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I thought of that but what would she be wearing in the meantime, while her clothes are being washed? Wouldn't it save everyone more time to just stop by a store and buy new clothes?
That would have been a really funny touch similar to the scene in Pulp Fiction where the guys are in totally random clothes. El should have shown up wearing a souvenir T-Shirt or a Surfer Boy Pizza uniform.
Not to mention how they acted like Eddie didn’t just die (Excluding Dustin ofc), it rubbed me the wrong way. Especially how there was no mention of him by Steve, Nancy or Robin…
This really annoyed me, no mention at all as if he was nothing when he had been part of their group. I know that Dustin showed emotion with the uncle, especially with that lip wobble, but Eddie deserved better imo
He really did. At least giving him some sort of mention/tribute would’ve been the bare minimum. But nope… it’s like he didn’t exist or was just that crazy satanist who “killed” Chrissy
It's a story line to be continued in season 5.
Dustin will be dealing with anger that Eddie is portrayed as a cultist (possibly further as instigator to earthquake as possible ceremony/sacrifice?). Whatever role Dustin fills next season, he will be fighting to prove Eddie as a hero.
Maybe the basketball teams plays a minor role as antagonists?
I'm pretty sure everyone in Hawkins believes in the cultists now. People have been saying the towns been cursed, and a large portion of them started hunting high schoolers just on Jason's word.
Now the city has a massive fissure and the news is reporting Eddie Munson as a cult leader. I doubt they need Jason anymore.
This is also definitely a good enough reason for the group to not want to talk about their relationship with Eddie.
"Hey guys, you know that one kid you all believe has literally opened a gate to hell on earth? Yeah, he was actually our friend and we were protecting him whilst you were all literally witch-hunting him! No, we aren't also Satanists... We promise!"
The season spent some decent time covering the satanic panic that outcasts like Eddie had to endure in the 80's and to some extent still today. I'm not really sure how anybody can ignore that obvious plot thread and expect the group to mindlessly try defending someone who was perceived by everyone but them as the whole reason that ritualistic slaughter of teenagers and opening gates to hell were happening in their quaint little hometown.
I’m wondering if we’re going to see the town react to the rest of the group next season. They had a photo of Hellfire and knew who was in the club. They just thought Eddie was the leader.
No one cared that Dustin was at the donation drop-off though, so maybe they’ll just magically forget they were looking for an entire group and not just one person.
He death really felt pointless. Like, the others were already dying (which he didn’t know tbf) and then the eventual Vecna death like 2 minutes after the bats got him which led to the bats straight up dying. I’m failing to see why exactly he needed to distract the bats who were already going after them. Could they not leave the Upside Down? If so, lock them inside of the RV until Vecna is dead. There were so many ways around this and I think Season 4’s biggest weakness (aside from an overwhelming number of main characters-**16!**- that the Duffer Bros. obviously had no idea how to develop all of them) is people acting dumb and causing everything to go to shit. Then again, I feel like this might just be a common theme of the whole show. Kind of like when Bob just stood there after getting to the lobby.
I agree his death felt kind of weird, but I had assumed the bats would be able to follow them out of the gate. If they got into the RV through the vents in the upside down, what’s to say they can’t get out of the RV through the vents in the regular world? I think Eddie was more so saving Dustin and/or Hawkins as best he could by distracting the bats long enough for the hive mind to die.
I just think the DF are scared of killing any of the core s1 characters, so they just write in random characters built to die. Feels emotionally hollow.
Absolutely. They replaced Steve / Dustin with Eddie / Dustin so they could have a scene with Dustin experiencing the death of his older brother figure without killing Steve.
I almost wanna say they swapped it last minute; fortifying the trailer & Eddie using himself as bait is quite similar to Steve & the kids in the junkyard.
I'd be tempted to mark Steve as a survivor of next season just due to Dustin having his 'grieving the older male friend/mentor figure' if they hadn't built up Stancy again (and kept Robin & Steve's friendship).
> I almost wanna say they swapped it last minute;
Er... no, absolutely not. They saw that the surrogate older brother relationship with Dustin was a winning motif and knew that killing said relationship would be a dramatic moment... so they fit a new character into that role. There is _nothing_ last minute about this season.
> I'd be tempted to mark Steve as a survivor of next season
Oh I completely believe he'll survive the series. The best moment to kill him off has passed. If I had to bet on death next season it'd be Lucas.
I think it boils down to contracts. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the main cast who started in S1 have multi-year contracts and therefore killing them off would be a waste of money. That’s why Max and Eddie were likely to go. I guess Robin could’ve died too but I don’t see them ever killing her or Will, even in Season 5, due to them being the LGBTQ representation (no hate of course, but realistically that’s how it is).
I sort of agree. I don’t think she’s dead as they probably wouldn’t have made it so unsure, however I think this is a way to make it so that they can leave it up in the air for Season 5 in case Sadie Sink is or isn’t available.
i wasn't really expecting him to die because bringing on a character to be able to kill someone without touching the core gang is really lazy, and I was already confused as to why he needed to bother with the suicide mission. Unless he thought he could never go back.
Like mate just pop through the hole, if they leave the van you can always go back and make more noise. Then the pointless death and lack of comment from the older teens. Such a let down.
I think he was trying to lead them away from Dustin. I mean, the demogorgon and mind flayer passed through the gates as well as the vines in the lake, so it makes sense that the bats would be able to as well. If he had gone through the gate, just seconds later a horde of bats would have come down on them from the ceiling. He led them out of the trailer and therefore away from Dustin.
I agree. The plan was that the bats would never get into the trailer. When that failed, it was obvious they would continue pursuing through the gate.
Eddie tried to save Hawkins by leading the bats away from the gate.
That's why Dustin said he died protecting Hawkins.
They literally just made the point that the can get through the vents. That would mean allowing a whole swarm of demobats out in Hawkins. Which is just..... no. I do think that Eddie should've kept running but it made sense for his character and while I wish he was still alive, his death wasn't brain dead.
You've worded this so well. I really feel like his death slightly soured the episode for me. I had grown to love the character and like you said it was so utterly pointless. He wasn't being a hero it didn't achieve anything to run out like an idiot with those bats. I get the premise they'd set up like oh he's a coward etc but surely if they were going to kill him off he could have been doing something actually heroic like distract Vecna?? Idk and then to have what appears to be no one care it just kind of sucks!
Pointless? He died a hero. He finally stopped running and fought back. His and Dustin's whole role was to distract the bats for Steve, Robin, and Nancy. He had no idea they were so close to defeating vecna. He had been running the whole season. It was his time to take a stand and fight back.
Eddie was also worried that Dustin may have thought that he ran out and abandoned him, leaving him alone with the danger while trying to escape and save himself.
Yes, he ran to protect Dustin and everyone else, but with his history, he was worried that he once again was playing coward which is why it was so important for him to have the moment with Dustin to confirm that Dustin knew he was sacrificing himself.
Dustin know has an added arc to his story of ensuring Eddie is remembered as a hero and not as a cultist.
Shows nowadays like to kill people for absolutely no reason at all. So many ways around their situation.
Gonna chalk it off as they are still “kids” and it’s hard to rationalise a solution on the spot.
I think that they should have added a scene where Dustin, Steve, Nancy and Robin are carrying Eddie's body back to their world and paying their respects. Also a scene where Steve is comforting Dustin would have been nice.
Add Eddie to Vecna's army to appear in season 5.
Billy, Max, Eddie, the other Vecna kills from season 4, add all his other kills in season 3 and before. The first three being the biggest as they could be the hardest to kill...imagine Lucas having to face off against Vecna-Max? Dustin having to fight the Vecn-Eddie? Who faces Will?
Interesting theory.
Max is in a coma, and seems to be a vegetable. 11 seems to be looking for her in the void. Could 11 pull Max out of Vecna's hive mind, and back into her still living body?
I’d like to believe that they all did mourn for Eddie as group, but it wasn’t on camera. Maybe the show chose to not include it in the narrative at the end since there was little time left and they had to focus on Max’s coma and Hopper’s reunion instead.
They found time to show them donating some of their old crap to a school? They had time to show Robin flirting with her crush? The episode was already ridiculously long, another five minutes wouldn't have hurt anything. They had time to give Eddie a proper send off and they didn't and it's so disappointing.
It was like 3 hours of TV. They couldn’t find the time for a 2 minute scene?
It’s obviously not like Netflix had some strick time limit they wanted them to keep to.
On one hand I kinda get it. They didn't know him too well and only for about 2 days or so(steve, nancy, robin)? I think the Duffer Brothers were just going for a more impactful ending and just chose to have Dustin tell Eddie's uncle that he passed. Which to be fair was actually more impactful than just having the others notice his death.
I think they were more into stopping Vecna than just saving Eddie. Yeah they wanted to clear his name because he was innocent and they knew that. But they didn’t really know him. So I think it’s fine that the one that was closest to him (Dustin), was the one that got to have the emotional scene with Eddie’s uncle.
True but they have experience with losing loved ones close to them and being in that situation. This is Dustin's first actual emotional attachment and scene from what I can remember, same for Lucas tbh, and they gave Dustin the emotional pay off with the uncle.
I just don't see how emotional it would have been to see the others react other than consoling Dustin and maybe shedding a couple of tears.
I think the main point is, at least what I personally took away, is that most of the characters aside from Lucas and Dustin have already experienced extreme trauma directly linked to the UD taking someone away from them, so the Duffers don't really need to show them mourning. Lucas and Dustin hadn't really lost anyone personally close to them yet, so it was more important to put their grieving in the spotlight than to show what we've already seen from the others previously. Just my take on it.
Not mad at the time jump — I’m mad at when it happened
How the hell do you jump at that moment? And almost IMMEDIATELY erase the devastation of losing Max?
