This is a code red!
“You can stop this,” Tom (Michael Park), editor of The Hawkins Post, pleads with his daughter as he waits, bound, next to his sobbing wife.
“There is no stopping it, Daddy,” Heather tells him gently. “You’ll see.”
Heather’s right. “Chapter Four: The Sauna Test” isn’t Stranger Things at its best, but it’s an unstoppable episode overloaded with action. The kids are back together and investigating the Big Bad! Code red! The Russians are coming to Starcourt Mall! Code red! Mrs. Driscoll is pulling at her restraints and convulsing, her skin livid! Code Red! HOPPER IS NEKKID AND JOYCE SAW HIM! Code red, code red, CODE RED!
In the midst of all this danger and excitement, it’s easy to miss: In a cruel way, “The Sauna Test” gives Will exactly what he wanted from the season’s beginning. He’s back with his friends. No one is splitting off into pairs, no one’s giggling and holding hands. And everyone is listening to Will.
“He’s back,” Will said in “Chapter Three: The Case Of The Missing Lifeguard.” It takes a lot of exposition to explain how the Mind Flayer could be in Hawkins after the harrowing battle that closed last season, and closed the portal to its realm. “The Sauna Test” puts Will back in the role of Dungeon Master, spinning a story for his assembled friends. “The Mind Flayer likes to hide,” he tells them. “He only used me when he needed me.”
It’s a turning of the tables, in a way. El has long been the authority on the world beyond; she’s a psychic so powerful, she can use her talents for sport. She can spy on her friends wherever they are, or even on her friends’ boring parents, if she chooses. And under Max’s tutelage, she’s feeling freer than ever. “I make my own rules,” she tells Mike as they assemble their plan to capture Billy.
At first, I thought their trap was over the top, with a taunting voice calling for “Billlly.” (Did anyone else flash on Keifer Sutherland calling “Michaelllllll” in The Lost Boys?) But maybe it shows Max’s insight into her brother, however much of her brother is left in there. Long before he’s taken over by the Mind Flayer, Billy showed himself to be not just volatile, but violently short-fused. It’s possible that a teenager’s lilting ridicule is just the bait to short-circuit Billy Hargrove’s caution and lure him into the sauna.
So far, Billy has been a posturing tough, a cruel narcissist who occasionally smooths down his rough edges to charm the adults around him. It’s a fun pivot to see Dacre Montgomery play new facets of this volatile character, especially the surprising menace of his blank-eyed boredom as Billy and Heather prepare her parents for sacrifice. But ultimately, the fight between Billy and El feels like many, many introductory bouts we’ve seen before in popular culture: a showy, destructive attack with no meaningful consequences. It’s a big set piece with little payoff.
Between Will briefing his friends, throwing around words like host and dormant and activated, and the episode’s whip-fast fights, “The Sauna Test” often lapses into a generic sci-fi/action tone. It’s engaging, even thrilling at times, but less emotionally resonant than Stranger Things’ usual glowing nostalgic pastiche. Worse, though Will’s knowledge makes narrative sense, the more often he gets goosebumps and whispers things like “he’s activated” to his friends, the more he seems like a super-secret decoder ring instead of a character.
Even Erica gets in on the action-movie action, with her (very remunerative) vent crawl, reminiscent of everything from Alien to Alias to Die Hard, and her triumphant appearance at the secret room’s door as deserved as Mr. Clarke’s hero’s entrance.
Hopper and Joyce’s visit to City Hall is a different genre of action, and even more confident than the kids’ adventures. Hopper’s back in his Magnum P.I. shirt, and he’s bashing heads like Magnum at his grittiest. “I know, I know, you’re busy. I’m going to make this fast, I promise,” he promises Mayor Kline, and it does happen fast, so fast that the mayor’s receptionist barely has time to reach for the phone. Not that it would help; yanking out the phone cord, Joyce asks rhetorically “Who you calling? The police?” She’s always looking for extra notes in Joyce’s performance, but with a line reading like that, Winona Ryder could have made a living in vaudeville.
Amid all this action, the episode still makes time for emotional connection—a connection that also forward the larger plot. Cara Buono, so long submerged in this role, gets a chance to shine when Nancy Wheeler confides in her mother at the end of a long day. Karen’s voice starts out comforting, but as she talks about the indignities the world will pile upon us, her gaze turns inward, until she’s clearly talking her own losses, the ambitions and dreams that got knocked out of her at Nancy’s age. “This world, it beats you up again and again until I—most people, they just stop trying. But you’re not like that. You’re a fighter.” Karen doesn’t know how true that is. But she knows her daughter. I hope Karen learns a lesson from Nancy; we’ve been waiting too long to see bad-ass single mom Karen Wheeler.
And I can’t fault the episode’s ending, which exchanges all the episode’s frantic action for eerie, uneasy stillness. It looks like Heather is right, from the beginning of “Chapter Four: The Sauna Test” to the end. Tom and Janet can’t stop their daughter from feeding them to the Mind Flayer. And in this face-off, El couldn’t even stop Billy, much less the legions of his ilk he and Heather are assembling in the old steel plant.
Stray observations
- Lucas comes to the rescue with his Wrist Rocket once again!
- It’s impossible to tell whether Larry Kline is a member of the Mind Flayer’s secret army or if he’s just corrupted by capitalism.
- “Is it just me or did the room move?” I hesitate to ruin an early surprise in this 1997 Canadian horror movie by comparison; click at your own risk.
- The mayor’s wife is, of course, one of the big-haired, swivel-hipped Jazzercisers from Starcourt Mall.
209 Comments
Will they finally something about whatever it is Millie keeps scowling at off camera in every screengrab of will the scowls continue into the next season?
