One of the questions I had after watching volume 2 of the fourth season was how Ellen Stinson managed to rescue the group from Russia and bring them to the United States/Hawkins. Unfortunately, because of the "Two Days Later" note, we didn't get many answers about this. I gathered some details to theorize and fanficate how this rescue might have happened until their arrival in Hawkins, and how Agent Stinson's contacts in Nellis might have helped;
KATINKA
We start with Yuri introducing his helicopter to the characters, which, according to him, would take them to the United States. Obviously, that helicopter wouldn't have enough power and fuel for a direct flight; Dmitri even tells Yuri that the smuggler's helicopter wouldn't make it to America. In fact, Katinka had never taken off, which is why Yuri said he would make some adjustments.
Joyce had the idea of calling Owens for help. After a few hours, Stinson returns the call, and after Hopper manages to convince her that it was really him, they exchange some information. Most of the dialogue is off-screen, but Stinson talks about Eleven and the Byers, and most likely, Hopper gives a brief explanation of his situation in Russia and asks her for help to get them to Hawkins. I have a theory that Ellen must have asked Hopper to provide a safe address for her to send her people/contacts to pick them up. This safe location would be "Yuri’s Fish N Fly" because the route would be a bit shorter than going directly to Hawkins, the fuel would be enough, and it would be a place already known to the characters and secluded.
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE
Nellis Air Force Base is a real-life military installation of the US Air Force in Nevada. In Stranger Things, it is mentioned in episode 8 when Eleven decides to leave Project Nina and go to Hawkins. Dr. Owens says that Stinson has contacts in Nellis and that they could reach Hawkins before nightfall.
The cool thing about mentioning that Stinson has military contacts she trusts when needed is that this could be useful again in season 5.
As we know, everything went wrong; Brenner cut Owens out at the last minute and forced Eleven to stay in Project Nina as long as he deemed necessary until her powers were fully restored and much stronger. After that, Sullivan's faction arrives at the Project Nina.
Stinson would use her contacts at Nellis to get a helicopter and send some of her trusted colleagues from Nellis to the meeting point in Alaska, with total secrecy. I think they would use a more discreet helicopter to avoid drawing too much attention.
LEAVING RUSSIA
After the final battle, we saw Yuri and Dmitri arrive with Katinka fully functioning at the prison to rescue Hopper, Joyce, and Murray and get out of Russia as soon as possible. Then Yuri would head to Alaska, specifically to "Yuri's Fish N Fly," the meeting point with Stinson's contacts. Landing there, Hopper got in touch with Agent Stinson, and sometime later the helicopter arrived to take them to Nevada.
To me, those who went with the helicopter to Nevada were Hopper, Joyce, Murray, and Dmitri.
- Hopper and Joyce for obvious reasons.
- Murray would go with them to Nevada but would later head to his home (that same year, he would move to Hawkins and start working at Bradley’s Big Buy, as the filming photos of season 5 suggest).
- Dmitri would go with them because he is now a traitor in his country, so the only way is to follow his life in the United States, in another city. Owens' friends could easily bring his wife and child to the United States and give them citizenship in exchange for secrecy, perhaps (most certainly, we won't see him in season 5).
- One interesting thing is that in the script for episode 9, there is a conversation that didn't make the final cut where Murray says to Dmitri that he could imagine him living in Indiana.
- As for Yuri, it obviously wouldn't make sense for him to leave since he has his established place in Alaska.
NEVADA
Stinson or other agents would receive them at Nellis and accommodate them at their base before heading to Hawkins by car, so they could take a shower, get clean clothes, and learn a bit about what is happening in Hawkins.
A cool detail on Hopper's cap is the embroidered golden oak leaf decoration, the same that officers wear, like on Sullivan's visor, because it has a military meaning. They are also used by ordinary people as a tribute. I imagine Stinson's contacts in Nevada giving the cap to Hopper so he wouldn't be identified
HAWKINS
After that, Stinson, Hopper, and Joyce head to Hawkins, while the other agents in Nevada took Murray to his home in Illinois. After some time, he returned to Hawkins, and Dimitri was taken to his new temporary address, possibly in Indiana or somewhere far from Hawkins.
I was very excited about the trailer, but I didn't want to develop theories while it was still fresh. What for? The obvious was to be told anyway, with or without me, while I needed some time to dig a little deeper. Ultimately I put all the teasers and the trailer together and rewatched them a few times, frame by frame.
What can I say?
