Episode 4

We open with the rapid occupation of Hawkins: the military securing perimeters, detaining the civilians downtown, and ordering everyone else in the other parts of town to stay indoors. Sporadic fighting continues in the area, as soldiers engage with demos.

The members of the party who were part of the attack on the gate are detained (Hopper, El, Nancy, Dustin and Murray). Echoing Nancy, Murray asks Hopper if this was who he put in the “distress call” to, and Hopper says no, not exactly—but these assholes might have intercepted the call, and come running here.

Meanwhile, those who managed to save the last few children from being kidnapped (Will, Joyce, Jonathan, Lucas, Robin, Argyle, Erica and Steve) hide away with them farther out at the town limits, including Derek.

Just like in the canon, the military sets up an impromptu secured area around the gate. El is held in separate captivity, drugged-up just enough to be coherent, but unable to use her powers. We’re now fully introduced to Dr. Kay, learning that she’s one of the leaders of a faction of the government that stands in direct opposition to the one Dr. Brenner belonged to. Whereas Brenner wanted to use psychics like El for espionage and remote assassinations, Kay’s faction looked at how she and Henry opened a rift that lets in dangerous extra-dimensional monsters, and concluded that no psychic soldier is worth this kind of risk. This is a continuation on how Sullivan was trying to stop Brenner and El in season 4, but now one of the leaders of that faction (Kay) has stepped in to take over operations.

They captured Kali in Chicago a few years ago (in the same brief flashback scene from the canon). Sullivan wanted to kill her, but Kay, seeing an opportunity, had Kali tortured and brainwashed into acting as a temporary super-agent, with two goals: to capture El, and help close the gate. Kay obviously plans to kill her after that, and doesn’t even pretend otherwise—instead, she threatens Kali with more pain if she doesn’t do what she’s told.

We learn this from Kay, who explains it to El while offering her the opportunity to work with the military to close the gate. They can do it right now, and Kay promises to let El and her friends go. El, grieving Mike, says that she won’t close the gate until Vecna is dead. Kay says that isn’t their priority; she isn’t going to put more lives at risk in the Upside Down, even after El tells her that killing Vecna is the only way to permanently stop this.

Instead, Kay says that maybe El will change her mind once she sees how serious the situation is, and how determined Kay is to stop it. Kay then leaves with Sullivan and Kali, to go “talk” to El’s friends.

During this exchange, El begs Kali to help her, to stop this. Kali doesn’t respond, but appears distressed—she isn’t totally brainwashed, but she seemingly won’t go against Kay.

After leaving El’s cell, Sullivan tells Kay that he still thinks they should just kill her now, because they can’t trust her to play ball. Kay tells Sullivan that of course they won’t let El live, but she’s the only one who can stop this. Afterwards, they won’t need her. Kali hears this, and slips away.

The party members hiding the kids sit around, trying to figure out what they can do to help the others… but they can’t figure something out. So they’re wracked with worry, feeling useless and hopeless. Steve and Jonathan argue about Jonathan’s breakup with Nancy: Jonathan partially blames Steve, refusing to see just how much he (Jonathan) was responsible for his side of it, while Steve refuses to see that he was being a dick by making a move on Nancy when she was still with Jonathan.

At the same time, Will’s visions from Vecna and the Mind Flayer are getting worse—they’re trying to make him give up the children, and to join them all in opening the gate. He tries to hide this from Joyce and Jonathan—both of whom are far more protective over him now, with Mike’s death, and can tell something’s wrong.

Back in downtown, Kay and Sullivan have their soldiers bring Hopper into an interrogation room. They question him, but Hopper refuses to give them anything until they guarantee El’s safety. In response, Kay has Akers torture Hopper—which doesn’t work, because Hopper’s tough as hell and has been through worse. Kay then appeals to him instead, trying to get him to see that they have the same goals, but Hopper won’t budge.

Finally, Kay has Nancy brought in. She orders Akers to torture her, but just as Akers starts to, Hopper caves and begins to talk. Kay’s biggest question is why the demos are collecting children and bringing them through the gate, and Hopper tells her that Vecna is trying to do something with them to open a gate—which confuses Kay just as much as it did the party.

Still, Kay now knows that she needs to keep those children from the demos in order to stop some far worse thing from happening. She makes Hopper get on the radio to contact the rest of the party, the ones with the children, to bring them in.

