The fourth season of strange things ended and it did so with a formidable epic sense. Four hours that went through all the loose ends of the series, deepened them and offered satisfactory answers to all the questions. Of course, it is also a farewell to a stage and the beginning of something else. And the final scene of the series makes it clear. The events of Hawkins have not culminated, far from it. The darkness has only just begun to dominate him and the big question is how he will be able to face such a threat.
The series saved the big question about what will happen in the fifth and final season for its last scene. In fact, the sequence is impeccable when narrating what we can expect for the grand finale of one of the milestones of recent pop culture. The shocking final installment of the series makes it clear that the darkness that reigns over Hawkins is more than just his villain. Also, that he relates to a conscious entity that is willing to claim his place. One that, moreover, is ready to face anyone who confronts her in the midst of a challenge that supports the possible plot to come. stranger things says goodbye to its fourth season with the conviction that what awaits its characters will be fearsome. And perhaps, the final door to total darkness.
Something of great interest is that stranger things He managed to make all the narrative threads of his previous deliveries finished in perfect synchronicity. The last ten minutes of chapter eight of the fourth season of the Netflix series are an elegant journey through its main narrative. Also, the most elaborate and elegant understanding of the motivation of the series as a product of genre.
A journey into the darkness and what lurks in it
The ending sequence of strange things begins with the return of Eleven and the Hawkins gang to Hopper’s cabin. The town is barely recovering from a monumental seismic event. But in reality, it is about the announced break between dimensions, announced by Dr. Brenner in chapter seven. Vecna, reduced and defeated on his own ground, ceased to be the catalyst for the power of the Upside Down. So the terrifying power of it extends in all directions until it devastates Hawkins almost completely.
But while the body recovers from its injuries, the survivors have a priority: take care of eleven. And that includes trying to hide her from the influence of the government that, again, tried to trap her. Together, they decide to rehabilitate the cabin and agree on the next step to take. That is when several situations occur at the same time. All of them related to the ability to strange things to reinvent itself and move towards new and undoubtedly disturbing places.
On the one hand, Eleven shows that despite saving Max’s life, she failed to bring him back. It is not clear where the character’s consciousness is or if recovery will be possible, but it is evident that it is not a fortuitous event. Attacked by Vecna, Max ended up dying — “his heart stopped for a minute” Lucas says — but Eleven managed to bring her back.. Now, the great unknown is related to his mind and the place where he could be. And the utter blackness that Eleven glimpses no doubt relates to what happens next.
Will confesses to Mike that he doubts, in fact, that Vecna — completely dejected, as an entity and a consciousness — is dead. Now that he understands the creature’s full influence on the Upside Down, he knows “that they are united.” And in fact, he insists on being able to feel him “alive but suffering” somewhere. He doesn’t go into further detail, because at the very moment he makes the startling statement, strange things completes another one of his turns.
The long-awaited reunion between Eleven and Hopper occurs and, for the time being, the plot seems to give their characters a strange tranquility and peace. But immediately, it makes it clear that the horror is close, patent and by all accounts uncontrollable. As Will had said, he senses the presence of something else. And looking up, he notices the way the darkness gathers around Hawkins. In fact, the argument makes it clear that the definitive break between realities has happened and that this event is about to impact everything around it. And in a definitive way that offers clues about what will happen next.
The ambition of Stranger Things grows
strange things closes with a nightmarish image in which a gigantic shadow resembling the Mind Flayer or Demogorgons is visible to all survivors. A creature so huge it spans the horizon. Is this about Vecna fully unleashing her full potential? Or something more terrifying, the result of her transformation into some other even more dangerous creature?
The series doesn’t quite make it clear, but it does leave the pieces of its next and distant chapters lined up for a confrontation. With Eleven in the lead, the final fight seems inevitable. But this time, it will be more than just a hostage or a victim. Turned into a young woman of immeasurable power, Eleven seems to be the symbol of hope strange things. A point that opens the doors, for whatever happens and especially, its consequences.