At the end of volume 1, I was thinking that team Russia (Hopper, Joyce, and Murray) had absolutely zero connection to the main plot of the season. And now with the season over, it’s really irking me that we spent so much time on them for them to serve no purpose.

They said that their plan was to fight the upside down creatures in the prison to give the kids an edge, but after watching that, how did their actions affect anything back in Hawkins? It really feels like this was all done to get the adults out of the picture for the season so the kids couldn’t have any adults around that would take them seriously.

And a side note on fighting in the prison, a sword defeated a demogorgon? The same type of creature that shrugged off bullets for all of season 1 and was only able to be damaged by 11, and Hopper can cut through it with a sword like butter?