 Hello everybody! Today, we are finally here for the long-awaited, much-anticipated, Stranger Things, Season 4, Volume 1 video. Today is not going to be a commentary because I had so much fun doing the Girl Talk video for Season 1 through 3 that I decided to do again with Season 4, a little bit more structured and a little bit more of a deep dive since I couldn't really do a deep dive into episodes in the Season 1 through Season 3 video. Today, we're going to be taking a look at each plot of Season 4, Volume 1, and we're going to be deep diving into some of the episodes and my thoughts on all the juicy good bits. So starting off this season, we start off with the group separated. So we have the buyers in L in California, and we have the rest of the crew back still in Hawkins, and then Hopper is at a Russian prison, very spread out this season. Usually, we start off the season together and then expand. Today, we're starting off all over the country. So the whole crew, all of the young kids that started off in the show, are now in high school, which is like so crazy. So we have Dustin, Lucas, and Mike in Hawkins High School, whatever the fuck it's called. Max isn't participating in pretty much anything. She's going to a school guidance counselor to process the grief of her brother who has passed. Nancy is being a school journalist and then in California, Jonathan is a now stoner. He has a new friend named Argyle. He's living it up. Pause the 53 minutes, five seconds. Do you know who pauses fast times at 53 minutes, five seconds? People who like boobies, Robin. Don't say boobies. It's not a big deal, okay? I like boobies. You like boobies. Vicki likes boobies. Then we have Will and Elle and they are in school trying to do their best, both outcasts in many different ways. Maybe it's the hair, maybe it's being a closeted gay kid and a closeted superhero. I I really couldn't tell you, but they are going through it and they are outcast and Elle is getting bullied. This is supposed to be about famous people. My dad is famous. He saved lots of lives in a mall fire. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard for her. It's hard for me to watch. I never thought that a school bullying scene like that would make me like near tear up in the year 2022 because not to be like I'm desensitized, but a lot of the times when I see typical school bullying in TV shows or movies, I'm kind of like, that would never happen. And even though it was kind of like that would never happen, it just was like really like nasty. Like usually in teen shows and stuff, the bullying isn't that nasty. Like that was nasty. Like that was like not okay. And I'm surprised that the teacher just like let her do that, but it's whatever. It's whatever. It's like literally not okay, but I can't talk about it. So through the first episode, we are following some new characters. We have Eddie, the repeated senior hanging out in the Hellfire club. And then we also have Chrissy, who was a cheerleader who was struggling with major issues and self worth problems pushed onto her by her mother. And these two new characters actually join up and we see them have a little connection. Sadly though, Chrissy comes to a very quick end when she is the first victim of Vecna. I was kind of sad to see Chrissy go. I know a lot of people loved Chrissy and they were like, oh, it's another barb. It's another barb situation. She was cute. There wasn't that much for me. I feel like some people get attached really easily to characters and I'm like the opposite. It takes me a lot to get attached, except if your name is Max, because Max, I was instantly in love. Max, I was instantly hooked. Like that was my child right when she stepped on the screen. But I digress. Chrissy just wasn't that for me. She was cute. She was everything. Right when her inevitable fall happened with Vecna, the initial shift of the season that this season was going to be super dark was very drawing to me. We already started off the season with Elle in her initial place where she was experimented on and a full on masquer of just kids and blood dripping out of the eyes. And it was just a lot. Opening up the season with that scene and then having this brutal exorcist-esque scene, it really sets up to see how much darker they're going. As the kids grow older, the seasons get more dark. I love that they're changing the show as it goes on because I feel like a lot of shows stick to a similar pattern. They just do the same thing over and over again in fear of losing an audience. But since Stranger Things knows that it's had a very long runtime, and even though there's only four seasons, it's come out pretty slowly throughout the years. We have grown up. The cast has grown up, so the story has to grow up. And even though I think that was already their intention, I just think it very much fits everyone that's watching it. So I started watching it. I came out in 2016 or something. I was 14. Now I'm almost 20. I'm a different person, and I still love this