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Stranger Things (1x08): “The Upside Down” Review

To my understanding, this episode gets ranked highly by fans and critics as one of the best in the series, and I can see why: It’s a well-paced, well-directed, and thrilling conclusion to this season, all while leaving open the possibility for a sequel. There’s a sense of everything coming full-circle, with some scenes even calling back to the Pilot: The first shot being an exterior of Hawkins Lab. Hopper at the police station with the wisecracks about sleeping with someone’s wife while Flo takes away his cigarette for his health. The boys playing a D&D campaign in Mike’s basement where they stumble across a terrifying monster in their game.

There are of course the changes the characters have gone through since the first episode, and the sense that just because they’re trying to return to normal doesn’t mean everything is that way: Mike still misses El. Hopper is still haunted by betraying El’s location to Brenner and leaves food out for her in the forest in the hopes she might be out there somewhere. Nancy still has feelings for Jonathan despite going back to Steve. Will is throwing up slugs in the bathroom while hallucinating the Upside Down. Hell, even the Gate remains open at the end of this episode, and the rot is beginning to spread from it. El may have defeated the Demogorgon, but there are more dangerous monsters in that dimension, as we will find out in later seasons.

While I love this episode (and would rank it in the Top 5-10 Favorites), I’ve always objected to the idea that the show should have ended here. This is a show that's always been ripe with potential, not just for future story prospects, but also with its cast. The Duffer Brothers were smart enough to realize that. In fact, some of my favorite moments on this show come from the later seasons, and the mythology behind Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down is intriguing enough that I want to know more about it. I also was interested in seeing more adventures with these characters in this specific time period (i.e. the 80s) that I’d grown to love. Had the show been an anthology series, or even done the time jump a decade later as they originally planned, not only would have it lowered my interest in wanting to rewatch this season, it would have been hard to remain attached to these characters, ESPECIALLY since it would have involved bringing in a brand-new cast.

Best way I can describe this is how I felt about the two-part movies based on Stephen King’s It: I liked and cared about the kids from the first movie. I had a harder time getting invested in their adult counterparts for the second movie. That’s not even getting into how the second movie felt like a rehash of the plot from the first movie. I get that the book did a better job in combining the kids story with their adult counterparts, and that the movies made changes that Stephen King fans weren’t happy with, but still.

By contrast, I never felt that way about the later seasons of Stranger Things. If anything, the mythology of the Upside Down not only remains an enigma to me (something I’ve endlessly speculated about for years), but is also a lot like an onion where you keep peeling it back and finding new layers underneath. It’s rich in lore, and so are the characters. It’s why I like and defend the tie-ins (books, comics, graphic novels, etc) in spite of how questionable they are in the overall continuity: I find myself wanting to know more about these characters and this world.

So I’m glad the show continued past season 1 with the same characters and story. If it had stopped here, I would have been deeply disappointed, and complained about all the lost potential and unresolved threads. It also helps that the show isn’t like Criminal Minds or General Hospital or Supernatural or any daytime/nighttime crime show or soap opera that have dragged themselves out to the point of rotating characters who are no longer recognizable and the writers just spit-balling storylines with no rhyme or reason. At least with Stranger Things, there's always been the sense that the writers are trying out new ideas and concepts each season, as well as how the characters have grown and the audience has been along for the journey to see that development. They planned for 4-5 seasons, and clearly have an endgame in mind, and I want to know how it all ends for better or worse.

Part 1: Brenner’s Downfall

Technically, this isn’t the end for Brenner since we know he survives and comes back for season 4. However, it is the beginning of the end for him in regards to the power he once wielded. Not just over El, but arguably with his position in the Government. When he returns several seasons later, it’s in a diminished role, and the fact Lt. Colonel Sullivan didn’t have any problem targeting him for death indicates that either Brenner outlived his usefulness to the Government, or he was a liability to National Security at that point. Likely both.

What’s frustrating is we don’t get a lot of information about what happened to Brenner between seasons 2-3. Dr. Owens tells Joyce and Hopper in the next season that Brenner and the people who worked under him are gone, but what is that supposed to mean? Did Brenner get transferred to a different department in the Government? Did he get punished by those he answered to for his role in causing the Gate to open and creating the crisis in Hawkins? Were employees under Brenner fired for their role in this as well? There’s also the question of former employees like Ray Carroll from season 2, and what he tells El and Kali about Brenner being alive, with the implication Carroll was still in contact with Brenner at the time. Either way, after the Demogorgon attack, it doesn’t seem like Brenner has the authority he once commanded. Brenner's collaboration with Dr. Owens in secret over the Nina Project in season 4 (to the point of hiding it in the middle of the Nevada desert) makes me question if he even had an active role in the Government at that point, or if he had been a fugitive for a while (courtesy of Lt. Colonel Sullivan, or even before Sullivan came into the picture) and was just taking advantage of Dr. Owen’s grace to continue to exert whatever little influence he had left.

Regardless, I did enjoy seeing Brenner get put in his place by Joyce and Hopper. Joyce has spent this entire season being gaslighted by Hawkins Lab, by her abusive ex-husband, and arguably by the Demogorgon, and she was done with all of that. She knew Brenner didn’t actually give a damn about the six people (Will, Barbara, Dale, Henry, Shepard, and the Elevator Scientist from the first episode) who were taken by the monster, or even the hypothetical sons and daughters he claimed the monster would kill. This has always been about Brenner's fixation on El and his fascination with the Upside Down, and if he has to sacrifice other people to satisfy his scientific curiosity, so be it. Joyce saw right through Brenner, and she was having none of his bullshit:

Similarly, Hopper isn’t remotely impressed by the interrogation techniques Brenner’s underlings use on him, and cuts through the crap to get a private meeting with Brenner for what is arguably his most morally questionable choice in the entire show: Giving up El’s location in exchange for a chance to save Will from the Upside Down. A choice that’s going to haunt Hopper for the next month, but one he feels like he has to make for Joyce’s sake. He is going full Lando Calrissian from Star Wars, and he knows it. Hopper also knows Brenner doesn’t operate on empathy or compassion, and the only reason he believes Brenner will spare Dustin, Lucas, and Mike is out of pragmatism: Brenner can’t afford to kill 3 kids and cover up their deaths in a way that won't raise alarm bells within the Hawkins community.

In any case, Brenner accepts the deal because it allows him to recapture El, and he thinks Hopper and Joyce will die in the attempt to rescue Will. Even if they don’t, he has the means of keeping them quiet if he needs to.

