Netflix Month - Stranger Things Season 2 - Dig Dug/The Spy

Welcome back to Netflix Month

And we continue our retrospective on Stranger Things. 3 main plot-lines to remember. First off, Dustin has discovered his little Dart is in fact a baby Demogorgon. Second, Jonathan and Nancy have come out of Hawkins Labs with a recorded confession of their involvement with Barb’s death. And finally, Will has been overtaken by the Mind Flayer, in trying to help him, Hopper has looked underneath the dead crops and as in now in The Upside Down. Also, El is looking for her mother.

  

Chapter 5 – Dig Dug

Joyce tries and fails to reach Hopper, she finds a piece of Will’s drawing she hadn’t put up and finds its place as Mike questions Will about the Mind Flayer. Will says that through him, the Mind Flayer is extending its presence in Hawkins more and more. The more he spreads, the worse Will becomes. Mike says that might actually be a good thing, as he can be a spy on the Mind Flayer and his inside intel might be how they stop him. Will is still clearly terrified but Mike holds his hand.

You see, there’s a reason that Will needed to be the central focus of a season again. Despite the last season also focusing on Will, it was his absence and the void that created that was the main plot thread. Now he’s essentially a new character, and a major player at that so we have to see him go through struggles and all the characters can hence interact with him. This scene is one of the best showcases of Mike and Will’s relationship. Mike is listening to what Will has to say, and not treating it like any of it is false, or war flashbacks or anything. At the moment, he’s the only one who can.

Hopper meanwhile continues his trek in the Upside Down. He hears screeching and hissing as it’s revealed the vines are very much alive. They spit stuff at him that makes him dazed and he falls unconscious as the hole he dug in the vines begins to seal.

Jonathan and Nancy head to a Motel, they get a twin room. Has Nancy called Karen, has Jonathan called his mother? They reminisce and show each other their scars from the cuts they made to attract the Demogorgon and discuss their kinda sorta relationship. Mike is sleeping over and Will has another dream, seeing Hopkins in trouble.

Speaking of Hopkins, he wakes up from his nap, but finds the hole sealed and his path blocked. He cuts off a piece of his sleeve to use as a gas mask to prevent any more attacks. Meanwhile, Dustin asks subtly how to deal with Max and by subtly, I mean about as subtle as a train to the balls. He gets advice from his father, making his first appearance far as I see and passes by Dustin’s mom searching for her cat. Dustin fakes a phone call, and says her cat was found around the lake. Dustin’s laying it on thick, and she must really love that cat because she’s been able to see through his bullsh*t before.

With his mother gone, he makeshifts hockey armour and lays a trail of food, to lead the creature into a trap. It seems to have Dustin’s scent but Dustin charges it into his trap and locks him in the cellar. Meanwhile El has hitched a ride to where Terry Yves lives. She manages to get herself let in but Terry’s still in her drug induced phase and can’t talk.

Jonathan and Nancy head to, oh hell it’s Murray. The begin debunking his various cr*p timelines and sh*t, but let’s get to Max, Billy drops her off at the arcade but her favourite game is ‘out of order’ but it’s in fact a ruse set up by Keith to get her and Lucas to talk, he wants that date now. Yeah, good luck with that…

Lucas offers to tell her the truth, but she needs to accept the risk that comes with it. She agrees and he begins explaining, but since we don’t need the recap, we cut back to Mike and Joyce. Will draws where he saw Hopper and the find out his location, unfortunately Bob returns. He’s brought a load of puzzle books for Will to concentrate on as he recovers, remembering how he used to like doing that when he was a kid. Realising he may be useful, Joyce invites him in, he believes that it’s a game.

Bob immediately coins onto the fact that something’s off and tries to confront Joyce about it but she plays defensive, Bob begins uncovering various landmarks and now realises it’s a map, of Hawkins, well duh! Hopper, now sans the mask for some reason walks around more and discovers the vines’ weakness to fire, he uses his cigarette lighter to burn a path.

Dustin calls for help but no-one answers until Lucas’s sister grabs the thing. She’s a sassy one, isn’t she? El talks to Terry’s sister, who’s surprisingly convinced of El’s story, maybe I skimmed over a scene too quickly but… El gets shown what would’ve been her room, the one Terry was always preparing for her. The lights begin flickering, whilst Terry’s sister is convinced it’s just the wiring, it’s a signal to El that Terry knows she’s here and wants to talk.

Bob manages to work out where Hopper is, and they head out. Dustin heads to Karen’s to find out where Mike is, but Ted is the one to answer the door… oh boy… He sees Steve pop by, hoping to ‘apologise’ to Nancy and has brought some flowers, and so begins the most adorable partnership I’ve ever seen. 

Hopper tries to crawl out of the hole he made but it’s small and not deep enough. As he rests, succumbing to the atmosphere as the vines ensnare him. He screams but, in a hole that deep, no-one can hear you scream, unless you’re in the audience.

                                                                                                                  

Max doesn’t believe a word Lucas has said and walks out. But as she begins to blurt his words back out at him, Lucas covers her mouth, urging her to shut up, else it’ll get them both killed. Max begins to believe him. She hears the revving engine of Billy’s car and tells Lucas not to follow her out. Nancy and Jonathan play the tape to Murray, who immediately pours himself a drink.

