Stranger Things 4 Episode 1 Review – “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club”

Stranger Things 4 Episode 1 – “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club”
Written by The Duffer Brothers
Directed by The Duffer Brothers
Premiered May 27, 2022 on Netflix

It took a long, strange – and remarkably expensive- road to get Stranger Things 4 to air, led by two forces of nature even Netflix couldn’t control – a pandemic and the rapid maturing of teenage actors. But three years and $200 million+ later after “The Battle of Starcourt”, Stranger Things returned with “The Hellfire Club” – a premiere much darker and more focused than expected, albeit one setting itself up for the same familiar pitfalls of the past.

Perhaps the most interesting change to Stranger Things 4 is the heightened sense of disbelief it requires to function; save for its opening flashback, “The Hellfire Club” begins less than a year after the Battle for Starcourt – and knows immediately what it’s walking into, literally opening on an Eleven voiceover pondering the passage of time, time travel – and boy, wouldn’t it just be cool if the audience accepted Will’s shitty haircut and the fact everyone looks old enough to drink?

Though it seems like low-hanging fruit, it seems odd that Stranger Things didn’t take this into consideration at any point, given how ridiculous it feels to watch The Duffer Brothers work to find creative angles to hide the maturity of their actors. It must’ve been a shitshow when trying to cast extras so the high school scenes didn’t either look like a long-in-the-tooth CW drama or Pen15; to their credit, most of the new casting helps sell the façade a little bit, and the suspension of disbelief mostly settles in by the time “The Hellfire Club” and its plot begin to churn.

The plotting of Stranger Things 4‘s premiere is perhaps its strangest feature, a sprawling story spread in two (*ahem* three) distinct, isolated locations at the same time. Which is both an incredibly ambitious effort, and a bit of a frustrating one; after Stranger Things 3 split up its main characters into small factions for the entirety of the season, leaving little room for the show to really explore and develop the dynamics within the group. Where at least in season three some of this was necessary for its parallel mysteries to operate, Stranger Things 4 takes nearly 65 minutes of the premiere to catch up with its sprawling cast of characters before the real story gets going Yes, Chrissy’s slowly unraveling mental state at the hands of Vecna is a running undercurrent, but her isolation from the rest of the plot, and the rather quick fashion in which she is introduced and disposed, really only makes the premiere feel busier. Stranger Things loves its central mysteries, but boy, it leaves no stone unturned in this premiere, turning what is occasionally a very creepy, evocative hour into a running checklist of character reintroductions, which work to varying degrees of effect.

A lot of those beats are familiar; Eleven struggles to acclimate (though it’s high school, so it’s a lot meaner), Steve is mega horny, Will is… well, Will is painting and moping a lot, something Eleven attributes to liking a girl in the letter to Mike that serves as the episode’s cold open. Despite a lot having changed for our central characters, much remains the same; except with Lucas and Max, which is where “The Hellfire Club” really begins to find its voice as a story of something other than science fiction intrigue, or relying on baked-in allegiance to its main characters.

Once one of the show’s budding couples, Stranger Things 4 opens with Lucas and Max broken up, spiraling away from their social circles in drastically different ways. Lucas is trying to branch out into sports and more traditionally “popular” circles, while Max has completely withdrawn from the world, after Billy’s death and her family split up again; both stories for a short, if compelling, arc for both characters, especially in the brief moments they interact. Sadie Sink really runs away with the episode, capturing a sadness and discomfort in Max that may not always rise to the surface, but runs deep; though Caleb McLaughlin’s arc doesn’t allow for the same magnitude of emotion, how he internalizes the frustrations Lucas is facing provide the episode with some emotional traction, a nice balance to the incredibly overwrought theatrics that comprise of Eddie Munson’s introductory scenes (which are fun, but are… mostly a 20-year-old being really aggressive and theatrical around 14-year-olds).

For most, “The Hellfire Club” opens in relatively comfortable places, narratively speaking; Nancy’s running the paper (with a Fred The Annoying Contrarian Nerd by her side), Jonathan’s getting high with his friend Argyle, and Joyce’s head is already wrapped around another mystery for her to solve, courtesy of a Russian doll that strangely arrives in her mailbox. But with Max and Lucas, Stranger Things 4 begins to feel like it is pulling at something different – which feels noticeably more dour than the show’s exploration of maturity and friendship before it, an interesting shift in tone bookended by the show’s mythos-heavy opening and closing scenes.

