STRANGER THINGS (2022)
Episode 4×04 – “Dear Billy”
Directed by Shawn Levy
Starring Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Joe Keery
Opening Thoughts
So I’m just gonna assume everyone is all caught up on Stranger Things, because if you’re not, OMG, WHY ARE YOU EVEN READING THIS?? DO YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED?? Cuz you’re gonna get SPOILED!! (BTW, to the person who spoiled a major plot point in episode 9 the day after the episode aired by posting a video on YouTube with the SPOILER IN THE TITLE, ALL THE SHAME ON YOU. ALL of it. Not cool, man.)
Also, how cool is it to finally have Stranger Things back after a three-year delay?? Frickin’ Covid…
So, this episode. Wow. To start off, I was behind on Stranger Things from the get-go, because I decided I needed to watch Seasons 1-3 before I watched any of Season 4. I wanted to make sure I had the story down and if there were any Easter eggs, etc.
At the beginning of June my mother passed away suddenly, and I was completely wrecked, and my life came to a standstill for a while. I only started watching again much later to try and feel normal, and because the YouTube video mentioned above had already spoiled me. I was afraid everything would be leaked by the time I got around to watching it if I waited any longer. So, I was already in a place to have ALL the feelings while watching this.
SPOILERS BELOW
(See? I’m nice about it. I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone.)
So, to recap, at the beginning of Season Four, the younger gang are all high-schoolers now, and Max has become a bit of a loner since Billy’s death last season. Her mother and stepfather have divorced, and while she isn’t heartbroken to see her abusive stepfather out the door, it has made her and mother’s lives more difficult. As a result, Max has been isolating herself from her friends, especially Lucas. She’s also been feeling the loss of her only girl friend, Eleven, who has moved to California with Joyce, Jonathan, and Will.
Max develops headaches and has nightmares at night. She is shocked at the violent deaths of two other students at school, and she and her friends wonder if the deaths have something to do with the Upside Down. When Max sees visions of a grandfather clock (like the other two students did) she realizes her life is in supernatural danger from Vecna, a “demon” from the Upside Down. Max has already been feeling alone, but now she feels hopeless and helpless as well. Her friends are trying to be there for her, but in her pain she keeps pushing them away.
At the beginning of the episode, we see Max finally being honest with the group about her struggles and asking for help. As the episode progresses, she develops a morbid despair, causing her to write letters to all of her friends and family as a “failsafe”. She has Steve drive her to her home where she talks to and hugs her mother, only for it to be revealed that it is Vecna embracing her. He then accuses Max of “breaking everything” and tells her she can’t escape him. Max runs back to the car, denying that anything happened, and has the boys take her to the cemetery where Billy is buried. Max gets out of the car, followed by Lucas, who confronts her, saying he knows she has been keeping her true feelings from them. He tries to give her back the letter she has written him, saying that he doesn’t want it.
“I know something happened back there with your mother. Was it Vecna?”
“I told you, I’m fine. Okay? I mean, as fine as someone who’s hurtling towards a gruesome death can be.”
“Max. You know you can talk to me. Right?”
“Yeah, I know that.”
“Ok, then why do you keep pushing me away? Ok, look, I don’t need a letter. I don’t want a letter! Just talk to me! To your friends! We’re right here! I’m right here. Ok?”
“Just wait in the car. This won’t take long.”
She leaves Lucas and goes and sits by Billy’s grave, reading him the letter she wrote. In it, she speaks of the anger she had against him, and how they hated each other so much. But she also shares regret that she didn’t try harder to save him, and they never got the chance to get to know each other, to get along and be a “real brother and sister”, and that a part of her died the day he did.
Max then slips into a trance where she sees a dead Billy approaching her. He accuses her of wanting him to die, being relieved and happy that he did, which she denies. He tells her to stop lying and hiding the truth, and that those feelings of guilt are why she hides from her friends. He tells her he knows she has wished to follow him into death and that he is here to end her suffering once and for all. Billy then reveals himself to be Vecna, and Max runs away from him in terror. Meanwhile, Steve, Dustin, and Lucas see Max in a trance and frantically try to snap her out of it. Dustin radios Nancy and Robin, who have been masquerading as college students to dig up information from Victor Creel, the only known survivor of an attack by Vecna. They theorize that music can reach parts of the brain that words can’t, that it’s a “lifeline back to reality” and tell Dustin to try it.
