The Reel Rejects - REJECT RECAP: Stranger Things 4, Chapter 2: "Vecna's Curse" Breakdown & Review!

Episode Date: May 28, 2022

Vecna's Curse continues to infiltrate the hearts & souls of the people of Hawkins - and what's going on with Hopper?! We discuss all the juicy details surrounding Stranger Things' thickest season yet! REACTION HIGHLIGHTS on YouTube & FULL LENGTH (Sync-Up) WATCH ALONGS at Patreon.com/TheReelRejects!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, reject nation. Semi call out to the YouTube show for this, even though, I don't know, maybe I'll drop a music better, and who knows. Anyway, hey, welcome to our Stranger Things, Season 4, or Just Stranger Things 4, Chapter 2, review, breakdown, recap, et cetera. Vecna's Curse is the title of the episode, a very fascinating season, loving what they're doing with the extended runtimes and all the horror vibes. Won't get too much into it, because that's a whole point of the,

reviews but anyway if you want to check out the reaction highlights those are on our YouTube channel YouTube.com slash the real rejects or if you want to watch the full show with us do a little mystery science theater watch along commentary experience come on over to patreon.com slash the real rejects and join us there anyhow enjoy our review hope you do Touchin. Yep. More dread this season.

I like it. I like it a lot. Absolutely. I feel like this is definitely shaping up to be better than last season. Mm-hmm. But damn. Man. Some dark-ass shit. There's some dark-ass shit, man.

It's dark bad trip dewy cox. Hip-hop Dustin's back! Yeah! Science raps! As did all the things that we were saying they would probably do, you know, from after the first episode, we were like, they really focused a lot on the new characters. Well, I'm gonna focus more on our returning characters. And now this was mainly about our returning characters. Yeah.

Got us to learn that Hopper was still around. And he just... He just got taken... Yeah, he just lived and then got arrested. He just... Glend his way out of there. And then he didn't break under interrogation, so they put him away to even crazier prison. Really thought there would just be some kind of...

I don't know how I feel about that. Yeah, I guess it's fine. I don't know if it was just some... Because I think a lot of us really thought it was going to be some kind of crazy... Yeah, particle acceleration transporting thing. Something more... ...connected to Russia. The Russians came over here with their machinery.

Yeah. You know, not just... Oh, no, we just went away. You just jump down and then we found him. We found him right after that. Oh, it's actually a lot simple. In fact, if Joyce hadn't left like forthwith, she might have just found him too. They had to go, man. Russians were coming.

That's true. That's true. It wasn't time. Yeah, there wasn't time. So. I'm still a little conflicted about that. It's funny. It sets you up for some kind of big explanation and then to have it be like, oh, no, no, he just ran in the proper direction. It doesn't fully, I guess, circumvent the whole. still, how did he survive

that devastating explosion of this theoretical machine? But it's not something that, like, while, yeah, I'm sitting here thinking about it, it doesn't loom too heavily. It's not like it destroyed my enjoyment of everything else they were doing, you know? Well, at least it thoroughly explains how he,

why hasn't been back? Yeah. And I like to kind of gradually even still, like at the beginning of this episode, I thought they were going to rush him on and it's going to be like all hopper, all Russia. Yeah. But I liked it where, yeah, even, you know, we get hints at him in the first episode. Now we get a couple glimpses in this one.

Well, figuring out Enzo and then having the stories tie together. Yeah. The way they deal with time in this is really interesting. Mm-hmm. The intercutting of all these different events. I think the cinematography is just fucking so beautiful, so beautiful. It's exquisite, exquisite stuff. And it does feel different than the other seasons.

I'm not sure thematically what it is that is the exact theme here of this one because I think the other three their themes are really like easier to identify whereas here we're dealing with a lot of different things right now and it's all really cool like I think everything is really clicking there's not a single for longer episodes there's not a single dull moment to me no and i like that it feels like a bunch of there are parts of it that you know like the it seems like with with the dustin and you know robin and them they they are still keeping that original flare of the goonies vibe you know

investigating something horror um and and and and then uh i think like there were like 80s the more 70s like Russian stuff yeah i mean it's still carries over but yeah i feel like that torture horror psychological horror vibe yeah and then uh this investigative mystery with nancy and that that genre kind of believes throughout of this ghost story which i think is really cool because they haven't done ghost story yet at least like overtly no and it's a very i feel like the upside down is a really interesting motif to go into all these different iterations of horror plus other genre and I feel like

ghost story is just as much at home in just a different sense I wouldn't have necessarily thought of it at first but I do think especially the way they've done this whole possession and preying on your guilt and your grief and using that as this thing that you know as a tangible counterpart