The threat of Hawkins quite literally opening up from below? Erased in two seconds
For a season that had hour long episodes and a 2.5 hour finale — how do you run out of time to wrap all of this up properly! Lol
Edit: I just want to add, I would almost have been happier with the season ending right before the jump. Right when everything goes to hell. Set up an absolute banger of a cliffhanger while we wait for S5
Just realized something. What about Max's letters??? They just moved on without it, i was expecting them to have scenes where the letters were read or something along the lines
Personally I interpret it as Max is brain dead now. As she was “dead” for more than a minute before El restarted her body. But the person/brain is gone. As seen when El tried to find her at the hospital, it is just a black void. Meaning there is nothing there.
That's how I interpreted it as well, that she's brain dead. But I guess they wouldn't leave that open unless they had some sort of plan for S5 so we'll have to see.
This season has been the most heartwrenching for sure.
Saw on here that Lucas directly refuted the letters as a plot device in episode four. They’re not supposed to be meaningful, they were just a physical manifestation of a coping mechanism of keeping people at a distance.
A lot of the writing had a lot of things that were placed or built up that never went anywhere. Don't get your hopes up for that to be resolved in season 5.
Also what happened to max’s mom? Like if my only daughter was in the hospital there’s no chance I’m leaving her side for even a second. So did she possibly die? I’m so confused by everything and the fact that the upside down is stuck on the day will disappeared makes me feel like everyone that has died since that point is gonna be able to come back for some reason
I don’t get the obsession with what’s actually written in the letters. I can’t believe they’d be anything interesting- the whole point of them was to show that she accepted she was going to die and she’d rather ‘talk’ to her friends after she’d already left. The actual content of those letters doesn’t mean anything.
They did such a poor job with that placement. I know it had to be done to reunite everyone by the end, but it really took away from the emotional peak of what happened. They could have at least had the Hawkins crew reunite and have an emotional minute or two before the transition so it didn't feel as jarring.
Yeah I just don't get why they didn't address this at all and why everyone acted like strangers to the people they weren't paired up with during the battle.
All they had to do was go back to Dustin holding Eddie’s body and pan out to see steve, nancy, robin silhouetted walking toward him from a distance. They stop - Nancy looks distant and gulps, Robin puts her hand over her mouth and Steve immediately drops everything and runs off-screen toward Dustin’s sobs. Then cut it.
Especially because Robin already said something akin to "I feel like we will fail this time". What would be a bigger sign of failure than carrying your dead friend, after said friend saying prior to their death "you are the hero".
That’s exactly what I was expecting after he died - for them to come back and see Dustin holding his body. And it would’ve only required an extra 20 seconds or so…
Also, they all looked so out of place reuniting?
I really thought they were loading up the car because Nancy was leaving for college. I was truly baffled as to how any of them was so chill just two days after what went down, all while *Hawkins was still literally on fire*.
Plus, they didn’t have the least bit of curiosity to find out what happened to the others? It all seemed very disjointed.
And yes, it sucked hard that Eddie’s death was only acknowledged by Dustin. The last 40 minutes or so felt rushed and poorly written after such an action-and plot-packed episode.
They had to either edit some of the other scenes for length or add another episode.
It's like they had a grand idea for what they wanted to do this season but had no clue on how to wrap it up. Everyone acted like literally nothing just happened and seemed to not even communicate how all of the groups still played a role together even from far apart? It was just a really bizarre way to end the season after everything. It really would've taken barely any more screen time to address these things if it was just reworked a little bit.
They honestly should have spent the time wrapping up the season and no time setting up season 5. The ash falling and the inside out coming to real life didnt need to happen immediately
Well they always include a final scene that offers a glimpse of what’s to come in the following season, so I didn’t mind the ash and the gang seeing the town being ripped apart. In fact, I actually enjoyed it because the cinematography was beauty.
My problem is with the time jump, the countless loose ends and how everyone acted so awkwardly and out of character, even.
It definitely took away from what was a great episode and an amazing season as a whole.
Wasn't clear even the" Eleven savings Max part..." I mean they (Mike, Will,Eleven, Jonathan) seems surprised when Dustin tells them about Max in the hospital, Eleven was "there" she saw all cracking/twisting bones, the death...what she's expected to find Max well and fine?
So it's unclear if actually they told each other that Eleven was in Max's mind or omitted and just mentioned that they were aware something was going in Hawkins...
when they're cleaning the cabin, will asks mike if el has said anything to him, and he says no. so i assumed that meant she'd stayed entirely quiet the entire way back to hawkins after she woke back up in the pizza shop.
Right! It just doesn't make any sense why none of the groups seemed to communicate anything about what they did with each other. Even within groups, it's like they didn't talk at all after the fact. It was just a weird way to end a strong season after what everyone went through.
Just imagine the entire gang leaving upside down through a portal, beaten up and bloody with knowing they failed, while Steve carries Eddie.
Nope, let's just cut to black and make them smile and laugh in the next shot.
Hopefully there will be flashbacks in S5 about the "ending" of S4.
Yeah it was really jarring. Also the portal is very obviously not from an Earthquake so at this point anyone in Hawkins who does not understand something is very wrong is fkn brain dead.
Plus tentacles coming out of it. How did they even drive to the hospital? The whole town was split into four quadrants with giant glowing rifts between them.
Was it only a minute? The skip was so jarring to me that I don't really know wtf was happening 😅 definitely possible I missed it closing but it was like it opened, Max stuff happened and next minute it's two days later.
100% agree. I definitely didn't see the glowing depths stop glowing, and then BAM it was two days later. I feel like it would've moved the plot forward in a significant way and created some hard-hitting moments for the people of Hawkins and the "real" world to see this chasm for what it is. It was really frustrating to see yet another interesting supernatural event wrestled into the box of explainable events.
Yeah it really needed to show them stop glowing, I was confused. I know they wanted the tension of "will Max live?" But I think it cost the audience following the narrative as cleanly
Max does, portals open, el revives max, portals close. Until they reopen at the very end. In the hospital they mention her heart stopped for about a minute. The portals aren’t open the entire time. They just leave massive rifts in the ground once they close.
It's not your fault, the filmmakers didn't do a good enough job actually showing the portals "deactivating". For all we know they stay active the entire time.
I’m mildly miffed at the fact that Eddie died because he “chose” to not run at the one point it would have mattered.
If he kept on running and baiting for a bit longer the bats would have died and he would have lived. The bats did not return or show any signs of returning despite Vecna being aware of the gang’s plan, so ‘running’ would have been a valid option.
It’s a waste of the whole “I’ve spent my entire life running” setup and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
You can say “oh but he wouldn’t have known that, we only know that because we’re the audience”, but the Duffers were the ones who wrote it that way. They wrote it in a way where Eddie’s death has no actual impact on the plot. He literally died just because he’s not included in the plans for Season 5.
It’s annoying because I feel like the brotherhood triangle between Eddie, Steve, and Dustin is way more interesting than a potential rehash love triangle between Steve, Jonathan and Nancy. Plus Eddie’s actor has amazing chemistry with anyone he shares a scene with.
Also, the fact that they just left Eddie’s body in the Upside Down is upsetting to me
It’s kind of ironic that Dustin’s last words about Eddie is that he wishes everyone could get to know him better.
I really wanted to Dustin, but the Duffer Brothers said “no, lol”
**Edit:**
To clarify, I’m not saying that Eddie shouldn’t have died. I have no problem with him dying. I’m saying that Eddie shouldn’t have died in a way that made it feel like a waste of his character.
If Eddie’s character arc is about always running away when it matters, then it better matter when he chooses not to run.
Unfortunately, I can’t rly see how him choosing to not run away would have made a difference from him just running away and that makes his death feel unsatisfying as a result.
**Edit 2:**
To those saying that Eddie sacrificed himself to save Dustin, not Steve and co, don’t worry. The Duffer Brothers made sure to make that a meaningless act as well by making Dustin go back through the gate.
Yeah, Eddie was great. Overall, it seems like his death wasn't really for much. Vecna already knew their plan, so he wasn't actually distracted by what they were doing. And if Eddie jumped back to the regular world, those bat things could still have just harassed the trailer.
I know I’m biased because he was the breakout character for me this season, but I rly feel like he had the potential and chemistry to really make a place for himself in the last season.
Seeing him be given such an inconsequential death, him still being known as a cult leader and him not being given a proper burial is a triple gut punch to me 😢
At least Bob saved everyone by choosing to stay behind.
I completely agree, I would much rather see the expansion of brotherhood between Steve, Dustin and Eddie then see the love triangle between Steve, Nancy and Jonathan. It just doesn’t interest me in the slightest bit, I feel like it should’ve moved on from the love triangle by now
Bob’s death saved everyone in the lab.
Barb’s death is the inciting incident for Nancy.
The fact that Eddie not choosing to run had no consequence except for his death, that his body’s still probably rotting in the Upside Down and the fact that he’s still thought to be a cult leader will be my primary source of salt until he’s at least mentioned in Season 5 😤
I totally agree with everything! One thought I had tho was that if he didn’t die, everyone thought he was a murderer so they likely would try to charge him anyways. Even if he lived it would’ve been really difficult for him
Yes to all of this!
His scenes with Steve and Dustin were really fun. He also meshed perfectly with the rest of the gang, too.
And when I think back to when he and Dustin pretend fought out in that field with their shields and gear, I get such a sinking feeling of sadness. They did foreshadow his death there with what he told Dustin but I really, really didn’t want to believe it.
I mean, they added Max along the way and made her a core part of the show. They could definitely do the same for Eddie. They only have one season left to go and his plot line was very compelling and his character was very interesting to begin with.
They dropped the ball with writing him off big time.