Meanwhile, Kali sneaks back to El and releases her. She explains that she’s been pretending to go along with Kay, long enough to get to El. She says that everything she did was to survive, but now that El is free they can work together to finish this. The only way they can be free, Kali states, is by killing all of their enemies: Kay and the military, Vecna and the Mind Flayer, and anyone else who tries to hurt them. Together, they can do it. El agrees, but says that they kill Vecna and the Mind Flayer first. If Kali helps her with that—specifically with killing Vecna, instead of just closing the gate—then El will help Kali murder Kay. Kali agrees. Then she remarks at how much El has changed: she’s no longer the fumbling little girl who found her in Chicago all those years ago. El doesn’t allow the moment of connection, instead saying that she doesn’t care, she just wants Vecna dead. Kali, taken aback but as obviously hurt and traumatized as El, simply says, “Good.” However, it’s clear that she’s put off by how uninterested El seems in being reunited with her—a reunion that Kali had been hoping for, herself.

Meanwhile, the party members hiding the children get a call on the radio from Hopper, at Kay’s behest. He tells them to bring the children to the military, that there’s no other option. But they can’t bring themselves to do it, even knowing that Hopper, El and the others are in danger if they don’t. However, Jonathan and Steve—post-Nancy argument—realize that they both care about her too much to let the military hurt her, and they convince the others that if they don’t do something, then their friends will die.

The others finally agree. They radio Hopper—and Kay—and give their location. A military convoy, led by Kay, heads out to where they’re hiding. The part then has to convince this group of panicked, freaking-out kids that they’ll be safe… something that breaks their hearts. Joyce in particular hates it, but seeing what happened to Mike has her protective of not only Will, but also over the other children in the party, and by extension all of the children of Hawkins.

Robin, though, is the only one still firmly against handing the children over. She angrily asks Joyce if she’d let them take Will. Before Joyce can figure out her answer, though, Will says that he’s going, too—that way, someone can be with the children. Joyce refuses—as does Jonathan—but Will is now beginning to make his own decisions, and he reveals the horrific visions he’s seen (which we the audience actually see, too, unlike how the canon just told us they were a thing). Will says that with his connection to Vecna, maybe he can help the children if he’s with them.

Led by Kay, the military arrives and gathers everyone up into a convoy of transport vehicles—Will and the children in one of them, the other party members in another. They start driving out of Hawkins, in order to get the children as far away from the gate as possible—but they’re ambushed by demos. After a brief fight, the demos quickly overwhelm the soldiers, killing many of them while grabbing the children—including Will—and running for the gate.

At the same time, demos come flooding out of the gate again, and much of what happens next plays out similar to the canon episode 4 finale: military versus demos, chaos all over the place with the party caught in the middle of it. One or two secondary or tertiary characters could be killed off here—military or townspeople—to keep the stakes raised, while the party liberates the captive townspeople and, with Chief Powell, leads them away to safety.

Hopper and Nancy, though, arm up again and go looking for El. The military kills most of the demos and seems victorious, and Hopper and Nancy are then held at gunpoint by a squad led by Sullivan… who begins to give the order to execute them both, right out in the middle of the street.

But he freezes up.

Completely immobile, struggling to break free… he starts to levitate into the air. His limbs are snapped, one by one, then his jaw, in a familiar MO:

Sullivan then falls back to the ground, dead, as his killer walks through the gate: Vecna.

A veritable flood of demos charge through behind him and attack the military with renewed fury. As this happens, the demos that took Will and the children arrive in town—but before Vecna and his forces can return through the gate, El and Kali arrive.

The sisters use their powers to attack. Kali focuses on slowing Vecna down with hallucinations, briefly overwhelming him, while El goes on the offensive against the demos. The fight is quick but brutal—El cuts a path of destruction through their ranks, managing to keep Will from being taken… but not the other children. Still, El is relentless, terrifying, because she’s no longer holding back, she no longer cares about being a monster. Demos and soldiers alike fall dead at her feet, but they don’t matter to her. All she wants is Vecna, dead.

And he’s so close.

Vecna finally frees himself from Kali’s hallucinations and throws her out of the fight. He then turns onto El with more strength than he had before, heavily bolstered by the Mind Flayer’s psychic energy. He beats El not with ease, but with far less effort than he needed in the past. He levitates her as he did with Sullivan, but doesn’t maim or kill her. Instead, he tells her that she is blinded by rage, but he will clear her mind of it.

Once she sees the truth, he says, she will join him.

The murderous, hateful look on El’s face disagrees.

All the while, Vecna is also psychically tormenting Will, trying to push him to surrender so that he can help open the gate. But finally, just like in the canon, Will’s powers activate, and he’s able to use them to hit Vecna, hard—-and it’s just as badass as it was in the canon.

Vecna, surprised and injured, lets El go. He then commands the remaining demos to attack Will, distracting him long enough for Vecna to get back through the gate. Will kills the demos, then rushes to El while they, the military, and the party watch the last of the children get taken through the gate.

End episode 4, and volume 1.

Click here for episode 5

Image credits:

• Poster: mikeshouts.com
• Fred – youtube.com
• Will – screenrant.com