molly jane

the apocalyptic set up of the end of season 4 is fucking awesome! all the duffers had to do was capitalize on that. imagine the party and co are living in a underground bunker or something because hawkins is an apocalyptic wasteland that has been slowly merging with upside for months (if a time skip is required). almost everyone has either left town or is dead. demogorgons roam freely, demobats fly in the air everywhere, the military has deemed it a no-go zone and entirely blocked off the exits. the crawls become above-ground investigations and patrol missions or something idk i'm fucking spitballing because anything would be better than the almost 2 YEAR LONG TIME JUMP that kills every sense of urgency and any form of stakes.