S04.E09: Chapter Nine: The Piggyback

[Hotel Snarker]

2 hours ago, Taryn74 said:

Younger people use 'okay Boomer' to describe anything that sounds old to them LOL. My kids call me Boomer all the time and I'm 48.

I am SO SICK of “OK Boomer”. It got old really fast for me.

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, Hotel Snarker said:

I am SO SICK of “OK Boomer”. It got old really fast for me.

Eh, doesn't bother me. It's the nature of things, for each generation to be a bit rude about the previous one. We certainly were about our elders. And for the previous one to have our own dismissive thoughts about those younger than us. 😉

Edited July 20, 2022 by Clanstarling

[CCTC]

A lot to process and am too tired to write anything in detail.  

I will say the show normally uses humor well to crack the tension, but there were a few times in this episode it seemed a bit out of place (I really am hoping for Argyle to not be in next season).  However, one of my favorite scenes:

El's earnest line reading of "I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer." and Max's reaction.

I hope with everyone back in Hawkins, there will not be so many split story lines next year.  That aside, this was probably the most I have enjoyed the show since season 1.   Be interesting to see how the can carry it through the final season, since it is going to start on such a dire note.  Hopefully, we will find out before 2025.

Hopefully Max will not be in a coma too long, the actress is too good to spend her scenes just lying there.

Edited July 21, 2022 by CCTC

[Perfect Xero]

On 7/19/2022 at 9:50 AM, SharonH58 said:

i agree with El bringing Max back to life.  Really?  Since when does she has this power?  IMO which will probably be unpopular, what does her powers really do?   It took her too long to bring the helicopter down,  she hasn't closed any of the gates for long and she did nothing much to Vecna.      

I was so sad Eddie died.  I really liked him and I enjoyed his guitar solo.   

In S1 El was able to make the bully kid pee his pants, presumably by using her TK to squeeze his bladder, so I guess she used her powers to preform CPR and get Max's heart to start pumping again.

[Nashville]

On 7/20/2022 at 12:39 PM, Clanstarling said:

Whereas I, near the end of the boomer range, never had an 8 track, just a tape player in my car - and didn't get a CD player in my car until the early aughts. We listed to books on tape on our move to another state.

In the very early 80s I had both an 8-track AND a cassette player in my car - with a 300W graphic equalizer/booster, no less.  If I put my mind (and speakers) to it, you could hear me coming from a quarter-mile away on multiple formats.  😆

On 7/20/2022 at 4:04 PM, Hotel Snarker said:

I am SO SICK of “OK Boomer”. It got old really fast for me.

Just go back at them with “Whatever, Minimal -er- Millenial”.  They can dish it out, but MAN they sure can’t take it.  😁

[SharonH58]

On 7/19/2022 at 5:18 PM, janie jones said:

You mean by the show, or the townspeople?

Either.

[bijoux]

On 7/5/2022 at 12:30 AM, DrSpaceman73 said:

Also Mike is the heart of the group?  I've never seen it that way. 

I rewatched season 1 after finishing this and I think it rings true even if it got lost along the way since Mike became an annoying teenager. After Mike and Lucas clash over El, Dustin refers to Lucas being Mike's best friend. Then, later in season 2 or 3, Will talks about Mike being his best friend. So yeah, I think there's past evidence to support this. I also think Mike is hella annoying now.

On 7/5/2022 at 8:00 PM, MaggieG said:

I'm also super happy that Joyce and Hopper kissed but I couldn't help but wonder when Hopper last brushed his teeth or showered. 

His newly developed six pack makes up for it. I can't describe how happy I was that he was exercising since I spent a good part of the previous season wishing for him to do just that. This hasn't been 1983 when you spent your time writing speeding tickets for a long time, buddy. You've been battling some nasty shit for a while. It pays to be fit.

On 7/7/2022 at 12:29 AM, Perfect Xero said:

Why this ritual? Why these victims? Do they need to be teens suffering from guilt or is that just Vecna's preference? Does he need to do the long mind games first, or is he just doing that because he wants to?

It's possible that there was something special about the victims and that he needed them specifically to open the gates, in which case they played directly into his hands by using Max as bait.

