S04.E02: Chapter Two: Vecna's Curse

[Cheezwiz]

On 5/31/2022 at 2:30 PM, CarpeFelis said:

really during the first few years of the decade, fashion was still basically ‘70s. I recall commenters on The Americans complaining that they didn’t see any ‘80s fashion at the beginning of that series, but it started out set in 1981, so they were actually period correct.

Co-signing this 100%. A lot of people forget that it takes awhile for new looks to take hold in a decade, and usually around the turn of a decade, fashion still has one foot in the previous one. The early eighties were a bit bland, nebulous, and still stuck in the late 70's in a lot of ways. I can remember things starting to shift a bit in '82/83, which is when I moved from elementary school to junior high.

The 60's were the same. If you look at clothing catalogues  and pattern books in the Pre-Kennedy assassination era, skirts were still quite full and long like they were in the 50's, although much sleeker more tailored influences were creeping in. The mod stuff didn't hit until the mid-sixties, and the hippie stuff came shortly after that. 

I will shut up now, as I'm WAAY off topic! But fashion and period detail fascinates me - I think this particular show is hit-or-miss.

[Athena]

You are continue to talk about the 80's stuff in the episodes. For a deeper discussion, we do have an 80's thread.

[truthaboutluv]

On 6/2/2022 at 2:06 PM, Taryn74 said:

Meanwhile, I took it as Mike was frustrated that Will wasn't placing importance on spending time with a girlfriend because Will wasn't into girls yet (from Mike's POV, whether Will was ever going to "be into girls" or not is irrelevant to this particular scene), and he didn't realize how it was going to sound (like he was calling Will gay in the same way that the bullies Joyce alluded to in S1 did) and that was why he reacted the way he did after Will was so obviously hurt by the "insult". He really didn't mean for it to come across that way.

That's exactly how I interpreted that scene and am honestly completely thrown at the interpretations of Mike being homophobic. Then again, I'm thrown by 80% of the comments in this thread, as I just watched the episode and my only thoughts were as follows:

• Poor guy whose name I don't remember (the one working with Nancy)
• I am dreading the sheer fuckery that's going to come from the basketball player lunkheads
• I continue to not care about Jonathan and he's looking more and more like a homeless meth-head
• And finally, as satisfying in the moment as it was to see El wack Angela, yeah battery and assault is never a good idea. 

So yeah, totally lost on all the fashion aesthetic talk. Can't say I've paid that close attention or it matters that much to me. Admittedly, while I was born in the mid-80s, I consider myself a 90s kid as those were my teen years.

Regarding Mike and Will, as I noted above, I read the scene the way I did particularly because of the events leading up to it. We saw how Will was desperately trying to keep the dynamic the four boys had pre his kidnapping and all the craziness in Hawkins.

But it wasn't just Mike's obsession with El, changing the dynamic. Lucas had started dating Max and Dustin had his long distance girlfriend no one believed was real. The point being that they had all moved on in a way Will hadn't and that was enough to cause their dynamic to change. 

And it's how I continue to interpret the existing strain in their relationship. It is true that Mike and Will appeared to be the closest of all the four, though they were all close enough. But, also true, since El, Mike's been more focused on her. And it hasn't affected his friendship with Dustin and Lucas because again, Dustin and Lucas both had their own interests, as well as girlfriends. 

I just think Will and Mike represent these childhood friendships that inevitably change over time and it's hard for Will because most times, both individuals simply drift apart. Where in this case, Will is still clinging to how they were and Mike is simply ill-equipped as a self-absorbed teenager, to really deal with the strain in their friendship. 

I also want to comment on the multiple comments I saw about Mike and Will doing nothing while El was being humiliated. I don't think that's entirely fair to Mike. He tried to the get the DJ to stop the music, obviously not knowing that once he did El would be hit with the milkshake. 

Then after she was hit with the milkshake, he tried to get to her on the floor but the crowd seemed to be blocking his path and El took off and ran, where we later see him and Will looking for her. 