but that only manifests on our physical plane as... It's gonna so go after Max. Yeah I know that's the thing is the second the second Chrissy got lifted off her in the first episode i was like oh that trailer moment where she's above the grave this gonna be something to do with billy yeah yeah she probably she's so he's so going after max mm-hmm and it's already begun too with that little those little flashes so maybe if it's

about overcoming your guilt yeah yeah sure maybe that's what this season's about and confronting it and not hiding you know from it or not trying to soldier on like it didn't actually happen yeah because the other season last season was about moving forward um second season was PTSD and then this one is probably a lot with everyone seems to be dealing some form of guilt guilt and especially survivor's guilt i feel like yeah yeah that's a good way to put it man there's a lot that happen these are these are so thick these episodes they're great though they're really good yeah i just want like i know we got so many so much more hours left to consume here um up for this weekend but uh i i think that what they're doing here is very

really, there's something kind of hypnotic about it. It's really absorbing. It's really, really absorbing. You know, transportive is the word, like I get so lost in it and a different flair, you know, especially watching the other seasons and then coming here. This has more of a, it's not slow, but it's more deliberate, if that makes sense. Yeah, it feels like it's just allowed to take as much time as it feels like it needs to with each thing, not too much, not too little. So yeah, it's like every emotional scene gets to be what it is, but they also

have a really good sense of pacing for when to either intercut with or introduce directly some kind of eerie or ironic beat to keep the flavor developing and unfolding, you know? There's more of an ethereal unsettling quality to it. Yeah, it's got that foreboding where you just know like something sinister is lurking and you can't, even though we get glimpses at Vecna and all that stuff, you still can't quite for a lot of the regular scenes, put your finger on it. It's like we know, but I think they're good at also putting you into that place of just something's off here and it's hard to identify.

It's also a lot darker, more uncomfortable. Like those handheld shots that they use just feel more grounded in a reality. You got a really good contrast because there are so many really beautifully executed and very fluid transitions and things that, you know, require a lot of planning and a lot of ingenuity. But then I think they use those in juxtaposition so that when they do deliberately switch to something that's more handheld and a little more voyeuristic, it really strikes you. And I think they're also good at choosing when to do that because I feel like that's an easy thing to go for when you want intensity. But I feel like they've used it here also not only for intensity's sake, but like especially in the max scenes when she's at home, it's more just to kind of enhance that realism. Trade the part five.

Yeah, yeah. you're really there he sucks you know but but at the same time like it is it feels like a choice and it feels striking but not in a way where it's like super distracting it's just like oh yeah it's another flavor they've added to the repertoire because when I think of the visual and the oral style of the show I think of something symmetrical and steady you know I guess the easiest way to narrow down what they're doing here is the other seasons rift on sci-fi horror and this rifts on supernatural horror there yeah that's a good point yeah I like it I'm really digging it a lot.

I think the gorgaggs are cool, that whatever that method is that maybe Victor Creel does, of like, snap their bones, pull back their eyes. I'll be taking these. Yeah, one and two, I'm like, are those going to come, all the eyes going to come back or something? Like, it seems very deliberate and... And he's out there snapping people's limbs and taking their...

Yeah, I was like, Jesus, there's an M.O. for a killer. This is really... You've got to have a lot of strength. And a lot of resolve, because it's hard to do that. I mean, with supernatural powers, obviously much easier, but the real creole, you know, who I'm excited to meet, too. Like, I like that, I like, it's funny, for as tension-filled and as horror-oriented as these episodes have been, I also, too, like that, you know, Vecna is still used sparingly and is this very much sinister and looming presence, and we still haven't even gotten to Robert England.

Well, it's, it feels, isn't Robert English? I think I'm playing a guy? I think he's Creel, yeah. So, like, the guy who eventually, I assume, soul rots and becomes Creole in the upside down. Yeah, this creature. Vecna on the upside down, yeah. Because he's voicing him.

Yeah. Yeah, because this Vecna character is a combination of Freddie Kruger, Pennywise, and Hellraiser. And Tyrant from Resident Evil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mainly the aesthetic, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the qualities of 80s villain. Hellard's 80s, right?

