Stranger Things 4: Vol. 2 Trailer Review & Breakdown!

So, Netflix might just have dropped the biggest item of the day. As the new day dawned, Netflix feasted us with the new official trailer of Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2. While it had teased us with a first look just after Vol. 1 ended, we were only getting pieces of a proper look until now. With some new images released dropping last week and some snippets of a Vol. 2. Netflix was edging us until today where we finally have a proper trailer for the hit Netflix show and boy was it worth it! Although past Netflix trailers have been underwhelming even for some of their best shows, this trailer seemed to have hit it out of the park. It is done really smartly. The trailer is a combination of story reveal and teasing. The trailer only reveals the portion of the story that we expected to happen like Mike getting to Nevada.

While the other shots are some that we’ve seen either in the images or the other teasers. However, the trailer does offer some new footage that only give us at a possible idea of the spectacle that is afoot. When we connect all these footages together in a surprisingly well edited trailer it seems to tells us what the next episodes might offer. Now let’s get straight into Hawkins before any further ado.

Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 Trailer Breakdown: Eleven’s Powers

The trailer opens with a shot of Dr. Brenner analyzing the tear in reality Eleven caused when she 001 to the Upside Down. It is coupled with his monologue that is addressed to Eleven. The monologue suggests that Eleven has not fully got her powers and it addresses the looming threat over Hawkins that is Vecna. The trailer further shows Eleven walking out on Brenner out of anger. Although, it may appear that she is leaving for that may not be the case. If you look at this snapshot from the trailer, Eleven seems to be walking towards the Nina water pod as we see the door behind her with guards. This maybe where she finally gets charged up or simply an unused shot from Vol. 1.

Her powers may ask more from her to return as a later shot from the trailer suggests she is struggling quite a bit to get them back and if Vol. 1 is to be trusted, it is quite challenging for her.

Stranger Things 4 – Nancy’s Nightmare Continues?

The end of Vol. 1 saw Nancy being trapped in Vecna’s nightmare and him revealing his backstory to her. She was last seen in the nightmare and if history is to be believed that means Vecna is either gonna attack her now or will coming for her in the next 24 hours. The trailer shows us Nancy in a hallway that appears to be in a hospital. The next shot is literally Vecna in the same setting. Although, there is something weird about this shot, it has an unnerving resemblance to the massacre at the Hawkins Lab.

So, is Nancy stuck in that nightmare? But why? Vecna is believed to trap people in their guilt and create a nightmare out of it. This is isn’t Nancy’s nightmare. Now there are three possibilities, the simplest one maybe that this is simply an extension of Vecna’s story time with Nancy. Second, it might Vecna’s nightmare. Vol. 1 showed us Max attaching herself to Vecna’s mind when she was in her nightmare. So has Nancy done the same thing? Is Vecna fighting back Nancy as she has entered him? But it seems odd for a character like Vecna to have a guilt ridden nightmare about a massacre but you never know.

Third, this is the one that I find the most exciting. What if this is neither Nancy’s nor Vecna’s nightmare, rather Eleven’s. This makes a lot of sense, right? Eleven has always blamed herself for opening a portal to the Upside-Down and for the massacre at the Hawkin’s lab massacre. What if this is the climax of it all and Vecna has Eleven in his clutches and this is her nightmare. The gang have realized they can help Eleven as Nancy she has attached herself to Vecna and she taps into the nightmare to save Eleven. I don’t know I this is a possibility but it maybe just Nancy’s nightmare after all and she survived as we see her in a van with the rest of the gang, traumatized, at the start of the trailer.

Stranger Things 4 – Will Kate Bush save Max once again?

The next bit of the trailer shows us Max with her battle armor- her Walkman. She definitely has seen something or someone that has made her put on Running up the Hill as a safety measure. The blue lighting suggests she is in the Upside Down, given the cold look it has. Though it is interesting to point out that the same lighting is seen when Caleb is fighting with the local Basketball team captain and bully Jason. But why will it Jason make Max turn on her Kate Bush?

This shot is much later in the trailer but I’m sure it is the same scene. My theory is, this is some safe house and maybe Jason has tracked down Eddie and is here to capture him but Lucas defends Eddie and fights Jason giving him the time to maybe escape elsewhere. Although this is where it gets interesting, what if while all this is happening Jason is attacked by Vecna. It makes sense because the Duffer Brothers have always known to be someone’s who gave us reasons behind a bully’s actions and tried to give them a redemption arc like Steve Harrington or Billy Hargrove.

