‘Stranger Things 4’ Chapter 2 Recap: Vecna’s Curse

Previously on Stranger Things Season 4 Chapter 1: The Hellfire Club, a winning shot, and BOOBIES! Now, onto Chapter 2…

Hoppin’ right back up

We all remember the Stranger Things Season 3 finale when Hop sacrificed himself and died a hero, disintegrating in a mall so we all could live, and we were very, very sad for three minutes until a credits tag dropped a reference to “the American” in a Russian prison and made it abundantly clear that he was alive, right? Just checking, because Hopper is very much alive. In a flashback, we follow him into the blinding light of the explosion, where he’s thrown back, but then just sort of…opens his eyes and isn’t dead. His mustache isn’t even singed.

But when we catch up with him in the show’s present day, though, he may not be disintegrated, but he is being held prisoner and getting the absolute snot beat out of him and being tortured with an instrument charmingly referred to as “The Elephant” in an attempt to get info about a Russian uniform-wearing Joyce. Later, another guard covertly, and not so kindly, tells him, “we’ll get you home, American.” They’re in cahoots, but Hop is also still getting punched a lot.

Back in California, Murray and Joyce place a call to the mysterious “Enzo,” who is that same Russian guard in a phone booth who tells them that 1. He can’t give them proof that Hopper is alive because he’s “stuck” and 2. That they have to bring $40k in cash to Alaska the next day and hand it off to a guy named Yuri if they want to un-stuck him. Murray reluctantly concedes that Hop hasn’t evaporated, but is not thrilled about their (correct) theory that he’s been taken prisoner and that they’re working with what appears to be a corrupt Russian prison guard. Joyce, meanwhile, is glass half full and still holding out for that romantic pasta night with Hopper. Guess we’re going to Alaska!

Woah, did you Chris-see that?

Hopper is alive, but Chrissy? Chrissy is….not. Max, who lives in the trailer across the clearing from Eddie and saw the lights flashing in his trailer the night before, throws back some headache pills and gets her suspicious face on as cop cars peel into the trailer park. As news breaks that an unnamed Hopkins High student has died (her twisted corpse earns a “holy mother of God” from the police chief, and the military eventually shows up to investigate), Max visits Dustin to let him know that his guy Eddie is going to be suspect number one in Chrissy’s death, reminding him that though rock-n-roll Eddie, who is fond of leaning into the Satanic Panic vibes assigned to him, has a Heart of Gold (™), Ted Bundy was nice too. Plus, she saw him run from the scene, peeling out in his van. They theorize that something could have killed Chrissy, rather than someone. They’ve gotta find Eddie. First stop: the video store, where Robin and Steve remain a. The best and b. So torn up about their respective romantic lives that they compromise on watching Doctor Zhivago for its doomed love plotline, despite Steve’s strong feelings about double VHS tapes, before they too are stopped in their tracks by the news report.

Max and Dustin roll in and commandeer the video store’s phones to establish a base of operations to call all of Eddie’s friends and find him, messing up Robin’s carefully organized stacks of VHS tapes and prompting some surly comments from Steve about Eddie being Dustin’s “new best friend.” Aww, Steeeeeeve. His mullet flows freely, much like my admiration for him. They theorize that Eddie may be hiding out with his supplier, known only as “Reefer Rick,” and use Steve’s patented psychoanalysis of rentals (remember, just one episode ago, he concluded that Robin’s crush was a boobies enthusiast based on her Fast Times pause point) to figure out which Rick it may be, based on movie titles. They rule out a mermaid enthusiast (Splash) and a movie musical fan (Grease), before hitting the jackpot with an account with a string of Cheech and Chong movies, mostly returned late. Reefer Rick, here they come.

It’s important to note that when they close the video store early (employees of the month, as usual) and peel out to the house near Lovers Lake to search, they’re literally calling “Reefer Rick! Reefer Rick?” as if that’s his God-given name. Incredible. They eventually start literally poking around a boathouse (Steve is jabbing at stuff with an oar) and Eddie leaps out. After Dustin introduces Max as “the one who never wants to play D&D” and Robin and Steve are wearily acknowledged, Eddie is convinced they’re on his side and want to help, removing the sharp object he has held to Steve’s throat and telling the gang about Chrissy’s bone-snapping episode. “It was like there was something inside her head, pulling,” he says. Dustin tells him about the Upside Down, which Eddie interprets as “ghosts and shit,” and honestly, where’s the lie? Whatever got to Chrissy, they decide, sounds like “a spellcaster. A dark wizard.” It sounds an awful lot like Vecna, the D&D enemy they just defeated in their campaign. OMINOUS CLOCK BONG!!