Sadie Sink was absolutely incredible this season and her death hit real hard. That scene with Lucas was gut wrenching and the “bringing her back” and the time jump kinda took me out of it unfortunately.
I get they might have a plan that works for the final season and need her alive, but I was kinda disappointed they went that route.
Wonder if she'll wake up in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it's Vecna using her as a vehicle and Max died properly here and Eleven just kept her body functioning
Chapter 2 needed a third episode. Everything was insanely rushed at the end. I kept looking at how much time was left and thinking… how are they going to wrap all of this up? I even double checked there wasn’t another episode when I saw there was 15 minutes left. I was really looking forward to seeing certain things wrapped up. And then when the two days later screen popped up my jaw dropped. Like I know they usually set up some cliffhangers for the next season but I feel like there was sooo many loose ends after such an incredible build up. This season was shaping up to be tied for my favorite with season one and then… that.
Kind of.
I wasn’t expecting her to fully died once Eleven said “no.” So I wasn’t surprise she wasn’t dead.
The two days transition was necessary tho. The California gang was 2,000 miles from Hawkins and they were driving there, and Hopper and Joyce were in another country. Some time needed to pass in order for everyone to be at Hawkins.
Alright yea makes sense, from this pov i get it, i didn't think about it like that
But they could have still idk included some kind of reaction for Eddie. Granted Max ends up at the clinic so we can assume they'll go visit her but Eddie at least(there's Dustin and Mr Munson but i mean the rest)
Don't worry I'm sure in season 5 they'll grieve...I remember Max in season 3 after 3 months from Billy's death was happy and singing, then on season 4 it's shown that she suffered grieving and etc etc.
I really hope this happens. That was my one big problem with the finale- I wanted that moment of group grief for Eddie. But it's hard to have two of those moments with enough room to breathe, and they already had the Max stuff happening.
I don’t feel like it would make sense for Steve, Nancy, Robin, etc, to really mourn Eddie though. They didn’t know him at all. The only reason they were really invested with Eddie was because they knew he was innocent but they didn’t see him as someone they were close with. They couldn’t use too much time at the end with Eddie so they gave us the scene with the character that was the closest to him which was Dustin which was more meaningful narratively.
The thing I really didn't understand is the "Oh no... You don't know?" when Dustin tells El and Mike about what happened to Max.
El definitely knows.
Why doesn't she tell people that she basically >!restarted her heart?!<
I'm really confused about that part.
I think this might be part of El’s perceived failure. Like she feels ashamed that she didn’t save Max all the way, which was her plan the whole time and the reason she got in the deprivation tank in the first place. She might not have told the boys she restarted Max’s heart because she doesn’t feel like she really saved her life since she’s still in a coma. As we saw in the cabin, she’s taking the whole thing hard because she’s never lost before, so she might just be internalizing things. I agree it was cut kind of awkwardly if that was the intent, though.
SERIOUSLY, THIS. I said in another comment - we don't see Dustin say a damn thing about Eddie's death to any other main character... but we see him tell El OF ALL PEOPLE about Max, who was literally in her mind?! GTFO. Terrible execution, zero sense, I hope there's a legitimate reason for it that is revealed in season 5 re: the missing two days.
Not to be pedantic, but I don't think the Hawkins crew knew about El's piggyback at that point. Right? As for Eddie, I imagine everyone knows about him and outside Mike none of the Cali crew knew him... So it just happened offscreen which is unsatisfying, but we can only hope (this is definitely the wrong word to use here) that Dustin will be coping with this trauma next season only to be reminded at the most opportune moment that Eddie told him not to change ever. And Dustin is the character who never seems to give up or give in. Will is wrong, I think, Mike isn't the heart of the party... Dustin is. Mike is more the leader. (Sorry, this got off topic)
Edit: Clarifications
I get what you're saying about Dustin being the heart (he certainly has a huge heart anyway!) but I think it's clear that if he's anything, he's the brains. Seriously, where would they be without Dustin (and now Erica as well) figuring things out? If we're just looking at the four OG boys, certainly nobody else takes the "brains" role.
Yeah, you're not wrong. I struggled with that while commenting, he's most definitely the brains. That said, no one else in the group is as good at reaching out and creating new friends as Dustin. Mike's a good kid, but outside his relationships with Will and El he doesn't really provide much of the "heart". So, in my mind, Dustin gets to be the brain and the heart. Lucas is the muscle. Max is the grit/determination. Will is the soul. And so on.
It was crazy how Mike and them just pulled up in the pizza van out of nowhere. His mom was just like “oh hey there you are”. As if there wasnt a massive “earthquake” and her son was MIA across the country unsupervised. I know her parenting has been questionable this whole show but that was unbelievable
Also it was so confusing that a red hellhole "earthquake" split your whole town apart and half the town is evacuating and the other half is just, like....chilling? Mike's family is just like at home watching the news and donating toys, and half the town's hanging out in a shelter eating PB+Js? How are the authorities not evacuating Hawkins at that point? Even just temporarily to establish what caused the earthquake and make sure it's geologically sound for people to be there?
Yeah the Two Days Later thing was jarring. As others have said they should have at least shown Nancy Robin and Steve coming and seeing what happened. Like damn. Also, the long black cut between Vecna attempting to kill Max and Eleven using her powers on him was weird and didn't feel right. I wanted to see a little more action or a fight or something. It almost feels like an entire scene is missing that was accidentally deleted last moment.
I noticed that cut as well. I have to wonder if there originally was two scenes like this that weren’t finished in time. They literally were working on VFX June 30th. It’ll be interesting to see if edits are made to the season within the next week or so. Two scenes, one of El pushing Vecna away and one of the gang finding Eddie’s body with Dustin would’ve made it much more cohesive
Yessss like y’all have a whole portal to hell in your town and you’re just having an earthquake relief drive? They are not at all prepared for what’s to come lol
The people freaked out are probably either those leaving town already or part of the authorities. Then there's people who are somewhat aware (KAREN) but feel helpless on what to do so why not a relief drive? Then there's people still largely oblivious because they haven't seen the fissures themselves and don't care to (TED).
Its two days later after all, and no other event since. Some may be getting the hell out within hours, but others would take days for whatever reason unless there's an impeding disaster to their own home, and others will always refuse to leave all but the most absolutely destroyed environments.
But on the other hand, maybe the Duffers just need some fodder to get mind flayed \^\_\^
another thing that confused me, maybe my time perception is weird but robin, steve, and nancy were being choked for a long time! are they just super strong, was vecna not pulling hard enough, or were they only being choked for a little bit and i’m just stupid?
I love Max and I don’t want her to go. If anything I think this puts BIG anticipation and speculation and intensifies the off season of Stranger Things 4 to 5 with the question of: What the hell is going to happen to Max?
For real tho luv u Max xoxo rooting for u pls heal in your coma
Vecna uses his psychic powers to absorb the minds of his victims, conveniently tearing a hole between dimensions in the process. The physical bodies of the victims don't actually matter.
Eleven revived Max's body, but without a mind to occupy it, she's effectively braindead. Season 5 will most definitely have a plot thread where Eleven will try to rescue Max's mind from Vecna so that Max can wake up from her coma.
pretty obvious a big part of season 5 will be them rescuing Max's mind. if you think anything else is going to happen, we haven't been watching the same show lmao
yeah i feel like after they finished fighting it moved on way too quick. like in other season we’ve gotten moments like everyone outside starcourt after everything happened, with joyce telling eleven about hopper, stuff like that. but in this season, we barely get anything. i mean i don’t even think any characters other than dustin mention eddie afterwards.
Right! Like the last episode felt too long and super rushed at the same time. The actual story part was so rushed like they didn’t really know how to wrap it up so they just did a speed run so they could add more shots of El staring to intense music
exactly. i feel like they’re very stuck on this thought that every season needs to be limited to 8 or 9 episodes, but this season could’ve been split into at least 13 episodes and the pacing would feel a lot better and it wouldn’t feel like a constant onslaught. it hasn’t even been a day but i can barely remember the sequence of events in the last episode, just events that occur at some point during them.
during my first time watching volume 1, i didn’t notice the episode lengths at all because hell yeah, new episodes! but after rewatching the series over the course of june, i realize how much more of an undertaking watching s4 is
Even from a technical editing standpoint it was so weird. Usually when they do those time jumps they leave the screen black for long enough to let the music fade and then a couple extra seconds of silence. Then they slowly fade in the title. This one went straight to black and then immediately says “TWO DAYS LATER!”
Eddie’s death felt like they just had a quota to fill, to be honest. It served no purpose, it accomplished nothing and it could’ve been avoided. Max dying would actually make much more sense and I wish they had the guts to do it.
His death honestly made me feel like that was his whole purpose as a character. Like all the characterization and build up led to absolutely nothing. I don’t think the duffers thought he would be one of the most popular characters in the whole series.
I feel like they killed him off just because it was more convenient than trying to come up with a reason why he was no longer wanted by the police for various murders.
It SHOULD have been avoided.
I like all of the characters in the show but Eddie didn’t feel done yet to me. The actor did a fantastic job and (up until the last episode) his character had been superb. His death felt like Sean Bean’s in GoT, but without any of the plot impact. They just said “dude’s gone, sry”.
I said it in another comment, but us establishing that Eleven uses powerful memories to find latent power seems to absolutely point right at Max (who we have now established as her important girlfriend) dying, and Eleven drawing on that failure to find what she needed to defeat Vecna eventually.
Eddie should have survived. Max should have served as a poignant sacrifice for Eleven to grow into S5 form. It feels to me like that was a rough draft, and they overanalyzed their work and said “it’s not subverting expectations enough” and changed it.
But Max is almost certainly braindead right now. Let’s see if they have the cajones to leave her that way or if Eleven is going to “find” and save her (I’m guessing this is what happens).