I'm really unsure about this. There's such a strong connection between Fred and Max and even Victor who was Henry's original victim. They were all haunted by memories of being responsible for someone's death. Even Nancy fits into this. But then there's no indication of Chrissy ever hurting a fly, and basically nothing about Patrick's trauma. I wished they either connected all the victims or had them all vary noticeably.

9 hours ago, Perfect Xero said:

In S1 El was able to make the bully kid pee his pants, presumably by using her TK to squeeze his bladder, so I guess she used her powers to preform CPR and get Max's heart to start pumping again.

This is how I sad it too. It's an extension of El being able to manipulate others' internal organs.

Will Steve ever realize he's destined to become a middle school coach? He's athletic, great with kids that age and could "have" 600 kids that way. I really think that's his calling.

[Clanstarling]

9 hours ago, Nashville said:

In the very early 80s I had both an 8-track AND a cassette player in my car - with a 300W graphic equalizer/booster, no less.  If I put my mind (and speakers) to it, you could hear me coming from a quarter-mile away on multiple formats.  😆

So you were the one that made my prematurely old self curse at when you drove down the street! 🤣

[janie jones]

@SharonH58 The show showed him dying - he got ripped in half - but they did not show anyone talking about it officially, so we don't know how it was explained by the townspeople.

[Taryn74]

2 hours ago, bijoux said:

I'm really unsure about this. There's such a strong connection between Fred and Max and even Victor who was Henry's original victim. They were all haunted by memories of being responsible for someone's death. Even Nancy fits into this. But then there's no indication of Chrissy ever hurting a fly, and basically nothing about Patrick's trauma. I wished they either connected all the victims or had them all vary noticeably.

Totally agree.

2 hours ago, bijoux said:

Will Steve ever realize he's destined to become a middle school coach? He's athletic, great with kids that age and could "have" 600 kids that way. I really think that's his calling.

Oh I LOVE that idea!

[Texasmom1970]

On 7/3/2022 at 5:28 PM, Cranberry said:

I don't watch shows like this for realism. I watch shows like this as a fun escape from real life. I don't care if it's more realistic for these kids to die. I don't want to see dead kids when I'm watching my fun summer TV shows. There's enough of that on the news.

I also don't get the impression that the Duffers are afraid to kill characters. I think they just don't want to. Didn't they intend to kill Steve in season one but kept him around because they loved the character and the actor so much? 

I am totally in agreement with you about letting the kids live. For me I don’t expect realism either. I get too much of that Irl. My youngest daughter suddenly passed away in 2018 from a rare autoimmune disease. She was only 12 so I need to escape sometimes into television.

[Black Knight]

On 7/2/2022 at 8:41 AM, raven said:

Honestly, I hope when the show wraps the final season that Nancy goes off to college and doesn't end up with Steve or Jonathan.  She is different from them both and maybe will want to settle down one day but she wasn't esp enamored of Steve's dream scenario and Jonathan can't seem to tell her he feels the need to stay with his mom and Will. 

I vastly prefer your ending for Nancy out of the three options, but with Joyce/Hopper now a couple, I don't see Jonathan continuing to feel he has to stay with his mom and Will.

I enjoyed this season the least of the four due to the massive bloat. The Duffers are falling into some really bad habits of overindulgence. Listen to your editor, dudes.

I felt a twinge for Jason getting ripped in half by the gate. He wasn't irredeemable; I liked that when he came across Lucas and Max, his first priority was saving Max. Obviously his actions had the opposite result, but that's really not something he could be expected to know.

[ch1]

18 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

I enjoyed this season the least of the four due to the massive bloat. The Duffers are falling into some really bad habits of overindulgence. Listen to your editor, dudes.

Fully agree.  This episode was tedious to get through.  It did not need to be 2 1/2 hours.  

This season had some good scenes but overall I found a lot of the writing cringy.

 I also don’t understand that instead of supersizing the episodes they just didn’t have a 12 episode season.  Seems like a pointless way to hype the show.
 

[Black Knight]

11 hours ago, ch1 said:

I also don’t understand that instead of supersizing the episodes they just didn’t have a 12 episode season.

