I am enjoying every moment of this show! EVERY-FUCKING-MOMENT !
The Wheeler's dad is the dumbest character on TV. Dumbest. Character.
So sad about Barb, It's like noone cared for her enough to give her strength to fight for her life a bit harder.
Being chased around and escaping these 'bad guys' definitely has that E.T. vibe
The romance between Eleven and Mike is so amazing. I love it so much!
The way Joyce took care of Eleven... I nearly had tears in my eyes. It was so wonderful to see how she comforted Eleven. Let's hope she'll adopt her at the end :D
[8.1/10] Honestly, this one could have stopped at the opening credits, and I’d still be a happy camper. The urgency of the “bad people” bearing down on our heroes, the crackerjack coordination of the kids via their walkie-talkies, the van flip that Eleven performs to save the day, and the mutual apologies and reconciliations among Mike, Lucas, and Eleven are all just the best. That one series of sequences may be enough to single-handedly justify Stranger Things, as the build to that point and the series of cathartic payoffs along the way was riveting and heartening in equal measure.
But the rest of the episode works well too! Things are truly going down at this point, and I like how “The Bathtub” brings the various far-flung corners of the show together. Hopper and Joyce link up with Nancy and Jonathan, who compare notes and realize they’re on the same page. That quartet makes contact with the middle-schoolers, and after some tense moments spent deciding whether they can trust the adults (“Lando Calrissean!!!” a still-fresh betrayal in 1983), finally everyone working on Team Upside Down is on the same page.
(As an aside, I really like the touch that Jonathan figures out that the best way to make contact with Mike is through Will’s walkie talkie. It’s a smart call.)
Still, stuff is happening on the other corner of the show as well. The Wheelers continue to be some of T.V.’s most incompetent parents. (I suppose parents have to be half-blind in order for these kid adventure stories to work.) The feds make contact with them and Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler try to help them find Mike and his cohort.
The strangest side story though belongs to Steve. To be frank, I don’t know how I feel about the character or what they’re doing with him. Sometimes he seems like a generic jock jerk. Sometimes he seems like he genuinely cares for Nancy and is having epiphanies about the wrongness of his action. I want to give him some slack as a young adult, especially one who’s realizing that he could be better to do this, but that’s really damn hard one episode after he was slut-shaming Nancy and crossing a line with his comments about Jonathan’s family. I can appreciate the show going for complexity/multitudes here, but in the short term Steve just seems a little schizophrenic.
Still, Team Upside Down is united, and it gives the show some real momentum. For one thing, it gives us some pairings we don’t usually get or at least haven’t so far. There’s a vaguely paternal vibe between Hopper and Jonathan which seems to be hinting toward the role the good sheriff may play in his life in the future. We see Nancy and Mike really talk for the first time, expressing concern and care for one another, amid the usual teenage “No, I don’t have a crush on that person!” protestation. And I particularly like Joyce and Eleven together, with Ms. Byers providing the sort of genuine parental care and compassion that Eleven’s been so deprived of for so long, subjected only to Matthew Modine’s twisted version of the same.
(As an aside, I continue to love Dustin as a character. His phone call to his science teacher, which interrupted a date no less, was nothing short of hilarious. I got a big kick out of speech about “locking the doors of curiosity.”)
That all leads to one more effort to connect to the Upside Down before (presumably) some of our heroes actually journey there to retrieve Will and maybe Barb. I like the idea of trying to recreate Eleven’s sensory deprivation tank in some form so that she can reach the two kidnappees, and the efforts to retrieve the supplies and knowhow necessary give the characters a lot of cool moments.
The sequence where she makes it into the Upside Down continues to give me cool, scary Under the Skin vibes. It’s the closest look we’ve gotten at poor Will, who’s surviving in “Castle Byers” but seems much worse for wear, even before the monster seems to attack him. Likewise, the glimpse we get of Barb is not pretty, raising questions of whether she can be saved and showing off some real cool production design. But the most important part is that when Eleven gets scared, when she’s rattled, she hears Joyce’s voice reassuring her, and it helps center and steady here. The show’s clearly building something there, and I like it.
But we can’t leave things without some big cliffhangers. So we have Hopper and Joyce getting surrounded and held at gunpoint by the authorities. We have Nancy and Jonathan retrieving their army supplies and planning to go kill that thing themselves. And we have poor Will seemingly in the maw of the monster. Excited to see the raging climax!
Fantastic! This show is just too good!