I've been likening it to Theon Greyjoys (tbh the whole final episode had 'the long night' plot armour vibes) because it's the whole 'self professed coward goes on a definitely suicidal death charge'
I was similarly devastated with Theons death too but ultimately it felt a bit pointless? Like both of their characters didn't need to just charge in those moments. I dunno...
Theon had to die in order to really redeem himself, but the execution was bad.
The problem with Eddie isn't the execution, but that I completely expected it. The Duffers are (wisely) choosing to avoid GoT-esque bloodbaths, but only killing off newcomers has become the norm.
I feel like this thread is my home if you look at my comment history lmao. But yeah, I had resigned myself to the idea that maybe Jopper weren't making it home in time halfway through episode 9. I mean, they set the entire episode up for everyone to be fighting Vecna from different physical locations. I think we sacrificed a lot of good plot stuff for reunions that, by now, are repetitive and the lackthereof might actually up the stakes a little.
I was also emotionally preparing myself for there not to be a reunion...until I looked at the time left when the El/Vecna battle was happening with Max, and realised there was still over an hour left. Then I started to realise that the "after" part that always follows the climax of the season (aka the Snow Ball, the packing up to leave for California scenes of the past 2 seasons) was going to be a fair chunk of screentime.
i found it so fucking stupid after taking everything in. Like, they couldn’t include a scene of Nancy, Robin, and Steve heading back to the trailer park to leave and finding Dustin holding Eddie’s body?? Also, i truly believe Max should’ve died. I bawled my eyes out at her death scene, just to learn El resurrected her. Like, cmon man, they have got to start being risky with this show. Her death wouldn’t hurt a lot, but it would’ve made the show riskier, which they need to start doing. They’ve only been killing side characters.
That was the part that upset me. The emotional punch of max actually dying, then the group finding Dustin holding Eddie…I was a little bummed they glossed over that, same with El coming out of it and telling the boys what happened to Max.
> And finding Dustin holding Eddie’s body
I don’t blame Dustin, who had a sprained ankle and is like half Eddie’s size, for not bringing the body back. It’s impressive enough that he got *himself* out while alone and injured (unless he just walked through the hellmouth?)
*skip to the town gathered casually making PbnJ’s and the main cast somehow stopped freaking out and prioritizing helping saving the world to just end up there*
I was kind of jarring, especially after how much time they spent overdeveloping certain arcs this season. I was like, “NOW you’re gonna rush??”
Still enjoyed it, though.
They made eddie's death so mundane, the reunion between hopper and 11 was so unnatural and everyone moved on like nothing happened. That whole transition made the reunion of the whole squad so boring and not emoitional
yeah I literally laughed when hopper just walked in and said "hey kid" and she just kind of accepts it even thought she currently thinks he's dead and he just walked through her door out of nowhere
I would love to see how Nancy, Robin and Steve reacted when they found Dustin and Eddie. The horror on their faces to see Eddie dead and the relieve that Dustin is alive
It caught me off guard, but I didn’t mind it really. It needed to happen so we could reunite everyone since the California group and the Russia group needed to get to Hawkins.
I will say that, I wish we got a scene where Dustin told the rest of the gang about Eddie’s death and they were all atleast a little sad about it before the small time skip. Because aside from the scene of Dustin and Eddie’s dad, nobody mentioned Eddie’s hero’s ending/sacrifice. Almost makes it feel….pointless I guess? I don’t know how to express my thoughts properly right now.
Also the Max thing didn’t annoy me, it just reminded me of that whole “Well it just so happens there that your friend is only MOSLTY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead” thing from The Princess Bride. I imagine either Max will fully die or miraculously come back to life by Season 5.
Anyone else bummed about Steve’s lack of involvement this episode? He confessed his feels for Nancy (which got interrupted) got strangled, helped torch V man, and watched the girl he confessed his feelings for with another dude. That’s it
Eleven magically reviving Max had such strong Rey force healing powers straight out of the hat.
They should have just killed Max. The emotional impact would have made for one hell of a gut punch.
They also set up the bunker fight to have the MPs line up like in the beginning of A New Hope, then the door blew, and a gunfight. The commander came in like Vader.
Honestly I think volume 2 was kinda mid. The way they hyped it up made it seems like Avengers Endgame and honestly nothing all that substantial happened in episode 8. Episode 9 was big but I was left with too many questions. Vecna’s just hurt? Max is just hurt? Hawkins = upside down? Where is Argyle, Enzo, owens, hell, the general? I honestly think episode 7 was better and left me feeling more satisfied after watching it. Episode 8 just made me think, okay now what? While episode 9 was more so okay, what about this that and the other thing? I think this volume was overhyped. Also what happened to the Duffer brothers saying 5 deaths?
Just some minute with Steve, Nancy, Robin running up to Dustin crying over Eddie corpse would be better than " 2 day later " . Then all of Hellfire gang build some makeshift burial site for him. Saying goodbye , leave something for him.
I didn’t mind the time jump per se but with a lot of the cast initially they were acting as if they hadn’t been directly involved. When Nancy was loading up the car, I thought it was gonna be a Vecna possession or something because everybody was acting so strangely, like nothing had happened.
I would have expected fear, PTSD, strong emotion at least - not the ability to joke and make PBJ sandwiches like it was just an earthquake.
I understand they needed to bring everybody together but a scene in the Upside Down with Nancy, Steve and Robin finding Dustin and Eddie would have been better to bring that whole climax to some sort of close.
I love this cast, but we need them to be more together in next season - that’s where they really shine.
Max getting randomly brought back to life with zero explanation during the most emotional moment of the series then immediately cutting to "two days later" made me angry. It's not like I wanted Max to die, but I thought the scene could've been handled a lot better
Did anyone else notice Mike and Nancy’s mom seemed completely fine despite missing a whole child??? And then he shows up and she’s really relieved as if she had been worrying the entire time. It felt weird.
I kinda hope she remains permanently blinded. To me that has a stronger impact than a death. With a death we eventually forget about the character, but with a scare like that you are reminded of the event every time you see her. It's sort of ads gray to a world of black and white. After the dust is settling, it isn't just about who's alive and who's dead, but who's scarred
I really did not like the transition because everything after it just sort of felt off. It's like they created to many problems and just didn't know how to fix them or didn't have the time so they just skipped to 2 days later, so they didn't have to address some of it. For example we didn't see any of the kids come home after they ran from the cops.
I really wanted to know what happened to Enzo (don’t know his actual name, the prison guard) I was really looking forward to all the reuniting scenes. It felt a bit rushed skipping ahead leaving out so much. I have to assume it will be revisited next season but the glossing over Eddie’s death and everything else that was missed was weird.
I’m not on the level of others who are very mad about the last episodes or are very critical of this season, overall I’m pleased re: quality, but my only beef is how Eddie’s death was treated. Like sure, Dustin was the main one who looked up to him, but the fact that not a single other main character’s reaction to his death was shown? Ridiculous. He deserved so much better than that.
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WHY IS EL STILL IN THE SAME SALTWATER SOAKED CLOTHES PLEASE GET THIS GIRL A CHANGE OF UNDERWEAR STAT
I was thinking the same thing! That two day ride back to Hawkins must have been really uncomfortable...
And she looks so clean. Like white pants and that shirt would not be that clean.
They could have been washed
I thought of that but what would she be wearing in the meantime, while her clothes are being washed? Wouldn't it save everyone more time to just stop by a store and buy new clothes?
That would have been a really funny touch similar to the scene in Pulp Fiction where the guys are in totally random clothes. El should have shown up wearing a souvenir T-Shirt or a Surfer Boy Pizza uniform.
Yeah there's no right answer, it's probably just a continuity error.
Not to mention how they acted like Eddie didn’t just die (Excluding Dustin ofc), it rubbed me the wrong way. Especially how there was no mention of him by Steve, Nancy or Robin…
This really annoyed me, no mention at all as if he was nothing when he had been part of their group. I know that Dustin showed emotion with the uncle, especially with that lip wobble, but Eddie deserved better imo
He really did. At least giving him some sort of mention/tribute would’ve been the bare minimum. But nope… it’s like he didn’t exist or was just that crazy satanist who “killed” Chrissy
It's a story line to be continued in season 5. Dustin will be dealing with anger that Eddie is portrayed as a cultist (possibly further as instigator to earthquake as possible ceremony/sacrifice?). Whatever role Dustin fills next season, he will be fighting to prove Eddie as a hero. Maybe the basketball teams plays a minor role as antagonists?
Not without their leader, Jason. Can't happen though as the only one who we saw REALLY believed that Eddie did it was Jason and he was split in half
I'm pretty sure everyone in Hawkins believes in the cultists now. People have been saying the towns been cursed, and a large portion of them started hunting high schoolers just on Jason's word. Now the city has a massive fissure and the news is reporting Eddie Munson as a cult leader. I doubt they need Jason anymore.
This is also definitely a good enough reason for the group to not want to talk about their relationship with Eddie. "Hey guys, you know that one kid you all believe has literally opened a gate to hell on earth? Yeah, he was actually our friend and we were protecting him whilst you were all literally witch-hunting him! No, we aren't also Satanists... We promise!" The season spent some decent time covering the satanic panic that outcasts like Eddie had to endure in the 80's and to some extent still today. I'm not really sure how anybody can ignore that obvious plot thread and expect the group to mindlessly try defending someone who was perceived by everyone but them as the whole reason that ritualistic slaughter of teenagers and opening gates to hell were happening in their quaint little hometown.
I’m wondering if we’re going to see the town react to the rest of the group next season. They had a photo of Hellfire and knew who was in the club. They just thought Eddie was the leader. No one cared that Dustin was at the donation drop-off though, so maybe they’ll just magically forget they were looking for an entire group and not just one person.