Erica has been deliberately annoying so far, but in this episode I agreed with EVERYTHING that little girls said. It *was* CHILD ENDANGERMENT! And she *does* deserve free ice cream for life, or more accurately for as long as those two work in the mall …
Best acting beat of the episode, Gaten Matarazzo and the look on Dustin’s face when Erica said, “You can’t spell America without Erica.” I laughed for a good two minutes after that.
His response was also priceless, and a perfect line reading.
I’ve been saying that about my first name for years.
I’ve been saying that about my first name for years.
Best acting beat of the episode, Gaten Matarazzo and the look on Dustin’s face when Erica said, “You can’t spell America without Erica.” I laughed for a good two minutes after that.
I’m now wondering which came first – naming the character Erica or trying to write that scene and coming up with the Erica/America line. I can’t remember if she had a name last season or she was just known as ‘Lucas’s sister’ the whole time…
I watched two episodes last night so I can’t recall if it was this one or the other…but the way he very slowly took a contraband lick of ice cream without blinking after Robin left them in charge…I was rolling. That was Simpsons-level physical comedy right there.
Honestly, they played her to be a secret nerd but it didn’t make sense for her not to realize they were teenagers in a summer job. How much ice cream could she realistically get?
Despite her sassiness, shes still a dopy kid with very little of the real world in her noggin.
Ehhh.. She talked theory about relatively high grade stuff, including Capitalism and its impact if I recall correctly. I don’t buy the dopey kid excuse especially when she knew enough to exploit the real world using the free samples to get ice cream.
She’s annoying but she is totally right in this episode. It’s insane that they would put her in potential danger like that and she was right to bargain for as much as she could get out of the situation
Hopefully she gets diabetes.
Yea, I was kind of hoping one of them would whisper to each other that she’s screwed once they don’t work there anymore. In any case, I still would have negotiated the terms. “For life” is a long time. How about free ice cream for the whole summer?
When Robin comes back with the blueprints her line seems to be almost a direct lift from Sneakers. (1992) Here are the original lines from the movie. It’s fascinating what 50 bucks will get you at the county recorder’s office. Playtronics Corporate Headquarters, the complete blueprints.
Great catch.
YES. I recognized it instantly. Love it. Seems like many of the films referenced are Universal releases (posters, marquees, movies they’re showing), which is weird because Universal isn’t producing the show. Hell, Magnum, P.I. was a Universal show, too, wasn’t it?
Robin only had to pay $20. Inflation was crazy back then!
They did this in episode 3, when Hopper is leaving the restaurant with the chianti bottle. “I’m the chief of police, I can do anything I want.”
I went to search for proof and the internet already had my back! (Sorry it’s so big.)
DANG — I knew it was Dan Aykroyd, but I was sure it was from the “Ghostbusters” scene where they’re looking at the blueprints for Dana’s apartment building. Nice catch indeed.
Man it’s been 4 episodes to for everyone to believe that something is going on. Ya think after 2 seasons people would be ready to believe freaky shit is going on.
Nonsense. Nothing weird is going on in Hawkins. Or at least no weirder than other small towns like Sunnydale or Derry. And even if it is, everybody knows from experience that it’s best for children and teenagers to take care of the problems.
The kids should totally get a ‘70’s shaggin’ van and give it a groovy paint job. Call it the “Mystery Machine” or something like that.
You certainly don’t want to mention it to the local sheriff, who would never believe that crazy stuff.
That’s one trope that’s so tedious on shows. Did they all get amnesia and forget a lot of freaky shit already happened, for them to be so slow on the uptake this time? It’s the Scully paradigm!Oh, Mad TV did a hilarious spoof of Medium based on this exact trope.
I only get this criticism. They seem ready to believe freaky shit is happening. Otherwise Dustin and Steve wouldn’t have even been investigating, Nancy wouldn’t have been hardcore into the rat story, the Party wouldn’t have been trapping Billy in a sauna.
They seem instead wary, really.
I hope Erica gets more tolerable, because “obnoxious younger sibling” is exactly that.
I didn’t go into this season wanting more of this character.
Enough people Twitter that they liked her, so the writers added her in.
But, enough people Twitter-liked Barb, and they killed her, so…
But the entire season was complete (including Barb’s death) before Twitter had ever heard of it.
You’re right, I should have said “kept her dead”.
I’m assuming this is meant as a joke since the whole season was released before the first viewer tweet happened.
They killed Barb before they knew Twitter liked her
Same reason we got the Barb tribute in season 2.
Most people on Twitter are shitheads, though.
I hate her so much. If she has to be present, can we at least get the catharsis of seeing the smug look wiped off her face?
Lucas should have spilled her ice cream on her shirt.
But you can’t spell America without Erika!
that was a good one!
That … actually is true
That was such a perfect line reading.
Not sure why the AV Club loves her. In addition to being the most annoying version of the precocious child, she’s a bully. In no way is she a protagonist in the first half of season 3.
Steve started as a bully.
Just her bullshit with the icecream samples is enough reason for her to die
It’s one of my least favourite character archetypes. Hopefully, if she has to be in the series, it means that the writers are obliged to develop her and make her grow the fuck up as part of a character arc. Or feed her to a grue or demagorgon or whatever, that could work too.
Yeah she is a bully, especially to her brother. But since she’s the younger sibling it *must* be hilarious. What an inversion of roles!
To be fair, it worked on ABC’s Speechless between Dylan and Ray
In season 2, I could write off her behavior as just “bratty younger sister” and that was fine. She was acting that way against Lucas and his friends because, well, she could. They couldn’t punish her and likely the parents would give it a half-hearted “knock it off, kids”. But the way she has acted so far, going so far beyond obnoxious, is not at all appealing. I know she’s supposed to be 10 or 11, but man, this kind of character just makes this viewer beg for some comeuppance.
