After months of COVID-related delays, the arrival of Stranger Things Season 4 no longer feels quite so distant. Confirmed to return in summer 2022, the series has, in its usually fashion, has teased out clues to the new season in a series of teasers. The first, released in February 2020, confirmed Jim Hopper is, in fact, alive in Russia, while the second centered on Dr. Brenner and the Rainbow Room. The third introduced a new setting, the mysterious Creel House.
Now, with Stranger Things Day as a backdrop, there is no better time to release the fourth teaser, introducing Season 4's final location: California, the new home of Eleven and the Byers. Fair warning: There is a lot packed into this last trailer, so here’s what happens, and how it might be important for Season 4.
After Hopper's “Death,” Joyce Byers took her Will, Jonathan and Eleven and moved away to Lenora Hills, California. In the teaser, Eleven says she's been apart from Mike for 185 days, presumably the day of their departure from Hawkins, Indiana. So, they are settled into their new home, and trying to start a new, quiet life after three seasons' worth of the Upside Down-related terror.
Early in the teaser, Eleven is working on a diorama for a school project. While the project was probably a little young for her, it's noteworthy because it depicts Hopper at his cabin from Season 2. While Eleven is doing that, Will puts the finishing touches on a project about Alan Turing, the famed British mathematician and computer scientist whose work was instrumental to helping the Allies defeat the Axis in World War II. Turing was, nevertheless, prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, and chose to be chemically castrated rather than be sentenced to prison. He died two years later by what was ruled as suicide.
Eleven narrates the first half of the teaser, reading from a letter she wrote to Mike, still living in Hawkins. She insists she likes her new home, school and friends. However, even as she says that, it’s obvious she is lying. She has clearly been having a difficult time, and one of her classmates even shoots a spitball at her.
It’s not Mike’s basement or Hopper’s cabin, but it looks like Eleven and Will could spend some time at the Rink-O-Mania. It may not be a safe space, however, because, at one point, numerous skaters circle Eleven in a menacing way.
About halfway through the teaser, things started to get weird -- including the creepy doll Joyce receives in a mailed package. Given the doll's clothing, and the number of postage stamps on the box, there's a very good chance it's Russian, suggesting it may very well be a message from Hopper.
It has never taken long for trouble to find Eleven. This time, however, it isn’t monsters from another dimension. It's simply military-looking men -- note the fatigues -- attacking what may be the Byers house in California. It's noteworthy that someone with a gun and shoulder holster is defending the family.
Murray is only glimpsed, but he's putting on headphones to, probably, intercept Russian communications. It’s also noteworthy that Murray was a recurring character in Seasons 1 and 2, but he will reportedly be a major character in Season 4.
An earlier sneak-peek video showed Eleven being held back by men in suits. While the new teaser doesn't depict what Eleven is looking at, it does reveal a prison van behind them. Whether the men took her out of the van or were placing her into it has yet to be determined. However, the van was brought to a stop when official-looking vehicles.
At one point, a door is shown in the middle of nowhere, yet clearly connected to the underground tunnels shown shortly thereafter. It may, however, indicate the U.S. Department of Energy's investigation into the Upside Down reached far beyond Hawkins.
Season 4 of Stranger Things will arrive on Netflix in 2022.
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