Vecna continues to pursue Max through the graveyard, as she finally cries out for her friends to help her. The cemetery morphs into a slime-soaked ruined landscape tinged with reddish haze, where she sees Chrissy and Fred, the other two students, held in place among tendril-covered pillars. She tries again to run, but Vecna sends tendrils after her, pinning her to another pillar. Meanwhile, Lucas tells the boys that Max’s favorite song is “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, and they play the song, placing headphones on Max’s head. Max, in her trance, sees a portal open in front of her, and herself sitting by Billy’s grave as the boys beg her to come back to them, to not give up and keep fighting.
Vecna tells Max her friends cannot help her, and that she belongs there with him. He moves in for the kill as Max’s body in the cemetery rises into the air, shocking the boys. Max looks beyond Vecna to the portal as the song triggers memories in her, memories of Lucas begging her to talk to him, of spending happy times with him, Eleven, and the rest of the gang. The boys call her name, and she reaches out, ripping a tendon from Vecna’s neck and distracting him enough to loosen the tendrils, so she drops to the ground. She gets up and desperately sprints for the portal, as Vecna causes giant blocks of stone and rocks to crash to the ground all around her. Knowing this is her last hope, her only chance, Max dashes towards her friends, who are still calling out to her. Max comes out of her trance and her body drops to the ground, into Lucas’s arms. Everyone is sobbing, and the boys surround Max as Lucas holds her close.
“Oh God, I thought I lost you. I thought I lost you.”
“I’m still…still here. I’m still here.”
Oh wow, this episode. I mean, SO powerful. First of all, I have to give a quick mention of the incredible acting, especially the scenes between Max and Lucas (as well as the scenes between them later in the final episode of the season). These kids got TALENT. I’ve often thought the entire cast had real chemistry right from Season 1, but every so often it really shines, like it does here. It’s crazy beautiful. I also read somewhere online, and completely agree with the opinion, that Max and Lucas’ relationship has eclipsed Eleven and Mike’s as being way more interesting.
Dang!! Again, what a great episode. I may have to do another one in the future on the final episode of season 4, episode 9, “The Piggyback” which features another Max-Vecna showdown. I need to re-watch the episode…two and a half hours long and there’s a LOT there.
So, What Did God Show Me?
– I can identify with what Max is feeling here. For instance, the letters she writes…sometimes it’s easier to put those feelings down on paper than it is to say them to a person’s face, especially if they’re big scary feelings. You’d think that it would be easy to share those scary feelings with the ones that you love and that love you the most, but sometimes those end up being the hardest people to open up to. Like when Lucas is standing in front of her, begging her to talk to him, to share her pain and not carry it all herself, and Max still can’t say anything. Because what happens if she does, if she bares her soul to the one she loves the most and every time after that he looks at her differently? With disgust, with fear? Which is the worse pain—keeping it all inside, or sharing it with a loved one and risk being rejected by them? Vulnerability can be such a vicious beast.
A few months before I graduated college I was really depressed because I wasn’t ready to leave school, all my friends, and lose everything I had built for myself there, so I wrote a group email to all my friends apologizing for my depression and if I was grumpy or sad around them that was why. I wrote it because I was afraid if I was sad all the time everyone would think I was a loser and no one would want to hang around me, so I was trying to explain why, so I wouldn’t lose my friends. I had a lot to learn at that point about what makes real friends real, and a couple of my close friends got concerned for me and were afraid I was borderline suicidal! I wasn’t at all, but I was pretty depressed. When they approached me about it, I was able to talk more honestly with them about how I was feeling, which made it a bit easier for me, and they were reassured I had no plans to harm myself.
– The enemy spent a lot of time making Max believe lies about herself here, and I think that there were several reasons why Max held herself apart from her friends. Maybe she was afraid they wouldn’t understand her pain, or that everyone had changed in starting high school and that they didn’t care about her anymore. Maybe she truly felt “cursed” and was afraid it would rub off on them if she got too close. Maybe she was afraid of losing her friends like she did her father, stepfather, and stepbrother. Whatever reasons she had, it was all lies. And then, on top of those lies, the enemy tried to impress more lies on her, lies about her identity. Lies like: she’s cursed, she “breaks everything”, she deserves what is happening to her, she wanted Billy to die, she wants to die, that she is helpless, that her friends can’t help her, don’t care about her, that there is no escape.
The devil is such a LIAR. I hate the lies of the enemy. I hate what he makes us believe about others, but even worse, what he makes us believe about ourselves. Back in college, the enemy made me believe, really believe, that my friends would be annoyed and irritated by my pain! That because they were all excited to graduate and move on with their lives, I was the only weirdo who was terrified of leaving the place I made for myself at school. That they wouldn’t understand. I’m so sorry I listened to his lies back then.
Stupid lies. Stupid enemy.
