S04.E06: Chapter Six: The Dive

[paulvdb]

Quote

Behind the Iron Curtain, a risky rescue mission gets underway. The California crew seeks help from a hacker. Steve takes one for the team.

[bettername2come]

I'm getting some Jaws vibes from the town meeting with the whole "you didn't tell us after the first person was killed!" thing. Oh, Jason the basketball captain keeps getting worse. I respect that he's trying to stop murders but he's so off-base. Oh, the parents are going to team up. I think I needed to see Erica and Holly being smarter than their parents together. I mean, Holly saw Max's drawings she's not stupid. She knows something's up. All Wheeler kids are smarter than their parents. 

I love that they just lied to Suzie. Argyle's in on it, Eddie's in, but Suzie helped save the world and gets told nothing, "Not only was I breaking the law, I was dating an agnostic." Bwahahaha. "What's the internet?" "Can you print this?" "No, my skills end at IP geolocation." "I think we spooked a skunk." There's a lot of fun happening at Suzie's house. 

"You're asking me to follow you into Mordor which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But the Shire...the Shire is burning. So Mordor it is." Ok, I like Eddie. I love that the old teens still protected the younger set by abandoning them on the shore. And that Robin put Nancy in charge. Max getting the binoculars to check out shirtless Steve for just a little too long was funny. I love that Nancy went in after Steve, and then Robin and Eddie went in after them. "She's in charge!" "Are you kidding? I made that shit up."

I did enjoy Enzo and Hopper laughing over getting fire to fight the demogorgon.

[Thalia]

I loved the staging and music used during the "computer caper" at Suzie's house.  It had a VERY 80s Chris Columbus kid movie vibe. 

[krankydoodle]

I was wondering what kind of trauma the fish that Vecna attacked in the lake was harboring, but I guess he or his minions still need to eat.

It's too bad that Mr. Clarke doesn't seem likely to show up this season, but based on the electromagnetic fields talk at least Dustin and Lucas are still benefiting from his teaching.

I'm glad the kids' parents are banding together. Poor Mrs. Henderson looked terrified during that town meeting.

The image of Steve floating above the gate was beautiful.

Suzie's house looks like a lot, but I liked her dad and enjoyed seeing how all the kids are pursuing their own interests (if periodically turning off the power and hissing qualifies as an interest).

I don't think I appreciated until this season how good this show is at introducing and establishing characters even when they're given relatively little screentime.

Edited May 28, 2022 by krankydoodle

[steelyis]

21 hours ago, bettername2come said:

Max getting the binoculars to check out shirtless Steve for just a little too long was funny.

I love how Lucas kept looking back and forth at Max and Steve shocked and dismayed, because every time he put two and two together the answer was always four! I was dying! 😆

[Chicago Redshirt]

Ok, my new prediction is that Friendly Orderly is the one behind the lab deaths and that he is/was in fact One. Let's see if the final episode of part one reveals whether I'm right or wrong.

[Lady Calypso]

Well, Steve did say he wanted to not be a glorified babysitter anymore and wanted to get into the action. And, well, now he's fully in the action. I bet he's wishing he was the babysitter. But I am glad Steve got to help out. He really has been around the kids-now-teens for two'ish seasons so I'm all for him getting a taste of the Upside Down. I assume, with Nancy, Robin and Eddie going after him, he'll be saved. But damn if he's not going to be in some pain.

So, I assumed that the orderly helping out El in her flashbacks was the real One, but who knows? Maybe I'm totally wrong. That was my first thought. Plus, I recognize the actor, Jamie Campbell Bower, I believe. 

The adventure at Suzi's house was a whole lot of fun. She has a lot of siblings. It felt like filler, but with how dark this season has been, it needs some lighter subplots.

Murray/Joyce turning the tables on Yuri was great. But this Russia subplot has been going on quite a while. At least it's finally connecting to the Demigorgon and the Upside Down. Hopper and Enzo feeling hopeful at the end was great and I enjoyed Hopper getting the one up on smug prisoner guy. 

And on to the final (very long) finale of Part A. 

[Blue Plastic]

All the other kids at Suzie's house really seemed like they could be her actual siblings.  Very good casting, I thought.

I don't trust the orderly and keep waiting for him to be manipulating El somehow, even though Brenner is also awful.

[Harvey]

Poor El always being hardcore bullied by someone, first Angela and now her peers in the lab...just why? She is so harmless and nice, that is not okay.

