Considered one of the best shows by many, Stranger Things is getting close to saying goodbye. With that, all that’s left is the emotional prep and the memories the show will leave fans with. Since the filming for the last season wrapped up at the end of last year, there’s still time to speculate about what to expect now, especially with the Duffer brothers and the cast promising that Season 5 will be totally impactful. In fact, it’s already clear that fans need to prepare their hearts for something way more exciting than the end of the last few chapters. And for that, it’s worth remembering some moments that have been really special over a decade of the show.
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The whole plot is already striking with its aesthetics and elements alone, but many scenes have shown exactly what the show stands for, and the reason behind its success to this day. They’ve become unforgettable, and it’s hard not to talk about them when the topic is Stranger Things.
Max Runs From Vecna in the Upside Down
By far one of the best moments of Stranger Things came in Season 4, in the episode “Dear Billy,” when Max (Sadie Sink) is still struggling to overcome the grief of her step-brother’s death. She’s sitting in front of Billy’s (Dacre Montgomery) grave when Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) starts invading her mind. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Steve (Joe Keery) are there and soon find the girl, motionless. Knowing what’s going on, they race against time to find Max’s favorite song and save her. That’s when her body lifts off the ground, and she starts to float, while inside her mind, she’s fighting against the villain’s clutches.
However, the whole scene is brilliant from the moment she finds her strength and escapes, running in a chilling scene to the portal where she sees her friends shouting to get her attention. Set to the sound of “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” this is one of the most electrifying moments and one that almost brings the audience to the brink of collapse, hoping she can save herself. Putting everything in slow motion and with flashbacks of her life with her friends was also a nice touch.
Joyce Communicates With Will Using Christmas Lights
When Will (Noah Schnapp) disappears in Season 1, Joyce (Winona Ryder) is the first to panic. However, the electricity in her house eventually starts giving off strange signals, until she discovers that it’s Will trying to communicate. The episode “Holly, Jolly” brings a game-changing moment when realizing that it’s Will manipulating the lights all along, Joyce installs Christmas lights in her house and writes the alphabet on one of the walls, allowing her son to send messages by flashing the lights corresponding to the desired letters.
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It’s worth noting that this is the first time Stranger Things connects with the supernatural, and it’s probably the moment that makes the show even more exciting to keep watching. The scene is almost symbolic for fans, largely because of the emotion and the sign chosen until Will signals her to run and the Demogorgon emerges from the wall.
Eleven Seals the Gate to the Upside Down
It’s already known that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has a connection to the Upside Down, and although Season 2 isn’t exactly a fan favorite when she shows she’s completely willing to sacrifice herself to save Hawkins and her friends, it’s one of the most intense moments in Stranger Things. After so much torment with creatures appearing in the real world, in the season finale episode “The Gate,” she’s with Hopper (David Harbour), knowing she could die by using all her strength to seal the opening between the two worlds. He helps with gunfire, while she uses all her powers and even begins to levitate.
The scene is full of flashbacks, making everything even more complete and exciting – painful memories of Eleven’s past, of Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), and the torture she suffered in the lab. When it becomes clear that the girl probably won’t be able to endure it, the portal is finally closed, bringing a brief moment of peace. It’s there that it becomes even clearer how important Hopper will be in Eleven’s life, and even in a simple conversation like “You did good, kid. You did so good,” we see the start of a beautiful father-daughter relationship.
Chrissy’s Death in Eddie’s Trailer
There are many striking scenes in Season 4, but it’s hard to beat the moment when Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) dies in Eddie’s (Joseph Quinn) presence in the very first episode, “The Hellfire Club.” This is the scene that kicks off the whole new plot, mainly because it spares no detail and sets the much more gory tone that Stranger Things takes from then on. When the girl is in Eddie’s trailer looking for something to help with the internal suffering she’s going through, that’s when Vecna appears in her mind to eliminate her for good. The rocker tries to wake her up when he sees her frozen, in a trance-like state, but nothing happens – only when her body levitates until it hits the roof of the trailer.
Eddie’s scream as he watches Chrissy die, with bones breaking right in front of him, is traumatic and one of the most emblematic details of the moment. There’s an anguish to it all and it makes an impact that fans of the series weren’t expecting, least of all in a season opener. Also, it’s when Vecna appears for the first time, and until then, no one can understand who he is, only that he must be very feared for the ease with which he can kill someone.
Billy Sacrifices Himself to Save Everyone
When Max and Billy are introduced in the show, we already understand the dynamic, mainly because of Billy, who soon becomes a bully at school. However, his redemption arc deserves praise, simply because it marks the end of Season 3 in the episode “The Battle of Starcourt.” This is one of the best episodes of Stranger Things, and it proves that Billy was never a true villain – no wonder he was one of the Mind Flayer’s victims from the start. Almost as soon as most of the characters are in the mall, facing the creature, Max’s step-brother appears. He’s still being controlled, but when Eleven reminds him of a memory with his mother when he was a child, everything changes.
Billy’s humanity resurfaces, and he decides to sacrifice himself to save everyone. It’s at this moment that Max’s trauma begins, as she watches her brother give his life in the most intense and heart-wrenching way possible. Even so, he manages to apologize to her, though in a very tragic and sad way, when the Mind Flayer has already attacked him and he has only seconds left to live.
Eddie’s Guitar Solo in the Upside Down
No wonder Eddie has become a fan favorite. In “The Piggyback” from Season 4, the gang plans to finally kill Vecna. Each of them is responsible for something in the plan, with the rocker staying with Dustin when he and the others go to the Upside Down. To attract the attention of the demobats and allow the friends to move forward to confront the big villain, they create a sound distraction – playing Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.”
Although everything about the moments in this episode is charged with adrenaline, the one when Eddie has his solo on the roof of his trailer in that dimension is certainly one of the coolest surprises in the story. In an instant of pure anxiety and anguish, the character, by doing this, gives the audience time to smile, enjoy, and hope that everything will work out.
Steve Saves Jonathan & Nancy from the Demogorgon
Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Steve’s love triangle is one of the most discussed points in the first seasons, and although there’s a classic rivalry dynamic between the boys, it dissipates when Nancy and Jonathan face the Demogorgon. However, Steve’s role in this moment of “The Upside-Down” from Season 1 is worth noting, as until then, he knows nothing about the supernatural reality that plagues Hawkins. He has a disagreement with Jonathan and goes to his house to apologize, but finds Nancy there and is confused when she has her hand cut and is holding a gun, asking him to leave (in addition to the state of the house).
Until then, Steve is one of those characters who can easily be hated for his arrogant personality, but when he joins the two of them to defeat a creature he’s never seen in his life, even with a baseball bat, it’s simply the highlight of his redemption arc. From then on, he became someone well-liked by the public. Apart from that, it’s a very chaotic moment with him despairing, which is quite fun to watch even with the tension.
Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix. Season 5 is set to drop this year.
What’s your favorite moment in Stranger Things? Let us know in the comments below!
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