The dulcet sounds of Kate Bush will once again be ringing across the world this Friday as we get ready to watch the final two episodes of Stranger Things, Season 4.
While Vol 1 of the series offered up thrills, spills and revelations galore (read our four-star Stranger Things season 4 review), it also ended on a cliff-hanger that left all our favourite characters in danger of various types of sticky endings.
Fortunately, we might be getting some form of closure this Friday July 1 - so with the end drawing close, what do you need to know about Vol 2?
Spoilers ahead…
Where did we leave off?
Vol 1’s seven episodes serve up plenty more mysteries for the gang to investigate.
First of all, the town of Hawkins, Indiana (aka. The town with the highest unexplained body count in the USA) is being terrorised by Vecna, a villain from the Upside-Down with a penchant for crumpling up people’s bodies like tin foil.
In addition, Hopper has somehow found himself in a Siberian gulag, where he manages to bribe a guard to let his semi-love interest Joyce know he’s alive.
On top of all that, Eleven has lost her powers and is struggling to fit into life in California – to regain them, she must journey back through the past with the help of Dr Brenner to find out what really happened at the Hawkins Laboratory the day she escaped.
Through a very convoluted set of circumstances, Vecna is discovered to be Number One, the first of Brenner’s “children” who has been kept prisoner due to his terrifying powers. However, as a child, Eleven freed him and then banished him to the Upside-Down as a child after he kills everybody else in the facility.
Now, he’s terrorising Hawkins – and the rest of the gang, all of whom end the season either trapped in the Upside-Down or on the run from the police (or, indeed, both).
To make things even more confusing, Joyce and Murray travel to free Hopper and end up in the gulag themselves alongside a very ticked-off Demogorgon that the staff have been keeping to kill their prisoners. Basically, Vol 2 has a lot of explaining to do.
What questions have been left unanswered?
First and most obviously: can Vecna be defeated, and if so, how? He’s quickly shaping up to be the most fearsome villain of the whole show but we know remarkably little about him. What’s his connection to the Mind-Flayer? Can he travel to the waking world? Does he age and can he be wounded in this form?
Secondly, when Eleven banished One/ Vecna to the Upside-Down, the whole world looked like it was being created around him. Did Eleven create the Upside-Down? And if so, can she destroy it?
At the end of Vol 1, Steve’s trip to the Upside-Down ended with him being savaged by some evil bat-like creatures, and the last we saw the wound was looking septic. Could this be it for Steve?
And we still have no answers regarding the most important question of all: Will’s love life. Is he indeed in love with Mike? Or is he, in fact, entirely happy by himself?
What have the cast said?
As you might expect, they’ve been rather close-lipped about the whole thing – though Joseph Quinn (who plays Eddie) recently told the Guardian that the final scene would be “carnage”.
“I can say there’s a guitar scene and that the scale and ambition are astonishing. All the seeds that have been planted bear fruit, and it’s just carnage. You know the finale is two and a half hours, right? Ending with this monster, feature-length episode is so bold."
Director Shaun Levy agreed, telling the Hollywood Reporter: “Having seen both those finale episodes, they are as emotional as they are cinematic.”
“Holy shit, they are definitely a treat for the eyes, but they punch you right in the heart. So that’s what I’ll say about that.”
Where’s the trailer?
Here you go - and it teases dark times ahead for the Hawkins gang.
