Fans of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things are relying on their wry sense of humor to process the perplexing time jump that took place after a pivotal scene in the season 4 finale.
Redditor Straight_Entrance_44 posted a meme in the r/StrangerThings subreddit, mocking the fast forward that took place after the tragic demise of Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) in The Upside Down. The meme cleverly interspersed the moments before and after the time jump with the “Yes, very sad” Loki template that’s been making the rounds to poke fun at the perceived insensitivity of the writers.
It seems that a lot of Stranger Things fans are still puzzled by the continuity gap and related to the meme’s leap from the heartbreaking moment Eddie expired in the arms of his friend Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), to the random scene in the Hawkins High School lunchroom where Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) complained to Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) about breaking up with her boyfriend.
Redditor Solarpowered-Counch described the time jump as lazy writing that missed an opportunity to weave together a number of emotionally complex outcomes.
Megazupa empathized with some of the challenges the writers faced, suggesting that a lot of elements were set aside in order to bring the main characters together.
CaroSJ was incensed by the time jump, because they felt it cheated viewers out of the opportunity to digest Eddie’s demise, Eleven’s return to Mike, as well as Max, Lucas, and Erica’s storylines. They pointed out that the writers deftly navigated a similarly emotionally-charged aftermath in Season 1 and were baffled that they opted for a time jump in Season 4.
Fans of Stranger Things have many and varied opinions about how they would like things to play out. It’s a testament to The Duffer Brothers’ uncanny ability to create engaging characters and storylines that bring out such powerful emotional investment from viewers of the show. Whether or not season 4 ended as an emotional cliffhanger to be revisited in the opening episodes of the final run remains to be seen.
Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.