dex14

Stranger Things (S4E07) -- "Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab"

Runtime: 1hr 38min


Episode 1 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...fire-club.html
Episode 2 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...nas-curse.html
Episode 3 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...superhero.html
Episode 4 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...ear-billy.html
Episode 5 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...a-project.html
Episode 6 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...-six-dive.html
Episode 7 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...wkins-lab.html

TomOpus

See ya in July.

OldBoy

u finished already? bravo. without spoils, how was it overall?

TomOpus

My opinion won't sway you from hating it. You'd pretty much made up your mind by the end of E1 and confirmed by end of E2.

Let's just suffice it to say, it was an easy binge for me.

MysterioMan007

Episode thoughts:

--Steve is saved from becoming lunch to the demo bats by Nancy, Robin, and Eddie. Eddie has grown on me and I hope if he survives the lat 2 episodes, he'll be back next season.
--Wallace still being tortured. World's worst day for him.
--Relieved to see that Eleven didn't murder all of those children. Didn't guess three seemingly different characters were all the same person, though.
--Fuck you, Mr. Wheeler.
--Wow, the Upside Down is one fucked up place.
--Fuck Yuri and this Alaska adventure storyline. They're not going to kill off Hopper after teasing it in the S3 finale, just so they can bring him back and kill him here.
--God, this wig on Matthew Modine really is awful.
--Number 2 is a fitting name for this piece of shit who bullied Eleven.
--Robin is the best character addition since the show began. "Maybe he really does have rabies".
--Wow, I haven't seen a Lite Brite in years.
--Creepy orderly guy is actually Victor Creel's son and Vecna, and the murderer of all of those other kids. I wonder how Kali escaped.
--Crazy thrill ride of an episode and I can see why they chose to break up the season with this episode.


This is probably my favorite current series, along with Cobra Kai. 2 more episodes in a month and then 1 more season and I have to let it go. Hopefully, not another 3 year wait.
--I wonder what the significance of the time displacement in the Upside Down is...
--Steve Harrington has become my favorite character. I never thought I'd say that about the douche he was in Season 1. In fact, I thought he'd be useless and they would get rid of him in Season 2
--I wonder what Erica found under Lucas's bed. Erica is the most forced and contrived character in this series.

Inhumans99

I also just finished off the 7th episode and it was great. There is something about the pacing of the episodes that works, as I was not constantly wishing an episode would be over as soon as it started. Also, yes that Robin is a wonderful addition to the core cast.

philo

Just finished it here too and really enjoyed it. An easy binge for me as well. It really grabbed me from the start and never let go. I think it was my favorite since series 1.

Knocked over by episode 4 and 7 but so much to enjoy. Some of the lab stuff started to drag but boy does it pay off. Without giving anything away the actor playing the lab attendant to Eleven delivers a helluva performance. Just awesome. Also strong work from Robert Englund, David Harbour, Maya Hawke, and loved the comic team of Winona Ryder and Murray. I like the new character of Eddie Munson and the jock character nails that Tom Cruise/80's rich boy vibe perfectly.

Josh-da-man

I think they should do a spin-off series with Steve, Robin, Argyle, and Munson. Have them out hunting for flying saucers in that pizza van, kind of like a stoner X-Files.

lwhy?

I finished the last three episodes tonight. I really enjoyed it. Episode 4 was the best episode.

Robin is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. Mr. Wheeler is my least favorite character.

Throwing Copper

What a phenomenal feature-length episode to finish on. This thing looked like it cost $50 million to make.

We finally get something awesome out of all the Russia prison bullshit. and man that battle at the prison vs the monster was fucking awesome.

The friendly orderly dude 001 gave an excellent performance, wow.

Im still not sure what exactly happened to Nancy and why it happened, but I guess we will find out.

So glad the final two episodes will be a combined 4 hours long.

**I do wonder if they’re screwing actors out of money by making this season 13 hours long, but only 9 episodes. From what I remember, TV actors get paid per episode. This easily could have been 12 episodes**.

joe_b

Vecna was in her head, just like Max and the three victims from earlier. I assume the writers only did this so Nancy could receive his exposition dump and then share that backstory with the others (which will probably be helpful leading to the final showdown).

dex14

#JusticeforBarb

Noonan

I knew the orderly was going to be 001 from early on in the season but I didn’t call the connection with the upside down.

