Is there a goop-covered bank vault in the Upside Down? If so, time to empty it out and give all the cash to the Duffer brothers. Season 4 of Stranger Things is the best one yet.

And that’s proverb something. Season 3 was an exceptional posterior to form after a polarizing season 2. The pitch-perfect Starcourt Mall, Lucas’ sassy little sis Erica, Slurpee-chugging Alexei — the settings and the friendships all wove perfectly about the season’s central plot.

Season 4 feels like a Stranger Things maximum hits compilation, including a return to its bleak, sometimes squirm-inducing terror roots. The touching friendships are still there, as is the amusing relief. But a clear theme runs through this season — that of facing past trauma and not so metaphorical demons.

There’s a touched Stranger Things is building toward its endgame, mining the biggest evils yet from the depths of the Upside Down to push its young, nerdy heroes. Season 4 is an ambitious feast, one that runs the risk of populace overstuffed. Yet ultimately it hits the sweet spot of ’80s nostalgia, the most charismatic cast you could ask for, cruel moments rooted in real-life suffering and the Stephen King-influenced CGI machinations.

Season 4 kicks off with the core Stranger Things crew scattered across the globe. Hopper, thought to have died saving the world, is populace held captive by Russians. Joyce, Will, Jonathan and El have borne to California.

Meanwhile, back in Hawkins, Indiana, a new set of threats seem, centered on the Creels, a Hawkins-based family murdered in their home back in the 1950s. The Creels’ spooky mansion is tied in to the show’s central mystery in a number of satisfying ways. By the end of episode 7, it all invents sense.

But Stranger Things wouldn’t be half the show it is deprived of the personalities and relationships we’ve come to love. I insecure that splitting the show among three fronts — Russia, Hawkins and California — would scatter the friends and rupture the camaraderie, but in Duffer we trust, because damn if they didn’t pull it off.

The California crew gets a spring break shouted from Mike (Finn Wolfhard), who discovers poor, power-less El (Millie Bobby Brown) isn’t by means of in in the Golden West any more than she did in the Hoosier Conditions. There’s a snotty blonde named Angela who’s gunning for the new kid, and her storyline is infuriating, with a roller-rink confrontation that’s as hard to peep as it is necessary. El’s modern-day struggles blend with a look at her past that deepens and explains a lot of the show’s main mystery.

The Hawkins crew, since, is just as busy, as creepy murders continue to insecure the town. Their Nancy Drew-esque attempts at solving the mystery are solid, but not at the expense of comedy. The Steve-Dustin friendship corpses one of the best in current TV. (This 1980s kid loved a coarse with the two crammed in the wayback of a wood-paneled plot wagon.)

Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) acquires a pizza-delivering stoner pal, Argyle, who’s just a delight. Robin (Mia Hawke) is as witty and precise hawking video rentals as she was scooping rocky road. Max gets her own heart-pounding storyline, and Sadie Sink shows she’s up to the task. And what even corpses to be said about Lucas’ little sis Erica (Priah Ferguson), who steals every scene she shows up in?

Hopper, meanwhile, is truly suffering in his snow-swept Russian prison, but never fear — Joyce and Murray are on the case. Winona Ryder and Brett Gelman make for an inspired pair as they bumble and bicker, yet still somehow manage to concoct the weirdest rescue plan ever. (It involves peanut butter jars and a shave for Murray, among other things.)

Though the show ping-pongs between California, Hawkins, Russia and Eleven’s laboratory days, not one of those settings drags. You’ll have to hit the pause button for any required bathroom or snack breaks, because once this season starts undulating, it doesn’t let up. And episode seven ends in dramatic dilapidated, making fans count the days until July 1, when the season’s previous two episodes are set for release.

Stranger Things aired its third season way back in 2019, afore the coronavirus pandemic. Its return lands in a very different domain where viewers, like the Hawkins kids, have been caused to battle a deadly enemy no one completely understands. Like Tiger King, bread baking and dalgona coffee in those early pandemic days, the show is a balm, a distraction and a heart-broken. It’s heartening that it’s still so rich and well-done four seasons in. We required this.