History Recap / StrangerThingsS4E9Chapter9ThePiggyback

* BittersweetEnding: Hopper is able to return home and reunite with his loved ones, but though Vecna was defeated, he was still able to open his gate to Hawkins, killing dozens and leaving many more homeless; on top of that, Eddie died [[HeroicSacrifice helping save Hawkins]] but is still believed to have been behind the murders by the population at large, Nancy and Jonathan have relationship issues, Lucas failed to reason with Jason, who was brutally killed by the Gate opening, and Max was left comatose, blind, and likely quadriplegic. Finally, Will tells Mike that [[NotQuiteDead Vecna is still alive]], and the newly opened Long Gates [[SequelHook begins to corrupt the land around Hawkins]].

Two days later, several people have evacuated from Hawkins while relief operations work out of the high school. Max is rendered comatose. Eddie is blamed for the deaths and potentially the earthquake as well. Will, Mike, Eleven, Jonathan, and Argyle arrive in Hawkins and are reunited with the others; the group sets about refurbishing Hopper's cottage in the woods when Joyce and Hopper are dropped off by government agents. After all the happy reunions, Will admits tha he can still feel Vecna out and about despite the latter's physical form being destroyed, and is apparently proven right when "snow" from the Upside Down starts falling around Hawkins. The group observes a decaying field as the horizon is tinted a sickeningly familiar shade of red, bearing witness to the armies of Hell as they unleash an all-out assault on our world.

Two days later, several people have evacuated from Hawkins while relief operations work out of the high school. Max is rendered comatose, with permanent blindness and likely paralysis below the neck should she recover. Eddie is blamed for the deaths and potentially the earthquake as well. Will, Mike, Eleven, Jonathan, and Argyle arrive in Hawkins and are reunited with the others; the group sets about refurbishing Hopper's cottage in the woods when Joyce and Hopper are dropped off by government agents. After all the happy reunions, Will admits tha he can still feel Vecna out and about despite the latter's physical form being destroyed, and is apparently proven right when "snow" from the Upside Down starts falling around Hawkins. The group observes a decaying field as the horizon is tinted a sickeningly familiar shade of red, bearing witness to the armies of Hell as they unleash an all-out assault on our world.

* CurbStompBattle: Murray severely handicapped the Demogorgon by [[WeakToFire setting it on fire]], so when Hopper [[HeroesPreferSwords grabs a sword] and fights it, he manages to slay the beast before it can scathe him.

* ARareSentence: Two. The first is when Argyle explains their plan to his coworker, who has no idea what he's talking about, and the second is when El explains how she's in Max's mindscape.
-->'''Argyle''': "You see this weird girl behind me? She needs a tub with a bunch of salt so we can enhance her psychic power so she can save the world from this super bad dude."
-->'''Argyle 2.0''': ''(WTF face)''
-->'''Eleven:''' I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer.
-->'''Max:''' [[FlatWhat ...What?]]

* BackFromTheDead: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. El manages to resuscitate Max after she succumbs to her wounds, but she was still dead for over a minute ''and'' Vecna inflicted severe and permanent wounds, which means Max is now at best comatose and at worst braindead, and even if she wakes up, she'll be blind and crippled.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Vecna reveals that he saw right through Nancy and Dustin's plan as he gleefully gloats to Eleven, meaning that despite their best efforts, they didn't possibly think that he might have spatial awareness of the Upside Down too. It should be noted that Nancy, Steve, and Robin are being strangled at this point (they survive), and Eddie is also being killed by Demobats (he does not). Had Eleven not intervened, they all would have died; had Mike not given her encouragement to fight back as she was giving up, she would have died too, even.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Subverted, in something of a counterpoint to episode 6's ShirtlessScene with Steve. Joyce and Hopper change with their backs to each other. Joyce sneaks a peek and sees that Hopper is CoveredWithScars from the ColdBloodedTorture he endured from the Russians. He's oddly chipper about it, though.

