Stranger Things (2016) s05e07 Episode Script

1
Max.
Max. Max, can you hear me? Max.
Come on. Open your eyes. Yes! Yes, Max!
Can you hear me?
Max!
Yes! Stay with me. Stay with me.
All the way, Max.
Yes! That's it! That's it!
Hello, Lucas.
Yes. Max. Come on, Max. It's me.
I'm right here. I'm right here, Max.
Are you Are you Are you okay?
Do you Do you hurt anywhere?
I can't feel much.
Do you Do you feel
this? Do you feel my hand?
A little.
Can Can you Can you see?
The lights are really
are really bright.
Hey.
You haven't used your eyes, okay,
or your muscles for a long time.
Okay, your body's just weak,
but it just needs to
readjust and learn again.
You are going to be okay.
You're gonna be okay.
I knew you were there.
I always knew you were still there.
I saw you.
Waiting for me,
playing my my song.
You bored of it yet?
Are you?
It turns out
that the whole time,
I didn't even need it.
I just needed you.
Just you.
- Oh my God.
- Max.
You're here. You're really here.
I'm here.
Hey, welcome home, kid.
Took your sweet time, didn't you?
Screw you, Wheeler.
Where am I?
Oh.
Yeah, that would be confusing. Um
You were being hunted by the Demo-dogs,
and we were all seconds
away from becoming lunch
when Mrs. Wheeler came and
did the laundry.
Holy shit! Mom!
Vecna.
He'll be angry.
He'll try and find me.
He'll know we escaped.
Where's Holly?
Where is she?
Jonathan.
Jonathan.
Jonathan, stop.
What?
If we hurt ourselves,
we're really screwed.
Yeah, I guess you're right.
Oh, God.
Okay, so now what?
Anything else you wanna confess?
Stay back.
Sorry we're late.
- You okay?
- Yeah. Yeah, we're okay.
Thanks.
Was that weird? I'm
sorry. That was weird.
I didn't We just
We both thought
- We were goners. Yeah, we did too.
- Yes.
Turns out that shield
generator of yours
Isn't really a shield
generator. Yeah, we know.
Well, you'd think that would have
been good information to share.
Well, we tried.
Antenna snapped.
His fault.
Okay, so then what the hell did I shoot?
Exotic matter.
And we're supposed to know what that is?
It's all in here. Look. Check this out.
Dr. Brenner's notebook from '83.
This thing is a gold mine.
All his research into the gate, how
he created it, what it really is.
I'm still deciphering it, but
Yeah, this shit will fry your brain.
Cliff notes, Holly isn't on
the other side of the wall.
Then where is she?
I don't know exactly.
But wherever she is,
it's not the Upside Down.
When he took me, he opened
the fourth, final gate,
splitting Hawkins in two.
You can do this.
- What was that?
- What was what?
Holly.
Voyager Beta.
Any signal yet?
Negative, Voyager Alpha. Voyager Gamma?
A big, fat zero over here.
Your balloon experiment
is a dud, Snookums.
Let's just put the antenna
on the van and drive.
As I've said, Voyager Gamma,
given the uneven terrain
and forested nature of Hawkins,
a vehicle is simply not
the most expedient way
to pinpoint a telemetry tag.
"Expedient"? We've been
building your goddamn
balloon experiment for six hours!
Yes, but once we trilaterate
the three signals,
I'll be able to pinpoint
Dustin's precise location.
You can't trilaterate shit
if we can't get a signal,
so let's just cut our losses now
before your star student
winds up dead in a ditch.
"Cut our losses "
Fortune favors the bold.
I've secured a location on Dustin.
Loose your balloons, Voyagers.
- Come again?
- Wait, hold on. What?
We need more height.
Loose your balloons.
Negative 80!
Negative 44.
I take it back, Snookums,
you mad, mad genius!
Thank you, Voyager. Calculations
incoming. Hold tight.
You are going to be my spy
one last time.
Will.
Hopper just radioed.
Max is safe. She got out.
Hey, this is good news.
None of this would have
happened if it weren't for you.
Everything's gonna be okay.
But for how long, Mom?
If Lucas is right, today is the day,
the day Vecna's gonna act.
I thought I had him. But the truth
The truth is I never stood a chance.
And he knew it. He's always known it.
That's why, out of everyone
in Hawkins, he chose me.
