Stranger Things Season 04 episode 9

 The ninth and last episode of Stranger Things' fourth season, "The Piggyback," is the show's thirty-fourth overall. First showings were on July 1, 2022.Heroes battle from every part of the battlefield to defend Hawkins and the entire world with unselfish hearts and a clash of metal.

Yuri Ismaylov fixes Katinka outside the Kamchatka cathedral and suggests to Murray Bauman and Dmitri Antonov that he give the chopper another shot. The engine stalling gives Murray and Dmitri the impression that Yuri is deliberately undermining Katinka in order to obtain his prize money. Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers are waiting for a callback from the United States inside the church. As Joyce waits for the phone to ring, she discovers Hopper's scarred scars and worries about his time in prison. Hopper reassures her that it has given him some time to think things through. He informs Joyce that he should never have sent the message, but Joyce insists that she chose to go through with the rescue effort.

Dustin Henderson, Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, Eddie Munson, and others meet back in Hawkins to review the plan. They decide to start "Phase One" by having Nancy, Steve, and Robin get Erica Sinclair's signal at the playground outside the Creel House. When the three are ready, Erica will signal Max Mayfield and Lucas Sinclair inside the house. "Phase Two" opens with Max luring Vecna close and distracting her enough to induce a trance. Dustin and Eddie draw the demobats away from the home to create a space for the three at the beginning of "Phase Three." At the conclusion of "Phase Four," Nancy, Steve, and Robin go to Vecna's lair and kill him while he is still using his powers. 

The group from California shows up at a nearby Surfer Boy Pizza. By describing their predicament, Argyle attempts to persuade the amiable and equally stoned fellow Surfer Boy Pizza cashier to give them the salt they require. The worker is a little hesitant at first, but when Jonathan offers to pay with Argyle's Purple Palm Tree Delight joint, the young man quickly agrees and lets the group begin working as he leaves. As Will and Jonathan prepare water and salt for the freezer, Mike makes sunglasses out of a pizza box. In the meantime, Eddie and Dustin use scrap metal to block the trailer, and Eddie is overjoyed to discover an upside-down guitar in his bedroom. 

When Joyce, Hopper, and Murray get at the prison, they observe that there are no guards present. Dmitri watches Yuri closely and chastises him for treating the Americans so callously after they had warned them of a threat to their lives and family. Then Dmitri informs him that he's been told the "Peanut Butter Smuggler" was once a great man and offers the possibility that he could be great once more. Yuri takes the lost helicopter engine piece out of his pocket, regretting what he did before. Max and Lucas are waiting for the next stage in the living room back at Hawkins' Creel House. Max tells Lucas she's happy he's here with her through their notepads. Lucas asks if she'd like to go.

Mike completes his custom specs so El's vision is obscured back at Surfer Boy Pizza. Mike tries to confess his affections to El as they joke and laugh, but Argyle stops him. Will looks on them sadly from a distance. Observing, Jonathan asks Will if he has any childhood memories and requests that he remove a Lego figurine called Larry from his nose. Laughing, Jonathan tells Will that he feels that he doesn't seek for help or advise anymore and that he misses it. He also apologises for being high most of the times that Will needed him. Jonathan reassures Will that he's here for him and that he will always be loved, even as he becomes tearful. 

Now in the attic, Max and Lucas are standing close to a lantern. Max sits down without her Walkman after telling Vecna that she is aware that she can hear him. She admits to Vecna that what he stated about Max wishing Billy to die was accurate since there were times when she prayed her stepbrother would suffer a terrible fate because he constantly made her life difficult. She acknowledges that she was hesitant to run to Billy on the day of his death because she wasn't sure if he actually deserved to be saved. She tells Vecna that she wants him to make her disappear since she says she can't forgive herself and that she now prays to be taken instead. Lucas queries Max about its veracity.

Dustin installs the speakers atop the Munson trailer after Robin tells him. To entice the Demobats away, Eddie starts to play Metallica's Master of Puppets. The bats are led off as Nancy, Steve, and Robin get closer to the Creel residence. When Max tries to leave the house in her delusion, she discovers that the doors are boarded up. In actuality, Erica is chased away by Andy as he and Jason rush towards the playground. Max discovers Billy trying to escape from the sauna room in a delusion when she unlocks a door.

As the bats smash through the windows in the Munson trailer Upside Down, Dustin and Eddie are armed and Eddie realises they are on the roof. A bat appears through the vents on top, and the two begin stabbing at it ferociously. The group arrives at the Creel House, creeps up the stairs, and is about to enter the attic when Vecna senses their presence due to an unexpected earthquake. The vines seize Robin, pinning her to the wall, and then they seize Nancy and Steve when they try to assist, choking the three of them. Hopper makes his way to the laundry area, where he entices the Demodog to pursue him before running out of the building. Eddie sets his down in the Munson trailer.

Max uses tables and chairs to block the doors at the Snow Ball, but when he looks around, everything is gone and the Creel House door is in their place. Vecna starts to tease Max in an effort to jog her memory of happier times, but she is stopped in her tracks by images of her friends in Russia and Hawkins failing to defend themselves against him. Vecna suddenly appears behind Max, pushing her into the wall. Jason asks Lucas if the Hellfire Club summoned Vecna when he tries to explain who she is in Hawkins' Creel House. Jason queries Chrissy's presence at Eddie's trailer, to which Lucas responds that Hellfire is not a cult. Jason becomes enraged when Lucas informs him that Chrissy needed to purchase drugs.

Vecna approaches Max in the Snow Ball and informs her that although she is brave, she would eventually crumble like everyone else, including Billy. Max is launched back into the air by an invisible force—Eleven, it turns out—before Vecna can murder him. Vecna is tossed into the stands after realising who she is right away. Eddie mockingly leads the throng through the caravan site. Dustin snatches a chair and throws himself through the portal, spraining his leg on the way out. Eddie is hit by a bat, which causes him to stumble and at first run. Eddie stops, though, and resolves to hold his ground after remembering how he fled after Chrissy was killed.