Okay, so on the subject of Stranger Things (also probably spoilers):
The other thing I like about Stranger Things (hah, there’s always one more), is that it kind of ends up being a monster story about trauma, especially following Eleven’s story. The monsters and the Upside Down are linked with Eleven’s childhood being experimented on in the lab. She’s able to turn and face the monster/reality of what has been done to her in the first season, but healing is never so simple, and that’s why we get a season two.
Season two, on the other hand, really expands this theme. Now, not only has Eleven experienced some really horrific things that still haunt her, but so have many other people. And for most people, these wounds cannot be addressed, both because of the restrictions placed on them by the classified nature of the lab’s experiments, and because their experiences are just so incompatible with reality (what would people think? That they’ve lost their minds?). Barb’s family cannot get closure for their daughter’s death, and Nancy is absolutely torn apart by the fact that she cannot help them nor cannot really get help for herself either. Will is literally still seeing things from the Upside Down. Hopper and Eleven’s bond is still rife with fear and mistrust, and it makes them hurt each other. Grief and terror, memories of the traumatic events of season 1, and fear about what the future might hold in a world full of monsters are eating away at everybody that the Upside Down has touched. In perfect monster story fashion, the ground is literally rotting, and a darkness has taken root in the previously-quiet town, mirroring the minds of its citizens. That whole thing about it being like a virus, that Eleven needs to confront “Papa” at some point fits in beautifully as well. A terrible thing has happened, people have been hurt, and they need to address the hurt before they can move on with their lives, or it will continue to eat up everything they know (literally? maybe. figuratively? Yeah, probably, like when in depression, the whole world is several shades darker, and the things you enjoy are lost from you).
And somehow, they manage to do it. I like Nancy and Jonathan’s arc, how they find their own way to get the truth out, finding a way to make some change to keep this horror from happening again. And it’s important because it’s not just the girl with superpowers (your typical protagonist, the Special One, the one who usually gets a singular focus on character development and emotional depth) who has a troubled past, it’s ordinary people whose lives have been torn apart. And these seemingly ordinary people can still make a difference and move forward with their lives, on their own, using their own knowledge and skills and desires. But of course Eleven’s arc is still at the heart of the story, and I absolutely loved the last episode where she goes to close the gate, descends into this physical manifestation of all the wrong that’s been done to her and many others, the pain and fear that destroys worlds, and yet she still overcomes it, in fact uses it against itself, taking all that anger that’s been festering and turning into a force for good, to heal something, at least. It’s all about facing the things that haunt you and commanding them to back down, and putting up a good fight when they refuse to lie quietly. And because most hauntings are about relationships, confronting the darknesses interior and exterior also brings people closer together, knitting together the distance and division enforced by strangeness and secrets.
Is the trauma gone? No, not completely. What wound like this heals without a scar? Will the monster return? Absolutely. But we also know they can be faced head-on, and we know they can be locked away.
