First Things First…
I’m excited for this season finale. If you take out “The Lost Sister,” the previous two episodes were both bangers.
El is finally back in the fold—and just in time, because the good guys don’t stand a chance of fighting the Upside Down’s army without her. I just hope the resolution to this fight involves everyone. I don’t want this to be another case where El with her superpowers is the only one who can save the day.
6 Things I Like
6. Dr. Owens Survives
“Maybe when this is all said and done, maybe you could help her out, too, you know? Maybe you could help her lead, like, a normal life. One where she’s not poked and prodded and treated like some kind of lab rat, you know?”
Hopper
I was hoping Dr. Owens wouldn’t be a one-season-and-done character like Bob the Brain.
He survives the massacre at the lab, so there’s hope. But the lab gets shut down at the end. And when Owens manages to get El a birth certificate—she’s now officially Jane Hopper—he seems to put a bow on his story by doing something wonderful to make up for all the harm he’s been part of.
So it remains to be seen whether we’ll get more of him in future seasons. I just know he grew on me as this season progressed.
5. On the Same Page Again
Hopper and El finally get back on the same page on their car ride to the lab. They both realize they’ve acted stupid—breaking their cardinal rule. And they’re both sorry.
Hopper says he’s afraid he’s a black hole that sucks up everything he comes near and destroys it. But despite how off the rails their relationship went this season, El is in a better place now than she’s ever been. She’s more confident about who she is and her place in the world.
And with Dr. Owens’ help, she’ll finally get a chance to be normal.
But the truth is, none of it would’ve been possible without Hopper. No matter how many poor decisions he made regarding El, the simple fact that he loved her, took her in, and kept her safe for a year gave her a chance.
4. Hot for Billy
Billy is at his most charming when he shows up at the Wheelers’ house. Compare the way he shows up—open shirt, tight jeans, mistaking hot Mrs. Wheeler for Nancy’s sister—to good ol’ Ted snoring in the easy chair in his old-man sweater and slacks.
It’s one of Billy’s best scenes. And for someone who’s in the main cast but never gets much to do, it’s also one of Mrs. Wheeler’s best scenes.
3. King Steve and the Zoomer
“Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh? I’ve been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody’s been telling me so much about.”
Billy
Steve actually gets three or four good shots in before Billy cracks him over the head with a ceramic plate.
From there, it gets ugly.
Billy gets on top of Steve and wails on him again and again until Max jabs him in the neck with a tranquilizer.
Despite Steve getting his ass kicked and needing Max to save him, I agree with Billy’s sentiment—it is about time “King Steve” showed up. I love that he puts up such a fight, and that Max finally stands up to her stepbrother.
2. Team Effort
My main concern for this episode was handled exactly as I’d hoped. Even though El is the only one with the power to close the gate, everyone is needed to execute this plan. And they all show a ton of courage.
For starters, they can’t close the gate until they get the Mind Flayer out of Will’s body or he’ll die. They have to render his body uninhabitable by literally turning up the heat. That’s up to Jonathan, Nancy, and Joyce. And their courage comes in the form of sticking with the plan even when Will starts screaming in pain. Jonathan gets so upset that he wants to give up, but Joyce is the strong one who makes it even hotter. It’s essentially an exorcism, complete with the same visual effects Supernatural used for years when a demon left a person’s body.
Then there’s Steve, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Max, who take it upon themselves to use the Demo-dogs’ hive mind against them and lure them away from the lab, clearing El and Hopper’s path to the gate. This involves them going into the Upside Down (or at least the tunnels—I don’t know if that’s the Upside Down proper) and setting fire. They put themselves in major danger and could’ve all been killed.
And of course, there’s El and Hopper, who have to go back to the lab to close the gate. Hopper shoots a bunch of the Demogorgons to give El cover so she can do her thing.
1. Snow Ball
After the climax, this is such a good culmination of the season. Dustin’s journey is my favorite. It starts with him following Steve’s hair care advice, and with Steve being his ride to the dance. Then he comes in nervous but determined to be bold. He acts on his intentions, only to get rejected by multiple girls. It’s heartbreaking for a few seconds when he gives up and starts crying alone on the bleachers. But in the end, he makes a bunch of people jealous when Nancy drags him out onto the floor and dances with him.
Nancy is great in this scene, too—teaching Dustin how to move to the rhythm, telling him he’s always been her favorite of Mike’s friends, and that in a few years when the girls in school wise up, he’ll be driving them crazy.
And that’s before we get to Mike and El finally having their first kiss, and Lucas and Max having theirs. Even “Zombie Boy” gets asked to dance by a girl and gets out on the floor.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Setting Up Season 3?
So the Mind Flayer is still alive? The episode ends by panning out of the Snow Ball and shifting to the Upside Down, with the Mind Flayer looming over the middle school.
The Big Bad in Season 1—in terms of monsters, not humans—was the Demogorgon. Then in Season 2, there are hundreds of Demogorgons, but the Mind Flayer takes over as the Big Bad.
Does that mean in Season 3 we’ll get something even more dangerous and evil than the Mind Flayer—but that the Mind Flayer will stick around?
In the Season 1 finale, we saw Will puke up slugs and have flashbacks to the Upside Down, and we saw Hopper leave food out in the woods, knowing El was out there.
That episode did a much better job getting me excited for the next season. This time, there’s nothing wrong with what they did. It just doesn’t give any clues other than that the monster they just defeated is still alive.
3 Things I Don’t Like
3. Unwarranted Insecurity
Whatever notion Eleven had about Mike and Max from seeing them laughing together in the gym earlier in the season should be dispelled now that she’s seen Mike and realizes how distraught he’d been without her.
Of course, if she’s heard him calling her every day for 353 days, she should already realize that and not have anything against Max. So this feud, which looks like it will continue into next season, feels unnecessary.
2. Awkwardness with Hopper and Mike
“You’re a stupid, disgusting, lying piece of shit!”
Mike
The argument between Hopper and Mike doesn’t feel earned. I understand why Mike is so pissed at him. But this would’ve hit a lot harder if they were closer, or if Hopper had been overtly lying specifically to Mike about El throughout the season.
I mean, they’ve been through some shit together going back to the end of Season 1. But they’re not close. I don’t even know if Hopper knows any of the kids’ names besides Will. So this scene feels awkward.
1. Domesticated Dart
It was unbelievable that such a major piece of Steve and the kids surviving hinges on Dustin being able to get through to Dart and remind him of their history. Dart isn’t a domesticated pet—hard as Dustin tried—he’s a monster. Based on everything we’ve seen from Dart and all the Demogorgons, I can’t buy that Dart would let them pass. Not even for Three Musketeers.
Tim Matassa