What are we to make of this flashback which suggests Eleven killed her counterparts before opening the portal to the Upside Down, and Chrissy falling victim to the wet, squelchy terrors of Vecna (who we can assume is not the Mind Flayer – but who controls who?). Beyond the fact that clearly Stranger Things 4 is hinting at getting to The Point of It All, it points to a show that is looking to demarcate itself from the lighter E.T. and The Goonies references, and move into a darker, Gremlins and The Nightmare on Elm Street-inspired place (unsurprisingly, Robert Englund will make a cameo in “Chapter Four: Dear Billy”).

The more disturbing imagery aside, this sense of darkness pervades throughout every scene of “The Hellfire Club”. Take a step back, and everyone is utterly fucking miserable; Eleven hates school, Joyce hates her new job, Max is depressed, Steve is disillusioned … and I gotta think Will hates that goddamn awful bowl cut on his head. Save for maybe Dustin and our brief glimpses of post-karate class Murray, there’s not a lot of happiness to be found anywhere, even as the town of Hawkins seems to have moved on with its collective life.

It makes for a surprisingly somber (and extended) season premiere, one that occasionally lingers a bit too long on every small twist of the knife; Eleven is being bullied (and has no powers, of course), Chrissy’s mom weight shames her into an eating disorder, and Dustin’s new hero looks like the combination of Pauly Shore and Eddie Vedder… if there’s a distinct tone to be found in “The Hellfire Club”, it is one of absolute misery, only occasionally lightened by Steve and Robin hanging out (Robin’s got a crush on a girl! Sure that will end well!) and the cutaway of Joyce’s new neighbors acclimating to her presence in the neighborhood.

The sadness hanging over everyone in Stranger Things is palpable, something more than mood for mood’s sake. And it brings me back to Lucas, who watches his friends have a great night from a distance (while they fail to experience his big moment alongside him); no matter what happens, life continues to push forward. Friends will move, personalities will change, and people who shouldn’t die will die. As an adult, we become resigned to accepting these things through experience; but as teenagers, we expect our friends to be there for every moment, for our siblings to share every big experience with us. As we grow, so does the distance between us and our childhood – and though I’m not entirely sure “The Hellfire Club” was constructed explicitly to capture that sadness, it does so with an emotional clarity that is rather surprising.

The rest of “The Hellfire Club” is the usual mixed bag of overwrought tropes and intriguing storytelling, all married to the show’s typical, ‘homage as a visual language’ aesthetics. Unlike season three’s opening chapter, however, Stranger Things 4 is not opening with any pretense of normalcy or even happiness; if you aren’t ready for shit to get dark, like bone-snappingly, cheerleader-murdery dark, then “The Hellfire Club” is a clear sign to get off this particular train before it veers off the tracks and dives headfirst into the darkness of the Upside Down.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

• Let’s be honest: kind of a weirdly paced, languid premiere! However, it gave just enough time to its best characters that I was willing to allow the underwhelming sequels of “Joyce Does a Mystery” and “You Better Fucking Respect Dungeons & Dragons”.
  
• With the season beginning in March 1986, this is the first season not built to end on a holiday…. unless there’s a St. Patrick’s day surprise awaiting us.
  
• The episode opens with a Matthew Modine in a Bad Wig flashback to 1979; Eleven kills her counterparts and all the other doctors, and we see an image of her in her fully shaved head glory, bleeding from her eyes and panting. Mystery!
  
• No Hopper in this episode; but given the mid-credits stinger following “The Battle of Starcourt”, we all know it won’t be long.
  
• The Chrissy/Eddie scene is a great parallel to Max and Lucas’s in the hallway, and really helps in building out both characters in really interesting ways. Unfortunately for Chrissy, it’s all we’ll get for her.
  
• Dustin has his religious girlfriend changing his grades in the school system. Cannot hate the game there.
  
• “What did they die for? For us to lose a basketball game?” is certainly a way to frame a pep rally speech.
  
• Dustin and Mike compare girlfriends: “You realize El saved the world twice right?” “…and yet you have a C in Spanish.”
  
• Does anyone care about Nancy and Jonathan? Just asking because it feels like the show really does not.
  
• Spiders, grandfather clocks and porcelain dolls… something tells me 1979 is not the only place we’re flashing back to this season.