Stranger Things Season 4 Episode 8

After the big Vecna/Henry/One reveal, the crew puts their various plans into motion. A recap of “Papa,” episode eight of season four of Netflix's 'Stranger ...

She kneels at his side, and in the greatest power move, when he begs her to tell him that she understands he did everything he did because he loved her, she refuses to give him that last win. They escape the prison through sewage pipes and arrive at Yuri’s stash house only to learn that he only has a helicopter to get them home. Their beeping distracts the military guys in the helicopter long enough for Eleven to get her bearings, and I know I’ve already said it, but it deserves to be repeated: She summons all of her strength and she brings that helicopter down in one giant, flaming crash. She realizes that Brenner was pushing her to her breaking point and forcing her to explore that dark void under false pretenses of tracking the Soviets because he was obsessed with finding One in the Upside Down. His anger led to Eleven opening that first gate in 1983. Dampening the power of his best weapon like a real idiot, Brenner is left to carry Eleven out of the bunker to safety. And when Owens and Brenner give her the full rundown of what has been happening — and is about to happen — in Hawkins at the (creepy, long) hands of Vecna, she uses her other power to check in on her friends in that dark void of hers. It’s quite the opposite: If Eleven’s journey this season is all about her finally believing that she is not a monster, then of course it would always come down to her realizing who the actual monster is and confronting him. Dr. Owens reminds his colleague that this isn’t a prison and Eleven is free to come and go as she pleases, but then Brenner turns around and has Owens handcuffed to a pipe and locks Eleven in a room with him. When she wakes up, she finds that she’s been collared in that device Brenner used to torture the other kids in her program. Aside from once again trying to make Eleven believe in his twisted family fantasy, he also knows where to hit her so it hurts — he tells her that she is only acting out because of the guilt she feels for freeing One and for causing all of this death and destruction. Did you use it wisely, or did you spend the whole time listening to Kate Bush and thinking about how you will slowly walk out into the sea if the body count at the end of this season — you know there is going to be a body count — includes Hopper or Steve? And then they realize that if Vecna is looking to make four separate gates, he must make four kills.