After three long years of waiting since its last broadcast, a recap of season 3 of Stranger Things is essential.
Because of a certain global pandemic, Stranger Things teens have taken a long, long time to return, despite the success. Indeed, according to Netflix statistics, the third season broadcast in July 2019 had exploded viewing records (582 million hours during its first month) a feat that the platform intends to repeat with the highly anticipated fourth season of its flagship series.
After three years of waiting, it is finally preparing to make its big comeback, which promises to be epic as shown in the new trailer in the war of the worlds mode. As three years is long, very long, it is high time to refresh your memory before the fourth season which we hope will be more memorable than the previous one, and that’s good since Netflix has released a recap montage of the major events of season 3.
LOVE IN THE AIR
First of all, this third season saw the formation and confirmation of many couples, more or less young. Already, the romance expected since the first season between Eleven and Mike has finally materialized, a rapprochement that has delighted fans, but not the little Will who has felt away from the group throughout the season, especially since Lucas found Max and Dustin fell in love with a certain Suzie with whom he communicates thanks to a radio system he built with his own hands.
But in this season of the Fires of Love, we also found Jonathan and Nancy, who continue to spin the perfect love in the series as in life, and obviously, Joyce and Jim Hopper who after finally confessing their feelings had to tragically leave each other. Indeed, the police chief sacrificed himself at the end of season 3 by trying to close the gate opened by the Russians.
MENTAL FLAGELLATOR AND RUSSIAN AFFAIRS
Because yes, Stranger Things remains an American series so it was necessary that the Russians play villains. In season 3, the teens discover that under the city’s shopping mall is a giant laboratory in which scientists hide a gigantic portal that would allow passage to the World upside down. The young daredevils will do everything to close this dangerous portal likely to free the evil critters that populate this other dimension.
In this third season, the Mental Flagellator, gargantuan monster master of the Upside Down World, nicknamed by young Dungeons & Dragons fans, takes over Billy. The step-kid with the mule was indeed possessed by the creature and helped him accomplish his sordid task: to create the spider monster, a hideous beast created from the bodies of the skinned (humans possessed by the Flagellator). Freed from the grip of the horrific creature, Billy protects Eleven before being impaled by one of the spider’s many legs.
A SAD END
After killing only two characters in the first two seasons, Barb in the first and Bob (Joyce’s boyfriend) in the second, Stranger Things could have achieved the feat of killing more than one character in its third season if Hopper had really died. Indeed, during a post-credits scene, we hear a Russian prison guard talking about a certain “American”, an allusion that suggests that the famous Jim Hopper would have finally survived. Netflix has decided not to keep this mystery and has revealed in its teasers and trailers that yes, Hopper will be present, although locked up in a Russian prison.
And to top it all off, Eleven lost her precious powers at the very end of the season. A moving conclusion marked by the departure of Hawkins from the Byers family and Eleven for a still-unknown land that marks the end of an era.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN SEASON 4?
The fourth season should answer many questions. First, we should learn how Jim Hopper survived the closing of the gate and especially what is behind this strange Russian prison. It remains to be seen if he will manage to escape or if he will prefer to stay to conduct his small investigation (we opt for the second possibility).
The names of the episodes also give us leads. Episode 4, named “Dear Billy”,” could focus on the character of Max, the sister of the late Billy, and Episode 7, “The Hawkins Laboratory Massacre”,” indicates either that a new incident could occur in the building, or that this episode will be, totally or partially, a flashback focused on Eleven’s youth within the laboratory. This is also what the first minutes of season 4 of Stranger Things unveiled by Netflix suggest, in which we discover Eleven just before her meeting with Hawkins’ tweens.
Episode 8, called “Dad”, could mark the return of the famous Doctor Brenner, who is also discovered in the first minutes of the series. In any case, this is how Eleven nicknamed the frightening scientist who served as her father figure before she was welcomed by Hopper. This fourth season could therefore perfectly go back and forth between the present and the past and reveal even more the intriguing story of Eleven. It is very likely that Brenner, apparently still alive, will make an appearance and that he will have to meet his adopted daughter on whom he has conducted a whole bunch of experiments.
One question remains: who is this zombified villain that we see in the trailer? Apparently consumed by an extended stay in the Upside Down World, this character named Vecna could very well be Dr. Brenner, or Billy. Or we make movies and it’s actually Barb who will finally make her comeback.
If as for season 2 there are nine episodes, these promise to be colossal. Indeed, the first seven episodes that constitute the first part broadcast on May 27 all last more than an hour (1h38 for episode 7) and the last two, which will be broadcast on July 1st, last 1h25 and 2h30, enough to make the pleasure last.