Speaker 1: Warning. Today's episode contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season four,
Speaker 1: which we are recapping to get you ready for season five,
Speaker 1: the final season Stranger Things. Oh my name is Jason
Speaker 1: Concepcion and I'm Rosie Night and welcome back to extro
Speaker 1: Vision of the podcast where we dive to your favorite shows, movies, college, fun,
Speaker 1: country comedy from our back Guys, we're ready with your
Speaker 1: episodes a.
Speaker 2: Week plus plus those before we jump into our Stranger
Speaker 2: Things season four recap. A quick production note this holiday season,
Speaker 2: we will be sharing a couple of shorter stocking stuffer
Speaker 2: episodes with you. With so many great shows, movies, tv
Speaker 2: books coming out these next few months, these episodes will
Speaker 2: help us cover some extra content we wouldn't be able
Speaker 2: to get to on our normal episodes, So stay tuned
Speaker 2: for our stocking stuffers starting the week of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: But first let's get into it. Stranger Things Season four recap.
Speaker 1: We open in nineteen eighty six Hawkins, Indiana. We're back
Speaker 1: in Hawkins, Indiana, and once again Hawkins, Indiana is going
Speaker 1: through it. The season opens, though with a flashback to
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine inside the laboratory of doctor Martin Brenner
Speaker 1: his government lab where he is experimenting on psychically gifted children, including,
Speaker 1: of course, our favorite Eleven. Brenner begins his morning routine
Speaker 1: the same way I guess he always does before he
Speaker 1: begins experimenting on kids. But when he arrives at the
Speaker 1: lab with the alarm sounding, he finds everybody's dead. There's
Speaker 1: just like blood smeared everywhere except for one survivor, and
Speaker 1: it is Eleven, and she is smeared with blood, and
Speaker 1: you're left to wonder, did she do this?
Speaker 3: Did she do this?
Speaker 2: Cut to the present Eleven, now not covered in blood
Speaker 2: and living in California, powerless, trying to be normal, and
Speaker 2: has been adopted by Joyce Buyers, the relentlessly determined single
Speaker 2: mother played by none other than Wenona Ryder, who wants
Speaker 2: tore open dimensions to rescue her son Will. Joyce has
Speaker 2: moved our family West for a new start. Will, her quiet,
Speaker 2: sensitive younger son who feels the upside down still watching him,
Speaker 2: and Jonathan, her older, aimless but loyal son, now spending
Speaker 2: most of his time with his new best friend, Argyle,
Speaker 2: a gentle and perpetually high pizza delivery guy and probably
Speaker 2: my favorite character. On the show.
Speaker 1: Yes he's very good. We go to California with Will,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Mike during spring break. Mike Wheeler still with Eleven,
Speaker 1: though they're doing it long distance. The group then you know,
Speaker 1: the group of kids Idealistic leader flies from Hawkins to
Speaker 1: visit his girlfriend. Eleven is trying to be like everything's great,
Speaker 1: everything's normal, Like I'm having a great time here. It's good,
Speaker 1: but it's not true. She's getting bullied all the time,
Speaker 1: particularly by angela popular classmate who like just makes fun
Speaker 1: of her hair, her clothes, the way she talks everything.
Speaker 2: At the roller and Angela stages of public humiliation, tricking
Speaker 2: Eleven into the spotlight and laughing as the milkshakes flats
Speaker 2: across her face. Furious and humiliated, Eleven lashes out, hitting
Speaker 2: Angela in the face with a roller skate before storming
Speaker 2: away and tears that's right.
Speaker 1: You loved it when you first saw it.
Speaker 2: You love it you.