[BlackberryJam]

6 minutes ago, Harvey said:

Poor El always being hardcore bullied by someone, first Angela and now her peers in the lab...just why? She is so harmless and nice, that is not okay.

El isn’t harmless…especially not in the lab.

[SeanC]

You know, Eddie would have been better off going to the police after the first death, since that would have made clear he wasn't the one doing it when people kept dying.

[peridot]

I really hate the jock riled the townspeople into a mob.  These people actually believe the D&D group is a Satanic cult?! If that was really true, wouldn't a smart person run in the opposite direction?

Having the gate be underwater is pretty cool.  I'm not sure why Steve got so close and touched it.  I don't like love triangles, so I hope this flirtation between Nancy and Steve isn't going anywhere.

The bullies from the lab were psychotic.  Wasn't Eleven around 9 at that time?

[Redrum]

1 minute ago, peridot said:

I really hate the jock riled the townspeople into a mob.  These people actually believe the D&D group is a Satanic cult?! If that was really true, wouldn't a smart person run in the opposite direction?

Read up on the "Satanic Panic". 

Yes, people really believed it was a gateway to satanism. I can remember getting auditorium all school present talks in junior and senior high on how to spot cult behavior etc. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 minutes ago, SeanC said:

You know, Eddie would have been better off going to the police after the first death, since that would have made clear he wasn't the one doing it when people kept dying.

Once the notion of the deaths being supernatural ritual sacrifices gets introduced along with there being a whole cult of followers potentially executing the killings is introduced, being behind bars wouldn't work to exonerate him. 

It could just be said that he put the whammy on people remotely or directed his minions to kill people. 

[SeanC]

1 minute ago, peridot said:

These people actually believe the D&D group is a Satanic cult?!

This was the era of the Satanic panic, which included a substantial focus on D&D, so that's actually not implausible at all (stupid as it is).

Lucas' statement to Max was sweet, but also a bit weird because he very clearly did recognize that she wasn't doing well and tried to reach out back in the premiere.

[LittleIggy]

Those flying monsters attacking Steve had me screaming!

Re: the satanic cult thing, I remember those preschool cases in which peoples’ lives were destroyed because of false accusations, and I remember the West Memphis Three. 
Suzie’s home life was funny, but why was it so chaotic? I get that there were so many kids because they are LDS. Where was the mother? 

[PurpleTentacle]

If the theory is that vecna leaves portals where he attacks, it probably would have been a better idea to get back to the trailer park and see if the compass freaks out there, too. I mean who wants to go through such a portal in the water? That's just begging for trouble and it negates the fire-weakness of the monsters.

I wish that satanic panic at the town hall meeting was over the top bullshit, but I can totally believe that happening. So weird, people actually believing in that kind of stuff. Guess it's a little bit more forgiveable when there actually is a hell-dimension next door. But still.

I can't say if Steve is right and the ladies dig his chest hair, but I certainly do.

9 hours ago, krankydoodle said:

I was wondering what kind of trauma the fish that Vecna attacked in the lake was harboring, but I guess he or his minions still need to eat.

I mean you just swim around, try eating a worm, suddenly you are on a hook, get pulled from the water you can breathe into air, that suffocates you, and then you wiggle free in the last moment before some weird predator grabs you. You'd be traumatised too!

1 hour ago, Redrum said:

I can remember getting auditorium all school present talks in junior and senior high on how to spot cult behavior etc. 

Do your kids have friends and they do anything other than play sports-ball? Cult!

[Harvey]

12 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

El isn’t harmless…especially not in the lab.

She kind of is. She never attacks first.

[BlackberryJam]

1 minute ago, Harvey said:

She kind of is. She never attacks first.

That’s not what harmless means though. 

[DoctorAtomic]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:11 PM, bettername2come said:

I'm getting some Jaws vibes from the town meeting with the whole "you didn't tell us after the first person was killed!" thing. Oh, Jason the basketball captain keeps getting worse. I respect that he's trying to stop murders but he's so off-base. Oh, the parents are going to team up. I think I needed to see Erica and Holly being smarter than their parents together.

It's peak small town 80s. There was 'satan panic' sweeping the nation then irl and of course the white, straight popular sports kid is going to think he knows what to do. We (kids) were rounded up and grilled on the 'evils' of heavy metal right around 87 for a couple of hours. No one could believe the adults were being serious. I think they even roped in the Beatles. I know for sure they went on some jag with Led Zeppelin because I distinctly remember us saying the songs were about Lord of the Rings, and they didn't know the books. 