Because he knew I was weak,
and he knew he could control me.
That is not true.
It is, Mom. It is.
I was his vessel.
A vessel to channel his powers, to spy,
and and to build.
"To To build"?
The tunnels.
They didn't spread from
the gate on their own.
Every night, I jacked into the
hive and took control of the vines,
using them to tunnel, infecting
our world with the Upside Down.
So many died because of me.
And if I could do all of that,
what could he do with 12 more like me?
You listen to me.
None of what happened is your fault.
Do you hear me?
And as for his big plan,
he's not gonna have 12 vessels,
or whatever the hell he calls them,
because he just lost Holly, and
she'll know where the others are.
Sweetheart, this is not
over, not by a long shot.
You're wrong.
You're wrong, Mom.
It's my fault.
No.
No, baby.
Go! Go!
I couldn't see where
Holly was gonna wake up.
But I figured
wherever Vecna was keeping her,
it had to be in the Upside Down.
So
I told her to just go home.
Home? Home as in our home?
Meaning we have to get
back into the Upside Down.
- Where is the nearest rift to you?
- Off Cornwallis, I think.
About a mile and a half, give or take.
Lucas, do you copy?
- Oh, Robin.
- Yeah.
Lucas!
Erica, I really can't talk right now.
Okay, so Vecna took out those soldiers,
so it should be a lot
easier to get into the MAC.
No. They're gonna have
reinforcements by now.
I can break through a plate.
Are you saying that Holly is
trapped under a steel plate?
Without context, that
might sound troubling,
but she's not pancaked
under a giant hunk of
steel or anything. She's
How do I talk about this?
- Well, there's this world under ours
- Under the plates.
The Upside Down.
Yeah, and it's just like
Hawkins, only way suckier.
Guys, guys, guys. Okay, you
really won't believe this,
but Erica and Mr. Clarke came through.
They found Dustin and the others.
All right. Well, they're
gonna be able to find Holly
a lot easier than we are.
We better hurry. We got company.
Hey, hey. Are you okay?
I'm fine, Michael. I'm fine.
No, with all due respect,
Mrs. Wheeler, you're not.
You could get an infection,
hemorrhage, God forbid, stop breathing.
If you think I'm gonna stay in
bed when my daughter needs me,
you're out of your
goddamn mind. Let's go.
Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom. She's right.
It's okay. Keep going.
Hey, you saved us.
You saved us.
And by some miracle,
you're still here, okay?
But now, you need to trust me
that we can handle this
the rest of the way.
There might be more of
those things out there.
They're called Demogorgons. I know.
There's so much that I need to tell
you about this Upside Down and El,
but right now, all you need to know is
that this group saved Will
when no one else could.
We did that.
And we're about to do
the same thing with Holly.
We're gonna bring her back
to you, Mom. I promise. Okay?
Yeah?
Mr. Clarke, thanks for the assist.
Don't thank me yet.
We successfully trilaterated
Dustin's position here,
to precisely where I stand now.
But by the time we arrived, he was MIA.
Well, he wouldn't be
precisely here. He'd be under.
Sorry?
You didn't tell him?
- I
- Told me what?
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Hey, over here! Over here!
I got him! I got him!
I got Dustin!
- I don't hear anything.
- Patience.
Is anyone there? Repeat, this is Dustin.
Dustin, it's Mike.
Holly's escaped from Vecna,
and she's on her way to my
house in the Upside Down.
I need you to get
there as fast as you can
and rendezvous with Holly. Do you copy?
Holly's not at the house.
We found her. We found
Holly. Repeat, we
Dustin, I'm losing you.
Dustin?
Am I going crazy, or did he
just say that he found Holly?
All right, let's hug this wall up here.
Why would she be at the lab?
Wherever she escaped from, the lab
must've been en route to my house.
She just happened to run into
Dustin? What are the odds?
Low as shit, but I say it's
about damn time we had some luck.
Amen to that.
I'm sorry. I still don't follow.
Dustin is under those plates?
- Yes.
- But not pancaked.
Hang on. Hang on.
Yeah, we got cameras all over that rift.
I have an old spectrum
analyzer back at the club.
If I can just locate their RF signal,
I should be able to
jam the transmission.
That's cool.
I think you're overthinking it.
You're telling me Alford
wouldn't have doubled that score?
Four from six from the field.
