The direction and misdirection of the main villain of season four of Stranger Things is one that caught me off guard yet has had me itching to reread C.S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters”. Certainly it’s not meant for family viewing; what with all the excessive gore and the obsessive need to binge watch it. And even if your teenager isn’t watching the show, you can be sure all their friends are and the show is the current dominant discussion. It’s hard to ignore. At the very least, we should talk about this season’s Chapter Four: Dear Billy.
Stranger Things is a well produced show; cinematically and thematically. The story does dip into melodrama a little too often, but then we arrive at an episode where, clearly, the filmmaker’s poured their heart into it. Episode four of season four is one of those episodes. In fact, you could say it was the theme they were driving towards for the whole season; only they couldn’t be patient enough to wait until the finale. No longer was the story talking about solving the mystery of the upside down, but dove head first into the topic of depression and isolation.
Before we go any further, spoiler warnings ahead.
The first half of this season saw a supporting cast member suddenly take center stage. Mike and El’s story seems to be running low on stream, but Max’s story is just getting started. In season three, Max witnessed the traumatic, and we mean traumatic, loss of her brother Billy. In the aftermath of such a loss, one’s mind experiences a great deal of processing. There are five stages of grief one could go through; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. You could argue that depression is just a stage that we all need to go through in order to allow grief to run its course. But the filmmaker’s of Stranger Things are suggesting that one’s surroundings and environment play a significant role in the success of moving through each stage. And from a christian perspective they are not wrong.
The mix of depression with isolation is similar to taking alcohol with medication. Though, ironically depression can drive us to want to isolate and withdraw. We become uninterested in socializing, engaging in daily routines, expressing how we feel; and in many cases we don't have the energy to do so. We become disinterested in our previous life. Our mind is lost in a sea of processing that expression or resolution has drifted behind a wall of fog.
Max is lost. The season opens with Max battling depression and her personality is suppressed, showing a fraction of her former self. She, however, has friends and teachers that actively notice. I would argue that the absence of a strong father figure and a nurturing mother are playing to the depth and length of her depression. Healthy parental figures are the strongest support system she truly needs. The next component she needs, she has. But she is actively pushing away from them, increasing her isolation, and no one to truly understand what she is actually battling.
Then enters the sci-fi…
In this season we have a “satanic” monster of the upside down, preying on those with a haunted past. By attacking their mind through the hidden world, he pours images of condemnation and a sprinkle of horror. His victims have headaches, nightmares, lack of sleep, medical issues caused by stress and paranoia; all the things that surround depression. Once he begins to haunt you it seems that your fate is inescapable, before he possesses your mind; stealing your soul away to his world and a scene straight out of the exorcist takes place in ours.
Max soon becomes his next victim and eventually goes through the stages that lead to the soon to be moment of her soul being snatched away. Even though she is surrounded by friends, the battle in her mind has her isolated and helpless behind a wall of red fog. The inevitable seems to be upon her. The demon creature tells her that she will soon join him. Who wants that? It’s a hopeless future.
But then, her friends open a portal in the fog with something that once gave her joy. Suddenly she could see the effort of her friends in trying to reach her. She recognizes the life line. It is then she makes every effort to escape. As soon as she does, she embraces her friends and returns to being vulnerable and trusting of her community again.
Stranger Things has created a great analogy of the dangers of isolation when struggling with depression at any level. They have also shown a great visual of an important path out of the prison of isolation.
The healing process includes more than just being around community but to be part of a strong community; one that makes an effort to reach you regardless of what condition you're in. A community that ignores, in a healthy way, your request to isolate is a community that is looking to your needs and not just their own.
Hope is the commodity at stake. Christ, himself, is that hope. But even our sight of Jesus being our hope can fade when battling depression. That is why we are given two things when we choose to follow Jesus.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
Our hope isn’t just strengthened in Jesus’ actions for us on the cross, but also in the fellowship we have in a community that reminds us of our hope and strengthens our sense of belonging.
When we isolate, it is like being a gazelle that is separated from the pack. We become easy prey ready to be picked off. The thing that the show does really well is in not casting complete blame for Max’s isolation on any one group or person. Max has to take responsibility to make efforts to reach out and be in fellowship. Her community does too. But where it will flourish is when both parties are responding to each other's efforts. Which came first, doesn’t matter. When both put in the effort, that is where there will be trust and vulnerability; there is substance to their community. The church needs to be a community of substance as well.
Sadly the show never does address the resolve to Max’s condemnation and guilt. She is seen still with them, even after escaping the “Monster” within her mind. It resolves the isolation but doesn’t address any long term hope for her guilt that still haunts her. In the following episodes she is left clinging to her Walkman in fear; replaying her favorite song that her friends played for her, to remind Max of a joy she once experienced.
But even Max addresses the problem with this; “What happens when the song no longer gives me joy?” Will she not then just fall right back into the same depression? This is the problem with short term gratifications of joy being our solution for hope. We need something deeper and more lasting.
A strong community is a strong defense from isolation but not the magical cure for depression. However, it should be one that directs our attention to the hope we have in Jesus, who frees us from the condemnation of our sin and guilt. In Christ we are no longer haunted by our past. We are given peace by the power of Christ taking our place in the “upside down” and given a future that can fully sustain us.
コメント