The following article contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2.
We were forewarned that the latest season of Stranger Things was going to veer even more heavily into the horror genre than its predecessors, but no one, not even the cast, was prepared for just how horrific some moments were going to be.
Fans had been waiting for years for the latest installment of the hit Netflix series, and with all the hype some were worried it wasn’t going to deliver, but boy oh boy did it deliver. Though there have been some criticisms that parts of the storytelling were drawn out and bloated, season four has been met when admirable reviews, many of which were aimed at the acting talent of Sadie Sink (Max), James Campbell Bower (Vecna), and Joseph Quinn (Eddie). For the latter, it was his first (and last) season, and his character was witness to Vecna’s first on-screen victim, sweet Chrissy, who was graphically murdered in Eddie’s trailer van.
Though of course Quinn was aware of the murder prior to seeing it, having read the script and acted out the scene, it wasn’t until post-production got their hands on it that the actor truly saw just how nightmarish it looked. Speaking to ScreenRant, Quinn recalls the emotions he felt upon watching the edited scene back.
“I remember in the first session of ADR that I had, they were like, ‘Should we show you the death?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ They showed me and I was like, ‘There’s no way you’re gonna get away with that, Netflix aren’t gonna let you do that.’ But they did and yeah, I think it’s f—ng horrible.”
Chrissy was not the only victim of Vecna’s, as we find out he murdered his own mother and sister in the same manner when he was a child, and took out almost all of Dr. Banner’s subjects and scientists in the lab before a young Eleven banished him to the Upside Down. To break down the barriers between dimensions and get back, Vecna must kill four people, with Chrissy as the first the audience witnesses, followed by Fred Benson and Patrick McKinney.
Max’s “death” made four, with fans watching on in horror as Vecna succeeded in breaking her limbs and blinding her, but failed to land the killing blow as Eleven threw him away with her powers. She then died in Lucas’ arms which led Eleven to telepathically use her powers to bring Max back to life, a newfound power that places Eleven in an almost godlike position. However, as we saw at the very end Max is in a coma and there appears to be nothing happening inside her mind.
As we are more than certain that Vecna is still out there, despite being flambeed and shot at, we might not be rid of his gruesome murder practices just yet. The Duffer brothers have promised the wait for season five won’t be as long, but an accurate release date has yet to be given. You can go back and rewatch all the current seasons, including season four volume two, of Stranger Things on Netflix.