The thing I find really incredible was how many characters and relationships were still underwritten or otherwise poorly served. It's always tricky on TV to have a large ensemble cast, and it's understandable with a show with strict time restrictions if somebody gets the short end of the stick, but the Duffers had no restrictions on screen time from NF and certainly didn't restrict themselves in the slightest and yet they still failed so much of their cast. The Duffers wasted the time on stuff like making sequences longer than they needed to be, instead of writing scenes for the underserved characters. This may be related to your point about them supersizing episodes instead of having a 12-episode season.

[SharonH58]

On 7/2/2022 at 12:52 PM, benteen said:

 they unnecessarily dragged out a number of scenes with Better Call Saul-like self-indulgence. I almost fell asleep twice while watching it.

So true!  Better Call Saul loves the close ups of dirt that are cinematic history!   I have to fast forward thru a lot.  Like this show.

[SharonH58]

On 7/2/2022 at 5:51 PM, Dev F said:

 because Will convinces Mike of his importance to "El," Mike is able to rally El herself at a crucial moment and turn the tide of the final battle.

 Then you'd have a stronger reason for Mike to feel alienated from both of them, and to fear that El might reject him as a pathetic loser she's grown beyond. You'd give El a better reason to think that she needed to get her powers back, if Mike seemed to be rejecting her because she'd become an ordinary girl. 

I don't see why Will and El are so wild about sad sack Mike.   Sorry Will, but he isn't the heart of the group.  And I think it's lazy writing the Mike is the one he supposedly is in love with.  Why?   I agree, let them be living the California dream and Will finding a boy there he likes.

[Nashville]

32 minutes ago, SharonH58 said:

I don't see why Will and El are so wild about sad sack Mike.  

The boy’s packing, maybe…?

[Dev F]

44 minutes ago, SharonH58 said:

I don't see why Will and El are so wild about sad sack Mike.   Sorry Will, but he isn't the heart of the group.

I think that's another example of how the writers can be too concise with their character arcs. In retrospect, season 2 is where they lay out the story of why Will would fall in love with Mike: He's sweet and supportive, the one person Will doesn't resent for treating him like a baby who can't handle things on his own. When Will is trembling with fear, Mike holds his hand. He reaches him through the Mind Flayer's possession with a story of how becoming friends with him was the best thing he's ever done. I totally get why Will would fall for him after that.

But, having established all that, the writers sort of just hang a "Mission Accomplished" banner on that part of the story and move on. We don't really get more scenes of Mike being a great friend to Will in seasons 3 and 4, just scenes of him apologizing for not being that great a friend recently, since that conflict is what the story is now about. It hangs together in a Screenwriting 101 way, but it makes it harder to feel how significant their connection is supposed to be, because we have to look past the current conflict and remember how close they were two seasons earlier.

[ch1]

I can completely see Will being in love with the Mike of season 2.  Just like I can see El being in love with the kid that treated her humanely for the first time in her life from season 1.  But the Mike of seasons 3 and 4? Yeah I don’t see that.

I also agree that it would have been nice to see Will and El with friends in California.  If anything though you are not going to be able to convince me that these 2 quiet sweet kids wouldn’t have made at least one friend who basically decided they were going to adopt them.  Shy kids can make friends too.  

[Clanstarling]

13 minutes ago, ch1 said:

I also agree that it would have been nice to see Will and El with friends in California.  If anything though you are not going to be able to convince me that these 2 quiet sweet kids wouldn’t have made at least one friend who basically decided they were going to adopt them.  Shy kids can make friends too.  

Having been the shy kid who moved multiple times in school, you are very right. It is, however, still difficult and scary from the new kid's perspective.

The shy person has to be truly open to finding new friends. I'm not sure they were, despite El's whole thing with the bully. 

El and Will were part of a tight group who went through intense trauma. They forged a solid connection, and may not have been open to new friendships. Even the fact that they were together in the same school could be a hindrance to their making new friends easily.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Clanstarling

[QuantumMechanic]

On 7/19/2022 at 9:50 AM, SharonH58 said:

i agree with El bringing Max back to life.  Really?  Since when does she has this power?

Since she has telekinesis she's always had that power.  Use TK to compress/release the heart (i.e. CPR) until it starts beating again.

