Stranger Things Offers a Nightmarish Peek Into the Rest of Season 4

There’s not a ton of new footage in this extremely brief preview, but things don’t look good. Lucas seems to be having the crap beaten out of him. Robin looks like she’s trapped in the Upside Down, even though she escaped in the mid-season finale. The Soviets have apparently been messing in the Upside Down for a long while, as evidenced by the caged samples Hopper sees—including a Lost-esque smoke monster reminiscent of the Mind Flayer. And we still don’t know if the Nina Project managed to give Eleven her powers back.

And, of course, there’s Vecna declaring, “It is over, Eleven. You have freed me. You can’t stop this now.” Normally, I’d dismiss that as normal supervillain talk before the gang reunites to kick Vecna’s ass, but since season five will be Stranger Things’ final season, it stands to reason that things will not be ending on a particularly high note here.

At least we won’t have long to wait for answers. The final two, giant-sized episodes of season five premiere on Netflix on July 1.

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