let's talk about the ending of Stranger Things 4: Part One (4)

David Harbour como Jim Hopper em "Stranger Things"

Courtesy of Netflix

What happens in the last episode ofStranger Things 4: Parte Um?

Hopper and Dmitri fend off the Demogorgon while Joyce and Murray take a few hostages and manage to free the pair from the pit of death. Joyce and Hopper have an emotional, wordless reunion, and we'll leave it at that until Part Two premieres.

Meanwhile, in the United States, two other stories converge on the same revelation. Dustin and company realize that at the scene of each murder, Vecna ​​welcomes a new portal between the real world and the Upside Down, and thanks to some light shenanigans like Season 1, they relay that message to the teen team. captive. The Upside Down foursome manage to score another goal and Robin and Eddie escape. As Nancy is about to leave, Vecna ​​creates a psychic link with her and hijacks her consciousness, where she reveals her history. More on that in a second.

Keep reading:The 51 Most Anticipated TV Shows of the Summer

Elf, after reluctantly working with Brenner, her abuser and former "father", finally comes to terms with some repressed memories while in the sensory deprivation tank. One of the guards at the facility where she was trained and raised encourages her to escape, and in the process, Eleven removes an implant that inhibits this young man's powers. He quickly becomes enraged and invites Eleven to join him in reshaping the world with his incredible detailing powers.to beBackstory - more on that in a second. Eleven says no and manages to draw on her mother's memory to defeat him and sends him upside down. The scene early in the season that made it seem like Eleven was responsible for the Hawkins Lab massacre was a red herring. It was this man, aka 001, aka Vecna.

Let's talk about the ending of Stranger Things 4: Part One (5)

Millie Bobby Brown como Elf em "Stranger Things"

Courtesy of Netflix

So who is Vecna?

As we learn in the transverse sequence in which 001 and Vecna ​​Eleven and Nancy respectively explain their history, they are one and the same. They were once the son of Victor Creel - the man imprisoned at Pennhurst Asylum that Nancy and Robin interviewed in Episode 4. While Victor Creel in the late 1950's assumed his entire family was being tormented by an evil force, it was really his son who had incredible and terrible natural powers and was behind all the torment. Victor unknowingly survived his son's attack thanks to a much like Max musical connection, though he was blamed for his family's murders and later carved out his own eyes. However, her son's body was never found.

Let's talk about the ending of Stranger Things 4: Part One (6)

Vecna ​​em "Stranger Things"

Courtesy of Netflix

That's because the boy had been taken by a doctor that his mother - who somehow suspected that her son was behind the evils that plagued the family - wanted him to see. This doctor was none other than Martin Brenner. The boy, nicknamed "001" and tattooed, was the first of Brenner's experiments. When Eleven defeated him, he was thrown into the Upside Down and his body was mutilated by the distorted light as he fell. He's been lurking in the shadows ever since, gathering strength and tentacles. Dustin, who made money off pretty much everything, hypothesized that Vecna ​​acts like a general or some kind of Mind Flayer, but the ending didn't confirm the relationship between the two villains.

Dungeons & Dragons players have probably guessed that Vecna ​​was once human. As a member of the D&D team explained to TIME, the tabletop game character who inspired the villain was once a human wizard, but he transcended mortality and became a powerful undead known as a Lich - and ultimately ascended to godhood.

What does this mean for Elf?

Eleven - who is again sporting the shaved look that helped make her an icon in season one - seems to have regained her powers. She also learned some shocking new information about her underdog path and the new villain she must face. Eleven has always been associated with the Upside Down and the various threats it contains, but never before has she had such a personal connection with the villain as she has with Vecna. Eventually, it was she who defeated 001 and trapped him in the Upside Down. Owens and Brenner—whose uneasy peace with Eleven is sure to be tested in the future—already realized that she was her best hope for stopping the Upside Down from wreaking havoc. Now that she and the latest Upside Down threat have a personal history, the stakes are even higher.

Where does that leave us for the last two episodes ofWeird stuffSeason 4?

There are too many cliffhangers to this.Stranger Things 4 Part Two, which premieres on July 1. Hopper and Joyce are reunited, but they're still in the Soviet Union and there may still be prison guards to deal with before they go home. Mike and Will track down Eleven, who appears to have regained her powers. Dustin, Lucas, Lucas's sister Erica, Max, Eddie and Robin are all safe in Hawkins and know how Vecna's powers work, but don't know who he is. Steve is still in the Upside Down trying to wake up the comatose Nancy. And Nancy's conscience is right in front of Vecna's, which means his life is in danger.

Presumably the last two episodes of Season 2 are heading towards a rematch, as Vecna ​​(born 001) takes down a newly reformed Eleven. Mike's group, who didn't have much to do in the first part of the season, will likely join her and head to Hawkins and/or The Upside Down. Joyce and Hopper will try to return to the States, and if they succeed, there will be an emotional reunion between Eleven and her father - her father.Sustained-Funnel. It's hard to predict what all of this could mean for Season 5, as we still don't know how Season 4 will end. It could all depend on what we learn about the origins of the Upside Down and whether Vecna ​​is defeated or survives into the final season. And the exact relationship between Vecna ​​and the Mind Flayer, which is yet to be seen, is yet to be seen.

someone dies inStranger Things 4: Parte Um?

None of the main characters die in the first part of the season (despite RIP Chrissy Cunningham). Coming into the midseason finale, Nancy is likely in greater danger. However, we will say one thing: while the first part of the season was awful, there were no major character deaths. Previous seasons have killed off major characters like Sean Astin's Bob Newby and Dacre Montgomery's Billy Hargrove, although no one has left the "main" cast yet. (Hopper's departure last season was an obvious hoax.) With only one season left after that, it wouldn't be a shock to see a main cast member of Upside Down fall apart.

Let's talk about the ending of Stranger Things 4: Part One (8)

WEIRD STUFF. (L to R) Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson in STRANGER THINGS. Kr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

Cortesia da Netflix – © 2022 Netflix, Inc.

when is itStranger Things 4: Parte DoisBeat Netflix?

The final two episodes of Stranger Things 4, "Papa" and "The Piggyback" — which have runtimes of 1 hour, 25 minutes and 2 hours, 30 minutes, respectively — hit Netflix on July 1.

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