Edited June 13, 2022 by truthaboutluv

[Heathrowe]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:42 PM, Demian said:

The costuming's off this season as well -- no one was wearing all that neon crap (not to mention that hateful full-on acid-washed denim jumpsuit) at the roller rink in 1986.  It was jeans a

Will have to respectfully disagree there....I was in high school 1984-1987 and my roller skating outfit was THE BEST. It was tiny polyester striped sky blue and white shorts with a white tank top and a short sky blue satin baseball-style jacket with the stretchy cuffs and bands. Add a sparkly forehead band to my big hair and I was ready to roll. That jacket was my favorite thing in the world for a very long time. I was like Xanadu but in NJ...

Anyway - the outfits that are not working for me are El's because I thought last season she went to the mall and got some sass? And now she is dressing like a sister-wife. That said, my heart breaks for El. I'd call the bullying enhanced for tv but not really unbelievable. Did people join in with the awful group mentality to bully the odd girl? Yes, absolutely. Did people all just stand back and watch people get bullied or beat up? Yes, absolutely. Did bad stuff happen at the roller rink - yes.

I was not happy to see El bash the girl in the face with the skate. I get it, but I hate it. What are we supposed to think? When she raised her hand last episode in the school courtyard, what would have happened if she had her powers? El has been through so much - to let someone like Angela break her seems off to me.

Dustin was amazing this episode. And Steve, thanks for being Steve because I adore him. I wish he and Nancy were endgame and could work together again. I just don't get her and Jonathan.

Oh, and I think Eddie Munson is pretty great. 

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

That's exactly how I interpreted that scene and am honestly completely thrown at the interpretations of Mike being homophobic. Then again, I'm thrown by 80% of the comments in this thread, as I just watched the episode and my only thoughts were as follows:

• Poor guy whose name I don't remember (the one working with Nancy)
• I am dreading the sheer fuckery that's going to come from the basketball player lunkheads
• I continue to not care about Jonathan and he's looking more and more like a homeless meth-head
• And finally, as satisfying in the moment as it was to see El wack Angela, yeah battery and assault is never a good idea. 

So yeah, totally lost on all the fashion aesthetic talk. Can't say I've paid that close attention or it matters that much to me. Admittedly, while I was born in the mid-80s, I consider myself a 90s kid as those were my teen years.

Regarding Mike and Will, as I noted above, I read the scene the way I did particularly because of the events leading up to it. We saw how Will was desperately trying to keep the dynamic the four boys had pre his kidnapping and all the craziness in Hawkins.

But it wasn't just Mike's obsession with El, changing the dynamic. Lucas had started dating Max and Dustin had his long distance girlfriend no one believed was real. The point being that they had all moved on in a way Will hadn't and that was enough to cause their dynamic to change. 

And it's how I continue to interpret the existing strain in their relationship. It is true that Mike and Will appeared to be the closest of all the four, though they were all close enough. But, also true, since El, Mike's been more focused on her. And it hasn't affected his friendship with Dustin and Lucas because again, Dustin and Lucas both had their own interests, as well as girlfriends. 

I just think Will and Mike represent these childhood friendships that inevitably change over time and it's hard for Will because most times, both individuals simply drift apart. Where in this case, Will is still clinging to how they were and Mike is simply ill-equipped as a self-absorbed teenager, to really deal with the strain in their friendship. 

I also want to comment on the multiple comments I saw about Mike and Will doing nothing while El was being humiliated. I don't think that's entirely fair to Mike. He tried to the get the DJ to stop the music, obviously not knowing that once he did El would be hit with the milkshake. 

Then after she was hit with the milkshake, he tried to get to her on the floor but the crowd seemed to be blocking his path and El took off and ran, where we later see him and Will looking for her. 