[Cranberry]

Yep. If she can make a kid pee himself by (presumably) squeezing his bladder, she can mess with other internal organs too.

[caracas1914]

On 7/1/2022 at 3:05 PM, toodywoody said:

Since we really didn't seen Brenner die, I'm expecting him to show up again. 

And yet, we can’t get back Barb ?!!?

[Hotel Snarker]

On 7/27/2022 at 5:17 PM, caracas1914 said:

And yet, we can’t get back Barb ?!!?

Or Bob? Or Eddie?

[Clanstarling]

15 hours ago, Hotel Snarker said:

Or Bob? Or Eddie?

If it can be only one, I'd vote for Bob - except Joyce has moved on.

[bijoux]

I have suspicions we might get them as part of Vecna's army in S5.

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, bijoux said:

I have suspicions we might get them as part of Vecna's army in S5.

Well that's disturbing!

[Taryn74]

3 hours ago, bijoux said:

I have suspicions we might get them as part of Vecna's army in S5.

OMG. I would...... I don't know what I would do. Besides die a little (or a lot) inside.

Holy cow. I don't even want to think about it.

[Hotel Snarker]

6 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

If it can be only one, I'd vote for Bob - except Joyce has moved on.

I vote to rescue both of them! I’m still contemplating Eddie not coming back to the show anymore.

6 hours ago, bijoux said:

I have suspicions we might get them as part of Vecna's army in S5.

Maybe Mindflayer style, where their human remains become part of Vecna’s. Eeeeeeek, I just shudder thinking about it.

[ch1]

Wouldn’t the bodies have to be in the UD to be used in a zombie army?  Wasn’t Barb removed from there and given a burial?  I know Bob didn’t die there.

[BlueSkies]

On 7/26/2022 at 12:11 PM, Clanstarling said:

Having been the shy kid who moved multiple times in school, you are very right. It is, however, still difficult and scary from the new kid's perspective.

The shy person has to be truly open to finding new friends. I'm not sure they were, despite El's whole thing with the bully. 

El and Will were part of a tight group who went through intense trauma. They forged a solid connection, and may not have been open to new friendships. Even the fact that they were together in the same school could be a hindrance to their making new friends easily.

Yeah.  I changed schools in the middle of 7th grade because I couldn't stand some other kids.  Was always on the shy side as well.

It was just as scary in the new school though.  Being shy and trying hard but getting nowhere.  That was until one day I kid named Steve saved a seat for me at lunch.  I was never close with him but I always had a special place in my heart for him after that.  I was never popular per say but it seemed after that at least I was making it through without being miserable.

That was until I started high school lol 

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

Yeah.  I changed schools in the middle of 7th grade because I couldn't stand some other kids.  Was always on the shy side as well.

It was just as scary in the new school though.  Being shy and trying hard but getting nowhere.  That was until one day I kid named Steve saved a seat for me at lunch.  I was never close with him but I always had a special place in my heart for him after that.  I was never popular per say but it seemed after that at least I was making it through without being miserable.

That was until I started high school lol 

There's a special place in my heart for every kid who was nice to me at my new schools. So, you friendly people out there who have been nice to the new kids in your schools, just know it was always appreciated.

Sorry to be sappy, but it fits with the discussion.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Clanstarling

[LadyChaos]

Just finished season 4 and scouting around and seeing a lot of Mike hate and honestly I don't get it.

Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Elle are like 14-15 yr old tops right? They're in their first year of high school...... Going into HS is a time when a lot of people change and a lot childhood friends start to grow apart. Its normal.

Dustin loves his friends but he's branched off and kind of found a new core group with Steve and Robin.

Lucas decided he wanted to be popular and not get bullied anymore. He came back sure....but he initially pulled away from his childhood friend group.

Max was ignoring ALL of them.

Will and Elle moved away....and yeah Mike wasn't as close with him as he used to be, but Will also admitted he pulled away from Mike....and I get both sides, Will is in love with Mike and honestly I think Mike isn't completely oblivious to Will's feelings. Its got to be uncomfortable for both of them. I think its valid that Mike told Will in s3 that they weren't going to stay in their basement playing D&D forever, eventually they were all going to get girlfriends and have lives outside of their group. Its just a part of life...

