The Nina Project
The NINA Project is the fifth episode of season four. Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Argyle, and Jonathan Byers are driving away with injured Agent Harmon. Argyle aims his gun at Harmon as he whispers his final words. Harmon whispers about Eleven being in danger from a woman named Nina before succumbing to his wounds. Jack Sullivan finds Agent Wallace and tells him to let him know about Nina’s location. Eleven sees Martin Brenner, but then Nina approaches her. Eleven is scared and attacks Nina before running, but then Brenner drugs Eleven. Jim Hopper is tracked down by guards and thrown into a prison cell with many other guards, such as Dmitri Antonov. He tells Hopper that they were put to prison to pay for not being able to catch Hopper. Yuri Ismaylov starts flying Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman to Russia. Eddie Munson steals a gun and while holding Nancy Wheeler and Dustin Henderson at gunpoint, asks for beer. Max Mayfield is drawing a picture of her own house, but when the others look, they realize that her house was Victor Creel’s house. Robin Buckley is very surprised by this, as she heard that the place was haunted by Vecna. Eleven wakes up inside of Brenner’s room and is horrified. She runs away, passing Henry Creel and Two. However, after passing them repeatedly, she realizes something is wrong. Harmon is buried inside of a big landfill, and while throwing away his pen, Mike finds Planck’s Constant inside of the pen. Antonov gets Hopper to attempt to bribe a guard for extra rations, but Hopper realizes he only has one rupee. Hopper and Antonov start telling each other about their life stories, and Hopper proclaims that Vecna was never a curse, and that people who summon Vecna were the curse. Antonov listens as Demogorgons feast on prisoners. At Chrissy Cunningham’s funeral, Vecna walks up to Patrick McKinney and asks him whether the watch was his. Jason Carver interrupts Vecna and tells Patrick that the Hellfire Club summoned a creature called Vecna and that Rick Lipton was dead. Eleven keeps running into Henry, until Brenner tells her that Nina’s project forced her to relive her memories on something. Defeated, Eleven decides to talk to Henry. Mike decides that they should go to Suzie Bingham’s house and ask her what Planck’s Constant meant. Jason, Patrick, and Andy go to Rick’s house, where Eddie is waiting for them with a gun and a D20. Eddie shoots a bullet, but Jason forces it to be aimed at the sky. Eddie realizes he ran out of bullets and decides that he has only one last choice, so he rolls a 20, summoning Vecna. Inside of Max’s house, they realize that the house was very old and that the lights were malfunctioning because of that. Eleven is shoved into a machine inside Nina’s project and is forced to scream as loud as possible. She screams so quietly that other kids get bored. Brenner insists that Eleven should try again. Eleven screams again, but it is still not very loud and the biggest reaction that someone does is cover their ears. Eleven then decides to stab all of them, but the machine breaks down because Eleven just did something she wasn’t supposed to. Joyce and Murray get bored and Murray realizes that he really has to use the bathroom but there is no bathroom on the plane, and they decide that they should just leave, so they attack Yuri and crash the plane into a big tower. Steve Harrington finds many alive spiders and continues searching around, but finds a mummified spider and gets creeped out. As Dustin and Steve search the upstairs of Max’s house, Vecna appears and makes Dustin snap. Steve starts shooting at Vecna but he leaves. Eddie sees Jason and Patrick running towards him and decides to smack both of them with a boat paddle. Eddie curses Patrick and then rows away on a boat. As Jason and Patrick start swimming towards Eddie, Vecna appears and beckons for Patrick to leave the water. When Patrick leaves, Vecna makes him snap. Eddie smiles as Jason watches in fear. Brenner says that while they are resetting the machine, he could have fun with Eleven, and then takes Eleven away, calling her “daughter.”
