Monday 4 July 2022

Stranger Things: Season 4, Chapter 8- Papa

 "If we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to a store named The War Zone?"

And so the run of uber-long episodes with ensemble casts continues. It should be over-bloated. It shouldn't work. It does.

Where to start? Eleven's story is amazing, from the betrayal of "Papa" to her perfect verbal denunciation to the dying doctor's face, right after she crashes the helicopter after trying to kill her. Her story in this episode uncannily (deliberately?) echoes that of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, using  her Jedi powers to lift a metal shack and being torn between further necessary training and saving her friends. This has to be a deliberate echo. And her constant gaslighting by "Papa" is every bit as creepy as intendeds.

Then there's the lovely chat between oh-so-brave Max and a lovelorn Lucas. There's Will's selfless act of loving froendship as he reassues Mike about Eleven's need for him- noticed by Jonathan. There's the beautiful love between Joyce and Hopper as they keep trying to escape from Siberia in the most entertainingly funny subplot.

Oh, and the Soviets are breeding tons of Demogorgons in jars. For next season?

Prediction: Eddie's going to die next episode. He's funny, he's cool, we like him. He's scary, but not a coward. He tells Dustin to "never change". He's doomed.

This, if it needed telling, is superlative telly.

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