Though I respond differently to the Mike/Will dynamic, these are perfectly valid interpretations of what we've seen - and to be fair, even for those of us who do believe there's an undercurrent of sexuality issues, those factors certainly weigh in. I don't think of Will as a homophobe though - if he were he would have dropped Will as a friend (if you believe in the dynamic), I see that as a moment of frustration instead. Sometimes in moments like that you blurt out things/truths that you would normally not say. At least, that's what happens with me.

[Redrum]

1 hour ago, Heathrowe said:

. I'd call the bullying enhanced for tv but not really unbelievable. Did people join in with the awful group mentality to bully the odd girl? Yes, absolutely

Agree with the small caveat that El isn't weird enough looking to really garner that level of attention - the actress is really quite pretty - and El is odd enough acting that she edges into that category of "its not really ok to tease". Yes yes, there was always that asshole who called the kids with  Down Syndrome "r******" to their faces or who bullied the wheelchair kid but those kids were usually just one step above the ones they were bullying. Someone like Angela, in the popular crowd? Isn't going to go after easy prey so consistently - picking on the "special" kids is considered low even in middle school and Angela wouldn't be as popular herself simply because why is she spending her time going after such a loser? When there's skittish less popular cheerleaders to be smacked around verbally?

1 hour ago, Heathrowe said:

Did people join in with the awful group mentality to bully the odd girl? Yes, absolutely.

Yes but... I never saw it go as far as we saw in the roller rink scene. Everyone gawking as Angela goes after El at school? Sure. At the roller rink, I think we were all too busy doing roller rink stuff to care what the queen bee was up to. 

1 hour ago, Heathrowe said:

Did people all just stand back and watch people get bullied or beat up? Yes, absolutely. Did bad stuff happen at the roller rink - yes.

Kids sure, adults no. Especially at the roller rink. Yes, bad stuff went down there but at my roller rink of choice it was that you could buy pot in the restrooms. The roller rink adults would not help reinforce a bullying circle because the bullied kids or kid were paying customers who sometimes had parents in tow (Stranger Things buys into the fantasy that 1980s parents never went anywhere with their kids, whereas I remember a clot of parents in the smoking area and on the wings because the roller rink usually wasn't teens only and there was usually a lot of 9-13 year olds there along with teens) There was no food or drink allowed on the roller rink properr and there were guys stationed by the entrance who stopped you and sent you back to the food area to finish your drink or get rid of it.  Throwing a milkshake on someone would get your ass banned. It wouldn't be cheerfully endorsed. 

[Dev F]

46 minutes ago, Redrum said:

Kids sure, adults no. Especially at the roller rink. Yes, bad stuff went down there but at my roller rink of choice it was that you could buy pot in the restrooms. The roller rink adults would not help reinforce a bullying circle because the bullied kids or kid were paying customers who sometimes had parents in tow

Yeah, the roller rink attack is obviously meant to evoke the prom prank in Carrie, but in that movie the idea is that Carrie is imagining that everyone is laughing at her when in fact it's just a few assholes laughing, and the ones who actually perpetrated the prank do so in secret. Here it's an elaborate public shaming that everyone is in on, which is just not the way bullying tends to work, especially in the presence of authority figures.

The gender dynamics are also weird for the era. While I can imagine boys bullying El on their own terms—the one kid's "diarrhea" crack in class rang very true—I don't think they would've openly involved themselves in Angela's plan of revenge. It would've been considered emasculating for a boy to participate in a spat between two girls.

[Sarah 103]

4 hours ago, Heathrowe said:

Will have to respectfully disagree there....I was in high school 1984-1987 and my roller skating outfit was THE BEST. It was tiny polyester striped sky blue and white shorts with a white tank top and a short sky blue satin baseball-style jacket with the stretchy cuffs and bands. Add a sparkly forehead band to my big hair and I was ready to roll. That jacket was my favorite thing in the world for a very long time. I was like Xanadu but in NJ...

Your description is fantastic. I had a very clear image of what you were wearing, and I loved the last line about Xandu. It made me laugh and will probably be one of the best sentences I read today. 

