#where is the s2 and vol 1 mike who cares about will above most of all??

[beaulesbian]

me @ stranger things s4 vol. 2 where no one and nothing made any sense

[purpleyin]

Stranger Things 4x03 - 4x07

Lots of rambly thoughts on the rest of Volume 1, most of which will be familiar for anyone from the Stoncy server who read my comments on there. Spoilers for all the eps mentioned above but there’s no discussion of any vol 2 trailer scenes, just complete speculation about future things based on vol 1 stuff.

4x03

So, this was the ep we started getting more Steve/Nancy moments and it was way more than I expected we'd get tbh, even though they didn't get to team up on her hunch for driving reasons. I loved that small moment where she sees them at the car and there's the little wave between them and her relief at the gang turning up just as things get weird.

Also liking Robin/Nancy team-up. I related so hard to Robin being rambling and not knowing if she was annoying Nancy or not since she didn't know her really.

Getting to ep 3 and there's still no Joyce and El bonding... I didn't have high expectations but I thought we'd get more than 1 shared dinner scene where she storms out of without Joyce even seeing if she's fine.

I am liking Murray more this season. I found him irritating a lot in previous seasons but he's surprisingly okay this time.

Me: hoping Dr Owens is in this season. Also me: no not like that. The computer message he wrote during his talk with El read like he was a spy or similar because it seemed to refer to pentagon  in a kind of external way. Making him look likely to be either a sleeper Russian spy or part of some even more secret government agency, either of which wasn't looking good. I suppose at least someone believes in El and is helping her, got her out of the arrested situation, though I'm not sure it is good for her outburst in the rink to have no consequences. I feel like Joyce or Hopper need to talk to her about that at some point in the future.

Not a fan of how the writers keep writing Lucas plots that put him at odds with the main group, they did that in S1 with his not trusting El and S2 with his betraying the group's trust telling Max about everything without getting agreement to do that. S3 just had all that relationship BS Mike and Lucas angsted over instead which I wish I could forget about.

Still not onboard for stoner!Jonathan but the line about 'blip' did amuse me.

I started to like Eddie more this ep, mainly because I felt sorry for him and how he's yet another person where things happen to them, because Hawkins. Also, not that we have time for it this season but I feel like Robin and Eddie could end up being good friends.

Normally I'm all for any safety measures you can take, but I still liked Joyce's 'like this is really gonna save me if we crash' re the buckling up on the plane.

Jopper feels at Hop being protective of Joyce when Enzo mentions liking her. Of course, Joyce really can take care of herself and she's on her way to rescue him so.

I love Steve's 'should we be here' re the trailer park  😂

Big oof at the whole palaver Hop has to do to get his shackles off. I really don't know how he is walking on that injury afterwards.

I know that the school counselor has a perfectly reasonable explanation for not talking to Max about what Chrissy said to her, but it'd be a twist if she was involved and helping pick the Vecna victims.

Much feels about everyone having thoughts on Steve and Robin not dating and Steve obviously keeping her secret.

<3❤️ at the Ronance team up getting results. Grinned at Robin's voiceover and Nancy assuming it's a joke moment 😂 Also their "we leave them alone for two hours" 😂 I can't fault Steve's babysitting for keeping them all alive, but the amount of crimes committed on his watch is climbing.

With the Weekly Watcher call in the archives Robin makes, I feel like Robin in a modern AU might well be into the magazine Fortean Times.

4x04

My memory of what happened in what ep isn't so good now but I think this is the ep that Lucas gave Jason and co the slip? I assume so since Lucas was around later for the lamp moment with Steve at the school. It was cool to see him lead Jason to a few false leads before he got away. I wish it had been possible for him to say something but I can understand why he didn't, not wanting to rock the boat and not having any real sway with them as a relative newbie. It was smart to stick close by to get a heads up on what they planned to do but glad to see Lucas finally getting to be with his friends.

So this was the ep stuff really heated up, just very intense. The Max stuff was great, and loved the Max/Lucas this season so far, but also yay for the California gang getting to do stuff finally. I was so worried for Max the whole ep, so relieved at the end, just hoping they don't do a double fake-out and have her die later on instead. <3 that her happy moments included friendship ones.

All the Steve feels from the start of this ep, his having questions and feeling benched with the babysitting duties and not being able to help play academic.It felt like he wants to go with Nancy to protect her both these past two eps and yet it never makes sense so far so he's just flailing around with those emotions. I was lol at the protecting people a lamp moment though. :D

Sort of equally annoyed and amused at Robin being so nosy about Nancy's room, but oh that double take about her having the Tom cruise poster still when Steve dressed up as a Tom Cruise character for Halloween when him and Nancy were dating.

