Stranger Things 4 Episode 7 Review – “Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab”

Stranger Things 4 Season 4, Episode 7 “Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab”
Written by The Duffer Brothers
Directed by The Duffer Brothers
Premiered May 27, 2022 on Netflix

“Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” is not only an extremely bloated mid-season finale for Stranger Things 4; it’s a fairly accurate representation of the season as a whole, a handful of interesting developments spread thinly across the episode’s incredibly dense, lethargic 96 minutes. Even the original story of Vecna, which constitutes the real backbone of the episode, drags out its reveal with a sloth-like approach to pacing – both visually and audibly, leading to an ending that ends up feeling a bit more muted than its violent, thematically potent introduction initially seems. Though an improvement over the previous two episodes, it feels like Stranger Things 4 is stretching out its spectacle, at the cost of some of its characters, as it begins its typical third act dive into loud, popcorn-friendly fare.

Perhaps what is most surprising is how much time “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” takes place at the Wheeler home; save for the occasional aside into Eleven’s memory banks and the adult gang’s attempt to break out of Kamchata, “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” doubles down on the teens standing on either side of the boundary between dimensions, which leads to a lot of slow scenes of them figuring out how to communicate, first through light fixtures (ala Will in season one), and then through a Lite-Brite (because it’s never too late for a few additional pop culture references). This is fine, of course, except it involves a lot of people standing around for most of the episode, as Vecna fills in the details of his backstory and the teens try to figure out how to get themselves back into the same dimension together.

But this episode is really about Vecna, and nothing else; what does really work is how it posits the sources of power for both himself and Eleven, both triggering their powers through channeling trauma (as Brenner both taught, and warned, them), but to very different results. Eleven, whose powers come to life after she remembers her birth, draws her powers from a place of love, of powerful, overwhelming connection – where, as Vecna reveals in excruciating detail, draws his power from domination, from manipulation, and from… genocide. Though his unveiling is ultimately a bit cartoonish, immediately murdering everyone he sees the moment Eleven removes his implant, releasing him from Brenner’s control – but still, the dichotomy between where Vecna draws power from (guilt, trauma, sadness) and Eleven does, is an interesting note to set the stage for the inevitable second showdown in Volume II.

(And, of course, is intriguing in how it ties back to “The Vanishing of Will Byers”, given Eleven’s banishment of Henry kicked off the events that led to the opening of the original gate below Hawkins, where Vecna would begin his master plan by haunting poor, awkward little Will Byers).

I also like the escalation of stakes as Vecna turns his attention from Max to Nancy, returning to the still-festering pain Nancy has felt since “The Weirdo on Maple Street” as he both brings her into his world, and reveals his plan and back story (presumably while Eleven is learning the same things). As arguably the most single rewarding character arc of the series (alongside Steve and Max, of course), Stranger Things has seen Nancy fight against a lot of things, mostly the assumptions of what type of woman she is, or wants to be – putting her in Vecna’s sights not only gives that a different sort of tension, as someone who really doesn’t fear anything in our world or the Upside Down, to a degree even Max, Steve, or Eleven can’t compete with. Nancy may not have Eleven’s powers, but she certainly is capable of bending the world to her will at times; though the sequence may only be for Vecna to facilitate telling his origin story, the prospect of a Vecna vs. Nancy showdown is a palpable one.

The trip to get there though, is an unfortunately a bit one-dimensional, and stretched out waaay too thin: even if this wasn’t the mid-season finale, “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” would feel less an episode about rejecting fathers than it was about rejecting coherent story structure. Which is a perfect recipe for how to make a climactic moment feel anti-climactic; just drown it in bunch of other plot points the episode has no interest in resolving, and you’ve got the recipe for how “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” can undercut perhaps the most revelatory hour of the series with an incredibly soft foundation surrounding it.

Though some facets of it are intriguing in how they engage with the larger metaphorical ideas of Stranger Things, the reveal of Vecna ends up being a bit of a letdown, merely another device of the eldritch horror that’s lurked in the shadows of the Upside Down since the beginning, and will presumably do so until approaching the show’s end. Though it certainly feels like Stranger Things is finally getting To The Point, its inability to do so without any sense of brevity or subtlety leaves Volume I ending a bit cheaper and predictable than obviously intended.

Grade: C+

Other thoughts/observations:

• Steve sure was losing blood for awhile…. until he totally wasn’t, his episode-ending bat wounds healing in similar fashion to Hopper’s broken ankle.
  
• Anyone wondering what all these earthquakes are about? And why aren’t they felt in the ‘real’ world, and only in the Upside Down? Interesting!
  
• Boy, Brenner’s parenting methods are… intense, even by 1980s standards!
  
• I enjoy how Stranger Things continues to push Dr. Brenner as this wildly unstable, complex character capable of moments of empathy amongst these cold, calculated acts of absolute psychosis. It’s a great performance this show has missed.
  
• The Eddie/Steve scene was solid, though I wish Stranger Things would let characters like this have more than one scene together a season.
  
• Nancy’s diary in the Upside Down reveals that its world is stuck on the day Will vanished from Hawkins. Important plot point? We’ll see in Stranger Things 5, I presume.
  
• The effect mostly works, but there are times when Stranger Things cuts from a de-aged Eleven to actual Eleven in her flashback sequences, and it can be a bit noticeable.
  
• The score to this show remains fantastic, though it was annoying to hear such incredible music behind the Russian subplot all season. Just an absolute waste.
  
• Erica is a snitch for the police? Color me surprised.