The June 13, 2022 installment of Jake Schoeneberger’s random observations
The Jacob Schoeneberger Random Thoughts about Stranger Things (Season 4, Episode 5)
This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.
The fifth episode begins with an intense scene trying to save the officer that was guarding Mike, Will, and Jonathan. Before he dies, he gives them the number of Nina, another agent working with Owens. The military is hot on their trail.
Sam and El arrive at a secret location in the desert to begin El’s training. The location is a base deep underground. Nina is not a person, it’s some sort of sensory deprivation chamber. And Papa is also there. Very dramatic moment when he is revealed.
El’s first instinct is obviously to run. It’s like she’s just gone back to the beginning, back to everything she’s tried so desperately to escape. And, in a way, it feels like the show is circling back on itself.
Hopper is back in prison and Yuri is flying Joyce and Murray to Russia. Things are looking bleak. But at least some of the gang is together back at the Wheelers.
Max has drawn pictures of what she saw in Vecna’s world in the Upside Down. Nancy pieces her drawings together to show that when placed together at the right angles they form an image of Victor Creel’s house. Ok, this scene is exactly like season two when Hop and Joyce figure out that Will’s drawings all went together as a map of the Upside Down. And here is where this show frustrates me a bit. It’s circling back around on itself and doing the same things it’s already done. The Upside Down needs to figure out some new tricks here.
And frankly, Nancy didn’t need to rearrange the drawings to know that Creel’s home was Vecna’s home. Creel flat out told her that. He said Vecna was “nesting” in his home. Boom, there ya go.
El awakens in the Nina machine presumably and is stuck in some kind of loop. Owens is afraid she’ll drown but Brenner says she’s going to make it.
The story Hopper tells in prison about how his life went downhill after he worked with Agent Orange is just tragic. He takes so much guilt on his shoulders for just trying to love and trying to help. He says, “Everyone I’ve loved, I hurt.” And he says he’s not cursed; he is the curse. Heartbreaking to hear the guy talk that way.
The gang break into the old Creel house to look for answers. They hope to find some clue to what’s going on and how to defeat Vecna.
Joyce tries to talk Murray into cutting their bonds and fighting Yuri on the plane. If they can beat him maybe they can get him to turn around and fly them back to America.
In the Nina, Papa begins testing El. The only way out of the memory loop is to focus and find her powers again. She’s put through tests to make her find her telepathic and telekinetic powers.
Mike, Will, and Jonathan figure out the number to call to find where Owens took El but they get a modem. They realize they have to drive to Salt Lake City to get to Dustin’s girlfriend to see if she can somehow hack into the computer to find El.
On the plane, Joyce and Murray get free and Murray knocks Yuri out in their fight. While the fight was humorous and fun, what happened next was just too much. With Yuri out cold the plane plummets down and Joyce and Murray pull up to somehow land the plane in a forest. It crashes but it’s a crash they walk away from. Uhhh yeah ok, asking a lot for Jacob Schoeneberger to suspend disbelief on this one but ok. Shaking my head a bit.
The gang realize in the attic of the Creel house that something is communicating to them through their flashlights. Then we see Vecna is in the Creel house in the Upside Down.
Meanwhile the basketball team is hunting down Eddie. They have him cornered on the lake when Vecna comes to claim Patrick. Poor Patrick suffers the same fate as Chrissy and Fred before him.
In the facility, they have to use a defibrillator to revive El because the experiments pushed her body too far. She’s angry and flees and during her escape attempt she uses her powers to knock some guards out. When Papa confronts her she tries to use her powers again but they don’t work. Apparently, she’s gaining them back slowly but they require heavy emotional weight in order for them to work. The episode ends with her going back with Papa for more training.
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