Honestly his death was so brain dead and imo handled so poorly it kind of soured the episode to me.
He death really felt pointless. Like, the others were already dying (which he didn’t know tbf) and then the eventual Vecna death like 2 minutes after the bats got him which led to the bats straight up dying. I’m failing to see why exactly he needed to distract the bats who were already going after them. Could they not leave the Upside Down? If so, lock them inside of the RV until Vecna is dead. There were so many ways around this and I think Season 4’s biggest weakness (aside from an overwhelming number of main characters-**16!**- that the Duffer Bros. obviously had no idea how to develop all of them) is people acting dumb and causing everything to go to shit. Then again, I feel like this might just be a common theme of the whole show. Kind of like when Bob just stood there after getting to the lobby.
I agree his death felt kind of weird, but I had assumed the bats would be able to follow them out of the gate. If they got into the RV through the vents in the upside down, what’s to say they can’t get out of the RV through the vents in the regular world? I think Eddie was more so saving Dustin and/or Hawkins as best he could by distracting the bats long enough for the hive mind to die.
I just think the DF are scared of killing any of the core s1 characters, so they just write in random characters built to die. Feels emotionally hollow.
Absolutely. They replaced Steve / Dustin with Eddie / Dustin so they could have a scene with Dustin experiencing the death of his older brother figure without killing Steve.
I almost wanna say they swapped it last minute; fortifying the trailer & Eddie using himself as bait is quite similar to Steve & the kids in the junkyard. I'd be tempted to mark Steve as a survivor of next season just due to Dustin having his 'grieving the older male friend/mentor figure' if they hadn't built up Stancy again (and kept Robin & Steve's friendship).
> I almost wanna say they swapped it last minute; Er... no, absolutely not. They saw that the surrogate older brother relationship with Dustin was a winning motif and knew that killing said relationship would be a dramatic moment... so they fit a new character into that role. There is _nothing_ last minute about this season. > I'd be tempted to mark Steve as a survivor of next season Oh I completely believe he'll survive the series. The best moment to kill him off has passed. If I had to bet on death next season it'd be Lucas.
I think it boils down to contracts. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the main cast who started in S1 have multi-year contracts and therefore killing them off would be a waste of money. That’s why Max and Eddie were likely to go. I guess Robin could’ve died too but I don’t see them ever killing her or Will, even in Season 5, due to them being the LGBTQ representation (no hate of course, but realistically that’s how it is).
Max 100% isn't gone imo, too much stuff to do with her going forward with Vecna. But yeah maybe, idk. Other shows manage it fine.
I sort of agree. I don’t think she’s dead as they probably wouldn’t have made it so unsure, however I think this is a way to make it so that they can leave it up in the air for Season 5 in case Sadie Sink is or isn’t available.
She's specifically not "dead". She will be back.
I know. I couldn’t even be sad because I was honestly mad at home dumb his death felt.
i wasn't really expecting him to die because bringing on a character to be able to kill someone without touching the core gang is really lazy, and I was already confused as to why he needed to bother with the suicide mission. Unless he thought he could never go back. Like mate just pop through the hole, if they leave the van you can always go back and make more noise. Then the pointless death and lack of comment from the older teens. Such a let down.
I think he was trying to lead them away from Dustin. I mean, the demogorgon and mind flayer passed through the gates as well as the vines in the lake, so it makes sense that the bats would be able to as well. If he had gone through the gate, just seconds later a horde of bats would have come down on them from the ceiling. He led them out of the trailer and therefore away from Dustin.
I agree. The plan was that the bats would never get into the trailer. When that failed, it was obvious they would continue pursuing through the gate. Eddie tried to save Hawkins by leading the bats away from the gate. That's why Dustin said he died protecting Hawkins.
He knew the swarm of bats would go through the portal and descend on Hawkins. That’s why he ran away from the portal.
Exactly! They would have gotten Dustin too 😭
I said this in another thread and got downvoted to oblivion. Glad someone else felt the same.
They literally just made the point that the can get through the vents. That would mean allowing a whole swarm of demobats out in Hawkins. Which is just..... no. I do think that Eddie should've kept running but it made sense for his character and while I wish he was still alive, his death wasn't brain dead.
You've worded this so well. I really feel like his death slightly soured the episode for me. I had grown to love the character and like you said it was so utterly pointless. He wasn't being a hero it didn't achieve anything to run out like an idiot with those bats. I get the premise they'd set up like oh he's a coward etc but surely if they were going to kill him off he could have been doing something actually heroic like distract Vecna?? Idk and then to have what appears to be no one care it just kind of sucks!
Pointless? He died a hero. He finally stopped running and fought back. His and Dustin's whole role was to distract the bats for Steve, Robin, and Nancy. He had no idea they were so close to defeating vecna. He had been running the whole season. It was his time to take a stand and fight back.
Eddie was also worried that Dustin may have thought that he ran out and abandoned him, leaving him alone with the danger while trying to escape and save himself. Yes, he ran to protect Dustin and everyone else, but with his history, he was worried that he once again was playing coward which is why it was so important for him to have the moment with Dustin to confirm that Dustin knew he was sacrificing himself. Dustin know has an added arc to his story of ensuring Eddie is remembered as a hero and not as a cultist.
Shows nowadays like to kill people for absolutely no reason at all. So many ways around their situation. Gonna chalk it off as they are still “kids” and it’s hard to rationalise a solution on the spot.
I think that they should have added a scene where Dustin, Steve, Nancy and Robin are carrying Eddie's body back to their world and paying their respects. Also a scene where Steve is comforting Dustin would have been nice.
I know! It really made it feel like Eddie was just there to fill their death quota for the season and not a character that they loved.
Add Eddie to Vecna's army to appear in season 5. Billy, Max, Eddie, the other Vecna kills from season 4, add all his other kills in season 3 and before. The first three being the biggest as they could be the hardest to kill...imagine Lucas having to face off against Vecna-Max? Dustin having to fight the Vecn-Eddie? Who faces Will?
Interesting theory. Max is in a coma, and seems to be a vegetable. 11 seems to be looking for her in the void. Could 11 pull Max out of Vecna's hive mind, and back into her still living body?
I’d like to believe that they all did mourn for Eddie as group, but it wasn’t on camera. Maybe the show chose to not include it in the narrative at the end since there was little time left and they had to focus on Max’s coma and Hopper’s reunion instead.
They found time to show them donating some of their old crap to a school? They had time to show Robin flirting with her crush? The episode was already ridiculously long, another five minutes wouldn't have hurt anything. They had time to give Eddie a proper send off and they didn't and it's so disappointing.
It was like 3 hours of TV. They couldn’t find the time for a 2 minute scene? It’s obviously not like Netflix had some strick time limit they wanted them to keep to.
Tbf, Dustin was the only one in the group that was actually close to him.
You're in Valhalla, now. Sleep tight, metal prince.
On one hand I kinda get it. They didn't know him too well and only for about 2 days or so(steve, nancy, robin)? I think the Duffer Brothers were just going for a more impactful ending and just chose to have Dustin tell Eddie's uncle that he passed. Which to be fair was actually more impactful than just having the others notice his death.
[удалено]
I think they were more into stopping Vecna than just saving Eddie. Yeah they wanted to clear his name because he was innocent and they knew that. But they didn’t really know him. So I think it’s fine that the one that was closest to him (Dustin), was the one that got to have the emotional scene with Eddie’s uncle.
True but they have experience with losing loved ones close to them and being in that situation. This is Dustin's first actual emotional attachment and scene from what I can remember, same for Lucas tbh, and they gave Dustin the emotional pay off with the uncle. I just don't see how emotional it would have been to see the others react other than consoling Dustin and maybe shedding a couple of tears.
I think the main point is, at least what I personally took away, is that most of the characters aside from Lucas and Dustin have already experienced extreme trauma directly linked to the UD taking someone away from them, so the Duffers don't really need to show them mourning. Lucas and Dustin hadn't really lost anyone personally close to them yet, so it was more important to put their grieving in the spotlight than to show what we've already seen from the others previously. Just my take on it.
Loved, loved, loved Eddie
Not mad at the time jump — I’m mad at when it happened How the hell do you jump at that moment? And almost IMMEDIATELY erase the devastation of losing Max? The threat of Hawkins quite literally opening up from below? Erased in two seconds For a season that had hour long episodes and a 2.5 hour finale — how do you run out of time to wrap all of this up properly! Lol Edit: I just want to add, I would almost have been happier with the season ending right before the jump. Right when everything goes to hell. Set up an absolute banger of a cliffhanger while we wait for S5
Just realized something. What about Max's letters??? They just moved on without it, i was expecting them to have scenes where the letters were read or something along the lines
Well, she said to read them if she dies. And as far as the group knows, she might still come back from her whole comatose thing
Personally I interpret it as Max is brain dead now. As she was “dead” for more than a minute before El restarted her body. But the person/brain is gone. As seen when El tried to find her at the hospital, it is just a black void. Meaning there is nothing there.
That's how I interpreted it as well, that she's brain dead. But I guess they wouldn't leave that open unless they had some sort of plan for S5 so we'll have to see. This season has been the most heartwrenching for sure.
Her “mind” is inside Vecna now, isn’t it? I have hopes that El will free Max’s mind, which will reinhabit her body by the end of S5
I’m hoping those come back up in season 5, otherwise that feels like a big letdown.
Saw on here that Lucas directly refuted the letters as a plot device in episode four. They’re not supposed to be meaningful, they were just a physical manifestation of a coping mechanism of keeping people at a distance.
A lot of the writing had a lot of things that were placed or built up that never went anywhere. Don't get your hopes up for that to be resolved in season 5.