Speaker 1: Soon afterwards, the government agents arrive, but it's two different
Speaker 1: competing government agencies. One group is led by doctor Sam Owens,
Speaker 1: a scientist who once worked alongside Hopper, who wants to
Speaker 1: protect Eleven and help her get her powers back, and
Speaker 1: another faction commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel Sullivan, who thinks
Speaker 1: At eleven is behind the Hawkins murders, which we'll get
Speaker 1: to in a second, and must be neutralized. Owen's team
Speaker 1: reaches her first, They get her out. They take her
Speaker 1: to Project Nina, a secret Nevada lab where Owens has
Speaker 1: resurrected her former mentor, Doctuz what He's back, the man
Speaker 1: who raised her in keptivity.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a quick break and we'll be
Speaker 2: right back. And we're back, okay. So now we get
Speaker 2: to the other side of the story, and the one
Speaker 2: that I believe was most beloved by Stranger Things, Yes fans,
Speaker 2: which is Hawkins, the Hellfire Club, and the First Death.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about it back in Hawkins, the other half
Speaker 2: of our story begins. Dustin Henderson, the group's enthusiastic Tinkra,
Speaker 2: has joined a Dungeons and Dragons club called the hell
Speaker 2: Fire Club. Nice ex men reference there with Mike Wheeler
Speaker 2: and Lucas Sinclair, the athlete of the group who is
Speaker 2: now trying to balance his new basketball friends and cool
Speaker 2: life with his old nerdy crew. The group's leader is
Speaker 2: Eddie Munson, a rebellious metal head senior known for his
Speaker 2: arrythma guitasso, loves complete disregardful authority and the fact that
Speaker 2: he looks forty five. Sorry Joseph Quinn.
Speaker 1: During a basketball game, Lucas scores the winning the winning
Speaker 1: basket while his old friends play Dungeons and Dragons across town.
Speaker 1: And this captures the kind of split, the normal split
Speaker 1: I think that kids who are growing up and go
Speaker 1: through that same night, Sweet Nervous cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham, the
Speaker 1: girlfriend of Hawkins High basketball star Jason Carver, begins having
Speaker 1: terrible upside down style haucinations about her dead mom and
Speaker 1: ronning walls and all this stuff, and she's just trying
Speaker 1: to find a way out of this. She goes to
Speaker 1: Eddie Tovie drugs, but before she can go back and
Speaker 1: even use the drugs, she's like lifted into the air
Speaker 1: by some unseen force and her body is contorted and
Speaker 1: her limbs are broken. Her eyes go white, and she
Speaker 1: dies violently in Eddie Wnson's trailer.
Speaker 2: The next day, Hawkins is in chaos. Please surround Eddie's home.
Speaker 2: The town blames him, and the kids no bad. It's
Speaker 2: very much inspired by the West Memphis three and this
Speaker 2: kind of notion of satanic panic. So Nancy Wheler, Mike's
Speaker 2: older sister, is now a gun toting, badass reporter for
Speaker 2: the school newspaper. I love this character term for her
Speaker 2: begins investigating Chrissy's death at the school newspaper insane. I
Speaker 2: love it. Her research leads her to unsettling connections and
Speaker 2: echoes of other supernatural events.
Speaker 1: Weckna emerges within days. More Hawkins teens are dying in
Speaker 1: this similar horrifying ways. Fred Benson, Nancy's fellow reporter at
Speaker 1: the school paper, and Patrick McKinney, a member of Lucas's
Speaker 1: basketball team, all experience trauma guilt related hallucinations before dying
Speaker 1: in this horrific like limb twisting way. The group our
Speaker 1: heroes named the killer Vecna after a D and D villain,
Speaker 1: and they realize that he feeds and prays on pain, trauma, guilt,
Speaker 1: on these kind of scars that never heal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very interesting how much D and D law they
Speaker 2: do use in this show. I wonder what the licensing
Speaker 2: aspects of that were or whether it was kind of
Speaker 2: fair usage. But very interesting. Max Mayfield, Lucas's ex girlfriend,
Speaker 2: and the skeptical redhead of the group, remember she moved
Speaker 2: to town with Billy in season three, becomes Veckna's next
Speaker 2: target since her stepbrother Billy died saving her at star
Speaker 2: coourt More just an incredible format some of a Big
Speaker 2: Billy's stand. Max has shut everyone out. Drowning in guilt,
Speaker 2: she writes goodbye letters to her friends, accepting her fate.
Speaker 2: But when the group learns that music can act as
Speaker 2: a lifeline, that a person's favorite song can tether them
Speaker 2: to reality, they fight back. In one of the show's
Speaker 2: most iconic sequences, Max faces Vecna and his hellish mindscape
Speaker 2: as Kate Bush is running up that hill, blasts through
Speaker 2: her headphones. She sprints towards the light, tearing herself free.
