Mike and El's breakup leads the latter to discovering Billy's actions, and as Joyce tries to solve her magnet problem, Robin cracks the Russian code.
Eleven is upset after breaking up with Mike, but Max is sure the boys will crawl back. She wonders what they're doing, so Eleven uses her powers with a radio.
She finds the boys eating and talking about the "different species" of women, who use emotion, not logic. This angers Max, but they laugh when the boys start being gross. Hopper arrives and flies into a drunken rage upon seeing El's closed door, but calms when he sees Max and accepts their sleepover, smiling as he shuts the door. As Hopper sits happily in front of the tv, El and Max play spin the bottle to choose someone to spy on with the former's powers, finally deciding on Billy. In the void, El finds his busted car, then sees him talking to the lifeguard he kidnapped. He turns and sees her, startling her back to her room. Will later wakes Mike and Lucas to play D&D, ignoring their complaints in favor of staying in character to present the story. Hopper prepares for a hangover-filled day, finding a note that El is at Max's, when Joyce comes over to show him her magnet problems. He is unimpressed and keeps the focus on how she stood him up to go see Scott Clarke, but she theorizes that the electromagnetic problem is "them." He again makes light of the situation, refusing to take her to the lab. Returning to the date issue, he rants that she's making things up because she can't move on and pushed him away due to fear, but he realizes she's gone. He heads outside and sees her exit his shed with some supplies, then clumsily chases her as she walks off.
El and Max are going to the former's home to investigate, but Max thinks the vision was nothing, suggesting he just sensed El and the screams were "happy screams."
They notice his car isn't at the house and search his room, finding empty bags of ice floating in his filled tub. Max plays this off, but El sees blood on his cabinet and discovers a lifeguard bag and bloody whistle in his trashcan. Nancy assures Jonathan everything will be fine and takes their story to their coworkers, who are less than impressed. She points out that farms throughout Hawkins have had supplies go missing with just a day's reporting, but they believe Mrs. Driscoll is crazy and laugh at Nancy. Her boss seems to take it seriously at first, then says it should be a Nancy Drew book, and the group laughs her out. Robin is listening to the recording when Lucas' sister returns, this time turning down her abuse of their "free sample" system and saying Steve is busy. Steve proves to be too focused on girls, so Dustin takes the binoculars they're using and suggests Steve look to Robin, saying she's the perfect girl for him. Steve claims the exact opposite, with her drama and band interests turning him away. Dustin says he should be done caring about popularity now after high school, bringing up his own relationship with Suzie, but Steve takes credit for this. Will leads the disinterested Mike and Lucas through a game of D&D, but they leap at a phone call, only for it to be a telemarketer. Lucas suggests calling the girls instead of waiting, and sacrifice their characters to quickly end the game, much to Will's anger. Despite their apologies, he storms out, even though it's raining, and snaps that Mike has ruined their group, unaware where Dustin is and caring more about Eleven. Mike counters that they're growing up and weren't just gonna sit in his basement playing games forever, but Will seemed to be hoping for that, and leaves.
Eleven and Max take the lifeguard bag to the pool, where a guy confirms it's Heather's. They learn she's not there, and the guard stops paying attention.
Using a picture of Heather and tape-covered goggles, they turn the showers into a place for Eleven to use her powers and track the missing woman. After finding a mailbox numbered 1438, El walks through a red door and finds a tub full of ice. Heather shoots out of it and begs for help, then sinks deep underwater as El screams and wakes. Hopper takes Joyce back to the lab, where she flashes back to Bob's death but claims to be fine. Unbeknownst to them, a camera records them as they enter the halls. Dustin spots a guy who seems to match his description of an evil Russian spy, so he and Steve give chase. They almost get caught, and it turns out the guy is simply a Jazzercise instructor. Robin has decoded more of the message when a Lynx deliveryman arrives with a package, and she recognizes the "silver cat" from the message on his uniform. Shoving past Steve and Dustin, she spots a Chinese restaurant to match "a trip to Chine sounds nice," and a shoe store to fit "tread lightly." The final code is that blue and yellow meet in the west, and she notices the mall's clock has blue and yellow hands. Nancy's coworker play a prank to mock her story, and she returns to Jonathan to suggest they get Driscoll's rat and have it tested to provide proof. He believes the story isn't worth the trouble, but agrees to go with her. Hopper and Joyce search the area where there used to be a portal, but he confirms there's only a concrete wall and the problem is over. Remembering their past experiences, she feels like she's going crazy, but he admits he almost shot a neighbor's dog thinking it was a Demodog. He says he's been watching and just wants her to feel safe to stay in Hawkins, having discovered she put her house up for sale. Opening up, he reveals he had to get away for a bit after he got divorced, but ended up returning, and unlike him, she has people in Hawkins who care and understand. Joyce jokes that Scott is one of them, and a noise draws their attention. He tells her to wait for him and follows the sound to a door, drawing his gun as it closes before him. While Hopper deals with the apparent intruder, Mike and Lucas search for Will as Max and El investigate her vision, Nancy and Jonathan make a grotesque discovery at Mrs. Driscoll's, and Dustin, Steve, and Robin watch for their Russian spies.
