If Stranger Things does something right, it’s those final episodes that not only ends things in a truly exciting fashion, but also tends to leave us with epilogues that prove to be genuinely moving. However, considering that the third season had ballooned exponentially in size to include gargantuan flesh monsters, secret Russian installations located under malls in the American heartland, an expanded cast and Hopper living his very own action movie, Stranger Things 3 has given itself a rather tough act to wrap up. The show has prided itself on having mostly clean endings that resolve the majority of its plot threads, but can the biggest Stranger Things yet manage to stick the landing when other, lesser shows would crumble under the weight of its own story? Prepare for thrills, spills, shocks and some genuine heartache as the Duffer Brothers bring the climax of their latest epic home…
Everybody has finally come together to take a
moment to unite, exchange relevant information, and formulate a plan to finally do away with the myriad of threats amassing against the oft-menaced town of Hawkins. However, the group is significantly weakened by the fact that a still-living chunk of the Mind Flayer is still embedded in the wounded leg of Eleven and after using her powers to remove it, she finds that her telekinetic abilities have suddenly deserted her. Still, the plan requires the group to once again split, with Hopper, Joyce and Murray taking the intel gleaned from the “Scoop Troop” (their words, not mine) after their 24 hour trip to the secret Russian facility and infiltrate the base to destroy the machine that’s reopening the gate to the Upside-Down. To transmit further information if they need it, the Scoop Troop retreats back to Dustin’s distant radio tower, but in order to keep everyone else safe, the remained group are supposed to head somewhere secret and hide from the rampaging Mind Flayer.
However, instantly there’s problems because before Eleven’s team can leave, they find their way blocked by the Mind Flayer’s last surviving human puppet, Billy. Thing is, if Billy knows where Eleven is, then the Mind Flayer knows where Eleven is and before you know it the humongous beast has them pinned in the Mall. Even worse, after successfully infiltrating the Russian base, it turns out that the code needed to unlock a vital safe (Planck’s Number in case you were wondering) is incorrect, which means Dustin has to turn to the only person he knows who might know the right answer – his girlfriend from science camp, Suzie. With the fate of Hawkins and the world in general at stake, and the Mind Flayer on a rampage, everything rests on someone who most of the group suspected didn’t even exist. However, Suzie needs something from her Dusty-Bun before she’ll offer up the information, so Dustin had better man up and do what needs to be done – even if it proves to be incredibly inappropriate considering the threats involved.
Despite a bit of a shaky start, it’s obvious that the Duffer Brothers were hoping to upgrade the show from a gloomy, sci-fi show to a full blown television version of an 80s summer blockbuster with brighter colours, broader jokes and much more epic threats that looks as expensive as they are spectacular. Yes, it took a couple of episodes for both the audience and the makers of the show to acclimatise to the more populist tone, but once we all muscled through some teething problems, things finally all fit together nicely. It’s a good thing too, because if The Battle Of Starcourt hadn’t worked as well as it does, it looks like Netflix would have paid an awful lot of money for a show that easily about to run itself into the ground. Thankfully, the finale is great and confidently hits all the action beats thanks to a runtime that is about a good 20 minutes longer than your average episode and it just goes to show one of the more noticable advantages that “prestige” streaming television over more classic fare as you can expand the length whenever it’s needed if you need to give an episode room to breathe – and by God does it need that room.
Despite the massive amount of characters the episode has to follow, two huge threats to expunge and a handful of moving deaths to juggle, episode 8 does an impressive job of kicking all the asses that need to be kicked in a way that fast paced – but not rushed – before dedicating the last thirty minutes to the aftermath as we rejoin the survivors three months after their latest ordeal as the status changes exponentially. But we’ll come to that later, first I have to give kudos to the Duffers for helming near fifty minutes of extended action that ranks high on edge of your seat thrills on the small screen. Pushing those streaming resources to their limit, the final battle is not only visually stunning (multicoloured fireworks are hurled at the Mind Flayer to keep it at bay), but easily squares up to the type of visual effects usually seen on the big screen.
Does it get a little convoluted? Yeah, a little – the Mind Flayer getting led away only to come right back is a little protracted. And do things get slightly silly? Yup, in pure 80s style a fat, out of shape, small town sheriff is able to out fight a jacked, highly-trained, Soviet operative simply because he’s the good guy. But when things are this fun, who cares about the show finally proves that it’s gotten the knack of its more goofier comedy beats when it pulls off its most audacious joke to date. While pausing the action temporarily during one of it’s darkest moments to genuinely have Dustin and Suzie sing the entire theme sing from The NeverEnding Story may sound utterly awful, goddam it if it isn’t utterly adorable and it’s not only completely sold by the looks of utter disbelief on the faces of everybody else, but it also helps that Gaten Matarazzo has a set of some surprisingly good pipes on him.
However, while escapist fun is firmly on the agenda here, we ultimately get a bittersweet ending on a fair few levels. After finally managing to do a decent thing by standing up to the Mind Flayer, bad boy Billy bows out thanks to getting fatally impaled by multiple tentacles after his fleshy puppet master takes exception to his sudden good-guy turn. Elsewhere, Hopper sacrifices himself when he’s trapped next to the machine that’s opening the doorway to the Upside-Down and demands that Joyce destroy it with explosive results – but the sad moments don’t stop with the character deaths. In the wrap up we reveal that, among Robin getting Steve a job at the local video rental store, Joyce has adopted a now-powerless Eleven and plans to make good on her plans to leave Hawkins for good for California. Of course, that means that Will and Jonathan are going too which not only is bad news for Nancy and her relationship, but it means that the party has finally been split once and for all as the passing of time once again interjects in childhood friendship.
Of course, it’s all very moving (although not quite as sweet as season 2’s coda); but in true blockbuster fashion we are left with a mid-credit sting that not only shows that deep in the snowy wastes of Russia, the Soviets have a captive Demogorgon and hint that they have an “American” prisoner. Is Hopper still alive? Will the forces of the Upside-Down return? Will Eleven get her powers back? Will Will ever get a change of haircut? The only thing for certain, is that season 4 has to happen – and sooner rather than later.
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