Stranger Things Season 04 episode 8

 

"Papa" is the thirty-third episode overall and the eighth episode of Stranger Things' fourth season. It debuted as the opening episode of the second volume on July 1, 2022.Nancy experiences grim visions, and El succeeds on a crucial exam. The group assembles supplies and gets ready for fight back in Hawkins.

Using the last of her abilities, a young Eleven shuts the gate to the other dimension that she banished One to in 1979. Dr. Martin Brenner asks Eleven what she did after entering the Rainbow Room and witnessing the bloodshed, but Eleven passes out from exhaustion. Trapped by Vecna's curse in 1986, Nancy Wheeler notices a younger Brenner tattoo One and is taken aback when he recognises her. As she leaves, she discovers that she is in Hawkins Lab's corridor on the day of the slaughter, where she is trying to escape amid bodies and screams. Actually, Steve Harrington yells at the group to run and get some music so they can play it for Nancy, but they are unable to find any.

The Russian Demogorgon in the Kamchatka gulag goes crazy and assaults the arena while the guards try to stop it. Murray Bauman uses force to get guards in the security room to radio the guards outside and tell them that everything is under control. Meanwhile, Dmitri Antonov questions a doctor about how to get out, while Yuri Ismaylov is still restrained. While all of this is going on, Joyce Byers is tending to Jim Hopper's cut arm and telling him that Eleven is really missing him and that he is Hawkins' hero. Murray interrupts them to inform them that the demogorgon has left the area and is now attacking other guards. 

In the Surfer Boy Pizza truck, Jonathan Byers, Argyle, Mike Wheeler, and Will Byers resume their hunt for Eleven just outside of Las Vegas. Will shows sympathy as Mike worries that after Eleven regains her powers, she won't need him as much. He gives Mike the artwork he had planned to present him at the airport: a mural showing Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Mike fighting a big dragon while decked up in D&D attire. Mike was impressed and asked if he painted it. Will claimed that he had painted it for Eleven since she had commissioned it, but this was a lie because he wouldn't show the picture to anyone. While driving, Jonathan notices the deception and listens in as Will points out that Mike's character in the painting has a heart. 

Brenner tells El at NINA that just like One, El went into a coma due to using her powers excessively. Her powers were diminished and all of her memories from before the incident were gone when she woke up. When El opened the Upside Down, Brenner, who pieced together what happened by watching surveillance footage, said he searched it because he thought One was still out there. Owens walks in and displays the autopsy results of the three victims—Patrick McKinney, Fred Benson, and Chrissy Cunningham—that Vecna has brought to Hawkins. She also assures Hawkins that her friends are safe for the time being. Brenner, however, cautions El that Hawkins will be destroyed as soon as Vecna weakens the barrier between realms with each kill he makes.

When Eleven sees this happening in the Void, she panics because she knows her friends are in peril. Eddie informs the gang that the War Zone, a weapons store in Hawkins, is sufficiently remote from the police and "angry hicks" to provide them with all the fighting gear they'll need for Vecna. Nancy claims they need the guns, but Erica Sinclair is concerned since she thinks a location like the War Zone is the hub for irate hicks. Eddie has a suggestion once they realise that biking to the War Zone would take too long. Eddie takes the group into a couple's motorised RV, hotwiring it, and having Steve drive off with it while hiding his face behind Max's Michael Myers mask.

Eleven confronts Owens aggressively in Nevada, telling her that her friends aren't safe and that they intend to kill One. Eleven urges Owens to send her instead after he calms her down and says he has operatives who will go safeguard Max and her pals. Brenner steps in and informs Eleven that she and her pals are unprepared for this altercation. Owens maintains that Eleven made the decision to go, but Brenner claims that One's absence has made him stronger. Eleven decides to head back to Hawkins when Owens tells her that she can leave at any moment. She walks away from Brenner. The Kamchatka party drives through the base's gates in a stolen van after emerging from the vents outside.

Nancy sits in the passenger seat and listens to Steve talk about his fantasy of travelling across the country in an RV to California with a large family while they are en route to the War Zone. Nancy says the proposal sounds good, but it doesn't account for the number of children Steve wants. Steve emphasises that he has 'experience' with the younger children. Lucas comes up to Max in the back with the idea of returning to Hawkins High to search Ms. Kelley's files for any other patients who might be under Vecna's curse. Max stops him, explaining that, unlike her, they would be risking the lives of strangers who would not know what they were getting into.

In a field, the Party gang prepares their weapons. Max assists Nancy in taking out the barrel of her gun, even though they both know it's illegal. While building shields out of trash cans, Eddie and Dustin become friends. After Dustin makes a cheesy joke, Eddie makes Dustin swear never to change. While crafting spears, Erica and Lucas become closer, with Erica acknowledging that despite Lucas's status as a "bench-riding loser," she still loves him and wants to stand by him. Steve raises concerns about Vickie and Dan's relationship when Robin and Steve are making Molotov cocktails, but Robin brushes it off, fearing that their struggle may not turn out as well as it has in the past.