Reggie's gonna be something
special, you mark my words.
Walsh can do no
You ain't seen nothing yet.
You coming, Snookums?
We're going in there?
We're going in there.
Steve!
Dustin!
Steve!
Nancy! Holly!
Jonathan!
Is this shit safe to breathe?
Unclear.
Okay.
Mike, any luck down there?
Mike? Mike!
Found him.
Jesus, it's good to see you guys.
Nancy?
Where is she?
Where's Holly?
- What was that?
- What was what?
Holly.
Nancy! Nancy!
- Holly! Holly!
- Nancy, help me!
- Nancy, help me! Help me down, please!
- Holly!
Nancy! Nancy, please!
- Holly!
- Nancy!
It was like something had a hold of her,
but you couldn't see anything.
It was him.
Vecna. It had to be.
Mike? Is Holly okay,
Mike? Mike, do you copy?
I repeat, is Holly okay?
Don't worry, Holly.
It will all be over soon.
It will all be over.
It was some sort of demon, a
demon from that other world.
He can control monsters,
move Humvees,
stop fire.
Bullets didn't touch him.
Hell, nothing could.
It wasn't a fight.
It was a damn massacre.
First we get mutant
dogs at the hospital.
Now a goddamn demon in the MAC?
You wanna tell me what else is
about to pop out of that hellhole,
or should we leave it a surprise?
I don't know if you've noticed,
but suddenly we're light on men.
Reinforcements are on the way.
Any additional requests,
talk to your unit commander.
How am I to know what to request
when I don't know what I'm fighting?
You're not fighting anything.
This is not a war. It is a search.
Something gets in your way, kill it.
But otherwise, keep your
focus on finding the girl.
Yeah, find the girl. Christ,
is that all you can say?
I mean, you got a pull string
under that jacket of yours or what?
Everything that has happened
here is because of that girl.
And if you had just done
your job and found her,
then I wouldn't have to repeat myself,
and we'd have those monsters in Moscow
where they'd be killing
Soviets instead of Americans.
The dead men, the children,
their blood is on your
hands, Lieutenant, not mine.
And unless you want to join them,
I would watch that goddamn tongue.
Lt. Akers, this is
Bravo One. Do you copy?
Yeah, what is it?
We've got a rift breach at the old lab.
On my way.
You okay?
Max.
So I leave you alone for a second,
and you turn into a sorcerer?
It was a little more than a second,
and I'm not really a sorcerer.
Mm, sure seemed like it to me.
Hey, you up for a tour?
Jimmy "Fast Hands" skipped
town before quarantine,
so we just sort of moved in here.
The basement is hidden behind
this bookshelf over there.
Not quite the Batcave,
but it's pretty sweet.
We kept the station going
as cover. Robin's our DJ.
- Rockin' Robin.
- Rockin' Robin, my bad.
And Steve's her sound man.
Check this out.
Hey
We're gonna get Holly back.
She's all alone in there, Lucas.
Alone with that monster.
And I was so sure that
she could make it out.
And I was so stupid.
You had to try.
I should have stayed there.
And I should have kept her safe.
Then we'd all be screwed.
You've been in Vecna's mind.
You can help us beat him.
No. I can't.
I don't even know where
Vecna's keeping Holly.
Well, it's a good thing I do.
I know where she is, but the
real challenge is getting there.
I gotta show you guys something.
Okay.
So, this is Hawkins, and
this is the Upside Down.
We've always assumed the Upside Down
was another dimension opened by Brenner,
but it turns out it's actually a bridge.
More specifically, an
interdimensional bridge
that rips through space-time.
It is wildly unstable, but
held together by exotic matter,
which we found dead
center right above the lab.
In theoretical physics,
- they call this type of bridge a
- Wormhole.
And this wormhole
connects Hawkins to here,
another world that
I've coined the Abyss.
- Any particular reason?
- A realm of pure chaos and evil.
I'm sorry?
- Jesus Christ.
- Wow.
I believe this Abyss is the
true home of the Demogorgons,
the vines, the Mind Flayer,
all the nasty shit we
found in the Upside Down.
It's where all those years
ago you banished Henry.
He was lost for years,
and would've stayed lost
if it wasn't for Brenner.
He had me find Henry.
And when you made remote contact
with the Abyss, the bridge formed.