One of the characters that Matthew Modine took inspiration from for Brenner’s hair design (and arguably aspects of Brenner’s personality) is Colonel Martin Hessler from the 1965 movie Battle of the Bulge:

Based on the titular event from World War II, Battle of the Bulge is an epic war film that takes creative liberties and features fictional characters in the place of real-life military commanders, soldiers, and civilians. It’s still a WWII movie based on a real event (and a well-directed one at that) dealing with the fight between the Allied Forces and the Nazis, but not one that’s adhering to historical accuracy. In a fun bit of trivia, aspects of this film helped inspire The Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back.

Anyway, the character of Brenner owes a lot to Colonel Martin Hessler (played by Robert Shaw), not just in terms of hairstyle, but also in terms of his cold, detached, pragmatic demeanor. Like Brenner, Hessler is a man that commands authority, and expects those under him to follow his orders to the letter. Everything he does is from a calculated angle, and that includes sacrificing as many of his men as necessary to achieve his goals. He is also a control freak the same way Brenner is. In one notable scene from the movie, Hessler's military caravan is blown up by a land mine, which he expected his troops to have cleared out for him by this point. Furious at the loss of a tank and unnecessary time, he tells one of the officers under his command that they will go in front of his tanks to clear the remaining mines, despite knowing they will likely be killed in the process. There’s a certain ruthlessness to how Hessler approaches war the same way Brenner approaches science: Human casualties are acceptable as long as it produces desired results.

There’s a notable speech towards the end of the movie that Hessler gives to one of his underlings, Conrad, that paints his motivations in a twisted and nihilistic light: He knows that Germany has no chance of winning the war (this movie takes place in December 1944 when Germany was losing), but he still has the opportunity to prolong the war inevitably. When Conrad is shocked at why he’d want this, Hessler states it’s so he and the German Army can continue to have importance in the world, even at the expense of others getting dragged into future battles.

In a way, it makes me think about what Brenner’s future would've looked like had he survived, or if he recaptured El, or even if the Massacre at Hawkins Lab never happened. The Soviet Union was already on its last legs by the 80s and finally collapsed in 1991. What would have this entailed for Brenner? In an alternate scenario where El was still under his control but the Soviet Union was no longer a threat, I’d be hard-pressed to believe he’d ever consider ending the program. This was his life’s work, and I’m willing to bet that if he wasn’t able to get Henry/One/Vecna back from the Upside Down (since he’d been using El to find Henry in the darkness), then he would have inevitably taken blood from El to restart the program and create more psychokinetic kids for the Government. The difference being that, instead of these kids targeting Soviets, they would target enemies and terrorists to the United States. Like Colonel Hessler, Brenner would not have gone quietly into that good night, but would have prolonged things for the sake of feeling important.

In many ways, it gives a certain context to Vecna’s reasons for not just sparing Brenner at the school when he could have used the Demogorgon to kill him, but also why he may have possibly spared Brenner back in 1979: It wasn’t just enough to kill Brenner. Vecna wanted Brenner to suffer, and what better way to achieve that than force Brenner to watch as Vecna destroys his entire legacy and renders everything he ever worked for worthless. First, he murders the other special kids (except for El and Kali) who were the culmination of Brenner’s life’s work. Now that the Gate is opened and Vecna’s tapped into the power of the Upside Down, he plans to use it to burn the world while Brenner is forced to witnesses this. It reminds me of Bane’s motivation in The Dark Knight Rises for keeping Bruce/Batman alive in the pit while he systematically tears Gotham to shreds: Only after Bane’s turned everything Batman cares about to ashes will he allow Batman to die. Same goes for what Vecna planned to do with Brenner. Pettiness and deep-seated grudges are one hell of a drug.

Even without the foreknowledge of later episodes though, season 1 wasn’t subtle when it implied Brenner survived the Demogorgon. One golden rule of television is unless you see a dead body, that character always has the possibility of coming back. Plus, despite showing several covered corpses in the aftermath of the Middle School attack, we never see Brenner’s corpse:

On top of that, the Duffer Brothers weren’t exactly subtle in Worlds Turned Upside Down about Brenner’s fate:

Part 2: The Upside Down and the Demogorgon

In a similar vein to the first Poltergeist movie, the Duffer Brothers initially didn’t plan to show the Upside Down (which was originally titled “The Nether”) in order to leave it to the viewers imagination what kind of horrors lurked within. Obviously, they changed their minds about this, and for the better: The Upside Down not only continues to be terrifying four seasons in, but it feels like the audience has barely scratched the surface of knowing what this world is capable of.

I've talked about how Dark Souls was one inspiration for the Upside Down. There are other inspirations as well, including the 2009 post-apocalyptic movie The Road, where the ash-covered skies and landscape helped inspire the aesthetic of the Upside Down, as well as the influence of Polish painter Zdzislaw Beksinski who was known for creating pictures resembling hellish dystopian surrealism.

There’s also a very Lovecraftian type of horror on display within the Upside Down, where it features a gate resembling a breathing membrane, and the mucus, slime, mold, tendrils, and vines wrapped about various aspects of the world. As we now know from later seasons, those vines and tendrils almost act like nerves in a body that connect it to the Mind Flayer/Vecna. In fact, the way the Upside Down is presented here comes off like a dying diseased body where everything is interconnected and some kind of infection has taken root.

For right now, let’s talk about the most well-known inspiration: The Silent Hill series.

When it comes to these particular video games, it seems like there’s always one of two stories Silent Hill games will focus on: Either a protagonist with a haunted past being lured to the town of Silent Hill where the environment and the monsters within take on manifestations of the protagonists inner demons, or it deals with a religious doomsday cult called The Order operating from Silent Hill, which has desire to bring the Apocalypse that will purge the world and bring the “faithful” into Paradise. Usually, this involves birthing some kind of Monstrous God via a ritual. Or in some cases (like Silent Hill Origins and Silent Hill Homecoming), they’ll combine the two story-threads into one. Either way, the town itself manifests in one of two ways: A town with a grey foggy overcast, also known as Fog World, where monsters lurk in every corner and the environment is constantly changing. And the Otherworld, which is a perverted version of the Fog World consisting of rusting metal and blood/gore that acts as “reality becoming a nightmare.” Like the Fog World, it’s constantly changing, it can be shaped by the psyche of a person (i.e. monsters manifesting themselves as subconscious fears, desires, etc), and the protagonists are constantly alternating between that world and the Fog World.

From the looks of how the Upside Down was created, the Duffer Brothers certainly took inspiration from the design of Silent Hill’s Fog World, as well as general ideas from the Otherworld of some kind of rot settling in which is causing everything to decay. Even Will alternating between this world and the Upside Down in season 2 (which the characters describe as “True Sight” in reference to the ability to see into the Ethereal Plane in D&D) holds similarities to how the protagonists in these games are constantly shifting on the different planes, and how (sometimes) they see things other characters may not (similar to Silent Hill 2 where James Sutherland’s perception of the monsters and the town differs from other characters like Laura, Eddie Dombrowski, and Angela Orosco, who are also trapped in Silent Hill).

