The way that Stranger Things 4 was broken up is weird, but it makes sense. The fact that Part 2 is only two episodes but almost four hours long adds to the weirdness. The final episode of the season functions like a TV movie to finish the story of the season. The story beats that were hit during the episodes were thoughtful but mostly unsurprising.
All of the lingering threads from the previous episodes are cleared up. The apparent fervor that Jason Carver had whipped the entire town of Hawkins into had seemingly died down into a network of paranoid citizens. The separate teams are able to interact with each other in ways that make it interesting. One of the things that I didn’t like was how the final episode had three endings that played into the next one. The actual ending sets up the story going into the fifth and final season. I’ve been vague as to not spoil anything, even though I plan on posting this in enough time for people to have seen it.
Stranger Things 4 Part 2 is a fun but kinda overly long way to lead the story into the final season. I will do a more spoilery write up of the entire season that also deal with my thoughts on where the story went and where it was left leading into the last season. I do think that the season was still mostly positive overall. I give Stranger Things 4 Part 2 8 d20s out of 10.