REVIEW: Stranger Things 4 Volume 2

When last we left our heroes, they had just discovered the truth of the demonic Vecna, including his connection to Eleven. Now Vecna is ready to plunge the waking world into an everlasting nightmare, and our scattered forces have to join forces from across the globe to stop Vecna from his interdimensional conquest.

It's a bloodbath racing toward the climax with almost every major character footsteps ahead of the inferno. From our glimpse of the Upside-Down's creation to Vecna's Judgment Day, the final season boasts an almost biblical scale and imagery, and I'm not just referring to the episodes running longer than most books of the Old Testament.

It's easy to snicker at the supersized runtime, especially the two-and-a-half-hour finale, but there's no denying the show puts its time to good use. This season has tracked something like twenty character arcs, and each hero sees their storyline capped with some culminating victory. Some will have you cheering, most will have you crying, all will have you screaming.

But at the same time, the episodes never feel stuffed. Even as the world itself is falling apart, character moments and plot beats take their turn at a natural pace. One of my favorite scenes from this volume, coming in toward the end of the first episode, technically offers little in the way of plot, but the emotional exhale it allowed (both for the characters and the audience praying for them) paid long returns, especially considering how audiences would spend the following two hours scarcely breathing at all.

On paper, the darkness of this installment should be at odds with the childlike wonder this show transactions in so effortlessly. These kids are grown up now. Surely, they should have matured beyond believing in something so childish as friendship saving the day, but that remains the throughline of the show.

But that's always been the wisdom of this series, hasn't it? Stranger Things has always understood that no monster is as terrifying as emotional vulnerability. The near religious observance for this show reflects an emotional current that runs deep between these friends. Deeper, I think, than many of us dare permit in our own relationships.

In a way, that's why a lot of us are drawn to stories in the first place. It's only when we throw ourselves into someone else's nightmare that we feel safe enough to admit certain truths. Maybe we all wish we could be as good a friend as any character on this team of teenage superheroes.

With the final season barely discernible on the horizon, it looks as though we'll get to learn from this show for a little while longer.

--The Professor

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