First of all, I do like the ‘Stranger Things’ promo-campaign. It’s amazing. The authors have managed to turn it into a fascinating interactive detective game and they don’t idle about, on the contrary they are dropping hints and planting evidence. In other words they are having fun for all it’s worth. Of course, all the fans have joined the game and started puzzling it out. It’s the greatest promo I’ve ever seen. That’s what happens when authors know their target audience well.
Second, the main plot seems to be divided into three key lines. For the sake of simplicity let’s call them ‘Eleven and the Lab’, ‘Max and the haunted house’ and ‘Joyce and Kamchatka’.
Off the top of my head, the line of Joyce seems the clearest one. An unknown friend brings her a Russian doll from Kamchatka, then Joyce hangs on Murray like grim death and… Welcome to the rodeo! The mission ‘Saving Chief Hopper’ starts off.
The question is how Hopper got into a labour camp in the first place and what kind of research is being conducted there. It’s still shrouded. Before the trailer I had taken the risk to imagine that Soviet scientists were trying to cross a human and a demogorgon, but according to the trailer they seem to be training the demogorgon as a hunting dog and, in the meantime, feeding it with criminals and dissidents. The problem is it wouldn’t work with one or two demogorgons, they would need packs of them, a legion; and, therefore, they need fresh supplies.
I can’t help wondering who is that jack-of-all-trades helping Hopper on Kamchatka and what their incentive is. Probably It’is a scientist who considers this experiment dangerous and inhumane and wants to stop it. Also they could be an American spy, by way of a side-line job. The references to ‘The Shape of Water’ hint at that.
The line of the Lab and Indigo Children seems more complex. They are not totally forgotten but there is a feeling - highly likely false - that a bloodbath at the Lab is a matter of yore. As if they aren’t going to return to the subject except some flashbacks. It might be the reason Kali and her gang haven’t been shown in the trailer although they have been sighted on the set more than once. It suggests Kali keeps wagging her vendetta, and Joyce with the kids didn’t move across the country just on a whim. Dr Owens, to all appearances, knows more than he lets on, and he relocated them to California deliberately. As far from Hawkins as he could.
I won’t be surprised to learn that Kali has found other superpower refugees and she is preparing a terroristic sabotage or even a confrontation of people against the so-called ‘mutants’. It is highly likely if you remember that the name of the first episode refers to the Men-X comic. Or do you think Dr Owens is being melodramatic when he is talking about a war coming?
Also there is an unknown in that equation. It’s a mysterious woman wearing stilettos. Nobody knows who she is, but the frame from the teaser is paralleled with Billy’s first appearance, so many people think she is his villainess mother. Like she left her kid and sold herself to the government.
Basically it might be true. Unlike fathers, mothers in Stranger Things look like a power of light but I guess it’s not a problem. Because if Hopper represents a positive father figure in the series, what on earth bars the authors from creating a dark mother figure as a counterweight to Joyce, Karen etc.? Billy’s mother fits that role perfectly.
Especially if you dig, you’ll find every key character has a dark counterpart. Moreover it is not necessary for them to be a villain. Neither Kali nor Billy are bad enough to be a villain. They are just lost kids who had never been given a helping hand when they needed it so much. I guess it’s not a secret that adults are not much different, they are the same lost kids plus a lot of wrinkles.
Strictly speaking I can see only one person who I can call a real villain. It’s Dr Brenner. But in my opinion he is not just a devious and ruthless manipulator who will stop at nothing. He represents a government that is fine with stepping over its own citizens to get ahead.
But let’s return to the stiletto lady. If the Californian plot-line is connected with the Lab we may suggest she is engaged in it. And that means we are at the crossroads again. Because she might work for NSA or be the mastermind of a local analogue of Hellfire Club who pushes Kali to the way of terror. Who knows? We have no evidence yet, so from now on it’s all guesswork.
And finally the plot line of Max and the haunted house. The most mysterious and fascinating one. For me at least. Also there is a big chance it is a hinge. After all, not for nothing did the broken clock become the symbol of season 4 well before the premiere! Not to mention the trailer opens with a scene with Max talking to Billy on his grave. I hope you'll agree it speaks a lot. At least it sets the tone for the whole story.
The scene is eerie, by the way. It looks like a nightmare, you can see it from a mile away. All that spring idyll: silence, greenery, birds and loneliness. Looks like a shrivelled black hand might pop out of the grave and seize Max on her throat any minute. And it may be for real. It seems to me the Duffer Brothers emphasised Max’s face while watching the movie at the beginning of season 3 deliberately. Mark my words, she will remember that scene.
