STRANGER THINGS. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022 Television 

Five Thoughts on Stranger Things 4‘s “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab”

By | July 9th, 2022
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back to our weekly look at Stranger Things season four, today we’re looking at:

“Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab”
Written and directed by the Duffer Bros.

Steve, Nancy, Robin and Eddie seek a way out of the Upside Down, while Max, Lucas and Dustin are questioned over what they were doing by Powell and Callahan at the Wheeler house. Hopper and Anton face off against the Demogorgon in the gulag. Eleven finally relives the massacre at Hawkins Lab, and discovers what really happened that day in 1979.

1. Ah, the Love Triangle

I haven’t discussed the reemergence of the Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle thus far, because it literally moves at the pace of one scene per episode, but Nancy tending to Steve’s Demobat-induced wounds is as good as any of a reason to bring it up. It’s only natural Nancy would rekindle some old feelings for Steve, since he’s grown as a person and because he’s actually there for her right now, unlike her boyfriend, who’s playing chaffeur for her brother on the other side of the country; however I hope she doesn’t go back to him, this isn’t a documentary, and Steve doesn’t need to be the hero who winds up with the girl at the end because he became a nice guy — sometimes being single is OK! Especially when he has his whole life ahead of him (knock on wood.)

2. A Whimsical Comeback

Stranger Things is both a homage to classic horror films and Amblin movies, and this episode sees the Spielbergian elements of awe, wonder, and childhood wish fulfillment return with a vengeance in sequences like the Upside Down and Wheeler house groups discovering they can communicate with each other via Holly’s Lite-Brite; the teens riding bikes like, well, kids on bikes; and climbing up the gate in Eddie’s trailer only to fall upside down (no pun intended) into our world. As dark and monstrous as this show’s always been, it’s also a series that became iconic thanks to the scene where Joyce uses Christmas lights to communicate with her missing son, and these whimsical scenes are essential to stop it from basically becoming a Nightmare on Elm Street reboot.

3. An Epic Action Scene, But Not the One You Were Expecting

Hopper, Antonov, and the other hapless Russian prisoners finally face off against the Demogorgon, and it’s cool, it remains an impressive CG creation, that graphically flings the expendable characters around in a single take. However, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and the tension naturally comes from how Hopper will escape, rather than if he will (there’s no way that card is being played again so soon); the Duffers wisely save the best action beat for Murray and Joyce’s part of the story, with Bauman using his newly deployed martial arts skills on a room full of Soviet guards to ensure Hopper and Antonov are let go. (Jim and Joyce’s long-awaited, chill-inducing reunion also ended this part of the episode on a satisfying note.)

4. The Big Reveal

Alright, this episode ends with an extended monologue — simultaneously given to Nancy in 1986, and El in 1979 — revealing Vecna, Peter Ballard, Henry Creel, and Brenner’s test subject 001 (One) are all (no pun intended) one and the same, and that he was responsible for the Creel murders and the massacre at Hawkins Lab. It’s the main reason why (at 98 mins) this is the second longest episode, and it’s a dizzying amount of backstory to absorb, which is presumably why the Duffers ended the first volume of the season here.

It all works thanks to Jamie Campbell Bower, whose performance is absolutely mesmerizing from the moment Peter/Henry turns, demonstrating just how terrifying he is, even without the intense amount of make-up he wears as Vecna. It’s wild how much of Vecna you can see in Henry, from his profile, to the inhuman way he glares down at Eleven, and how his cheekbones seem to harshen while doing so — no wonder the Duffers trusted Bower to carry over his performance while buried under a ton of slimy prosthetics.

5. The Blame Game

The reveal that Vecna is — to borrow from a far less successful attempt to retcon a villain into a hero’s past — the author of all of Eleven’s pain, would imply Martin Brenner’s ruthless behavior was justified, on the basis that the first psychic child he discovered was a murderous psychopath. That’s baloney of course: there was no need to kidnap and fake the death of Terry Ives’s newborn baby, or abduct any of the other subjects, and ultimately, he failed to stop Henry with his coercive practices — his hardheartedness meant he could not foresee anyone being kindhearted enough to be tricked into helping him.

Continued below

If you want someone else to blame too, I will suggest — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — everyone responsible for the First and Second World Wars: as Henry explains, he hated his father because he saw the crimes he committed during WWII, crimes that happened because the world was being warped by a great evil, that sprang from another war where countless young men were sacrificed on the altars of competing imperial ambitions. Stranger Things has always been about kids paying the price for a psychic Cold War arms race, so it has also always been about the vain ambition of imperialistic powers who filled the void left by the European empires; so yes, Vecna is (like every historical evil) another disastrous byproduct of humanity’s greed and cruelty — no wonder he hates us.

Other Things:

– The use of Philip Glass’s “Prophecies” from Koyaanisqatsi during Vecna’s backstory spiel is possibly a homage to how Zack Snyder used it during Doctor Manhattan’s similarly long backstory in Watchmen, but its placement does have a thematic overlap with Koyaanisqatsi: the 1982 film is about how humans have left life on Earth out of balance. And what does Henry want? A world without humans.

– Vecna’s nightmare for Nancy being Barb’s death is a real testament to the success of Stranger Things, that it can not only play on iconic moments and ideas from classic films, but its own past as well. I was not expecting the guilt and trauma she has over Barb to resurface too, given how much emphasis the season placed on Max’s survivor’s guilt.

– Originally, the Upside Down appeared red like it usually does in 1979 (something that can be seen in this clip); it was changed to yellow following the release of the second volume of the season.

– This is the first episode Mike doesn’t appear in.

See you all next week for “Chapter Eight: Papa.”


//TAGS | Stranger Things

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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  • STRANGER THINGS. Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson in STRANGER THINGS. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022 Television
    Five Thoughts on Stranger Things 4‘s “The Piggyback”

    By | Jul 23, 2022 | Television

    Welcome back to our weekly look at Stranger Things season four, today we’re looking at the finale:“Chapter Nine: The Piggyback”Written and directed by the Duffer Bros.The party in Hawkins enacts their plan, while El “piggybacks” from her location to confront Vecna in Max’s nightmare. Hopper, Joyce and Bauman return to the gulag after realizing the […]

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