Ever since, Henry and his army
of monsters have been using it
to cross right back into Hawkins.
We kicked Vecna's ass last year,
but he just fled across this bridge
back to the Abyss to lick his wounds.
What a pussy.
So all this time, Vecna's
been hiding in the sky?
Explains why every
crawl led to a dead end.
- And why I can't find him in the bath.
- And why Holly fell from the sky.
Yeah, but why is he
taking kids up there?
For the same reason he took me.
The minds of children are weaker, right?
More easily molded and controlled.
So he channeled his thoughts and powers
through me to amplify his abilities,
and he's gonna do the
same with those kids.
Amplify his abilities?
To do what?
Move worlds.
Holly, she said Henry told the kids
that they would help him
draw the worlds together.
I didn't understand what
that meant at the time, but
He wants to move the Abyss,
crash it into Hawkins.
No, not crash.
Merge.
Henry wasn't licking his wounds
in the Abyss. He was making rifts,
weakening the Abyss, just
like he weakened Hawkins.
So when the Abyss and Hawkins collide
They become one.
He's remaking the world.
How long do we think this
takes? To move worlds?
Are we talking like Or
is this gonna take some time?
We better hope we have some time.
Because if this is all correct,
we have to get 2,000 feet in the
air, find our way into the Abyss,
free Holly and the kids, and kill
Vecna all before our worlds merge.
And if my theory's right,
he's gonna move worlds tonight.
Have I mentioned how
much I hate your theory?
- Me too.
- Me three.
I hate all of this.
But at least now we know
what we're up against
and what we need to do.
We just need a plan.
I'm sorry.
I don't mean to pry. It's just
everyone's so worried.
Is she gonna be okay?
But you've told her, right,
that this Max was just
a monster in disguise?
That it was tricking her, lying.
Of course.
I've tried everything,
but she won't listen.
We need her tonight, or we will fail.
What did this Max tell her?
Such awful, awful things.
She told her I kidnapped you.
- What?
- You rescued us.
I know.
That's not even the worst of it.
She told her I don't wanna
save the world. I wanna end it.
- How could she believe that?
- 'Cause she's stupid as shit, that's how.
No, she's not stupid, Thomas.
This monster is incredibly powerful,
and she works for the Black Thing.
She has corrupted Holly's mind
and dragged her out of the light
and taken her into the dark.
Maybe we should just
give up and go home then.
- Go home?
- To be with our parents.
We would all die.
What's wrong with you?
Shut your trap, dipshit.
Please let's not turn on each other.
I know we're all upset.
But perhaps Derek is right.
Perhaps I have failed, and
the Black Thing has won.
No, we can't let it win.
Okay? We won't.
You don't know Holly like we do.
I've been her best
friend since kindergarten.
Debbie's her second-best friend.
- And she crushes hard on Josh.
- No, she doesn't.
- She does.
- Totally.
My point is, maybe if we all try
and talk to her, we can fix her.
We can bring her back to the light.
Mary's right. We can do it.
Back to the light.
Back to the light.
Back to the light. Back to the light.
Back to the light. Back to the light.
Back to the light. Back to the light.
Back to the light. Back to the light.
Back to the light. Back to
the light. Back to the light.
As for the security
cameras, trench plate
Not a bolt cutter.
Yeah, you could safely say that, sir.
She's getting reckless.
Sloppy.
Could be one of those damn monsters.
A monster who breaks
padlocks and cameras?
I don't think so.
It's her.
Rally the rest of the team.
Tell them to lock and load.
We're going in.
At the base, in the Upside Down,
there's a chopper ready for the taking.
We fly up to the Abyss, kill
the freak, rescue the kids,
fly back down.
Who do you expect to fly this thing?
- It's a helicopter. They've got pilots.
- Right.
- We force one to fly.
- Another kidnapping plot. Love it.
How is this pilot gonna
fly a chopper into the rift?
What do you mean? We
just fly through it.
- What?
- Idiot.
Just fly through it?
These rotors are like 40 feet wide.
It's too big. It's not gonna fit.
Steve hears that all the time
and goes in anyway. Don't you?
- What the hell is wrong with you?
- It's funny.
Everybody shut up.
Look, if somebody else
has some magic bean
that I don't know about, I'm all ears.
If not, it's a risk that we
gotta take. We fly, or we die.
- Fly or die.
- Well, then I guess we die.