[Anywhoo]

On 5/29/2022 at 12:27 PM, eleanorofaquitaine said:

Re the 80s fashion - some of it is over the top but I remember neon's hey day as being more 1985-ish. Still, I am sure people were wearing it in '86

Absolutely.  I was in college in 1986 and  had a neon lime green shirt that was so bright my friends said they could always pick me out of a crowd across campus when I wore it. 😂

[Nashville]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:44 PM, BlackberryJam said:

I always feel like this show is portraying the 80s from the POV of someone who learned about the 80s from watching TV and not from someone who actually grew up in the 80s. It’s frustrating. 

Well, keep in mind the Duffer Brothers themselves have little-to-no direct personal recollection of the time period in question.  The show’s current chronology is based in early 1986, which (in corresponding realtime terms) means while El is getting chocolate shake thrown in her face, the Brothers are still working on graduating from their Pampers.  The Duffers’ collective impression of the 80s is probably derived from countless rewatches of “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” - with frequent pauses at 53 minutes and 5 seconds, of course.  😉

On 6/10/2022 at 3:17 PM, Clanstarling said:

Eyeballs are the worst, I agree. I must have blocked them from my mind, or just looked at the bones, because eyeball stuff freaks me out.

In that case - just keep moving along, folks, nothing to see here.  😁

[janie jones]

Regarding Mike commenting that Will isn't into girls: In a video on Instagram (which I just posted in the episode 3 thread), the hairstylist for the show said that one if the Duffer brothers said that Mike's comment was intended to refer to puberty, but that there "are no accidents on Stranger Things." So everyone's right! 😀

[Paloma]

On 6/13/2022 at 9:21 AM, Heathrowe said:

El has been through so much - to let someone like Angela break her seems off to me.

It doesn't seem off to me because the extreme horror that El has been through before has been in the nature of "my friends are threatened" and "the world is threatened" rather than personal attacks. (I'm not including what happened to her as a child in the lab because the experimenter was like a father figure, so that's a different dynamic.) Angela and her fellow bullies were making El feel like she was less than nothing while also making fun of El's beloved and lost father (and of her having a boyfriend, which was so important to El). Add adolescent hormones to the mix, and it makes sense to me that the personal bullying could break her. 

[Clanstarling]

15 hours ago, janie jones said:

Regarding Mike commenting that Will isn't into girls: In a video on Instagram (which I just posted in the episode 3 thread), the hairstylist for the show said that one if the Duffer brothers said that Mike's comment was intended to refer to puberty, but that there "are no accidents on Stranger Things." So everyone's right! 😀

I just re-watched the first episode in the first season (slow day, decided to begin at the beginning.

Speaking about no accidents. During the conversation about Joyce talking about Will's father, she first says that Will is "sensitive" and that the father called him "queer" and a "f**."

Now the douche bag father's language can legitimately be read in two ways -

1. he just didn't think Will was masculine enough and in the way of idiots like that called him names to toughen him up,
2. or he intuited something about Will and was angry and abusive because of it.

There are no accidents in Stranger Things.... They put that language (and suspicions) in on purpose from the very beginning.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Clanstarling

[DrSpaceman73]

I've never gotten any gay vibes from Mike or will and don't really care one way or another. 

Having been the geeky picked on guy in middle school at exactly the time this is framed, no pity for that beyotch being hit in the face. Deserved it.  And should leave El alone now.  

Would something like that really happen in the 80s with her bullying someone in public?  Yes most definitely.  

[nodorothyparker]

The '80s like pretty much every other decade didn't have one uniform look so I'm not bothered by what I'm seeing here. Pre-internet it also wasn't uncommon for some parts of the country to be ahead of or behind the curve on some  things either. My husband who was raised on the East Coast remembers timelines of some of these things quite differently than I do having been raised in small town Midwest.

