Stranger Things Season 04 episode 2

 

The second episode of Stranger Things' fourth season, "Vecna's Curse," is the show's twenty-seventh overall. First showing was on May 27, 2022.Mike lands in California on an aircraft, and Hawkins comes to a stop over a dead body. Nancy searches for information. Eddie tells the group what he saw, visibly shaken.

In a flashback to July 4, 1985, Jim Hopper jumps to a lower level of Starcourt Base to escape the explosion of the Key, but he is apprehended by Soviet forces and taken to a prison camp in Kamchatka.

When the police show up to look into Wayne Munson's story of finding a mangled corpse in his and his nephew's trailer, Max Mayfield wakes up and takes another Tylenol. Chief Calvin Powell's call reporting the dead is being listened to by government workers as Max gets a sight of her body before the officers take her away.

Eleven and Mike Wheeler happily meet in California, as Mike points out Will Byers' hidden painting—which Will won't reveal—to Eleven. Eleven is a little let down when Mike delivers her flowers since she sees they are signed "From, Mike" rather than her usual "Love" signature. Will is quite confused when Eleven refers to Angela as her friend while she walks and arranges the day with Mike. Murray Bauman, who has travelled to California to meet with Joyce Byers, is unintentionally passed by them. An As Robin Buckley, who works at Family Video, eagerly tells Steve Harrington about her interactions with Vickie, a news article on Chrissy's passing with her identity removed appears on television. Lucas Sinclair throws up in the now-vacant Benny's Burgers after partying there all night.

Max visits Dustin Henderson when he is watching the programme with his mother. She tells him that Chrissy was the body and that she saw her with Eddie, who seemed to have disappeared. Max is dubious of Dustin's claim that Eddie would never harm anyone. She acknowledges that since the lights in her caravan went out after Chrissy was slain and she watched Eddie run away in fear, she hasn't reported what she saw to the police. Dustin understands they must locate Eddie in order to obtain his account. Bauman reads Joyce's note, which asks her to "make a reservation" over the phone rather than involving the government. Joyce has concluded that "Enzo" is the signatory.

She keeps acting like she has a nice social life when Mike, Eleven, and Will visit a roller rink. Eleven tries to dismiss Will's question in private, which is why she keeps lying to Mike. Eleven and Mike skate together as Will, looking obviously sad, skates behind them. When Angela sees Eleven with Mike, she becomes enraged with her for unintentionally putting her in jeopardy and comes up with a strategy. Lucas's basketball teammate Patrick McKinney reassures him that it's probably nothing while the team waits for the police to question each member separately. Powell and Phil Callahan question Jason about Chrissy's whereabouts the night before and whether or not she ever spoke to Eddie. Jason discovers that Chrissy is the deceased student being mentioned on the news.

Nancy pretends to be visiting Max in order to elude a police officer as she and Fred drive to Eddie's caravan park. The policeman abruptly turns hostile towards Fred, reminding him of an earlier event in which he was involved in a car accident that claimed the life of a friend and failed to notify the authorities, leaving Fred with facial scars. The officer accuses Fred of being a killer as his face starts to swell and bleed, and his scar reopens. Nancy talks him into letting them through after the real officer breaks him out of his delusions and reveals it to be a hallucination. Argyle and Jonathan Byers talk about the former's frustrations with not being able to visit Nancy. 

Max finds that Eddie gets his meds from a man known as "Reefer Rick" when he, Dustin, Robin, and Max check around for him. Steve advises reporting Max's account to the police along with trying to identify Rick. Robin discovers they can enter Rick's initial name into the store's database and maybe identify him based on his taste in films while he and Dustin are arguing. They learn that a "Rick Lipton" has watched multiple Cheech and Chong films and that his address is in the middle of nowhere, by a lake. The gang departs to look into it. Nancy approaches Wayne directly after failing to get through to Eddie's neighbours. She asks to speak with him personally and makes a commitment not to misinterpret his comments.