By this point in Stranger Things 4’s rather epic run, it’s impossible not to notice that each episode is now pretty much a feature length extravaganza that regularly breaks the hour barrier. While that’s obviously a sign that the show has now reached such a level of success that Netflix will pretty much let the Duffer Brothers do whatever the hell they want at this point, it’s obviously a great help considering the vast scope the show has obtained. I’ve mentioned before that the cast has ballooned extravagantly and that we’ve long since broken out of the boundaries of Hawkins city limits. But now, not only do we have the breathing room to take the characters as far out as Russia and California, with The Dive, we’re now technically movie through time and space too. What do I mean by that? Well, not only does Eleven technically take us to the past with her weapons grade flashbacks, but the Upside-Down finally makes a spirited return – somehow, Stranger Things is only getting bigger…
As Eleven floats in the large sensory deprivation chamber known as the Nina Project, Brenner and Owens look on as she plumbs the depths of her repressed memories. Tapping into areas of the brain that were damaged by the attack of the Mind Flayer the year before, the ultimate aim is to help the young girl retrieve her floundering powers in time for some final battle, but so far the most it’s done is jog Eleven’s memory about her time at Hawkins Lab. Basically a shaven-headed cross between Hogwarts and the dodgy shit the government was pulling in Firestarter, Brenner had these kids competing against one another in order to strengthen their telekinetic abilities. But while Eleven is treated as a pariah the way all teachers pets are, a friendly orderly gives her tips to better wield her powers leading to a horrific tragedy.
Meanwhile, Joyce and Murray have not only survived their plane crash, but have convinced a captive Yuri to lead them to Kamchatka prison to rescue Hopper; however, they’d better hurry because the men running the place have had it with the American’s continuing bullshit. Moving both him and former guard Antonov to a secluded part of the facility where they are to be fed to some rumoured beast that lurks in the lower cells, Hopper deduces that the Russians have themselves a captive Demogorgon and starts plotting a way to fight it.
Back in America, Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle have travelled to Utah in order to find someone with the necessary computer skills to figure out where the Eden Project is to go warn Eleven about rogue forces within the government who want to kill her. They are, of course, searching for Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzie Bingham, but while they convince her to help, the Hawkins crew may have made a break through when it comes to confronting Vecna. However, while a path to the Upside-Down have been discovered, Jason Carver is stirring up a scared town against the “satanist practices” of the Hellfire Club.
The problem with a series that’s ballooned to at least twice, or even three times its original size is that there’s an awful lot of moving parts to align in order to reach the emotional highs of, say, an episode 4. When everything falls into place it can verge on life affirming, but the unavoidable side effect is that every so often you’ll have an install that finds everyone in flux as we travel to that next narrative high. That’s unfortunately where we find The Dive, the first real casualty of the aggressive expansion the show is experiencing from its scope to its greatly extended running times. While there’s nothing wrong with the episode at all, it’s so evident that literally every plot point is directly leading to huge, individual payoffs that it feels more like intense prep than balanced storytelling.
Still bringing up the rear is the Mike/Will/Jonathan/Argyle plot that’s now wavering out of control more that their actual journey and matters aren’t helped much by a stop by Suzie’s place and her chaotically run household. Basically, it’s full of kids who seemingly have the run of the place and have about as much control as the Lost Boys from Hook and the tone of the thread feels weirdly off like it belonged from the broader comedy bits from the first half of season 3 rather than the more horror orientated Stranger Things 4.
Elsewhere, Eleven’s flashbacks lead her to the horrible conclusion that the reason that she can’t remember all the other kids at Hawkins Lab is because there’s a good chance that she massacred them all. There’s a nice parallel between the bullying Eleven suffered at school and the animosity she faced from jealous older kids at the labs and it manages to paste over a potential plot hole by establishing when she actually met Kali, but again, this feels a little rudimentary as this, the massacre and the creepy-ass orderly who helps her and tells her stories of the legendary patient known as Number One are all preamble for a big reveal.
Faring much better are the Russian segments; but while Joyce and Murray burn air time bartering with a captured Yuri and plotting their next, audacious move. The Hopper stuff is getting ever more poignant as he realises that he’s fated to go head to head with a captive Demogorgon and starts to face his own mortality with a dismayed Antonov and a clutch of hardened prisoners. How exactly the Russian could capture a Demogorgon when they have the ability to cross dimensions at will is a question we probably shouldn’t think about too much, but while once more we are being teased for something far bigger, it’s far more gripping than a house full of kids.
Once again winning the grand prize is the Hawkins seven who break the most ground and give us quite the shocking cliffhanger. Figuring out that the death of Vecna’s most recent victim is also coincidentally the location of a “snack-size” gate to the Upside-Down, the gang realise that they may have found a way to physically get to Vecna and kill him before his curse finally catches up with Max. We get some more time with Eddie, which is always a good thing and we continue to get the best stream of banter the show can supply, but by the end of the episode we tap into a Stranger Things resource the season has thus oddly neglected, the Upside-Down itself. That’s right, as the episode ends, we find Steve Harrington diving down into lovers lake to confirm the existence of a gate only to end up in the other dimension – without a shirt – and getting attacked by squealing Demobats. Out of all the plot lines offered this episode, it’s only really the Hawkins stuff that carries its own weight and not feel like homework for something far bigger in a later episode, but as a bonus, the show riffs more on the actual satanic panic that rose up in the 80s when uncomprehending parents believed their kids were getting warped by 12-sided dice as the folks of Hawkins are misled by a panicked Jason Carver.
While The Dive isn’t a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination, it is the first episode of the greatly expanded fourth season that actually feels like work. I guess after so many highs over a period of five previous episodes, Stranger Things 4 was probably overdue for an instalment that needed to dedicate itself to whip up some frenzied set up to end the first section (the season is split in two parts). Hopefully it proves to be a necessary sacrifice.
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