Every Easter Egg In Stranger Things Season 4 Episode 2
"Stranger Things" season 4 is full of Easter eggs, nodding to both the series' own history and popular culture at large. Showrunners/creators The Duffer Brothers have hinted at their influences in interviews, especially with regards to this season's big bad, Vecna, who is based in part on Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Thus far, the series has mostly referenced movies like "The Goonies" and "E.T.", but the kids are in high school now, it's 1986, and things are about to get a lot scarier. Not only that, but the Byers clan (with Eleven/Jane in tow) has moved to California, which opens up the world of references from the Midwest to include the Golden State.
Season 4 of the Netflix series promises to go bigger in every way, and that includes Easter eggs. So buckle up: Here are some of the best (and deepest) cuts from episode 2. It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: spoilers for season 4, episode 2 of "Stranger Things" from here on out.
Surf's up!
Each of the "Stranger Things" kids who gets their room shown this season has at least one or two posters hanging up to give us an idea about their tastes and personalities as teenagers, and Max's (Sadie Sink) poster is pretty different from the blockbuster movies of the rest of the crew. She has a poster hanging up for the 1966 surfing documentary "The Endless Summer." There's quite a bit of surfer imagery this season, particularly in the California storyline, but it's neat to see that brought over to Hawkins as well.
We already know that Max skateboards, so it makes sense that she would be interested in surfing as well. Bruce Brown's documentary follows two young men who surf around the world during California's winter season in order to create an "endless summer," and given what happened to her brother, Billy, at the end of season 3, it's not hard to imagine that Max wants to escape Hawkins and travel the world herself. If you want to check out "The Endless Summer" for yourself, it's available to stream for free with ads on Tubi.
Chaos at the crime scene
After the police arrive at the trailer park to try to figure out what happened to Chrissy (Grace Van Dien), they take her body out of the house on a covered stretcher as the press begin to cluster. It's all very reminiscent of Wes Craven's "Scream," when Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox) questions Sidney (Neve Campbell) after a murder. There's clear homage in the score on "Stranger Things," and the connection becomes clearer when the camera follows Chrissy's body overhead, directly copying imagery from the ending of "Scream."
While "Scream" isn't a 1980s horror film (it came out in 1996, a decade after "Stranger Things" season 4 takes place), it is a seminal slasher flick that left a huge imprint on horror media for years to come. The subversion of tropes from "Scream" would eventually help pave the way for "Stranger Things" itself, as meta-horror pretty much begins with Craven's creation.
A Scream star in her early days
Speaking of "Scream" star Courteney Cox, she appears on the TV that Max was watching on the night Chrissy was killed by Vecna. The series Cox was on is "Misfits of Science," which ran from 1985 through early 1986 and followed a group of people with superpowers. Cox's character, Gloria, is a young woman with telekinesis, much like a certain waffle-loving youngster on "Stranger Things." "Misfits of Science" was apparently pretty terrible and was cancelled after only one season — though you can find the intro on YouTube, and it's honestly kind of amazing.
Hitting the rink
Roller-skating was huge in the 1970s because of the roller disco, but that mania didn't stop when the 1980s came around. Roller rinks became wildly popular places for people of all ages to practice their skating, dance to the DJ's picks, and check out the attached arcades. When Mike (Finn Wolfhard) visits Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in California, she wants to take him to the local roller rink for a day of fun. It doesn't go like she plans, but we do get a lot of great shots of people skating in the rink that are reminiscent of the 1980 film "Xanadu." "Xanadu" starred Olivia Newton-John and was a musical on roller skates. The movie makes very little sense, but it's a visual spectacle and has a great soundtrack.
A waking nightmare
When this season's big bad, Vecna, gets into his victim's heads, they start seeing the world shift into something more malevolent. Vecna's power is a lot like Freddy Krueger's from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise, though he can alter how people view reality when they're awake. (Freddy can only change their dreams.) When intrepid investigative reporter Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and her new news editor Fred (Logan Riley Bruner) go looking for more information on Chrissy's murder, they encounter a police officer whose questioning really freaks Fred out. The officer's face begins to contort and decay, with tentacle-like fingers forming around his face. It's absolutely terrifying, and while the officer's taunting is reminiscent of Krueger's many taunts to his victims, his appearance is more in tune with the Deadites of the "Evil Dead" franchise — although those fingers have big "Hellraiser" Cenobite energy. This vision of Vecna draws from multiple horror icons, and it's pure nightmare fuel.
Watch out for double secret probation
While poor Eleven has had a hard time making friends in California, her adoptive older brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) has a new BFF in the form of Argyle (Eduardo Franco), a local pizza delivery guy who smokes a lot of pot. The two of them get high and go hit golf balls off a hill toward a valley of empty cars, which honestly looks like a lot of fun. In the 1978 comedy "Animal House," the members of the world's worst fraternity practice their golf shots on their college's ROTC, but the vibe is largely the same. It's not hard to imagine Argyle and Jonathan renting the National Lampoon classic from the local Family Video and then deciding to try their own hands at some destruction golf.
(It's likely not an inspiration for the boys, but there is also a great scene in the Beatles' musical "Across the Universe," where Max (Joe Anderson) hits golf balls off of the top of the college dorms, and the same level of whimsy appears in "Stranger Things," too.)
The Creel reveal
Because Chrissy died in Eddie Munson's (Joseph Quinn) trailer, Nancy decides to interview his uncle, Wayne Munson (Joel Stoffer), to see if she can get any clues about Chrissy's unusual death. Nancy and the rest of the "Stranger Things" Scooby gang know Eddie is innocent after talking to him, but they have to find a way to clear his name that doesn't involve trying to explain the town's eldritch curse. Uncle Wayne manages to give Nancy quite a bit of help by telling her the story of Victor Creel, who allegedly murdered his entire family and then gouged his own eyes out.
The re-telling of Creel's origins are pulled almost straight from "A Nightmare on Elm Street," when that movie's Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) asks her mother about Fred Krueger. Her mother tells a harrowing tale about the evil Krueger and how the parents of the town burned him alive. The details of the stories are different, but the way these boogeymen are spoken about is the same. It's no surprise, then, that the older Creel is played by none other than Krueger himself, Robert Englund.