You're terribly frightened by what you've seen but I'm not gonna lie to you your friends are not prepared for this fight part two of stranger things season four only consists of two episodes as opposed to part 1 7 but that doesn't mean it's a quick watch get ready to set aside 4 hours for just about all the upside down madness you can handle and you can rest assured that there is never a dull moment this is stranger things at its most emotional thrilling and ambitious it also happens to be stranger things at its very best guaranteed to give fans everything they want and a whole lot more the branching narrative style of storytelling that was established in the first part finally converges in a way that feels mostly very satisfying the first seven episodes constantly jumped from California to Hawkins to Russia and while there's still a good amount of that in part two for the most part it manages to bring our players together in a way that pays off the patience that was required for part one my biggest complaint about part one was that the mike will Jonathan and argyle subplot in California didn't feel in step tonally with the rest of the season feeling less necessary than the Hawkins and Russia storylines the good news is that this is largely remedied in part two they even managed to justify argyle's involvement beyond mere comedic relief i felt this intense relief when she wasn't there no no that's the purple palm tree delight working it's magic my man and will who is pretty underserved in part one gets a few emotional scenes including one gut-wrenching one in episode 8 that is easily Noah Schnapp's most impressive showcase on stranger things thus far in fact there's a lot of that going on in part two with several actors including Caleb McLaughlin Gayton matarazzo joe Keary Sadie sync Millie bobby brown Natalia dyer joseph Quinn and David harbor giving some serious best performances there's a ton of effects heavy action and exciting plot momentum but one of the most impressive things about these two episodes is how many moments of tenderness it manages to squeeze in between various characters with more than a couple of tear-jerking moments while the run times may seem overwhelming for some the result is that not one bit of it feels rushed the action emotional beats and the many answered questions about the show's lore are given plenty of time to breathe without any of the elements undermining each other that doesn't mean that it doesn't feel a tad bit unwieldy at times though once again the Hawkins storyline is the strongest and it's extraordinarily good at building tension with vecna as menacing and terrifying as ever they can't help you max there's a reason you hide from them for the first time in a long time it truly feels like we could lose some of these characters and it makes for a nerve-wracking watch still it'll occasionally halt its own momentum for a detour to the Russian storyline which takes the California subplot's place as feeling the least necessary in this installment it might have felt a little more manageable if episode 9 were split up into two episodes instead of giving us such a pack to the brim be a myth of a finale but taking season 4 in as a whole it's pretty astonishing how much creators matt and ross duffer were able to accomplish both episodes 8 9 9 in particular feel like big blockbuster movies in every way especially in the effects stunts and production design from the deserts of California to the slime of the upside down everything simply looks astonishing and sleeker than stranger things has ever looked the ambition that marks season 4 extends to every single part of these episodes especially the storyline which really starts to cement the duffer brothers master plan for the series overall setting up what'll have to be an even bigger final season the final two episodes of stranger things season four are the series and its most emotional action-packed and tension-filled there are as many thrills as you could hope for but also quite a few lovely tender moments between characters we've come to care so much about there are so many series best performances that is hard to single out any in particular but it's especially nice to see Noah Schnapp's will get a bit more attention than he did in part one it still ends up feeling a tad bit unwieldy but ultimately these four hours pack in just about everything a stranger things fan could ask for more stranger things.