El kamehameha’ing him into another dimension is certainly one way to go about it.

Josh-da-man

Jamie Campbell Bower. He was King Arthur in that Starz Camelot series, and was in the Twilight movies.

He briefly played young Grindelwald in the Harry Potter movies, and I think they really should have had him play Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts movies because, as we saw here, he can easily to from charming and affable to sinister at the drop of a hat.

marka351

Is anyone wondering what Erica found under Lucas' bed?

Toddarino

Great sorta finale. I saw the orderly twist coming, but didn’t start to think he was number 1 until the start of this episode. That dude could definitely pull off the Joker when DC eventually recasts or reboots whatever.

TomOpus

I'm pretty sure most would have an idea what a male teen would keep under his bed.

Cellar Door

Another excellent episode, I'd probably rank it just behind ep 4 this season.

I'm SO glad to find that Eleven isn't a mass murderer. I was hoping it would be someone else, but I hadn't pegged the orderly for it. That whole revelation about the orderly/001/Henry Creel/Vecna was a bit too much of an exposition dump, but on the other hand I was glad to get so many questions answered.

The lite-brite scene was cool, as well as the kids climbing/falling through the gate in Eddie's trailer.

Uh oh, quick--what's Nancy's favorite song? "Waiting for a Girl Like You" is the song playing when she and Steve first get busy in S1...

Nancy said that they were "in the past" because nothing recent was in the upside-down version of her house, but maybe if the whole upside-down was created at that moment (the night Will went missing), it has just stayed the same--it doesn't "update" when changes are made in our dimension. So it's not really like they're time traveling when they enter the upside-down, just that it's like an old copy of our world that is just sitting around collecting dust. And demobats.

That demogorgon fight scene at the prison was f*ckin' awesome. Really showed how dangerous they are.

As others have mentioned, the actor who plays 001 is great. Excellent casting there.

I think they did a really good job of portraying the past events in Eleven's memories by showing the occasional shot of the younger Eleven in a mirror or through the eyes of another character, while still having Millie Bobby Brown portray her the rest of the time. It worked pretty well, I thought.

I'm glad Brenner is helping Eleven, but the tapes/memories of how he treated the kids at HNL show him to be an even bigger monster than I thought.

Is that wall where Eleven sends 001 into the other dimension the same place that cracks open in S1 when she first touches the demogorgon, creating the gate?

I have really enjoyed these episodes, and I had high expectations. I will probably rewatch them all again soon. Can't wait for Volume 2!

Throwing Copper

Im going to rewatch all of Season 4 the last week of June. It was that damn good IMO and significantly better that Season 3.

Also, I enjoyed your episode recaps quite a bit.

Cellar Door

Thanks!

Josh-da-man

A carrot smeared with poop and vaseline?

Noonan

Few more comments now that I've had time to digest.

-Actor playing Eddie is perfect. I would love to join a D&D game with him as GM.
-From looking up Eddie's actor, I also learned that Chrissy is Casper Van Dien's daughter.
-I'm sure it's due to my age (born in 80) but I'm still all-in on adventure stories taking place in the 80's. I re-watched (for like the 10,000th time) War Games last night.
-Too many characters at this point. Hopper's whole story was disconnected; I hope they incorporate him into the main plot line for next season.
-Interested to see how they were able to control 001 for all those years. Are we to assume that RFID chip in his neck kept his powers unusable? Or was it just the electrotherapy we saw him getting?

This show is great but I think I'd like it even more if there were less supernatural happenings and more "realistic" adventures that don't involve world ending evil.

Draven

Just finished the binge and really enjoyed Season 4 Part 1.

Though 15 minutes before the end of the last episode, I was like “I think the orderly was in the Mortal Instruments movie” and looked it up on IMDB. He totally was, and then they listed his Stranger Things character as Friendly Orderly/Vecna. So…fucking spoiled myself on that one.

And they need to lock the actress who played Chrissy in whenever they need a younger Scarlet Johansson. She’s the spitting image.

JZ1276

Which 3 characters were all the same person? Vector. 001 & young Creel?

BTW, how'd they shoot the scenes with Eleven as a child?

Noonan

Yeah; Vecna is also 001 and Freddy's son.

Deep fake over a different actresses face.