Volume 2 of Stranger Things season 4 focuses on the children and adults who know the truth about Hawkins, trying to fight back against the deadly threat that is Vecna. It is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Vecna gives Nancy a glimpse at his plans for opening the gates of the upside-down and taking over their world. He tells her to let Eleven know what he’s got in store for them.
Hopper, Joyce, Murray, Antonov and Yuri find a way out and escape from the prison. Yuri tells them that the only way he will fly them out of the country is if he gets paid.
Eleven wakes up and Dr Brenner and Dr Owens tell her about Henry’s attacks on teenagers in Hawkins. Eleven begins to worry about her friends and mind-travels to where they are and checks in on them.
At that moment they discuss how to deal with Vecna’s threat. Nancy says that they have no choice but to take the fight to him and Dustin suggests doing it while he’s on one of his own mind-travels when he’s most vulnerable. Max offers up her mind as bait since Vecna has already targeted her.
Eleven wants to go back to her friends and help them, Dr Owens agrees with her but Dr Brenner says that she isn’t ready. At this point, Jonathan, Will, Mike and Argyle are close to finding the location of Nina and worry that they’re lost.
Eddie suggests going to an Army surplus store to stock up on weapons for their fight against Vecna. Yuri takes the others to a shed with a helicopter that is supposed to get them home but tells them that it needs a tune-up. Hopper and Joyce try to get in touch with Dr Owens while they wait.
Jonathan stops their van to check the location once again when Argyle points out some tire tracks that definitely belong to the military. Sullivan is closing in the location of the bunker as well.
Dr Brenner gets his men to subdue Dr Owens and then drugs Eleven to get her to stay because he strongly believes she cannot face Vecna just yet.
Hopper finally gets a call back from Ellen who says that Dr Owens is indisposed and Eleven is with him and Joyce’s children as well. They realize that they’re planning something against the creatures of the upside-down.
The army arrives and Dr Brenner tries to take Eleven to safety from another route. Sullivan asks Dr Owens for her location but he doesn’t budge. A helicopter outside the base takes out Dr Brenner as he’s trying to escape after which Eleven uses her powers to bring it down.
Jonathan and the others arrive just then to rescue Eleven and take her out of there.
Nancy and the gang have their plan all set and get ready to take one brutal swing at Vecna and save Hawkins from this menace.
Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 ending explained in detail: (Chapter 9: The Piggyback)
Putting the plan into motion
Yuri is busy fixing the helicopter while the others wait around, but he’s actually sabotaging it and killing time because he does not want to help them. Murray and Antonov know what he’s doing but aren’t able to convince him to change his mind.
Max, Lucas and Erica go to Victor Creel’s house to set the bait for Vecna while Steve, Nancy, Robin, Eddie and Dustin go to the upside-down for the attack. Dustin and Eddie plan to draw the attention of the bat creatures and clear the way for Steve, Nancy and Robin.
Jonathan tries calling the airlines to get a ticket for Eleven so that she can get to Hawkins as soon as possible but they have no luck. Eleven realizes that she can try mind travelling to Max’s mind and piggyback off of that to get to Vecna. They begin thinking of a way to get a tub big enough and a large amount of salt and Argyle says he has a suggestion.
Jason gets a tip on where to find Lucas or one of the others after someone spots Erica at the Creel house. Hopper figures that since they cannot back to Hawkins in time, they can help them from there by killing the beasts in the prison after Joyce reminds him that they’re a part of a Hive mind.
Hopper tells Antonov to convince Yuri to help them while he goes with Joyce and Murray back to the prison. When they get close, they do not see any guards and begin worrying about what’s awaiting them.
Antonov appeals to Yuri’s better nature and reminds him that he was once a Russian war hero. He also tells him that this creature they’re fighting will come for the entire world and is much bigger than their rivalry with America.
Argyle takes the others to the nearest Surfer Boy Pizza outlet where they begin setting up the sensory deprivation tank by using a meat freezer. This gave Eleven and Mike a chance to spend some good moments together while Jonathan and Will also talk with each other.
While walking through the woods, Steve chooses to bare his feelings to Nancy but before she can reply, Robin shows up and tells them that they’ve reached the Creel House. Meanwhile, Vecna is found and Max tries to lure him into her mind as a distraction.