“obnoxious younger sibling” is exactly that.Cosigned.I never got all the love for her last season, but then again ‘sassy little brat’ has never been my jam. (And my mom would have smacked her upside the head for that stunt with the syrup in S2.)
She’s an annoying hyper capitalist. I hope the monster eats her next season.
I forgot she was a person going in season 3. Overall meh, she gets better in the second half purely because they toned down her presence. The parts developing her and/or explaining why she’s a part of it at all were off putting, too much making her character a “character”.
Part of the time Erica is funny and seems like a precocious kid where it makes sense that she talks like an adult, but then the other part she sounds like the adult who wrote her lines is just coming out there. Like that kid in “The Nice Guys”though I do like the actress and want to see more of the character. Also, sometimes her being mean is funny but sometimes it is like, “why do people like her again?”
She annoys the ftck out of me
Yeah, she is fucking awful.
I totally forgot she was Lucas’s sister.
So did I. Now their encounter in the mall makes a lot more sense.
Do you have one? I do, and I like Erica. (I also like Dawn Summers.)
I have a little sister who is a good person. Sorry your crapped out there.
Don’t insult my little sister (who I never said was anything like Erica, and isn’t). There are better GIFTs.
Do all characters need to be likable?
I don’t care about her being likable. My issue is that she’s transparently the type of child who only exists in the imagination of adult writers. Kids her age do not act like that. Even smart, clever, and obnoxious ten year olds don’t speak or act like that. It’s deeply irritating.
You’d be surprised.
Picking at a character for being an unrealistic TV/film stereotype in a sci-fi/horror series explicitly born from them seems like a weird sticking point to me, but YMMV.
One of the fun things about Stranger Things for me was that the characters were in stereotypical situations but were not themselves stereotypes. The kids especially impressed me because they acted like real kids rather than cutesy kid-characters.
That’s fair.
I do feel Erica/Erika gets some nice added dimension by the end of the series which evolves her past just being a sassy/shitty precocious quip machine. If she just sat in that one-note for all of her appearances, yeah, that’d get old.
Nerd!
Y’all got some very strong feelings about this TV child, guys.
Hey, I’m not the one incensed by her mere existence
There should be something about her that makes me want her to win.
They should at least be somewhat plausible.
Girl with mental powers, fine; quippy 10 year old, implausible. Got it.
Two different things. Just because a story has fantastical elements doesn’t mean it doesn’t need logical consistency or real character development.
But Erica gets character development.
I’m only halfway through the series, so hopefully her character does develop in the second half. My main point was that Erica’s dialogue when agreeing to go into the vents didn’t work at all, because it is in no way like a kid that age would ever talk. It was played for laughs, but to such an “on the nose” extent that it didn’t really work and only succeeded in reducing any tension for the scene where she does go into the vents. Unfortunately, her all sass all the time dialogue continued throughout the episode. I hope the writers do cool it with that going forward so she starts sounding like an actual human being. It wasn’t all terrible. I though the America/Erica line was hilarious in a good way. It was Erica’s precocious lines regarding capitalism and the constant put downs that had my eyes rolling out of my head and begging for the scene to end.
Since you haven’t watched it all, all I’ll say is I felt they rounded her out by the end and touched on maybe why she’s so boorish.
But again this is a case of Your Mileage May Vary. Her character never really took me out of anything even at the beginning of the season because the Red Dawn plot as a whole is just ridiculous in itself. In for a penny, in for a pound.
I’m not sure what you mean. One has to do with plot and world-building (super powers exist) and the other has to do with characterization. Are you saying that there’s some sci-fi reason Erica is acting like an irritating tv stereotype?
Sci-fi reason? Huh?
It’s because Stranger Thing’s DNA as a whole is being a loving pastiche of everything 80’s, right down to Lucas shilling for New Coke. The plot and world-building you mention in this season is explicitly informed by films and television series from that era, from Red Dawn to Terminator to The Thing to The Blob to Magnum P.I.. The leaning/lampshading of tropes extends to the characters also: Billy draws from 80’s bad boys (there’s a bit of Keifer Sutherland in The Lost Boys there), and in that very same way as all of these examples, Erica is played in part like a bratty sister from an 80’s film or series – but for my money grows past this by the end of the season.
You’re again confusing characterization with plot and world-building. El having superpowers is about world-building; how she reacts to those powers is characterization. The world and plot is lifted from 80s sci-fi tropes, while the characters act like real people. The pleasure is seeing interesting characters live in this trope-y world. It’s what saves the story from being a pointless retread of things we’ve already seen. I don’t need another bratty kid stereotype because the 80s already gave me tons of them. And I’m really not seeing how Erica grew past being a stereotype. She was obnoxious until her final scene, when she thankfully didn’t speak.
I’m not confusing anything – the point was that both the plot/world-building and character archetypes clearly draw from exactly the same place, establishing a pattern and theme.
The characters may be drawn more realistically than is accustomed for the genre, but they’re still based on classic 80’s motifs: generally, the boys group draw from Stephen King’s It and Stand By Me to Spielberg’s ET; Eleven draws from Carrie and The Fury; Hopper from every washed up hard drinking small town policeman ever. All of those characters – including Erica – are informed by the same general 80’s archetypes.
What most have the benefit from is that they’ve had time to grow past those first blush comparisons to become their own fully formed characters, and Erica was shown to have began to have her own growth by the end of season when it was revealed she was a “nerd” also (subtext being that the reason why she gave the boys so much shit was elements of self-loathing, and can lead to an ever bigger potential deep dive of discussion for anyone willing regarding how 80’s nerd culture wasn’t so inclusive in terms of race or sex).
If you don’t like her as an overall character, if you found her annoying, cool. But to paint it as if she’s an outlier when literally almost every other character draws from the same well just feels like an argument of convenience.
