"You think I don't see what you're doing? You think I don't see everything? You thought you could trick me? You thought your friends could stop me? I see them. I see your friends. Just as clearly as I see you. You believe you have won, don't you? But this is only the beginning. The beginning of the end. You have already lost."
“Let me guess. This monster, it’s about nine feet tall? Thin, white skin, no face, no eyes? I’ve seen one. I’ve fought one. And all your theories about it, they’re all wrong. You know why they feed captive predators live prey? Because if they don’t, the predator gets bored, and it stops eating. It needs the thrill of the hunt. We’re not here to train this monster with swords and axes. We’re here to entertain it.”
Stranger Things 4 | Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab
“She raises an essential question. How did Watergate open up? Only two gates have opened, as far as we know. One by El and one by the commies. But it’s not the commies or El this time so… There’s one thing we’ve never understood. Which is, why Vecna’s killing people? What’s his motive? Killing teens? It always just seemed too random. Too prosaic. On top of that, how does the Mind Flayer figure into all this? Maybe this is it. This is the answer!”
Stranger Things 4 | Chapter Three: The Monster and the Superhero
“I’m afraid your friends in Hawkins are very much in the eye of the storm. You may feel you need to go to them now, but if you do, you will risk everything. Risk everyone. They’re not the only ones in danger. It’s life as we know it. This is why I’m here, because I believe you are our best hope. Our only hope.”
“But I’m not going to lie to you, Eleven. Your friends are in terrible danger. With each victim he takes, Henry is chiseling away at the barrier that exists between our two worlds. Imagine if you will that the barrier between our worlds is a concrete dam. Henry is putting cracks in this dam. Cracks in dams create pressure. Left unchecked, the pressure will build, and build. And eventually it will reach a breaking point. And the dam will burst. And when that happens… Hawkins will fall.”
“My family began to have encounters conjured by this demon. Nightmares. Waking, living nightmares. This demon, it seemed to take pleasure in tormenting us. Even poor, innocent Alice. It wasn’t long before I begun to have encounters of my own. I suppose all evil must have a home. And though I had not a rational explanation for it, I could sense this demon, always close. I became convinced it was hiding, nesting, somewhere in the shadows of our home. It had cursed our town. It had cursed our home. It had cursed us.”
Stranger Things 4 | Chapter Five: The Nina Project
“In 1786, Nicolas Dalayrac wrote an opera called Nina. It’s the story of a young woman whose lover was killed in a duel. Nina was so traumatized that she buried the memory. It was as if it never happened. Every day, she would return to the train station to await her lover’s return. A return that would never be. If only Nina could know the truth.”
“Many of the residents we spoke to raised similar concerns to us. Grief, shock, disbelief, anger. Everyone wants to know the same thing: how can so many tragedies befall a once-peaceful town?”
“Now that I’m here, in Hawkins, I can feel him. And he’s hurt, he’s hurting, but he’s still alive. It’s strange, knowing now who it was this whole time, but… I can still remember what he thinks, and how he thinks. And he’s not going to stop. Ever. Not until he’s taken everything, and everyone. We have to kill him.”
Since the release of the incendiary tape, the once quiet town of Hawkins, Indiana has spent time in a place it never expected. The national spotlight. Under mounting pressure, several high-ranking members from the U.S. Department of Energy have admitted involvement in the death and cover-up of Hawkins resident Barbara Holland who died due to exposure to an experimental chemical asphyxiant, which had leaked from the grounds of the lab. We sent our own April Kline to Hawkins to speak to residents, residents who told us they thought they lived in a safe town.
“Those people... They’re not wired like me and you, okay? They don’t spend their lives trying to get a look at what’s behind the curtain. They like the curtain. It provides them stability, comfort, definition. This? This would open the curtain.”
“It’s just, not how life works. It’s moving, always moving, whether you like it or not. And yeah, sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s sad. And sometimes... it’s surprising.”