Recap / Stranger Things S4 E9: "Chapter 9: The Piggyback"

"I can still remember what he thinks, and how he thinks. And he's not going to stop. Ever. Not until he's taken everything."

— Will

The Hawkins kids devise a plan to defeat Vecna: Max, guarded by Lucas and Erica, will lure Vecna away; Steve, Nancy, and Robin will attack Vecna's body; Dustin and Eddie will distract the Demobats away from both parties.

Meanwhile, the California-Nevada group is unable to get Eleven back to Hawkins right away, but she gets the idea to psychically meet Vecna instead. The group takes over a pizza place and creates a sensory deprivation tank with a freezer and salts. Over in Russia, Joyce, Hopper, Murray, and Dmitri realize that the kids have some kind of plan. In order to help them, the adults reinfiltrate the prison, aiming to destroy the Soviets' Demogorgons and Demodogs.

The Hawkins plan quickly goes south: Dustin and Eddie are able to lure away the Demobats and hide in Eddie's trailer, but didn't think that they could enter through the vents. Vecna quickly traps the teens, while Jason finds Lucas and assumes he is killing Max the same way Chrissy died and attacks him, making him unable to rescue Max from Vecna's clutches. Eleven finds Max and Vecna in the former's mind and is able to briefly fight him, but is eventually outmatched. Vecna explains that he is able to control the particles in the Upside Down to do his bidding (including the Mind Flayer).

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 Vecna from brutalizing and killing Max. Eleven is barely able to resuscitate Max, but the latter's clinical death still opens the gates, causing an earthquake that wreaks havoc throughout Hawkins.

Two days later, numerous people have fled Hawkins while relief operations work out of the high school. Max has been rendered comatose and it's unclear if she'll ever wake up. Eddie is blamed for the deaths and potentially the earthquake as well, though Dustin privately assures Eddie's uncle that Eddie died a hero. 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 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 steps out of the woods and into a decaying field. They look towards Hawkins and see familiar red lightning erupting from a black cloud that is spreading over the town. The war for the fate of the world has begun.

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This episode provides examples of:

• An Aesop: By the time of his confrontation with Jason, Lucas has learned that being In with the In Crowd isn't all that it's cracked up to be, and that it's better to Be Yourself.
• Almost Dead Guy: Warden Melnikov, the Russian commander, is still alive - barely - when Hopper's group arrives back at the gulag. He delivers exposition about what happened and dies.
• Anti-Villain: Jason finds Max in a trance and Lucas, someone he knows is in the Hellfire club (whom he thinks are behind the killings), right there. Jason tries to get Lucas to wake her up before deciding to murder him in a misguided attempt to save Max.
• Apocalypse How: This is one of the reasons Dmitri uses to get Yuri to come around, because if Vecna wins, the entire world is devoured, including Russia and his loved ones.
• An Arm and a Leg: Hopper relieves the Russian Demogorgon of its right arm shortly before beheading it.
• Back from the Dead: 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.
• Badass Boast: Eleven. "If you touch her again, I will kill you again."
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Vecna gets what he wants by the end of the episode. He successfully killed all four of his targets (Max was dead just long enough for it to "count"), causing the largest gate to the Upside Down to open, devastating Hawkins and killing dozens. And despite the thrashing he received from El, Nancy, Robin, and Steve, he is still alive and the Upside Down is beginning to leak into our world.
  • Jason dies horribly, but Hawkins' population mostly still believes his rant about the Hellfire Club being a Satanic cult responsible for everything that happened. And nobody outside his uncle and Dustin knows about Eddie's Heroic Sacrifice, meaning that he will probably be remembered as a cult leader that caused much suffering and died before justice could catch up with him (a newscast says that he's presumed dead in the "earthquake").
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • As Jonathan and the others arrive in Hawkins, they drive past a convoy of people driving out of town and even more people in town packing up their belongings to leave town; Jump Cut to the Wheeler house, where Karen is walking out with a box of stuffed animals, apparently packing up her family's belongings until it's revealed that the family are just preparing to donate boxes of clothes and food to people who just lost their homes.
