Stranger Things 4 Episode 7: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab: Thoughts & Analysis
This is it. Last episode of volume 1.
The demobats are sucking Steve’s blood out. Luckily, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie show up and together they escape. Steve’s abdomen looks injured, so Nancy rips her scarf and ties it around him; some tension is visible. Knowing the Upside Down mirrors Hawkins, Nancy reveals that she keeps guns in her bedroom, to the disbelief of Eddie. This part actually took me aback. As they make their way, Eddie and Steve have a bonding moment. Steve gives Eddie his thanks for saving him, which Eddie tries to rub off. They then both admit their jealousies towards each other regarding Dustin. Looks like the platonic love triangle has shifted. Eddie also mentions Steve is not who he expected given his background, and that he defies stereotypes. Totally agree with that sentiment. Eddie tries to use a pop culture reference again but it does not click with Steve. Bottom line is, there is a mutual respect, as well as a mutual annoyance for Henderson that was established. Oh, but one more thing! Eddie thinks Nancy and Steve are in true love–sorry, but your cynical eyes are wrong.
Back in Hawkins, Dustin, Lucas, and Max were caught by the police and are now being interrogated at the Wheeler house. Erica calls bullshit on their lies, so the police decide to question them one-by-one, starting with Max. Dustin and Lucas talk in the kitchen. Erica then comes in and steals the thunder. She blackmails Lucas to explain everything by threatening to show Dustin what’s under his bed. So he starts jabbering, while Erica sips her drink, not showing the slightest care. She then asks why the Commies have opened another gate, as that was her experience in season 3. She’s wrong in her assumption but raises an essential question, as Dustin points out: “How did “watergate” open up?” He does some thinking rooting back all the way to their first experience with the Upside Down. Like Eleven, Vecna makes psychic contact with his victims. The “first” gate opened when Eleven contacted with the demogorgon using her powers. With this logic, Dustin deduces that each time Vecna attacks, he creates a gate, hence why there was “watergate” at Lover’s Lake. But it’s still unclear why Vecna has chosen now to attack, and specifically targets teens. Also, how does the Mind Flair factor into all this? This whole scene was captivating. Not only are the big questions raised regarding Vecna, but the Upside Down originally. There is so much mystery that remains and finally it felt like we were going to obtain answers, or at least start. As Dutin brilliantly thinks, there has to be purpose and meaning behind everything that’s happening and has happened.
Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Eddie enter the house and go up to Nancy’s bedroom. But there’s a problem. Nancy’s guns aren’t there, along with other things. Nancy ends up finding her diary, and what do you know, the last entrance was November 6th, 1983, the day Will vanished into the Upside Down. The Upside Down is frozen in time. Why? We can only guess, as it won’t be revealed this season (confirmed by creators). Downstairs, Steve somehow hears Dustin. Nancy remembers that Will communicated to Joyce using the lights. So Eddie, who knows SOS in morse code, starts tapping the light, which is surrounded by energy particles.
On the other side, Erica, the smartest, spots the signal. Dustin delivers a hilarious line: “You know how I said they wouldn’t be stupid enough to go through watergate. I overestimated them.”
Gold.
They end up communicating, with Dustin saying there’s a gate at every victim site. After Max is finished being questioned, they all sneak out on bikes to meet at the trailer park, where the first attack was. This is one of my favorite Stranger Things’ scenes of all time. As they make their escape, Erica hijacks the wheel of the police car. Awesome synth music plays as they ride their bikes, the camera overhead before swooping down and around to the Upside Down, where Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Eddie follow. The transition was epic, and the music creates the whole tone and feeling of epicness.
They all go inside the trailer and open up the portal and see themselves upside down. Dustin tosses a rope, and the gravity ends up canceling out from both dimensions, enabling the Upside Down crew to climb up over into the real world.
In Russia, Hopper, along with his ally, Enzo, are forced to face the Demogorgon. Luckily, Hopper is able to ignite his spear with fire, the creature’s one weakness. Joyce and Murray (in disguise) watch on top, before turning against the main general and forcing him to lead them to the control center. The Demogorgon fight was brutal but amazing. Joyce and Murray successfully open a door for Hopper to escape, which he does, along with Enzo. Joyce and Hopper finally reunite.
