We’re about to wrap up this month’s Stranger Things run, and things are looking pretty grim for our heroes with them being squeezed on both fronts, how will they get out of this one? Let’s take a look.
Chapter 7: The Bite
In case we needed reminding, Mayor Kline’s funfair is still underway and most people are having fun there, or they’ve been roped into performing something. Mayor Kline comes on stage to give his speech. The rest of the wheeler family are in a Ferris wheel, Mrs Wheeler shipped the operator money to stop it at the top, so they have the best view of the fireworks, but their little daughter eyes something in the woods, moving as ominous music plays. Roll credits.
We cut to the Hopper Cabin (or possibly the Byers House, they look very similar) , where the group are discussing the revelations El received in the previous episode. They hear something close that puts them all on edge, especially Will. They head inside and see the newly formed Mind Flayling heading right for them.
With Team Dustin, Robin and Steve are still high on truth serum as Dustin and Erica drive them away. They get to the lift and use the key card they liberated earlier to get he get the lift moving but Steve and Robin’s antics now begin to become a problem, as they don’t make any sense. Making matters worse, the Russians took the keys to Steve’s car, so that’s no longer a plan to make a quick getaway. When they get out, 2 guards spot them so they dive into the mall
Team El begin barricading the house rather than running because I guess they like being sitting ducks. It breaks in easily one arm at a time, but begins sending in more once it has a fix on El’s position. It grabs her from above, but Mike and the others hold onto her, with Nancy and Lucas using offensive tactics to force it to let her go, they’re successful, but it’s clear the creature making contact with El had an impact. She tears it apart but only temporarily and the group decide to make a run for it, like they should’ve done the moment they saw it coming.
They head into the movie theatre, where the film of choice is Back to the Future, they find 2 convenient spare seats in a packed theatre, when there’s a fair going on outside, go figure. Anyway, Steve and Robin sit and Dustin tells them not to move. Two people, high as a kite, told not to move, gonna guess they’re gonna move. Dustin and Erica move to the other end of the row, with 2 more conveniently empty seats. You know if I sit in a cinema screen, I tend to prefer an end of row seat, just in case of you know, toiletry needs, so this seems implausible to me.
Anyway, with Erica pointing out the flaws in Dustin’s plan, Dustin tasks her with watching them whilst he uses his radio to call for help. We finally check in with Hopper, Joyce, Alexei and Murray, Alexei is explaining the two keys needed to shut down they machine, they’re in a vault and the combination is Planck’s constant.
The kids break into a medical store buying some equipment to help El’s leg, which is in pretty bad shape. Max seems to have the most medical knowledge when it comes to injuries like this, so takes charge of that, sending the others off on tasks. Nancy and Jonathan discuss the likelihood that this could be the merging of all the flayed, and killing it would likely kill them too, whilst Will and Lucas are distracted by a lot of unsecured fireworks. Ah, the good ol days, probably incidents like this that forced shops to keep them under lock and key.
With Max coming over to put those dreams to bed, Mike gets some time alone with El, admitting how he was unfair to her but for some reason he has an aversion to saying the word ‘love’ suddenly. This awkward conversation is interrupted by Dustin making a call on the radio, unfortunately the signal is garbled and soon the radio runs out of battery, Dustin doesn’t have enough of them to replace them all.
And, surprise, surprise, Steve and Robin have gone. They’re in the lobby, with Steve drinking from the water fountain. The two discuss the creepy undercurrents of Back to the Future they’re both still tripping from the truth drug. Some lights on the ceiling is enough to make them puke.
Team Hopper arrive at the fair with Alexei and Murray told to stay put. Kline spots them during a photo-op, and his smile begins to fade. He races to the car in his phone to call Discount Terminator. With her wound cleared up, El begins a search, presumably for Dustin as Lucas sings the praises of new Coke… It somehow lasted till 2002, although the original coke was brought back within 3 months.
El finds Dustin and they leave, armed to the teeth with fireworks. Robin and Steve puke their guts out, and it seems the effects of the drug are wearing off. Though not entirely as they both speak the truth under questioning. Steve picks this time to reveal he does have feelings for Robin and… oh dear, time for that hammer to come down again.
There’s a lot of self-loathing coming from Robin as she ultimately makes this reveal, it’s tragic but she’s brought up in a society that hasn’t yet been willing to accept homosexuality. Turns out it wasn’t Steve she had a crush on back in class, but someone obsessed with him called Tammy Thompson. Honestly, Steve takes it rather well, don’t know whether that him still being on truth serum, or his character development over 3 seasons coming through.