I’ve known for a while that some fans have speculated on the idea of the Upside Down being El’s creation from her psyche, similar to what the first Silent Hill video game did with Alessa Gillespie and how her trauma and broken mental state manifested itself in the form of monsters that wreaked havoc.

However, as of season 4 and The First Shadow, that a debunked theory. The First Shadow especially put emphasis on the fact that the Upside Down existed even before Henry/One/Vecna was ever born (since the Philadelphia Experiment took place in 1943 when the USS Eldridge disappeared into the Upside Down, allegedly marking when humans first made contact with that dimension). Dustin was likely right in speculating this world had existed for thousands of years. Monsters like the Demogorgon, Demodogs, and Demobats (some of which were likely inspired by the designs of certain monsters from Silent Hill, such as Air Screamers, Mumblers, and Groaners from the first game) were already present to begin with, and weren’t the manifestations of someone’s twisted imagination. Even the Mind Flayer, as we find out from the play, was already dominant in that world. Vecna didn’t create the Mind Flayer, so much as gave it a body via the black particles to operate with. El may have opened a Gate, but she didn’t create the Upside Down or its inhabitants.

Now, I have suggested the idea in the past of the Upside Down being malleable to a person’s psyche to form itself. It could be similar to how Silent Hill manifests the twisted fears and desires of those drawn to the town, or even “The Plane of Shadows” from D&D, in explaining why the Upside Down went from a hellish, desolate landscape to a frozen, decaying replica of the exact night of Hawkins (and likely the rest of the world) on November 6th 1983.

One movie that gets cited in Worlds Turned Upside Down as inspiration is a Russian science fiction film by Andrei Tarkovsky called Stalker (1979), which deals with a mysterious area called “The Zone” that appears one day and is sealed off by the Soviet Government because of how dangerous it allegedly is. Within The Zone, there’s a special room which grants the innermost desires of the person who comes to it wishing for something. The eponymous Stalker is someone who’s traveled to The Zone many times and can navigate around its dangerous traps and ever-changing environment, and willingly brings people to the Room in exchange for payment. One day, he’s hired by two different men, a writer and a professor, who are interested in the room for creative inspiration and scientific purposes (or so they initially claim), and takes them through the Zone to the Room. The twist is that the Room acts as a mirror to the soul, and what the person may verbally wish for in the Room isn’t what will manifest because the Room knows what the soul truly wants. The movie itself puts more emphasis on philosophical musings and debates over the science fiction elements, and the Zone itself is a green fertile land with the occasional human-like ruins as opposed to the dark desolate alien-like world of the Upside Down. However, the idea of the Room turning desires into reality is a component that I wonder might make its way onto the show. Could the reason that the Upside Down is frozen like this have to do with the subconscious desire of an individual to have the world shaped that way? If so, did that desire come from Will, Vecna, El, all three of them, or someone else?

I’m at a loss to give a scientific explanation (other than deliberate terraforming and the manipulation of matter) but given how the Duffer Brothers have stated their intention since the Montauk Pitch was to “use the mathematics and theoretical physics to ground our horror in reality,” I’m sure they have a scientific explanation for why this phenomenon happened. I just wish I could figure it out like how I figured out El and the other psychokinetic kids were connected via their powers to the Upside Down before I ever saw The First Shadow.

In any case, before we move on to other inspirations, it should be noted Hopper and Joyce’s storyline in this episode parallels the first Silent Hill game: Both involve a parent looking for their missing child in a warped dimension with the aid of a police officer. In Stranger Things, it’s Joyce and Hopper searching for Will. In Silent Hill, it’s Harry Mason looking for his daughter Cheryl with the help of a cop named Cybil Bennet. The missing child in both cases (Will and Cheryl) are wanted in the dimension they’re in for some nefarious purpose. Cheryl becomes an essential piece The Order needs to birth their new God and start the Apocalypse. In Will case, from what we’ve seen so far, he gets impregnated with slugs via a tendril that he’ll later start throwing up, with those slugs becoming future demodogs. He will also become possessed by the Mind Flayer in season 2 to supposedly act as its spy. I have speculated that Vecna and the Mind Flayer’s interest in Will goes beyond these things, and there’s another layer to this that has yet to be revealed. Perhaps it has something to do with the Upside Down freezing in time? We still don’t know yet if the frozen replica of the Upside Down was intentional on Vecna and The Mind Flayer’s part, or if they didn’t plan for this to happen and want to know why it did.

Outside of the Silent Hill Video Games, there are several other references that helped make up the Upside Down and the Demogorgon’s design. The first Alien movie comes to mind, particularly the scene of the Nostromo crew landing on LV-426 and exploring the planet, similar to how Hopper and Joyce travel through the Upside Down:

H.R. Giger was a major inspiration for the Upside Down and the design of the Demogrogon, with even certain traits of the creature paying homage to the Xenomorphs from the Alien Series. Additionally, Clive Barker, Guillermo del Toro, and Masahiro Ito (who designed the Silent Hill video games) also had an effect on the way the Demogorgon was designed.

Clive Barker’s influence I see more in later seasons, specifically in regards to the Hellraiser characters of Pinhead (who shares similarities with Vecna) and The Leviathan (who shares similarities to the Mind Flayer), so I will go more in-depth about those parallels down the line.

Guillermo del Toro’s influence I can also see in the Demogorgon, particularly the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth that Ofelia encounters during her quest, and how both monsters are thin, have long arms and legs, look humanoid but aren’t, have a greyish-white skin complexion, and come from the underworld.

While we’re on the subject of descending into the Underworld, let’s talk about the Demogorgon’s origins. And not just the D&D version of the Demogorgon either.

Demogorgon in mythology is described as a type of God or powerful demon that rules the underworld. There have been many variations through-out history, but the most common origin comes from Statius’s Latin Poem Thebaid, where it is introduced as “the sovereign of the threefold world.” It’s also believed this being was present in Lucan’s Pharsalia, when it’s mentioned by a witch as a threat against those she’s controlling. While this being is not initially named (with the narrator refusing to speak its name), author C.S. Lewis believes that a misconstruction was made from the world “demiurge” (which was Plato’s name for an artisan-like creator of the material world) by a scribe named Lactantius Placidus, resulting in the name Demogorgon. From there, the word took on a life of its own among literary scholars, usually being referred to as a God, a being of Chaos, or some kind of “Terror Demon.” “The Prince of Darkness” has also been a common name.