show, so it's really satisfying to watch. Stranger Things already has a lot of references to 80s horror, but this season really takes it out of the park. The first season, we have this Goonies eating, not super scary kind of that light kind of like alien adventure kids taking on these like big adventure tasks. And then we kind of moved on into this more slasher 80s nightmare on Elm Street sort of even even some similarities to Stephen King's It we see throughout this season. Not only is it taking a lot of inspiration from horror films that came out during the 80s, it's also taking a lot of inspiration from actual events that happened in the 80s talking about the satanic panic and much more things that were happening in the 80s. So people thinking that their kids were going to be summoned by the devil if they played Dungeons and Dragons. We have similar stories of false incarcerations or serial killers who blamed their crimes on the devil himself, which I find really fascinating. And I love those little bits that they put on it just gives a nostalgia even though I don't have a nostalgia for it because I wasn't even born in the 90s girl I was born in 2000. So we have a few groups this season. We start off with Steve Robin, Dustin Maxx and then later on Nancy and Lucas get added to that. And then we have Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle. And then we have El, then we have Murray and Joyce who go to find Hopper. Now let me just say this. I had a bit of an issue with the separations this season. And why I say that is because I don't feel like the separations were that beneficial. I feel like if you're going to separate these characters, it has to be beneficial. And I think it will be in volume two and I'm making a lot of preconceived judgments. But that's the freaking whole point is to make your judgments and then watch more and be like, oh, I can never mind. I like change my mind. I'm not going to be like, maybe it might be better. It was kind of weird this season. I thought they could have done a lot with Will, Mike and Jonathan, but they kind of just didn't. Like I said in the last video, I think the buyers very much shine bright when they are together. When they are not thriving off of their family dynamic, they fall into the background very heavily. I was really disappointed by seeing Will fall so deep into the background. The season being is that he was the first one to go into the upside down. He has so much character potential. He has all these connections. And as much as I criticize it, I know I'm going to like eat my words next video. I know he's coming back for more in volume two and most importantly, coming back for more in season five, I think he's going to have a major role in season five to tie in the initial plot that he first once had. I think they could have done a lot more with a particular group. I love the shootout scene. I didn't love the in-betweens. I loved it when they went to Susie's house though. I thought it was a really fun dynamic that was placed very well within the darkness going on. At the end of the day, it really wasn't my favorite. I think it was my second to least favorite group of the season. Obviously, my favorite group was Steve's group, which it usually is. Steve's group is usually always my favorite because I'm not different and I'm just like other girls and there's really nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with liking Steve's group because they make it where it's impossible not to like. We started off the season with this beef between Lucas, Dustin, and Mike, where Mike and Dustin are like, you're leaving us for your football. You're leaving us to be a jock with the heck. When it was genuinely just them abandoning Lucas when he needed them, he looked into the crowd and they just weren't there. That's just really sad when the board game is not that important. I mean, I get it. They see it as like, oh my god, you're leaving us. You're leaving your truth. You've changed. You've changed Lucas and Claire, but at some point you have to grow up. I'm sorry. At some point, you have to put down the toys. At some point, you have to sacrifice your little games. Yeah, you could say the same thing about Lucas, but again, he was alone and at least Mike and Dustin had each other, so it was easier for them to make the decision. I will say the D&D basketball mashup was one of the most brilliant scenes of the season. It's probably top two, I'm going to be honest. The way they use music in this show is they don't just use songs and pump out songs to get you to feel some sort of 80s nostalgia or to just throw out songs to throw out songs. Having five top 40 songs in the first 10 minutes of your episode is kind of just a cheap shot at getting people to be like, yeah. It's like playing Dancing Queen. Of course, you're going to get people to go, yeah. It's like when you're at the club and someone's like, oh my god, let's put on Mr. Bright Side, so people go, oh my god. I never hear this song. I never play this