Stranger Things: Episode 33

33. Papa

Four chimes, four portals, four kills. Vecna lets Nancy go to convey his message to everyone in the human world, to El in particular. Team Hawkins decides to battle Vecna head-on, Max serving as bait and the plan being to attack him in the Upside Down while he’s on a trance. They shop for weapons as preparation. Team Russia discovers a lab inside the prison that serves as a breeding ground for Upside Down creatures, along with an enclosed swirling portal. Yuri takes them to a shack with a small helicopter that they doubt can fly them all back to America. Hopeless, they risk a long-distance phone call to Owens. Brenner and Owens end up in a power struggle to let El go back to Hawkins or not, but their bickering is cut short by the military’s discovery of their location in Nevada. As they fall one by one, Brenner carries El out into the open before he is gunned down. Team California follows the military’s tire tracks and arrives just in time to whisk El away as Brenner takes his last breath at the desert.

You can breathe easy now. Only one of the five announced deaths happens in this episode. We’re not that affected because we never liked this character anyway. If anything, though, the death casts a different light on the character, probably a redeeming factor of sorts but not quite. As for the subplot of Will’s feelings for Mike, they finally address it, and you just love the way they do it. That teary-eyed monologue in the van is subtle enough for people as dense as Mike to understand as being all about Eleven. Nonetheless, all the crying and quick glances at Jonathan’s reaction make it all the more obvious that Will is referring to himself. It’s a beautiful moment done with just the right amount of attention so as not to distract from the main storyline. As for the episode itself, nothing much happens. The episode is an hour and a half long but focuses primarily on the preparation for the season finale which is looooonger at two hours and a half. It’s practically a movie! So, breathe, guys. We might no longer be able to in the next one.

"Imagine if you will, the barrier between our worlds is a concrete dam. Henry is putting cracks in this dam. Cracks and dam create pressure. Left unchecked, the pressure will build and build. Eventually it will reach a breaking point and the dam will break. When that happens, Hawkins will fall." –Martin Brenner

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