Famously, John Milton referred to the Demogorgon in Paradise Lost, which detailed Lucifer’s fall from Heaven and his plans to corrupt humanity:

By them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance, And Tumult and Confusion all imbroild, And Discord with a thousand various mouths. (Paradise Lost, 11, 963-67, ed. 1674)

This was Milton’s take on the Demogorgon:

Accordingly, I find it stated by the most ancient writers on mythology that Demogorgon, ancestor of all the gods, whom I note was also called Chaos by antiquity, begot the Earth among many other children whom he had begot. She, by an undetermined father, became the mother of Night; although Hesiod somewhat otherwise would make her the offspring of Chaos, as in the monostich.

Italian writer Boccarrio also gave his take on the Demogorgon:

“The principall and first of them all, and who inhabited in the middle of the earth, encircled round about, & circumuested with a dark and obfuscate cloud, breathing from his mouth a certaine liquid humiditie: but herein I proceed no further, having no further warrant for such depicturane.”

Additional examples of Demogorgon being refereed to in literature include Christopher Marlow’s Doctor Faustus (when the titular character invokes the name of the Demogorgon when summoning the demon Mephistopheles), Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queen (“Downe in the bottom of the deepe Abysse, Where Demogorgon in dull darknesse pent, Farre from the view of gods and heavens bliss, The hideous Chaos keepes.”), and in Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelly, where it overthrows the Roman God Jupiter, and is described as “the ultimate Power, behind and above all things that are, even the gods themselves.”

There’s a dark irony in how a misconstruction of a Greek word led to the creation of a being of chaos with a power that transcends the Gods, and how its entire existence is an accident that shouldn’t have happened but did. And now people are terrified of it. In comparison to the show’s version, the Demogorgon in literature comes off as an ancient Eldritch Abomination that’s so beyond human understanding that it can’t be described in a way that makes sense. The closest the show ever got to this kind of being was with the Mind Flayer, but even its motivations can be broken down to simplistic terms regarding survival and remaining the dominant power in the Upside Down. By contrast, the Demogorgon from literature is just there when it shouldn’t be, with almost a cold indifference to how it fits into the universe’s hierarchy, which arguably makes it more terrifying.

So it’s fascinating that when D&D introduced its version of the Demogorgon in 1976 in the supplementary rulebook, Eldritch Wizardry (and likely took inspiration from the previous literary references I just described), they gave it a physical description while still attempting to keep the aura of terror surrounding it. The Demogorgon in D&D is a demon lord, otherwise known as “The Prince of Demons,” that is 18 feet tall, has blue-green skin plated with snake-like scales, has the body and legs of a giant lizard, has two snake-like necks, a thick tail that is forked, tentacles for arms, and two heads that resemble those of evil baboons or mandrills. These two heads, named Aameul and Hethradiah, are separate entities sharing the same body. Aameul prefers deception whereas Hethradiah prefers destruction. According to the 1977 Monster Manual, “His [Demogorgons] appearance testifies to his command of cold-blooded things such as serpents, reptiles, and octopi.” To give context, these are some of the drawings of the Demogorgon from Art & Arcania: A Visual History:

Its physical description is nothing like the version of the Demogorgon we see on the show:

The Demogorgon on the show does keep with some of the traditions of its D&D and literary counterparts. Both monsters are ancient beings from the abyss (the abyss in this case being the Upside Down), both are considered The Dreaded, and both are ferocious to the point you’re lucky if you go toe-to-toe with it and come out alive. However, Stranger Things depicts the Demogorgon as a mere animal (albeit a powerful one) under the control of the Mind Flayer and Vecna. By contrast, the Demogorgon in D&D had a mind of its own (or two minds given that it has two heads) where it can think, can cast spells, has a gaze that can either hypnotize people or drive them insane, has the ability to experiment and create creatures of its own (chimeras, merrows, ettins, etc) and even has a cult of its own that worships it and is organized into warbands that leave a trail of destruction in its name. Some of these followers are even troglodytes (i.e. the monsters Mike references in the first episode that attack the Party during Mike’s game before the Demogorgon’s arrival). This video gives more information about D&D’s version of the Demogorgon for those who are interested:

I want to be clear that I’m not disparaging the show’s version of the Demogorgon. The design the Duffer Brothers came up with is unique, and I’m not surprised it’s become iconic in popular culture. The reason I bring up these different literary references and inspirations is to give a clearer picture regarding the thought process that went into creating this version of the monster and the world it originated from. Mythology is an ever-evolving process, and there are plenty of monsters, entities, and lore from long ago that writers will be keen to explore and put their own spin on. Look at how many different stories there are regarding vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and what rules/aspects are followed from previous lore, or what is added in to enhance how these beings are perceived.

Likewise, understanding what inspirations were used for the Upside Down might give insight into how this world operates and where they could take the story in season 5. Regardless of what they reveal about why time froze in the Upside Down, it’s clear something is broken and has gone seriously wrong. From this, I foresee one of two things happening: Either the Upside Down is permanently destroyed, or there’s something that needs to be fixed that will bring balance between both worlds and, while it won’t destroy the Upside Down, it will render it obsolete as a threat to the characters. I talked about this in my second review when I was drawing possible parallels between The Dark Crystal and the Upside Down, but given the last two episodes are called “The Bridge” and “The Right Side Up,” it makes me lean a little towards the latter idea of fixing something within instead of the world's permanent destruction.

Part 3: Joyce, Hopper, and Will

I can’t imagine Hopper’s choice to give up El’s location was an easy one, but damn if it didn’t cause him to feel immense guilt about it. He likely was counting on El’s powers being able to help her escape so that he could find her later, because otherwise I don’t think he’d be able to live with himself knowing El was once again trapped as a lab rat for Brenner to use. Either way, it was a dangerous gamble that almost didn’t work.

I don’t really know what to say about Hopper’s flashbacks to his daughter dying of cancer, other than it’s depressing as hell, and the revelation in season 4 about Hopper being contaminated with Agent Orange and other chemicals from the Vietnam War only makes these scenes harder to watch. Considering he already has an unhealthy lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, and smoking, it makes me wonder how much borrowed time he has left. Fans might say they’re not going to kill Hopper off since they faked his death once in season 3, but that’s not a guarantee, especially in the last season where the Duffer Brothers need to up the stakes. Brenner also looked like he died in this season, only to come back later and then get permanently killed off. Just because a character cheats death once doesn’t mean they’ll do it again.

Earlier this year in regards to season 5, they revealed they were doing casting calls for actresses that looked similar to Sara from Hopper’s flashbacks in this episode. That makes me think one of three things: Either they’re going to have Hopper undergo another journey in season 5 (likely related to El) that triggers specific flashbacks to his time with Sara, similar to this episode where his search for Will and certain things he sees (i.e. the stuffed lion, and the tendril in Will’s mouth) remind him of his daughter’s illness. Or (and this is based on what I’ve heard other fans speculate) the flashbacks could be a dying dream Hopper has where he meets his daughter again in a spiritual sense. The third option is that Vecna creates some kind of vision/hallucination of Sara to torment Hopper.

