Netflix Retrospective: Stranger Things Season 2 episodes 1-2 (A Strange Halloween)

A missing boy in a small town

In another world, the Upside Down

A frantic mum, a worried brother

A sinister lab that’s like no other

From a drugged woman, a girl is born

And from her mother, she was torn

Through the void, she can see

But the void is not empty

Experimentation takes its toll

Scared, her powers go out of control

She opens a portal into the void

Out comes a monster that must be destroyed

It seeks out blood, fresh and warm

Conventional weapons do it no harm

It killed so many, again and again

Only her sacrifice could make this end

The boy is saved, the monster’s gone

The scientists dead, the world moves on

But all is not quite as it seems

As Stranger Things happen on a Strange Halloween

This Halloween we continue our retrospective on Stranger Things, now for season 2

Chapter 1: MADMAX

In the city of Pittsburgh, we see a group perform a robbery wearing dollar store Halloween masks, they’re soon pursued by the cops. Kali, one of the thieves, directs them into a tunnel and then uses her powers. One of the drivers sees part of the tunnel collapse and brakes hard, causing a 3-way crash with the cop cars. When the driver regains his senses, he notices the debris gone and the tunnel looks fine. We see that Kali’s nose is bleeding and she carries a tattoo, labelled 008, similar to the one 11 had. Wonder what this is about? Well, be prepared to wait a while. Let’s roll these credits!

It’s approaching Halloween in Hawkins, and we’re at the well decorated house of Dustin, he’s frantically searching the house for quarters to use at the arcade. His mother has a cat, he’ll be important later. He calls Lucas, who says he’s mowed the lawn to earn a full 20 quarters. Dustin calls Mike but he has nothing, and raids his sister’s room for some. He’s caught but he makes a run for the arcade.

Will is dropped off by his mother, she tells him she’ll pick him up in 2 hours and tells him not to walk or bike home. They’re playing Dragon’s Lair because reference. Dustin loses but it is content with 2 other high scores, before random person, whose name happens to be Keith tells them that he was beaten on both games by someone naming themselves MADMAX. When they ask who MADMAX is, Keith says he’ll do in exchange for a date with Nancy, but Mike refuses, besides he’s in enough trouble with his sister already, and she’s already in a love triangle, maybe.

Whilst they argue, Will begins to visualise the Upside down again. He heads outside, where a storm is raging. Mike snaps him out of it, and takes him back in. Next morning everything seems normal, and by that I mean, here’s another new character, his name is Murray and he’s a conspiracy theorist, in the most apt town for it, he wants a few words with Hopper.

He believes that 11 is a Russian spy, citing an eyewitness report and of course, Ted. F*ck Ted. Hopper gets a call about some contaminated pumpkins. Nancy is looking over Steve’s essay about his life or something, frustrated he tosses it over his shoulder and says he could be working with his dad in his profession of…

And so arrives the latest batch of new characters, Billy and Maxine. Will finds a newspaper in his locker calling him ‘zombie boy.’ It’s an article about him being found. Maxine arrives and Mr Clarke makes sure to embarrass her. She likes to be called Max and the boys all assume that she’s MADMAX

Joyce is back at work and we’re introduced to Bob Newby, who I could’ve sworn was played by Patton Oswald, but hey? It’s actually Sean Astin. He’s Joyce’s girlfriend/dead meat for the season. Oh come on, you know he’s gonna turn out evil or dead, my money is firmly on dead, all things considered. They have playtime in the back, clothes stay on thankfully.

Back to Hopper, at field of very dead pumpkins, they were prize winners that died overnight, Hopper hears a noise nearby but it seems to be a crow, a crow that flies towards a scarecrow. Great to see them doing their job. Nancy invites Jonathan to a Halloween bash, not wanting him to spend Halloween alone. He’s gotta go trick-or-treating with Will and is fine with whatever comes after.

So, the boys spent the best part of their lunch-break stalking Max, they see her throw something into the trash and begins searching for it because they’re a bit weird. Joyce has arrived at the school, about to take him for a routine appointment back at Hawkins Lab. Will actually told his mother about his Upside Down experience, but presumably left out the part about puking up slugs. Hopper is there too and we’re introduced to Sam Owns, the new head of Hawkins Lab as Will gives his version of the vision.