Suzie's pic of Dustin on her night stand was perfect. 

16 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Ok, my new prediction is that Friendly Orderly is the one behind the lab deaths and that he is/was in fact One.

I immediately thought that. 

I've been even keel for the series so far, but the ending with Steve really freaked me out. 

[Blue Plastic]

The “motivational speaker” jock leader needs to GO. I’m hoping for him to get his comeuppance.

[Redrum]

4 minutes ago, Blue Plastic said:

The “motivational speaker” jock leader needs to GO. I’m hoping for him to get his comeuppance.

I agree but....

I actually wouldn't mind if they broke the trope of the jock getting his comeuppance. First, I don't like his bullying the Hellfire nerds but he's not entirely wrong here. His girlfriend was savagely murdered and he thinks the kids in the Hellfire Club are helping the guy who he believes killed her and you know what? SOME OF THEM ARE! He's NOT WRONG that some of the Hellfire kids are hiding Eddie from the police. Frankly a whole lot of this mess would be less convoluted if Eddie had been locked up during the harvesting of Fred and Black Jock Kid Who's Name I Don't Remember. 

Second, he's not wrong that Lucas betrayed him and the team by lying about being in the Hellfire Club and protecting and warning Dustin and the others. I know, I know, Lucas is one of the good guys and so is Dustin but again, motivational jock doesn't know all the Upside Down nonsense involved, what he knows is someone he trusted lied to his face. 

Third, Motivational Jock or Jason, I think thats his name, has suffered enough, hasn't he? His girlfriend is dead, he saw his friend die horrifically, he's clearly having severe mental issues now, maybe I am just getting soft but does he really need a roller skate to the face now too?

[Blue Plastic]

23 minutes ago, Redrum said:

I agree but....

I actually wouldn't mind if they broke the trope of the jock getting his comeuppance. First, I don't like his bullying the Hellfire nerds but he's not entirely wrong here. His girlfriend was savagely murdered and he thinks the kids in the Hellfire Club are helping the guy who he believes killed her and you know what? SOME OF THEM ARE! He's NOT WRONG that some of the Hellfire kids are hiding Eddie from the police. Frankly a whole lot of this mess would be less convoluted if Eddie had been locked up during the harvesting of Fred and Black Jock Kid Who's Name I Don't Remember. 

Second, he's not wrong that Lucas betrayed him and the team by lying about being in the Hellfire Club and protecting and warning Dustin and the others. I know, I know, Lucas is one of the good guys and so is Dustin but again, motivational jock doesn't know all the Upside Down nonsense involved, what he knows is someone he trusted lied to his face. 

Third, Motivational Jock or Jason, I think thats his name, has suffered enough, hasn't he? His girlfriend is dead, he saw his friend die horrifically, he's clearly having severe mental issues now, maybe I am just getting soft but does he really need a roller skate to the face now too?

He's not wrong about Lucas and Dustin, but he doesn't know everything and is just assuming he does and whipping up the populace to basically go out and commit vigilante justice.  Eddie isn't responsible for the deaths.  Also, I feel like Motivational Jock does have a tendency to use tragedies to boost his own social influence in the time before social media, a la "we need to win this basketball game because that's what our deceased fellow students would want."

[Redrum]

16 minutes ago, Blue Plastic said:

He's not wrong about Lucas and Dustin, but he doesn't know everything and is just assuming he does and whipping up the populace to basically go out and commit vigilante justice.  Eddie isn't responsible for the deaths. 

I'm not saying he's not wrong, but he really has no reason to think he's wrong about Eddie's responsibility.

18 minutes ago, Blue Plastic said:

Also, I feel like Motivational Jock does have a tendency to use tragedies to boost his own social influence in the time before social media, a la "we need to win this basketball game because that's what our deceased fellow students would want."

And while we know he's wrong in his assumptions, there's really no reason to think his motivations are purely evil in talking to the crowd. I've known some jocks in my life and a lot of times they really mean those speeches to the community over the importance of winning to honor the memory of the fallen. Motivational Jock wasn't actively a jerk to anyone until the tragedy of his girlfriend being murdered happened. He's no where near "Angela the Bully" levels of mean. I'm good if the shame of being known as that idiot who thought Satan walked among us is his punishment.