In Eleven’s storyline, we feel the impending doom of the massacre. After she gets attacked, Brenner punishes Two, a parallel to how the teacher escorted Angela to the office. Then, the mysterious guy plays a game of chess with Eleven, using it as a metaphor. He whispers that Two and the others will try to kill her, and that it’s Brenner’s intention. Eleven then comes up with an idea to escape, so the guy slides a key underneath the table and tells her to meet him in the basement.
The day of the massacre begins to come to fruition as we see Brenner come over to 010. When he leaves, Eleven makes her escape. She meets the guy and he opens a path out of the lab. He says he can’t go with her because of a chip in his neck. Eleven then says: “You help me, I help you.” She gets the chip off using her power. You can see something sinister awaken in his eyes, but at that moment, they are caught by guards. They run out back into the lab and find themselves surrounded. Then, what we all knew, the guy starts using his powers to kill all the men. This scene evokes chills, especially the moment he snapped a guy’s head off, as we’ve seen Eleven do that. He then rolls up his sleeve and reveals “001” imprinted on his wrist. He tells Eleven to wait in the room.
It then happened. Eleven, sensing something wrong, goes out and sees the trail of dead bodies. There’s something about the condition of the bodies that strikes deja vu. Eventually, she makes her way into the Rainbow Room, just as One kills Two. Eleven, like us, watches horrified.
In the Upside Down, Robin manages to climb through. Eddie follows. Steve tells Nancy to go first, so she makes her up, but just as she crosses the void, she starts falling in darkness and then lands in an empty pool. Vecna starts speaking to Nancy, and puts her face to face with Barb, whose corpse is rotten. Then the pool starts filling up with dark liquid, but Nancy manages to climb out. She ends up in Vecna’s mind lair, only there’s something different. Vecna says she was so close to the truth: “How is old Victor doing?”
If things could not get better, we had this scene happen. The sudden shift to Nancy falling in darkness–woah! Then, bringing Barb back made it all real and hit. Just chills during this sequence.
Nancy is transported back to the moment the Creel’s moved in. It’s the same scene, but then all is revealed when the camera zooms in on the son. But here’s the real kicker: it’s not Vecna’s voice that we hear narrating, it's ONE’s!
While Nancy follows in the memories, Eleven hears One’s, or should I say Vecna’s story. The son, Henry Creel, grew up despising the world and its rules. He was particularly drawn to black widows, seeing them as bringing balance to the ecosystem. He then begins to explore his powers, and we see him kill a squirrel the same way Vecna has been killing his victims. While Henry’s father did not suspect him, his mother somehow knew. She wanted to take him to a doctor. So he ends up killing his mother and sister, his father spared thanks to the music. He goes into a coma and then awakens to Dr. Brenner, who imprints 001 on his wrist.
He tells Eleven to join him. She looks up… but refuses. Eleven blasts One against the wall but he recovers and they fight. The circle game is recreated as each tries to stand their own ground. Eleven, barely holding on, recalls what One told her: to use a memory that made her sad and angry. Eleven recalls her mom being taken away, all the bullying, but One ends up pushing her down. He begins to choke Eleven as she rises up, blood coming out of her eyes. Just as it looks like she’ll die, everything goes black, and Eleven sees her mother saying she loves her. Eleven opens her eyes, turning them directly to One, and then blasts him through the glass into the wall. As Eleven holds him against the wall, his body starts disintegrating through a portal. One disappears. Eleven faces a portal to the Upside Down. Then, we go through and see One falling through the air. He screams in pain as lightning strikes him, turning him into what we’ve seen as Vecna. The scene then cuts to Vecna in the Creel house, his wrist engraved 001. The end.
I can’t even describe this whole scene. First, the haunting organ music as Vecna revealed himself, and both Nancy and Eleven’s storylines merged. Not only was Vecna One, but the son. Triple identity reveal was mind blowing; it was a master plot twist. In the fight with Eleven and Vecna, the music that played when Eleven recounted her memories was epic and powerful; it was that “cool music” sound but elevated to another level. Lastly, the transformation of One into Vecna was chilling with the lightning and the final flash to Vecna in the present. It all gave me chills and I was amazed how they pulled all of this together. It was one of the best endings I’ve ever seen, maybe even the best. I’ll see how it all ends after I watch Volume 2 tonight.
Final Rating: 9.7/10
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