  • The gang is justifiably nervous when a black government car pulls up... but it turns out to be Agent Stinson arriving to drop off Joyce and Hopper.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: El joins Max in Vecna's mental arena. Lampshaded by Argyle, who excitedly calls it a "mind fight".
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Steve makes a dramatic mid-air flip and lands on his feet when entering the Upside Down, while everyone else drops onto the mattress. Subverted in that Robin is not impressed:
  "What does he expect us to do? Applaud?"
  • During the Battle in the Center of the Mind, Vecna seemingly has Max in his clutches, but then Eleven manages to find them through a memory and step in at the last minute, sending him flying.
  • Hopper and Joyce are cornered in the prison 'arena' by the Demogorgon, only for Murray to come in with a flamethrower from above. Not only does this save Hopper and Joyce, it also weakens Vecna enough to release Steve, Nancy, and Robin, who are able to further injure Vecna's physical body.
• Big Damn Kiss: Joyce and Hopper's kiss, which has been building since all the way back in Season 1, is given a lot of cinematographic weight.
• Big Damn Reunion:
  • After a season apart, El is finally reunited with her adopted father Hopper.
  • When the California group arrives back in Hawkins in the epilogue, the majority of whom hadn't been in Hawkins for 8 months.
• Bittersweet Ending: 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 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. Finally, Will tells Mike that Vecna is still alive, and the newly opened Long Gates begin to corrupt the land around Hawkins.
• Blatant Lies: Jonathan tells Nancy he hasn't heard about college yet.
• Blood from the Mouth: Eddie in his dying moments.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Instead of killing Eleven when he had the chance to, Vecna leaves her to watch how he kills Max. This decision buys Mike enough time to call upon The Power of Love which provides Eleven with the Heroic Second Wind to defeat Vecna.
• Break the Cutie: In both figurative and literal senses. Poor sweet, funny, strong Max is as broken as a human can be by the end. Vecna blinds her, snaps her arms and leg, and despite being revived, the strain leaves her in a coma. Worse yet, Eleven can't find any trace of Max's consciousness. Best case scenario is that Max has retreated deep into her own subconscious to protect herself. Worst case is that nothing of her consciousness remains and she's just an empty shell now.
• Brother–Sister Team: Lucas and Erica form one of these, being Max's protectors in the bait team. They also both take down two of the most antagonistic basketball players.
• Call-Back: Eleven enters Max's mind using a deprivation tank similar to how she found Will in the Upside Down in Season 1.
• Character Development: Lampshaded by Steve, who mentions to Nancy that her dumping him back in Season 2 was probably the best thing that happened to him, as it forced him to grow into a better person.
• Chekhov's Gun: Finally, Eddie takes the guitar off of the wall.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The redneck who left the PTA meeting early sees Erica and gets in touch with the basketball bullies.
• Childhood Brain Damage: Played for laughs when Steve reveals to Nancy that he fell down a flight of stairs and thumped his head really good at a young age. Nancy retorts with This Explains So Much.
• Children Are Innocent: Due to being oblivious to, well, everything, Holly reacts to the "snow" at the end with giddy excitement that sharply contrasts the silent horror and dread of the main cast.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When the gang starts cleaning up Hopper's cabin, it's close enough to the scene of Hopper and El doing the same in Season 2. You almost expect someone to crank up "You Don't Mess Around With Jim."
  • When El closes her bedroom door in the cabin, she still leaves it open by 3 inches, which she lets Hopper know when he arrives. She also still has the glass bottle she and Max used when spying on the boys in Season 3.
  • El says Hopper's new look is "bitchin'", the same thing she said about her new punk getup courtesy of Kali/008 in Season 2.
  • Right before Vecna begins to kill Max, he cooly tells her "Stay very still...it will all be over soon". This is the exact same phrase that the Flayed would tell their victims before the Mind Flayer makes them a part of it, confirming that Vecna is indeed the Mind Flayer.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Vecna uses his tendrils to hold up Max and Eleven against walls with their arms spread out so he can talk to them eye-to-eye.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: 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.
  • Vecna breaks Max's body and burns out her eyes, though El stops him before he can cave in her skull. However, her injuries are too severe a strain on her, and after begging she doesn't want to die, Max tragically passes in Lucas' arms.
  • Jason has his entire mid-section disintegrated from existence via the Gate opening like lava! At least it was quick for him though...
