Netflix Retrospective - Stranger Things Season 1 Episodes 5-6 (A Strange Halloween)

Will is missing in Hawkins Town
Elle says he's in the Upside Down
But inside a monster dwells
It's purpose? Who can tell

A lab faked a body, made of wool
But Chief Hopkins is nobody's fool
Into the lab he sneaks unseen
For Stranger Things happen on a Strange Halloween

Chapter 5: The Flea and the Acrobat

We open back at the Hawkins Lab, Hopper manages to sneak in as another couple of scientists are leaving. He walks down the bunch of similar looking corridors and finds the area cordoned off. He’s stopped after he finds a door is locked. He manages to distract them long enough to get in a hit to knock one out, and threatens another with his own gun, taking his ID card and making it through the locked door. The idea that a mere security guard would have clearance to access this very top-secret area is head-scratching to me.

Meanwhile, you remember Lonnie right, he showed up at Joyce’s house and pours her a drink to calm her nerves. She remarks that after her encounter last night she can’t feel him anymore. She’s clearly distressed and scared and this rambling makes her seem even worse than she actually is. And honestly I’m just groaning through this. We, as the audience, know that this is happening and it isn’t in her head, we’ve seen evidence outside of her scenes that prove that, so having characters continually try and convince Joyce that it’s all fake and made up isn’t interesting, especially since there’s no chance it’s going to work. And coming from Lonnie it’s just galling because this is the first time he’s shown up in Hawkins. Jonathan had to seek him out!

Hopper continues his search in the lab, shouting out for Will, he finds a room with a child’s toy and a picture, we can conclude this is Eleven’s room but Hopper can believe otherwise.

Back to the boys, they’re going over what they heard in the AV room. Mike concludes given the evidence they have that Will is in a shadow-version of their universe the ‘vale of shadows’ or as Eleven puts it, ‘the upside down.’ It’s like their universe except dark and with strange monsters. Back at the lab, an alarm is beeping as Hopper continues his search, guards rush to stop him but he manages to access the elevator. Hopper comes across the strange portal that they’d been sending scientists into. He hears something but soon scientists drug him unconscious.

And a full 8.5 minutes in, finally roll credits.

Jonathan comes home and sees Joyce and I’m going to groan again as Lonnie continues to exact his own authority on the situation despite knowing next to nothing about it. And when I say exacting authority I mean it full on, claiming that Joyce is mentally unwell and telling him to take down his reference poster for being inappropriate. His entire purpose in the plot is to bring the arc to a screeching halt, he’s a narrative tool for stalling.

The next morning everyone gets dressed for Will’s funeral. The dog heads to Will’s little hideout and lies there as Jonathan struggles with his tie. Lonnie and Joyce head together as the pastor gives out his speech for a toy made of cotton wool. Everyone leaves flowers as the group disperses. Joyce flashes back to a time Will drew a picture. This does nothing but waste time

Hopper wakes up in his house. He quickly grabs a gun and races outside to see what’s going on. And quickly sees that his house is heavily bugged. He tears his house apart, I presume finding various bugs. We see the scientists were also listening in on the conversation with Will, and have worked out that Joyce was a part of it.

Jonathan talks to Nancy and they agree to head out together to find the monster. When Nancy asks what they’d do if they find it, Jonathan breaks into a car and steals a gun and some bullets. Nancy asks about telling his mother but with Lonnie about it’s a bad idea. I wish Jonathan would go with that line rather than the ‘I’ll protect her’ bullsh*t.

A technician has been called in to look at the damaged AV equipment, it’s all been burnt out and it’s a good guess that the two work with Hawkins Lab. So, the boys talk to Mr Clarke, the science teacher who runs the AV club, about the possibility of alternate dimensions and he says it’s theoretically possible and a high energy tear in space-time could theoretically breach dimensions.

Hopper’s officers come a calling to a very paranoid Hopper. They say that Dale and Henry, two people who have had no screen-time have gone missing. Hopper works out they disappeared in the same area Will did. Also, they found Barbara’s car, that being another thing found by the state, they found it by a bus station because being even slightly subtle is beyond the minds of Hawkins’ best scientists.

Back at home, Lonnie is fixing the wall and has taken down some of Joyce’s lights, much to her displeasure. Back with the boys, Dustin is proving his worth as being clever, he notices all the compasses aren’t pointing to the north, which means there’s a stronger electro-magnetic field in the nearby area. Such a field would be created by the vast amount of energy required to create a tear in space/time. Following the compasses should lead them to the gate, this news clearly concerns Eleven.

Whilst Lonnie is having a shower, Joyce finds a pamphlet for something related to compensation in his bag. Nancy eyes a baseball bat, and begins swinging it around, almost hitting Steve as he comes by. She gives a completely transparent excuse. Steve apologises for what happened last episode, he did get in trouble with his parents but doesn’t seem to care. Steve asks her out to a movie but Nancy rejects him in a way that’s absolutely bound to make him suspicious.