They’re told he may have more episodes as they’re coming up on the one year anniversary of it all. What tells me is they’re not taking this as a serious threat. Joyce is concerned with the advice to do nothing and act like everything’s fine. Hopper doesn’t really trust the news and Joyce doesn’t either. We cut back to the lab and see they scientists are trying to burn through the vines near the portal to the Upside Down.

Dustin and Mike are scoping out the arcade, and we see that Dustin has his adult teeth now, good good, Max arrives and argues with her brother. Mike apparently hasn’t been very well behaved this past year, so Karen insists he bring 2 boxes of toys for an upcoming yard sale, and his games console is already up for sale. Nancy and Steve arrive at the house belonging to Barb’s parents and this is awkward…

They got KFC because product placement and it’s revealed that they’re selling the house to pay for having Bauman as their private investigator to find Barb. This just gets more and more awkward. I’m pretty sure Steve is in the loop by now too. Nancy goes and cries in the bathroom as Mike is busy packing up his toys. He sees the den he created for 11 and begins trying on the radio again, he calls for her. I think El does reply but Mike thinks it’s Dustin as he talks soon after, confirming that Max is MADMAX but Mike doesn’t really care.

Dustin hears something in his front lawn… Will is working on a picture he’s dubbed Zombie Boy, Jonathan tries to talk to him about it but Will finally cracks, sick of people talking to him like he’s one step from breaking. Jonathan tries to spin it a bit but I’m not entirely convinced it’s working. Bob arrives for some comic relief.

Alarms begin blaring at Hawkins Lab and the phone rings, and yet somehow the dripping tap is the scariest thing. Will heads to the bathroom and ears the sound of thunder, the door opens and he’s back in the Upside Down again. He walks to the door and sees a giant creature in the eye of the storm.

Hopper heads to the woods, to an old wooden shack. He gives a secret knock and is let in. Inside that shack is 11, and they have Dinner together.

It’s a fairly intriguing opening, but maybe needed to hold off on introducing us to all the new characters. Despite Max being who the episode is named after, she gets next to no screen-time and neither does her brother.

Rating 7/10

Chapter 2: Trick or Treat, Freak

We flash back to the season 1 finale, El had transported herself into the upside down, when she defeated the monster. She screams out for Mike, despite the fact I’m pretty sure she knows where she is at this point. She hears some noise and follows it, finding something glowing, peering through to see some soldiers. Once they’re gone she manages to put her hand through and realises it’s a way out, she manages to do that but it seems like everyone’s gone. How is that portal closed up, by the way?

She heads out but finds a bunch of government agents in Mike’s house and are they seriously telling Mike that what she told him isn’t true, after everything he knows. How thick are these people? And yeah, they’re spreading the story that she’s a Russian weapon, something Bauman mentioned in the last episode. El overhears this and knows she can’t stay, but she’s spotted. The agents search but she hides underneath a log. Roll credits.

El is dressed as a ghost and wants to go trick or treating, something which Hopper refuses to allow. He instead offers to buy them both candy, get off work early and the two can watch a scary movie together. This he promises so I put the odds at extremely slim that that’s what’s gonna happen. Joyce gets a bit of a scare when Will is taking a piss… She’s beginning to take the p*ss, I mean seriously?

So it’s Halloween and who you gonna call. Another reference! Joyce finds a picture of the monster, which we’ll later hear called a Mind Flayer, inside the upside down. Oh we finally get to see Lucas’s family. He has a younger sister who thinks he’s a nerd. The 3 argue as two of them are Venkman, you know, the womanising asshole. And neither of them are Winston, who?

But regarding that, turns out the rest of the school decided not to dress up, leaving the 4 of them quite embarrassed. Lucas and Dustin both lust over Max some more. Joyce shows the picture to Hopper, who thinks that rather than them being visions, they’re flashbacks, if only. They also remember a time back in school where they’d share cigarettes.