song. That's so crazy. That's how people who don't know how to probably make a soundtrack for a show, that's what they do. They just put in songs to put in songs, really. I love the way they use music in Stranger Things. I think even since the very first season, we've had a lot of songs with a lot of purpose. The song will sings in the upside down. You have the wonderful basketball D&D mashup where it is this most epic moment and seems like it has a lot of foreshadowing. And then you have Running Up That Hill this season. It just keeps getting better and better. I think the usage of Running Up That Hill in this season is like it's almost a religious experience. And I think everyone can agree with that where it's just like, I didn't think that that song could get any better because like I knew that song from Pose, which I know Kate Bush is really particular about what shows use her song. And in Pose, it was a very reoccurring song. It kept playing. It wasn't just used for one scene and then kind of just thrown away. It's really a signature song within the shows that have to use it. Pose, it was like, this is our song. Like, this is going to be our song. For Stranger Things, it's the song that shows what is going to save Max from Bekna. And it is such a powerful scene. It has, it gives me chills every time I watched. I've watched it so many times. Episode four, I've watched it so many times. It's beautifully done. Sadie Sink does amazing in that scene. I even loved earlier on in the show in episode one where they start playing it when she's walking down the hall. It's like, I think it's really good. I think it's, it's mighty fantastic and I really like it. And talking a little bit more about Max's character, Max's character has come to the forefront of the show, which has never made me more happier. Max is one of my favorite characters. Max probably is my favorite character. I love her so much. She went through so much last season and we can really see how Billy's grief is taking a toll on her, which is kind of great because as much as I don't care about Billy and I really don't care if anyone grieves him, these people in this show do not grieve anyone. They just like move on. Like Bob dying, like Joyce was done with it, like literally one flashback and then she was like done. Like season three, she had one flashback while she was eating and then she was like, oh, for it. She was like, okay, hop, let's go on a date. Like, let's go like fight crime. Like, let's go fight the Russians. And then like, they just don't care. Like Barb has eaten up Nancy, but then like she forgets about it during like end of season two, beginning of season, all of season three, and then it's coming back in season four. Like I just, for some reason grief is really hitting because Chrissy is like, usually when characters die, like people are just like, but then it's like, okay, Chrissy's dying and we're like throwing a riot for her. I don't even think Jason knew her favorite song. So what is he talking about? Like he don't, he doesn't care. He wouldn't have been able to save her anyways. Little less Jason, little less Jason in the next volume because he's just, there was just a lot of that even though it ties into the satanic panic plot of the show, it was just a lot. And then this whole satanic panic plot, although I liked it, I do think it, for some reason, it's just like these parents didn't care about their kids at all until they had something to be like, scared about. It's like their kids run free like every single day. And I guess that's like, how it was in the 80s. It's like, you hear your story's parents where they're like, we didn't care about us as kids, like we were running around, we could get kidnapped at any point. And they're like literally regurgitating like trauma that they experienced where they're just like literally running around in the streets by themselves at like age eight. It's not that they're, we never know where they are. It's because of that damn game. I don't know, I hate the parents like every single one of them. Like I don't like the wheeler's mom. Like I know people think she's hot. She's not a good mother. Even if she did have that like talk to Nancy about sexism for like a second. That was like the first time she tried to be a mom. She like hugged Mike whenever Elle left like, okay, okay, like, okay, you don't know where your kids are at the end of the day. Like at the end of the day, you don't know where your kids are. Yeah, Joyce may not know as well. She's trying to do something. She's trying to make, she's trying to do something with her time and not just do acrobats or acro, water acrobats. I don't know. I don't know. And even the wheeler's dad, he is so absent and it shows a lot more in this season how much he just like doesn't care. Nancy, Dustin and Max literally talk about everything in front of him at the breakfast table and he's so absent and so not tuned into these kids lives that they can talk about Vecna and everything that they're going