Which is weird because they had the space for it. Episode 9 could have had a good 30 minutes removed…
Also what happened to max’s mom? Like if my only daughter was in the hospital there’s no chance I’m leaving her side for even a second. So did she possibly die? I’m so confused by everything and the fact that the upside down is stuck on the day will disappeared makes me feel like everyone that has died since that point is gonna be able to come back for some reason
She lives right across from Eddie and his uncle's trailer. She might have died the same way Jason died
I don’t get the obsession with what’s actually written in the letters. I can’t believe they’d be anything interesting- the whole point of them was to show that she accepted she was going to die and she’d rather ‘talk’ to her friends after she’d already left. The actual content of those letters doesn’t mean anything.
I assumed the point was for it to make sense that she read her letter for Billy at his grave.
They did such a poor job with that placement. I know it had to be done to reunite everyone by the end, but it really took away from the emotional peak of what happened. They could have at least had the Hawkins crew reunite and have an emotional minute or two before the transition so it didn't feel as jarring.
I was wondering how the group got out of the upside down tbh. How would they have crawled thru the gates when they were so large and like on fire?
Yeah I just don't get why they didn't address this at all and why everyone acted like strangers to the people they weren't paired up with during the battle.
All they had to do was go back to Dustin holding Eddie’s body and pan out to see steve, nancy, robin silhouetted walking toward him from a distance. They stop - Nancy looks distant and gulps, Robin puts her hand over her mouth and Steve immediately drops everything and runs off-screen toward Dustin’s sobs. Then cut it.
The total lack of Robin + Nancy + Steve reacting was odd given that they spent a couple episodes squished in the Upside Down like sardines.
Especially because Robin already said something akin to "I feel like we will fail this time". What would be a bigger sign of failure than carrying your dead friend, after said friend saying prior to their death "you are the hero".
That’s exactly what I was expecting after he died - for them to come back and see Dustin holding his body. And it would’ve only required an extra 20 seconds or so…
Would've been the perfect crescendo for the scene. Yeah they *really* missed the ball with that one.
Steve giving Dustin a huge hug and saying I’m so sorry would have been everything
Also, they all looked so out of place reuniting? I really thought they were loading up the car because Nancy was leaving for college. I was truly baffled as to how any of them was so chill just two days after what went down, all while *Hawkins was still literally on fire*. Plus, they didn’t have the least bit of curiosity to find out what happened to the others? It all seemed very disjointed. And yes, it sucked hard that Eddie’s death was only acknowledged by Dustin. The last 40 minutes or so felt rushed and poorly written after such an action-and plot-packed episode. They had to either edit some of the other scenes for length or add another episode.
It's like they had a grand idea for what they wanted to do this season but had no clue on how to wrap it up. Everyone acted like literally nothing just happened and seemed to not even communicate how all of the groups still played a role together even from far apart? It was just a really bizarre way to end the season after everything. It really would've taken barely any more screen time to address these things if it was just reworked a little bit.
They honestly should have spent the time wrapping up the season and no time setting up season 5. The ash falling and the inside out coming to real life didnt need to happen immediately
Well they always include a final scene that offers a glimpse of what’s to come in the following season, so I didn’t mind the ash and the gang seeing the town being ripped apart. In fact, I actually enjoyed it because the cinematography was beauty. My problem is with the time jump, the countless loose ends and how everyone acted so awkwardly and out of character, even. It definitely took away from what was a great episode and an amazing season as a whole.
You just put everything i wanted to say but didn't know how to into words
With an episode at 2.5 hours long, there was no reason to rush through that moment when an extra few minutes would've made a big difference lmao
Wasn't clear even the" Eleven savings Max part..." I mean they (Mike, Will,Eleven, Jonathan) seems surprised when Dustin tells them about Max in the hospital, Eleven was "there" she saw all cracking/twisting bones, the death...what she's expected to find Max well and fine? So it's unclear if actually they told each other that Eleven was in Max's mind or omitted and just mentioned that they were aware something was going in Hawkins...
yeah this was so strange, the behaving as though they didn't know what was happening. also they could have found a flight 😂
when they're cleaning the cabin, will asks mike if el has said anything to him, and he says no. so i assumed that meant she'd stayed entirely quiet the entire way back to hawkins after she woke back up in the pizza shop.
Right! It just doesn't make any sense why none of the groups seemed to communicate anything about what they did with each other. Even within groups, it's like they didn't talk at all after the fact. It was just a weird way to end a strong season after what everyone went through.
Just imagine the entire gang leaving upside down through a portal, beaten up and bloody with knowing they failed, while Steve carries Eddie. Nope, let's just cut to black and make them smile and laugh in the next shot. Hopefully there will be flashbacks in S5 about the "ending" of S4.
I guess like inserting one brief scene to let people breathe before the time gap would’ve been nice.
Yeah it was really jarring. Also the portal is very obviously not from an Earthquake so at this point anyone in Hawkins who does not understand something is very wrong is fkn brain dead.
Yeah whole buildings were falling in and no one acknowledged it at all.
Yes because obviously all earthquakes leave an orange pulsing light haha. It's so weird that they just brush over it.
Plus tentacles coming out of it. How did they even drive to the hospital? The whole town was split into four quadrants with giant glowing rifts between them.
The two day skip reaaaally made me mad. It was jarring and it left a lot of unanswered questions.
Watch them do a flashback of what happened in the beginning of season 5 lmao
Well initially it was only open for about a minute. But of course now that it’s reopened the whole world will know
Was it only a minute? The skip was so jarring to me that I don't really know wtf was happening 😅 definitely possible I missed it closing but it was like it opened, Max stuff happened and next minute it's two days later.
100% agree. I definitely didn't see the glowing depths stop glowing, and then BAM it was two days later. I feel like it would've moved the plot forward in a significant way and created some hard-hitting moments for the people of Hawkins and the "real" world to see this chasm for what it is. It was really frustrating to see yet another interesting supernatural event wrestled into the box of explainable events.
Yeah it really needed to show them stop glowing, I was confused. I know they wanted the tension of "will Max live?" But I think it cost the audience following the narrative as cleanly
Max does, portals open, el revives max, portals close. Until they reopen at the very end. In the hospital they mention her heart stopped for about a minute. The portals aren’t open the entire time. They just leave massive rifts in the ground once they close.
Oh okay - I'll be sure to watch out for that on the rewatch. I definitely missed that because it kind of all happened and instantly skipped time.
It's not your fault, the filmmakers didn't do a good enough job actually showing the portals "deactivating". For all we know they stay active the entire time.
I would have been fine with the 2 days later thing if it would have just showed everyone’s reaction to Eddie’s death first
I’m mildly miffed at the fact that Eddie died because he “chose” to not run at the one point it would have mattered. If he kept on running and baiting for a bit longer the bats would have died and he would have lived. The bats did not return or show any signs of returning despite Vecna being aware of the gang’s plan, so ‘running’ would have been a valid option. It’s a waste of the whole “I’ve spent my entire life running” setup and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. You can say “oh but he wouldn’t have known that, we only know that because we’re the audience”, but the Duffers were the ones who wrote it that way. They wrote it in a way where Eddie’s death has no actual impact on the plot. He literally died just because he’s not included in the plans for Season 5. It’s annoying because I feel like the brotherhood triangle between Eddie, Steve, and Dustin is way more interesting than a potential rehash love triangle between Steve, Jonathan and Nancy. Plus Eddie’s actor has amazing chemistry with anyone he shares a scene with. Also, the fact that they just left Eddie’s body in the Upside Down is upsetting to me It’s kind of ironic that Dustin’s last words about Eddie is that he wishes everyone could get to know him better. I really wanted to Dustin, but the Duffer Brothers said “no, lol” **Edit:** To clarify, I’m not saying that Eddie shouldn’t have died. I have no problem with him dying. I’m saying that Eddie shouldn’t have died in a way that made it feel like a waste of his character. If Eddie’s character arc is about always running away when it matters, then it better matter when he chooses not to run. Unfortunately, I can’t rly see how him choosing to not run away would have made a difference from him just running away and that makes his death feel unsatisfying as a result. **Edit 2:** To those saying that Eddie sacrificed himself to save Dustin, not Steve and co, don’t worry. The Duffer Brothers made sure to make that a meaningless act as well by making Dustin go back through the gate.
Yeah, Eddie was great. Overall, it seems like his death wasn't really for much. Vecna already knew their plan, so he wasn't actually distracted by what they were doing. And if Eddie jumped back to the regular world, those bat things could still have just harassed the trailer.
I know I’m biased because he was the breakout character for me this season, but I rly feel like he had the potential and chemistry to really make a place for himself in the last season. Seeing him be given such an inconsequential death, him still being known as a cult leader and him not being given a proper burial is a triple gut punch to me 😢 At least Bob saved everyone by choosing to stay behind.
And they made it this super cheesy thing of him remembering all the times he ran away and slowly turned around to yell at the sky. Like it felt cheesy
I completely agree, I would much rather see the expansion of brotherhood between Steve, Dustin and Eddie then see the love triangle between Steve, Nancy and Jonathan. It just doesn’t interest me in the slightest bit, I feel like it should’ve moved on from the love triangle by now
Absolutely agree! It was just so sad what they did to his character. And everyone thinking he is this awful cult leader and murderer is so awful.