I didn’t think about this at the time, but given the twist about the Upside Down, I was curious about what Joyce’s house in the Upside Down looked like. Obviously, the hole Will briefly communicated with Joyce through in “The Body” has closed (similar to what happened to the rift in the tree that Nancy crawled through), but I was interested if they were going to show the wall where Joyce had put up Christmas lights in correlation to the letters of the alphabet she had spray-painted to communicate with Will. Instead, Joyce and Hopper just walk past it, with the camera not even focusing on it. I know it’s a small thing, but given the Upside Down froze on November 6th, 1983 and Joyce wouldn’t spray-paint the alphabet and put the lights up until November 9th, 1983, this means that the alphabet on the wall shouldn’t have existed in the Upside Down when Will was communicating with her. So when Will was using the wall, how did he know which letters to press, which light represented a certain letter, or that there were even letters on the wall to begin with?

I ended up going back to The Other Side (i.e. the comic that focuses on Will’s time in the Upside Down) to see what explanation they would give, and this was it:

Yeah…….given the direction season 4 went, and the revelation this dimension froze exactly on November 6th, 1983, the letters just appearing on the wall in the Upside Down is questionable at best, and a plot-hole at worst. In all fairness, I had forgotten about this bit in the comic, and while I have cited certain scenes from The Other Side in previous reviews since they offer some explanations about what was possibly going on with Will during season 1 (as well as how Jody Houser, the writer for the comic, worked with Netflix when developing this), I’ve tried to be careful about claiming the comic is canon. I know I suggested that it could be at the time when I first reviewed it, but that doesn’t necessary mean it is. I do believe there was information given to Jody Houser about what Will was doing during certain scenes from the show, and while there are certain aspects of the comic (like Will distracting the Demogorgon so Nancy could escape through the tree) that I like, I also recognize that if the Duffer Brothers wanted to, they could render this entire comic non-canon.

In any case, the best explanation I can think of for how Will was able to communicate with Joyce is that she told him through the lights what she planned to do, and that the lights he would see on the wall in the Upside Down would correlate with a letter from the alphabet.

Another small aspect is regarding whether the Upside Down’s atmosphere is toxic. I know the scientist at the beginning warns Joyce and Hopper that it is, but I’ve questioned this for several reasons:

We saw Nancy go into the Upside Down a few episodes ago with no biohazard suit on, where she was exposed to the environment and breathing in whatever particles were in the air. Yet we never see her in later episodes have any side-effects from it. No respiratory problems. No weird mutations on her skin or body. No cancer or infection developing. Nothing.

Same with Joyce and Hopper. The scene where they’re performing CPR on Will has them taking off the masks that go with the biohazard suits they’re wearing. And they had them off for well over a minute while breathing in the particles in the air. Yet they also don’t develop any abnormalities.

This isn’t to say I don’t think the Upside Down isn’t capable of altering someone’s physical or mental health (as we see with Will at the end of this episode through season 2, and even with Henry/One/Vecna in season 4), but considering we have characters in this season AND season 4 that are in the Upside Down with no protection on and yet don’t feature any health problems later, that makes me question if the atmosphere itself really is that toxic, or if the claims that it is are an exaggeration.

Finally, in regards to Hopper and Joyce saving Will, am I the only one who found it suspiciously easy how they were able to rescue him without encountering any other monsters? I get the Demogorgon was busy dealing with Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve, and would later attack the middle school, but I think if Vecna and the Mind Flayer really wanted to prevent Will from leaving, they could have sent a legion of monsters after Joyce and Hopper to butcher them on the spot. If Will was rescued, it’s because they wanted him to be. And I don’t think it’s just because Will was impregnated with the slugs either.

Part 4: The Monster Hunting Trio (Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve)

The scene with Nancy and Jonathan cutting their hands at the count of three reminded me of the berries scene from The Hunger Games with Katniss and Peeta. Both cases involved the characters doing something suicidal, with the difference being Katniss and Peeta intended to commit suicide unless the Capitol backed down from reneging on the two-victor rule, whereas Jonathan and Nancy intended to lure the Demogorgon out with their blood to kill it, and had every intention of surviving.

I am curious about the Demogorgon’s attraction to blood considering the revelation it’s being controlled by Vecna/The Mind Flayer. I’ve already said before in previous reviews that season 4 recontextualizes the Demogorgon's actions, making them seem more calculated than that of a regular animal. So when the Demogorgon comes for Nancy and Jonathan (and later attacks the middle school because of the blood spilled from Connie and the other agents), is it doing it because the Mind Flayer (or Vecna) allows it to, or does the attraction to blood overwhelm whatever control they have on the Demogorgon? I’m thinking specifically about the Taxxon’s never-ending hunger in the Animorphs series, and how even when they were infested with Yeerks, that hunger could overwhelm the Yeerk’s control of their host. Does a similar principle apply to the Demogorgon here? Considering what we see with D’Art in season 2 (where his affection for Dustin allowed him to temporarily overcome whatever programming the Mind Flayer had him operating under), it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility to suggest that the hive mind’s hold on these creatures isn’t absolute, and that certain things (i.e. animal instinct, affection, blood, etc) could allow it to temporarily break free.

In any case, the way the Demogorgon attacks Nancy and Jonathan suggests that, even if it was attracted to the scent of their blood, it doesn’t mean it was stupid and didn't notice the traps they’d set up. It refuses to follow them down the hallway where the bear trap is, disappears briefly, and waits for them to come out of the room before it strikes. When it does appear again, it doesn’t break through the walls or the ceiling like last time, but almost quietly pops out of the ground behind Nancy and Jonathan and takes them by surprise. The only reason it even ends up in the bear trap at all is because it didn't anticipate Steve showing up again to attack it with the spiked bat.

Speaking of Steve, there’s a dark irony in that he came to apologize to Jonathan and make things right, only to get dragged into something that would change his life forever. He wanted an explanation two episodes ago about what Nancy and Jonathan had been doing, and he got it. Be careful of what you wish for, as the old saying goes.

I find it telling that he went to Jonathan’s house first as opposed to Nancy’s, and his surprised reaction to seeing Nancy indicates he didn’t expect her to be there. To his credit, he doesn’t react with possessive jealousy or wrongful assumptions like he did last time. The mere fact he was at Jonathan’s house and wanted to speak to him tells me he was there to try and make peace. I’ve said before that Steve doesn’t get any pleasure in being cruel to others the way Billy and Angela do, and I believe he was genuine in wanting to apologize for the vile things he said to Jonathan earlier in the day. Considering we didn’t hear his car pull up, I wonder if he showed up earlier when Nancy and Jonathan were laying the traps and was trying to muster the courage to talk to Jonathan. He was ashamed of what he did and how he acted.