Speaker 1: It truly became like the song of the next few months.
Speaker 2: I think she made more money. I think Kate Bush
Speaker 2: made more money because of Stranger Right. We love Kate Bush.
Speaker 2: I love this for her, And yeah, I think I
Speaker 2: love that you mentioned this is so iconic because I
Speaker 2: think it is actually the scene of the show. Like
Speaker 2: I think, if you think you're it now, they don't
Speaker 2: think about the kids on bikes. I still see in
Speaker 2: La people with Max style character kind of lifted up
Speaker 2: in front of their house during Halloween. Yeah, great stuff.
Speaker 1: We go to Russia and a plot line that seems
Speaker 1: totally from Marvel's Black Widow movie Across the World. Joyce
Speaker 1: Buyers receives a strange package in the mail, a Russian
Speaker 1: nesting doll with a hidden note claiming that Jim Hopper,
Speaker 1: former Hawkins police chief, now presumed dead David Harber got
Speaker 1: his own problems going on. We'll talk about that some
Speaker 1: other time. Presumed dead after the Starcart Mall incident is
Speaker 1: actually alive. Joyce teams up with her friend Murray Bowman,
Speaker 1: the paranoid conspiracy theorist and Russian language expert, to investigate.
Speaker 1: The two fly to Alaska to me to smuggler named Yuri,
Speaker 1: who promises that he can get them into the Soviet prison.
Speaker 2: And oh my gosh, that's a terrible plan. Sounds like
Speaker 2: one and it's going to inside that prison. We join
Speaker 2: hop Pop by the way, Yeah, David Hobba does have problems,
Speaker 2: but I'm also a hopa hate. I just need you
Speaker 2: guys to know it's double double ended. I wrote an
Speaker 2: articalacchif notist. I felt like Season three season four, like
Speaker 2: his arc with l was just not grey. I'm really
Speaker 2: glad she lives with joy So he's gaunt, scared, scarred,
Speaker 2: and hopeless in a Russian prison. He's fighting to survive
Speaker 2: the brutal labor essentially like a gulag, and is later
Speaker 2: a caged Domagorgan is unleashed for the god's amusement. You
Speaker 2: know when you really loved that, guys, when you saw
Speaker 2: it in Star Wars, when Luke fought against the monster
Speaker 2: in the basement to enjoy Jabba, to entertain Jab of
Speaker 2: the Hut, And now we see it for the god's
Speaker 2: amusement in the prison. Eventually, Joyce and Murray do outsmart
Speaker 2: Yuri infiltrate the base and rescue Hopper in a tearful
Speaker 2: reunion that closes one of the show's longest emotional loops.
Speaker 1: Project Nina in the Nevada Desert, Project Nina forces eleven
Speaker 1: to relive various repressed memories through sensory deprivation Altered States
Speaker 1: Anyone the movie Altered States Anyway. Inside these visions, she's
Speaker 1: back in her childhood at the lab, where she befriends
Speaker 1: a soft book and orderly named Peter Ballard. Becomes, but
Speaker 1: Pete's not what he seems. He's actually Henry Kreole, the
Speaker 1: son of Victor Crele, the man Nancy is currently investigating
Speaker 1: in Hawkins related to all the deaths. Henry was doctor
Speaker 1: Brenner's first test subject, called the One. His telekinetic abilities
Speaker 1: turned violent. He slaughtered his family, was captured by Brenner,
Speaker 1: and eventually grew resentful of the other children who were
Speaker 1: part of the experiment.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 2: And we're back in nineteen seventy nine. We won, and
Speaker 2: this is a huge reveal, basically kind of the kind
Speaker 2: of reveal I would have assumed we got in season five,
Speaker 2: so I was very interested. We got it. Hey, we
Speaker 2: lun that Henry was the one who manipulated young al
Speaker 2: Coaxingcots to remove a tracking chip from his neck, which
Speaker 2: was actually a power suppressor. Freed, he kills everyone in
Speaker 2: the lab because he is being abused by Dr Branner
Speaker 2: as all of them are eleven, fights him, and with
Speaker 2: a final burst of power, banishes him through a tear.