The treatment of bullies in the 4th season has been pretty one dimensional and we don’t get any reasons behind their behavior. Be it Angela in California or Jason in Hawkins. If Vecna attacks him, he’ll definitely create a custom nightmare for Jason through which we might get a look at his past trauma responsible for his behavior and help us understand his better. I think Jason will die in this scene and Vecna’s arrival is why Max turns on her Walkman. This also ties pretty well with the image we’d previously gotten of Lucas looking up at someone and screaming. It is not Vecna or Max rather Jason under Vecna’s spell.

One final time? 

Vol. 1 saw Nancy, Steve, Eddie and Robin enter the Upside Down through the Watergate and they faced a number of complications in their limited stay there. The end of the seventh episode focused on their escape from the Upside-Down and everything was hunky dory until Nancy was trapped in Vecna’s nightmare. Although, the start if the trailer shows everyone in the gang safe and sound, including Nancy, she is clearly traumatized.

Although that seems to be the case the unsung heroes of Hawkins never let their fear get the better of them as the trailer reveals further. Robin, Eddie and Steve are all armed up in the Upside-Down, as they know the threat of weird creatures in the Upside-Down. They are ready to face whatever comes their way although we don’t get to know much about their plan of action. They seem to carry heavy guns as now they know the Upside Down is stuck in 1983. It is important to point out that Eddie seems to be missing in the images below however the trailer does show him entering the Upside Down with his guitar and many have theorized that maybe his moment of glory where he sacrifices himself, the shot features in the trailer as well.

This badass shot of Nancy shooting at something is featured much later in the trailer but belongs to the same track. While shooting guns at Vecna is pointless, my bet is she is shooting at something that is more killable, like those bats we saw in Vol. 1 or demo dogs.

This Hug seems Extra Special

While Jonathan and Will have always had one of the better sibling relationships in the show, the hug shown in the trailer seems to be one with great compassion. According to me there are only two possibilities. One, the less likely one, a major character has died like Joyce and both brothers are sharing their sorrow. Second, the most likely one, Will has finally come out of the closet in front of his brother and this hug seems to be a gesture of acceptance from Jonathan’s side.

Will’s behavior in the 4th season had many suspect his sexuality, the actor who plays Will, Noah Schnapp dusted all such possibilities and reasoned it to be the amount of time his character has spent in the Upside-Down. This has made the character skip a lot of growth he’d have normally gone through in the real world and hence behaves a bit immaturely than his other peers. My take is that Noah is simply avoiding to spoil a very wholesome moment in the show.

Back to the Creel House?

The trailer reveals to us that Erica, Max and Lucas are back at the Creel House. Dustin is also mostly with them but just now in this shot. Maybe the plan is Nancy, Steve and Robin find the Upside-Down Creel house for something and the other half of the gang helps them with something from the real world Creel house. Or this just maybe one of those moments where the kids go off plan or do what they were asked not to do. Regardless, something is going on in the Creel house especially as the trailer further reveals Vecna on the staircase of the Creel house. The real one or the Upside Down one, hard to tell but my bet it is the real one.

What is going in Russia?

While the main threat seems to be hovering above Hawkins, the Russia track involving Joyce, Hopper, Murray and Enzo is starting to connect with the main track of the show as the end of Vol. 1 saw Hopper fighting and surviving a Demogorgon, thanks to Joyce and Murray. The trailer much like other promotional material showed us how the Russians have more than just a Demogorgon. They have everything that the Upside-Down has to offer, from Demo dogs to what appears to be a piece of the Mind Flayer. The trailer shows Jim discovering about all this and him fighting a Demo dog.

This shot of Murray with the flamethrower featured in previous promotional materials as well but with the new footage we got just now, I think this shot is more than just a cool looking shot. I think this is Murray’s hero moment. My guess is Jim find himself in trouble with multiple beings from the Upside Down. Murray will save the day by incinerating these creatures and letting Jim escape by sacrificing himself. While I’d theorized earlier that Enzo might be the first one biting the dust, Murray’s death is real possibility. Or maybe both die, you never know.

Both these shots prove my hypothesis. Although, the clothes Hopper wears are same I believe the place is different. The first shot seems to be the same Gladiator like battleground shown in Vol. 1. This is where I think Hopper will get stuck and Murray will come to his rescue. The next shot. from the context of the trailer seems to be from a room where a Demo dog in chasing Hopper and his accomplices. One thing to notice here is Joyce and Enzo don’t make an appearance in the trailer….are they dead?

I also think that the Russia crew has no way of getting home in the real world, seeing all these creatures in Russia it opens up one big possibility that the Russians have a gate opened somewhere. So, all this charade maybe of finding that gate and travel back to Hawkins through the Upside Down. Maybe all these attacks happen there and not in the real world but you never know.

Goodbye Nina Project? 