His 80s or 90s? Hellraiser is 80s, yeah. Yeah. Hellraiser is the 80. it was one when I revisited all the 80s slasher franchises in a big way for the first time hellraiser was the one that was just as intense as i'd imagined from the outside yeah and i remember be like damn for the 80s this one did not hold back yeah this is this is yeah and also like how hellraiser was a villain who could because they used to have villains before characters like hellraiser

and i guess the miniseries for penny and and freddie kruger and stuff like like those kinds of characters, the villains usually were scary because they didn't talk. Yes. And then you had a dawn of villains who could talk. Who wouldn't shut up. Who wouldn't shut up? And this this is our first season that

and like that's what I mean like after there's a late 80s portion that is very specific and it seems to really capture that. And even does capture some of those like 80s serial killer vibes without going full tilt that direction. Without going full Henry.

no yeah yeah might be a 90s movie but just barely yeah yeah just a bit but it's it's really fascinating what they're doing and and like 11 story is one i'm wonder why she wants to put up the facade though so much so for mike so much for mike yeah like look how happy my life is and stuff i wonder why she's so desperate to do that and maybe it's just my my got that whole thing with will last season too of like you know you care about hanging out would be Mike and I'm like fucking Mike man ever passes yeah it has been a year why haven't you try call and and why in this moment are you like so quick I mean I guess you know teenagers and romantic problems and blah blah blah but also like I feel like you could act a little bit like you guys are actually friends yeah

because it like when will does confront him I'm like yeah I mean it does seem like you've been third wheel in him all day and you don't really seem to care about being here with him he's just kind of there and I mean I'm unfortunately yeah and I mean I hope that the Will story like I

I'm with it right now and I appreciate it right now and I hope that it grows into something where that actor and that you know character can shine well yeah it's a little repetitive for him at this moment yes it's just deeper voice older yeah but it's a little

at this point it's a little repetitive so we'll see how the rest of it unfolds like what specific path they put him onto because it seems like they're building up something for him they keep having these gazing slow shots on him of just observing they keep faking me out too because i always think that it's going to zoom in on whoever his potential love interest could be but then no it's oh damn it's on the camcorder guy who's going to make this situation even worse yeah yeah hoping for hoping for Will to be given something juicy here because I like what they're doing in California in the

sense that with 11 it's the most removed from any and everything supernatural horror it's all grounded in reality for 11 at this moment well they're doing carry with her in a lot of ways yeah yeah yeah yeah but even still like I'm not sitting here going get back to the point where she has power

like I'm actually I think they do a good job of putting all that you know all that pulp and all those exploits elements and things into the rest of what's going on so that you can have what is right now at least just a very personal human story happening around 11 well it does they started off this season with showing that i mean at least the way it's perceived that she murdered uh everyone there at the rainbow room so and then she gets she flashes back to that i mean so maybe that's like a big part of her guilt too yeah maybe she has it overcome and you re you still recreate

you know if you haven't overcome it yeah and uh when she attacks angela which by the way baller move 100% for it's fictional all right if there's real life might have a different saying still might be like okay you know she kind of deserve the mission yeah we all wanted to but but you can't do for times in terms of fiction you know come on whatever screw it like they oh well and the true tradition of the 80s i mean they're not completely psychotic but they are pretty extremely they're extreme bullied yeah yeah they're extremely bullied yeah they're awful um And, uh, I mean, like, what does Angela expect? But I love how she always singles out Angela.

Yeah. I'm like, they're all bad. Yeah, but, but take, cut off the head and the rest of the fall. Yeah, she's the queen be, yeah. All these dudes ain't shit around her because she's the nucleus. But I wonder what their, what portrait they're painting or what path they're putting her on of, you know, she's powerless right now. And in all ways. Yeah, you know, um, friend wise, social circumstance wise, she becomes desperate.

wants to be normal and she doesn't have any physical powers and then she strikes and she's looked upon as like this like oh my god what did you just do this violent threat and she's haunted by her own guilt from what she did in the past and you know like what's it like is there association that having these power having the powers prior was a bad thing you know i'm curious to see what path they put her on to what this all ties to thematically and emotionally for her of what her powers mean to her you know because it's always seemed like a bit of a curse

so maybe gaining them back in terms to fight the high school bullies no it's real they're gonna bring her back to they're gonna be like we need you she's never gonna get back to Indiana this whole season

she's all gonna be in LA it's obviously California trying to figure out social skills all obviously building to her getting her powers back and having a fight like you're erasing the hole remember yeah what we need on all the time. We need you to do the thing. We need you to do the thing. Yeah.

And then go there and kill everyone at that high school. Yeah. Lock them in the gym and burn. They're all awful. They are pretty much all awful. That's terrible. Yeah. No one's standing up for her. Not a single person. Not anyone. No one is decent to Jane.