-Poor Max has a lot on her shoulders that is weighing her down, including depression, post traumatic stress, survivor’s guilt. She’s had to deal with her mother being divorced twice and her whole life being upended, not to mention all the crazy supernatural adventures in the Upside Down. Now she’s being stalked by a demon! Thank God she has friends that don’t give up on her. Everyone needs friends to fight for them and stand with them, even when they think they don’t. Max has an absolute power team of friends who have already shown they are willing to risk their lives for each other. Nancy, Robin, Dustin, Steve, and especially Lucas refuse to abandon her, and even put themselves in harm’s way to help her. We were made for community, we were made for companionship and family, whether it’s blood or built. We NEED each other, even when (and probably especially when) we feel like we don’t. And Max’s friends have some pretty good weapons, such as:
-The power of words spoken in truth. You may not totally realize the truth of this, but words have power for both good and evil. Look at the power of the lying words Vecna spoke to Max. She’s cursed, helpless, alone. Those words weighed her down because she let herself believe them. Now look at the power of the words of truth used to help Max – Lucas telling her over and over that he’s there for her, that they are ALL there for her, that she can talk to them and share her feelings, that they want to help her. When Max believed the enemy’s lies, she became resigned to her own death, but when she allowed herself to hear and believe the words of those who loved her, the truth was able to pull her back from the edge. Her friends fought for her, they gave her a chance and a hope. Words have power, for good or for evil.
-The power of creativity. Max is hanging in the air, seconds from death, and her friends still don’t give up! They think creatively about how to help her. The power of creativity is a massive weapon against the enemy. Max uses music to communicate for her when she can’t find the words. She can’t tell her friends how she’s feeling, and yet her favorite song, “Running Up that Hill” by Kate Bush, is about how the artist is wishing someone could know what she was going through, her hurts, her needs, and wishes they could swap places so they could better understand. Kate Bush’s song was Max’s voice when she couldn’t speak, and her friends were able to use it as a lifeline to lead her back to them.
-The power of hope! Max is in Vecna’s grasp, helpless and hopeless, when she hears the words to her favorite song, and sees her friends before her through a portal out of literal hell, back to light, life, and love. She is reminded that even at the end of all things, there is still hope. That she’s NOT helpless. She can fight! And she goes for it! Wow, that scene where she sees the portal and runs for it, just GUNNING for it. She runs, runs with everything in her. Maybe she won’t make it, but she will not listen to the lies of the enemy any more, she’s leaving him and his lies behind and running to her friends who love her. She won’t give up! Hope keeps us alive.
Hey, post a comment below with YOUR lifeline song! What song would help you escape from Vecna? My theme song is “Rise” by Josh Garrels.
and drop yours in the comments!
10 Responses
So good!
This is one of my many lifelines:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3I1PnhZxoYrWkioCHWIaQC?si=Dkx2Gof-SsGqAkaa8p9BNg
Beautiful song, Danielle. Never heard of it or All Sons and Daughters before, and I do love me some good new music!
Great insight Sarah! “Stupid lies, stupid enemy.” Truth! Hope really does keep us pressing ahead. Keep writing girl!
Hahaha, love you so much Robin!
Awww thanks Robin! Love you!
I’m a huge Metallica fan, but I’ll steer from their catalog and go with a slightly different genre of music. Michael Jackson’s Beat It.
I am a huge Metallica fan, but I want to go with a different genre for my lifeline. But in all reality “Master of Puppets” would likely be my lifeline song. It hits too close to home here, so I’ll go with “Beat it” by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
Bryan, no way!! That’s super cool haha. Rock on, my friend!
Very well put. Thanks for sharing this!
I appreciate your ability to find the parallels of Truth in so many things that, to others, may seem as distractions instead.
So, a lifeline song, eh? Hmmm…
There are so many songs that have gotten me out of tough spots. “Dreams” by Van Halen has been a song that’s just hit me instrumentally, my entire life. As a songwriter myself, it’s hard to believe that I don’t always pay attention to lyrics, even if I’m singing them. But some songs just have a great melody and I get lost in them.
I CAN say that “Be Somebody” by Thousand Foot Krutch was the song that convinced me to take the leap into ministry. I felt that I didn’t have anything worth giving because I was still a spiritual infant when I was approached about joining some teams.
The chorus lines “We all wanna be somebody, we just need a taste of who we are. We all wanna be somebody, we’re willing to go but not that far” put a magnifying glass over my fear of failure when attempting to walk into something new. Simple, I know, but effective in that moment.
Lee, thank you for your kind words 🙂
Dreams is an excellent song! And I’ve never heard of “Be Somebody” but I’m definitely going to check it out now haha! You go, bro! Way to walk into that something new…look what God has done!