First Things First…
Things are heating up with the knowledge that the Mind Flayer seems to be possessing Billy… he’s recognized El is on his tail… and Will can sense he’s back.
The description for this episode says a Code Red brings the group back together. That should mean good things in terms of ramping up the supernatural elements, and it should give their party a chance to mend fences—or drift further apart.
Hopefully the other mysteries start clearing up, too. Like, Nancy and Jonathan are in a bad place being in the basement with the crazy rat-lady… I’m sure Hopper will want to investigate Motorcycle Guy who knocked him out at the lab… and if Dustin is back with the group, he should bring his knowledge of the Russian secrets—which means Steve and, hopefully, Robin also get brought into the fold.
4 Things I Like
4. Operation: Child Endangerment
“You can’t spell ‘America’ without ‘Erica.’”
Erica
Erica joined the main cast this season. And after a few episodes of doing nothing but abuse Scoops Ahoy’s free sample policy, she’s finally getting put to good use, which I’m thrilled about. She’s a one-liner machine. She’s like 10 years old, explaining capitalism and how she’s going to use it to her advantage.
Steve, Robin, and Dustin enlist her to break into the storage room with the Russians’ deliveries by crawling through the air ducts. Their plan actually works, and they find mysterious canisters of green goop.
And then the room locks down and starts falling. So apparently, they’re actually locked in an elevator heading below the mall, where I’m sure there’s a connection to the guy who knocked out Hopper, and the bad people Mayor Larry warned Hopper about.
These scenes are all fun, especially when Erica insists on calling them nerds. And now it’s opened up an even deeper mystery while putting these four in serious peril.
3. Possessed by the MF’er
Not only do we get confirmation about the Mind Flayer being back and possessing Billy—we learn more about how it actually works.
I’m glad they took the time to have Will explain this, because it was a little confusing. The Mind Flayer is dormant a lot of the time, at which point Billy is mostly himself. But the MF’er activates and takes over control when he needs to, and that’s when Will can sense him.
2. Hopper Is Back!
After two episodes of Hopper being barely recognizable and annoying AF, THIS is the guy I love.
In fact, being that he’s investigating again—and doing anything necessary to get answers—this is the closest to “Season 1 Hopper” we’ve gotten in a long time.
I mean, he beats the shit out of Mayor Larry and is legit ready to take a finger off with the man’s own cigar cutter.
And he gets at least some of the answers he’s looking for about the guy who attacked him. Right now, though, I’m less concerned about those answers and just happy our chief is acting like himself again.
1. The Sauna Test
I think I raised my score for this episode a good five to 10 points just on the strength of this scene.
It’s a solid plan by the kids to lock Billy in the sauna and turn up the heat so they can determine if he’s hosting the Mind Flayer. And it’s an incredible performance by Dacre Montgomery in playing a huge range of emotions.
Billy has always been a little scary. But now, you take his personality and infuse it with an ancient, interdimensional evil, and it’s effing terrifying.
But before the Mind Flayer is activated, the part I like best is Billy’s vulnerability. He seems genuinely hurt that Max would do this to him. And as he realizes it’s not a simple prank, he starts whimpering and apologizing to Max, saying it’s not his fault that he’s done these terrible things, and that he tried to stop it. I guess this confirms that, even when the Mind Flayer isn’t activated and Billy is being himself, he remembers everything.
Mind Flayed Billy also goes toe to toe with El after he escapes the sauna. We already knew she could hurt him, but now we see he can hurt her, too. She’s not as invincible as she’s always appeared.
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. Is This a Breakup?
I’m not quite sure if Jonathan and Nancy have really broken up…
And I’m also not quite sure I care.
Their dynamic as a couple has been less interesting than when they were in the “will they or won’t they?” stage. And I haven’t really enjoyed their storyline at the newspaper this season except when it’s involved them at Mrs. Driscoll’s house, investigating the rats. So this breakup, or fight, or whatever it was, didn’t get much more than a shrug from me.
1. Group Dynamics
“I don’t care anymore, Lucas. I really don’t. We have bigger things to worry about now.”
Will
The group dynamics are minimally addressed here, even though they really need to be. That goes for the two main romantic relationships—Mike/El and Lucas/Max—and also Will’s blowup from last episode.
And I get it—the Mind Flayer is back and possessing Max’s brother. The stakes are literally life and death. But these are kids. Their relationships and friendships are the most important thing in the world to them. If anything, stakes like these can make some people more acutely aware of their petty relationship squabbles. That’s why I’m glad this stuff didn’t get shoved to the side completely—in the middle of everything, Mike apologizes to El and admits he lied to her, and Lucas apologizes to Will—but I felt like we could’ve spent a little more time on this.
(Also, side note—I’ll withhold judgment for now, but at some point, someone has to call El out on the fact that using her powers to spy on her boyfriend is NOT okay. Yes, he was wrong to lie to her. But she literally has a superpower that lets her watch people in their private moments, when they don’t know they’re being watched. It’s no different than someone having the power to turn invisible and using that to sneak into someone’s home, or bedroom, or a locker room, or whatever. And the whole “I make my own rules” sounds empowering, but it doesn’t mean she’s excused from any sense of morality or ethics.
At the end of the day, I don’t mind that the character—an immature teenager who’s still trying to find her place in the world even more than most immature teenagers—feels this way. But what I will mind is if the show frames it as the right attitude to have and never tries to instill in El the idea that—yep—with great power comes great responsibility.)
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. Empty Pool Club
One flaw in the plan for the sauna test is that it hinges on the pool club being completely empty. Like, they have a good plan for luring Billy into the sauna. But how do they count on there being NO ONE else at the club? He really closes the place down alone and then showers before going home?
Except it’s NOT a flaw in the plan, I guess, because that’s exactly how it plays out.
And it’s a nitpick, sure, because how else are you going to actually do the test… but I hate logic gaps like this.
Also, even more of a nitpick—but why do people on TV and in movies get out of the shower and immediately put their clothes on without actually drying off first??
Tim Matassa