• Cry into Chest: More like "Cry Into Shoulder" since they're the same height, but after Jonathan confirms to his brother that he will always be there for him, Will clings to him and sobs into his shirt.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: 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.
• Darkest Hour: The one moment where all seems lost. Vecna has Eleven and Max tied up and is about to kill them. Nancy, Steven and Robin are also immobilized and about to be strangled to death by Tentacle Ropes. At the same time, Hopper is attacked by a Demodog and can hardly defend himself. Lucas is being strangled by Jason. Eddie lies defeated on the ground. Cue Mike delivering his Anguished Declaration of Love to Eleven.
• Destination Defenestration: Nancy blasts a flaming Vecna across the room and out of a boarded-up attic window of the Upside-Down Creel house, though he survives.
• Didn't Think This Through: Vecna reveals that he saw right through Nancy and Dustin's plan as he gleefully gloats to Max, 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.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight:
  • 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.
  • Dustin holds Eddie in his lap after the latter is severely injured by Demobats; he dies moments later after making Dustin promise to take care of Hawkins High's next band of outcasts.
• Dies Wide Open: Eddie's eyes are wide open when he dies in Dustin's arms. Max also has her eyes wide open after Vecna kills her.
• Disney Death: A somewhat realistic example. Max dies but is quickly brought back to life by Eleven, but Max was too far gone so she's left bedridden and unresponsive, with no guarantee that she'll ever regain consciousness.
• Dramatic Guncock: Jason cocks his gun on Lucas to heighten the tension during their confrontation.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After spending months in a Russian gulag, which included having to kill multiple Demogorgons, Hopper finally has his Big Damn Kiss with Joyce and reunites with his adoptive daughter. It's implied the Byers will move back to Hawkins and live with Hopper and El, forming a full and loving family.
• Earthquakes Cause Fissures: Justified, as the "fissures" are in reality massive gateways Vecna created to let the Upside-Down have a much bigger entryway into the real world. Max being dead for a minute lets him begin his plan, causing all four of the smaller gates to converge on each other and tear through Hawkins along the way.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Subverted, in something of a counterpoint to episode 6's Shirtless Scene with Steve. Joyce and Hopper change with their backs to each other. Joyce sneaks a peek and sees that Hopper has lost a lot of weight and is Covered with Scars from the Cold-Blooded Torture he endured from the Russians. He's oddly chipper about it, though.
• Epic Movie: Though it's just the final episode of Season 4, it still counts, as it's one of the longest episodes in the series, and it serves as the penultimate episode before the next season.
• Evil Gloating: Venca reveals his evil scheme to Eleven when he has her and Max tied up.
• Exact Words: Since Max was clinically dead for over a minute, this counts as the fourth death Vecna needed to open the Gates.
• Extra-Long Episode: Exaggerated. Most episodes in season 4 clocked in at over an hour. This one runs at a whopping 2 hours and 30 minutes, making it more of an Epic Movie.
• Fanservice: Hopper and Joyce are both shown changing clothes.
  • Being a working-class single mother, Joyce's choice of lingerie isn't exactly eye-catching, but that doesn't hide the fact that Winona Ryder is in terrific shape.
  • After a year of living on rations and doing manual labor, Hopper has shed his fat and built up some muscle, giving him a Heroic Build.
• Face Death with Despair: Max cries and sobs as her body starts to give out from the strain of having her limbs broken and her eyes blinded.
• Forced to Watch: Vecna restrains El and forces her to watch him torture and kill Max.
  • Jason unintentionally does this to Lucas, as he prevents Lucas from being able to save Max. Lucas can only watch as Vecna breaks her and kills her.
• Foreshadowing: Hopper getting a shirtless scene that flaunts his now-muscular build. He soon gets a chance to demonstrate what a badass he is.
• Four Is Death: Nancy learns that Vecna wants to kill four kids in order to open up the gates to Hawkins. Since he managed to "kill" Max (her heart had stopped from his attack, but Eleven was able to bring her back) the gates are opened.
• Gas Leak Cover Up: The gate opening up underneath Hawkins is explained away to the general public as a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. How they'll explain the red lightning and glow of the Long Gates is left to be seen, however.