That 1 agent defending the California gang really held his own against all those guys coming in. RIP him though but glad Argyle cared even if he wasn't thinking through the headstone idea. I was actually really surprised when they hauled the guy into Argyle's van, assumed he'd be a goner defending their escape rather than later.

The Russian stuff is just a saga of me thinking 'poor Hopper's feet!' First the breaks, then probably frostbite from no shoes - I was dearly hoping one of the smugglers crates would be like some trainers or something to get on his feet.

Nancy and Robin investigating and Robin's massive speech to get them the interview with Creel was fun. The flashback story is all kinds of creepy but I love the slowly unfurling plot with this and them not yet seeing how it relates to everything else. Them all investigating is really great in genera and a big part of why I'm enjoying this season so much I reckon.

4x05

Definitely not a fan of how they have Dustin putting Steve down this season. Steve may not be smart but the things they've had Dustin complain about (not knowing where the torches came from?) didn't seem stupid to me. The Dustin and Steve quarrelling is 😢 I guess what's interesting about Dustin thinking Eddie is cool is that Eddie had failed his senior year twice and is on attempt number 3. Would be interested to know if that's just that he's not great academically (so maybe Steve has that in common with him and Dustin still things Eddie cool despite that) or if that could be on purpose to stay in Hawkins and close to the kids if Eddie is an escaped lab kid...The 1983-1984 year he first failed would be the academic year that had S1 events in the first semester

Also, Steve asks a lot of questions that get dismissed as not important but I'm kind of expecting that - similar to s3 when Steve noticed the music in the coded message but that got dismissed until later when he figured it out – one of them might actually end up being a very good question the others ignored. Like, why the clock. The clock is such important and unique imagery but the others dismiss that question and I think maybe it could come back round later on.

I'm 'oh Steve' at his bungling the Sherlock Holmes quote while trying to seem smart with Nancy. Especially after they make a big deal of Robin being rambly with her crush in earlier eps for that parallel. I don't know they needed that given how much tension was there in that scene without words but Steve being smooth for random dates but dorky only for people he really cares about is such a fun trope and I'm so here for Steve becoming a flustered fool around Nancy. He's the one giving out love advice in earlier seasons about playing things cool, not appearing too interested, but he's now no better than Robin around his own crush. I'm just hoping Steve getting a black widow on him isn't foreshadowing a death for him. Also that line about all of them 'going out' once Jonathan's back, followed up with 'but I'm not dating Robin, it's platonic' is great fuel for the Stoncy agenda.

I love Joyce being so cool under pressure and getting on with things ❤️ I feel like her talents are being wasted on her sales job.

The whole memory thing with the Nina project and her being forced to work with 'Papa' 😭 Also that stuff fed the idea about Eddie being an escaped kid from there since there's some kids that could look like a younger Eddie but no idea what time frame this was to figure out if the ages match up. It's a reach to be sure.

Also I was wondering when Jamie Campbell Bower would turn up, so yay about him being the lab attendant here. I remember hoping that this wasn't all he does this season and that definitely wasn't a problem in the end! It's a very creepy vibe from him this ep even though he seems okay, or as okay as anyone at the lab could be.

I was hoping this ep would give some answers about the whole ep 1 flash back massacre but no dice, they really draw that mystery out in the volume. After this ep I was wondering if things not being as they appear is maybe a theme of the season. That maybe it only looked like El massacred the kids, although I was wondering if Kali's powers came into it but that was the bit I was wrong about.

😭 at Hop thinking he's cursed/is a curse. I love that we got a bit more backstory and I do love me some angst, but also just want him to have some legitimate hope for better this season please. He needs a hug and he gets one later so yay.

Wondering what the chances are Dmitri Antonov/Enzo will survive the season. I kinda like him but he doesn't have plot armour unlike Hop so I'm nervous he'll end up another Alexei.

4x06

I hate what the character is doing but the actor for Jason is pretty good.

So happy we got Suzie scenes and her chaotic siblings all helping out with the plan. Though they for sure took liberties with the computing stuff and some being before its time. I didn't notice at the time but there was html and css in some of the code on screen and neither had been invented by that time, nor does it make sense to be used in that way. Their use of geolocation data also doesn't really work like that, especially not in an era without IP registries and without the lots of data with locations we have now with a large internet that gets used to try to approximate geolocation, so getting exact coordinates out of it doesn't make sense unless the computer she connected to happened to have that info sitting around? Also from what I understand it was mainly large corporations and government and universities connected to what turns into the internet, so it's definitely notable that Suzie's family has a computer and that it's online. I wonder what her dad does for work that they have this. Wiki seems to suggest there weren't any commercial Internet Service Providers in the US until 1989.

Argyle and Eden was a random aside but kind of sweet too. Love her aesthetic, wondering if she comes along in volume 2. I'm not sure it would make sense for her to overall, but it could be fun still.

