1x03 Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly

[7.9/10] My favorite episode of the show so far. After an episode that felt a little like the show was spinning its wheels, this one definitely progresses things in ways that are meaningful from both a lore standpoint and an emotional standpoint.

I think the element that interested me the most is the flashbacks we got to Eleven’s past. It’s kismet that I happened to watch Akira for the first time shortly before I started Stranger Things, so I’m primed to react to children with telekinetic powers, labeled with numbers, being experimented on, tested, and abused by mysterious government agents. The flashbacks we get to Eleven crushing coke cans, refusing to do the same to a cat, and then taking out her anger on her captors is scary and compelling. It’s particularly striking to see the Matthew Modine character as an abuser, in the sense that he both tortures Eleven but also offers her kindness when he does what she asks, which just makes him seem that much more insidious.

We also get Sheriff Hopper and his men on the right track, which helps. Hopper provides himself a solid detective here, talking his way into the Department of Energy, catching on when they’re trying to mislead him and taking advantage of the microfiche to get a bead on just what might be going on within that building. He’s got the details wrong, at least about whether they might have taken in or taken out Will, but he’s figured out that something’s amiss, and his competence at his job and devotion to finding this kid makes him a more likable character.

Likewise, we advance things with Joyce’s ability to communicate with her youngest son. The array of Christmas lights strung up through the Byers home catches the eye from a visual standpoint, creating a mix of the scary and colorful which fits the show’s mood. The string lights guiding Joyce and Baby Holly around the house, the yes/no flashes of a bundle of bulbs that tells Joyce her son is alive but not safe, and the makeshift lettergram that allows them to communicate with words works as the sort of thing that crosses past potential delusion and into the genuine;y paranormal. (Not that there was a lot of doubt about that.) Again, the production design here is exquisite, and I thought Ryder stepped it up in the episode.

The Nancy storyline improved a bit as well. I’m not sure what to make of the opening juxtaposition of Nancy’s first time with Steve and Barb being assaulted by a monster, beyond hints that things are going to go poorly for both girls out of this. The flow of this one is overly telegraphed, with Steve kissing and telling to Nancy’s embarrassment alongside some predictable bullying of Jonathan over his candid photos (whose discovery is contrived).

Despite that cheesy and cliché side of things, I like the effect all of these events have on Nancy. Her slow realization that something’s gone wrong with Barb, her efforts to confirm her fears, and her coming clean to her mom after putting her off earlier all deepen Nancy’s character beyond the “Miss Perfect taking a walk on the wild side” archetype. It adds an element of horror and remorse to the whole thing which are more interesting than the standard teen drama elements.

Unfortunately, we move a little more toward that in the younger kid portion of the show. As interesting as much of the Eleven material is, I’m less crazy about the “You just have a crush on her!” material with Mike. There’s definitely something that hurts when he rejects her after Will turns up into Chekov’s ravine, but the setup to get to that point is too rote. That said, I still like the dynamic among the kid, and I do appreciate that middle-schooler Mike is wounded by his friend seemingly turning up dead and blames the first person he finds who he thought could help them avoid all this.

(Random prediction: What if Eleven resurrects Mike? There’s a lot of E.T. in Stranger Things, and that development would feel of a piece)

The only other thing of note is that we get to see a little more of the monster, who resembles the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth.

Oh yeah, and Will turns up dead! I don’t know what to say about that. It doesn't make much sense after what we’ve seen so far, and I still feel like there’s more to the story there. But I like the theme it connects to here -- parents making connections with their children when things have gone wrong.

We see that parallel visually in the hug between Mike and Karen and the hug between Joyce and Jonathan. We see it Nancy coming clean to her mother when she’s worried about her friend. There’s even an unnerving parallel to the Matthew Modine character (who’s apparently part of MKUltra) cradling Eleven. Much of this show so far seems to hinge on the strained but reaffirmed connections between parents and children of multiple stripes, and I’m interested to see where that goes from here.