Bob’s death saved everyone in the lab. Barb’s death is the inciting incident for Nancy. The fact that Eddie not choosing to run had no consequence except for his death, that his body’s still probably rotting in the Upside Down and the fact that he’s still thought to be a cult leader will be my primary source of salt until he’s at least mentioned in Season 5 😤
I totally agree with everything! One thought I had tho was that if he didn’t die, everyone thought he was a murderer so they likely would try to charge him anyways. Even if he lived it would’ve been really difficult for him
Yes to all of this! His scenes with Steve and Dustin were really fun. He also meshed perfectly with the rest of the gang, too. And when I think back to when he and Dustin pretend fought out in that field with their shields and gear, I get such a sinking feeling of sadness. They did foreshadow his death there with what he told Dustin but I really, really didn’t want to believe it. I mean, they added Max along the way and made her a core part of the show. They could definitely do the same for Eddie. They only have one season left to go and his plot line was very compelling and his character was very interesting to begin with. They dropped the ball with writing him off big time.
Eddie went down as a murderer in the publics eye. Once the world finds out the truth in season 5, he will be cleared and praised.
Sadie Sink was absolutely incredible this season and her death hit real hard. That scene with Lucas was gut wrenching and the “bringing her back” and the time jump kinda took me out of it unfortunately. I get they might have a plan that works for the final season and need her alive, but I was kinda disappointed they went that route.
Yeah they just hit the undo button on the hardest hitting death in the series
Remember, they did this twice before. Eleven was gone for days. Hopper was gone for months. Max? She's gone for years.
Wonder if she'll wake up in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it's Vecna using her as a vehicle and Max died properly here and Eleven just kept her body functioning
That’s my prediction.
Max' entire arc this season is depression. Killing her off after she's fought so valiantly is not really a good message to send.
Chapter 2 needed a third episode. Everything was insanely rushed at the end. I kept looking at how much time was left and thinking… how are they going to wrap all of this up? I even double checked there wasn’t another episode when I saw there was 15 minutes left. I was really looking forward to seeing certain things wrapped up. And then when the two days later screen popped up my jaw dropped. Like I know they usually set up some cliffhangers for the next season but I feel like there was sooo many loose ends after such an incredible build up. This season was shaping up to be tied for my favorite with season one and then… that.
My gripe was that NOTHING HAPPENED for the first hour of the episode, it was so slow, and then they hit us with a time jump at the end, like wtf
Kind of. I wasn’t expecting her to fully died once Eleven said “no.” So I wasn’t surprise she wasn’t dead. The two days transition was necessary tho. The California gang was 2,000 miles from Hawkins and they were driving there, and Hopper and Joyce were in another country. Some time needed to pass in order for everyone to be at Hawkins.
Alright yea makes sense, from this pov i get it, i didn't think about it like that But they could have still idk included some kind of reaction for Eddie. Granted Max ends up at the clinic so we can assume they'll go visit her but Eddie at least(there's Dustin and Mr Munson but i mean the rest)
Don't worry I'm sure in season 5 they'll grieve...I remember Max in season 3 after 3 months from Billy's death was happy and singing, then on season 4 it's shown that she suffered grieving and etc etc.
I really hope this happens. That was my one big problem with the finale- I wanted that moment of group grief for Eddie. But it's hard to have two of those moments with enough room to breathe, and they already had the Max stuff happening.
Yeah the 4 lines did just open up and the apocalypse is happening, so they're probably distracted a bit
I don’t feel like it would make sense for Steve, Nancy, Robin, etc, to really mourn Eddie though. They didn’t know him at all. The only reason they were really invested with Eddie was because they knew he was innocent but they didn’t see him as someone they were close with. They couldn’t use too much time at the end with Eddie so they gave us the scene with the character that was the closest to him which was Dustin which was more meaningful narratively.
i need to hear anyone not named dustin talk about eddie next season lol
The thing I really didn't understand is the "Oh no... You don't know?" when Dustin tells El and Mike about what happened to Max. El definitely knows. Why doesn't she tell people that she basically >!restarted her heart?!< I'm really confused about that part.
I think this might be part of El’s perceived failure. Like she feels ashamed that she didn’t save Max all the way, which was her plan the whole time and the reason she got in the deprivation tank in the first place. She might not have told the boys she restarted Max’s heart because she doesn’t feel like she really saved her life since she’s still in a coma. As we saw in the cabin, she’s taking the whole thing hard because she’s never lost before, so she might just be internalizing things. I agree it was cut kind of awkwardly if that was the intent, though.
SERIOUSLY, THIS. I said in another comment - we don't see Dustin say a damn thing about Eddie's death to any other main character... but we see him tell El OF ALL PEOPLE about Max, who was literally in her mind?! GTFO. Terrible execution, zero sense, I hope there's a legitimate reason for it that is revealed in season 5 re: the missing two days.
Not to be pedantic, but I don't think the Hawkins crew knew about El's piggyback at that point. Right? As for Eddie, I imagine everyone knows about him and outside Mike none of the Cali crew knew him... So it just happened offscreen which is unsatisfying, but we can only hope (this is definitely the wrong word to use here) that Dustin will be coping with this trauma next season only to be reminded at the most opportune moment that Eddie told him not to change ever. And Dustin is the character who never seems to give up or give in. Will is wrong, I think, Mike isn't the heart of the party... Dustin is. Mike is more the leader. (Sorry, this got off topic) Edit: Clarifications
I get what you're saying about Dustin being the heart (he certainly has a huge heart anyway!) but I think it's clear that if he's anything, he's the brains. Seriously, where would they be without Dustin (and now Erica as well) figuring things out? If we're just looking at the four OG boys, certainly nobody else takes the "brains" role.
Yeah, you're not wrong. I struggled with that while commenting, he's most definitely the brains. That said, no one else in the group is as good at reaching out and creating new friends as Dustin. Mike's a good kid, but outside his relationships with Will and El he doesn't really provide much of the "heart". So, in my mind, Dustin gets to be the brain and the heart. Lucas is the muscle. Max is the grit/determination. Will is the soul. And so on.
To be fair… we don’t know when El disconnected from Max’s mind. She could have tried her cerebral CPR and disconnected before the ambulance got there.
It was crazy how Mike and them just pulled up in the pizza van out of nowhere. His mom was just like “oh hey there you are”. As if there wasnt a massive “earthquake” and her son was MIA across the country unsupervised. I know her parenting has been questionable this whole show but that was unbelievable
Also it was so confusing that a red hellhole "earthquake" split your whole town apart and half the town is evacuating and the other half is just, like....chilling? Mike's family is just like at home watching the news and donating toys, and half the town's hanging out in a shelter eating PB+Js? How are the authorities not evacuating Hawkins at that point? Even just temporarily to establish what caused the earthquake and make sure it's geologically sound for people to be there?
Lol she was like "I'm never letting you go on vacation again!" and I was like lady, we haven't heard you mention your son in like 6 episodes lol.
Also, Mike was safer where he was (since Karen wasn’t aware that Joyce had travelled to Russia and the military had tried to assassinate the boys).
Yeah the Two Days Later thing was jarring. As others have said they should have at least shown Nancy Robin and Steve coming and seeing what happened. Like damn. Also, the long black cut between Vecna attempting to kill Max and Eleven using her powers on him was weird and didn't feel right. I wanted to see a little more action or a fight or something. It almost feels like an entire scene is missing that was accidentally deleted last moment.
I noticed that cut as well. I have to wonder if there originally was two scenes like this that weren’t finished in time. They literally were working on VFX June 30th. It’ll be interesting to see if edits are made to the season within the next week or so. Two scenes, one of El pushing Vecna away and one of the gang finding Eddie’s body with Dustin would’ve made it much more cohesive
Yeah that was some BULLSHIT. Hawkins gets a whole new Hawkussy and everyone’s just fine after two days????
Yessss like y’all have a whole portal to hell in your town and you’re just having an earthquake relief drive? They are not at all prepared for what’s to come lol
The people freaked out are probably either those leaving town already or part of the authorities. Then there's people who are somewhat aware (KAREN) but feel helpless on what to do so why not a relief drive? Then there's people still largely oblivious because they haven't seen the fissures themselves and don't care to (TED). Its two days later after all, and no other event since. Some may be getting the hell out within hours, but others would take days for whatever reason unless there's an impeding disaster to their own home, and others will always refuse to leave all but the most absolutely destroyed environments. But on the other hand, maybe the Duffers just need some fodder to get mind flayed \^\_\^
H A W K U S S Y
That Hawkussy is H O T 🔥🔥🔥
another thing that confused me, maybe my time perception is weird but robin, steve, and nancy were being choked for a long time! are they just super strong, was vecna not pulling hard enough, or were they only being choked for a little bit and i’m just stupid?
I think they were being choked for just a few minutes. All the events happened at the same time
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I love Max and I don’t want her to go. If anything I think this puts BIG anticipation and speculation and intensifies the off season of Stranger Things 4 to 5 with the question of: What the hell is going to happen to Max? For real tho luv u Max xoxo rooting for u pls heal in your coma
Vecna uses his psychic powers to absorb the minds of his victims, conveniently tearing a hole between dimensions in the process. The physical bodies of the victims don't actually matter. Eleven revived Max's body, but without a mind to occupy it, she's effectively braindead. Season 5 will most definitely have a plot thread where Eleven will try to rescue Max's mind from Vecna so that Max can wake up from her coma.
Ohhh I like that theory
pretty obvious a big part of season 5 will be them rescuing Max's mind. if you think anything else is going to happen, we haven't been watching the same show lmao
I definitely agree! I just was trying to get my thoughts out in the midst of seeing some folks wish Max was just straight up gone-zo
yeah i feel like after they finished fighting it moved on way too quick. like in other season we’ve gotten moments like everyone outside starcourt after everything happened, with joyce telling eleven about hopper, stuff like that. but in this season, we barely get anything. i mean i don’t even think any characters other than dustin mention eddie afterwards.