😭 at JBC's lab attendant telling El some of the truth and then getting punished for it. The whole thing about 1 being a sad story was ominous and had me wondering if 1 disappeared to the upside down, or became consumed by rage or something (or both and became the mindflayer?). I wasn't that far off with my guesses there. Though I also had been wondering could he be 11s dad. I always assumed Brenner was, that he had a relationship with one of his test subjects and then that's why 11 is special to him but maybe that's not it at all.

Loving that canon confirmed lifeguard Steve because I have this S3 AU fic idea where he gets the lifeguard job rather than Billy, no Scoops Ahoy for Steve, and ends up flayed but ultimately saved and it's just a nice bit of ooh things aligning even though I didn't need it to be canon. Also, he's wanted to be useful and has been frustrated at not being able to contribute the last few eps so Steve just seems glad to have something he can do now, that he is best at with his 2 minutes holding his breathe and being a strong swimmer. He gets to be protective!Steve like he's been trying to be since like ep3.

🎉 for Hop finally getting some fighting spirit back at the end of this ep. Also love Murray and Joyce going with the flow, doing what they need to even though it's a mad plan but it's all they got to get to Hop.

That ending with Steve 😭 obviously we know Nancy is coming to the rescue but he doesn't, probably think he's done for. Even if he's saved that's quite some whump. Half strangled and lots of small stab wounds. And his back kinda torn up from being dragged. <3 Robin 🤝 Steve 🤝 Nancy trio being ride or die.

4x07

Wow that episode was epic. The battle with the demobats in particular was brutal. I am still so worried for Steve though. Those bites do not look good and him biting into one of the bats seemed A Bad Idea. Like, let's not ingest any more upside down gunk than you have to+ that line as they enter the trailer later in the ep about breathing in too much and having it stuck in his throat and no one else complains of that. Might not bode well for Steve if they have venom or something like El had infecting her leg end of s3. I worry about him dying but it would make a more interesting twist if it lead to corrupted!Steve of some kind.

I was surprised we didn't get a Stancy you're not dead hug but maybe because it's something they both probably wanted a little more than they might be willing to admit.

Eddie is still growing on me. I'm hoping we might get Steve and Eddie friendships + them having solidarity about not being academically gifted but having their own strengths/skills would be cool to see. Loled at him giving his vest to Steve to cover up. I was a bit sad that when Eddie admitted to Steve that Dustin always talked him up Steve didn't say anything to bolster Eddie because clearly Steve thought similar about Dustin idolising Eddie and him feeling jealous of that. They're both feeling jealous of each other but they don't need to be in competition

I had thoughts about them going to the skull rock make out spot Steve popularised. Especially the hiding there in the upside down, with the kind of intimate dressing wounds scene happening there. On the one hand did Stancy ever go there to make out, kinda awkward if so although obviously they've got bigger concerns right then. But if they never went there could be a thing of Steve thinking 'this is not how I wanted me and Nancy ending up here together'. Also had feels about Nancy having dived in for Steve at Lovers Lake. They're not being remotely subtle about the Stancy but I can't say I'm not enjoying it.

But once again, I am not here for the trope of 'outsider commenting on ship being obvious' for Stancy this time. I love all the Stancy moments but they did not need the Eddie poking Steve about that really and it just seems to be a thing the writers like doing for their ships. Like, no, if you want to write ships you should not be relying on that to point them out. And it wasn't necessary either, because the moment of Nancy diving after him spoke volumes itself (whether taken as romance or friendship, it's a deep bond there clearly). I would've rather had more Steve and Eddie get to know each other / gen type conversation instead.

The upside down being literally stuck in the past moment of its creation did create interesting plot obstacles this ep but I'm wondering if they're gonna do a big meta narrative thing about letting go of the past for the characters to go with closing it off/end of the show.

For anyone who didn't catch it, Nancy's diary pages had an entry about her encouraging Barb to talk to a boy at the library but Barb being so shy about it. Also it mentioned Nancy liking romance books.

I was sigh at the older gang not knowing any morse code (except Eddie's as the newcomer randomly knowing SOS) after it was a literal plot point in S2 with Will's tapping on the chair

The bit where they're playing chess in the rainbow room they very clearly show every move which feels a deliberate choice. We were chatting about this on the Stoncy server and I think we worked out El's knight is taken by a bishop and then she takes his bishop with a pawn. There's also a couple of moves that get repeated from her and then him, but on the repeat her pawn is placed on a different square E5>F5 the 1st time but then E5>H5 on the repeat, if I got my chess notation right. Not sure if the repeat is a goof or deliberate.

When JBC's character said the chip made him weak or whatever it was he said, that was the moment I started to think 'shit, he's 1' and then of course it goes rapidly downhill from there. I do love this tying into how she did escape, with the pipe out. Many feels at 1 probably picking El because she cares enough to offer to help him in return and take that chip out. A lot of the other kids seem meaner, less altruistic than her, but presumably he needs someone of sufficient power too. It's a surprise she turned out so well adjusted considering what the lab seemed to do to some of them, with so many of them turning out bullies.