“Group of boys have adventures” and “girl with superpowers flees facility” is plot. Who the boys and the girl are is characterizations. It’s in who the characters are that the story actually shows originality. There is nothing original or interesting or real about Erica. And Erica being revealed as a “nerd” went exactly nowhere. It didn’t effect her behavior or her dynamic with the characters. Dustin could have revealed that she was a brilliant violinist for all of the relevance it had to her or to the story in general. It was a cool speech that was ultimately meaningless.
Again, there’s no distinction because both characters and stories can be defined as archetypes.
To say there’s nothing original about Erica is a non-point because as we’ve established, this film has cribbed both character and story tropes from across the board. None of them are original, on paper.
It’s how the characters are developed from that point which gives them an identity beyond that point- which I believe is a thing you’re saying. And to this, Erica’s reveal informed and explained a lot of her behaviour retroactively, which is some nice character shading. If she hadn’t have grown or weren’t poised to in the future, they wouldn’t have made her smiles at receiving a D&D manual.Overall I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree here.
No, but all characters do need to be bearable. There’s unlikable in the good way, and unlikable in the bad way. And we’ve seen the damage that can cause. Not being able to stand a character is a detriment to any TV show.
The problem is that I think some people conflate the two.
She’s the kind of character Stranger Things had avoided up until now and that was one of the things I liked about the show. I cannot stand this kind of kid character. They don’t exist in real life and are so utterly unrealistic and cutesy it ruins the scenes they are in.
I have no problem with Erica, I think they’re using her the right amount. Any more and it would be too much, but she’s fine IMO.
there was way too much Erica in this episode. I am not looking forward to the next episode, where (one presumes) she is trapped in the moving room with the older kids.
I guess I just don’t mind the “wise-crackin’ younger sibling” trope that was so popular in the 80s (Teen Witch, Adventures in Babysitting, etc.). Gimme some precocious younger siblings, I say!
In a way though she gets her comeuppance. She risks her life all in the name of free ice cream samples. And then the mall gets destroyed and Steve and Robin don’t work at the ice cream shop anymore. Therefore she risks her life for nothing
she’s that little psycho girl in those vines, ms.keisha.
One nice piece of Erika’s development would have been to see her get frightened at any point.
I had also completely forgotten about her from Season 2, to the degree that my wife and I argued about whether she was Lucas’s sister or not. (I think I might have just been hoping that the two black characters with speaking roles weren’t related to each other.) That said, once her annoying “free ice cream” schtick ran its course, she’s become a pretty fun addition to the group.
The clear MVP of this season is that perfectly ridiculous sailor outfit that Steve is permanently trapped in. I can’t decide what’s funnier, the stupidly short shorts or the little hat.
I’ve got my Halloween costume for this year,fer shure.
At the same time, it’s also a crime because Steve Harrington in his season 2 denim outfit was pure fire.
If this season ends with Steve transforming into a Magical Girl it would be the best show ever.
“In the name of ice cream, I shall punish you!”
And yet, somehow Robin totally pulls it off.
She has the genes of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. She’s not like us mere mortals.
I think a lot of people would be happy to pull that outfit off of Steve or Robin
I was noticing that. It struck me how much his character has changed since the start of season 1… back then he was a stock “Annoying kinda rich kid that bullies all around him” and now he is “Guy in a sailor suit hanging out with young kids and not showing even a iota of being self conscious about it”.
He’s still stuck in that high school mentality though of what’s ‘cool’ and what isn’t that Dustin and Robin keep dogging him about.
True but he has changed quite a bit.The character that seems to have changed a lot for the worse in this season is Hopper. The first two seasons he was pretty on point but in season three the guy is an emotional and blithering idiot. Is this punishment for appearing in a bad Hellboy movie?
“I’m a different species than you? Then I should be with my species more.” One of the better lines of the season.At this rate Hopper is going to be Hopper PI before long, so the shirt fits.
There is a whole lot of Jurrasic Park visual callbacks this season
David Harbour has that “back handed flashlight hold, pistol resting on his wrist” down pat. Possibly sexy.
When Hopper first came out just wrapped in a towel, gut hanging over it, then drinking milk from the carton with it getting into his moustache, I was all, “That’s of new sex symbol?” Then he goes and does this and now I’m, “THAT’S our new sex symbol!”David Harbour is a delight.
I raised an eyebrow at that only because I don’t remember gun-handling being all that accurate in the 80s, compared to how better-informed movies would be about that later on. Of course, in the world of Stranger Things, Hopper isn’t in a movie, he’s an actual cop, so his technique should probably check out.
(pedantic interlude) “Harries” method
Not pedantic at all, I learn something new everyday on AV Club…………well not everyday, maybe once a month
I’m getting “Henrietta from Evil Dead 2″vibes from the old lady (both in the fertilizer feast scene and the hospital freakout.)
Also, maybe it’s just me (since there’s no real connection) but I thought of those screaming googly-eyed screaming scenes in Total Recall.By the way, the baddie-on-a-bike is supposed to be Russian but I’m getting Arnie-as-terminator vibes …
I could be wrong, but I do think that is the homage there. I haven’t seen Terminator in a million years and I got the same vibe.
Totally intentional. I agree. It’s his haircut, his unflappable demeanor, and of course the bike.
…..Here’s Jake Busey exploding in Justified, just to help get you through the weekend.
Needs to start with him laughing that stupid laugh, and have that laugh wiped off his mug, with a ton more gore, for me to be satisfied.
Nancy and Jonathan’s fight scene in the car was really well done on every level. Really tonally consistent character justification for everything they both said. Jonathan is, of course, correct that a family of Nancy’s economic status is privileged to not have to think about how much capitalism sucks until it sucks for them. Nancy is, of course, correct that this doesn’t change the fact that her reaction to the shitty experience of being degraded and demeaned every day by assholes is valid. It’s easy to come away from a harshly honest argument like that feeling like you understand your partner less, but I hope we see them come to find it’s quite the opposite as we move into the 2nd half of the season.