I found it sad but also unintentionally hilarious when he was trying to apologize to Nancy, and Nancy tells him she didn’t care about that. Which is true. For her, the theater incident probably feels like a lifetime ago given everything that’s happened in the past 12 hours, and the last thing she wanted was Steve getting dragged into something that could get him killed. Unfortunately, she doesn’t do a good job convincing him that everything is fine, and he’s perceptive enough to realize something is off. His reaction of panic, horror, and confusion at the state of the house, at Jonathan and Nancy’s aggressive (but also understandable) behavior, and seeing the monster itself is pretty much how I’d expect anyone to react in that kind of situation. I’m sure fans at the time season 1 first aired got a kick out of Jonathan and Nancy telling Steve to “Shut Up,” but I still feel bad for Steve. He came to apologize, and got pulled into a nightmare.

For me, the first time I started to soften towards Steve was when he came back for Nancy and Jonathan. At that point, he had an out. He could have run, and almost did, and then saw the lights flicker again, and he knew what that meant: If he left, Nancy and Jonathan were going to die. And he knew if he went back, he could possibly die as well. Regardless, he still went back to save them. Steve’s story reminds me a little of the arc Lt. Weaver has in Battle of the Bulge, where he starts out as callow and irresponsible, but after his sergeant saves his life from a massacre (similar to how Jonathan and Nancy save Steve from the Demogorgon), it inspires a change in him as he strives to live up to the rank he has, and puts his life on the line, to the point of becoming a Spanner in the Works for Colonel Hessler. Much like how the Demogorgon under Vecna’s control didn’t expect to get attacked by Steve (either because he didn’t notice Steve initially, or he did and assumed Steve would be too cowardly to face him).

A big reason for why this is one of my favorite scenes in the show is how all three of these characters played an important role in temporarily defeating the monster. I made reference to this when I first rewatched in preparation for season 4, but the bat is the perfect metaphor for each character’s contribution: Nancy is the one who found the bat and came up with the plan to lure out the Demogorgon and kill it. Jonathan is the one who (along with Nancy) set up the traps, and even built the spiked bat. Steve is the one who ultimately wielded the bat and put it to use. Neither role overshadows the other, and all three of them end up saving each other, which keeps things balanced and doesn’t let one character outshine the other. Jonathan saved Steve the first time the Demogorgon broke through the ceiling (and warned him about the bear trap during the rescue). Nancy saved Jonathan the second time the Demogorgon came back by shooting at it (which didn’t kill it, but it did get the thing off Jonathan). Steve saved Nancy and Jonathan by taking the Demogorgon by surprise and causing it to get caught in the bear trap. Jonathan is the one who put the finishing touch by lighting the thing on fire. It may not have destroyed it, but it certainly injured it badly enough to flee (similar to what happens to Vecna during the Battle at the Creel House in season 4).

Even at the time, despite not being in the fandom, I was aware of the phrase “Monster Hunting Trio” which stemmed from this scene. I can see the appeal of it in a Fire-Forged Friends kind of way, and while I wasn’t eager about Steve getting back together with Nancy, I wasn’t opposed to the idea of him being her friend, or even him and Jonathan becoming friends. Sadly, the Duffer Brothers never capitalized on this afterwards, and with the introduction of other characters like Robin, Eddie, and Argyle (or the formation of new friendships like Dustin and Steve), they ended up moving away from this initial pairing in later seasons, with Nancy, Jonathan and Steve pursuing separate arcs. For what it’s worth, some of the BTS photos they’ve released for season 5 indicate that Steve’s storyline may be connected with Nancy and Jonathan, so we may still get some variation of the “Monster Hunting Trio” before the show is over. I would rather see that over another love triangle drama-fest over whether Nancy will end up with Steve or Jonathan.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about the ending regarding these three:

I remember at the time having mixed feelings about Nancy going back to Steve (and to my understanding, so did Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, and Natalia Dyer when they were told about that decision). Like I said, I had warmed up to Steve (even if he wasn’t my favorite at the time), but I wasn’t eager for Nancy to get back together with him after everything that happened. Plus, I was on board the Jancy ship at the time (and still am).

On rewatch, my feelings are still mixed, albeit for different reasons. Considering Jonathan’s introverted nature of closing himself off to other people outside of his family, as well as Will’s return from the Upside Down, I can understand why he didn’t immediately jump into a relationship with Nancy. They may have bonded over the week in their quest to save people they cared about, but once Will came back, Jonathan went back to what he’s usually done: Prioritizing his family. I don’t say that to fault him. I get why he did it, and he may have even felt like he wasn’t ready for a romantic relationship at that point, even if he had feelings for Nancy.

In regards to Nancy and Steve, the revelation that it took a month before she restarted her relationship with Steve (because she was waiting for Jonathan during that time) is something I have conflicting feelings about.

On the one hand, it shows that, regardless of Steve coming through for Nancy in the end, it doesn’t mean she automatically forgave him for what he did or immediately went back to him. I’m okay with this because I think she had a right to be mad with Steve (even if Steve was remorseful about it), and it also infers that Steve likely had to do some major damage control during that month regarding the rumors that got spread about Nancy and Jonathan, as well as put in the elbow grease to demonstrate he had changed. Considering the direction Steve went after season 2 when their breakup was final and she had moved on to Jonathan, I believe Steve would have put in the effort to be a better person REGARDLESS of whether Nancy took him back. This wasn’t being done for her benefit only. He was making the changes because he despised the person he became, and didn’t ever want to go back to being that way again. We even see this in the time jump when it’s implied that he had a hand in helping get Jonathan a new camera for Christmas, and had Nancy be the one to give it to Jonathan without claiming credit for it. We’ll talk more about Jonathan and Steve’s relationship in season 2, but the inferences I’ve gotten from watching the show is, even if they didn’t become best friends, Steve was genuinely trying to be amicable with Jonathan from this point onward.

Then there’s the matter of Barbara and how it impacted Nancy. I think a big reason she went back to Steve when Jonathan wasn’t available was because she needed someone to talk to about what happened, and Steve was the only other person she thought could understand where she was coming from. The first two episodes of season 2, and even tie-in novels like Rebel Robin, all but confirm this, and how it impacted their relationship going forward.

Personally, I’m still not thrilled that Nancy and Steve ended up together at the end of this episode, but I’ll go more into my thoughts about it when I cover season 2.