Speaker 2: In reality, the tear became the gateway to the upside down,
Speaker 2: and Henry became veckner Its first monster. This revelation restores
Speaker 2: Eleven's confidence and reignites her powers like the Studio Ghibli
Speaker 2: movie Kikeys Yes.
Speaker 1: While Eleven is underground, the Hawkins group digs deeper. Nancy
Speaker 1: and Robin Buckley, Steve's witty, socially awkward coworker from family
Speaker 1: video Love Her, Love Her, bluff their way into Penhurst
Speaker 1: Asylum to interview Victor Creole, the blind, broken man who
Speaker 1: once survived something similar to what's going on now in Hawkins.
Speaker 1: He tells them he was haunted by visions of his
Speaker 1: dead family until a familiar song snapped him out of
Speaker 1: the trance. Whoa proof music can save Vecna's victims, and
Speaker 1: also another strand connecting this case to what's going now.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Steve Harrington, reformed ex jock and self appointed babysitter
Speaker 2: of the group, one of the greatest character changes from
Speaker 2: its bully. It's a hero, absolutely unbelievable.
Speaker 1: He's too handsome and talented.
Speaker 2: Get him out. You got to get him in there.
Speaker 2: Man Dustin Lucas, Max and Erica Sinclair, Lucas's younger sister
Speaker 2: and the group's sharpest strategist, who is also one of
Speaker 2: my favorite characters. In the show, they go to track
Speaker 2: the portal activity at Lovers Lake. Steve dives to investigate
Speaker 2: strange lights between the water and is yanked into the
Speaker 2: upside down. Robin, Nancy, and Eddie follow him through, where
Speaker 2: they fight off swarms of flying demo bats and discover
Speaker 2: that each Vecna murder has opened up a new gate
Speaker 2: connecting their world to the other oh No on the
Speaker 2: West coast.
Speaker 1: Back in the desert, Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle on
Speaker 1: the coordinates to project Nina and race to find Eleven.
Speaker 1: Along the way, Will admits that he's struggling with his
Speaker 1: feelings for Mike, a mix of love, jealousy, and longing
Speaker 1: that he can't finally send that is part of him.
Speaker 1: They find Elle in time for her to escape the base,
Speaker 1: and it provides a makeshift sensory tank and a surferboard
Speaker 1: pizza parlor, submersion in saltwater, and armed with the with
Speaker 1: sheer will power, she projects her consciousness across space to
Speaker 1: help her friends in Hawkins.
Speaker 2: Iconic I mean love that astral projection, absolutely insane choice,
Speaker 2: Vecna's plan, and the battle for Hawkins. By the finale,
Speaker 2: all story lines converge. The heroes reveal Vecna's murders weren't random,
Speaker 2: Realizing that each gate death did open a gate between
Speaker 2: Hawkins and the upside Down. With four victims, the world
Speaker 2: will mudge. The team launches a three front plan and Hawkins, Nancy, Steve, Robin, Eddie,
Speaker 2: and Dustin arm up and infiltrate the upside Down creole house,
Speaker 2: while Lucas, Max, and Erica stake out the real one
Speaker 2: to draw Vecna in. In Nevada, eleven enters Max's mind
Speaker 2: to confront Vekna from inside the dreamscape, and in Russia, Hopa, Joyce,
Speaker 2: and Murray returned to the prison to kill the captive
Speaker 2: monsters and weaken Vecna's hive mind connection. Do you feel,
Speaker 2: Jason like they only added evil Russians using these monsters
Speaker 2: because evil Americans are also using.
Speaker 1: Ellie Munson accuse murder?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: Guy on the on the fringes of Houck and Society
Speaker 1: to its unexpected hero when he shreds Metallica's Master of
Speaker 1: Puppets on his electric guitar in order to distract the
Speaker 1: demo bats. When Dustin is like you gotta get out
Speaker 1: of here side, Eddie's like, no, not this time, and
Speaker 1: he dies on his feet, shredding, buying his friends a
Speaker 1: chance for victory. Upstairs in the creole, added Jason Carver,
Speaker 1: still convinced the Hellfire Club Worsh's worship of the Devil,
Speaker 1: attacks Lucas the ground split's open, killing Jason instantly sorry,
Speaker 1: Jason as sorry. Final gator erupts, you're wrong, and what
Speaker 1: a way to be proved wrong?
