QuantumMechanic

Hmm. Michael had quite the grimace as he was stepping into the balloon (as Chidi was walking in front of him). He either knows something or someone’s impersonating him. It can’t be this easy.

There’s not subtle and NOT SUBTLE. If the current writers had written “Genesis of the Daleks”, Four’s “But do I have the right?” would have been 30 seconds or more of him going on and on about only bad people would do something like blow up an incubator and play god over beings that hadn’t carried out their own acts yet, and telling Sarah Jane (or whoever was with him in that scene) how that’s the sort of thing fascists would to. And the Daleks probably would have been created by the Nazis, from Hitler’s DNA.

Telling about a possible end to earth isn't a problem. Telling about a possible end to earth in a crappy, hamfisted, bereft of craft, patronizing way is. How about the writers use some of their alleged writing skills to do (gasp!) a good job at telling us? Just because some message is admirable doesn't excuse massively botching the execution of delivering the message. Is it too much to ask for provocative, interesting, thoughtful delivery instead of paint-by-numbers zero-effort anvil-dropping?

I will — it makes for crap TV. Talking about what an orphan planet was, and then us finding out that one was Earth? Fine and a nice if not original twist (the apes say “hi”). And one that makes the eco-point. Having Whitaker practically break the 4th wall to literally lecture to the audience? Crap TV. Anvil-dropping is boring, patronizing, and unentertaining. Professional writers should be able to get their point across without resorting to the triteness of anvils. If they can’t, they should look for another line of work.

Who are you? Captain James T. Kirk? 🙂 Also, there was a classic “Twilight Zone” episode precisely on point with that.

I really want them to treat the 8th and 9th obstacles of city finals courses as (at least!) two sub-obstacles each for purposes of figuring “the farthest the fastest”. (Personally I’d like each individual “grab point” in those obstacles to be treated as a checkpoint but can understand that being considered too complicated for the viewers). It has always irked me that someone who gets almost to the end of (say) the 8th obstacle and then falls is considered to be behind someone who fell off the obstacle immediately but touched it a couple of seconds sooner. Really, I’d like any obstacle with obvious internal transition points to have those transition points treated as checkpoints.

Oh god I'm old... https://www.businessinsider.com/stranger-things-darkroom-question-meme-2019-7

A few things... * Like many others, I’ve come around on Drew. * I particularly like the city finals since because we’ve seen the people before I can convince my family to skip the backstories/sob stories. * The 2-women rule for advancing from the city finals needs to be changed so that they have to make it past the wall to be able to go to nationals. * Am I the only person annoyed by the removal of the clock during runs?

Yup. That's why I was worried when pre-release media was saying how Erica was being given a bigger role. And then I turned out to be correct in my worrying.

With respect to the “how could the Russians have gotten away (potentially with Hopper) when the US military was all over the place” question... The under-mall base was HUGE. And I would be shocked if there wasn’t at least one “emergency exit” that came up above ground a good distance from the mall. The Russians who escaped could have escaped that way, bringing Hopper with them if they had captured him.

Hopper has no one but himself to blame for not putting a bullet in Russian Ahnold’s head when he had the chance at the funhouse and also when he literally had a gun to the guy’s head and futzed around. Also, they could have just turned the keys right away instead of the “Threeeeeeee, Twooooooo, Onnnnnnnnnnne” slow count.

Yeah. It was nice to see Steve say "No, not really".

Agreed. The Russians have likely had the portal in Hawkins cracked open since the power outage in Ep 1 as you say. I still want to know where the demogorgon in the credits scene is from. Did they get it in Hawkins? Cuz it looked like the portal under the mall never got that wide open. We didn’t even see tentacles around it. Or did they finally get a portal open back home? Actually, doesn’t there have to be a current portal open for the demogorgon to even remain alive? And what does that mean for Mind Flayer particles in Hawkins? Presumably when the gate under the mall was closed any MF particles in Hawkins went dormant again. Can a gate in Russia reactivate them or does it have to be more local?

Well, sorta by definition it's always going to be in the last place you look. 🙂

Something that just occurred to me... With the gates closed, how is it that the Russians have a living demogorgon? And if the Russians have opened a gate, why isn't the Mind Flayer sending all sorts of crap after El and company? (I wonder if the MF's actions are limited to the area of the gate or if it can influence any part of the world from any open gate?) Season 4's plot, maybe? 😁

Yes, he did. And he is the same actor that's in that AT&T commercial.

No, he couldn't sprint back. After he threw Russian Ahnold into the gun it was shooting electrical arcs between Hopper and the control room, blocking him from returning.

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They showed the blood left on the floor starting to bubble a bit like it was rat/people goo.

"mutually-assured destruction" 🙂

Were there even tip jars back then for businesses like that??

Plus, isn't even the air toxic over there? The green goo powers the gun. There was a scene where you could see workers inserting the canisters of green goo into the sides of the gun. As for the fertilizer/chemicals/etc., I assume that was to make it possible for the Mind Flayer to goo-ify/ungoo-ify the rats and people.

Depends where you are in the US. In RI in the 70s and 80s (and I believe all the way to today) the school year started a day or two after Labor Day and ended in mid to late June (depending on how many snow days there end up being).

You know -- it occurs to me that Steve turned out to be 100% right when Dustin was trying to hook him up with Robin and he said "She's not my type." 🙂

I like that. Do we know when the Russians opened the gate under the mall? I vaguely recall (before we were shown the mall gun opening the gate) some Russian saying something that pretty clearly indicated the gate was open, but can't remember what episode that was in. But hmmmmmm. The flayer was already collecting rats in the first episode (and got Billy at the end of the first as well, right? It all blurs together 🙂 ). If so, I don't know if your theory will hold up. Any reason to believe the gate was open that early?