Stranger Things Vol. 1 was quick to tell us that the US government consider Eleven to be the root cause of all these happenings. They’re in search for and most likely want to eliminate her. The end of Vol. 1 also pointed towards the authorities finding out about Eleven’s location along with Finn and the boys, credit of Suzie. Now, what some very quickly cut shots of the trailer suggests is that the authorities get to Nevada where the Nina project is located along with the boys and well there is another massacre afoot. We see few shots of Brenner and Eleven that remind us of the good old days, certainly not for her.

This is the time where everything seems to have gone wrong and there is no more time for Eleven. Brenner is desperately trying to get her out of the facility. This will act as his redemption act as well because I think he with other scientist in the facility are going to sacrifice themselves for Eleven. The hints for the same are dropped in the trailer itself, this may also be the time where Eleven has gotten her powers back, with full potential? even stronger? That I’ve no clue.

This maybe Eleven’s first instance of getting her powers back and given her outfit she is no longer under training rather ready to leave. She might be trying to defend The Nina Project and overuse of her powers might’ve rendered her unconscious which we’ve seen earlier. This is why maybe Brenner was carrying her. How might it result in the end of Nina project well, this last image might help you.

This appears to be the Nina facility in cinders because of a fatal crash of a vehicle, most likely a helicopter. The cause for this might be Eleven as she tries to defend herself and her data in the Nina facility and crashes the helicopter right where the facility is and ends it once and for all. From the trailer we know this sequence is going to be a action heavy one and from here Eleven will inevitably team up with the rest of the gang as Finn, Jonathan, Argyle and Will are here to take her home.

Eleven the Savior?

This is something we’d known from the very start, because of the nature of the show and its orchestration of characters it always comes down to El and whatever God-forbid awful thing that is in front of them. Season 1 she killed the Demogorgon, Season 2 she closed the gate, Season 3 she almost defeated the Flesh Monster until she lost her powers and Billy had to sacrifice himself to save everyone’s life. Well, from the trailer it is fair to say that she has got her powers back and given Vecna’s backstory it would’ve always comes down to him and Eleven. The trailer does give us a hint at that.

While at first this may appear to be Eleven, because of the short hair and white outfit. A closer look makes it clear it is not Eleven and mostly some random girl staring at the sky as it is acting up. This imagery is similar to what we saw in Season 1 & 2 when the Mind Flayer used to attack. Is the Mind Flayer then? Has Vecna accomplished his goal? Or is this the part of the Mind Flayer that the Russians had in their possession that got out? But I think this time Vecna has won as this appears to be the real world in which the Upside Down is successfully bleeding, just what Vecna wanted. It goes pretty hand in hand with what he says next in the next shot.

The voiceover to this shot is, “your friends have lost…” That suggests something and the pain stricken shout from Eleven in this shot is suggesting something similar. With the background and the lighting we for sure that this is taking place in the Creel House but in the Upside Down. Now, I know there is no hint of time travel until now but I still think it is the endgame to it all. What if when Dr. Owens says El’s powers will be stronger, does he mean she’ll get the ability to travel back in time through memories? It is possible, she displays quite a similar feat in Season 3 when she goes in Billy’s mind.

This reminds of Doctor Strange, similar to that movie here a human is working to merge this dimension into a darker time that is free from the constraints of time. 001’s speech from the 7th episode suggests his repulse against as it wears out everything. Also, not to mention every victim of Vecna sees a Grandfather clock. This has to be something more than just a stylistic choice. Add to that the Ms. Kelly theory, it seems as though time travel is key. Something more to think about is why would they reveal us in 7th episode that the Upside Down is stuck in 1983 if it had no significance? It is there, we just have to piece it together. I say Doctor Strange for another reason, the Dark dimension of Dormamu didn’t have time and Strange defeated him with the use of the Time Stone.

What is something similar is going on here, what if Eleven will ultimately defeat Vecna with time as it doesn’t exist in the Upside Down. This will act as a fitting reply to Vecna as it was always something he’s despised, dying because of that very thing will be poetic. There is another shot of Vecna that appears to be in the Upside Down but not with Eleven, you can see the lights in the background maybe they’re a part of a plan, through they can communicate.

I absolutely loved the trailer especially because it ends with the Show’s theme synced with Kate Bush’s Running Up the Hill, now this might be a great marketing trick since that song was trending quite after Vol. 1’s release or it may suggest the importance of the song is even greater in this part. Regardless, it gave me chills.

Let me know, if you agree with my observations, do you think I missed something? If you have any theories about Vol. 2 then do let me know.

Stranger Things 4 Vol. 1 is streaming now on Netflix and Vol. 2 is all set to drop on 1st July 2022. Check out the trailer for Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 till then.

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