Oh, God. Truly sucks. I guess if you were alive for that period of time in the 80s or any time, depicted in a Stephen King novel that features a bully let us know is that anything approaching reality look like if you were a freak mess everyone the most terrible they could be at all times it certainly seems that way from all 80s movies from every 80s movie ever made yeah i was shocking i didn't expect her to just i really thought she was gonna break the camera yeah i i thought she

might actually hit her i didn't expect them to to go full on like woof like and i think should have been practical effect. Yeah, fair. Yeah, fair. I mean, because, too, it's, it might have been hard. I wonder, I think that's a area where if you are cut there, like, you do kind of bleed a lot. And so, yeah, I mean, as much as I wish for a practical effect, it was still like, that is, that is some nasty looking damage. And I'm sure for everyone around, that's not going to help the level. I was just like, why would she do that? That's the thing. Wasn't there like a billion of you who just saw Not one of you could have made the connection to, oh, yeah, we were all unanimously ridiculing this person on the camera, and we got the entire establishment in on it. Maybe, maybe she's mad.

And like you brought up before, like generational trauma. I keep wondering if they're going to go down some type of cultist mentality in some areas. They seem to explore that with the bullying and then the basketball people being like, yeah, they're all devil worship. Evil dies tonight. Yeah. Which, well, yeah, yeah, I can definitely see some mob, uh, mob mentality. I mean, I like it through the scope of the, the basketball team. No, that makes sense. Yeah, and that guy, like, that guy who's Jason or whatever his name is, I, he's so,

someone's going to deep fake Tom Cruise's face onto his face. He's so Tom Cruise to me. It's not even funny. I do love, I do, I do like that story. I think it's, this is a really emotional and breathes really well. well and I think it's really earning its runtime yeah I'm really engrossing I'm like I mean you know Lucas doesn't want to stand up for anything just got to admit it's what we've played the game just want to be poplars be like I played it once yeah it's a fantasy game it's like it's it's like a board game it's not actually Satanism guys I well let me show you yeah but

you know I mean his position then I guess you know you don't want to people really think they've had Dungeons and dragon that's I mean, I'm sure... I've never met those people, but yeah, I mean, in the 80s, Satanic Panic and yeah, people singling out heavy metal and Dungeons and Dragons, yeah, like, that's based on real hysteria.

I think that's where I was speaking about the cultish vibes of the Satanic panic. Yeah. Well, and hey, I mean, maybe they'll do something to also nod to that as either a misleader or maybe there is some cult of Vecna out there or something. But it's fun wallpaper, but I mean...

In fact, there's the Dungeons and Tray. its character. But I think they're calling the big bad Vecna too. Yeah, they nickname him. Because it's also the motif is, yeah, every like monster out of the upside down gets a name from the... Yeah, Demogorg and Mindflare. Yeah. So I'm just assuming

there, but yeah, maybe there is some kind of cult associated. I feel like everyone's so blind to other things in Hawkins. Yeah, there is... It's just a point where it's like, which feels very dairy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean,

I mean, Derry has that mumbo-jumbo. I'm like, people seem to forget the weird shit that happens here. That's not built into here. But yeah, when they were having that scene with Eddie, I was like, I guess maybe he wouldn't be aware of any of the weird past several years of freaky-ass shit. Yeah, it seems like he would have at least some inkling or at least. Some rumblings about it, yeah. Yeah, so that's a piece of the continuity.

I guess I'll have to check back on. Because I don't know, when things happen at the StarCorp Mall, it's pretty big in scope and scale. but then the biggest thing too yeah like that yeah like nothing but to me i go back to season one where will's body was found and then brought to a morgue and they found out it wasn't really will's body and then will came back from the dead and one's like oh will you're alive you're gonna forget about that whole body swapping weirdness thing yeah yeah uh what are what are the rest of the citizens of hockey are they just uh are they just oblivious it's like any and all of it

yeah or do they just I guess everybody must just sit around and go we just live in a strange town accidents happen every day I am not finding Jonathan's story that interesting so far that's the only that's the only story that I'm like these jokes are kind of flat

and like this and it's like a half-ass cheech and chon because they don't want to go full tilt there but yeah it's not that funny it feels really cliche that I'm waiting for it to evolve and then I don't know Jonathan's story just seems so typical too

it seems yeah very kind of straight and wrote and I can't foresee yet how it will grow into anything that seems very significant his story feels perfunctory because yeah we have to include Jonathan's here yeah it really does because I was sitting there during the

golf scene where the two of them are just chucking balls and I was like going back and forth thinking you know it's really cool that they care all their characters and they found a way to give everybody something to do but then by like the end of that sequence I was like well what that scene ended and then later on the episode I realized we're not cutting back to him this episode yeah so that it's like it is the least important seeming story and it trails off the soonest and thus it does feel like yeah we need to