… and yet it sounded a bit like each one was trying to out-whine the other:“You’re a boy, you don’t understand how hard I have it being a girl”“But you’re rich. You don’t understand how hard I have it being poor”I felt like they needed someone like bratty but knowledgeable Erica to drop some facts on them and tell them both to shut the fuck up
I agree, we’ve heard very similar variations on those tired arguments in couple fights in an abundance of media. Obviously gender and economic disparities are issues that characters have to deal with on shows, but you think the writers could have made it seem a bit more original and not “generic disagreement escalates, young couple finds out they may not have overcome their differences with hasty love”
Well, they are 17 years old, so…
The one thing that scene didn’t need was Erica.
Jonathan gave her his heart, and Nancy gave him a pen.
Agreed 100 percent. Second only to Nancy’s heart to heart with her mom for my favorite scene. Both of them make valid points, but both of them are being myopic. Nancy can’t see past her class privilege, and Jonathan can’t see past his gender privilege.Jonathan does have much more experience taking shit from people in order to help his mom pay the mortgage. The kind of thing Nancy has never worried about because Ted, despite being a boring sack of dough, is a stable provider who made sure with Karen that their kids never had to worry about adult concerns.
But Nancy genuinely does take much more shit from the boys club at the Hawkins Post than Jonathan does. They delighted in humiliating her in a way their that Jonathan neither experienced nor fully comprehended.
Oh my god I now hope that Nancy finishes the story, sells it to the Indianapolis paper, and tells the jackasses at the Hawkins Post to eat shit
*SPOILER*
Turns out she didn’t need to tell them to eat shit, the Mind Flayer made ‘em do it anyway.
It would be a nice touch if next season Nancy has been promoted from intern to editor in chief of the newspaper due to sudden vacancies
Im not sure he was even aware of it.
They delighted in humiliating her in a way their that Jonathan neither experienced nor fully comprehended.
But wasn’t Jonathan bullied in high school?
The fight in the car was, to my surprise, my favorite scene in the episode, and I found it, as a breakup scene(?), incredibly honest and realistic. I totally forgot about Jonathan’s financial status (and this is 80s economy on top of that) but I also felt he should have some understanding of what’s it’s like to be mocked and humiliated.
Jonathan was right that he suffered from more class-based oppression but as I say in the recap for the previous episode the overwhelming majority of what was going on at the newspaper was just out and out misogyny cruelly aimed at Nancy. I guess you shouldn’t play “oppression olympics” or whatever with your partner but it’s ridiculous that Jonathan tried to act as if their experiences were equivalent. The character’s a drip anyway
No issue with drips but he wasn’t empathetic and he still took the creepy photos!
Better cut of his dick then!
Nobody said that.
I have no idea why that was just forgotten by everyone, he’s a Grade-A creeper.
Well hes trying to help his mother who is a single mom with no help from her dipshit ex.
I get it. But I think it really wasn’t fair to negate Nancy’s issues. I see both sides but he wasn’t understanding since Day 1 and nobody made him go with her and it read more of an excuse for his anger to me. “Well..I have this to be mad at about!” He also could have brought up those concerns BEFORE the risky behavior.
How he’s helping her exactly? By taking an unpaid what appears to be dead end internship?
Joyce is hilarious and I’d say it is 50/50 the script and Winona Ryder killing it.
Lucas and that wrist rocket!
I honestly think Joyce is the best part Winona Ryder has ever had. She gets to be funnier but also tougher than she usually does, plus she is good as a mom, something she never I believe got to do before when she was perpetually stuck in ingenue roles that she should have long ago aged out of. Plus her now signature thing of freaking out but holding it together, just barely.
Yeah she has great moments of humor where she is joking or being sarcastic or taking the piss when it comes to Hopper being… Hopper. But also her yelling at people is very funny too. Her dedication and perseverance also round out a very well constructed character.
“Heathers” and “Beetlejuice” were superb roles, but not really as fully formed. Then again, three seasons of a TV show can develop a character and show off an actresses talent a lot more than a two hour movie. Especially when you’re going up against Keaton haha. If Beetlejuice somehow invaded the Upside Down I would love it.
My wife who was watching with me (but never watched before) kept calling out for Beetlejuice!Beetlejuice!
Michael Keaton for seaaon 4!
They already have an 80’s icon in Cary Elwes, might as well double up that quotient! Especially since *spoilers* it looks like he’s gonna be in jail. Michael Keaton for season 4-7! Or for every TV show, I defy you to name one show that couldn’t be improved with a bit of Keaton.
Joyce, in season one, was too unstable. She got things done, but looked ready to break apart. She’s grown really well
She’s been through shit and been right pretty much every step of the way. Whole she still has some self-confidence issues, she’s also become much more assured and trusting of her instincts.Plus she’s learned that yelling at idiots and people who doubt her Gets the results she needs.
Yes! She’s grown so much. She was understandably unhinged season 1, a little little boy missing, her older son still in his surly phase, struggling to pay the bills. Then she gets her child back, Jonathan chooses “nice person” instead of “possible stalker” once he reaches that fork in the road, and Bob is so good to her. She has gotten the benefit of time and trusts her own strength so much more and it’s so wonderful. Kinda how I hope Wynona is in real life these days ha!
Little Women is the best forever! But this is up there 🙂
Looking at her filmography, I agree this is her best role, but it took some doing. Winnoa Ryder in Season 1 was…I dunno. I remember her feeling like the butt of a lot of jokes. She came into her own more in Season 2, and now, by season 3, she’s genuinely great.
I loved the scene of Winona in the cupboard talking to Will through the Christmas lights in season 1, though admittedly that walked the edge of being ridiculous.