• Groin Attack: Erica fights off Andy by kicking him in the nuts. She follows up with clobbering him with her flashlight before escaping.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Jason is bisected at the waist when the gate opens up and tears through Hawkins.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: Max's heartbeat can be heard when Eleven starts to reenter her mind in the epilogue.
• Heel–Face Turn: Yuri tries stalling until Dmitri's "The Reason You Suck" Speech makes him realize their fight goes beyond borders.
• Heel Realization: Dmitri's "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Yuri about how far he's fallen actually gets through to the latter, who realizes that if he doesn't actually help Hopper and Joyce, the Upside Down will consume not just America, but Russia as well.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Of all the weapons, Hopper picks a sword to finish off the Demogorgon.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Eddie urges Dustin back through the gate, then cuts the Bedsheet Ladder and rushes off to fight the Demobats alone, having decided not to run from trouble anymore. Dustin uses a chair to boost himself back through, and the two are reunited long enough for Eddie to die in his arms.
• Heroic Second Wind: The sight of Max rising into the air is enough cause for the seemingly defeated Lucas to rally and quickly beat Jason unconscious.
• Hope Spot: Most of the characters get out fine and Vecna is defeated...then it starts "snowing."
• Hospital Epilogue: Part of the epilogue is the gang visiting Max in hospital.
• If Only You Knew: Karen insists that Mike is never going on another trip again. Except for all she knows, thanks to his trip, he was the only member of their family not in danger, and she has no way of knowing the danger Mike actually faced.
• Internal Reveal: The Party finally learns Hopper is alive.
• Karmic Death:
  • The Russian scientists and soldiers are killed by the Upside Down monsters they were experimenting on and feeding prisoners to.
  • Jason is killed by the expansion of the last gate, the creation of which was his fault for preventing Lucas from saving Max.
• Kill It with Fire: Yuri's flamethrower and the Hawkins gang's Molotov Cocktails serve the protagonists well in combat against Vecna and the Demogorgons.
• Last Request: Eddie asks Dustin to look after the rest of the gang for him.
• The Leader: Without Hop or Eleven around, Nancy takes the reins as the leader of the Vecna assassination plan, with Dustin as her Number Two because he comes up with a lot of the ideas to actually hit him.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: When Joyce comes up with the idea to destroy the particles to hurt Vecna, Murray calls for a time out to summarize the insanity of the plan:
  Murray: Wait, time out. We're talking about the particles inside the prison? The prison that we just narrowly escaped from?
  Hopper: We broke out. We can break back in.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Out of necessity for the four-phase plan to kill Vecna, with a bait group led by Lucas and consisting of Erica and Max to lure Vecna into vulnerability, a distraction group of Eddie and Dustin to lure the Demobats away from the Upside Down!Creel House, and a strike team led by Nancy and consisting of Robin and Steve to kill Vecna once he's unguarded. Their plan would fail, but they have help from fourth and fifth groups (unbeknownst to them), the fourth led by Jonathan in Nevada and consisting of Argyle, Will, Mike, and crucially, Eleven, who's able to get into Max's mind and fight Vecna, and the fifth consisting of Hopper, Joyce, and Murray in Kamchatka, who are taking advantage of the Upside Down's Hive Mind by destroying the Demogorgons there to cause some serious damage to whatever it is (Vecna, but they don't know that specifically) that's attacking the kids.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Played with. Dustin and Eddie prepare to battle the Demobats while Jonathan, Will, and Mike prepare the sensory deprivation tank...while Argyle makes a pizza, along with metallic clanging and whooshing oven flame.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": All of the main characters that see the "snow" coming down in Hawkins realize that something is off about it. They're right: it's the Upside Down corrupting the real world.
• Molotov Cocktail: Knowing that creatures from the Upside Down are vulnerable to fire, Steve, Nancy, and Robin arm themselves with Molotov cocktails when they try and kill Vecna's physical body. A couple of good hits from them (lit and thrown in slow motion no less) are enough to seriously cripple Vecna.
  Nancy: Flambé.
• Moment Killer:
  • Robin interrupts Steve and Nancy before Nancy can respond to Steve admitting that he still cares about her.
