Editor’s Note: The following are spoilers for Stranger Things Volume 2 Season 4.

In the last volume of the fourth season very strange things, extra-long, movie-like sequences made for a conclusion that pretty much hits all the right notes. The ensemble cast, for the most part, had their moments to shine and grow as characters. He also used a nightmarish villain who was more than just a monster. This is by far the most threatening and intriguing element of the show. All that he has been able to do has been very valuable as he works to reinvent his history and discover new possibilities for what the future holds. Unfortunately, like the first half of the season, the show is still held back by one particular storyline that won’t stop spinning in neutral.

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From the moment when David HarborHopper was first trapped in a POW camp in Russia, it was like being inexplicably sidelined by other irresistible characters that the show didn’t know what to do with. Despite all his attempts to escape, his story always seemed stuck and pointless without any real understanding of the stakes. We already knew that for now, the show could bring him back from certain death and just brush off the freezes that might come with it. The only problem is that in doing so, he felt completely cut off from the rest of the story. It was all tortuous and mundane, so every time we got to what Hopper had in mind, we felt like distractions. There was still hope that the show would eventually break Hopper out of his isolation. It simply required a delayed rescue attempted by Joyce (Winona Ryder) to finally get there. As it turned out, this hope was completely misplaced.

Even though Hopper was wasted for too long, the show doubled down due to wasted potential. While Joyce eventually gets him out, the show decides to do a full U-turn and force them back to jail. Using a bizarre plot invention that doesn’t stand up to even the most intense scrutiny, even the characters admit it doesn’t really make any sense. Even though they could go anywhere and do literally anything as characters, we’re back to the familiar frontiers of where we’ve just been. This is, unfortunately, a recurring element that becomes painfully frustrating when it limits their journey so much. Even when they share brief moments of bonding, the fact that they are returning to the prison they just left is both narrative and thematic regression. We were curious to see how they move on to other adventures and back to the rest of the story, which we don’t understand until the very end. For Hopper in particular, who is constantly stuck in narrative limbo all his time on screen, this again feels like a complete waste of his potential as a character.

That Joyce is also saddled with this superficial storyline adds to the damage and makes her all the more depressing. It’s all one note, a woefully signed element of a show that was otherwise pretty good in other installments. However, this only makes it clear that this storyline is not up to par with it. The emotional height of the other well-constructed sequences works because they seem to be important to the show. While it’s certainly nice to see Hopper taking on a giant Demogorgon on his own, there’s never been a second where you’ve felt anything but bored. Everything else that happens elsewhere has much more weight and meaning. The deaths of significant characters hurt deeply, shunning sensation in favor of more mundane emotional moments that are devastating. It all feels tragic and daring without being overplayed, becoming surprisingly nuanced even as the world is literally torn apart in a single moment. The reason it all works is because you care about the characters and the storylines, which is a testament to the show’s best script since its first season. You feel every loss in how it will affect these characters. Even when he flips some of them, he still lets moments linger when it seems like people are gone. It’s far more captivating and impactful even amidst all the sci-fi spectacle. All of these scenes push the story forward, challenging our expectations for what’s possible in this story and reversing the rules it’s set for itself. They are quite resourceful when needed.

Meanwhile, Hopper is stuck playing chicken with the monsters and running around the same prison we’ve already seen him spend so much time in. Both he and Joyce feel disconnected from almost everything, closed off in what seems to be a different show, devoid of any tension. Nothing ties them to the rest of the story, their entire narrative arc is less like an all-encompassing character journey than a straight line. By the time they do get back to Hawkins, it doesn’t make sense anymore because it’s so drowned out by the box they’re trapped in. Hoppers constantly stick out whenever they appear. They feel like afterthoughts, participating in the many story developments that exist to give them something to do with no real consequences.

This is the most common mistake on the show that ruins a good season. Even how very strange things it was always about separating different characters and then getting back together by the end, Hopper and Joyce could never stand on their own. While it’s a relief that their hackneyed storyline is now finally behind us this season, it should have thankfully ended much sooner. Whatever happens next is an element of the show that can only be improved by bringing them back into the womb, not completely isolating them.