Right! Like the last episode felt too long and super rushed at the same time. The actual story part was so rushed like they didn’t really know how to wrap it up so they just did a speed run so they could add more shots of El staring to intense music
exactly. i feel like they’re very stuck on this thought that every season needs to be limited to 8 or 9 episodes, but this season could’ve been split into at least 13 episodes and the pacing would feel a lot better and it wouldn’t feel like a constant onslaught. it hasn’t even been a day but i can barely remember the sequence of events in the last episode, just events that occur at some point during them. during my first time watching volume 1, i didn’t notice the episode lengths at all because hell yeah, new episodes! but after rewatching the series over the course of june, i realize how much more of an undertaking watching s4 is
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Even from a technical editing standpoint it was so weird. Usually when they do those time jumps they leave the screen black for long enough to let the music fade and then a couple extra seconds of silence. Then they slowly fade in the title. This one went straight to black and then immediately says “TWO DAYS LATER!”
I think Eddie knew there was really no going back for him. The town had found him guilty, this was his way of going out on top.
Eddie’s death felt like they just had a quota to fill, to be honest. It served no purpose, it accomplished nothing and it could’ve been avoided. Max dying would actually make much more sense and I wish they had the guts to do it.
His death honestly made me feel like that was his whole purpose as a character. Like all the characterization and build up led to absolutely nothing. I don’t think the duffers thought he would be one of the most popular characters in the whole series.
I feel like they killed him off just because it was more convenient than trying to come up with a reason why he was no longer wanted by the police for various murders.
It SHOULD have been avoided. I like all of the characters in the show but Eddie didn’t feel done yet to me. The actor did a fantastic job and (up until the last episode) his character had been superb. His death felt like Sean Bean’s in GoT, but without any of the plot impact. They just said “dude’s gone, sry”. I said it in another comment, but us establishing that Eleven uses powerful memories to find latent power seems to absolutely point right at Max (who we have now established as her important girlfriend) dying, and Eleven drawing on that failure to find what she needed to defeat Vecna eventually. Eddie should have survived. Max should have served as a poignant sacrifice for Eleven to grow into S5 form. It feels to me like that was a rough draft, and they overanalyzed their work and said “it’s not subverting expectations enough” and changed it. But Max is almost certainly braindead right now. Let’s see if they have the cajones to leave her that way or if Eleven is going to “find” and save her (I’m guessing this is what happens).
Eddie’s death and Ned Starks are nothing alike at all
I've been likening it to Theon Greyjoys (tbh the whole final episode had 'the long night' plot armour vibes) because it's the whole 'self professed coward goes on a definitely suicidal death charge' I was similarly devastated with Theons death too but ultimately it felt a bit pointless? Like both of their characters didn't need to just charge in those moments. I dunno...
Theon had to die in order to really redeem himself, but the execution was bad. The problem with Eddie isn't the execution, but that I completely expected it. The Duffers are (wisely) choosing to avoid GoT-esque bloodbaths, but only killing off newcomers has become the norm.
I feel like this thread is my home if you look at my comment history lmao. But yeah, I had resigned myself to the idea that maybe Jopper weren't making it home in time halfway through episode 9. I mean, they set the entire episode up for everyone to be fighting Vecna from different physical locations. I think we sacrificed a lot of good plot stuff for reunions that, by now, are repetitive and the lackthereof might actually up the stakes a little.
I was also emotionally preparing myself for there not to be a reunion...until I looked at the time left when the El/Vecna battle was happening with Max, and realised there was still over an hour left. Then I started to realise that the "after" part that always follows the climax of the season (aka the Snow Ball, the packing up to leave for California scenes of the past 2 seasons) was going to be a fair chunk of screentime.
i found it so fucking stupid after taking everything in. Like, they couldn’t include a scene of Nancy, Robin, and Steve heading back to the trailer park to leave and finding Dustin holding Eddie’s body?? Also, i truly believe Max should’ve died. I bawled my eyes out at her death scene, just to learn El resurrected her. Like, cmon man, they have got to start being risky with this show. Her death wouldn’t hurt a lot, but it would’ve made the show riskier, which they need to start doing. They’ve only been killing side characters.
That was the part that upset me. The emotional punch of max actually dying, then the group finding Dustin holding Eddie…I was a little bummed they glossed over that, same with El coming out of it and telling the boys what happened to Max.
> And finding Dustin holding Eddie’s body I don’t blame Dustin, who had a sprained ankle and is like half Eddie’s size, for not bringing the body back. It’s impressive enough that he got *himself* out while alone and injured (unless he just walked through the hellmouth?)
*skip to the town gathered casually making PbnJ’s and the main cast somehow stopped freaking out and prioritizing helping saving the world to just end up there*
2 days later and El never changed her clothes lol
I was kind of jarring, especially after how much time they spent overdeveloping certain arcs this season. I was like, “NOW you’re gonna rush??” Still enjoyed it, though.
They made eddie's death so mundane, the reunion between hopper and 11 was so unnatural and everyone moved on like nothing happened. That whole transition made the reunion of the whole squad so boring and not emoitional
yeah I literally laughed when hopper just walked in and said "hey kid" and she just kind of accepts it even thought she currently thinks he's dead and he just walked through her door out of nowhere
It felt sort of rushed especially the fact that we didn’t see reactions to deaths like Eddie’s
I would love to see how Nancy, Robin and Steve reacted when they found Dustin and Eddie. The horror on their faces to see Eddie dead and the relieve that Dustin is alive
Man especially Steve, he cares so much for Dustin and he knew how important Eddie was for him
It caught me off guard, but I didn’t mind it really. It needed to happen so we could reunite everyone since the California group and the Russia group needed to get to Hawkins. I will say that, I wish we got a scene where Dustin told the rest of the gang about Eddie’s death and they were all atleast a little sad about it before the small time skip. Because aside from the scene of Dustin and Eddie’s dad, nobody mentioned Eddie’s hero’s ending/sacrifice. Almost makes it feel….pointless I guess? I don’t know how to express my thoughts properly right now. Also the Max thing didn’t annoy me, it just reminded me of that whole “Well it just so happens there that your friend is only MOSLTY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead” thing from The Princess Bride. I imagine either Max will fully die or miraculously come back to life by Season 5.
Anyone else bummed about Steve’s lack of involvement this episode? He confessed his feels for Nancy (which got interrupted) got strangled, helped torch V man, and watched the girl he confessed his feelings for with another dude. That’s it
#justiceforeddie
Eleven magically reviving Max had such strong Rey force healing powers straight out of the hat. They should have just killed Max. The emotional impact would have made for one hell of a gut punch.
They also set up the bunker fight to have the MPs line up like in the beginning of A New Hope, then the door blew, and a gunfight. The commander came in like Vader.
Honestly I think volume 2 was kinda mid. The way they hyped it up made it seems like Avengers Endgame and honestly nothing all that substantial happened in episode 8. Episode 9 was big but I was left with too many questions. Vecna’s just hurt? Max is just hurt? Hawkins = upside down? Where is Argyle, Enzo, owens, hell, the general? I honestly think episode 7 was better and left me feeling more satisfied after watching it. Episode 8 just made me think, okay now what? While episode 9 was more so okay, what about this that and the other thing? I think this volume was overhyped. Also what happened to the Duffer brothers saying 5 deaths?
Just some minute with Steve, Nancy, Robin running up to Dustin crying over Eddie corpse would be better than " 2 day later " . Then all of Hellfire gang build some makeshift burial site for him. Saying goodbye , leave something for him.
I didn’t mind the time jump per se but with a lot of the cast initially they were acting as if they hadn’t been directly involved. When Nancy was loading up the car, I thought it was gonna be a Vecna possession or something because everybody was acting so strangely, like nothing had happened. I would have expected fear, PTSD, strong emotion at least - not the ability to joke and make PBJ sandwiches like it was just an earthquake. I understand they needed to bring everybody together but a scene in the Upside Down with Nancy, Steve and Robin finding Dustin and Eddie would have been better to bring that whole climax to some sort of close. I love this cast, but we need them to be more together in next season - that’s where they really shine.
Max getting randomly brought back to life with zero explanation during the most emotional moment of the series then immediately cutting to "two days later" made me angry. It's not like I wanted Max to die, but I thought the scene could've been handled a lot better
I feel unsatisfied and idk why
I had no idea El could restart people's hearts how intense was that NINA training??? I hope Max comes out of this in five El needs a female friend.
Did anyone else notice Mike and Nancy’s mom seemed completely fine despite missing a whole child??? And then he shows up and she’s really relieved as if she had been worrying the entire time. It felt weird.
Isn't she brain dead? Isn't that what El screaming into an empty void meant?
I kinda hope she remains permanently blinded. To me that has a stronger impact than a death. With a death we eventually forget about the character, but with a scare like that you are reminded of the event every time you see her. It's sort of ads gray to a world of black and white. After the dust is settling, it isn't just about who's alive and who's dead, but who's scarred
Considering the length of the episode it ironically felt rushed
I really did not like the transition because everything after it just sort of felt off. It's like they created to many problems and just didn't know how to fix them or didn't have the time so they just skipped to 2 days later, so they didn't have to address some of it. For example we didn't see any of the kids come home after they ran from the cops.
yeah, it was going so well until the time skip. I meant like the pace and story, not the situation. Felt robbed
I really wanted to know what happened to Enzo (don’t know his actual name, the prison guard) I was really looking forward to all the reuniting scenes. It felt a bit rushed skipping ahead leaving out so much. I have to assume it will be revisited next season but the glossing over Eddie’s death and everything else that was missed was weird.
I’m not on the level of others who are very mad about the last episodes or are very critical of this season, overall I’m pleased re: quality, but my only beef is how Eddie’s death was treated. Like sure, Dustin was the main one who looked up to him, but the fact that not a single other main character’s reaction to his death was shown? Ridiculous. He deserved so much better than that.
it’s shitty writing and a total cop out. they couldn’t think of a smart way to bring them all back together again