Stranger Things, Season 4, Episode 5: The Nina Project
Yeah, okay, after the first three episodes being slow and the previous one really kicking things up drama-wise, "The Nine Project" also picks things up a fair notch in the dramatic side of things. The California gang of Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle is easily one of the least-interesting parts of the large cast, but them having to deal with the death of that agent guy and having to decrypt what 'Nina' is ends up being a nice little segue to the actual participant of the Nina Project, Eleven.
Now admittedly even amongst everything that's going on their side of the story is still not particularly interesting, but I do like the brief heart-to-heart talk between Mike and Will, as well as the comedy bits with making a gravestone for the agents literally killed trying to protect them. I'm still unconvinced that we need Argyle at all, and even Jonathan himself doesn't seem to contribute more than a line or two every scene, but at least they're not taking up huge chunks of screentime. Team California has to go off to look for Suzie, and... again, it sure is a sub-plot, and I know that three of these guys are the main characters of previous seasons, but I am just so... unenthused with their storyline at this point.
Eleven's story as she's led by dr. Owens into the Nina Project -- a random singular doorway in the deserts of Nevada that leads to yet another one of the many, many secret undergrounds laboratories. While it seemed like Owens is going to be a nice mentor who's heading up a team that's full of people who believe in the Eleven-as-a-superhero agenda, of course, things aren't ever that simple. Dr Brenner shows up, with all his creepy 'papa' nonsense, and wants to work together. Now admittedly Brenner is trying to do so less in an altruistic or well-intentioned way and more of someone who wants to see his masterpiece reach her full potential, but it's, I guess, a neat way to justify someone who can probably fix Eleven's sudden loss of powers.
The episode plays a bit coy with it (though it doesn't treat the likely genre-savvy audience like morons) but Eleven basically finds herself in something not to dissimilar to X-Men's Cerebro or whatnot, where she's essentially forced to relive her traumatic flashbacks. There's definitely a depressingly terrifying sense of her losing her sense of self and independence again when she wakes up with a shaved head and those ratty lab-rat clothes, but, well, Brenner and Owens are convinced that the secret to re-unlocking Eleven's psychic powers are within her memories. Again, we just keep seeing the jarring flashback between the big day when she talks to a young orderly, before we get disjointed images and then Eleven standing with blood in her hands and corpses strewn all across the room.
All of this, again, wouldn't be interesting enough without the genuinely well-done acting on Millie Bobbie Brown's part, who portrays the desperation of someone who realizes she's been tricked into being helpless at the tender mercies of her former abuser; her confusion and fear at being tossed into the same laboratory that tormented her entire childhood... and the fact that she's going to have to face those memories to help her friends in the real world.
And while Brenner initially seems like he's just torturing Eleven for the evuls, turns out that when Eleven manages to escape her restrains again, she actually has access to her powers enough to knock a pair of guards away. Brenner then delivers a choice that's... that's pretty fucking abusive, isn't it? Except it is still kinda well-meaning since the ultimate goal is going to benefit all the good guys? Brenner opens the door to give Eleven the (illusion of?) free choice of staying and unlocking her full power or going away. It's pretty terrifying and frankly some abusive, gaslighting shit that many abusive people do IRL, and while I don't doubt that Eleven's "okay papa" line is an act, it's all pretty well done.
The other huge plot, I guess, is the Alaska plot. It's still something that drags on a bit longer than it should, and... I guess it's far more interesting than the California gang, but I just really feel like Joyce and Murray's little escapee from Yuri the happy smuggler is a B-plot from a completely different show. There's a great character moment for Hopper in the Russian prison, where he manages to strike up a weird friendship with Enzo, and he angsts about how he's a curse, reflecting all the trauma of his time in the war (that Agent Orange speech was amazing) to the people in his life. The episode isn't too obvious about it, but I think there's a parallel being drawn between father and daughter here, with Eleven herself also being probably subconsciously terrified that it's her powers that keeps drawing blood from others around her.
As far as the Hawkins gang are concerned, though, we're still reeling on the events of the previous episode (and I love that there's a 'Max Watch' going on, even if she's totally fine). Max manages to recall the trippy environment of Vecna's lair in the Upside-Down, and in her lack of sleep, starts drawing it with crayon -- something not to dissimilar to what Will did in season two with the Mind Flayer. Dustin even makes a geeky comparison to A Nightmare on Elm Street -- itself a nice wink-wink-nod meta joke because actor Robert "Freddie Kreuger" Englund appeared earlier this season as Victor Creel.
Thanks to Nancy's sleuthing in the past couple of episodes, she manages to fold Max's pictures and form the Creel house, and... well, time to go to a haunted house, I guess. There's some genuinely well-done creepy-horror moment that's reminiscent of some of the best parts of the first two seasons of the lights in the abandoned house starting to blink in and out as the show does some nice twisting and turning to show that Vecna's base that we've been seeing his naked body be suspended on is, indeed, the Creel house. Also some really great moments from Max, too, who's not sure if the recurring grandfather clock she keeps seeing is actually real or not. Poor girl!
The C-plot of the aggressive basketball boys ends up with them going around and sleuthing, eventually figuring out that Eddie's hiding out in Reefer Rick's pad. I kind of get that these guys are the secondary antagonists, sure, to give the Hawkins people a sense of urgency to solve their side of things. They're not the most interesting characters and are frankly one-note, but I guess they're this season's "Billy". Unlike Vecna's previous victims, the one he kills this episode is one of the basketball club boys, who's in the midst of helping Jason hunt down Eddie (who's escaping in a boat) gets killed by Vecna in that crucified-in-the-air-before-being-crumpled way.
Anyway, pretty interesting episode! Again, a lot of my complaints in this season still stands, although in this case we do have a lot of pretty good highs. The Eleven/Brenner stuff and Team Hawkins are all pretty well-realized and fun. It's just that the other subplots aren't anywhere as interesting as the screentime we spend on them. All the Hawkins storylines (particularly Eddie and the basketball thugs) seem to be leading to a neat little bow, and Eleven's tied to everything, but I really do wonder if splitting the party and having small bunches of characters geographically distant from everyone in California and Alaska are the best narrative decision or not. We'll see once the season ends, I guess.
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