Eleven clocking mean girl with a rollerskate wasn't a hell ya! kind of moment for me both because of potential legal or disciplinary blowback for what was essentially assault and because it didn't feel like it was supposed to be. I've said with past seasons Eleven doesn't for obvious reasons exactly have normal social impulses or control and here we're seeing that continue only without the freaky powers. The whole scene at the roller rink was an obvious homage to Carrie in a show full of '80s movies homages only this time without Carrie being able to burn the whole place down. Of course it was ramped up for TV as most dramatic situations are but as someone who was on the receiving end of that kind of bullying at this time, it didn't feel all that farfetched either. We weren't as aware of it as an issue beyond "kids will be kids" and "stop giving them a reason." Eleven, again for obvious reasons, is reading as kind of socially awkward and immature for her age and doesn't have a peer group that would jump to her defense. Sometimes that was all it took. Eleven also doesn't have a parent or other adult figure on the scene paying attention and it's hard to stress to a modern audience just how much adults then really didn't want to involve themselves in what other people's kids were doing, possibly to some wierd kid they didn't even know. These also aren't even young kids but teenagers who would have been expected to manage themselves so the parents wouldn't have to interrupt their smoking to deal with it.

Will's kind of breaking my heart over his hurt over Mike's obliviousness. It's not surprising though as they were growing apart even before they were on opposite sides of the country. I still think Mike's earlier season "you don't even like girls" wasn't supposed to mean all that much when he initially threw it out there but they both recognized it as something that had been going unsaid between them the moment that he did. Mike doesn't read homophobic for the time for me as much as unable to know what to do with Will being gay if that's even the case as Will hasn't said as much. There really wasn't any Pride or knowing out kids at the time, not in small town Indiana at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Gay was a bunch of slurs kids tagged anyone who didn't correspond correctly enough to their identified gender and it better not be directed at me. I mean, I love Steve and Robin and think they're just lovely, but Steve at times reads so anachronistically modern in some of his support of her.

This show really is a less problematic Harry Potter where the story and the monsters get bigger and darker as the kids age up.

[KarenX]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

it's hard to stress to a modern audience just how much adults then really didn't want to involve themselves in what other people's kids were doing

It bears repeating

[Redrum]

Right, because an adult stepping in never faces any consequences legally or from parents. Sorry, I was bullied at times as a kid too, but I am not sacrificing my peaceful day to referee two or more kids that don't belong to me and whose parents just might threaten to sue me over daring to discipline their precious little innocents. 

This may shock those of you who routinely patrol public arenas looking to be some bullied child's hero, but honestly there's no way I'm getting involved beyond calling the cops if there's blood.

[nodorothyparker]

I totally get why Joyce would want to pack up and move far far away from Hawkins after everything that's happened over the last couple of seasons. Change of scene and starting over and not wanting to replace anymore fried phones and all that. But the more I think about it only two episodes in and not knowing what comes next the more it feels like she did Eleven and Will too a huge disservice by ripping them away from their support system of friends who already know their backstories and what's happened to them. I mean, does anybody seriously believe either of them is ever going to be able to confide in any of these California kids "Yeah, I was raised as a weapon in a secret government lab and used to have these infinitesimally powerful monster killing powers before I lost them" or "I was kidnapped into another dimension and then possessed by a monster from that dimension?" It's a recipe for Eleven and Will to both end up pretty much where they are.

[Redrum]

I had the impression that Joyce was strongly encouraged and perhaps financially compensated by Hawkins Institute and Dr. Owens to move away and take Eleven away from the limelight. 

Spoiler

He said in a later episode that despite Lenora CA appearing to be a suburb of los Angeles that it was chosen as a small town that the Byers could disappear into to keep Eleven safe.

[Taryn74]

3 minutes ago, Redrum said:

I had the impression that Joyce was strongly encouraged and perhaps financially compensated by Hawkins Institute and Dr. Owens to move away and take Eleven away from the limelight. 

Agree. I don't think staying in Hawkins was even an option.

[Sarah 103]

10 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

I mean, I love Steve and Robin and think they're just lovely, but Steve at times reads so anachronistically modern in some of his support of her.