through right in front of him and he's not even paying attention. Yo, fuck that dad, fuck you. Honestly, fuck him. Moving a little bit away from the parents and that satanic panic plot. Let's go into Elle this season because Elle has a really interesting plot where we haven't really seen her gone before. Elle doesn't have her powers this season. Angela! She is trying to get them back this season. She goes to public school. She's, and I thought they took a very interesting route with her character because they talk about her getting bullied and she's talking to Mike about, and she's talking to Mike and Will about being bullied and they're like, they just bully you because they think you're different and she's like, well I am. I'm different from you. It's not just that I'm a nerd. It's that I've done things and I don't even know what's wrong with me. I've been portrayed as a villain for so long and as a monster. Even though I've used these powers for good, there's also this part of me where it feels like I am the monster, that these powers are not for good, that they are for bad and I thought that was an amazing point in her character that I've been waiting for. I just wish there was more of it. I feel like she kind of also fell into this background character role, not a background character, but more not as prominent as I wish she was. I just wish she had more scenes because although she's on her own, she has a really vital role and the last episode with Vakna and Henry, it's really powerful and it just shows to show how great the writing is on Elle's character. One of the things I really like is seeing a character, someone that is so powerful as Elle, going through this really deep rock bottom, losing her dad, losing her powers, being in a place where not only is she different, she's then bullied on top of that for being different. It was really interesting to see her truly hit rock bottom and then to a certain extent, even go further, go into her past, go into Nina, go deep into her past and try to sort through these memories and see what actually happened and see that she's known what's been going on this entire time. Before we get into Vakna, I want to talk about the Hopper Murray Joyce plot, whatever. I personally don't like the adult plot this season. I loved it last season. I just wish they added a little bit more to it. I think it was a little bit longer than it was supposed to be. I think it was just a little bit too long. It took a long time to get there and most of it was just filler with Russian accent like, ooh, peanut butter is a dollar. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care that you like peanut butter, bitch. Although I didn't like it, I did like seeing more of Hopper's story, Hopper's background and we finally get to see the weight of the responsibility that Hopper has felt all this time through the first season of Stranger Things. We see him as this kind of deadbeat cop and we don't really know why and you kind of see it as like, oh, he lost his daughter that is really sad and then it just like keeps going to where he feels the most amount of guilt for what happened to his daughter. What I wish they could have done in this time that they spent with Joyce Murray, you know, going to find Hopper, I wish we got a little bit more of Joyce. I wish we got a little bit more of Joyce's backstory. I feel like we've been kind of tiptoeing around, giving us a little bit more of Joyce's backstory and I get it. We have a lot of characters going around. We can't give all of them a full draw my life. You know what I mean? I get it. I get it, but I'm saying that like, Joyce is a really good character and Joyce has been a very vital part since the very first season. Her love for her sons is like the most powerful thing in the world. She goes to extreme lengths to protect her kids and to fight for the people that she loves and I wish we just get a little bit more backstory on her. What was her childhood like? I want to see Hopper and Joyce when they were in school together. I want to see that sort of dynamic that they went through. I think it would be really interesting. I think it would be a really cool addition to the show, especially if you're setting up Joyce and Hopper to be together. I think it would be great to not only give us Hopper's backstory, which they have, I think giving Joyce a little bit more backstory is great as well. Let's talk about what we've been waiting for. Let's talk about freaking Bekna. Let's talk about him as a protagonist, antagonist. He's not a protagonist. Let's talk about Bekna as the antagonist of this season. So again, it parallels to D&D. Great. Always love that. They explain it in the beginning and then Bekna was dead, but he was in and he comes back. The setup for Bekna is great. I think it is really cool to see this antagonist be so scary this season. I mean, scary with a grinch-looking body. It's really scary. There's a spider in my room. Okay, Bekna. Anyways, I'm just really fascinated by the upside