And as for the inconsistency with the inscription on the gravestone, I guess it has been done deliberately to emphasise the unreality of the situation. I’m not sure if it’s okay to inscribe a hypocoristic on a gravestone, but I suppose, for Max, her step-brother is not William. He’s Billy. Always. At least, as a sign of gratitude for calling her Max as she prefers, not Maxine, as her step-dad does all the time. So I can assume in her dreams she keeps calling him that way.
However even if it is a dream, there is no doubt that the subsequent events happen in reality. We can see Max levitating over the grave while her friends are staring at her, we can see her running away from some monster - probably, Veckna - to the dazzling light on the horizon where we can see some silhouettes of her friends and her own silhouette.
It’s not a dream at all. It looks rather like Will’s visions at the beginning of season 2. As if the character has one foot in another dimension and can see the things other people can’t. Or even can hear something.
Both the scenes with Max seeing the broken clock in a school hall and the ones with her wearing her earphones all the time hint at it. You should agree it looks weird. But if we remember the way The Party listened to Will’s singing in season 1 after the fake body was found and there was no hope left, Max’s earphones suddenly make sense. Well, anyway. Even if I’m wrong in details, there are all reasons to believe that Max is destined to become a clairvoyant.
Anyway, it’s just rings in the water. Meantime there is a really interesting detail buried in the graveyard scene. It’s Billy’s birthday. As it happens, of all characters we know the exact dates only for two of them - Billy’s and Will’s. Notably, they were born just a week apart. And by a strange and lovely coincidence that week matches Easter holidays in the USA in 1986 and the events of season 4.
Accordingly, we can assume it will take Friday to get started. The main action will begin on Saturday, on Will's birthday, and will have finished in a week hence, on Billy's birthday. Or on Sunday, it will be even more fun, because it’s the main Сhristian holiday - Easter. The day when Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
I’m not hinting at anything but it suggests the analogy. Don’t think it’s just a coincidence, the USA gives the impression of too religious a country to neglect that allusion. Besides, it is reinforced by visuals - and I came to a conclusion that nothing in that show is filmed for… well… just for show.
As Dacre Montomery said in an interview, the filming team are interested in everything on the set, down to the colour of your shoe laces. So, does it make sense to try persuading yourself that the crucified figure at the ending of season 4 is no more than a mere coincidence?
Let alone the fact that the new character, Eddie Munson, is coded as Billy’s evil twin. In other words, as Antichrist. The trailer even hints at it rather bluntly.
If you pause the trailer at 1:59 you can see something like a group of little portals with time-codes. Someone on Reddit did some research and found that there is an enciphered sentence ‘I am Hell’s Master’.
Sounds a bit brassy but provides food for thought anyway. We don’t know who exactly it is but beggars can’t be choosers. It must be either Veckna or Eddie Munson, rocking out with his guitar in the Upside Down, covered with satanic attributes from head to toe and cosplaying Eric from “The Crow”. There is a chance it’s a fake and the Duffer Brothers have sent us on a wild goose chase. But for lack of better ideas, I’m going to suspect Eddie. He’s just a fictional character, he doesn’t care anyway.
Simultaneously, there is a glimmering ray of hope that Steve and Billy might become a couple even if it doesn’t happen in season 4, but maybe later. It’s kind of offtopic but I beg to let me explain myself.
As it has been said previously, there are no haphazard frames in that show. So if they shot the first encounter of Billy and Steve as the initial meeting of Romeo and Juliet and the basketball scene as a coition, they did for a good reason. I reject the idea of fanservice as an ignominious one. So what does that leave us with?
The parallels between Will and Billy. You remember them, don’t you?
Two disadvantaged children, both alike in their observancy and interest in art (Will draws and Billy reads an autobiography of a famous satirical artist), both branded as queers and faggots by their fathers… Birds of a feather, don’t you think? The only difference is that while Will was raised by his devoted mother-bear, Billy grew up as a wild weed, turning into Will’s antipode.
Since season 2, the idea of Will being hopelessly in love with Mike haunts the fandom, with them being mirrored by Billy and Steve. Should we be surprised? I don’t think so. In my opinion, Billy and Will are coded as two different cliches about gays. A quiet intellectual, an artistic soul - and a hothead, a muscle Mary from California. Different sides of the same coin, aren’t they?
