Rating: 4 Stars
We left volume 1 when Eleven and Nancy both discovered the secrets of Vecna’s past and Eleven was in the process of recovering her powers. Mike, Will, Johnathan and Argyle were on the road to get Eleven back from the lab. Steve, Eddie, Robin and Nancy had just narrowly escaped the upside down, and Max had just escaped death at the hands of Vecna’s curse. In volume 2 we pick up literally exactly where Volume 1 left off.
I really, REALLY wanted this to be a five star finale. And while as in some places it totally was and gave me everything I wanted, in some places I felt like it was lacking, or felt too rushed. Which sounds ridiculous in a near 4 hour finale. Overall though the pulse pounding tension was there, the heartwarming moments were there, even if they took a while to come about. And there were definitely a few tear jerkers thrown in there as well.
Millie Bobby Brown continues to be a showstopper in her role as Eleven. And she had a lot of emotional work to pull off in this finale. We see her struggle a lot more than usual and have to face things that she hasn’t before, so it feels great that there are still things they can do with this character we haven’t seen before. And on par with her is the continued banger of a performance from Sadie Sink. Her acting skill has come such a long way, and I am so glad she as given the storyline and screen time to really show us how good she is. She to me, is the standout of the season.
The tension never let up for a second, regardless of which characters story we were following. Everyone was a hairs breadth from death at any given second, so there was no way to call who was going to make it out. Which makes for a great viewing experience as the audience. You aren’t bored for a single second, and they mostly keep you guessing right up until the last half an hour or so who is going to make it out and who isn’t. I had felt like there would be some character deaths in this season to really shake up the story, to set some stories up for the final season. And I don’t really feel like we got that, I think in general the deaths were a little predictable, as they the show tends to follow a pattern with the characters they kill off. However this now means we still have all our main characters on the line in the final season, which will up the stakes for that I suppose. So in general I had a fantastic time. There are just a few things that are stopping this from being a knock out for me.
I felt like it took too long for all the characters to end up in the same place. And while they all were fighting the same fight in the end, they were doing so from 3 different locations, and we lost the family dynamic that we get when everyone is fighting together. We got there in the end, and I did cry a lot of happy tears when it finally happened, but it felt unsatisfying and here’s why. The way this series leaves off on the big cliffhanger, makes this whole season feel like set up. Like it was just manoeuvring everyone into place in preparation for the real show down. So in hindsight, the stakes were never that high this season, because we needed everyone together at the end for the real fight.
The Russia storyline got a little convoluted, and felt a bit rushed in the end. I’m glad things went down the way they did there, but it was easily my least favourite storyline, despite featuring my two favourite characters. And other than Eleven, the California gang really didn’t have a lot of character development or plot at all. I’m glad they tried to undo some of the terrible things they did to Johnathan’s character in volume one, and Argyle was great comic relief. But Will has spent this whole season not doing anything other than moping, which I could have understood if they had given that story some kind of resolution, but they didn’t. And Mike did literally nothing at all this season. It seemed a waste of some of the franchises most developed characters.
So now that I have discussed what I did and didn’t like about the season, lets briefly discuss expectations and thoughts around the future of the story, and things I feel still need addressing or answering.
WARNING! THIS SECTION WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR ALL PREVIOUS SEASONS UP TO AND INCLUDING VOLUME 2 OF SEASON 4. STOP READING NOW IF YOU ARE NOT UP TO DATE!
- OK, so it’s obvious that Vecna is not dead. And so it is obvious that Eleven will have to become more powerful in order to beat him, or get more help. Whether this comes from her friends or potentially other super-powered people remains to be seen.
- There is obviously something suspicious about Max’s coma, as we see Eleven go into her mind briefly and see nothing there. And she clearly hasn’t discussed this or maybe any of what went on in Max’s mind with anyone. So that will clearly have some impact later on.
- I don’t think we are done with Will’s story yet, neither his personal story, or his connection to Vecna. I thought it would play a bigger role in the finale, but given that he has only just arrived back in Hawkins, this wasn’t the case. There have been several hints that Will and Vecna/Henry are more connected than we have been lead to believe, and I would really like to see this addressed in the final season.
- There is rumoured to be a time jump between this series and the next to help account for the fact that the kids are getting older. So how far in the future will this next series be set. And if there indeed is a time jump, what will have become of Hawkins if it has been lift with the gate opened like it was at the end of Season 4? It seems a bit pointless to have set up that whole last shot of them standing, looking over the town with determined faces, if they are just going to leave it for a few years and come back later when Vecna/Henry/One has had a chance to rule it for a while. Unless they intend to use that time for Eleven to get stronger?
- Nancy, Johnathan and Steve clearly have some shit to sort out between them, and to be honest, their whole story seems completely insignificant to the whole story and I don’t know why it continues to be a thing, but here we are.
- We never saw what happened to the rest of the Russian Team. Hopper and Joyce make it back to Hawkins, but we don’t see Murray, Enzo or Yuri again after they escape the prison.
- This is kind of linked to the Will/Vecna connection thing, but we still don’t have an answer as to why the Upside down looks exactly like Hawkins. It didn’t when Henry arrived and we don’t ever see him make it that way. Also why is it frozen in time the day Will arrived? This is again, something that I thought would be addressed in the finale as it was brought up in Volume One, but we still don’t have an answer.
OK. I clearly had more to say on this than I thought I did. I did not mean to ramble on this long. Anyways, those are my thoughts on Volume 2, if you have any thoughts, theories or anything really that you want to say, feel free to leave me a comment.
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