Stranger Things 4 needs to reference Heathers, is it too soon for Heathers? My 100% favorite Winona ever.
“Open Rifts: Don’t Do It!”
I love Justin’s and Steve’s banter, their friendship seems so natural. Their conversation about how many times Steve has gotten beat up was hilarious.
“Be honest with me, have you ever won a fight?”
I couldn’t get over the fact that the Sauna goes up to 220 degrees? Like 220F? That is over boiling? That would kill every human? And yet Billy doesn’t seem super bothered by it? When Will was flayed and his mom gave him a warm bath he flipped out. Huh..
You might find this interesting. I was shocked by how hot sauna’s can be. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-10912578
Oh my god why?!! That is insane. What a dumb way to die. Still stand by my point that Billy should have been screaming in pain.
Billy’s body is much stronger than a think 11 year old is my guess
Sorta like the Salem Witch trials…
Ok this is random as heck but I go to Korean saunas a lot, and the rooms go from 95 up to a 250-degree room for maximum sweat (most people only last three-to-five minutes, but there are some regulars who can make it over ten!) Plus, the temperatures in a steam room have more to do with the temperature of the steam pumping out at any given time, rather than being conceived like a true oven. Multiple bodies and doors consistently opening and closing keep them from being even close to that hot. It’s actually feasible that non-possessed Billy would be physically safe for the length of the scene, if a little pissed off. Anyway, forget Erika, I am now clearly the true nerd here.
Sauna’s really go up to that temperature.“However, Mr Miettinen says he cannot understand how a temperature of “only 110C” could lead to someone’s death, when people have safely enjoyed heat at 160C.” https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-10912578
I mean, you gotta boil water to make steam.But I’m with you on what should’ve happened with Billy. Was his skin falling off of his elbow in that earlier shower scene?
220F sucks, but macho dillweeds like their saunas that hot. It’s doable for a while, but you want to take a cool shower every ten, fifteen minutes.
I thought the same. That if he was so heat sensitive, he should have been clearly losing it/breaking down after just a few seconds in the sauna. Instead he just seemed like a normal human extremely pissed off about being locked in a steamy room by a bunch of punk kids.
I loved both Eleven and Max in this episode. Sadie Sink is excellent at showing Max’s vulnerability, which is what I liked about the character last season. (I remember Billy’s actor once saying that Billy is driven by a desire to protect Max, which a lot of people online scoffed at, but I can see how that may be true from Billy’s perspective. He wants to have a human connection with his sister, but his own baggage gets in the way). I also love how El’s foray into this season’s plot was driven by her desire to save a girl she didn’t even know (Heather), and now by a need to protect her friends. On the flip side, it was a clever idea to have Dustin and Steve’s plot be driven instead by a wish to become national heroes. I admit that I’ve never really been aboard the Steve Harrington train the way a lot of other fans are, but he, Dustin, and Robin are a lot of fun to watch. I’m less enthused with Erica, although kudos to yet another talented child actor.I’m surprised that this review doesn’t mention the fight between Nancy and Jonathan. It was such a powerful moment, and one that doesn’t provide any right or wrong side: she’s subject to horrifying sexism in a way that he can’t understand, and he’ll never experience the material or psychological security that a wealthy upbringing has afforded her. The fact that they try so hard to understand each other – most of the time- even when they can’t is something that makes their relationship very rewarding to watch.Despite having not been a teenage boy in 1980s Indiana, I always found Jonathan very relatable for the way that he acts as a sounding board and safe harbor for others, so often that it evidently ends up getting taken for granted. His outburst in the car didn’t feel so much about saying that Nancy was wrong about the investigation as it was just wanting someone to recognize that he has his own problems too.Joyce was funnier than usual in this episode, although I admit that I did not enjoy watching Hopper beat Kline senseless. I’m sure Joyce and Hop’s plot will grow more dire over the course of the season, but it seems so inconsequential right now that the violence felt really uncalled for. On a side note, Cary Elwes is great in this!
I wonder if you did’t like watching Hopper beat up Kline because it was Cary Elwes. (I’m wondering that for myself, because I had the same reaction: Don’t beat up Cary!) In any case, threatening to cut his finger did feel a bit much, and…he’s been presumptious with Joyce, the way he threatened Mike, and the way he’s treated Eleven…I don’t know what it is, but I’m finding Hopper incredibly unpleasant this season.
Cary Elwes is a huge douche to fans, so he can afford to lose a fictional finger as far as I’m concerned.
He was only mostly beat up.
It’s fine. I get it. Nostalgia and the kids are cool. I mean, lets pretend the 80s was awesome (they weren’t), and half the episodes aren’t coke and Doritos commercials. Or they could have opted for a deeper soundtrack than the obvious. But what about the real elephant in the room? You can completely skip season two and (even all but the first and last episodes of season 1) start this run and miss absolutely nothing.
Except you’d miss hours of entertaining TV and character development? None of it would keep you from understanding what’s going on, but it all makes the watching experience richer, no?
Well goddamn, that was crazy good.This show really knows how to kick it up a notch. Billy was downright terrifying in the scene with the sauna. Nothing helps heal relationships like a self sacrificing, life saving, heroic moment like Mike had. Now if he could only lose the petulant teen act and he’ll be worthy of more.I love that Will is taking a lead role in getting the team in position to take on the Mind Flayer. It’s not only a well earned win for him, but makes perfect narrative sense.That final scene was effective and chilling as the Hawkins’ dark army is taking shape.
Yeah I thought it was a great episode too. My favorite of the four I’ve seen thus far. I love it when Stranger Things moves the plot fast like this but reviewers often criticize episodes like this for being “exposition dumps” or whatever
I love that Will is taking a lead role in getting the team in position to take on the Mind Flayer. It’s not only a well earned win for him, but makes perfect narrative sense.Yeah, you could see something click in him as soon as he told Mike and Lucas, “He’s back” last episode. Similarly, you saw both boys step up in the clutch for their respective partners.
