First Things First…
The Mind Flayer has smartened up since last season. He has an army this time around. I’m sure he’s going to start deploying it—but to what end?
Also, Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Erica are headed below the mall at breakneck speed. I’m excited to find out whether they’ll get captured right away or if they’ll be able to get out of that room/elevator and explore. Either way should be exciting.
And I really want to know what the rest of the group’s next move will be after battling Billy.
4 Things I Like
4. Flayed Tom and Bruce
Now this is a better use of these guys!
We already got to see a more frightening side of Tom last episode, when he fired Nancy and Jonathan while clearly displaying the effects of being flayed.
Now, he and Bruce wait for Nancy and Jonathan at the hospital, knowing they’d come back to see Mrs. Driscoll.
The chase through some deserted hospital corridors is fun and pretty creepy—especially with Bruce. He’d been such a goof up until this point that I forgot how menacing Jake Busey can be. He looks and walks like a zombie.
Meanwhile, Jonathan gets the shit beat out of him by Tom, to the point where he very easily could’ve been killed.
In the end, Jonathan and Nancy manage to kill them. And while neither Tom nor Bruce deserves such a horrible fate of being possessed and then goo-ified, it’s hard to feel bad for them when they were such dicks all season.
3. Shootout at the Farmhouse
The episode kicks off with Hopper and Joyce finding the machine they’re looking for and abducting one of the Russian scientists—but not before they engage in a wild shootout with the motorcycle guy.
He’s terrifying, too, but in a different way than Tom and Bruce. He’s not flayed—he’s just a stone-cold killer who shows up looking like the Terminator. Everything from the square jaw… to the crew cut… to the thick Russian accent… to the limp that really causes him to walk around like an android… all make him a very scary man.
2. Mending Fences
There are some cute scenes that bring Lucas and Max, and then El and Mike, back together. That’s definitely good, considering they’re up against something even worse than they’ve ever faced. They’re going to need each other. And it’s nice to see them remember why they like each other in the first place.
1. Following the Mind Flayer’s Trail
I like the way Nancy and Jonathan come together with Mike, Lucas, Will, El, and Max to start piecing the puzzle together.
Between what Nancy witnessed with Mrs. Driscoll—along with the hospital records she stole—and what the kids learned from the sauna test and from spying on Billy and Heather, they get more info about the flayings.
They also learn more when they break into the Holloways’ house. Lots of clues—chemicals, blood, wine bottle on the floor, rope… help them figure out the flayings are happening somewhere else — someplace the Mind Flayer doesn’t want El to see. That’s why he hid it from her when she spied on Billy.
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. Visiting Murray
I was excited to realize Hopper and Joyce bring the scientist to Murray’s bunker. But nothing much happens. I’m optimistic that will change in the next episode and we’ll get some good stuff out of Murray.
1. Under the Mall
“I don’t care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack’s party! Your mom’s not gonna be able to find us if we’re dead in a Russian elevator!”
Steve
We spend plenty of time with Steve and crew. They don’t get caught—Steve actually wins a fight for the first time ever to avoid capture by the communications officer who spots them!
I think my apathy toward the Russian aspect of the story is still here, though. When we realized at the end of the last episode that they were trapped in that elevator and were going beneath the mall, I was excited to see what’s what. But now, discovering that the Russians are using a machine to try to open a new gate to the Upside Down is a huge reveal—to the gang. We already knew what the Russians were up to. So I’m a little nonplussed about it all.
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. Platonic Friends’ Quarrel
“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna walk to Illinois. You know, I figure we’ll get there by, like, Friday evening. I hope that works for your schedule. Jesus Christ, Joyce. We’re not walking to Illinois, okay?”
Hopper
I’m not a fan of watching Hopper and Joyce bicker like an old married couple when they’re not a couple at all. Hopper is such an insecure little boy this season—especially since Joyce stood him up to do science with Mr. Clarke. When Joyce simply shows the Russian scientist some kindness, he says maybe she should date him, and he brings up Mr. Clarke again.
Joyce can be infuriating, too, though. She’s often oblivious to how she comes off, or how she hurts others—including Hopper. Like, he does have a good reason to be pissed about her standing him up, even if he handles it like a child. But she gets such tunnel vision—like right now, where all she cares about is figuring out the mystery of the falling magnets—that she doesn’t see it, and she never apologizes.
Tim Matassa