The chip or whatever One had, Soteria, I checked the name for and of course Brenner named it after a goddess of safety/salvation. Apparently also sometimes another name for  Persephone so maybe they'll go for some Hades mythology ties with the upside down?

Henry Kreel and his attic flashback had a cult vibe. It would be interesting if there is a cult just not the obvious one the town mob thinks. The whole spider thing is interesting too, how he calls them gods of our world, which is a really weird thing to say, even for him. And then there's the thing about him finding order restrictive. I'm wondering if a s5 dnd related concept might end up being Lolth, Queen of Spiders and The Lady of Chaos since chaos would be the opposite of order. Also kind of wondering if they'll go for any thing where his interest in the black widows and getting bitten by a spider caused the manifestation of his powers or the like but that seems more comic booky so less likely for their tone of show.

The Jopper hug and aww that little smile as he nuzzles her hat <3

I did rewatch the Vecna origin stuff a fair bit and came back to how One said they were similar and that tip of she could use emotion to fuel her powers, that he used sadness/anger for his, which did sometimes work for her. But then when she defeats him at the lab she used a happy memory of her mother loving her instead. So I think they're meant to be diametrically opposed that way. He's only grown stronger since with every kill using the psychic energy of his victims, but I think the opposite to balance that is that El has so many more happy memories, and people choosing to be on her side with love and support, not the fear and confusion Vecna uses. Very similarly to how Max gets out of his control with happy memories and the song reminding her, which it did get pointed out is rather like HP and Patronus'. But maybe they could end up with the other characters choosing to give (psychic) power to El, tather than just via the memories route. I don't know if the thing with them interacting with the upside down like with the lights could be considered evidence others have some power, not like El, but everyone having some capability, because it was interesting that they said doing that felt good to interact with the light to make it flicker. And the music for those moments is so light and hopeful. I really love the score for those bits.

This ep also kind of made me want to do a crackvid bit for him to 'one is the loneliest number' 😂  (though to be clear I don't have any sympathy for One because he was clearly a serial killer way before the lab mistreated him).

I'm still wondering what the relevance of the clock at the Creel house/hallucinations is. I know it's probably just included because of some 80s horror films that had one, but it seems so unique imagery wise. Is it just because time is an aspect of the order than One/Vecna rejects? I know the characters scoff at Steve saying 'why the clock, is Vecna a clockmaker or something', but I'm wondering if there is a bit more to the clock. Also, in the flashback  is he psychically rewinding the clock or is he actually turning back time? I'm not sure if I'd be onboard for the show doing time travel.

Also hella curious why Nancy sees all the Creel house stuff while Vecna is controlling her. As a viewer I know it's a narrative device to intersplice the reveal between El's flashbacks to her memory with One explaining, while Nancy is also in the Vecna part of the Upside Down seeing his past, but like, what is the in-universe reason Nancy sees that. Max escaped the stuff Vecna tried to show her and saw the dismantled house, but Nancy saw even more, the origin. She won't be hearing the explanation, just seeing it - there's no Vecna voice post his taunting Nancy about being responsible for barb's death in the blood filled pool, the rest is all One's explanation to El. But she's smart so I guess she will draw some conclusions from what she sees, about Henry Creel being Vecna and also about being 1 with Brenner tattooing him. I'd be onboard for some of the kids/teens having more psychic power than normal, sort of resistance to the psychic powers of Vecna. Nancy would have high Intelligence as a stat and given their DnD focus I think having it be Intelligence as the thing that allows people to see past his illusions would make sense. They do describe Vecna, via Steve's comment in an earlier ep, as a wizard that Int would be useful against.

Bold of One to not bother with disabling any of the camera's during his massacre. Guess he assumed it would never matter, but it's that that means they can use the footage for NINA and helping get El her powers back.

Also in awe of the casting for younger El, though I didn't know at the time they did also deepfake Millie's face on a younger actress for some shots where they could.

I'm still stuck on the thing about 'soon there were more' about Brenner making 002 etc. Canonically 1 is about 39 in the ST4 timeline and none of the lab kids would be older than maybe 25ish if alive? So I do really wonder if my instinct that One-the-lab-attendant might be El's father, before we knew he was 1, might not be wrong. Because an 'I am your father' reveal by Vecna wouldn't sound the most out there and Brenner doing something dodgy with impregnating people wouldn't be past his very low ethical standards.

Also very curious about One's claim that no one he killed was 'gone', that they're in his mind still. I hope they rebel and screw him over.

Also hoping overcoming Vecna's attempt at a guilt trip will help Nancy get some closure about her blaming herself for Barb's death.