I would argue though that, while everyone else seems to be branching out and making new friends and starting new things....its a little concerning that Mike's 'thing' is Elle....and Will's 'thing' is his unrequited love with Mike.......but their in their first year of High School and have time to figure it out. 

On a separate note, the Jonathon/Nancy/Steve thing....I like Nancy, I really do, and I think she is a strong, independent badass and I love her arc.....but I do think she is too selfish when it comes to relationships....I think she flip flops back and forth between Steven and Jonathan based on who gives her what she needs in the moment with no consideration for what they need.....and both Jonathan and Steve deserve better. So, I really hope she doesn't cheat on Jonathan with Steve, and I really hope Steve moves on and finds someone else. Also again though....their teens.

[janie jones]

I, for one, don't dislike Mike because of anything that happened this season. He's always been rude and selfish.

[bijoux]

I disagree about Lucas pulling away. He was on the basketball team and in the Hellfire Club. He added to his interests, not replaced one thing with the other. He just couldn't come that one night because of the championship game. He also invited everyone to watch him, Max, the ex who had dumped him, included. We could also see him sadly looking at the empty spots in the stands.

Lucas is basically the Steve of the younger generation. Extremely decent ex-boyfriend still carrying a torch, and he got a brutal beat down at the end of the season. Add ducklings following him around in the last season and he's all the way there.

[BlueSkies]

8 hours ago, LadyChaos said:

Just finished season 4 and scouting around and seeing a lot of Mike hate and honestly I don't get it.

Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Elle are like 14-15 yr old tops right? They're in their first year of high school...... Going into HS is a time when a lot of people change and a lot childhood friends start to grow apart. Its normal.

Dustin loves his friends but he's branched off and kind of found a new core group with Steve and Robin.

Lucas decided he wanted to be popular and not get bullied anymore. He came back sure....but he initially pulled away from his childhood friend group.

Max was ignoring ALL of them.

Yeah definitely true with me.  Where I went to high school only me and four other guys came from the same 8th grade class.  So initially we hung out with each other.  But it started to break up a bit over time whereas we were practically strangers by the time we finished.  Heck, ironically my best friend I made in high school came from the fact that over time we both couldn't stand one of my former classmates lol.

3 hours ago, bijoux said:

I disagree about Lucas pulling away. He was on the basketball team and in the Hellfire Club. He added to his interests, not replaced one thing with the other. He just couldn't come that one night because of the championship game. He also invited everyone to watch him, Max, the ex who had dumped him, included. We could also see him sadly looking at the empty spots in the stands.

Lucas is basically the Steve of the younger generation. Extremely decent ex-boyfriend still carrying a torch, and he got a brutal beat down at the end of the season. Add ducklings following him around in the last season and he's all the way there.

I agree with that take.  It's not like he was a starter on the club too or like in the inner circles of it so to speak.  He even gets advise from that teammate on how to handle a hangover.  Point is he probably never partied with the team before he made that winning shot.  

When he made the winning shot is when the dynamics started to change 

[Sarah 103]

5 hours ago, bijoux said:

Lucas is basically the Steve of the younger generation. Extremely decent ex-boyfriend still carrying a torch, and he got a brutal beat down at the end of the season. Add ducklings following him around in the last season and he's all the way there.

I agree with this, except for the part about ducklings. I feel certain that Dustin will be the one with ducklings following him around eventually. We may not see it in season 5, but I am convinced it will happen to him in junior or senior year. 

[bijoux]

I know a lot of people saw Steve's Winnebago speech as his death knell, but since the first time Eddie beat himself up over running away from crazed jocks and not being a hero outside of D&D, the mark was very clearly on him. (Side not: it's not cowardly, but smart to run away from crazed jocks when you have nothing to defend yourself with.) But I still don't see what his confronting the bats got that running away from them didn't. They were following him and flying away from the house of horrors as it was.

[BlueSkies]

12 hours ago, bijoux said:

I know a lot of people saw Steve's Winnebago speech as his death knell, but since the first time Eddie beat himself up over running away from crazed jocks and not being a hero outside of D&D, the mark was very clearly on him. (Side not: it's not cowardly, but smart to run away from crazed jocks when you have nothing to defend yourself with.) But I still don't see what his confronting the bats got that running away from them didn't. They were following him and flying away from the house of horrors as it was.