The Fred and Nancy Show

Elsewhere in Hawkins, Nancy decides it’s on her to investigate the death, so she grabs her newspaper buddy Fred (who really seems to have it out for poor Jonathan) and heads to the trailer park, where they tell police they’re “basically [Max’s] nannies” and have to check on her. Fred, meanwhile, has a vision of the police officer’s facing morphing into a monster and accusing him of “killing that kid” in his car accident the year before. Maybe his karma would be better if he would stop negging Jonathan, tbh. As Fred wanders into the woods and sees the same haunted-ass grandfather clock, bad sign, Nancy talks with Eddie’s uncle, who tells her about “the real boogieman,” Victor Creel, a convicted serial killer who was accused of slaughtering his wife and children 30 years before, their bodies found in their home in a similar state to Chrissy’s, missing eyes, twisted limbs and all. Creel is still in prison nearby. Nancy, spellbound, suddenly realizes that Fred is missing.

He’s busy having a vision in the woods of a crowd of eyeless, monster-faced people all dressed in black, calling him a murderer. As one does. He sees his burning car in the street, and his real-word body levitates as the growly monster voice says, “I want you to join me.” As Fred’s body contorts in the air, he’s claimed as the next Vec-tim. CRUNCH. BONG.

O basketball captain, my captain

The basketball team is roused from their hungover slumber (Lucas barfing, natch) to the news of the student’s death, and the cops soon arrive to talk with Captain Jason. He seems genuinely shocked to hear that he could maybe be in trouble for the underage drinking, even if he didn’t have anything to do with the student — soon revealed to him as Chrissy — who died. He not only didn’t know she was dead, but also that she was buying drugs from Eddie or even knew Eddie in the first place. He stomps into the woods and screams, then later sets a yearbook photo of Eddie and the Hellfire Club (including Lucas, though Jason doesn’t seem to catch that) on fire. This is 100% a villain origin story, I can feel it.

California, here we come

Finally, in California, which I’ve heard is supposed to be chill, it’s a drama-rama at the Rink-O-Mania. Rink-O-Drama, you might say.

Eleven, Will, Jonathan and Argyle greet Mike, in full escape-from-the-Midwest splendor in flip flops, a visor and a knockoff Pac Sun shirt, at the airport. He presents El with smooshed flowers, gives Will a weird half-hug, and gets a really quality squeeze from Argyle, who checks the tag on her shirt and then says, “I’ve heard a lot about your sister, man” with delivery so deadpan it’s beyond embalming. Behind them, Murray is also arriving off the same flight, unbeknownst to them. El, excited, gushes about her plans to take him to Rink-O-Mania, “the most fun place in the world.” Unfortunately, she tells a gullible Mike, he’ll have to wait to meet her very good friend Angela.

You have never seen so many thighs as at Rink-O-Mania, where Mike bounds off to buy some “vomit green” socks that he’s way to pumped about. Will asks El why she’s lying about, among other things, being a Rink-O-Rama enthusiast, having friends, and generally being, you know, happy. And then, obviously, Angela shows up and spots them. Yike.

Having dropped the kids off at the sating rink, Argyle and Jonathan engage in the age-old pastime of smoking weed and hitting golf balls at nothing in particular. Unique is Argyle’s prodigious fart-on-demand abilities. He’s really letting them rip. Jonathan confesses his plan to “slow motion break up with Nancy” and go to community college in town with Argyle so he can be near his family, instead of going to Emerson with Nancy. They decide to smoke some more weed about it.

Meanwhile, Angela is ready to raise hell, inviting her “friend” El to skate and separating her from Mike and Will, who spills about El being unhappy. The DJ dedicates “Wipeout” to “Jane, the local snitch,” and the kids skate in circles around her taunting her before someone goes full Glee and throws a chocolate milkshake in her face. She flees, crying.

When she emerges, she tearily tells Angela she “ruined [her] day” and demands that she tell Mike it was a joke. When Angela doubles down on the assholery, El grabs a rollerskate out of a random kid’s hand and smashes it right into Angela’s face, everyone — including Mike — looking on. As he utters a horrified, “What did you do?” we’re treated to a flashback to Baby Eleven and the gory scene at the lab.

To close the episode, the monster is levitating in the Upside Down, suspended by wicked-looking tentacles. When we zoom out, we see a boarded up mansion surrounded by…dragons? Dementors? Nothing good, that’s for sure.

Body count: 1. Fred, we hardly knew ye. Angela’s nose, though not a person in and of itself, is also a victim here.
Most ’80s moment of the episode: The police chief using a yellow rotary phone at a crime scene to call into the station.

Kase Wickman is a writer, editor, Ravenclaw and certified fraidy-cat who lives in New Jersey. If she had powers, she’d never have to wash off mascara again. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, if you dare.