down. I do remember in the last season, I feel like we kind of... So Bekna is this season's antagonist and he is basically like a spider-esque figure. He possesses the souls of tormented teenagers and keeps them locked in his webs and feeds off of them to be stronger. So very much giving spider. Bekna is also later revealed to be Henry Creel, which we get earlier on in the season as the son of the first family victim of Bekna, which was very, very fascinating to me. I thought that was a great twist. And Jamie Campbell Bauer. He's giving... He's Jace. That's Jace Whalen. That's... He's a member of the Voltory. I mean, obviously he wasn't going to be a friend. He was obviously a foe when he was trying to talk to Elle. I'm wondering because, okay, so he's talking to Elle. He wants her to be, I don't know, the next Bekna. But then there's something else sneaky going on that I have to talk about, but I'm going to wait a little bit because I don't know. I liked Bekna. I thought he was super scary. Some people might even say he's sexy. Not me. I've just heard that from a few people here and there. But this is also the first stranger things villain and monster that has actually had dialogue. That has actually had this one-on-one dialogue with the victims that he is going after, which is very fascinating because we usually see the stranger things monsters as like these faceless monsters and you just don't know what's going on. But Bekna speaks. Bekna talks. Bekna is a podcaster, if you will. He likes talking to you whispering into your ears. First time we've gotten an origin story about any of the monsters in stranger things. The last three seasons has been like, and then the monster was dead. But he wasn't. And it's kind of like, we don't really know what's going on. How did the upside down even come to be? This is the first time we've gotten a lot from a villain. First maybe even drawing some sympathy with the villain. I don't know. I don't know. He just kind of didn't like his family. And then he was like, you know what? I don't like you guys. And you guys feed into the things that I don't like. So I'm going to murder you. And guess what? I also like spiders. I think I'm going to become a spider. Yeah, he was kind of freak. Like Bekna is a freak and he's a loser. And what's on the street is that Bekna has a mole in Hawkins that has been spying and everyone says that it is going to be the school guidance counselor because every one of the victims was one of her students that she was counseling that she was having them spill all their trauma beans to me going to my therapist. I have some trauma beans for you today. I think that's probably going to happen if it doesn't. I don't really know who's going to be the inside mole. Maybe it's Eddie. Maybe it's, I don't know. Maybe it's Will. I don't know. I hope it's Jason. I hope Jason's the mole because that just be kind of weird and kind of like, okay, maybe he has some sort of significance in the show. There's a lot of fun theories about what Bekna's going to do in volume two. And of course, it's all going to send back to Will. Let's let's point out the elephant in the room. That little gay boy survived in the upside down for a week. No one else has survived a day in the upside down. Everyone has been toast meat right as they enter. How the hell did he survive? How did he make it out just by singing a song that he likes? Like he did not. He did not. He did not survive. The only other people that have survived are the teenagers and that's because they have known so much about the upside down for this entire time. They knew how to fight off the demons. They knew, they knew so much. How did Will Byers survive? How did this survive? That's not Will Byers on the screen, but how did Will Byers survive? And another thing is when Joyce is talking about Will, she calls him a special boy. He's just a special kid. He's a special boy. When Henry Creel's dad is talking about his family, he says that Henry is, was just a special kid. He was a special boy. There's just too many parallels drawn between Henry Creel and Will Byers that there is just something going to be going on in volume two. And I don't know what that's going to be. I don't know if that's going to be that has been protecting Will from the upside down the entire time because everyone else that has been attacked or targeted by the upside down has been done. Billy done, like Bob done, like Barb done, like Chrissy done, like everyone else that's gotten a little tag or it has been nuked, but he's had like a little like thing in the back of his neck, like he's here. And he's just been like fine. Like he's just been fine. He has a lot of trauma, but at the end of the day, the upside down is not getting his ass for some reason. And it seems like Becna's protecting him. Why is he protecting him? I'm not sure. Does he want Will to become the next him because L doesn't want it or I don't know. I mean, Will doesn't have telekinetic powers like they do, but I'm trying to find out