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Stranger Things 4 has finally come to a close and as usual, was filled with easter eggs and references. The first seven episodes were released at the end of May, but the streamer decided to hold onto the last two episodes to keep audiences enraptured well into the summer. Thankfully it was only a little over a month to wait. With Vecna adding to his killing spree, we were waiting to see how our favorite group of kids would battle this big baddie. If you have watched it, then you know. If not then be warned, there will be spoilers for season four ahead. Bravery.
The Hellfire Club
There was a real club back in the 1800s that was called The Hellfire Club. Eddie Munson though would probably know the name from the X-Men comics. The Hellfire Club in the pages from that comic was made up of a group of mutants who use their powers to try to influence world events for their gain. Here we see that it’s a fun name for a group to play some Dungeons & Dragons. The name sadly also makes it easy for the town residents to fall into a panic when they think it’s a cult. This reflects a trend from the 1980s where parents were warned that D&D and heavy metal music would turn their children to Satan. It led to a giant panic across the country, and we see that reflected this season.
Death From Above
At the end of the first episode, Chrissy stops by Eddie’s trailer to buy some drugs from him. Before they complete the transaction, Chrissy falls victim to Vecna and his hallucinations. Eddie watches as she floats into the air and contorts in ways that break all of her limbs. Her eyes explode, and she falls to the floor in a broken mess. Eddie understandably runs away and becomes the prime suspect in her death.
This is an homage to the first death in A Nightmare On Elm Street from 1984. Tina is being killed in her dream while in the real world her boyfriend Rod watches her body flail across the ceiling before she is slashed open. She falls to the floor dead. This won’t be the last Nightmare On Elm Street reference this season.
Misfits Of Science
Max is watching TV and there’s a show on with a young Courtney Cox of FRIENDS fame. Given the year this takes place, it would have to be the show Misfits Of Science. In the show, a group of young adults have superpowers and work along with a group of scientists. Courtney Cox’s character Gloria has telekinetic powers much like Eleven. The show only lasted for sixteen episodes before it was canceled.
Council Of Ricks
Robin begins to look up all the Ricks in the area on the member computer at Family Video to find Reefer Rick’s real name. As they scroll through the names in the database, we get to see that a Rick Sanchez has rented a video from this store before. It would appear that the reality-hopping character of Rick from Rick & Morty has made a stop in Hawkins before. He usually has a surly attitude and probably didn’t care much for the local youth. Although he would probably vaporize Vecna pretty quickly and solve everyone’s problems.
Silence Of The Demogorgons
Nancy and Robin track down that Victor Creel seemed to be the only surviving Vecna victim. He is housed at a mental hospital, and they decide to fake their way in to get to talk to him. They need to find out how to survive Vecna and hopefully stop him for good. When they finally get to the hallway to his cell, we see that it looks exactly like the hallway that Jodie Foster would later travel to meet Dr. Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs. Victor was even in the same cell that Hannibal Lecter at the end of the hallway. The sets this season have made some of the best Stranger Things 4 easter eggs.
Dream A Little Dream
When the girls meet Victor Creel he is played by horror legend Robert Englund. During his flashback as he tells his story, we learn that he had a song to anchor him to reality when Vecna tried to kill him like he had the rest of Victor’s family. For him, his song was Dream A Little Dream Of Me by Doris Day.
This is ironic since Robert Englund is most famous for playing Freddy Kruger in the Nightmare On Elm Street series. Vecna himself this season seems to take a lot of inspiration from Freddy Kruger. He traps his victims in a dream-like state, is able to control the reality of the dreams often times disguising himself as someone they are close to, and uses their fears against them.
Michael Myers Is Dead
When Max is in the dream world trying to escape from Vecna, we see her pass a tombstone with the name Myers on it. This is a reference to Michael Myers or maybe even the sister he killed in the first Halloween film. When Michael escaped from the mental hospital he stole her headstone and staged a body around it for Jamie Lee Curtis to find.
This is also a nod to the season two episode set on Halloween. While Mike and the gang are dressed up as Ghostbusters they stumble upon someone in a pair of coveralls and the famous white mask that Michael Myers wears in the Halloween films. It ends up being Max in the costume. The mask also comes back later this season as Eddie wears it to hide his face as they run around the trailer park looking for an RV to steal.
Brat Pack Inspiration
Throughout this season we have seen robin pining for her crush Vickie. We mostly see her in her band uniform and only a couple of quick glimpses throughout the season. When the gang is at Warzone trying to stock up for their upcoming battle with Vecna, Robin sees Vickie is also there. She is sad to learn that Vickie has a boyfriend. During this scene, we see that Vickie takes her fashion style after 80s movie style icon Molly Ringwald.
She is a dead ringer for the star this episode. The clothing style seems to be more from her Pretty In Pink character Andie. This makes sense as the film would have come out about a month before this scene would have taken place in 1986. With some of the characters forgetting Will’s birthday earlier this season like in Sixteen Candles it looks like everyone was in a Molly Ringwald state of mind for these Stranger Things 4 easter eggs.
He’s Out There Somewhere
The gang finally has their big showdown with Vecna. When Steve, Robin, and Nancy light Vecna’s vulnerable body on fire, he wakes up only to stumble towards them. Nancy takes her shotgun and begins to blast him as many times as she can. While he tries to ignore the shots, they eventually start to hurt him and even force him backward. He finally falls out of a window and hits part of the roof on the way down. When he hits the ground with a thud, it appears that he is finally dead. The crew celebrates their victory. When they make their way out of the house we see that his body is now gone.
This is an homage to the original Halloween. Dr. Loomis shows up to shoot Michael Myers six times. This causes him to fall off a balcony. The main characters believe he has finally been defeated but when Loomis looks out onto the yard we see his body is missing. In Halloween II we see the immediate aftermath as Michael slinks away into the night. Loomis reassures the police that he shot him six times as he manically keeps telling them. At the end of the episode, Max is in the hospital. Maybe for next season, we’ll see Vecna stalk the halls of the hospital looking for her as Michael Myers did in the original Halloween II looking for Laurie.
The Talisman
In Max’s hospital room we see that Lucas is reading The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub out loud to our injured heroine. This would be an interesting read and maybe hit a little too close to home for the group. In that book, a kid learns he has the ability to flip between the normal world and another world dubbed The Territories. He encounters all sorts of monsters and evil people on his journey. The kid travels across the country to find an artifact to save his dying mother.
The idea of flipping from a normal world to another world that seems similar yet vastly different would make Lucas take notice for sure. Steven Spielberg bought the rights to the story to make into a movie right after it was published. They have yet to make anything from it but the Duffer Brothers who created Stranger Things were attached to make the property into a series for Netflix through Spielberg’s company.
Did you notice any Stranger Things 4 easter eggs during this season? Let us know in the comments.
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