We're not gonna die
if we commit to a plan.
Can we weigh out a few
more options before
Yes. We die, I guess.
- You said we have to get up 2,000 feet
- Don't take that shit, Jim.
- You're not listening to each other.
- You guys!
How are you gonna do it?
"Magic bean "
Can we get back on track?
Let's not even try anything?
We don't need a magic bean to climb.
- an airplane!
- I'm not
We don't need a magic bean!
Sorry. Just We
don't We don't need it.
A magic bean.
We got a beanstalk right here.
Okay, this flashlight is the Squawk
radio tower, and this Slinky
is the bridge.
We'll never reach the
Abyss from the tower, right?
But Max said Vecna is
drawing our worlds together.
So, we let him.
And we wait and wait
as he draws it closer and
closer. When it's close enough,
and the tower is poking
through one of the rifts,
bam! El makes her move,
she does her meditation
thingy, enters Vecna's sick mind
and ambushes him. In
your face, dickhead.
And then, stopping the spell,
halting the worlds from moving.
Wham, voilà! We've got
a beanstalk. It's perfect.
All we gotta do is climb
up it into the Abyss.
- I like it.
- It's not totally insane.
- Thank you.
- But there's a problem, a big one.
I can't reach inside Vecna's
mind. He's too far away.
Can't you just try? I don't know,
load up on some of your
junk food or something?
Or better
We get you close.
The Upside Down lab is under his
lair, and it's still frozen in time,
which means everything should be there
from Brenner's experiments, including
The bath.
If you do make it into his
mind, I can walk you through it,
guide you.
I know his sick mind inside and out.
I should be there too.
This plan hinges on stopping Henry,
and right now, Jane
is fighting him alone.
It doesn't need to be that way.
I can follow her into his mind.
We can end our brother, together.
Okay, yeah, I dig it.
Sisters kill their brother. We
rescue the kiddos, come home heroes.
And if Lucas is right, we
don't have a lot of time,
so we have to move fast.
One final thing.
Cherry on top.
On the way out, we drop a
bomb near the exotic matter.
Set a timer, escape the Upside Down.
The bridge collapses, and with it,
the Abyss, the Demos, the
Mind Flayer, all of it, gone.
Game. Set. Match.
Holly! Holly!
Hey. It's okay. You're safe.
You're safe now. You're with us. Okay?
Welcome back, Holly.
Welcome.
Where is he?
Mr. Whatsit?
- Downstairs.
- He's worried about you.
So worried.
No, no, no, no, no.
Mary, you need to listen.
Mr. Whatsit, he's not who he says
he is. He didn't really save us.
- He
- He's kidnapped us?
He's trying to destroy the world?
Holly, Mr. Whatsit
has told us everything.
Those are lies. Evil, nasty lies!
- No, they're not! They're not
- That other girl you met, Max.
She's not a human.
She's a monster.
She twisted your mind.
That's not true.
Max is a friend,
and she's she's helping us.
She's helping us get back
home, back to our families.
We're all trapped.
Trapped in Mr. Whatsit's mind.
Everything you see, none of it is real!
Come on, you have to believe me.
Please.
You have to believe me.
You have to believe me.
You gotta believe me.
Derek.
Derek, tell them.
Tell them. Tell them!
They're right, Holly.
Max lied to us.
I don't understand.
Everything she showed me just
seemed so real.
I knew not to go into the woods.
But I I went there anyway, and
And I just I just feel so
so stupid.
- You're not stupid, Holly.
- None of this is your fault.
Holly.
You know, the important
thing is that you're here.
You're here just in ti
Holly, stop it!
Bitch! Get her!
Get her!
Well, I was hoping for a slightly
more delicate landing, but
I suppose that'll do.
You're welcome.
Of all the people she had
to go with, it had to be her.
El trusts her. Maybe we should too.
No, she's up to something.
I'm sure of it. I just
El's not gonna listen to me.
What happened to the
two of you down there?
She thinks I don't believe in her.
- Which isn't true.
- No, of course not.
Well, have you told her that?
She thinks she's invincible,
and that's not the case.
Yeah, that's not what I asked.
I can work on repairing
things between us
when I get on the other side of this,
but right now, I need to make
sure she gets out of this alive.
That Kali makes one false move, I
swear to God, I'm gonna kill her.
I'm gonna kill her. I will not hesitate.