A scientist from the lab goes inside the upside down. Turns out that set up a monitor in the and blaring alarms was it being fried by the storm. Nancy breaks her pencil and sees Barb as she’s sharpening it, remembering her last words to her. She’s having trouble and seems almost ready to tell Barb’s parents. Steve stops her, telling her if she does the ‘bad men’ could land her in jail or worse.

So, Dustin and Lucas finally pluck up the courage to talk to Max. It’s about as awkward as you’d expect. They invite her to join their party trick-or-treating, something which she as of yet doesn’t respond to. El is looking through references and comes across a love story, she begins reciting lines. She sees a squirrel and flashes back to her killing a squirrel, it’s been a while since we checked in with her, her hair has started to grow back. She roasts the squirrel by a fire when a man comes up to her concerned, she knocks him out, steals his coat and runs off with it.

Hopper finds out from another farmer that over the Halloween night a bunch of farms ended up with dead pumpkin syndrome. Max returns to her brother, Billy and we get a proper introduction to him, and he’s a scary one. Almost runs down the boys when he’s mad, and only doesn’t thanks to Max intervening.

Hopper finds some of the trees are also experiencing the effects of dead pumpkin syndrome, and finds strange goo on them. So, it’s trick or treat time. Jonathan agrees to leave Will to it if he stays in the neighbourhood and is at Mike’s by 9pm. Oh, this can’t end well… At the party, Billy shows off by drinking a lot and gathers the fandom Steve once had. Nancy gets drunk on punch. Time for Nancy and Bob to dance and suggest them moving out of Hawkins.

Max jump-scares the boys after their meet and tells them to follow her to a richer neighbourhood. Hopper continues to search the woods around the farms, and given that it’s already dark, I’m guessing it’s a rain check on that promise and yeah, he soon realises the time and heads back home, after buying some candy from a trick-or-treater. He then uses a morse code device to let El know, she flashes back to the Winter, and finds the package of goodies Hopper left for her in the series finale.

Mike and Will are trailing behind, Mike’s not all that pleased with Max being allowed in their group. Will had agreed so they had a majority.

Oh, Bob gave Jonathan a camcorder that he gave to will. Separated from the others, he’s scared over by some trick-or-treaters calling him ‘Zombie Boy’ and begins having another vision. He sees the Mind Flayer without the storm and runs and hides. Mike eventually finds him and says he’ll take him home, allowing the others to carry on, he’s bored anyway.

At the party, Jonathan arrives and Nancy goes to get another cup of punch, Steve tries to stop her as she’s blatantly drunk and it ends with her jumper covered in punch. And we get a slightly distorted insight into Nancy’s head-space. I think there is a semblance of guilt over her role in Barb’s death, perpetuated by the fact that they can’t tell Nancy’s parents what happened.

Will tells Mike what he saw, and asks that he doesn’t tell the others. Mike admits to Will that he misses El. Jonathan takes Nancy home as he picks up Will at the same time. Hopper arrives but El doesn’t answer the door, at least not at first. She’s busy using the receiver from the TV to try and find Mike, she’s successful to an extent but I don’t think he hears her as he puts down the radio and walks away.

Dustin hears the trash can shaking at his house, he’s about to kill it but then sees what’s inside. And join us next time to find out?

It’s a decent enough episode and I’m glad Will is opening up to Mike. Because Will was absent most of last season, his dynamic with the group from his perspective wasn’t well established, so I’m glad Mike is open with him as well.

As for the El subplot, I guess it’s got some way to go before it really piques my interest

Rating 7.5/10

And so ends the review of all Hallows eve

Barb’s parents are clueless, unable to grieve

Nancy gets drunk and utters words that deceive

And what Will sees only Mike will believe

Max is a girl, one proficient and fun

Her brother, a psychopathic son-of-a-gun

Her part in the story has only begun

Two boys have her fancy, she can choose only one

Bob is a man who’s a little too clean

There’s a monster in the void that’s as yet unseen

Pumpkins are dying, in a way that’s obscene

Can Stranger Things happen on a Strange Halloween?

Before I forget, we’re entering November, you know what that means?

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