I frantically was looking for Barb. Guess it really isn’t happening (if I’m wrong, please dont prove me so!)
They need an RC truck to put that, uh, mystery green stuff in…
The green goo was straight out of the Manhattan Project! They just need to replace it with some Alberto V05 so the Russians don’t know it’s missing. I don’t know why the brand of the shampoo remained with me all these years, but I’ll never forget it. I barely remember anything else about the movie.
Earlier today I saw someone on Twitter complaining about the scene in which Hopper beats the information out of Larry and I have to say, that critique didn’t track for me at all after watching it. Shout-out to Cary Elwes for some top-notch smarm, though, even as Larry’s under duress.
I have found Hopper completely off-putting this season. It wasn’t even the beat down scene, it was the this thing that has carried over from last season where he completely forgets he has a child in is care. Which does not in any way make him unique in Hawkins and is in fact the social norm, HOWEVER, I find it especially egregious in his case where he is 100% aware of the danger and his particular child is Ground Zero for all of it. The second it looks like the lab is back in play for any reason, you would think he’d at least want to check in with his kid. Or even that she’d come up in conversation. But no. The one heart-to-heart he has is about Joyce and making sure Joyce feels comfortable enough to let him bang her. Joyce isn’t always totally present as a mom depending on what the plot calls for, but at least we get a few flashbacks or performance beats to let us know that her kids are always on her mind in addition to her own baggage. She’s actually a very well-rounded character all of a sudden, it’s kind of awesome.But Hopper is a dick. No disrespect to David Harbor, who is ballsy in how ugly he is willing to get in this role. He’s kind of daring us to like him, I think. And I mostly don’t.
Yyeah, there was a huge feeling of yeah, it’s great but not Great” throughout. I think ultimately because this was the plot finally revbing into gear, some info dumping. Hopper out of Drunken Boor mode and into Kickass Police Chief. The Scooby Trap was effective, but too bad the gang didnt take the time to figure out what to do after the results. Did we all feel the developmental stages for #metoo with Nancy and Mom? A Shout out to IT for the effective slingshot hit.
“It’s impossible to tell whether Larry Kline is a member of the Mind
Flayer’s secret army or if he’s just corrupted by capitalism.” I think it’s pretty clear he’s just corrupt. In fact, his character is pretty much beat-for-beat Mathew Modine’s Sullivan Groff character from Weeds.
So many nice touches in this episode that others have mentioned, but one that struck me immediately: Will refers to her as “Eleven,” not “El” like the others. He respects and understands her power in a way that the others just don’t because they’re touched by the same phenomenon. Will knows she’s a friend, knows she closed the gate, but still needs to hold her at arm’s length.Also, once again, Millie Bobbie Brown is killing it every single episode.
“I hope Karen learns a lesson from Nancy; we’ve been waiting too long to see bad-ass single mom Karen Wheeler.”Is she a single mom? They show her husband sleeping in the chair when she was about to meet Billy.
I think she’s unhappy enough in her marriage that the idea that she divorces her husband so she can live a life that’s not defined as “Mrs. Wheeler, Wife and Mom” is plausible.
Ahhh… you read that as aspirational and I read it as descriptive. Gotcha.
I don’t think she would risk her financial security for the independence. She’s realistic about what leaving Mr. Lump Wheeler would mean to her and her kids.
Speaking of Karen, did I totally miss a scene where she recovers from Billy smashing her into the pool shelving? I don’t need *everything* spoonfed to me, but it seemed like the show glossed over her reaction to his violent outburst.
I believe that only happened in his mind. They cut to the both of them standing in the equipment room right afterwards.
You’re totally right. Thank you!
I hope Karen learns a lesson from Nancy; we’ve been waiting too long to see bad-ass single mom Karen Wheeler.Am I forgetting something? I thought her husband/Mike and Nancy’s father was the dude in glasses who was asleep when she got dressed up to go sleep with Billy?
Karen is not a single mom – she is still married to Mr. Wheeler. He’s such a non-entity thought that Emily considers her a single-mom.
we’ve been waiting too long to see bad-ass single mom Karen Wheeler. we have?
This episode was more like it, the Stranger Things I know and love, with the forced comedy and teen romance toned down to an acceptable level. The sauna scenes were superb, and the pod people reveal at the end was nice and creepy. All that was missing was Amazing Grace playing on bagpipes :DThe obnoxious brat needs to get stuck in a vent or have a maximum of 5 minutes screen-time a season though.
you know, they could have heated the sauna up before they put him in it.Hop is a dick, Mike is a dick, Jonathan is a dick, Erica is a dick…real fun watching.
Erica’s bits were my favorite so far. Hop’s continuing mistreatment of Joyce is really pissing me off.
Finally! Stranger Things works best when they play to their strengths- from Hopper getting results, to when the kids are (mostly) all together. The interplay between them is so rich at this point. I love that Mike (who a lot of people are really down on this year, but to me, he feels authentic for his age) tries to ease tensions with Eleven, but she’s just not having it. Throwing Hopper under the bus for why he lied, could have easily created conflict with El and her dad again, but instead, the writers go for something more interesting, and she considers he might be right, and Mike IS bad for her.
Lucas takes his shot trying to apologize to Will, who also isn’t having it. He got the message loud and clear, and it’s painful to see, perhaps the Hawkins kid with he biggest heart, becoming so hardened. Even Max’s relationship with Billy, which we understood to be somewhat abusive last season, is given more nuance, when early on, she is praying to herself that he isn’t the Host, and later, they tearfully share that scene in the sauna. The action at the end is awesome, but it means nothing without the character work to give it texture. When Mike holds a crying Eleven in his arms afterwards, it means something.