Part 5: The Party and El

I forgot to talk about Nancy and Mike’s reunion in the last review (sometimes it feels like I’m juggling so many balls in regards to talking about characters, dynamics, plot threads, theories, etc, in each review). Since this episode starts with Mike being worried for Nancy and Jonathan when El tells him they’ve gone after the Demogorgon, now might be a good time to mention I loved their awkward hug in the last episode. Even Mike’s unconvincing “Yeah uh……me too” in regards to missing her was both funny and heartwarming. He may not be good at expressing it openly, but he is concerned for Nancy’s safety, and he likely would have gone running to Will’s house if El had been able to remote-view, saw Nancy and Jonathan there, and told Mike that. Even the conversation they have in the previous episode where they claim they won’t lie to one another anymore………only to lie again about their feelings for El and Jonathan respectively……….they have enough of an understanding of each other to get where the other is coming from.

Mike’s conversation with El prior to Brenner’s arrival feels bittersweet in hindsight. While I’m glad he would later get to dance with El at the Snow Ball in season 2, I’ve always wondered how things would have gone if Mike’s scenario of El coming to live with him at his house had come true. It would have saved El an entire month living in the woods for sure, but we also wouldn’t have gotten the Hopper/El dynamic from season 2 onward (which did feature important character development for Hopper and El) and I question whether this would have made things easier or harder for El. The fact is (as we see in season 4) El was always going to have a hard time adjusting to what a “normal” life would look like, where she’d be expected to go to school, know the same things other kids her age would know, and try to find a way to fit in. I also question what her school situation would have been like. In Lenora, when she was deprived of her powers and still trying to catch up with her peers, she was treated as stupid by the other students and teachers, and got viciously bullied for being an outsider and the weirdo. If she had gone to school in Hawkins, would it have been a similar situation? On the one hand, she would likely still have her powers during Middle School, but she would also be hard-pressed not to use them against bullies unless she wanted to get in serious trouble.

There’s also the question of what would’ve happened if Mike had gone the opposite direction where he'd abandon his family and friends to go on the run with El. I’m thinking about the endings for Let Me In and Let The Right One In (both of which served as inspirations for Stranger Things) where the main protagonist (Owen/Oskar) becomes a fugitive after his vampire friend (Abby/Eli) kills the bullies who planned to drown Owen/Oscar after he split the head bully’s ear open with a metal pole in self-defense. The movies leave their final fates ambiguous, but it would have been an interesting angle to explore with Mike and El had they taken it. How would both of them being forced to run from the Government and Mike’s life being upturned have impacted their relationship going forward?

Speaking of which, let’s talk about Mike’s relationship with El. I’ve seen criticisms regarding how quickly these two fell in love and whether it was rushed. Some of these criticisms have a point whereas others come off as fans misconstruing things.

On the one hand, I agree that a week is a pretty short length of time to truly get to know someone, and there are aspects of El’s life that Mike doesn’t know about yet, and visa versa. I also think age factors in here in that they’re both young, and this is the first time they’ve had a romance like this, which means mistakes were going to happen. That’s also including how both Mike and El didn’t exactly have stable blueprints for a healthy relationship: El spent her entire life up to this point being abused by the other kids at the Lab and groomed by Brenner, to the point she became starved for affection (which Brenner manipulated to his advantage), and Mike is the product of a loveless marriage between his parents and also has his own issues being bullied. Those influences were eventually going to impact how these two moved forward, to the point I’m not surprised there are still problems as of season 4. I’m specifically thinking about the fight Mike and El had after El put Angela in the hospital.

This is why I question whether El coming to live with Mike would have made things better or not. It may have given El a lot more time to adjust compared to her experience in Lenora. And without the year gap where both were pining for one another and then spent the time between seasons 2-3 not wanting to be apart to the point of causing problems, it would have allowed both Mike and El to become familiar enough with one another and their flaws that they wouldn’t have idealized versions of that person in their heads that they both felt like they had to live up to in each other's eyes. That’s also including how El would be surrounded with more friends in Hawkins, which would have given her more of a stable support group than she had in Lenora.

That being said, some of the other takes I’ve seen tearing into this relationship range from being nonsensical to just flat-out untrue (and I question how much of that has been influenced by the shipping wars in this fandom 😒). Like this idea that Mike only ever cared about El because of her powers and being a “superhero,” which not only is debunked in the second episode when he was helping and comforting El way before he ever found out she had powers, but also was explored in season 4 and shown to be untrue there as well. Or the idea that the relationship is shallow and superficial and only based on puppy love because of how they act in season 3 (which I will address when I cover that season, but doesn’t automatically discount the instances of deeper love these two felt for one another that we see this season and afterwards). There’s this fixation these days with portraying the relationship as toxic to an almost comically ludicrous degree, which is an interpretation that involves taking A LOT of things out-of-context. Does the relationship have its problems like any other relationship out there? Yes. What relationship (especially one between two kids) is ever going to be perfect in a Disney “Happily Ever After” way? Does it automatically erase any positive aspects? Hell no.

Mike’s relationship with El led to essential character development for both of them. Not only was Mike allowed to be vulnerable around El without being judged for it (like when she empathized with the bullying he was subjected to under Troy and James), but also allowed Mike to find an inner strength he didn’t realize he had within himself to be able to stand up for his friends and risk his life to keep El safe from both Brenner and the Demogorgon. Likewise, El found someone she could connect with who cared about her as a person, who showed her kindness and affection when she needed it, and who wasn’t going to use her the way Brenner had. That scene at the school where she rejects Brenner as “bad” while calling out for Mike says it all.

Speaking of the school, the fight between the Party, Brenner’s men, and the Demogorgon all feature elements that will make an appearance in season 4. Connie’s death for instance, while satisfying to watch, reminds me of what Vecna did to his victims where their eyes would also bleed.

El doesn’t go to the extent of mutilating Connie and Brenner’s men like Vecna would have, and even though she kills them, I don’t believe she consumed them the way Vecna does. We’ve never gotten any indication that El takes the essence of a person into herself the way Vecna does to give himself more power. I’ll talk about this in later seasons, but in many ways, it makes El more formidable than Vecna in that she’s able to channel an inner strength while keeping her sense of self compared to Vecna who's stolen the essence of others to power himself and has become increasingly unstable as a result.

The Demogorgon’s attack on the school reminds me of the way the Soviet Demogorgon from season 4 attacked its victims: Quick, direct, vicious, and angry. Unlike at Joyce’s house, it’s no longer doing the slow stealth approach now that it’s furious and covered in burns. There is still some degree of control, like when it spares Brenner or even when it confronts the kids in the science classroom and slowly advances on them when they have nowhere else to run, but it’s not playing games anymore.