I get the use of soft focus with that background, but its starts to become super distracting after a while how blurry it is. Joyce confronts Lonnie, berating him for only caring about the money, something he denies but she’s had enough and kicks him out. Turns out Jonathan is a f*cking terrible shot. It’s at this point we find out Lonnie made Jonathan kill a rabbit on his 10^th birthday. Lonnie, you’re f*cking scum!

Nancy makes a remark about her family, she doesn’t think her parents ever loved each other. An interesting perspective that sadly feels totally in line with how their characters act, or more importantly the fact Ted acts like he doesn’t give a sh*t about anything. Nancy reveals herself to be a decent shot.

After a scene with Jim Hopper, we get back to the boys, they’re heading along a train line following the compass and Lucas thinks that Eleven is acting stranger than normal, she flashes back to her time in the lab, heading to a place called ‘the bath.’ The put on her headset and send her into a water tank, putting on an oxygen helmet as she’s lowered in.

She tries to get Mike to turn back, claiming she’s tired and we can see her nose bleeding, implying she’s using her powers. Nancy and Jonathan are walking through the woods, now Nancy has the gun and Jonathan the baseball bat, seems a fitting fit. They get into an argument about Steve, and lay their thoughts bare on the matter. Hopper arrives at Joyce’s house, sees all the lights and realises any one of them could be bugged.

The boys soon realise they’re heading back home, and it dawns on them that Eleven is indeed messing with their compasses. Lucas confronts her and seeing the blood on her sleeve, she’s eventually forced into a corner. Hopper admits to Joyce, after unscrewing all her lights, that his place was bugged by Hawkins Labs because he was onto them.

Hopper tells Joyce the truth about the cadaver. Lucas is in a rage about what’s happened, laying it all out on Mike. He’s had enough of Eleven and thinks she’s using them to get what she wants, what she actually wants is for them not to face the monster at all. It turns into a fight, Eleven begs them to stop but when they won’t her screaming sends Lucas flying, Mike and Dustin check up on him with Mike also p*ssed off at Eleven.

She flashes back to being in the tank, trying to find someone with her mind as she had sone previously. She seems to find him, making his voice come through on the PA system, but she hears a growling and loses contact with him. I think, she’s using the upside down as a means to find him quickly. Lucas is fine but storms off, and Eleven disappears.

Night is falling and Jonathan and Nancy hear something in the woods, it’s a deer, badly injured, Nancy assumes it’s been hit by a car. Nancy decides they can’t leave it and prepares to kill it off, Jonathan takes it off her and says he’ll do it but before they can it’s dragged away at considerable speed. They follow the trail of blood until it stops, Nancy spots blood dripping from a broken out bit of a tree. She crawls in to investigate and as luck wouldn’t have it, it’s a portal to the upside down.

Her torch begins flickering and she sees a creature feasting on the deer, she back away slowly and as the cliché goes, she steps on a twig and grabs the monster’s attention. She screams and Jonathan calls out to her, but we can see the portal appears to be closing.

The Lonnie subplot is ultimately there to make Joyce a more assertive and less frantic character, I reckon this could’ve been accomplished in less time and without him involved. He contributes nothing to the overall plot. There’s a few more hints to how Eleven fits into the Upside-down narrative but her entire arc here is cliché and likely to be rendered pointless later on.

Rating 6.5/10

Chapter 6: The Monster

Well, at least this episode is shorter.

Jonathan is frantically searching for Nancy, who’s calling out to him as well. Jonathan spots the portal as Nancy is forced to hide from the monster, he calls through and eventually he manages to pull her out, just as the portal closes. Roll credits. See, you don’t need to wait 8 minutes to do that.

Steve and his posse are heading out to the woods, Steve convinced something was up with Nancy. I’d love to say something about his posse but they’re ultimately blander than bread so I always come up short. I get that this show has a tonne of characters, and not all of them are going to get the screen-time for development, but maybe cut down on the speaking lines, don’t make them part of integral plot scenes.

You know for all the ‘don’t go out at night’ scenes we had early on, everyone seems to be out at night and no-one seems to care. Steve sneaks into her room and finds Jonathan putting a blanket on her and assumes the worst that will lead to an altercation later on, yay!

Hopper explains to Joyce what he saw at the lab. He mentions the cell, and mentions the drawing, when it turns out it was stick figures, Joyce shows her one of Will’s drawings (the one from that flashback) and it pretty much rules him out. But Hopper isn’t done, he remembers the kid with a shaved head from a previous interview, and an article about a woman named Terry Ives who claims to have lost her daughter, Jane.

Nancy is still in shock over what she saw, PTSD setting in quickly. Jonathan agrees to sleep in her room tonight, and she agrees, not wanting to be alone. Jonathan, maybe call your mother first, if her mind wasn’t already on other things, she’d be worried sick. They end up on the same bed together. Mike is at home, twiddling his thumbs, missing Eleven I think. Hopper manages to get Terry’s address, it may not be Will they’re chasing but it’s his only lead. Joyce is along for reasons unknown

Nancy wasn’t able to sleep much, still thinking about the monster and what it could’ve done to Will and Barbara. Jonathan tries to reassure her but even if they are alive, that means they’re trapped with those monsters. Nancy begins to theorise that the monster is like a predator who sniffs out his prey’s blood. Nancy was injured, and so was the deer. Will is a bit more complicated but it’s worth theorising that maybe he was injured when he fell off his bike.