  • Things start to get heated between Jim and Joyce when the phone rings, and it's Owens' colleague back in the States.
  • A sweet moment between Mike and Eleven is disrupted by Argyle serving them a pineapple pizza. Though, to Argyle's credit, this does lead to a shorter but still rather nice moment between the two of them.
• Moving-Away Ending: Exaggerated. With all that's transpired in this episode, alongside the previous seasons' events, many people in Hawkins opt to just leave town entirely.
• Musical Nod: "When It's Cold, I'd Like to Die" makes a reappearance in this episode, having last been played during Will's "funeral" back in Season 1. This time, it plays as Max is dying in Lucas's arms, with both him and Eleven weeping as she passes.
• Never Found the Body: 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.
• Never Say "Die": Dustin narrowly avoids straight-up telling Eddie's uncle that his adoptive son is dead. Instead, he says he is sorry, gives the guy his nephew's guitar prick and they share a conversation.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Russian scientists inadvertently help our heroes. They somehow managed to capture a piece of the Mind Flayer and seal it in one of those same glass cages where the Demogorgons and Demodogs have been stored. When all hell breaks loose and the cages get inevitably broken, the Mind Flayer piece possesses the Demogorgon bodies (as a dying military man puts it, "a shadow" took hold of them); so, since it turns out that the Mind Flayer is Vecna, when Hopper and friends manage to kill the Demogorgons, they also are able to hurt Vecna back in the Upside Down, making El and the others' quest slightly easier.
• No, You: This exchange between Eleven and Vecna during the climax:
  Vecna: You have already lost.
  Eleven: No. (Beat) You have.
• Off with His Head!: Hopper vanquishes the Russian Demogorgon by slicing its head off with a sword.
• Oh, Crap!: When Eddie realizes there are still vents in the trailer the Demo-Bats can come in through. Sure enough, more come bursting through.
• Parallel Conflict Sequence: The Final Battle is fought in various locations with scenes intercutting. Eleven comes to Max's support in Vecna's Mind Lair. Dustin and Eddie distract the demo-bats in the Upside Down with Nancy, Steve and Robin entering the Creel House to confront Vecna. At the same time, the group around Hopper in Russia fights a Demogorgon, and Lucas battles with Jason in the Creel house.
• Pedal-to-the-Metal Shot: Used when Jason speeds up his car after spotting Erica at the playground.
• Pineapple Ruins Pizza: Argyle bakes a pizza for the kids and puts pineapple on it. Eleven is initially confused but likes the flavor once she gives it a try. On the other hand, Mike is disgusted at the idea and complains about it even as Eleven tries to get him to eat it.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: In his dying moments, Eddie tells Dustin that he loves him. Dustin reciprocates under tears.
• Please Wake Up: Dustin and Lucas say this, respectively, to Eddie and Max during the latter's deaths.
• The Power of Love: It took him long enough to say it, but Mike's voice and declaration of his love for El gives her the strength to fight back against Vecna and open him up to Nancy, Steve and Robin attacking his physical body.
• The Power of Rock: 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 Metallica's "Master of Puppets" to create enough noise to distract the swarm away from the Creel House. See Shout-Out below.
• Prayer of Malice: Max confesses to Lucas that she used to pray for Billy's death.
• A Rare Sentence: 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."
  Coworker: (WTF face)
  Eleven: I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer.
  Max:' ...What?
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: By the time the episode ends, it's really bad - Vecna managed to open a massive gate to the Upside-Down anyway, and while Max is resuscitated by El, her body is broken and her eyes are blinded, and she's stuck in a coma. On top of this, Eddie's Heroic Sacrifice is unknown to anyone except the Party, meaning everyone in Hawkins except them bought Jason's smearing of him as a cult leader. Jason dies, but the people of Hawkins see him as a tragic hero instead of a psychopathic witch hunter. Vecna is driven off, but it's clear that he's escaped, though it's unknown when he'll return. People are leaving Hawkins in droves in response to everything that's happened. On top of this, the Upside-Down is rapidly expanding into the real world thanks to the massive gate that was ripped open. A sliver of hope remains, though - the Party and their living loved ones are reunited, they now know that Vecna can be hurt and driven away, and Will still has a small connection to him due to his time in the Upside-Down, which is something they can use to get an edge on him. The odds are unbelievably stacked against them, but they're all united and ready to face Vecna.