Anything happens to El in that
tank, I am pulling her out.
I can't lose her, Joyce.
I can't.
One last crawl.
One last crawl.
It gives me a headache
trying to understand all this.
But I think I got a C- in physics,
so I'll trust the nerds.
Do you think it'll work? The plan?
I mean, it has to, right?
I just wish I wasn't stuck here.
I feel useless.
El and Kali are gonna need you in
the mind. I'm the one who's useless.
You can still go there, to the Abyss.
It's too risky.
I'd be at the heart of the hive mind,
and I don't know what would happen.
Last time I got too
close, he used me to spy,
and it almost got you killed, Max.
You also saved my life, remember?
Plus, I've been almost
killed plenty of times
at the hands of this asshole,
so I'm kind of used to it at this point.
How did you survive in there,
this whole time in Henry's mind?
Honestly, luck.
I found this cave.
It was this old memory of his,
and he was terrified of it.
He wouldn't go in.
Scared the living shit out of him.
Underneath all those
scars, he's still human.
A psychopath with a
serious god complex, but
human.
I guess we're all scared
of something, right?
Okay, Wheeler, how's it
going with your contraption?
Okay, so just imagine
that this bike bell
is the bomb's remote trigger, okay?
So when this wire touches
this warrior here, kaboom.
Genius.
One thing is, I don't know if
we can blow up the Upside Down
to the dulcet tones of
the Butthole Surfers.
I built the bomb. I should
be able to pick the record.
You can pick the record.
You just have to follow one simple
rule, which is pick a good record.
This is a great record!
As far as save-the-world
soundtracks goes, this one's lacking.
What would you pick?
The Replacements. I can't
not think of better records.
Okay, enough, Lester Bangs, okay?
Hey. Hey!
Have you handled one of these before?
Not exactly, but, you know, BB guns,
air rifles Duck Hunt.
Duck Hunt.
He is remarkably good at it.
But I have a better idea.
Come on.
These babies are
deadlier than they look.
You sure?
Mm.
- Hey, Dustin?
- Yeah?
Hey, about, uh, some of the stuff
that I said earlier. I just
- It's fine. It's okay.
- No, just
It's not okay.
Eddie
He saved your life.
Our lives.
And I know what he meant to you.
I can't even imagine how hard it's been.
But instead of
just being there for you, I just
Well, I got angry about it. I guess
I got angry because
things were different.
Because
I really missed you.
I missed my best friend.
Yeah, I missed my best friend too.
For the record, a Rubik's Cube
isn't even a good
measure of intelligence.
And your beanstalk plan, seriously,
only a genius could've
come up with that.
Yeah, well
I learned from the best.
That's true.
Silver lining.
If it fails, we both go down.
You die, I die.
You die, I die.
Gate opening in five,
four, three, two
Open sesame.
Gotcha!
We've secured the gate signal.
Repeat. Gate signal is secure.
Tell Snookums his timing is mwah!
Because Santa's sleigh
is almost ready.
Piece of shit!
Oh God! Oh God!
Why?! Why?! Why do you
gotta do this right now?
What? You don't like me? Huh?
It's not me! I'm not the
one! I'm not the one who
Hi, sister.
Hi.
Have you ever done this before?
Shared your mind like this?
Have you?
With my other psychic
friends all the time.
I'm glad I'm here.
- Me too.
- Even after yesterday?
Have you thought about it?
What it all means?
I was thinking when we blow up the
bridge, we'll blow up Dr. Kay's lab.
We'll end her experiment.
Kay will simply make a new lab.
So we kill her.
She replaced Papa.
Another will replace her.
We can go away somewhere.
We can hide from them.
Oh, like somewhere with
at least one waterfall?
It's a fantasy, Jane.
If you flee with Mike, maybe
you're safe for a while.
But when they find you, and they will,
they will kill Mike, just
as they killed my friends.
Then they will take
you, and with your blood,
they will create more children,
children who will suffer as we have.
And with these children, they will
open up more gates, more worlds.
Don't you see, Jane?
It's a cycle.
A terrible, vicious cycle.
But we can stop it.
Tonight.
How?
After we kill our brother,
after the children are rescued,
we don't leave with the others.
We stay on the bridge.
When the Upside Down vanishes
so will we.
It is the only way, Jane.
The only way.