To be honest, at first I’ve missed the hints of Will’s presumable homosexuality, because I was squinting at Billy too hard, but now I have to admit those hints do exist although they are very discreet. But considering how many parallels there are between Will and Billy, I can guess ST fans weren’t seeing things in both cases.
If we could guess after season 2 that both crushes would never become a mutual thing, as neither Steve nor Mike gave a handle to reckon they might, the third season did destroy all fans’ hopes. But now I start having second guesses about that.
Unfortunately I still think Will’s chances are pretty thin on the ground, and even the flashing frame from the trailer breaks my heart. However, there is a great difference in Billy’s case.
That thought has been inspired by the trailer scene where Steve is sitting next to Billy’s gravestone, almost hugging it. At first sight it might look like a cruel mickey but it’s still a trailer, not a whole season. And I should remind you that Nancy and Jonathan became a couple not nearly straight away. Everyone thought they would at the end of season one, but they kept beating around the bush almost till the middle of season 2. Not to speak of Hopper and Joyce. Their affair had been awaited since the very first season, but they wouldn’t say a word to each other about their feelings right down to season 3 albeit the feeling that they would be together had been in the air since the very beginning.
So, as you can see, the Duffer Brothers are adding drama drop by drop, being tantalisingly slow about it. They let you get your hopes high, the next moment pushing you over the edge, and then a dim ray of hope beckons to you, lying on the bottom of an abyss of despair. I have to say, hand on heart, I completely agree with them. The secret of a good story-teller is being a conjurer. If you aspire to tell a good story you should surprise your audience. You should give people what they want to see, but on your own terms.
The chemistry between Billy and Steve was so powerful that it possessed not only the fandom, but broke free into the wider world. You might not remember that but after season 2 there were many magazine articles on homoerotic subtle between Billy and Steve, during the promo-campaign the actors were asked questions about that and so on.
It’s logical to expect them to keep developing that plot-line as long as it hit the target so well. But in season 3 it suddenly stopped dead, bewildering the fandom. Obviously, we might suspect the authors of abusing their power, but it’s disrespectful and unfair. So I prefer to reckon that the authors are decent people and they are just weaving an intricate scheme.
If the conflict between Lucas and the Party that I predicted before season 3 has brewed eventually, other Chekhov’s guns (whole-heartedly loaded ages ago) might soon start shooting too.
Besides, even if previously Steve didn’t think about gay relationships at all, it just never occured to him… Well, now he has got not-a-typical-but-helpful gay friend. And if we see sparks in the air again, you know who will open Steve’s eyes and tell him he is an idiot who is too blind even to find his own…er…nose.
However, I’m known to be a partial person, so take my speculations lightly. As long as Billy is Schrödinger's cat all of it is only theoretical, and I take them with irony myself, although it’s my own actual thoughts. But it won’t be long anyway and I’m full of optimism.
No because if Mike doesn’t turn out to be gay, what was the point of having Will put the painting back in his bag? Why show the two of them having a kind, meaningful conversation, which encourages Will to be hopeful that Mike is into him too, if Mike isn’t actually gay? Why would the writers pay that close of attention to detail if they’re just queerbaiting when queerbaiting is lazy and easy? Why go through the trouble?
What I find interesting about Billy "antis" disliking that Max's arc is going to feature her mourning him is that they're missing a key part of her character. Max is a good person, Max cares about the people around her, Max has complex emotions about the people in her life. Max is mourning Billy because she cares so deeply, I believe her arc is not meant to highlight how Billy deserves redemption (though he does), it's to demonstrate that she cared about him, despite their relationship being difficult.
It's a function of the paradox of the intolerant tolerance. Max, for all intents and purposes, did tolerate Billy, and now she misses him. I just think that Max's arc is supposed to show that she saw through the veneer of rage and hate, saw who Billy could have been, and loved him despite his flaws. And anyone who's mad that she's getting this arc also fundamentally misunderstands her character.
Ok so I’ve just got screenshots from when Will is painting and I think it’s clear what the painting is. The first image you can see that he is painting what looks like a tree and several trees. This would make sense as there were lots of wood areas in Hawkins and I’m guessing near their school.
The second image basically shows Will drawing a blue sky in the background, alongside what looks like two strong wooden support poles, which could be part of a swingset. If you look even closer you can see two swings with two people. I mean come on, when they first met? The swingset? Best thing Mikes ever done, which I’m pretty sure Will would still remember him saying, which enabled him to fight through the mindflayer. The painting is the swingset and of the moment they first met.