* CurbStompBattle: Murray severely handicapped the Demogorgon by setting it on fire, so when Hopper grabs a sword and fights it, he manages to slay the beast before it can scathe him.

* CurbStompBattle: When Murray severely handicapped the Demogorgon by setting it on fire, so when Hopper grabs a sword and fights it, he manages to slay the beast before it can scathe him.

Two days later, several people have evacuated from Hawkins while relief operations work out of the high school. Max is rendered comatose, with permanent blindness and likely paralysis below the neck should she recover. Eddie is blamed for the deaths and potentially the earthquake as well. Will, Mike, Eleven, Jonathan, and Argyle arrive in Hawkins and are reunited with the others; the group sets about refurbishing Hopper's cottage in the woods when Joyce and Hopper are dropped off by government agents. After all the happy reunions, Will admits that, despite his physical form being destroyed, he can still feel Vecna out and about, and is apparently proven right when "snow" from the Upside Down starts falling around Hawkins. The group observes a decaying field as the horizon is tinted a sickeningly familiar shade of red, bearing witness to the armies of Hell as they unleash an all-out assault on our world.

* CryIntoChest: More like "Cry Into Shoulder" since they're the same height, but after Jonathan affirms his bond to his recently estranged brother, Will clings to him and sobs into his shirt.

* CryIntoChest: More like "Cry Into Shoulder" since they're the same height, but after Jonathan essentially tells Will that he knows Will is gay and doesn't love him any less for it, Will clings to him and sobs into his shirt.

* SeriesFauxnale: An extra long special that ties up a lot of loose ends and features a FinalBattle with [[TheDogWasTheMastermind Billy]]/[[GreaterScopeVillain One]]/[[OverarchingVillain The Mind Flayer]]/[[BigBad Vecna]], for a second it really seems like this is it, then at the last minute TheBadGuyWins.

** When the California group arrives back in Hawkins in the epilogue, the majority of whom hadn’t been in Hawkins for 8 months.

* ThePowerOfRock: Eddie uses this to distract the Demo-Bats during the final battle, setting up his amp and guitar on the roof of a nearby trailer and playing {{Music/Metallica}}'s "Master of Puppets" to create enough noise to distract the swarm away from the Creel House.. See ShoutOut below.

** Dmitri gives one to Yuri, pointing out the shortsightedness of stalling for the Russian military to arrive when he's seen firsthand that the Americans are telling the truth about a greater evil that threatens both of their nations. Dmitri also rips Yuri a new one over how he once was a great man who even helped save some troops out of China, and is now wasting his skills and humility for alcohol and gambling. It's enough for Yuri to do a HeelFaceTurn.

** We find out Vecna's plan: kill four specific people (Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, Max), use those deaths as means to open the four gates to the Upside Down and then lead a final assault on our world.

** We find out Vecna's plan: kill four specific people (Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, Max), use those deaths as means to open the four gates to the Upside Down and then lead a fina assault on our world.

* BreakTheCutie: In both figurative and literal senses. Poor sweet, funny, strong Max is as broken as a human can be by the end. Vecna permanently blinds her,
snaps her arms, leg, and her spine, and despite being revived, the strain leaves her in a coma. Worse yet, Eleven can't find any trace of Max's consciousness, meaning if she's not deep in her own subconscious to protect herself, then she may truly be dead from a psychological perspective despite El's best efforts.

* BreakTheCutie: In both figurative and literal senses.
Poor sweet, funny, strong Max is as broken as a human can be by the end. Vecna permanently blinds her,

Murray sets the Demogorgons and Demodogs on fire, which stuns and weakens Vecna enough to release the teens. Hopper is able to kill the remaining Demogorgon. Steve, Robin, and Nancy set Vecna on fire and push him out the window, freeing Max and Eleven, but his body disappears. Eddie, who had returned to the Upside Down to continue luring the Demobats away, is killed by them. Lucas is able to fight back against Jason, but is too late to stop Max from being critically injured and on the verge of death. Eleven is barely able to resuscitate her, but her death still opens the gates, causing an earthquake that wreaks havoc throughout Hawkins.