Unless he does something more atrocious in the last two episodes - and he might - I don't think he deserves to die

[DoctorAtomic]

1 hour ago, Redrum said:

Third, Motivational Jock or Jason, I think thats his name, has suffered enough, hasn't he? His girlfriend is dead, he saw his friend die horrifically, he's clearly having severe mental issues now, maybe I am just getting soft but does he really need a roller skate to the face now too?

No, he's pissed he missed the game winning shot and now he's taking his dainty manpain out on everyone. Chrissy wasn't anything more than a trophy that was taken from him. He may not have been physically beating anyone at school, but he clearly thought Eddie was a 'freak' and has no problems thinking he's the cream of the crop. Who missed the game winning shot. 

[Dev F]

3 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

No, he's pissed he missed the game winning shot and now he's taking his dainty manpain out on everyone. Chrissy wasn't anything more than a trophy that was taken from him. He may not have been physically beating anyone at school, but he clearly thought Eddie was a 'freak' and has no problems thinking he's the cream of the crop. Who missed the game winning shot. 

This seems like a hugely uncharitable interpretation of a character who's presented as being genuinely devastated by Chrissy's death and genuinely happy for Lucas for making the game-winning shot. When the show is portraying someone as unambiguously villainous, it's usually pretty obvious about it -- see, e.g., the California bullies -- so I think it's meaningful that Jason is presented not as cartoonishly cruel but as generally well-meaning but shallow and misguided.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Dev F

[Dac22]

10 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

No, he's pissed he missed the game winning shot and now he's taking his dainty manpain out on everyone. Chrissy wasn't anything more than a trophy that was taken from him. 

Perhaps I missed something, but there wasn't anything that made me believe either of these things were true?

Jason is the one who started lifting Lucas up in celebration after he made the shot. That's a person who is happy they won rather than pissed because he wasn't the hero. And instead of resenting Lucas for being the hero, Jason was supportive of him until the betrayal.  

Jason certainly didn't come across as brooding/moping because he wasn't the hero to me.

We also didn't get to see much of his relationship with Chrissy to make any sort of judgment about it now. Perhaps there will be something later, but nothing so far makes me believe his reaction wasn't genuine. 

[backhometome]

Steve at the end 😢

Steve in yellow 😍

Max taking the binoculars to check Steve out 😂

The Jocks at the worst and so annoying

Not feeling this Steve/Nancy thing at all

[DoctorAtomic]

He's just caused too much collateral damage for me. I'm fine with calling him out. 

[Writing Wrongs]

I remember all the panic over D&D and Satan back in the day. I went to a Christian school and I came home one day and my stepfather had gone through my stuff and taken all of my KISS music and tossed it. I was so pissed. I wasn't allowed to have my bedroom door closed, in case I was listening or watching something I shouldn't be. Crazy.

ETA: He's apologized for that crap now and realized he went about stuff the wrong way back then.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Writing Wrongs

[Redrum]

10 minutes ago, Writing Wrongs said:

I remember all the panic over D&D and Satan back in the day. I went to a Christian school and I came home one day and my stepfather had gone through my stuff and taken all of my KISS music and tossed it. I was so pissed. I wasn't allowed to have my bedroom door closed, in case I was listening or watching something I shouldn't be. Crazy.

Hilarious isn't it? And KISS was always on the hit list even though I find them kind of tame and ridiculous. My parents had better things to do with their time but honestly for a while it seemed like dark satanic cults were everywhere. I remember being told there were inner and outer circles at the ceremonies and once you broke into the inner circles it was all about killing babies and eating them.

I will call the show out on a reality point although I generously allow that they don't really have time to hit on all the trends. Hard to believe none of the main characters show any real interest in computers or video games. I know Dustin's girlfriend is a computer genius but I really find it implausible that no one in the core group has an interest. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 minutes ago, Redrum said:

I will call the show out on a reality point although I generously allow that they don't really have time to hit on all the trends. Hard to believe none of the main characters show any real interest in computers or video games. I know Dustin's girlfriend is a computer genius but I really find it implausible that no one in the core group has an interest. 

While it's true that we haven't seen the kids play Atari or Intellivision, they have hung out at arcades a bunch. Our introduction to Max was that she had knocked off one of our hero's high scores on Dig Dug. There was the reference to Erica using Lucas' hush money to buy herself an NES with Duck Hunt (which IIRC was the game packaged with it initially anyway), but as you say, she's not a main character. 