• Real Fake Door: While Max tries to escape Vecna in the Creel house, all the doors she opens are walled up.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • 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 on alcohol and gambling. It's enough for Yuri to do a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Vecna gives one to Max and Eleven respectively, pointing out the futility of their plans and how eventually, they will fail and he will still win in the long run.
  • Lucas gives one to Jason, who at this point refuses to believe anything he says. While the prospect of a dimensional creature invading Hawkins seems out of reach, the simple fact Jason is angrily refusing to accept Chrissy (who he has put on a pedestal, which arguably didn't help her own problems) was buying drugs from Eddie, it's enough for Lucas to furiously say that "being normal" (aka what Jason is) is more or less just "being a vengeful psychopath" (while Jason isn't actually a psychopath, his behavior was surely psychopathic at the moment to say the least).
• The Reveal:
  • We find out Vecna's Evil 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 Hawkins, followed by the rest of our world.
  • After Dustin earlier theorized that Vecna is a creature serving under the Mind Flayer, this episode reveals that it's actually the inverse: the Mind Flayer is a creation of Vecna, crafted from the "shadow" particles in the Upside Down to serve as his avatar.
  • The Mind Flayer's avatar in Season 3 wasn't primarily designed to kill El but to steal her powers so that Vecna could use them to open his gates.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Hopper correctly predicts that they are going to have an easy time breaking back into the prison since it's the last place the Russians will ever think to look for them. In reality, the reason they have an easier time getting back into the prison is because the creatures from the Upside Down got loose and killed all the guards.
• Right Under Their Noses: Hopper reasons that they'll have an easier time breaking back into the prison since the Russians would expanding their search radius to look for the escaped prisoners, and wouldn't be looking for them in the prison.
• Say My Name: Dustin and Lucas call out to Eddie and Max, respectively, during the latters' deaths.
• Scenery Dissonance: The last scene of the gang walking across a lush, flower-filled meadow until they reach a patch where everything is rotten.
• Screaming Warrior: Hopper lets out a mighty roar when he decapitates the Demogorgon.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As Jonathan and the others arrive at Hawkins in the aftermath, they pass a convoy of people driving out of town and even more people packing up their belongings to leave town.
• Sequel Hook: Will tells Mike that now he's back in Hawkins, he can feel Vecna's presence again and that El's going to have fight him again in the future. Then our heroes take a look outside...
• Series Fauxnale: An extra-long special that ties up a lot of loose ends and features a Final Battle with Billy/One/The Mind Flayer/Vecna, for a second it really seems like this is it, then at the last minute The Bad Guy Wins.
• Shipper on Deck: Steve can be seen smirking as Vickie and Robin bond whilst making sandwiches for the victims of the earthquake.
• Ship Tease:
  • Steve tells Nancy that he still cares about her, and she's who he pictures as his wife in his dream about taking his kids across the country on vacation.
  • Vickie tells Robin that her boyfriend was just visiting for Spring Break, but he took off after the earthquake and they broke up, Vickie musing that she should've done it after he trashed Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and the two girls are shown bonding as they make sandwiches.
  • Nancy defends Steve when Jonathan makes a joke at his expense when the two are talking about everything that had happened.
• Shock Stick: Joyce saves Hopper from a Demodog by shocking it with a cattle prod at one point.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Superman: The Movie when Eleven is able to make Max's heart start again. The camera circles are a nice touch.
  • Joyce winds up having to wear a Hulk Hogan t-shirt after escaping the prison.
  • Murray commenting "I have a bad feeling about this" is an obvious allusion to the Star Wars films.
  • Jason cocks the gun and says "Just you.".
  • Jason's choice of a .357 Magnum, which looks pretty ridiculous, is clearly inspired by Dirty Harry.
  • Eddie distracts the Demo-Bats by playing "Master of Puppets" by Metallica.
  • The sword Hopper uses to kill the Russian Demogorgon is clearly from Conan the Barbarian (1982).
  • Another Shout-Out to Halloween comes after the Big Bad falls out the window, but in the next shot, he's not on the sidewalk anymore.
  • The blood-filled balloons are an obvious nod to It.