Two days later, several people have evacuated from Hawkins while relief operations work out of the high school. Eddie is blamed for the deaths and potentially the earthquake as well. Will, Mike, Eleven, Jonathan, and Argyle arrive in Hawkins and are reunited with the others; the group sets about refurbishing Hopper's cottage in the woods when Joyce and Hopper are dropped off by government agents. After all the happy reunions, Will admits that he can still feel Vecna out and about, and is apparently proven right when "snow" from the Upside Down starts falling around Hawkins. The group observes a decaying field as the horizon promises more destruction to come.

* BittersweetEnding: Hopper is able to return home and reunite with his loved ones, but though Vecna was defeated, he was still able to open his gate to Hawkins, killing dozens and leaving many more homeless; on top of that, Eddie died [[HeroicSacrifice helping save Hawkins]] but is still believed to have been behind the murders by the population at large, Nancy and Jonathan have relationship issues, Lucas failed to reason with Jason, who was brutally killed by the Gate opening, and Max was left comatose, blind, at least partially paralyzed and crippled, possibly permanently. Finally, Will tells Mike that [[NotQuiteDead Vecna is still alive]], and the newly opened Long Gates [[SequelHook begins to corrupt the land around Hawkins]].

* BreakTheCutie: Poor sweet, funny, strong Max is as broken as a human can be by the end. Vecna snaps her arms and leg, blinds her, possibly paralyzes her, and leaves her in a coma. Worse yet, Eleven can't find any trace of Max's consciousness, meaning she may truly be dead from a psychological perspective despite El's best efforts.

** Vecna breaks Max's bones and almost takes her eyes but is stopped halfway through. Her injuries are too severe and after begging she doesn't want to die, tragically passes in Lucas' arms.

** Blinded and battered by Vecna, Max tragically dies in Lucas's arms. While Eleven is able to revive her, she still falls into a coma which Lucas says the doctors are uncertain if she'll wake from, and even if she does, she could end up blind and paralyzed.

* NeverFoundTheBody: Vecna is set on fire by a couple of Molotov Cocktails, Nancy nails him point-blank several times with a shotgun, ''and'' he gets knocked out a third-story window, but once the group makes it downstairs, he's gone.

** El entering the comatose Max's mind and finding... nothing, implying that she may be brain dead. Or worse.
** The heroes seeing "snow" coming down in Hawkins... and realizing that it's not snow. It's the Upside Down merging into the real world. The last shot is Eleven, Will, Mike, Nancy, Jonathan, Hopper, and Joyce staring down at Hawkins as the Upside Down proper once again starts taking over the world.

* TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed: The defeat of Vecna ultimately did little more than slow him down. His plan to unleash the Upside Down in Hawkins still occurred, with the only relief being that he was too injured to launch the full-scale invasion. It won't be until the release of Season 5 that the long-term consequences may be explored. The only consolation is that this time everyone (bar Max) is united and ready to face whatever threats One has in store for them.

* PleaseWakeUp: Dustin and Lucas say this, respectively, to Eddie and Max during the latter's deaths.

* SwappedRoles: At the end of the episode Nancy is still with Johnathan but clearly wants to be with Steve, the opposite of where she was at the end of season one.

* BreakTheCutie: Poor sweet, funny, strong Max is as broken as a human can be by the end. Vecna snaps her arms and leg, blinds her, possibly cripples her, and leaves her in a coma. Worse yet, Eleven can't find any trace of Max's consciousness, meaning she may truly be dead from a psychological perspective despite El's best efforts.

* BreakTheCutie: Poor sweet, funny, strong Max is as broken as a human can be by the end. Vecna snaps her arms and leg, blinds her, possibly cripples her, and leaves her in a coma. Worse yet, Eleven can't find any trace of Max's consciousness, meaning she may have been wiped from existence completely.

* CruelAndUnusalDeath: All of the unfortunate people who meet their ends suffer this:
** [Eddie is pinned by Demobats, which maul and gnaw at him until he's fatally wounded and bleeds out.