#oh god they're multiplying how many fucking things have I forgotten??????

[meant-to-be-a-hero]

Season Four, Chapter Nine: The Piggyback

I made it. Somehow, I made it.

The Netflix synopsis upset me even before I started the episode. "With selfless hearts and a clash of metal..." is just Eddie all over, isn't it?

I'm honestly still surprised no one in the Russia story died. I thought for sure the guard or Yuri was going to bite it. Or possibly Murray, but they just made him a regular so that seemed unlikely.

The Hop/Joyce hook-up was a long time coming. They're as bad as Nancy and Jonathan, dancing around each other - you can see where Jonathan gets it from.

Hey, breadsticks and lasagne ARE good!

Ninja!Steve!

This is the last time Nancy, Steve, and Robin see Eddie alive :(

Argyle suggesting the baggage compartment is just...yeah. He does come up with the right solution in the end though, so he gets points for that.

Fucking Jason, ruining everything.

For what is essentially longer than most movies, this episode really does keep you going all the way through. There's a LOT to it, and I never felt like I was getting bored even having seen it once before.

They manage to link the Russia storyline back to the Hawkins stuff pretty well, surprisingly.

Hey, it's Chekov's flamethrower!

Pizza is always the answer.

Oh god, the Argyles are multiplying. I'm sure the other guy is even billed as Other Argyle or something in the credits, I forgot to check.

You should probably lock the door, Jonathan.

Preparations for war take many forms. Guns, guitars, and pizza dough are equally as important.

I'm glad at least some of the pizza ingredients got eaten.

Eddie's final stage :(

Super confident idiot. We love Steve. I'd forgotten about this whole conversation, it really does sum up Steve's arc up to this point.

Of all the things you wouldn't expect to work, appealing to Yuri's better angels is what gets him to buck his ideas up. Huh.

The Lucas/Max scene with the notepads is adorable as fuck. Also Caleb's a lefty.

Good thing Vecna was home and not out for a walk or something.

Oh, it's the sad Will hour.

Jonathan is still Big Brother Of The Decade.

And there's Tear-Up #1 - Will and Jonathan hugging it out set me off.

I hope the water they had MBB laying in was warm, at least.

Sadie Sink really knocks it out of the park this season. She's always been the strongest of the kids, but this season was another level.

Max wanted something bad to happen to her, and she definitely got it. I wonder how she'll feel in Season 5, if she'll think she deserved what happened to her?

The timelines for this last bit are kind of weird. Pretty much everything happens at once, but because they linger on certain scenes it makes it feel like some stuff takes longer than it does - like Steve, Nancy, and Robin are being strangled for like 45 minutes because the prison stuff is so far behind.

The blending of the Billy footage is really good; you'd never know Dacre didn't re-shoot it.

I love that Eddie's reaction when Dustin tells him it's time to go is to rock harder, and not run away.

Couldn't Eddie and Dustin's plot just end there? Let them leave and live happily ever after?

Silly Russians, you should know not to play with evil clouds.

Memory-ception!

Blood balloons. Gross. I know high school dances are bad, but this is kind of ridiculous.

Jason's little minion should NOT have messed with Erica.

Eddie shoving the nail-shield into the ceiling was very clever.

Oh, it's kinky strangle time! Vecna has a choke fetish for Steve, this is like the third time it's happened.

And here we go. Eddie's fucking face when he realises that he has to go back is just...the journey he goes on, it's so painful. This is the part where I realised he wasn't going to make it out of the season the first time through, and it broke me.

"Eddie, what are you doing?!" Yeah, we were all asking that, Dustin.

Crit hit! Go Erica!

Lucas's speech to Jason is A+. "Normal is a raging psychopath" indeed.

If Jason hadn't smashed the cassette player, I wonder if this would have ended differently.

The parallel between how Henry held El in the Rainbow Room vs. how El holds Henry in the Snow Ball is delicious.

There's just so many of those bats, but Eddie stays anyway. What a fucking hero.

"Touch her again, and I will kill you...again." El has entered her BAMF stage. Kali would be proud.

That shattered Creel House set in Vecna's mind is so good, it's smashed to bits, just like Vecna's mind itself.

I do enjoy the Mind Flayer/Vecna dynamic twist. Considering we haven't seen the Mind Flayer at all this season, and we know it's still alive out there.

Also, the Mind Flayer is a giant spider. I never noticed that before, but it is. So clever.

"It was always you." The best kind of retcon is one where it doesn't even look like a retcon. Amazing storytelling.

"Stay still, it'll all be over soon." That's exactly what Billy said to the people that got flayed.

Murray + Flamethrower = <3

Everyone really does play a part in the final fight, even if it doesn't look like it from the beginning.

Just fucking die, Demogorgon, jesus christ.

Epic Kate Bush reprise is epic. Get his ass, Nance!

But of course, he gets away.

Eddie's lifeless eyes, FFS.

Here comes Tear-Up #2 - Eddie's death, and then Max's literally the scene afterwards was just too much, man.

Did Jason deserve to die? No. Am I glad he won't be around anymore? Yes.

God, somehow watching that was worse the second time around. I was a mess even before Eddie died.

Oh, we're going into the final season, let's smash all the sets!

Steve's ass in those jeans at the end is perfection.

God, Vickie and Robin are as bad as each other. What a pair.

And just when I'd recovered from #2, here comes Tear-Up #3 - Dustin's little speech to Wayne broke my fucking heart.

Jonathan's still lying to Nancy. It's not going to end well, bud.

I wonder if, because Vecna apparently absorbs everyone he kills, El might be able to like deep-dive into his mind and pull her out, so she can get back to her body?

That final shot is chilling as hell.

What a great season.