I would say that it is possibly also a socioeconomic thing. In 1983-1986, I would not expect most average people to have a home computer. 

[DoctorAtomic]

Ozzy was on that list too for sure. 

[Redrum]

3 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I would say that it is possibly also a socioeconomic thing. In 1983-1986, I would not expect most average people to have a home computer. 

I'm just saying, lower middle class here, and we had Pong, Atari and a Commodore 64 in succession - 1986 I was the same age as these kids and desperately wanted to take Fortran in high school but no freshmen allowed for the very special privilege.  Honestly computers and computer games killed the D&D crowd where I lived far more than the satanic panic. 

3 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Ozzy was on that list too for sure. 

Ozzy at least did seem like a creepy piece of shit. 

[DoctorAtomic]

Given all they've been through in Hawkins, I'm going to cut them some slack that no one has Atari yet. It doesn't look like Joyce would be able to afford it either selling encyclopedias. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by DoctorAtomic

[Writing Wrongs]

Also I remember back then that people were freaking out about the Procter & Gamble symbol on their products. Saying it was Satanic.

When 1980s Satanic Panic Targeted Procter & Gamble

[Clanstarling]

On 5/28/2022 at 12:32 PM, krankydoodle said:

I was wondering what kind of trauma the fish that Vecna attacked in the lake was harboring, but I guess he or his minions still need to eat.

On 5/28/2022 at 10:22 PM, PurpleTentacle said:

I mean you just swim around, try eating a worm, suddenly you are on a hook, get pulled from the water you can breathe into air, that suffocates you, and then you wiggle free in the last moment before some weird predator grabs you. You'd be traumatised too!

You guys made me laugh!

20 hours ago, backhometome said:

Not feeling this Steve/Nancy thing at all

Totally feeling it. Steve's way better than mopey Jonathan.

17 hours ago, Redrum said:

Ozzy at least did seem like a creepy piece of shit. 

Whereas (imo, of course) Kiss just looked silly. Nothing creepy about them...except maybe that tongue.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

22 hours ago, Dev F said:

This seems like a hugely uncharitable interpretation of a character who's presented as being genuinely devastated by Chrissy's death and genuinely happy for Lucas for making the game-winning shot. When the show is portraying someone as unambiguously villainous, it's usually pretty obvious about it -- see, e.g., the California bullies -- so I think it's meaningful that Jason is presented not as cartoonishly cruel but as generally well-meaning but shallow and misguided.

Trauma begets trauma. I think that is the underlying message with Jason. He does seem to be genuinely horrified by seeing his friend die and he's trying to make sense of it. He's reaching for an explanation that is grounded in his religion but ironically, he's not all that wrong that a demon is attacking these kids. He's just wrong that the demon is Satan and that Eddie has much to do with it. 

All of that being said, I find any focus on him to be superfluous. 

Steve has been the baby-sitter but he's never lacked physical courage and we saw that again here.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

18 hours ago, Redrum said:

I'm just saying, lower middle class here, and we had Pong, Atari and a Commodore 64 in succession - 1986 I was the same age as these kids and desperately wanted to take Fortran in high school but no freshmen allowed for the very special privilege.  Honestly computers and computer games killed the D&D crowd where I lived far more than the satanic panic. 

Yeah, we had Atari by 1986. I know Nintendo is older than the 90s but it's a little weird they name-checked Nintendo and not Atari. I would agree that by this time, some of these kids would be into home consoles, etc.

[Sarah 103]

On 5/28/2022 at 11:30 PM, SeanC said:

You know, Eddie would have been better off going to the police after the first death, since that would have made clear he wasn't the one doing it when people kept dying.

I think he would have been better going after the second death, because then he would have had people who could say they were with him when the second death happened. At least then the police would have been sure that he didn't kill Fred. 

On 5/29/2022 at 1:22 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

I can't say if Steve is right and the ladies dig his chest hair, but I certainly do.

I can see where Steve is coming from. It it is the 1980s, chest hair was a big thing in that era.  

[DearEvette]

The show this season is reminding me somewhat of Lovecraft Country in that the supernatural horror is not at all scary compared to the horror that humans subject each other to (well until the end when those bat creatures get Steve).  But it feels that Vecna is almost an afterthought given the scenes of torture and manipulation and persecution that Hopper, El and even Eddie are going through.