Right, you remember Mr Clarke from the AV Club, he gets a visitor talking about an AV Club state-wide newsletter written by the kids or something, it’s basically a trap for the boys. Speaking of, Dustin meets Mike at his house, Mike’s feeling guilty over yelling at Eleven in the last episode. Dustin tells Mike they were all out of line yesterday, Eleven and Mike included. Mike pushed first in the fight though and by their own rules has to be the one to apologise.

Eleven is flashing back to the lab, Dr Brenner gives her potted plant and tells her they’re gonna make history. She wakes up having slept in the woods, she looks at her reflection and screams, creating a sonic wave that ripples the water and scares away the birds. Mike tries to apologise to Lucas but Lucas refuses as long as they continue to look for El. Mike argues she’s their best weapon against whatever the hell they’re up against but Lucas won’t listen.

El heads into a supermarket and flashes back to the ‘bathtub’ and she’s attracted quite a crowd. Brenner assures her the monster can’t hurt her and now we get to the next edition of ‘scientists are stupid’ they send Eleven into the bathtub. Back in the present, El finds Eggo’s waffles and begins taking them out of the freezer, she takes them without paying, shutting the automatic door when the staff try and stop her.

Oh and Nancy and Jonathan disappear from the house again, behind Karen’s back no less. Hopper and Joyce head to Terry Yves house but find her unable to talk to them. Lucas heads off on his own, finding a guy from Hawkin’s power and Light near Mike’s house. Mike and Dustin sees the commotion at the supermarket and realise El was probably there, they ride off but are being watched

OK, so Terry Yves has been put on a load of drugs as part of a CIA condoned experiment thing that started in the 50s, they were given loads of psychedelic drugs and put in Isolation tanks, like the ‘bathtub’ we saw El in, but she didn’t know she was pregnant at the time, and well… According to her sister, she had a miscarriage but she pretended like Jane was real, and she is… we know her as Eleven.

Lucas heads right to the Hawkins lab perimeter fence, he works to find a way around. Nancy and Jonathan are at an army surplus store, looking for things to fight the monster with, they choose bear traps, a can of gas and of course some bullets. The store owner is a bit perplexed about the whole thing. Outside she sees Steves car and finds the words ‘Nancy the slut Wheeler’ written on the listings for the local movie theatre. She hears a spray can and follows the sound into the alley.

Nancy tries to explain herself but given that she can’t really say that she was scared of a monster and Jonathan offered to keep her company to help her PTSD, she’s back into a corner and Steve doesn’t believe a word she says. But then Steve has to push it, insulting Jonathan and his family and leading to a punch up. Jonathan is winning but the police arrive, and when they try and grab him off, Jonathan accidentally knocks one of them in the nose, pushing him back into a car and that gets Jonathan arrested.

Some lady at the police station prepares some ice, and says that only love would make Jonathan stupid enough to do what he did. Random woman, I haven’t used this clip in ages but you have made me use it

  

Love for his f*cking family, you moron! Steve knew exactly what button to press there. Whilst Nancy being insulted to that level didn’t help, Jonathan was ready to walk away until Steve opened his big dumb mouth. Eleven is eating the waffles, straight out the freezer and hears Mike and Dustin calling for her. Cut to them and their confronted by 2/3 of the generic bully squad.

Oh no, one of them has a knife, IT beat you by more than 2 decades, this isn’t scary any more. The two of them bolt, abandoning their bikes as Lance realises that the portal is inside the lab. He climbs a tree and takes a look with his binoculars, seeing vans for Hawkins power and light and army vans and such

Dustin is slowed down by cramp, the bullies have them surrounded somehow, and right at a convenient gap in the hedges, showing the cliff, at the bottom of which is the pool of water ‘Will’ was found in. The bullies want to know how they did the thing in school, Dustin tells the truth but of course they don’t believe him. They want Mike to jump into the lake, or he’ll cut Dustin’s teeth out with his knife or something… Mike walks to the edge of the cliff and makes the jump but he’s caught in mid air and brought back up by Eleven, who breaks the arm of the lead bully and scares them off.

As Dustin threatens them as they run off, Eleven faints and flashes back, her mind is in the upside down and Brenner has asked her to make contact with the monster. El is scared by it and you see cracks manifesting on the walls, I think it’s becoming obvious what’s happened, and it’s confirmed moments later when El confesses that she’s one who opened the ‘gate’ to the upside-down. Mike heads back home, but is spotted by the guy in the Hawkins power and Light van, who calls them in. A fleet of vans, now armed to the teeth now all head their way, with Lance spotting them from his vantage point.

OK, things start ramping back up in this episode, as the 3 main plot-lines. Hopper, Nancy and Jonathan and the boys and Eleven are all about the same level, each with their unique pieces of the plot to fill in gaps when they inevitably come together, at the same time Hawkins lab have begun ramping up and we’ve more or less ditched the extraneous cr*p now.

Rating 7.5/10