Speaker 2: Well, a way to be proved wrong? Inside Max is mine.
Speaker 2: Vecna nearly wins, breaking her limbs, blinding her and stopping
Speaker 2: her heart, but Eleven refuses to let her go, reviving
Speaker 2: her body just as Mike shouts his long delayed I
Speaker 2: love you, should have been and I love you from
Speaker 2: Eleven to Max. But sure, the combined attacks eleven psychic
Speaker 2: battle and the Hawking Team's Molotov assault and hop a
Speaker 2: strike against them. A Gordon had Russia finally weaken Beck.
Speaker 2: Now his body burns, and when the smoke clears, he's gone.
Speaker 2: The victory comes at a price. Mike's Max survives, but
Speaker 2: she's in a coma, her future uncertain. Hawkins itself has
Speaker 2: been torn open.
Speaker 1: We'll find out what happens to Max when her contract
Speaker 1: is either renewed or.
Speaker 2: Not the aftermath.
Speaker 1: Two days later, the town reels from like earthquakes that
Speaker 1: are striking Dustin breaks the news of Eddie's death. Eddie's
Speaker 1: uncle who mourns, uh, you know, a guy who everyone
Speaker 1: still thinks is like a mass murderer. Robin reconnects with Vicky,
Speaker 1: her band crush at a Hawkins relief camp, the Gangreen
Speaker 1: Knights with Eleven, Will, Mike, Jonathan and Argyle, and finally
Speaker 1: in the woods, Eleven walks to the rebuilt Hopper cabin
Speaker 1: where her adopted father steps through the door.
Speaker 4: Alive, no devil, quiet, emotional embrace and reunion that many
Speaker 4: people love, but that Rosie doesn't like.
Speaker 2: I did not love. I was not a much more
Speaker 2: complex sheen.
Speaker 1: As it has emerged in recent days that that what's
Speaker 1: the actor's name?
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, Milly Bobby Brown.
Speaker 1: Bobby Brown filed some sort of complaint against David.
Speaker 2: Harbor in the non They they made some sort of
Speaker 2: bully They made sure to say it was not a
Speaker 2: sexual complaint, but it was a bullying and harassment complaint.
Speaker 2: And yes, guys, In twenty nineteen, ahead of time, as
Speaker 2: always as a hater, I wrote an article that was
Speaker 2: published at twelve am. I'm guessing that was when the
Speaker 2: show came out in twenty nineteen, season three called we
Speaker 2: need to talk about Chief Hopper, and it's about how
Speaker 2: he's an abusive father guy. So go read that. That
Speaker 2: was kind of fun stuff I was writing about in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. Jason, how do they do season five finale
Speaker 2: of Stranger Things when the whole town is torn up?
Speaker 2: Are we getting another big time jump? Are the kids
Speaker 2: twenty five? Now? What's happening? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I wonder if we do. I wonder. I think we
Speaker 1: might get in a big time jump. And I think
Speaker 1: also that as we saw in season four, you can
Speaker 1: you know, only one third of the story took place
Speaker 1: in Hawkins, So I think we're going to see that.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see the story continue to
Speaker 1: expand even as it shrinks, and become the final battle
Speaker 1: with Vecna, which I think will become a battle to
Speaker 1: both defeat Vecna but also redeem Max as a child
Speaker 1: who was exploited and abused. On the next episodes of
Speaker 1: Extra Vision, we're diving into the Running Man and the
Speaker 1: Chair Company. That's it for this episode of the actual
Speaker 1: listening bye x ray Vision is hosted by Jason Sepsion
Speaker 1: and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Abuzafar.
Speaker 2: Our producers are Common, Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay Wag.
Speaker 1: A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
Speaker 1: songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi.
Speaker 2: Our disc called moderate, though