Stranger Things Season 4, split into two parts, is a monstrosity of a return and full of faults, but it’s a thoughtful and thrilling penultimate, nevertheless. In the show’s fourth season, the Duffer Brothers put the characters through one wringer after another, bringing answers to our screens through lengthy excavations that at times feel overbearing. Still, while I won’t be rewatching the entirety of the season from the beginning solely because of the length, there’s no denying that the foundation of this season explores some of the show’s strongest arcs. With just one more season left to conclude this particular descend into the upside-down, the stakes are higher than ever, but the series’ heart continues to beat within the friendships.
The penultimate season indeed has a gripping plot, but this detail is far from its strength. Instead, that strength lies in the characters, and in a season that saw more separations than ever before along with mixtures of various storylines interweaving as best as they could, it’s in the love that the characters share where we could find the most intriguing layers. In more ways than one, the entire series is a love letter to friendships, and Season 4 is principally a gratifying ode to the relationships that shape us—the pieces of ourselves that ground us when we’re lost.