I just wish Dustin was with them too. Dustin and Steve are great, but I don’t want him isolated from his friends the entire season. Adding Erica to the mix, just increases the bickering, which is all it really feels like this Russian plotline has going on atm. (“You die, I die” was the one part I liked. Texture.) Erica was annoying by design, but this season is trying to frame her obnoxiousness as cool? Eh, good luck. Never been a fan, but she can be ok in small doses.
So….is the “secret room” in the mall really an elevator to Russia? Cause that would be super dumb. But it’s where my mind went to immediately. I guess I’ll find out in the next episode.
It’s probably where the “machine” that is causing the power outages is.
Sorry if this was mentioned below, haven’t read it all yet.No idea if there’s ANY connection, but when I saw Larry Kline, I immediately thought of a 70’s/80’s Three’s Company, Larry Dallas, played by Richard Kline.
sorry if I missed this among the 140 plus comments, but did anyone else think about the finale of Dr. Strangelove when ‘We’ll Meet Again’ played at the end of the episode?
Same. While that song had its own life before Strangelove, it’s now inextricably linked to that movie.
very much so..
Yikes! As intense as that final show-down was, I didn’t find it nearly
as intense and upsetting as Hopper beating up the mayor. I find it
EXTREMELY off-putting when characters we are supposed to root for as
good guys resort immediately to violence and torture to get their way.
Beating someone up and threatening to cut off their finger is not
“badass” or “tough;” it is psychotic! Not that it would make any
difference, but what even were the stakes? It’s not end-of-the-world
stuff (or at least they didn’t know it was at the time), Hopper just
wanted the name of the guy who beat him up, and he already had a vehicle
type and partial plate to work from. Why go to such extremes?
Especially on a guy we haven’t seen be any more evil or corrupt than
your standard politician? What the mayor did to Hopper (keeping secrets
and threatening to get him fired) was not NEARLY as straight-up evil as
what Hopper did to him, and yet we’re supposed to uncritically accept
Hopper as the hero?
I see this trend in American TV and movies all the time, and it really
freaks me out. It has been soundly proven that torture, as an
interrogation technique, DOES NOT WORK. It results in people fabricating
whatever the interrogator wants to hear in order to make it stop, and
prevents them from thinking clearly enough to give honest information.
Effective techniques play on rationality or emotions OTHER than stark
mindless terror. But studies show that when torture is portrayed as
working on TV or in movies, the general public is more likely to believe
it does, and will see it as a “necessary evil.” This is disingenuous
and dangerous. Whenever I see the quick and easy torture solution get
results in media, I wonder if the writers genuinely believe that’s how
it works, or if they are not creative enough to think of ANY alternative
solution.
This is so pervasive I wonder if American audiences even notice it’s
happening. You watch British and other foreign crime dramas, and see
detectives use their exceptional intelligence to gather conclusive
evidence by coloring extremely carefully inside the lines of their rules
and regulations to avoid any whiff of impropriety, and lean on suspects
with the certainty of their conviction in order to get them to crack
(and man is that ever satisfying). Then you turn on American cop shows
and see one “good guy” look the other way while the other “good guy”
slams a suspect’s head into a wall a few times until the “bad guy”
agrees to talk. I know neither of these is a genuine representation of a
cop’s real-life job, but it speaks to what foreign audiences and
American audiences WANT to see their “good guys” doing in fiction. What
they think cops SHOULD be doing to solve cases. And it also informs what
kind of people will be drawn to a job when it is portrayed in certain
ways. Careful, analytical, ethical types, or violent bullies who will
gladly break a few bones when convenient?
I’ve had issues with this show before, generally about their gender and
racial dynamics, but that scene genuinely disturbed me more than
anything else it’s done. Not just because it was vile, immoral, and
unnecessary, but because it was portrayed so lightly and easily, like we
were supposed to be cheering Hopper on or finding it fun. I beg you,
writers, strain at least ONE brain cell thinking of ways for good guys
to get information from other guys that does not involve maiming! How
about look to the real world for ideas, rather than the same tired
stereotypes designed to normalize a despicable practice?
tl;drHopper knows that the motorcycle guy is bad news for the town (and potentially Eleven) since he at the lab. Plus he beat up Hopper so he knows he’s dangerous. And he remembers that he saw him at the Mayor’s office coming out of the Mayor’s office, so they have business dealings. He knows if he just asks the Mayor about it, he’ll lie and deny it, as we saw here. Hopper knows he needs to find out who this guy is and what he’s involved in ASAP.
“Corrupted by capitalism” – like one of the main villains of this season aren’t the Russians
Just want to say that I appreciate these recaps being broken up into episodes, not everyone gets to binge when they like. Currently at 6.Does anybody AVC watch DARK?
I don’t watch Dark but saw a trailer for it. should i watch it??
Only if you like to pay attention. It’s creepy and weird, in German (subs or dubs), and i said the first thing because it’s true. My wife and I were big fans of season 1 but it’s convoluted , so by the time season 2 came out we had to rewatch eps 8-10 to remember what was going on. if you go straight through you’ll have the best time with it.
excellent. thank you. i will definitely check it out.
I’m wondering at what point in finding out that Russians with big automatic weapons are smuggling something through the local mall do Dustin, Steve and Robin think they might want to call the authorities. They do kind of have a connection with the chief of police after all.
I really enjoyed the accurate size of the air ducts here. In most movies/TV shows the air ducts are comically oversized, large enough for an adult to easily crawl around in (i.e. Die Hard). In reality they would be this small, requiring someone as small as (Am)Erica to be the one to navigate them.I was sure that after Steve first gave Dustin a push to get him into the vent, we were going to come back later to see Dustin stuck, half hanging out of the vent.