have him so we'll give him a scene each episode yeah and that's about it and maybe we'll use him for transpo. I can almost imagine Argyle like eclipsing him as a character because like I like that guy too and the interesting characters tend to get something to do when they enter the plot and become a part of the series regular cast or

whatever so. Yeah, because I'm not really torn between our Nancy and Jonathan going to break up. I'm like I don't I really love them a lot in season two as like when they're getting together I really rooted for them a lot. The context really helps their story. And then here. I'm like, I just weirdly don't kind of, kind of don't care. I don't see what's great enough

beyond your, you know, appearance and attitude that's like, no, no, no, man, give them a chance. I want them to work this out. Yeah. It's sort of like, I, half the time I was like, are Nancy and Fred going to get together or something weird like that? When they said goodbye to each other in season three, I found that really heartbreaking, too. I found that genuinely heartbreaking when I re-watched it. it's weird to it's only been a like a couple months since I've seen that and then to come back here and see what's going on with them I've just gone eh they're probably gonna break them yeah and I mean they had that one bit where they're both talking about their relationship and we get another beat in this episode where they're both talking about

the relationship and they feel more I know they're disconnected by distance but something feels disconnected about even like call each other yeah like not even like one phone call with each other yeah and and again like there's so many circumstances like get it but I feel like at the same time I don't really buy the struggle coming out of them like the dialogue is there about how you know they're trying to convince themselves about certain things and hey maybe we need to break up or whatever but for some reason it's the piece of drama that doesn't actually ring very true or very true vital to me it's uh yeah there's something about it it feels like they're

already broken up or like uh the plot doesn't care that much it's hard to care about them when you don't see one interaction with them yeah or give us a reason why beyond just what we know from before as to why we'd want them to work it out all right gang well here we are got uh five more episodes go mm-hmm so with this being this stanchie things season 4 it's like 12 more hours yeah yeah and then when part two comes i will have 18 more hours beyond this i mean let's look at it really quick oh Let's look at the Let's do some quick math

That next one's what you are Okay, so it's the last one that's forever Yes Alright, I'm looking forward to the number 40 minutes I just saw that It was like 90 minutes, nope, 98, whoa That's a long as episode He's been playing theaters

They could have Which I bet the series finale they might do some kind of screening Oh, that'd be great, too bad we won't be able to experience it that way Nope We have to be here Gotta be here to be here for you guys and we want nothing else really don't yeah it's the this is a fun show to share this is fun show to share yeah love this show yeah i do too all right guys see you for the

next round ricardo martinez you know why i wanted to shout you out in stranger things episode dose because there's a lack of Hispanic representation in stranger things that's exactly what I was going to say. Yeah. Yeah. Because as two non-Hispanic people, we're going to notice your Hispanic. Yep, that's the first thing we noticed. We thought, hey, we can work with it. We can work with this one. I mean, I got this, like, stoner and a guy named Margile, who I think is Hispanic. He could be. He's ethnically ambiguous, which means technically yes. That is a Californian stoner from the 80s. He's playing on Cheech and Chong. He's probably Hispanic. Okay. So, Ricardo, I think.

Stranger Things is due for someone like you, not some weird stoner, cliche, Hispanic dude from the 80s. I'm talking a good housekeeper or, you know, a good gardener. Yeah, a janitor at Hawkins High. A janitor at Hawkins High. A gangster. Yes. You know, something that's not a cliche. Something like that, Ricardo. And I feel like you fit any one of those identities. A lowrider guy. Those are non-stereotypes. Imagine this. Ricardo Martinez,

Stranger Things Season 5, pulls into Hawkins High, low-rider. Boom. Hydraulics going up and down, walks out, and it's like, what's up, S.A.? I want to be part of the group today.

I want to join the Hellfire Club. No. Dude. Fool? Let me join Helpfire. No, that's so Rese. We, I think, Ricardo, you are not a cliché at all.

I mean, I'm sure maybe there's parts of you that have, like, some type of, uh, we all have our stereotypes. Everything Ricardo does is original. Original. Not one part of honors, he rejects his ass-a-st guy ever. He goes, I want nothing to do with my Hispanic heritage. Or any other heritage of any existing culture. So unique. This is way off the rails.

Oh, look, thanks for being here, Ricardo. Yeah. Trying to come up with something new. Thank you for being here. And, you know, we're just messing with. Gracios. Gracios. Amigo.

From us people. All right. Ablo, Spain.