You ladies done meditating?
'Cause Santa's sleigh is ready to fly!
Mom?
Um
Earlier today when you asked me
what happened in Vecna's mind,
I didn't tell you everything.
When Vecna attacks,
he weakens you by turning
your own mind against you,
by bringing out everything
inside you that hurts.
So I fought back by
focusing on happy memories,
memories from when I was a kid,
and when I wasn't scared,
and when I felt most happy.
That's how I took control in the MAC-Z
and how I killed those Demos.
And I thought the same
would work on Vecna too.
But he found a way past.
And he showed me things, Mom.
He showed me the most awful things.
No, listen.
Whatever he showed you, it's not
real. He plays tricks. He lies.
No, he doesn't.
What he showed me
it didn't come from him.
It came from me.
He sees everything, Mom.
He sees my thoughts.
He sees my memories.
And he sees my secrets.
But Max, she told me he's also
afraid, which proves I can beat him.
But for me to do that,
you need to know
I think you need to know the truth.
Oh. Uh
Sorry. We just heard from Hop.
He's 15 minutes out. So we
should probably leave in five.
Is everything okay?
Yeah, we'll be out in a minute.
Wait.
I think you need to hear this too.
Everyone does.
I
I I haven't told any of you this
because
Because I I don't I don't
want you to see me differently.
But the truth is
The The truth is I am.
I am different.
I just
I just pretended like I wasn't
because because I didn't want to be.
I wanted to be like everyone else.
I wanted to be like my friends and
And I am like you.
I'm like you in in almost every way.
We We like playing
D&D late into the night.
And we like that old-person
smell in Mike's basement.
And we we like biking to
Melvald's for malted milkshakes.
And we like getting lost in the woods,
and getting lost in Family Video
and arguing about what to rent
and settling on Holy Grail
for the millionth time.
And And we like Milk Duds in
our popcorn with extra butter.
And we like drinking
Coke with Pop Rocks.
And we like bike races
and trading comics
and NASA and Steve Martin
and Lucky Charms and
Literally all the same things.
I just I just I I just
I
I
I
I don't like girls.
I mean
I mean I do. Just
Just not like you guys do.
And I, uh, I had this
this crush on someone,
even though I know I
know they're not like me.
But But then I realized
he's just my Tammy.
And by Tammy, I mean
it was never about him.
It was It was about me.
And I thought I was
finally okay with myself,
but but then today
Today Vecna showed me what
would happen if I did this,
if I told you guys the truth.
He showed me a future,
and in this future,
some of you are just
are just worried for me.
Worried that things
will be harder for me.
And it just makes me feel
like something's wrong with me.
So I So I push you away.
And for the rest of us,
we just drift apart more
and more and more and more
and more until I'm alone.
And I know none of that has happened,
and Vecna can't see into the future.
But he can see into our
minds, and he knows things.
And it just felt so
real. It felt so real.
Will.
You gotta listen to me.
That will never ever happen.
You'll never lose me.
- Ever.
- Okay. Okay.
And you'll never lose me.
Or me.
Or me.
Or me.
Or me.
Guess you didn't need truth serum, huh?
Sorry. This sucks, but
you're gonna have to hug me.
Oh, Max.
Just imagine I'm hugging
you really tight, okay?
Okay.
El.
I know you're strong
enough to defeat Vecna.
But he can retreat
to the physical world,
and we need to be ready
to fight him there too.
We have bullets and fire, but
none of that helped those soldiers.
I need to be there.
And I'm ready.
I'm ready to show him
I'm not afraid anymore.
That's a confirmation.
Anderson's on that patrol.
Solid copy, Bravo One.
Maintain overwatch. Over.
Hey, McConnell.
We got a delivery tonight
I don't know about?
That's a negative, private.
The hell are you doing, buddy?
Showtime, Snookums!
Mellon.
Oh, shit!
Pardon me!
First gate cleared.
Two hostiles, towers,
ten and eleven o'clock.
Now comes the fun part.
- Come on! Come on!
- Come on! Come on!
Go! Go! Drive!
Whoo-hey!
Yeah!
Jesus Christ.
Everybody all right? Everybody okay?
- Yeah.
- You all right? Everybody all right?
Hey, nice shooting back there.
You too.
I kind of thought that that was
supposed to be the easy part.
It was.
You ready?
Ready.
It's time.