The problem they have is no-one will believe it. Their best hope is to water it down, say that Barb was killed by toxins that leaked from the lab. It would likely lead to Hawkins Lab going down, but the public would at least swallow it. At Hawkins lab, the scientists have found their soil samples normal other than the fact that when heated, the soil swirls in a spiral. So evidently not normal.

El is blindfolded and begins to enter the void to talk telepathically with Terry, she begins Terry’s memories of having to be c-sectioned, after going into premature labour, Brenner was among the doctors. Her sister tells her the baby died. She heads to Hawkins Lab with a loaded gun, she finds a room and sees 2 children playing before the guards drag her away. She’s strapped down and we find this coma she’s in was induced by Brenner and his group. Each of the words she’s been repeating are floating memories of what happened.

Mike, Joyce. Bob and Will head out to where they think Hopper is. They find the hole he went down, and Joyce breaks through the vines again. They both drop into the tunnel with Bob confused as all hell as to what’s going on. Joyce is more concerned about Hopper at the moment as Mike and Will are confronted with the guys from Hawkins’ Lab. They find him and begin using his pen knife to break him out of the vines.

Hawkins Lab begin burning the vines but Will screams in agony.

This is one of the best episodes so far, advancing the plot along at a reasonable pace, satisfying character arcs all throughout. El’s story is suitably tragic and a good development for her character, it also brings us to 8 from the beginning but we’ll get to her next time

Rating 8/10

Chapter 6: The Spy

Will is rushed to Hawkins Lab, in severe pain. Hopkins undergoes decontamination. As darkness falls, Steve and Dustin arrive back at his house. And does Steve just carry that baseball bat everywhere he goes? You know what, doesn’t matter. Steve arrives at the cellar, but finds it doesn’t react when he prods the door. He heads inside and finds it’s shed again, which means it’s growing bigger, it’s big enough to dig straight through the wall and head into the forest. Roll credits

The Lab agents head into the Byers’ household and begin taking photos of everything. Joyce chews out all the scientists but her proposal to take Will to a real hospital is really f*cking stupid. Jonathan, Nancy and Murray have edited down the tape and made copies to send off to the press. Murray sees them as a couple and proceeds to break down their personalities to why they’re a fit. They’re both unsettled enough to both get out of bed but… then they meet each other and it’s so awkward, they retreat, until they don’t and decide to suck face instead.

Lucas heads home and finds out about the call from his bratty sister. He calls back, and… wait, they still don’t know that Dustin found Dart, that should be awkward. Anyway, he’s told to meet them asap. Hopper is shown something, another massive portal to the upside down the found underneath the lab, and the vines are growing rapidly like a cancer.

Wow, Bob, you are so dead… Will wakes up but doesn’t seem to recognise Bob. Nancy and Jonathan wake up and are booted out by Murray. Lucas has a really, really dumb idea, he goes to grab Max so she can see the weirdness with her own eyes, but first, he has to contend with Billy. Look, I don’t give a sh*t, Billy is a character written to be asshole, much like the bullies in the last season, who I don’t think have shown up so far this season. Lucas hops around the side and Max slips out the window.

He doesn’t remember who Dr Owens is, or Hopper confusingly. But Dr Owens quickly works out what’s going on. The Mind Flayer is acting like a virus infecting and overwhelming its host but it has a hive mind, and when part of it is hurt, ie by burning the vines, Will feels it too. Steve gives to Dustin his advice about girls. His terrible, terrible advice. He then tells Dustin about how he styles his hair… Guess this is the 80's.

Oh, they’re laying a trail of meet, and it’s heading right past the vine markers. Hopper tries to pass a message to El, but of course she’s gone already. He admits his part in stringing her along, but of course she’s not here to listen. Owens seems to be the only man of compassion in the room. But the others have a valid point, there’s bigger things at stake than just Will's life, delaying the burn could have much more devastating consequences.

Will tells Mike he might know how to stop the Mind Flayer. The bait leads to the junkyard as Lucas and Max arrive. Jonathan and Nancy finally return to the house and see the vine map, Jonathan also spots a polaroid part, he doesn’t shoot with them, which means someone else has been here. Will points to a location at the map that he claims is important and the monster doesn’t want him to see. So, Owens a group of scientists in to investigate as the others begin setting up their trap.

Night begins to fall and a convenient layer of fog is on the ground. Max gets to talk about her brother openly for the first time. And it’s a good character moment for her and one that’s sorely needed. And as the character moment ends, the hear the sound of the baby Demogorgon but it doesn’t seem to be taking the bait so Steve heads out to confront it but Lucas sees there are others behind him. He makes a run back for the bus, and despite the fortifications, they can get through. Fortunately, they run off, seemingly called away.

Back to the bunch of dead meat scientists. I don’t think you have to be a genius to work out where the demo-dogs are heading. Oh yeah, they’re calling them demo-dogs, they’re Demogorgons only smaller and easier to kill, though they can create fog so they’re much harder to track. But not they’re not that easy, the Mind Flayer wanted revenge for the burning and enacted it through Will. And now the soldiers are dealt with, they’re climbing into the lab.

That’s a hell of a cliff hanger and a very dark episode, but also another very good one.

Rating 9/10

We’ll be looking at 3 episodes next time in what for now will be our final retrospective on Stranger Things