Every Easter Egg In Stranger Things Season 4 Episode 6

"Stranger Things" season 4 has been a rollercoaster so far, following multiple plots around the world as the intrepid forces of good from Hawkins, Indiana, attempt to fight the forces of evil from the Upside Down. After witnessing the death of head cheerleader Chrissy and then being forced to hide out from law enforcement, poor Eddie (Joseph Quinn) witnessed the even more gruesome death of basketball player Patrick out on Lovers' Lake. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is still off with the scientists who raised her, while Hopper (David Harbour), Joyce (Winona Ryder), and Murray (Brett Gelman) are in Russia, and the California crew are somewhere in Nevada looking for Dustin's girlfriend Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo). The hunt for Vecna is getting down to the wire, but that doesn't mean the creators can't throw a few more fun little Easter eggs at us. Season 4 has been deeply referential to other pieces of pop culture, so why would episode 6, "The Dive," be any different?

Spoilers ahead for season 4, episode 6 of "Stranger Things." 

After witnessing the absolutely horrific death of Patrick at the hands of Vecna, Dungeonmaster Eddie had to run and hide somewhere new. He ended up out at Skull Rock, another of Hawkins' many interesting locales, and manages to contact the rest of the gang via walkie. When Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) asks him if he's okay, Eddie replies with, "I'm pretty far from okay," which is pretty understandable given everything he's been through. If the line sounds familiar, that's because it's almost identical to the one uttered by Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" after his horrific incident in the pawn shop basement. The line in "Pulp Fiction" has an added expletive, of course, because it's written by Tarantino and that man loves his four-letter words even more than he loves feet, but it's a really fun nod to one of the most influential movies of the 1990s. 

Eddie can't be directly referring to the movie, since it doesn't come out until 1994 and he's currently in 1986, of course, which means Eddie just has a fabulous way of phrasing things. 

The parents of Hawkins are terrified and go to the police looking for answers regarding the three murders and handful of missing children and teens. Basketball team captain Jason Carver (Mason Dye), who witnessed the death at the lake, believes that Eddie is the vessel of the Devil and is doing the killings. He wants to start a witch-hunt and gets the townsfolk all riled. The angry mob with torches and pitchforks has been a trope in horror going all the way back to the first iterations of "Frankenstein," but this particular sequence feels like something much more recent: the 2021 movie "Halloween Kills." Jason and his team have the same self-righteous and terrified energy as the folks in Haddonfield that declare they will take out Michael Myers, chanting, "Evil dies tonight!" The problem is that Jason and the rest of the townsfolk have no idea what they're actually up against, much like the mob in Haddonfield. 

The reason the people in Hawkins think Eddie is in league with the devil is because he plays "Dungeons and Dragons" with his friends in "The Hellfire Club," which is just a riff on an organization in the "X-Men" comics with the same name. There really was a Satanic panic around "Dungeons and Dragons" in our own world, which is pretty funny considering it's about the most harmless thing a group of nerds can do. Seriously, you roll dice and tell stories. It's great. 

Once Dustin, Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Robin (Maya Hawke) manage to find Eddie, they inform him of their plan to try and fight Vecna in the Upside Down. There's some kind of gate in Lover's Lake, they think, and the only way to defeat Vecna once and for all is to go through it. Eddie doesn't love the idea and tells Dustin as much, but he then rallies and starts using "Lord of the Rings" metaphors for their own situation. He tells Dustin that he's asking him to "walk into Mordor," which is basically a death sentence. (Besides, doesn't he know that one does not simply walk into Mordor?) However, he goes on to explain that "the Shire is burning," referring to the incident in "The Lord of the Rings" that sets the home-bodied hobbits on their adventure. After all, what's the point in hiding at home if there won't be any home left? Eddie has seemed frustrated with himself for being cowardly when faced with Vecna and his terrifying acts, and this is a chance for him to prove to himself and the rest of the "Stranger Things" Scooby gang that he can brave it out.

Season 4, part 1 of "Stranger Things" is now streaming on Netflix.