Stranger Things 4 Episode 6 Review – “Chapter Six: The Dive”

Stranger Things 4 Episode 6 “Chapter Six: The Dive”
Written by Curtis Gwinn
Directed by Nimród Antal
Premiered May 27, 2022 on Netflix

Everyone’s looking for something in “Chapter Six: The Dive”, as Stranger Things 4 spends a long time moving a lot of parts around… without doing a whole lot with them, with some of its more intriguing plot moments coming from its set of Hawkins Lab flashbacks. With every storyline seemingly stuck between two places, however, one would think it would be an opportunity to slow down and ‘dive’ a bit deeper into some of the themes and ideas it introduced in its opening episodes; unfortunately, with so many different points to hit to put things in place for Volume I’s finale, it comes the cost of the episode having any kind of coherent identity, or distinct purpose within the show’s overarching narrative.

While none of the material is particularly terrible, it still makes for a rather dreadful affair, as every scene feels both disjointed (at this point, we’re clearly feeling the effects of COVID-era TV production) and overextended – or, in the case of our side adventure to Salt Lake City, thoroughly extraneous, a side mission borne out of indulgence and a clear desire to keep these characters running on their own hamster wheel alongside the rest of the series.

There are definitely some parts where the production restrictions and underwhelming editing of this season bear their ugly faces, led by the expedition to Castle Rock to find Eddie, which is the only real group scene of “The Dive” (and one of the larger collections of main cast members this season, if we’re being honest). The cuts are incredibly distracting, jittering awkwardly from Eddie to Dustin, back across to Nancy and Robin, then back to Eddie – at one point, there are just two random legs stuck in the frame to suggest that yes, these people were really on set together. Though it’s hard to fault a television show for following necessary protocols to keep everyone safe, the lack of creativity in its composition sticks out like a sore thumb… and unfortunately, is a fitting visual metaphor for the insignificant pastiche of scenes “The Dive” ultimately is.

It would be different if those scenes added something to the story; but like most of the rest of “Chapter Six: The Dive”, like the scenes with Eleven and Creepy Strong Chin Orderly, is just walking in circles, doing nothing but reminding us that yes, Eleven’s time in captivity was traumatic by design – just a little extra bullying by Two and a few others for good measure, a bit of added misery that culminates in a really terribly staged scene of the kids using their powers to ‘push’ Eleven around.

Back in the real world, “Chapter Six: The Dive” continue to fumble its way through a shocking lack of story development. Would you like another vague allusion to Steve and Nancy’s crush? How about a bunch more cutaway shots of Argyle being stoned? Maybe we can appease you with two random scenes in the Russian story, neither of which have any payoff within this episode? If there’s a grand design to “The Dive”, it is around this idea of characters being pushed to deeper, more dangerous places; but how that manifests, in Jason’s religious-fueled rage or Eleven’s attempts to dive farther into her past, languish too long on what are ultimately half-cooked interpretations of the idea.

At least the final scene kicks things into gear; after discovering a portal to the Upside Down in Lover’s Lake, Steve breaks through the other side and is immediately greeted by a group of Demobats attacking him, leaving him injured and in the middle of being bitten when it cuts to credits. It’s almost as if this episode knows it doesn’t have a lot to hang its hat on, and kicks in a cliffhanger in the final seconds to bring things back to life. He’s just there getting bitten when we cut to credits; we don’t know if Nancy, Eddie and Robin make it down there, or what happens to the kids on land, or the cops… or really anything, because Vecna himself is apparently taking a nap right now. The parents trying to stop the Letterman Jacket manhunt are left in limbo, too, as are the Lorna crew, who leave with a computer printout heading to who-knows-where in the space between episodes.

At least we can take solace in the fact that “The Dive” ends with its characters mostly (?) in position for the mid-season finale. But even as a table-setting episode, “The Dive” struggles to maintain the momentum and pathos still lingering from “Dear Billy”, cutting off most plots and scenes before it gets to the most interesting and intriguing parts (we leave the Hawkins parents just staring at each other, as one says “I’m calling the police”. That’s bad TV!). Sure, not every episode of Stranger Things is required to be memorable, but so much of “The Dive” feels forgettable, or even inconsequential, begging the question of why these stories couldn’t have been condensed elsewhere in the season.

Grade: C

Other thoughts/observations:

• Suzie’s household is a scene of chaos that Stranger Things doesn’t really dive into, and doesn’t need to… it just feels lived in, in a way that most tertiary locations of the show don’t. Also see: Suzie’s BYU flag.
  
• That being said, the Argyle/Eden “subplot” is real stupid.
  
• Jason gets his third big boy speech in seven episodes, this time at a town hall where he throws everyone into a panic about the “satanic” Hellfire Club.
  
• Suzie: “Not only was I breaking the law… I was dating an agnostic.” Also – there is no way they coordinated all of those monster children into distracting Suzie’s father; it’s too good to be true.
  
• “That would’ve been when Eight was still here”… ok, sure, let’s just hand-wave “The Lost Sister” away a little harder.
  
• Gotta say, Hopper’s replacements are just terrible cops. Just awful.
  
• Over in Russia, the prisoners have a final meal while Hopper makes plans to burn the Demogorgon there. That’s really it!
  
• Suzie knows the “internet is going to change the world”. Stop patting yourselves on the back, Stranger Things.
  
• Americantendo? Ok, sure.
  
• “How can you stop the devil if you don’t even believe in him?”