This show just continues to amp up the story while perfectly pulling the characters into one story, despite how separate they seem at first.
The one that started off the most on it's own, I'd say, was Dustin returning only to find his friends were more interested in their girlfriends. Initially, Dustin's story seems like it'll be just about proving his girlfriend is real, only for his radio to suddenly pick up the transmissions. This has led to him, Steve, and Robin discovering Russians smuggling things into the mall, and considering what we saw at the start of the season, this has to be related to the Upside Down. I like how each person in the group had a moment that brought the case more forward, as Dustin of course heard and recorded the signal, Steve deduced it was from within the mall, and Robin cracked the code after remembering the stores. After recognizing the Lynx logo as the "silver cat," she's able to realize something is coming to the stores, and "blue and yellow" mean the time it'll happen. It's likely that whatever they're smuggling in helps tie the group to Joyce's situation, as with the original lab group seemingly gone, I'd assume the Russians are responsible. To anyone else, Joyce's magnet problem might seem strange, but in the end inconsequential, heck even Hopper found it to be nothing, but when considering what they've been through before, there has to be something going on. This episode we actually see two of the storylines colliding, thanks to Eleven seeing Billy in her vision and realizing he did something to Heather. With few characters actually caring about Billy so far and how often we see him doing his own thing, it's not surprising he found himself in a situation alone. With no one around when he encountered the Mind Flayer, there was no one around to help, and even those experienced with the Upside Down are unaware the Mind Flayer has returned and has a new slave. Thanks to Max and Eleven's game, however, they know something is going on, and even after their discovery later in the episode, things are suspicious. Jonathan and Nancy are getting pulled in because her desire to prove herself and show up the jerks at work led her to the infected rats. She's so far been unable to prove much, but this I'd say is because of, again, how she decided to leave the rat when it stared convulsing. Last episode it was a problem of how they would've seen it explode and start moving again, but now it's more than that. After being mocked again, she decides they need to get the rat as proof, and I don't really understand why they didn't do so before. At the very least, they could've taken the animal to a specialist to determine what was going on, and of course since it exploded into moving goo, they would've definitely had a story on their hands right there. This presents a whole different issue, however, as it would've caught them off-guard, and they would've had to be able to catch and contain it in something. Something I find kind of interesting is how thus far, Mike, Lucas, and Will have taken a backseat to the things going on. I definitely understand this for Will, who finally isn't the one either being abducted or stuck as a monster's slave. Of course at the same time, he's been feeling things this season, and who better to sense the return of the Mind Flayer than Will? The first two seasons, the boys were essentially the main group, but now everything is splintered in a way that kept them out of the action. Will finally voices his displeasure at this splintering this episode, claiming Mike is responsible for the group falling apart. Everyone is much more mature than when we first saw them, and now they're going through a coming-of-age situation that's wreaking havoc. Most of Will's time in this series has been as a victim away from his friends and family, so it makes sense that all he'd want to do is play games with them. They, however, have gotten to a point where they're getting girlfriends and branching out their interests, a path he hasn't followed. It's a frustrating necessity of growing up that friends just don't have as much time for each other anymore, and none of them are able to handle the realization well. Will is so angered with the situation that he just blames Mike, who didn't intend to just ruin the friendship. It seems more like he and Lucas just didn't realize how lonely their friends were feeling, and thought the whole group was moving along. In response to the anger, Mike harshly tells Will the truth of the matter, that they're just growing up, but fails to accept that he has been ignoring them in favor of making out with Eleven. I also like how neither he and Lucas nor Max and Eleven realize they're both just waiting for the other side to call them first. This is definitely a relatable problem, and it's frustrating because the two sides could come to a better and peaceful situation if they'd bite the bullet and talk first. A touching moment of talking comes when Hopper confronts Joyce about her feelings with the Upside Down and wanting to move. Early in the episode they have a "talk," but Hopper is mostly ignoring what Joyce has to say because he's jealous she went and saw Clarke. It makes sense for him to be upset she didn't show or call, given they made plans, but at the same time, he obviously went overboard and had no right to just be jealous. He knows she's having a hard time moving past Bob's death, and they agreed they weren't going to dinner as a date, but rather as friends, yet his rant makes it seems like they are becoming a couple for sure. The later moment is much more touching, as he explains he wants her to feel safe, which she apparently doesn't since she's trying to move. Along with it likely hurting that someone he's close to wants to leave, this essentially means he's failing at what he wants to do, as she doesn't feel safe, and rightfully so. He opens up about his divorce in this moment as well and might be suggesting in a way that he'd understand if she left, but hopes she would eventually return. He did so himself, so he likely thinks she could do so, but in his mind, she'd have be better off staying and allowing her loved ones to help. As much as I could get behind the two being a couple, I already love these moments where good friends are able to be so open with one another. We don't know their entire history, but they share a bond that their terrible experiences have helped, and it's great how they have each other's backs. Whatever happens with these two, there is a heck of a lot going on in Hawkins once again, and everything is starting to come together as plots are uncovered.
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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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