My take on Jock Jerk Jason is that I don't find his crusade credible because the show did not do enough to establish his love for Chrissy. He only said 'I love you babe' once and that was all we have to go on.  We've seen more meaningful facetime and interaction with Eddie and Chrissy than we had with Jason and Chrissy.  It humanized Eddie.  But all Jason did is he went from a tone-deaf selfish speech into wanting to be the winning shot then into vigilante posse mode.  It feels more like he whipped himself up into a frenzy and latched onto this because he wanted to be the hero and bonus he gets to bully a guy he considers a freak.

While Satanic Panic was a real thing, once again, i think this show gets crowd dynamics all wrong.  Most of these things are led by a cabal of adult parents (usually women) who have been making noise about it over time until they have gradually whipped people up.  Teenagers aren't usually the ones who effect this sort of outrage and not just in one single speech.  But here Jerk Jock was given a nearly silent stage in which to speechify while everyone sat there.  It was unrealisitc, imo, for only Erica to be the one to speak out.  There should have been more shouting and calls for explanation.  And given what Jerk Jock had witnessed just the night before, he was remarkably well coiffed and organized.  He should have been more freaked out and come off as even more disturbed and unhinged than he did. Oh well, it is all for plot.

I LOVED the entire scene at Suzie's house.  Her siblings, her story about her father confiscating her computer., Argyle's immediate love for Eden. LOL.

The show immediately gets a much needed boost of energy whenever the Hawkins crew are together solving shit.  I loved Dustin and Lucas remembering their lessons from S1 and them wishing they had El.  Also, Eddie looks waay to much like Robert Down Junior. LOL.

[Nilo]

4 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

 Also, Eddie looks waay to much like Robert Down Junior. LOL.

Oh man, I said this when I first saw him!  Robert Downey Jr. with Eddie Van Halen hair!!!

Both my children stared at me like I was crazy. Thank you so much for seeing it!

[silverstream]

I was a bit annoyed at the Suzie caper. Jonathan & co. just had their house shot up by the people looking for them, with absolutely no regard for their lives, and yet they get Suzie to look up the number in a house full of her family members without even telling her the truth so she could make an informed decision about the danger. Sure, they got the number from the one "good guy" left, but for all they know looking up that number could lead the bad guys back to Suzie's house.

[steelyis]

29 minutes ago, silverstream said:

I was a bit annoyed at the Suzie caper. Jonathan & co. just had their house shot up by the people looking for them, with absolutely no regard for their lives, and yet they get Suzie to look up the number in a house full of her family members without even telling her the truth so she could make an informed decision about the danger. Sure, they got the number from the one "good guy" left, but for all they know looking up that number could lead the bad guys back to Suzie's house.

You're right, but I think Suzie was the only person in the room who understood that kind of tracing is possible. Btw, it's legit shocking how little those nerds knew about computers and the internet! Hopefully, Suzie was canny enough to protect herself from any blow-back.

Edited May 30, 2022 by steelyis

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 hours ago, steelyis said:

You're right, but I think Suzie was the only person in the room who understood that kind of tracing is possible. Btw, it's legit shocking how little those nerds knew about computers and the internet! Hopefully, Suzie was canny enough to protect herself from any blow-back.

As a teenage nerd back then (hung out at the computer room, but only knew Basic and not any more sophisticated computer languages), I had little idea of what the Internet was. I would have known that there were computer networks, but much of my impressions would have been shaped by WarGames. 

[thuganomics85]

Should have known that Jason would not only continue to blame Eddie, but believe that Eddie has powers due to the whole "Satanic Panic" craze that happen during that time for folks who did "weird" things like play Dungeons & Dragons and so forth.  To be fair, Jason has not only lost two people close to him, but he clearly has witnessed some unearthly things before him, so it's not like there isn't a legit reason for him to think this way.  That said, you just know he and his merry band of jocks are going to continue to make things worse for everyone.

Definitely not going to panic over Steve's fate since I suspect that the Nancy/Robin/Eddie trio will save him before it's too late, but that certainly looked painful!  Also not surprised Shirtless Steve had some admirers.  Dustin and Lucas might not understand why he's rocking the hairy look, but Nancy and Max were clearly digging it!

Totally think Orderly guy is going to end up being One.  If not, One is clearly going to factor in after the story Eleven heard.  But, again, I'm thinking it has to be him.

Aww, Argyle might have found true love!

Still don't care for the Russian stuff, but watching Joyce and Murray drag Yuri around was fun.  As was Hopper and Dmitri's little bonding moment at the end.

