SPOILERS

“Chapter 6: The Dive”

Are you s#*%ing me?

So far in this season, Stranger Things has avoided doing the black screen cliffhanger, where they are at a desperate moment, full of tension and then they go black screen and head to credits. They had a chance when Max was running up the hill from the Upside Down hoping to escape Vecna. They threw a black screen up at that moment, only to return for the resolution before the episode ended. My emotions appreciated it.

This time, though, they couldn’t help themselves.

Poor Steve is stuck in the Upside Down with some kind of demon birds eating at him as he screamed and kicked in hopes of getting free and then…

Black screen.

Arrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great episode with the tension and frightfulness that Steve, Nancy and their group was facing to the humor of the crew at Suzie’s house searching for the address of the Nina Project.

Things are setting up nicely in Russia too as Murray and Joyce showed some really good planning and some serious backbone when dealing with Yuri. It is looking more and more like we are getting a Hopper, Joyce, Murray confrontation with the Russian Demogorgon gladiator style. The whole Hopper is a prisoner angle has been my least favorite so far in the season (outside of Argyle turning Jonathan into a stoner plot point), but I hope that everything that they have been building to in this season is going to be worth it in the end.

Then, I really want Dr. Brenner to die. I hate “Papa” so much. We continue the search into Eleven’s past to try and regain her powers. I am beginning to think that there is something coming in this story that is going to be a twist. The first scene of the season implied that Eleven massacred the entire project, but I am not sure that is the truth right now.

Then Jason seems to have an ability of the oratory nature. We have seen that all season with his pep talks to the basketball team and his friends, but after Patrick was murdered, it looks like he might be taking a step toward charismatic leader. I was wrong about him seeing Patrick’s death and accepting Eddie’s innocence like I speculated about last time. In fact, he doubled down, claiming Eddie is a vessel for the power of the Devil and he got the townspeople whipped up into a mob to search for Eddie.

There is one more episode remaining in the “Volume One” part of season four. It is a 2 1/2 hour episode and I am afraid that it is going to leave us off in another cliffhanger. Episodes 8 & 9 are going to drop at the beginning of July and I am just hoping that it is not a horrible cliffhanger like episode 6 left us with.