• Spanner in the Works: The plan to keep Max safe was foolproof up until Jason and Andy showed up and attacked Lucas and Erica. Because the morons got involved, Lucas couldn't get her headphones on her in time. Not only is she now horribly injured and comatose (and is only in that state because Eleven resuscitated her at the last second; Max would have died otherwise), her clinical death allowed the gates of Hawkins to be opened.
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: "Master of Puppets" and its lyrics aptly describe what Vecna is, but considering his Hive Mind powers, it ends up being a somewhat ironic song to play as a means to distract his underlings.
• Tragic Keepsake: Dustin returns Eddie's guitar pick necklace to his uncle, giving a (very abridged) account of what happened and reassuring him that Eddie died a hero.
• Trash the Set: More like Trash the Hometown: After Max dies from her injuries, the Gates open together, causing colossal cracks to spread through Hawkins and decimate it, leading it in ruins. Much of the townspeople immediately leave afterwards and judging from the ending of the episode, it seems that's not going to be the last of it...
• The Unreveal: As part of the Sequel Hook, there are a few points left unaccounted for by the end.
  • Where Vecna is currently and how badly affected he is by being set ablaze, pelted with shotgun shells and taking a nasty fall isn't shown, save that Will confirms he's alive, hurt, and getting ready to finish things now his massive gate is open and the Upside-Down is starting to merge with reality.
  • How Hopper and Joyce got back to America is left offscreen, along with the status of Murray, Dmitri and Yuri after presumably transporting them there.
  • Sam Owens remains presumably in Colonel Sullivan's custody, who is presumably still convinced that Eleven's a dangerous threat and responsible for the deaths in Hawkins.
  • Despite the prison's specimens being destroyed and the staff completely slaughtered by the Upside-Down monsters, it's not revealed where they got access to the Upside-Down, especially since their effort in season 3 showed that they were struggling to enact man-made gates to the Upside-Down with limited success. Where and how they managed to contain a piece of the Mind Flayer is left unresolved.
  • Likewise, the efforts of the Russians to monopolize the Upside Down are not further elaborated on, save that the general in charge clearly had not given up hope of doing so.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: A rare inverted example. In a flashback, as Henry/One is wandering the Upside Down, he comes across a fully grown Demogorgon. While he's staring at it in fascination, the Demogorgon itself just gives him a brief glance and keeps on walking.
• Verbal Backspace: Nancy tells Jonathan that she's glad he wasn't there for the battle with Vecna, before clarifying that she meant that she's glad he was there for Mike and Will.
• Villainous Face Hold: Vecna holds Eleven's chin up while being reminiscent of the time he offered her to join him which she declined.
• Weird Weather: To the surprise of the citizens of Hawkins, "snow" is falling in warm spring weather in the epilogue.
• Wham Shot:
  • The shot of the newly-transformed One creating the Mind Flayer in the Upside-Down, revealing that they are one and the same.
  • 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 Devil himself leads his forces in a final campaign to take over the world.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Andy's whereabouts after Erica beats the crap out of him is left unrevealed. Its possible he was killed by the portal opening or even by the blunt trauma of having a Mag-lite flashlight cracked against his skull.
  • While Hopper and Joyce are shown being returned to their children in Hawkins by Agent Stinson, what became of Dmitri, Murray, and Yuri isn't shown, although they're presumed alive since they got Hop and Joyce back to the States.
  • The Sam Owens and Colonel Sullivan plotlines were dropped from the previous episode, and we don't learn any more about what happened to them here.
  • Agent Wallace's fate is also as yet unknown.
• Within Arm's Reach: When he's attempting to break her by talking, Max fights back against Vecna (apparently possessing Lucas) by smashing him in the face with a lamp that's just behind her as he closes in on her.
• The World Is Always Doomed: 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 final season that we'll see that invasion and explore the long-term consequences. The only consolation is that this time everyone (bar Max) is united and ready to face whatever threats One has in store for them.
• Would Hurt a Child: Andy threatens to break Erica's arms after tackling her. Bear in mind he's a high school junior or senior and Erica is an eleven-year-old middle school student.
• "You!" Exclamation: Vecna hisses "you!" when El confronts him in Max's mind.

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