Normally would jump right into the final, but I will have to wait till tomorrow since it's apparently over an hour and a half long.  They really are just movies this season.  Not completely a bad thing, but I have to plan ahead, dammit!

[Captain Asshat]

On 5/28/2022 at 10:31 PM, peridot said:

I really hate the jock riled the townspeople into a mob.  These people actually believe the D&D group is a Satanic cult?! If that was really true, wouldn't a smart person run in the opposite direction?

As D&D gained popularity in the early-to-mid 80s, there was a ton of pearl clutching about it. I remember articles and news magazine stories about D&D players not being able to separate reality from fantasy and how they were all going to snap and kill people. I'm fairly sure the Newsweek article someone was reading in an earlier ep was real. It's not a far leap that a small town would easily get whipped into a frenzy about it.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Captain Asshat

[tennisgurl]

I am already calling it, this friendly orderly is the long lost number 1, and is connected to the Venca. He might even be the Venca, having merged with some other creature from the Upside Down, and that's why it looks so much more human than the other monsters who have come from the Upside Down. Plus I recognize the actor, so I am using the Law and Order principle where if some minor character is played by an actor you recognize, its probably them.

I loved Suzy's house, after such a dark creepy Nightmare on Elm Street inspired season, it felt like we stumbled into a cute 80s kid adventure movie about a girl genius and her quirky family, even with its own quirky light hearted score. Why didn't they just tell her what was happening though? I would think she more or less knows what is happening after she helped save the world. "What's the internet?" "Not much, only the thing that's going to change the world." 

I could still do with less Russia, but this week we at least made some progress with both Joyce/Murray and Hopper and his pal Enzo. I had fun watching Murray and Joyce intimidate Yuri and Hopper and Enzo sharing a big laugh about Hopper stealing a lighter from that smug asshole guard. And now that plot is also being tied into the Upside Down so it feels less disconnected from the rest of the show.

Poor Steve, he finally gets released from babysitting duty and then almost immediately gets sucked under water and into Mordor and gets strangled and attacked by demon bats. Of course the trio of Nancy/Robin/Eddie are going to save him, but that looks painful. Its not a season of Stranger Things until Steve suffers from particularly unfortunate physical abuse. At least he got to contribute, I think he gets frustrated by the rest of the team laughing his ideas off and treating him like he's rather slow on the uptake. He might not be very book smart and can be pretty goofy, but its not like he's stupid. He's certainly a great guy to have in a crisis. Their plot continues to be my favorite, and while I was pretty meh on him at first, Eddie has grown on me. 

My biggest laugh of the season so far might be Max shamelessly grabbing Lucas's binoculars to stare at Steve without his shirt on. Lucas and Dustin might not get it, but Max and Nancy sure do! They definitely seem to be heading more towards Nancy/Steve getting back together, and I am not sure how I feel about that. They have certainly both changed since they broke up last time, but is that really a path they want to go down again? Of course, I cant blame Nancy, her boyfriend is across the country and being weird while Steve is right there being his cute charming self, that's hard to say no to. Steve is just so damn likable. 

On 5/28/2022 at 2:32 PM, krankydoodle said:

I don't think I appreciated until this season how good this show is at introducing and establishing characters even when they're given relatively little screentime.

The show really is great at making even minor characters really memorable. People joked about how overblown the Justice for Barb thing was, people losing it over this minor character, and they have done similar things over lots of other people that show up to clearly be cannon fodder, but I think its to the shows credit that they manage to make characters with such small amounts of screen time so memorable, so much that the audience is truly upset at losing them even after only an episode or two.

[CarpeFelis]

On 5/29/2022 at 4:17 PM, Redrum said:

I'm just saying, lower middle class here, and we had Pong, Atari and a Commodore 64 in succession - 1986 I was the same age as these kids and desperately wanted to take Fortran in high school but no freshmen allowed for the very special privelege.

I spent a good chunk of my software career writing Fortran. You didn’t miss out much.

[CarpeFelis]

19 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

As a teenage nerd back then (hung out at the computer room, but only knew Basic and not any more sophisticated computer languages), I had little idea of what the Internet was. I would have known that there were computer networks, but much of my impressions would have been shaped by WarGames. 

I was a working software developer then and also didn’t know much about the Internet at that point in time. Few people did until the ‘90s. All I knew was a college friend who was a computer science major had been playing with something called Arpanet in the late ‘70s.