1x06 Chapter Six: The Monster

[7.5/10] Dustin may be my favorite character on the show (give or take Eleven). He is hilarious. He is bright. He has strong emotional intelligence. He’s also plain spoken in the way that some people on this show need to hear.

I like the way he challenges Mike with the fact that both he and Lucas and Eleven were in the wrong. I like the way he cautions Mike not to jump into the quarry even when a knife is being held to his throat. I like the way he then taunts the bullies after Eleven has given them the what-for. He’s just the best.

Honestly, the kid material here is where it’s at. This is also a great Eleven episode. As generic as the bullies are, the fact that they’re threatening the boys with a knife is legitimately scary, particularly as Mike seems to be willing to make the leap to spare his friend. But Eleven saves the day in dramatic fashion, using her telekinesis to not only catch Mike in mid-air, but to smack them and send them running. It’s scary and protective and redemptive in the best way. (My wife and both did the “ahhhhsome” response to it.)

But we also get another illuminating flashback with another cool Under the Skin-esque interaction between her and The Monster in the Vale of Shadows. I’m repeating myself, but the mix of kindness and abuse she suffers is very vivid and makes her endlessly sympathetic. Likewise, her encounter with The Monster is creepy as hell, especially since we get the closest and clearest glimpse of it yet. Last but not least, we learn that she’s the one who punctured a hole between the two dimensions and created “the gate.” It’s a nice measure of explanation, one rooted in one of the show’s best characters, one who’s already been established as supernatural, which is all to the good.

The other elements of the episode aren’t as strong, but they’re not bad either. It looks like my “Eleven is Hopper’s dead daughter” theory is probably kaput, since the intercuts strongly suggest that she’s the daughter of the local woman who participated in the MKUltra experiments. It’s a solid explanation, one that ties into what we already know and suspect. The effect the loss clearly had on this woman helps sell the gravity of the wrong that was committed here, and moves Hopper and Joyce further along the trail.

Once again, my least favorite part of this once continues to be the Nancy/Jonathan parts of it. Again, it’s such generic teen drama material, even when it’s mixed with Nancy’s desperate escape from the Upside Down. Plus, as an aside, are the Wheelers the most oblivious and/or deaf parents in the world? Both of their older kids have snuck people into the house and hid them from their folks for extended periods of time which makes mom and dad seem like dupes.

But again, it seems pretty convenient that Steve just happens to see the two of them together, and then his response to the whole thing is so generically juvenile. There’s no depth to the show’s kid-aged antagonists here. (Alright, maybe a little bit, since Steve seems at least a little genuinely concerned about Nancy.) It’s just the whole bad boy vs. jerk jock skirmish over a girl which can’t help but feel like the sort of thing that’s been done to death. Plus Nancy admitting she likes him seems obvious and her realization comes out of nowhere.
Otherwise, I like that we get to see the Hawkins Energy crew wrapping their tentacles around other parts of the town, especially as others are circling in. One of their goons getting to the boys’ science teacher, and Lucas spotting the Paul Blartt-looking operative helps heighten the sense that these various worlds are about to collide in the last couple of episodes.

Overall, it’s the kid elements and the details we’re getting about what’s truly happened that’s carrying the show, but that’s more than enough for right now!