What a way to end the season! This last episode was over two hours long but certainly didn’t feel like it and I loved how everything came together but kept it quite open-ended ready for season five, which in my opinion with how good this season was, I didn’t feel was needed.

The Piggyback is the last episode of Stranger Things season four where the group come together in different areas of the world to fight Vecna. Max and the main group in Hawkins figure out a four step plan of going into the upside down and fighting Vecna directly. Eleven and her group use her superpowers to be able to connect to Max to help her with her conquest, and finally Hopper, Joyce and Murray work together to break back into the prison to defeat the Demogorgons that they have created there.

This episode tugged on my heartstrings quite a bit but I did expect more deaths. Knowing that season five is going to be a thing meant that they couldn’t kill too many of the main cast because we need them for the next season, which is fair enough, but I would’ve enjoyed more if it was possible. I was sad when Eddie died as he was such a sweetheart and a wonderful character that was a great addition to the group, but it wasn’t too much of a surprise seeing as he had just come into this season and didn’t really have a spot in season five. However the fact that Max is supposedly dead (but yet to be confirmed) was really fascinating and definitely leaves an open door for season 5 to see whether she will return or whether she is going to die and will leave the group reeling from her death.

The other death that was incredibly funny to me in the most morbid of ways was the bully’s death, the one that was always gunning for Eddie and named the Hellfire Club as a cult. The way the death just happened so randomly and suddenly was shocking to see but also quite funny because you did not expect it, and I love the fact that you can have those little snippets of comedy in a show that can be so dark and terrifying and it still fits with the storyline and doesn’t detract from the horror that you’re seeing.

I have thought all the way through this season that we don’t need a season five, I feel this season really encapsulated how great Stranger Things is and I’d be happy with it ending here. However seeing Vecna do the Michael Myers Halloween trope of disappearing before his body can be seen really keeps his ending open, and the fact that they still have to fight the big spider like being of the upside down really excited me because clearly there is going to be a big almost Thanos boss battle at the end of this, and this is the Netflix sci-fi version of The Avengers that no one asked for but everyone is very excited to see.

I’m intrigued to see what they do with season five and I hope that it lives up to my expectations. But season four was such a great season that had a fantastic antagonist, I loved learning about his backstory along with the characters and seeing how he ended up being who he is, the fact that he was able to pull off his plan and create an earthquake like moment in Hawkins with the upside down gateways being connected and coming together was really exciting and I’m interested to see how that plays into the next season. It really felt like in Harry Potter where you had the fun early years of them being young and then the second half with the dementors and kids dying, that’s what I expect from Stranger Things now. If they want to kill off some of the main cast members in season five I have no issue with that, I just hope it reaches my expectations and is as good as I hope it will be.

This season was brilliant, I absolutely love the ending and all of the storylines coming together plus having that emotional reunion was just what I wanted. It was absolutely perfect and did make me cry quite a lot, especially with Hopper and Eleven, I just hope that this trend continues into the final season because if they don’t end it with a bang I feel it really could soil the rest of the seasons that have come before and have been so fantastic.

What do you think of The Piggyback?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding