Everyone is settling in for a normal summer, but the work of some Russian scientists is helping the Upside Down rear its head again.
A group of Russian scientists and soldiers fire up a machine that attempts to open a portal to the Upside Down, only for the ray to fail and the doorway to close.
Though they're close to succeeding, the general is displeased with the failure and has the lead scientist killed, giving another a year to complete the project. Meanwhile, Hopper catches Eleven and Mike making out, but with the help of her powers, the two shut the door and pretend they're reading when he barges in. Promising to see her tomorrow, Mike rides to the mall where Lucas, Max, and Will are waiting, annoyed that he favors making out with El to hanging out with them. With Steve's help, the group sneaks into the theater to see George Romero's Day of the Dead, but the power suddenly cuts out in the entire mall, followed by a city-wide blackout. At a far-off factory, fractals pool together into a cloud-like mass. As the power returns, most people shrug the occurrence off. Will feels something and flashes back to his experiences with the Mind Flayer, but assures Mike he's okay.
Nancy and Jonathan wake the next day late for work due to their reset alarm. She sneaks out though the Wheelers know she was there, and Joyce notices some stuff fell from the fridge, including a picture of Bob as a superhero.
Nancy urges Jonathan to hurry to their workplace, believing their workers like him but don't see her as a person, opting out of his attempted pep talk. Dustin, returning after a month at camp, becomes frustrated as his friends fail to answer him on their radios, but his mom shrugs that they might've just forgot. To his confusion, a bunch of his toys come to life in his room and march to the living room. He follows with a can of hairspray as a defense, unaware his friends are behind a wall with Eleven moving the toys. The group sneaks up with a welcome home sign to welcome him, but their party horns scar him, resulting in him spraying Lucas int he face. At the town pool, the local moms watch eagerly as Billy arrives for his shift and warns a kid that he'll be banned for life if he keeps running. Hopper goes to Joyce's store, which is losing business, to vent about El and Mike, saying they spend an unhealthy amount of time together and need to break up. Pointing out they'll rebel if he acts like a cop, she suggests talking to them and staying calm no matter their response. Though he desperately wants her to do it instead, she will only help by writing some write things to say. Nancy arrives at the Hawkins Post with food. As the male news team brainstorms, she suggests a piece about the Starcourt mall putting places out of business, but they laugh off her idea and focus on a lack of mustard on the food she brought.
Back at Dustin's house, Max helps Lucas wash his eyes while Dustin shows the others his inventions: a wind-powered clock, a vibrating hammer, "Cerebro," a ham radio.
The others aren't very impressed, especially Mike, but Dustin claims it's incredibly powerful and surprises them by revealing he has a girlfriend, Suzie. Over at the mall, Steve strikes out hard trying to pick up a girl while working, so his coworker Robin (Maya Hawke) gives him his sixth tally on her "you suck" counter. He rants about the hat messing up his hair and believes he can't tell the truth like she suggests, since he couldn't land a good college and his dad is making him work here. He lands another "you suck" tally after trying his own way with another group of girls that shows up. Back at the store, Joyce coaches Hopper through a script she came up with, but he decides it's not going to work, joking he could just kill Mike and cover it up. When she comforts him, he asks her to dinner, but she awkwardly claims she has plans and leaves to handle a customer. The kids head out to a field as Dustin explains Suzie's parents wouldn't approve of him, since they're Mormon, and he is upset when Mike and El claim she needs to get home for her curfew, and leave. The group continues, though Will gets a strange feeling as a swarm of rats scurries to the Brimborn Steelworks, the factory from earlier, where they explode one by one. At the pool, Billy watches Mrs. Wheeler swim, and after flirting with her, suggests they meet at a motel. She turns him down, but he persists, and she gives a sly smile. Although hot and tired, Dustin and his friends build his radio tower, but when he tries to reach Suzie, she never answers. Dustin's continued attempts soon lead him to a solo discovery, and as Hopper tries to talk to the kids, Nancy gets a strange call and Billy has a terrifying encounter.
A lot is done this episode to show that the characters have gone through a lot of changing since the last time we saw them.
Rather than just get the kids immediately into the next big situation, much of this episode is spent on seeing changed relationships throughout Hawkins. The key one for the main group is how Mike and El are officially together now, and prefer spending time with just each other. I can see why their friends are annoyed with them and how they just want to make out all the time, but this is also an aspect that makes the characters believable. The two are in their first relationship, with Mike being a nerd who used to get bullied and ignored, and Eleven being a girl who was abused, put through terrible and isolating experiments, and now they've got each other. People already end to go overboard with relationships, especially their first ones, so it makes sense that these two would go to the extreme like this. It's certainly still cute at times seeing the two interact, though it's sad to see how it's affecting their relationship with the others. Along with apparently being late a lot now, there's specifically their relationship with Dustin, who went away for a month and now returns to find some of his friends don't want to do much with him. It can be hard enough to go a while without seeing your friends anyway, and the show takes place in the 80s, so it was much more difficult to keep in good contact. After missing his friends for a month, he returns to find they're not playing their usual way, none of them seem to really care about what he has to show them, and some don't even want to hang out with him. I'd put Will in sort of a similar boat to Dustin, as although he's been with the group while Dustin was gone, he misses what they used to do. Lucas and Max want to hang out with the group as a whole jut like them, and don't go off by themselves like Mike and El, but they're also now in a relationship. I assume it's going to be revealed Dustin isn't lying about Suzie, but until then he's sort of alone, and Will claims he's never going to fall in love and constantly just wants to play D&D like they all used to. Another new relationship I'm sure will get plenty of attention from fans is Nancy and Jonathan being official, though I know some still ship her with Steve. There's an interesting dynamic set up here with them both working at the Hawkins Post, because of how they're being treated and how it could affect them. It's already a common belief that you shouldn't date coworkers, and while the two were obviously together before they started working, it could become a problem. Nancy claims the workers treat Jonathan better than they do her, and we can immediately see this the first time she goes into the building. It's clear the all-male newsroom thinks little of Nancy, despite her intelligence and how she easily came up with what would've been a good story. They're condescending already while listening to her with blank expressions, and it gets worse when one in particular mocks her idea and intelligence based on a lack of mustard on the food she brought him. This could lead to feelings of resentment toward Jonathan for Nancy, as he's given opportunities working for the paper while she's left as a delivery girl. Another budding relationship I think fans will pay attention to is what's developing between Hopper and Joyce. Joyce is in one of the worst places imaginable for relationships right now, I'd say. Not only did the man she loved die, she saw him get killed and eaten. I think it's safe to say not many people have experienced this, especially since the things that killed Bob were monstrous creatures. At the same time, there has been a clear chemistry between her and Hopper thus far, and many fans have wanted them to get together. I will say for sure, these two are the most attentive parents in the show, and have been through more than most of the other adults. Joyce, of course, lost Will int he first season, and in the second the Mind Flayer was controlling him, so she was constantly right in the danger zone. Hopper, along with going into danger to save everyone, took in Eleven last season and has officially become her parent. He has a bit of experience in this regard, since he used to be married with a daughter, but her death is part of why he withdrew into the rather angry guy he is now. He's terrified of losing people he cares about, and now he's got a new daughter to care for, who is now a teenager, oh joy! He's already got his anxieties about having another daughter, and now he has to deal with a new territory that is infamously frustrating. There's just so many characters in the show now, but I feel the important ones all got a good amount of screentime to begin the season. Billy is just as much of a jerk as before, and of course still has his charm, as evidenced by everyone watching him at the pool, and no one caring when he refers to the running kid as "lard ass." I'm mostly wondering how his relationship with Max has changed since last season, but for now we just get the creepy relationship between him and Mrs. Wheeler. She's managed to catch his attention like all the moms are trying to do, and he smoothly maneuvers this into asking her to a motel. The disgusting relationship is creepy to watch, especially because Mrs. Wheeler is Mrs. for a reason, but it's again something that feels like a real-life possibility. Him asking her to the motel also sets up the end of the episode, as he is out and about at the worst possible moment. I'm incredibly excited to have this series back again, and with this episode having felt like it went by too fast, I can't wait to see what more will happen.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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