There are many beautiful things in the opening of Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 Episode 7, ‘The Bridge’ where Max (Sadie Sink) finally awakens from her 18 month coma. These beautiful things make the world feel full, and this is a feeling that will compound as the episode progresses.
Before getting into that feeling, though, let’s focus a bit on the ugly world that they’re inhabiting.
In Season 1, our heroes didn’t willingly enter The Upside Down until the season finale. When Season 5 begins, we learn they’re going in and out of the place like clockwork, and this gives The Upside Down a deceptive sense of monotony. Additionally, the huge flesh wall that our heroes can’t get past gives The Upside Down was given a (somewhat) deceptive sense of finality. This monotony and finality may have reinforced whatever presuppositions you had about The Upside Down, and that’s what made Vol. 2’s revelation flip those presuppositions upside down. Respectfully disagreeing with my Editor-in-Chief, seeing “Escape From Camazotz’s” exterior shot of the fleshy realm surrounded by the cold abyss of space, jolted this sci-fi lover’s heart with lightning formed by ice. We thought the flesh wall meant “Surely, the place next to that wall will be where Vecna is hiding.” Now, we know there is no “next to” The Upside Down.
At least, not one life can inhabit. Now, we know the geography of this horrible place, and this clarity leaves us with nothing but more to fear. The Upside Down’s defining factors, its fleshy substance, its creepy crawlies, are all that separates it from the death of space, and this makes its creepies all the more crawl-y. At once an astronaut suit and a Lovecraftian iron maiden, out in the void of space, The Upside Down is a terrarium of Hell.
This is to say, by the end of Stranger Things’ penultimate episode, we know what the board is, and now we can put all the pieces on it. This allows ‘The Bridge’ to tap into one of Stranger Things’ strengths: its ability to flesh out both the world through its characters and their dynamics. Pre-Stranger Things Season 2, could a single person have predicted that Dustin Henderson and Steve “The Hair” Harrington would be best friends?
Similarly, pairing El and Will in a sibling dynamic in Stranger Things Season 4 allowed their respective relationships with Will to flesh out in a more interesting way. These relationships have a sense of presuppositionality, because these characters all knew each other before the respective relationships started. Like the monotony of The Upside Down in Vol. 1, though, this presuppositionality can be deceptive. There’s a moment in Vol. 1 where Joyce (Winona Ryder) is talking to her boy Will (Noah Schnapp) about the influential Robin (Maya Hawke). At one point, Joyce refers to Robin as Will’s “new friend.” “New?” you might have thought. “Joyce, Robin’s been around for over half the show!”
Yet this oddly bittersweet and lovely moment is a testament to that presuppositionality, to that sense that this world is connected, and maybe that connection will give life to Will. Maybe if Joyce can come to like Robin, she can get a better sense of Robin’s world. Maybe she can get to know Robin’s partner, Vickie (Amybeth McNulty). Maybe if she can get to know Robin’s partner, she can get to understand the part of Robin that loves her, and if Joyce can get to know Robin’s queer partner, maybe Joyce can get to know her own queer son.
That oddly bittersweet feeling of hope over Joyce and Robin getting to know each other is compounded when dealing with Max and Lucas. We know them, we love them, and they haven’t spoken to each other in 18 months, and after seeing Lucas sit by her comatose body, the revelation that Max is alive briefly filled in emotional blanks. We know comatose Max makes Lucas sad, so when we see living Max, we’re happy, and know they will be, but this foreknowledge is not the same as their experience. Even the knowledge that Max is alive is not the same as their experience. Only the two of them, finally together, will properly fill in that blank.
Now, we get to the beauty of ‘The Bridge’s’ opening scene. After opening in a void of noise, darkness, and Kate Bush, Max’s eyes open. As Lucas stands over her with eyes full of tears and his sorrowful heart being slowly overtaken by joy, he is, surprisingly, patient. He asks questions. Simple, kind, and pragmatic questions, about how she is, how she feels. She doesn’t feel much, which is concerning even if it won’t last forever, but soon, the joy that she feels anything at all takes over. What sells this scene, what cements this reunion, is when Vickie plays her part as the nurse, reassuring her that her ability to feel will return. After being separated by what feels like another universe, Max and Lucas’ world is now more full. From here, the simple pleasures of seeing this inhabited world together will compound.
The big “alright guys here’s outline for the heist”, where the plan to defeat Vecna is, per Stranger Things fashion, simplified to the most quantifiable bits of exposition, is joyous for this reason. Aside from the many tearful reconciliations, the biggest smile I’ve had all season was when Dustin was about to say “wormhole” and his sentence is finished by his science teacher, Mr. Clarke (Randy Haven) and Lucas’ sister, Erica (Priah Ferguson). Mr. Clarke was Dustin’s kind, intelligent, and supportive teacher who apparently gets as much action as James Bond, while Erica was Dustin’s friend’s annoying little sister who previously wouldn’t be caught dead with anything geeky. Now, they work in conjunction. After all these years, however tense the circumstances may be, seeing all these characters bouncing off of each other so fluidly, so comfortably, puts you right at home.
As much as this writer wants to embrace this catharsis, the joys of seeing all these pieces on the board, the first move still hasn’t been made. Our heroes are still in danger. That Holly’s actualization at the end of “Escape from Camazotz” leads to her escape, only to get recaptured again by Vecna, speaks to both the catharsis, and the danger that awaits. Holly’s struggle is not in her abilities, but in her number. Isolated from her family, and her deluded, equally trapped friends isolated from the truth, this story of bringing all our heroes together is not finished. For all we now know about The Upside Down, it’d be foolish to presume that we know all there is. About Vecna, The Mind Flayer, or The Upside Down itself.
Of course, this is how we want to go into a Stranger Things finale, isn’t it? Knowing everything you can, yet still not knowing what awaits? Seeing characters enter space, while basking in other images of children surrounding a candlelit table that evoke that one stormy night you messed with a Ouija board? Looking at the cosmic abyss with the right dose of fear and hope?
It’s been a helluva ride with Stranger Things. One more awaits. Maybe you’re one of the people who rated this episode so poorly on IMDB, but if you cared enough to read this review, you’ll probably care enough to finish the show. Whatever awaits, one thing is certain: the next two hours and eight minutes of Stranger Things are all there will be. The end is nigh. Act accordingly. And since Netflix and The Duffer Brothers made the point of utilizing these holidays to hype their show: if you were disappointed with Vol. 2, I still hope you had a Merry Christmas, and if you have hope for the finale, may you have a very Happy New Year.