Battle of the heavyweights
As soon as Vecna enters Max’s mind, they begin the next phase of their plan. Eddie hosts a concert within the upside-down to draw away the bat creatures and as soon as they get close, Eddie and Dustin run into his trailer which was boarded up in advance.
Eleven reaches Max and tries to go into her mind. She pops up in one of her memories but does not find Max anywhere. Max hides in another one of her good memories away from Vecna.
At the prison, they find signs of a massacre as all the soldiers were dead. They plan to lure the creatures all into the centre compound and then burn them to the ground.
Jason reaches the Creel house and holds a gun to Lucas’s head and tells him to wake Max up. Max begins to notice that the world around her is rotting away which means Vecna is getting close.
As Nancy, Steve and Robin are trying to get to the attic, the vines attack them and pin them to the walls. Hopper is knocked down by a demodog that he tries to hold off.
Vecna tells Max that he knows what she and her friends are doing, but they’re being foolish. He can see what they’re up to and is one step ahead of them.
Dustin and Eddie try to go back to their world after the trailer is breached but after Dustin goes through, Eddie decides to lure the bats away and buy some time for Dustin.
Jason is close to shooting Lucas but Lucas manages to fight back and the two of them get into a major scuffle. Vecna has Max in his grasp and is about to kill her when Eleven shows up and knocks him away, checking on Max immediately after.
The breach is open
After a brief fight, Vecna can get the upper hand on Eleven. He takes her and Max to his lair and ties her up and makes her watch while he kills Max.
She tells him that their ‘Papa’, Dr Brenner is dead. She tries to tell him that he’s the reason Vecna is the way he is but Vecna denies that. He believes that he was always meant for something great and when He was knocked into this new world, he saw something promising.
Lucas fights off Jason and knocks him out but the tape recorder is broken so there’s no music to help Max. Vecna begins his ritual of absorbing Max’s energy and killing her. Hopper and Joyce are cornered in the man compound with the Demogorgon and the Demodogs.
Mike speaks to Eleven and tells her that he loves her and believes in her. He says that she’s always been special and can do anything if she puts her mind to it.
Just as Max is about to die, Eleven is able to gain back control and stop Vecna. At the same time, Murray burns all the creatures in the compound, weakening Vecna even more. Robin, Nancy and Steve are also free from their vines.
Eleven is facing off with Vecna while Hopper faces off against the Demogorgon. Hopper kills the Demogorgon and Vecna is flung out of Max’s mind and she’s freed but also badly hurt.
Steve and Robin throw multiple Molotov cocktails on Vecna before Nancy shoots him multiple times with a shotgun. Vecna falls out the window but when they run downstairs, they don’t find his body.
The bats fall down but not before they take a good chunk out of Eddie. Dustin runs up to him and sits down by his side and Eddie speaks of how proud he is for not running away and then breathes his last in a gut-wrenching moment.
Max is dying in Lucas’s arms and she says that she’s not ready to die. She does die and that’s when the different gates that Vecna opened up grow in size and cover the entire town of Hawkins.
Eleven is determined not to let Max just go away and she tries to do something about it.
2 days later the news reports about an earthquake that hit the town of Hawkins while touching on the previous murders that have taken place in the town. Jonathan and the others finally arrive and see people fleeing the town while the army has come in.
They go home and meet the rest before going to the hospital where Max is lying in a coma. Lucas tells them that she was clinically dead for a minute but by a miracle her heart started again. Will and Mike know that Eleven was tha miracle.
Steve, Robin and Dustin go to the school gym which is serving as a temporary relief centre. Dustin meets Eddie’s uncle and tells him that he was with him when he died and that he wished more people got to know him better because not only was he innocent but he was also a hero.
The children go to Hopper’s old cabin to set the place up so that Eleven has a place to hide from the army. Nancy and Jonathan have a conversation about their relationship and life and sort of patch things up.
Eleven thinks about how she didn’t find anything when she went into Max’s mind at the hospital. Will tells Mike that Vecna is hurt but he’s definitely still alive and must be killed.
Hopper and Joyce arrive and it’s one big happy reunion until the first effects of the opened breach appear in the sky, signifying that the upside-down is coming for them.
Also Read: Red Daggers in Ms. Marvel explained