Billy finds himself at the store the team El were at earlier and finds El’s blood. Alexei gives Murray instructions to destroy the machine. He wants American citizenship and Murray lets him have some fun in the fair. And lets him off the leash entirely, which seems like a really bad idea. Joyce and Hopper find Mr and Mrs Wheeler in one of the rides and head in after her.
As expected, they have no idea where their kids are. The ride spins and Joyce and Hopper hold hands. Dustin’s plan to blend in with the crowd exiting the movie theatre goes almost immediately awry when the Russian guards are seen searching people coming out. They’re spotted and chased, you do know you can run down escalators even when they’ve stopped, right?
Anyway, Alexei wins a Woody the Woodpecker toy at a ‘rigged’ game, but as he’s about to announce this to Murray, Discount Terminator is on the scene, armed with a silenced pistol, he’s shot through the stomach and begins bleeding out, Murray gets him to the side and promises help, he shouts out to Hopper, who sees DT and makes a run for it. There are other guards which spot as he heads into a funhouse.
Joyce makes a run for Murray, but it’s too late, Alexei is dead. Hopper uses the funhouse to his advantage to take out one of the Russians, picking up his silenced pistol to use as DT enters the ride. Joyce gives Kline a piece of her mind, or rather her foot, it’s very satisfying, I want to watch that on loop.
The next level of the funhouse is
a hall of mirrors, Hoppers gets the drop on DT and unloads a silenced clip onto
him, but as Thanos once said
Yeah, he’s wearing a bulletproof vest. Hooper makes his escape and thanks to the radio Hopper stole, they know the Russians are after children in the mall. Since the last episode is called the Battle of Starcourt, I think it’s clear where this is going. They have the kids cornered, but a car alarm distracts them, it’s El, who sends the car flying into them, killing them.
The two teams catch up, mostly on the Russians, but El becomes a bit woozy and collapses, they find something moving inside her leg as the credits roll
It’s a strong penultimate episode that begins to bring things together, the team Hopper plotline relies on a few too many people who are usually smart being really stupid though
Rating 7.5/10
The Battle of Starcourt
Holy sh*t, this is over an hour long. Hopper and Joyce are moving straight to the Mall, as the kids have to deal with El’s injured leg. Johnny heads to one of the food retailers, grabbing a knife, which he heats with the stove and some napkins. The others try and keep her sedate as Jonathan has to cut into her leg and get the creature out, the pain becomes a lot, and El decided to try and remove it herself. She does so just as the adults arrive. Roll credits.
The groups catch up and here’s the basis for our climax, the grownups will finding a way to the machine and shutting it down, killing the Mind Flayling in the process, Team Scoops will be heading to Cerebro to boost their signal so they can navigate from relative safety. Meanwhile, everyone else is gonna be heading to safety, though with some reluctance.
Nancy tries to drive the crew away but as the cliché goes, her car won’t start, but there’s a reason this time, Billy sabotaged the car. They head back into the mall. The adults discuss their plan but things go almost immediately awry when they’re discovered the moment the lift opens. Murray tries to calm the situation down but Hopper decides to just shoot everyone. You could read a lot into this but I don’t have the patience so I’m just gonna move on.
So after some old music and some serious off-roading the car, they’re close to Cerebro, with the group in the mall calling for help. The car El flung into the Russians earlier might have an ignition cable they can use but they struggle to flip it the right way up, even with El using her powers. Using the uniforms of the soldiers they killed which miraculously aren’t riddled with bullet-holes, Hopper and Murray pass a security guard on a lifter.
They make it to the vents which is Murray’s stop. The kids eventually get the car flipped. El tries to use her powers on a can of coke, not dissimilarly to how she was able to back at the lab but finds she can’t do it. But the mind Flayling has arrived, separating the kids from Jonathan and Nancy.
DT and a group of guards arrive, knowing that Hopper is here. Hopper and Joyce get to turn their flirting up a notch, even making a formal date. Yeah… this is the finale so it’s pretty obvious one of them ain’t showing up. Murray reaches a junction and gets directed by Dustin, but team Scoops then see the power surges at the mall, they call in the other kids but get nothing as they’re hiding and left the radio.
Steve and Robin head off to help them as Dustin contacts the adults. The kids make a break for it but don’t get very far, behind some shelves at GAP. Murray performs his sabotage, shutting down the machine, Lucas saves everyone by using his catapult to pop a balloon, distracting the Flayling long enough for everyone to escape
OK, so Planck’s constant, which is, according to google 6.62607015×10−34 so their attempt 662608004 is wrong. 662607015 is the correct code, and only one person in the world at this point could possibly save them, Suzie. Yup.