This show really made great use of the "trope" of characters not knowing what's going on (while the viewer does) or not knowing what each other were going through, which makes you scream at your TV wanting them to realize they're not crazy and they're all trying to achieve the same goal. A lot of shows don't have great payoff on this but this episode really does! It's super satisfying for everyone to finally come together and unite.
Seriously, this series keeps getting better!!!!! The plot thickens!!!!! Dr. Brenner isn't kidding and he will do everything to get Eleven back. I really liked how Lucas redeemed himself in this episode. He show that he is a part of The Losers! I Really like how he ask forgiveness to Eleven. Team is back! Nancy and Jonathan plan didn't but they got together with Joyce and Hop. Hop was a badass saving the kids from Brenner's man. The whole team working to find Will and Barbs was amazing. I felt sorry for Nancy when she discovered that Barbs was dead but I was happy that Will still lives! Eleven was show stealer of these episode. At beginning, throwing the van up and finding the missing people (Will and Barbs). She is such badass character. Overall, a amazing episode and Lest's jus say tha season finale wil be epic. A side note is that Steve isn't a jerk anymore and I liked it.
Oh shit! Run, Will, RUNNNNNNNNNN
I think the kiss wasn't necessary. I like the innocence of them as kids and then you get that?
Nancy's so fucking annoying.
But I really like that they have all teamed up.
dammit will!!! Live!!!
The romance between Mike and Eleven was a bit unnecessary i think. I get that it should heighten the stakes and the finale but i like Millie Bobby Brown so much as Eleven that i didn't really need it. Anyway, now that we have it i am very pleased with the execution. It felt so innocent, so sweet. They are friends, but they feel that they feel more for each other without really knowing that.
The chase and the whole beginning before the intro were excellent. This is 80s-Spielberg at it's best. .
I have a question about the Lando-Theme that Dustin evoked: He said "That doesn't feel good" repteadly in this dialog. But wouldn't it make more sense if he would say: "I have a bad feeling about this", like Han Solo, who was betrayed by Lando? Did Disney or Lucas Film trademarked that sentence?
Also, is Mr. Clark a CIA sleeper? He knows about sensory deprivation tank and how to build one, about multiverse-theories but acts like a really average guy. That is very suspicious! Maybe we should open this curiosity door.
At the end of the episode, where the two henchman of the lab, the woman and the man appeared i had one thought: Anti-Mulder-and-Scully.
Bloody awesome, epic, superb series. Going to be sad when this is over next episode.
When I was watching this episode my internet must have dipped a little making the picture quality drop. It really added to the 80s vibe as it felt like I was watching on a VHS or something....was awesome :)
“Salt? Where we gonna find that much salt?”
Why a SCHOOL of course, where there’s nothing but salty tears a plenty lol
LOVE how everyone is coming together, though it’s gonna take a bit for Steve to earn forgiveness after all he did, but decent first step.
protect eleven at all costs
that...was...just...wow...
dustin asking mr. clarke how to make a sensory deprivation tank was so funny :rofl::rofl::rofl: i like his fighting spirit !!!!
and the scene between eleven and joyce ☹:heartpulse: it's heartwarming to watch how joyce cares for eleven even though they just met :( the way she assured her that she's okay and she's there :((((( my heart melts ☹☹☹
aND PLS WHEN ELEVEN FLIPPED THE VAN????? WHAT ELSE CAN THIS GIRL DO???? :exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head: ngl, that was so impressive. she has so many potential.
steve slightly redeemed his character to me in this episode; although what he did was wrong (when he accused and showed off that nancy was a slut), you can still see that he cares for nancy and even took the vandalism off. however, he's still an asshole but gosh, his friends are 10x of that.
lastly, hopper was dumb and impulsive to enter the facility without even thinking of plans and back-up plans in doing so???? they just straight up trespassed the building. nahuli tuloy kayo shutacca :sob:
I think the teacher is the one with the superpowers. How does he all that?
At last they could gather.
Team is up. They are against the deep state, paramilitaries and their families who think they are betrayers.
They cooperate nice. But i dont understand why they splitted.
Yeah If some goverment suit would walk into my house and search it top to bottom I would sure trust him if he asked me to. Man, it's about time those baddies got their a's handed to them.
Preparing se sean finale, please, do not let me down
There you are Barb! We've been looking for you.
Shout by Si_CrazyBlockedParentSpoilers2016-08-13T00:58:36Z
So incredible!
I am beyond happy that now everybody is working together.
Dustin making Mr Clarke teach him how to make that tank was hilarious.
Poor Barb though :( She didn't deserve that.
I love that Joyce has that maternal instinct towards Eleven... the poor girl really needs someone to care about her.