Although season three of Stranger Things was long at some points, the finale “Chapter Eight: The Battle Of Starcourt” made up for it. Finally, Chief Hopper got to kill Gregori. Also, sadly, Billy died. As well, I noticed another underlying message of the series. That being said, Stranger Things 3 was very entertaining.
To begin, Mike has some last words about the Mind Flayer. Mike tells the audience, saying, “The Mind Flayer built this monster in Hawkins to stop El, to kill her, and pave a way to our world.”
However, Steve asks for clarification about the Mind Flayer at the Starcourt mall. Steve inquires, asking, “Ok, just to be clear, this big, fleshy spider thing that hurt El is some kind of gigantic weapon? But instead of screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made it’s weapon with melted people. Yeah, ok, just making sure.” It’s a monster made out of individual people.
Morover, Erica sees Murray getting everyone killed at this meeting, if they listen to him. “With all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you’re all going to die.”
Also, Dustin agrees with Erica on this point. He says, “She’s right. You’re all going to die. But you don’t have to.”
According to Erica, when it comes to dying, they all going to die. Erica says, “Well, that settles it. He’s going to die. They’re going to die.”
With that, Chief Hopper, Joyce, and Murray leave the Starcourt mall for the underground base where Hopper kills a bunch of Russians. In shock, Murray tells Chief Hopper, “Jim. This is crazy. Jim, I had it under control.” Hopper went crazy.
As the base dissolves into madness, Joyce wants to celebrate. “You know, if we actually do make it out of here, we deserve to celebrate, right?”
In this last episode of Stranger Things 3, Chief Hopper’s performance is Machiavellian. Hopper, much like Niccolo Machiavelli’s princes who had to appear virtuous while doing unscrupulous acts, had to kill a bunch of Russians in order to hang onto power while saving the people of Hawkins.
Meanwhile, Eleven has a last talk with Billy before he dies. “Seven feet, you told her. The wave was seven feet. You ran to her on the beach. There were seagulls. She wore a hat with a blue ribbon. A long dress with a blue and red flower. Yellow sandals covered in sand. She was pretty. She was really pretty. And you, you were happy.” Eleven’s last talk with Billy was about lost memories and his dead mother.
Elsewhere, Chief Hopper and Gregori battle for the last time in the underground base. Hopper tells Gregori before killing him, “I’ll see you in hell.”
As I watched “Chapter Eight: The Battle Of Starcourt,” I found another underlying message in Stranger Things. And here’s that message: In today’s world, there is no place for a person like Chief Hopper. After all, he killed a bunch of Russians, and he uses police state tactics. I couldn’t see the show supporting such a character like Chief Hopper, so Chief Hopper had to die.
All in all, it was a good season, a great season. You had a monster, the Mind Flayer, which looked like the monster out of the 80s movie Deadly Spawn. You had the Starcourt mall, which was very cool. And Eleven saved the day. It was time to move on.
In summary, this finale was damn near perfect. Finally, they killed the Mind Flayer. Also, the terminator, Gregori, met his end in the turbines of a generator. Further, Billy died, but not before redeeming himself and saving Eleven. And we got to see Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzie. With that, Eleven, Will, Joyce, and Jonathan decide to move out of town. This season was very entertaining, so I am looking forward to next season- if there is one.