Then there’s the scene of El dissolving the Demogorgon the same way she dissolved Henry/One/Vecna in 1979:

What I’m curious about is why El’s use of her powers on Vecna didn’t kill him, but banished him to the Upside Down, whereas the use of her powers on the Demogorgon was implied to have destroyed it? And then there’s that particular power itself, which seems to activate on a subconscious level in the most extreme circumstances, and was the biggest indicator that El’s powers were linked to the Upside Down (which The First Shadow confirmed). However, unlike in 1979, where El only created a temporary gate that closed in on itself while she still remained in Hawkins Lab, El’s attack on the Demogorgon results in her being transported to the Upside Down, almost like she’s returning to the source of her power. Was this simply because she was closer to the Demogorgon than she was to Vecna, or does the Upside Down have some kind of pull on individuals who carry its power, and can manipulate that energy into drawing in those individuals connected to it (like El and Vecna)? ). I even question if El truly understood what she was doing in both instances with Vecna and the Demogorgon, or if the remaining power within her took over in these moments and directed her with what she needed to do. Season 4 heavily implies that the Upside Down is almost like a live energy source for Vecna to draw from (hence the vines connected to his back when he uses his powers to kill his victims and create gates). Since El was nearly depleted by the time the Demogorgon showed up (to the point Dustin was having to carry her as they ran), was her being pulled into the Upside Down when she used the last of her strength on the Demogorgon about returning to the source at the direction of the Upside Down without her realizing it?

There’s also the connection with X-Men #134. The comic Will and Dustin raced for in the first episode that also served as foreshadowing for El’s confrontation with the Demogorgon in this episode. In the comic, Jean Grey, having broken free from Mastermind’s control over her, drives Mastermind to insanity by sending his consciousness throughout reality while overloading his brain with all the truths of the universe. However, because of Mastermind’s manipulations, which undermines Jean’s already unbalanced mental state, the Phoenix persona within her has been unleashed, and the comic ends with it taking complete control of Jean. Those who know about X-Men and the Dark Phoenix storyline know that the Phoenix Force was an entity that embodied a dark, raw power that served as the nexus for all psionic energy (i.e. extrasensory perception, telepathy, psychokinesis, etc) that could cause destruction on a grand scale. This entity would bond to Jean Grey as a host, with devastating consequences for the X-Men.

By comparison, while El appears to have control of her powers on the surface, there is an interesting question if the Upside Down exerts some kind of unconscious influence on El in certain instances (like with her confrontation with the Demogorgon and being pulled into the Upside Down). We see something similar with Henry/One/Vecna in The First Shadow with the corrupting influence of the Mind Flayer and the ambiguity regarding instances when Henry was in control vs when it looked like the Mind Flayer was using him as a vessel to exert its power. Could some form of this be happening to El without her awareness?

Finally, there’s El’s fate. Worlds Turned Upside Down reveals that, originally, the Duffer Brothers had planned for El to sacrifice herself, but changed it when they realized the show would go on for longer than one season and they needed El to make the story work.

Like I’ve said before, I believe the Duffer Brothers had material regarding the story and characters that would allow the show to go past one season (and even admitted they had planned out Vecna’s character from the beginning), but they also were working within the parameters of a TV show production, which was contingent on this season being successful for the show to continue onward and explore more of the mythology they had mapped out. Thankfully, it was. It’s why I don’t mind the change regarding El’s survival. The common theme I’ve been trying to convey in these reviews is just because changes happen to characters or plot-related elements doesn’t mean they’re bad. The Duffer Brothers realized there was more to explore with El’s character (just like with Steve) and decided to capitalize on it. I’m glad they did because the mythology surrounding Hawkins Lab and the psychokinetic kids has been one of the biggest draws for me.

Final Thoughts:

Fun fact: That camouflage bandana Lucas wears during these last 3 episodes was at Caleb McLaughlin’s request. I don’t know what the Duffer Brothers told Caleb at the time about Lucas’s family, but considering Charles Sinclair is a Vietnam veteran, and Lucas carries his father’s supplies from that war, it comes off as one more way Lucas is channeling his father, both to honor him and mimic what he thinks his father would do in the situation Lucas is dealing with.

Will’s friends visiting him in the hospital and infodumping everything that happened to them during this season was amusing, and a brief spot of happiness in their reunion. Will was probably grateful they weren’t asking him yet to recount what happened to him in the Upside Down.

I liked seeing the D&D game towards the end of the episode with the Thessalhydra (a monster we may see in season 5 if the vision Vecna showed Nancy of “a giant creature with a big gaping mouth” is anything to go by), and the subtle change of Dustin encouraging Will to fireball the creature instead of advising him to cast a protection spell like last time. It’s subtle, but it shows Dustin has learned that sometime a best defense is a good offense, which is a strategy he will employ in the later seasons.

I know there’s been some speculation about how Joyce could afford to get Will an Atari for Christmas given their financial situation. Considering how everyone believed Will was dead and the strain it put on the Byers, I wouldn’t be surprised if people in Hawkins felt bad for them, and for what they believe Will went through, and sent money to the family as a “We’re sorry you were put through this” donation. It’s also possible the Government may have given her a nice bribe along with the hundreds of documents and NDA’s they forced her to sign to keep quiet.

There’s also this article regarding Will’s disappearance that can be seen at the police station:

Because there’s another news article in season 2 that contradicts what’s being said here, I’ll talk about this when I review that episode. Long story short, I see the contradictions owing more to misinformation being spread about Will’s disappearance (as well as Hopper, Joyce, and Hawkins Lab getting their story straight to cover up what happened) as opposed to a plot-hole. Media gets stuff wrong all the time, and isn’t immune from spouting incorrect information (to say nothing about all the conspiracy nuts out there who muddy the waters).

For song choices, I’m not going to cover the Christmas songs since they’re there to capture the seasonal change, but I will cover the song everyone remembers from this episode: “When it’s Cold I Like to Die” by Moby. This is the song that plays when Hopper and Joyce are trying to resuscitate Will in the Upside Down.

This song also plays in the season 4 finale when Eddie and Max are dying after the Battle at the Creel House. The circumstances there parallel what’s happening in this scene where one life is being saved (Will and Max) while another one dies (Sara in Hopper’s flashback, and Eddie). This song emphasizes a sense of loneliness, loss, and unmistakable grief. In a way, it sounds like a resigned acceptance of the inevitability of death. “I don’t wanna swim the ocean. I don’t wanna fight the tide. I don’t wanna swim forever. When it’s cold, I like to die.” There’s also the theme of letting go of what can’t be controlled in regards to whom death comes for. “If I holler, let me go. If I falter, let me know.” Hopper couldn’t save his daughter from the cancer that killed her, but he can save Will here.

Finally, to end on a more positive note, here’s another Funko Pop that I managed to get my hands on: El’s confrontation with the Demogorgon.