as i finish my s4 re-watch I can't stop myself from expanding on the idea @rgwriter came up with under this argyle post
in season 4 our characters are assembled in 3 groups, scattered at 3 locations and are living through 3 different movie genres: cali team is on a road trip, prison team is, well, doing their prison break, and hawkins team is struggling in their own 80s horror slasher.
each group has their respective sidekick or tag-along, if you will. let's explore them and their roles further.
argyle is basically a driver. he provides his resources (a van, his time, and his pizza place's kitchen) in order to help mike, will and jonathan to get to hawkins. he helps them get away from the danger, he gets them to suzie, he helps them pick up el, like it's a school bus, and also helps el to "get to hawkins" via pizza freezer. his main purpose in the story is a transporting one. as soon as he gets them to their final destination, he fucks off to the forest to gather mushrooms, and we never see him again. during their adventure together he provides mental support to jonathan while he reflects on his college situation and relationship with nancy, and being the truth conduit disguised as comic relief, he exposes mike's fake facade.
enzo is an inside man. he provides his authority, knowledge and connections in order to help hopper break out of prison and eventually to get to hawkins. he creates a stronger incentive for hopper to break out after revealing to him that the upside down business is not finished, he helps him get out of prison, and persuades yurii to fly them to states. and like argyle, enzo acts as a confidant to hopper as he reflects on his trauma and fears.
let's see what we have here. 2 side-kicks whose narrative role is to get our characters from their respective points A to point Hawkins, right after the gates are opened and before the quarantine is established. they appear as loyal friends, help our characters along the way and vanish from the story as soon as their task is done. but if we believe that hawkins is THE place to get flayed and the end of season 4 is when they fall into a dream/illusion, these helpful companions start looking very suspicious. are they really here to help? if yes, who are they helping? something something papa is moving them like pieces on a board making them do exactly what he wants.
eddie is more nuanced, because he's not leading the group like enzo and he's not physically transporting them like argyle. his group is already in hawkins, so his narrative goal is to get his group to places where they will gain insight in what's going on. basically by fulfilling his role as a victim who needs to be rescued asap, he's providing incentive for our characters to behave recklessly.
in a narrative structure eddie's role is a driver, like argyle, but he's driving the plot instead of the van. and it's interesting that it is eddie the dm who introduces the idea of vecna to dustin, which shapes their whole understanding of what they are dealing with. and again he acts as a confidant and relationship advisor to steve and nancy, which in my opinion is not helpful at all and only makes them more confused.
by the end of the season eddie's role is fulfilled: the group has a new understanding of what's going on, that has nothing to do with the lab — we can blame it all on vecna now. the gates are opened, particles are spreading into hawkins, and eddie dies. his deed is done.
you see i'm arguing that these characters may look like loyal and helpful NPCs, but if we dig deeper, they might be just pieces in somebody's hand, who are there to steer our characters in a specific direction.
i have to tell you, i have in mind the 4th such character, because this season has one more plot line.
nina team is in nevada playing out their sci-fi movie, and who else but dr owens, falls in the same category as eddie, enzo and argyle? owens rescues jane from military, moves her to nina, protects her interests from brenner's influence, provides his companionship while she's going through the path of learning about her past, helps her get her powers back without which she couldn't get to hawkins, and vanishes. his ending is ambiguous — we never find out what happened to him.
yep. somebody really wanted them all to be in hawkins on that day.
also it seems like everyone has some connections to mike, maybe apart from owens. enzo has a son named mikhail, eddie is a direct mirror character to mike, argyle is exposing mike's facade and cryptically implies something about mike's dominoes falling. just an interesting parallel, i would love to hear your thoughts on this
