Summary: The Hawkins Lab people go to Mike's house and the kids flee with El before reuniting with Lucas. They go into hiding and are contacted by Hopper, Joyce, Nancy and Jonathan who are working together now. The group goes to the school to make a "bathtub" for El to contact those in the upside down. Barb is dead but Willis alive. Hopper and Joyce go to the gate but are caught by guards. Will is attacked by the monster.
The Good: This was a very strong episode, which is probably the best episode of the show so far. The most impressive thing was definitely the fast pace and overall tension. The opening sequence for one was absolutely thrilling and fun, even though it was pretty obvious that the group would escape in the end. I assumed that the tension would drop a bit, but with the rapid plot developments and everybody finally working together, the tension continued to persist through several scenes including the wonderful scene where El goes into the bathtub. Speaking of that scene, I really enjoyed that storyline. It made sense and had good continuity from the previous scenes that we have scene with El in the lab. I was happy to get some confirmation on the standings of both Will and Barb before the expected rescue mission in the finale. There were also some nice moments between El and Joyce as the former panicked at returning to the upside down and the latter used her motherly instincts to comfort El. I enjoyed seeing the full cast coming together at last. Though I have some reservations (see: The Bad), I'm happy to see everybody finally working together before the final endgame because it gives us some fresh and interesting character interactions before everything goes down, including some excellent scenes between Joyce/El and Nancy/Mike. Steve's redemption arc continues and I'm happy about that. I thought it would have stopped in the last episode, but I'm glad they are continuing even if it does feel a bit out of place in this episode where so much is happening in other scenes. Dustin remains the greatest thing about this show. He was good in the first few episodes but he has really stood out in he past couple episodes, showing great intelligence and being genuinely funny. His late night conversation with Mr. Clark was very well done and hilarious, and it continues to make me believe that Mr. Clark will be doing something important in the finale. I was pleasantly surprised to see the bullies story actually have some consequences and it felt like a very natural step to bring Hopper and Joyce to El. So I retract that complaint about the story from last episode having no consequences. I'll reluctantly put the make up between Mike, El and Lucas in the good. It was a sweet moment but it really didn't quite feel satisfying because all characters didn't really do much in particular to make it feel like they should have logically made up. But then I remember that these are just kids so I suppose it's logical that they would make up so easily, even though it wasn't exactly satisfying on an emotional level. The Bad: The usual complaints still stand. Even though this was exciting, it didn't have me quite on the edge of my seat because I always felt like I knew what was going to come next. And since most of this episode was impactful due to its energy and tension, it doesn't succeed as well as it would on paper because of the show's predictability. The cliffhangers did nothing for me. It's obvious Will isn't dead and Joyce and Hopper will obviously still go through the gate in some way. It felt like 2 cliffhangers for the sake of cliffhangers going into the finale. Nancy and Jonathan haven't really accomplished anything so far. Hopper and Joyce practically have the same pieces they do only the adults are actually going to do something. Hopefully Jonathan and Nancy will do something, but so far their storyline feels pretty much pointless. The Unknown: Is Will dead? Probably not. But I wonder how he will escape alive from the monster. Are Hopper and Joyce captured now? How will they escape? Or will they end up working with the lab people by volunteering to go through the gate? We had that one scene a couple episodes ago where the one man went into the gate which means it wouldn't feel implausible. What are Jonathan and Nancy going to do? It feels like they don't have much of a role here. Same with Steve, so surely they will do something. Best Moment: Probably Nancy and Mike's short talk. It was nice to get a proper relationship scene that feels real. It was also hilarious hearing Mike attempt to say he didn't like El, but Nancy clearly wasn't buying it. Character of the Episode: Dustin, who remains the real MVP of this show. Conclusion: This was a very good and enjoyable episode to set up the finale. It succeeded because I was enjoying it all the way through and I am looking forward to see the story wrap up. Score: 66
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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