Summary: Max distracts Vecna while Eddie and Dustin distract the bats but Robin, Steve, and Nancy get caught by the vines. Mike’s group make a bathtub for El in the freezer of a Surfer Boy Pizza restaurant. El is able to find Max and saves her, fighting Vecna. Vecna overpowers El and starts to kill Max but El breaks out and defeats him. Nancy, Steve, and Robin defeat Vecna. Lucas is confronted by Jason and is unable to save Max. Max dies and an enormous gate opens in Hawkins, causing an Earthquake which kills Jason. El brings Max back but she’s comatose. Eddie, having been attacked by bats, dies while doing his distraction. Joyce, Murray, and Hopper return to the prison and kill all of the remaining monsters. Yuri and Dmitri provide an airlift and they get away safely. Everyone reunites in Hawkins, but the enormous gate remains open and Vecna has survived.
The Good: When the plan finally gets underway, it’s pretty fun to watch. Max luring in Vecna is a gripping sequence that has the uncertainty of success, and Eddie playing Master of Puppets as a distraction was awesome. Vecna’s scenes with El are pretty strong, especially how Vecna makes her feel despair. Mike giving her the motivation to keep going is an effective moment that finally gives Mike something to do in the season. Eddie’s death and Max’s coma gives the episode a sense of loss. Their final scenes are sad and impactful. Gaten Matarazzo in particular shines in his scenes grieving Eddie. Eddie finally becoming a hero as he died was predictable but no less effective. It was the perfect way to cap off his arc. The twist of the enormous gate opening was a surprise and it promises something hugely different for the final season. The closing scenes of the episode are fine and offer a decent resolution for the characters and the journeys they just went through. The Bad: The first hour of this episode was a chore. It’s over-indulgent because every scene feels drawn out. In place of a suspense-driven plot, we get interrupted with lengthy scenes of character interaction which fail to do anything of interest. This makes the pacing of the episode disjointed and frustrating, and the episode feels like a slog. The second half is also plagued with flaws. It has exciting moments, but there are too many storylines and too many characters to intercut between. We take forever to follow up again with some characters when they are in the middle of intense situations. Then after everything, the climax disappoints because it is another long, drawn out sequence that tested my patience. I don’t like the decision to have the Russia story stay permanently separated. Outside of a few moments, it was entirely uninteresting to follow and its relevance is extremely limited. Its only purpose is to bring Hopper back, which should have taken just one episode. Instead we’ve wasted a whole season on it. El being able to reverse death is kind of silly and damages the stakes of the show. The Unknown: What are the consequences of the enormous new gate opening? Did nobody notice this somehow? How is it that people have not found it? What happened to Murray, Yuri, and Dmitri? What happened with the military? They didn’t appear at all in this episode. What about Dr. Owens? Will Max wake up? Will she be back to normal or will she have some permanent damage? Best Moment: Eddie’s guitar performance was an epic spectacle. Character of the Episode: Eddie. Conclusion: This was too damn long. A lot of stuff here was pretty good, but the pacing and the exhaustive length turned this into a much tougher watch. Score: 55
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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