Editor’s note: The below article contains spoilers for Season 4 of Stranger Things.
After a three-year-long wait, the Jim Hopper (David Harbor) cliffhanger from last season of Stranger Things was finally revealed! After the emotional Season 3 finale, Hopper is taken by Russian soldiers after surviving the explosion at the Russian Gate to the Upside Down beneath the Starcourt Mall. Believing he is an American spy, the Russians torture him to try to get more information. He is beat up, hosed down by water, and more. Impressed that he does not budge, the Russians shave his head and send him to a secret prisoner camp called Kamchatka.
Kamchatka has a reputation for being ruthless, pushing its prisoners to the very limit under harsh winter conditions. Alongside the other prisoners, Hopper spends his days picking at railroad tracks in the snow. His limbs are shackled together by heavy chains and the idea of escape seems far-fetched. Enzo (Tom Wlaschiha), the opportunistic guard at the prison, makes a deal with him. In exchange for $ 40,000, he will get Hopper a ride back to the United States.
With Enzo on his side, Hopper sends Joyce (Winona Ryder) a secret message inside a Russian doll that is mailed to her new address in Lenora Hills, California. The message reveals that Hopper is still alive and that she needs to give the $ 40,000 to a man in Alaska named Yuri (Nikola Djuricko), a smuggler who will help get them to Russia. Joyce enlists in the help of Murray (Brett Gelman) and the pair fly to Alaska to try to free Hopper.
Meanwhile, in Kamchatka, Enzo lets Hopper know that his odds for actually escaping the camp are incredibly low. Hopeful, Hopper begins to form his plan to escape. He trades his bowl of soup and bread with another prisoner so that the prisoner can hit his foot with the ax and unshackle him. Next, Hopper breaks his own ax on purpose. The broken ax gives him the excuse to go into a nearby shed and exchange it for a new one. Once inside the shed he removed the shackles off his feet, but was discovered by a suspicious guard. Knowing that his escape was about to be foiled, Hopper attacks the guard and the two fight.
When the guard’s gun goes off, everyone notices and all the other guards run towards the shed. But Hopper has one more trick up his sleeve, and as the rest of the guards arrive, the shed explodes, buying him precious time to make a run for it. He finds a snowmobile and successfully gets away until he reaches his safe point – a room inside a church filled to the brim with American imports that Yuri has smuggled over.
While Hopper manages to beat the odds, Yuri double-crosses both Hopper and Enzo. He drugs Joyce and Murray and calls up the guards at Kamchatka. By selling them out to the Russian guards, Yuri gets to keep the $ 40,000 and make much more money. The Russian guards burst through the doors of Hopper’s hideaway spot and arrested him and Enzo. They are placed into a jail cell with a group of other men. In the middle of this prison is a large pit used for fighting. The men are later taken to a room with a giant feast made of all kinds of different food. Hopper realizes that this is a last supper of sorts and refuses to eat. As the men begin to talk about the monster they will be facing, Hopper discovers that they will be fighting a Demogorgon.
After the dinner, Hopper starts a fight with Enzo and the two brawl until they are separated by guards. Hopper takes a lighter from one of the guards while he was distracted and now has the most important thing they will need for their fight against the demogorgon – fire.
Murray and Joyce take the upper hand with Yuri and now have him at their mercy instead. The pair make him take them to the prison and Murray disguises himself as Yuri in order to gain entry. Suddenly they find themselves overlooking Hopper and the men as they are about to fight off a demogorgon.
Murray pulls a gun out on the Russian generals and threatens to shoot them unless they let the prisoners go. They refuse, and Murray shows off his black belt karate skills and takes them down. In the meantime, Joyce presses on random buttons to open a gate that would let Hopper escape. Time is of essence – the demogorgon begins to kill some of the other men. Luckily, one of the buttons Joyce presses works. Hopper and Enzo narrowly escape. Joyce and Hopper finally reunite and share a hug. Joyce’s face is overcome with emotion, but Hopper’s looks conflicted.
Viewers will have to wait for Volume 2 and beyond for the reunion between Hopper and the rest of the Stranger Things gang, but it was thrilling to see #Jopper finally be back together.
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