REVIEW: Stranger Things, Episode 108
It is now time to close up the reviews of Stranger Things’ first season with this eighth episode entitled “Chapter Eight: The Upside Down” and in it, the search for Will is as close to a finishing line as it will ever get.
In contrary to the previous episode, in this one the story divides back in three storylines. In Hawkins’ lab Joyce and Hopper were separated and questioned so that the Bad Men realized how much they knew about everything that was going on. After learning they know too much, the Bad Men were planning to kill them, and that was when Hopper made some sort of deal with them. We still don’t really know everything they agreed to. In the scene, Hopper said if they let him and Joyce go to the Upside Down he would tell them where Eleven is, but I wonder if that was all, because close to the end of the episode the Bad Men came to pick him up from the police station, and he acted like he was expecting them. So does Hopper work for them now? Looks like we will have to wait for season 2 to find out.
Whatever the deal was, the Bad Men let them both in to search for Will, probably expecting them to die there. When they finally found him, I was really afraid he was dead. It would have definitely been a horrible twist, all of this just so that he would die in the end. Fortunately he was alive. Can’t wait to see more of him in the next season, because we don’t really know a lot about him yet. Even though he was the center part of the entire season, he was only in a small number of scenes.
Meanwhile, Nancy and Jonathan make all the preparations in an attempt to trap and kill the Demogorgon. I already said this multiple times, but here it goes again: I was definitely not pleased with them doing this, but now that I saw the trap they prepared and the plan they had, I have to say that it was a good one. I didn’t expect to say this, but I was glad Steve showed up. When he did, I kept yelling him to go away, and also insulting him when he actually did go, but then he came back, and he was the one who managed to put the Demogorgon in the bear trap, so at least he did one good thing this season. Despite all this, the three were only able to hurt it, and not kill it as they planned.
At the same time, in the school, while Dustin and Lucas go steal chocolate pudding, Mike and Eleven had a heart to heart conversation. I am going to go as far as to say that that scene was the best of this episode. It was so cute Mike wanting Eleven to go live with him, making Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler her new parents, Nancy her new sister, but it wouldn’t make Mike her brother, since you are not supposed to go to the Snow Ball with one of your siblings. Of course the scene got even better when they kissed. Unfortunately, things only went downhill after this: the Bad Men arrived trying to find Eleven, and, because of the bloodshed, the Demogorgon arrived as well, killing every Bad Man in his way. Even though El was weak after the bathtub and killing some of the bad guys, she still managed to kill the Monster by shredding it into millions of pieces, but with it, she disappeared as well.
Even though season 1 ended in a good way, or so it may seem like it at first sight, there are still a few things left unexplained, and the Dungeons and Dragons game we saw the Stranger Kids play near the end of the episode was, in my perspective, a way of telling us that. In it, Mike finishes the game, but apparently there were still a few things left unexplained and Will, Lucas and Dustin made sure to point that out. In the end, what matters is that they won, but there are more games coming our way. Like the fact that Will still seems connected to the Upside Down, even though he is in the real world now. Like the fact Nancy is with Steve, when she should be with Jonathan. And there was also something I missed the first time I watched, but I noticed it now: While Joyce and Hopper were in the Upside Down, close to the “Castle Byers”, the sheriff saw a really big egg. That egg (or a similar one) is featured in one of the posters for next season, so maybe it will be another thing featured in it. Looks like we will have to wait and see.
This was really an awesome episode. Will was finally found and is now back home, Eleven is missing/dead (whatever the case, she will definitely be back for season 2 somehow). I am really looking forward to see all 5 Stranger Kids together, because we didn’t get to see that yet. I am giving this episode a 9.7/10.
With this, I now conclude my reviews of this first season. We still have to wait some time for season 2, but not that much, because stranger things than these will available in Netflix on October 27th. The good news is that season 2 will have 9 episodes, instead of the 8 in this season. Really looking forward to watching it, because I hear that it will somehow be much better than this one (not sure if that is possible, but we will see).