Here's my take on it. At first, I thought that Steve being so accepting of her had more to do with the drugs than anything else. He was still a bit loopy and out of it.

This season, since they are still friends and fairly close, my guess is that after all of the strange stuff he's seen, been through, and fought, he is more open to things. Also, because it's Robin, she's not a threat to him. He doesn't have to worry about Robin hitting on him or someone questioning his masculinity or heterosexuality, which might be issues if Robin were a gay teenage boy. 

[Hotel Snarker]

All I wanted from the ending of last season was Robin and Steve gossiping about girls in the video store and literally within the first 5 minutes of the episode we got that and it was absolutely everything I wanted.

Freddie is getting lured to his death while Nancy Drew is on the case. When Nancy was trying to convince Eddie's uncle to talk to her, I was hoping she'd say, "My brother Mike is friends with Eddie. They're in a club together at school." That could genuinely convince the uncle she's on his side and play on the fact that they're siblings, for once.

Angela should thank her lucky stars that they were at a roller rink and not an ice skating rink. I remember getting my finger run over by ice-skates as a kid. Thankfully the hired skates are relatively blunt and I was wearing gloves, but my fingers still went purple. With every Eleven bullying scene there’s an element of fear that her powers will come and she will kill them all - knowingly or unknowingly. Angela is lucky to have received only a skate to the face.

Geez, watching Mike & Will stand there & stare while their friend was humiliated & assaulted was infuriating. At least make an attempt to fuck those dudes up. 

I hope they have more in store for Will than looking sad in the background.

Aw, poor Hopper. This is honestly so brutal.

[CCTC]

On 6/25/2022 at 8:57 AM, nodorothyparker said:

The '80s like pretty much every other decade didn't have one uniform look so I'm not bothered by what I'm seeing here. Pre-internet it also wasn't uncommon for some parts of the country to be ahead of or behind the curve on some  things either. My husband who was raised on the East Coast remembers timelines of some of these things quite differently than I do having been raised in small town Midwest.

Yes -  I grew up in a small Midwest town and the fashion trends were usually a year or so behind the coasts.  There was also probably a difference between the small towns and the Cities.  I do think season 1 captured 1982 more authentically than season 4 is capturing 1986.  Although with the more over the top 80's look compared to the more 70ish 1982 look, it would be a lot easier to overdo it at time. 

I did have Fred's glasses, although that was more junior high 1982ish.  I had a similar shape but rimless gold metal in 1986 that was very stylish.  The Fred ones were pretty heavy, because the frames were big and the lenses were made of glass.  Plastic lenses scratched pretty easily then, so most juvenile glasses still had glass lenses.

I am obviously really behind on watching this.  I kind of wish they would focus on the Hawkins story, because I really don't care about anyone in CA except Joyce and I do feel a bit for Will.  I know El has been the heart of the show, but am just not as interested in another season of her trying to fit in (in some ways it seems like wash, rinse, and repeat with her) and am finding the kids and the story in Hawkins more interesting.   Maybe because Angela and the bullies are more tedious and one-note than love to hate and that is helping drag El's story down.

One thing they might not need in Hawkins is the whole basketball team going vigilante, there is enough drama going on and it is not necessary to have two sets of popular kids torment two sets of who they consider losers or freaks.  I would not mind if the boyfriend had to grudgingly work with the crew to take down the bad guy and have some season 1 Steve vibes, but suspect they are not going in that direction.

I agree that the skating rink scene seemed off.  Like the school yard in the scene in the first episode, while most of the kids probably would just sit by and watch and a fair number would laugh, there would be a number who would at least be troubled by the scene and probably secretly or not so secretly hate Angela, because she has probably tormented a number of them over the years.  It would make more sense if it was like the movie Carrie where it seems to El like everyone is laughing at her, but they are not filming it that way.

Long story short, enjoying the horror story in Hawkins and most of the characters there and am enjoying Joyce and her friend and feel bad for Will, but would not be sad it the other plotlines disappeared for about 6 episodes.