The new ignition cable installed, it’s still a problem getting the car going, thankfully they’re saved Billy’s wrath when Steven and Robin crash into it. They eventually get it going and everyone heads away from the Flayling. In Salt Lake City, Suzie receives his call from Dustin. She’s real and very much needed right now.
Suzie wants Dustin to sing for his number, the Neverending story song. The adults are equally as perplexed as the other kids and me. They go through the whole goddamn thing too, she gives Planck’s constant as 6.626080004 which is still wrong. But it works anyway, maybe it got adjusted slightly in the 30 + years since the show is set.
El, Mike and Max were still at the mall, and Billy’s recovered enough to spot them, the Flayling turns around to stop them. Joyce and Hopper arrive at the control room and scare the scientists out, they have the keycards to shut it down. Billy manages to capture El, as DT arrives to stop Hopper and Joyce.
Billy drags El into the mall, just as the Mind Flayer arrives, time for the kids to use those fireworks. Hopper and DT begins to fight hand-to-hand, which probably favours DT. Joyce thinks up a way to use her belt strap to turn both keys at once. As Billy pins El down, she tries to break through to him using what she learned in his memories. It works. Hopper manages to beat DT as the machine begins to overload.
Billy’s returned to his senses just as the kids run out of fireworks, and defends El against the Flayer, buying her time to run, unfortunately, it’s not gonna last and he’s quickly killed. The machine looks set to overload as Joyce has her fingers on the Keys, but with Hopper that close to the machine, she hesitates. Hopper nods, giving her the clear to finish the mission and with a lot regrets she does so.
The machine blows up, seemingly killing everyone near it, including Hopper, equally importantly, it kills the Flayling. A devastated Joyce looks to see that Hopper is gone. Billy is somehow still alive after being stabbed through the chest, though not for very long. Max is equally devastated as the hits just keep on coming. Russian soldiers arrive and Joyce and Murray make a beeline for the exit but some hope arrives in the form of the US army making a beeline for the facility.
They storm the base, but it seems the Russians have already gone. Will and Joyce embrace but El realises she has lost her adoptive father. I’m curious that they never mined the drama out of his outburst at Mike.
We cut to 3 months later, Kline has been arrested and Hawkins has basically been rebranded as a helltown. Steve and Robin apply for a job at the arcade… Steve is as embarrassing as ever and doesn’t initially get hired, but Robin asides that bringing him on board might make the place more “attractive to women”
It seems the Byers family are moving out, and I have no idea who in their right mind would buy the house but what can you do? Max and Lucas tease Dustin regarding Suzie, the more that changes. Will throws away all his D+D stuff, saying he’ll use Mike’s if he comes to visit and will never join another party.
And of course, the Byers family
moving out does cause some problems, as Johnathan and Nancy won’t be able to
see each other and since El is heading off with them (which was inevitable
since Joyce is the only one who knows about her) Mike and El won’t be able to
see each-other either. It may have been 3 months but El’s powers haven’t
returned yet. Luckily, they have cerebro so they can talk on the radio, and
there are opportunities for visitations too. Mike I still refuses to say ‘I
love you,’ and I’m getting kinda sick of it. At least El has balls… you know
what I mean.
Joyce finds the heart-to-heart, and El gets a chance to read it. At least it just feels like salt in the wounds. But of course, you’ve seen the s4 trailer by now and know Hopper is still alive. The kids say their goodbyes and continue to move and repair. Erica gets some of the toys Will donated. Some of this is a bit out of order, we see the truck depart with the car and then cut back.
Snow falls on the end credits, as they cut back to Russia. Who talk about an American prisoner, before dragging another from their cell down a huge number of stairs. He’s locked in a cage as an animal is released, the OG Demogorgon is back and somehow functioning whilst the gate isn’t open.
It’s a pretty sombre end all things considered, with a lot of change on the horizon after a summer of horror. Robin and Erica probably lost the least, having only the trauma to comprehend. El lost the most, her powers, her friends, her father figure, it’s likely she still won’t be at full strength when s4 begins
Rating 7.5/10
Season 4 debuted a trailer, but the filming was interrupted due to COVID-19, which means we likely won’t be seeing it for a while, so we’ll back in 2 years but Halloween isn't over yet, we've got one more horror show to see and IT's a doozy
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