what, why. We also have theories of Becna becoming a shape shifter or being able to play with the visions of others minds, giving very Scarlet Witch my ad, manipulating people's minds to be able to see what he wants them to see. And it kind of throws a lot of theories into the trailer for volume two as to what is what and if we're seeing is actually what it is. There's a, there's a clip of Will and Jonathan hugging and people were like, is that Jonathan? Is he coming out? Does Becna only protect gay people? Is there something to that? Happy freaking Pride Month. Stranger things did not care about the Pride Month dropping. They didn't do anything for Pride Month, but maybe this is it. Henry Creel and Will Byers are gay and Becna only protects gay people. That's why Whitney heard running up that hill. He was like, whoa. He was like, hold the fuck on. Is that what I think it is? Is that what I think it is? You better be joking. You better be joking. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. There's also going to be major deaths in volume two. We didn't get that many deaths in volume one. Any deaths that we really cared about. I think everyone, I think everyone honest to God, I think everyone forgot about that little journalist boy dying. I'm going to be honest. I'm calling, I'm calling it. I think, well, obviously Eddie's going to die unless people like, if they just like really liked him and he's like not going to die, but I think he's going to die. I think honestly they just bring in new characters to kill them. I'm going to be honest, but I think Eddie's like for sure going to bite the dust. I think he's going to have a major moment where he saves a lot of people and then he dies because, you know, why wouldn't he? I think we're going to have a lot of characters that really escaped death by the skin of their teeth. I think Lucas is for some reason, they keep teasing that something grand is going to happen to him, but I think something is going to be like really, really close. You know what would be crazy if they just killed off Mike? I know call me crazy, but I just feel like that's something that they do to like Vecna goes after Mike instead of going after Will or Elle because that's, you know, Mike is the person that they care about the most. So he uses Mike against them to get them to do what they, he wants them to do. That's just a theory though, you know what I mean? That's just the theory. I'm just saying if they kill off Max, I'm not watching season five. I'll watch it, but I won't be happy about it. Um, but thank you for watching this girl talk and thanks for today's sponsor of this girl talk, ExpressVPN. Thank you ExpressVPN for sponsoring today's video. I've talked about ExpressVPN a lot and I'm here to talk about them today. If you don't know what a VPN is, a VPN is a virtual private network. The virtual private network basically makes a secure tunnel between your device and the internet. Whenever you're connected to the internet, whether that's on your phone, your laptop, whether you are at your secure Wi-Fi at your home, or if you're using public Wi-Fi, you're at risk of your information being mined. Um, you're sending countless bits of information everywhere. It's just like, literally like dropping off little goodie bags at each little company just to be like, here's, here's a little bit of, here's some fun facts about me. And if you're using public Wi-Fi, it is really easy for hackers to get your information. 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So I have to hop over to the UK to get my Lily James freaking Cinderella out. Juno just bit my toe and it really hurt. I love using my ExpressVPN. I've been using it for a very long time and it is just that extra tool on my laptop that just makes life a little bit easier and makes it all just a little bit more convenient. Find out how you can get three months free of ExpressVPN by going to my description or going to expressvpn.com slash trend level. Thank you ExpressVPN for sponsoring today's video. Let me know all your thoughts on Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2. I know I pretty much scratched the surface of it, but I got pretty much what I wanted to say out about the season and I'm really excited for Volume 2. The trailer came out. I've watched it a bunch of times and I'm excited to see what you guys think. And if you guys disagree or if you guys agree or if you guys have any theories, any crazy theories about Volume 2, leave them all in the comment section down below. Share this video with your friends and give this video a thumbs up if you're excited about Volume 2 because I'm excited about Volume 2 and I cannot wait to talk about it with you guys. Make sure you guys follow me on all my social medias because I'll probably be posting minor opinions on there because usually I save all my big opinions for the vid. Of course I'm not I'm not crazy, but yeah thank you guys for watching today's video. I'll see you guys next time. Have fun watching Volume 2.