[Nashville]

On 7/3/2022 at 11:20 PM, CCTC said:

I grew up in a small Midwest town and the fashion trends were usually a year or so behind the coasts. 

I read this and was immediately reminded of the HIMYM episode where Robin Scherbatsky’s sordid past as “Robin Sparkles” was exposed - as they’re watching the YouTube Barney dug up of “Let’s Go To the Mall”:

Marshall: [Looking at Computer] This is the 90s, why does it look like 1986?  
Robin: The 80s didn't come to Canada til like '93.

[CCTC]

I did grow up about thirty miles from Canada.  Sometimes kids would go to Minneapolis/St. Paul during the summer and come back with fashions you could not get in Duluth...

[bijoux]

On 5/28/2022 at 9:33 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

 It's 1986; you get what's coming to you. I grew up then. It was 'don't start fights, but if someone starts with you, finish it.' 

I'm sorry, were you raised by my mother? This is eerily like the advice I got a few months after this takes place when I was starting kindergarden. Honestly, it has been a solid piece of advice to this day. 

I'm going to be the outlier here and admit that I didn't like Fred at all. I didn't want for him to die, but I did wish for Nancy to tell him to stop sticking his nose into her business and trying to gaslight her so he could get with the popular girl. That's how he read to me in these two episodes. Nice Guy™.

How in heaven's name did Hop have 40.000$ of savings? 

Steve and Robin's little interplays continue to be a delight. Individually, we both suck. Do you want to hit him or should I? Really one of the best friendships in the show.

We've seen Jonathan helping out his family and with the household expenses in the previous seasons. Frankly to a degree that seems to high for a teen. But I'm wondering how exactly him staying home for college as he is now helps Will and Joyce. He's stoned most of the time, his car is still broken, and I've seen no indication of him having a job now.

It's driving me crazy when characters say it's been a year since the Byers moved. It has not. They moved roughly in October of 1985 (maaaaaybe late September) and now it's March of 1986. That's not close to a year.

[Taryn74]

5 hours ago, bijoux said:

How in heaven's name did Hop have 40.000$ of savings? 

It wasn't his personal savings. It was hush money from the government because of the nefarious stuff they had involved El in.

[bijoux]

Did they say that at the end of season 2? I can't remember.

[Taryn74]

51 minutes ago, bijoux said:

Did they say that at the end of season 2? I can't remember.

I haven't done a full series rewatch yet so I don't remember if they said it outright or if it was just heavily implied, but Hopper and Joyce both would have gotten a large sum of hush money. Hopper because El was legally now his daughter, and Joyce because they faked Will's death in S1.

[bijoux]

Makes sense. Except for Jonathan being upset about losing his summer job at the newspaper because he needed to jelo out financially at home last season. He also isn't carefree about his college tuition as Nancy.

[janie jones]

Unless I missed something, I don't think it was even implied in the show that either of them got hush money. I think that's just something viewers are assuming.

When Hopper got Eleven's fake birth certificate, it didn't seem like there was any money involved, and I don't remember Joyce talking about anything of the sort.

I can see Hopper having a lot of money in savings because he seems like someone who lives frugally.

Edited August 1, 2022 by janie jones

[bijoux]

Still, more than $100.000 in today's money is a lot for a small town police Chief. I don't see him raking in the big bucks as a detective in NYPD prior to that either.

[Athena]

18 hours ago, bijoux said:

Still, more than $100.000 in today's money is a lot for a small town police Chief. I don't see him raking in the big bucks as a detective in NYPD prior to that either.

The other fanwank going around is that it was a life insurance pay out.

[bijoux]

Hop's? Okay, I suppose he could have arranged for it to be paid out in a trust for El before his "death". 

[Quickbeam]

The actor playing Jonathan looked 40 in this episode. Which got me to thinking how hard it is for kids to grow up on a TV show. All awkward ages, right on film.