The rational side of me agrees but sometimes you just have to prove things to yourself if you always feel afraid and or are anxious.  

[bijoux]

I straight up laughed at the first scene of the Wheelers after the "earthquake" with Ted on his trusty La-Z-Boy. If he ever gets out of it of his own free will, I'm convinced the world will end.

[eelpout]

On 7/1/2022 at 7:58 PM, BlackberryJam said:

I suspect this is going to be a wildly unpopular post.

Wow, that was…tedious. Everything took so long. I feel like the Duffers need to make friends with a brutal editor. It all reached a point for me where the narrative tension fell apart and I just got bored and wanted to fastforward to the end.

heh, not unpopular with me! just watched the finale last night. OMG, heaving that boulder for over two hours was real. Especially after what, 11-12 hours previously??? 🙄

they apparently need to hire Eric Kripke (Supernatural, Bad Boys), who basically slammed Stranger Things' show runners without naming them outright (at the end of the Vulture interview), for not knowing how to structure and pace stories for television.

But it seems many seem to think all this puffed rice is fine. I'm guessing they're younger than I. 😏

[Hotel Snarker]

On 8/6/2022 at 1:23 AM, bijoux said:

I know a lot of people saw Steve's Winnebago speech as his death knell, but since the first time Eddie beat himself up over running away from crazed jocks and not being a hero outside of D&D, the mark was very clearly on him. (Side not: it's not cowardly, but smart to run away from crazed jocks when you have nothing to defend yourself with.) But I still don't see what his confronting the bats got that running away from them didn't. They were following him and flying away from the house of horrors as it was.

They always tend to kill off the newest characters each and every season and this time was definitely predictable.

[paramitch]

On 8/8/2022 at 2:44 PM, eelpout said:

heh, not unpopular with me! just watched the finale last night. OMG, heaving that boulder for over two hours was real. Especially after what, 11-12 hours previously??? 🙄

they apparently need to hire Eric Kripke (Supernatural, Bad Boys), who basically slammed Stranger Things' show runners without naming them outright (at the end of the Vulture interview), for not knowing how to structure and pace stories for television.

But it seems many seem to think all this puffed rice is fine. I'm guessing they're younger than I. 😏

I mean, sure, they're slamming the show for its editing choices, but honestly while I've had issues with ST, the editing and pacing has never been a problem for me. I'd actually say the show is incredible at pacing each episode, and at presenting them as cliffhangers like classic serials (going back to Dickens) that make us want to keep going.

And I'm pretty sure I'm older than you, if it helps -- or we're compatriots! I'm pretty old (and feeling older every day).

[CeeBeeGee]

On 7/20/2022 at 6:25 PM, Clanstarling said:

Eh, doesn't bother me. It's the nature of things, for each generation to be a bit rude about the previous one. We certainly were about our elders. And for the previous one to have our own dismissive thoughts about those younger than us. 😉

On 7/22/2022 at 12:40 AM, Nashville said:

In the very early 80s I had both an 8-track AND a cassette player in my car - with a 300W graphic equalizer/booster, no less.  If I put my mind (and speakers) to it, you could hear me coming from a quarter-mile away on multiple formats.  😆

Just go back at them with “Whatever, Minimal -er- Millenial”.  They can dish it out, but MAN they sure can’t take it.  😁

As a Gen Xer, I've seen way, way more overly sensitive Boomers ("'Okay Boomer' is ageism!!!" Take a seat, honey, y'all invented ageism--remember "Don't trust anyone over 30"?) than Millenials or Gen Zers. They have every right to be furious since the planet they will inherit is burning and the Boomers (as the largest generation) are a huge part of the problem.

On 8/2/2022 at 10:03 AM, bijoux said:

I have suspicions we might get them as part of Vecna's army in S5.

Oh my Lord! Shades of "Harry's parents will show up as Inferi!" speculation which turned my stomach. I can't imagine anything that horrific. 

[Nashville]

On 8/27/2022 at 6:50 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

As a Gen Xer, I've seen way, way more overly sensitive Boomers ("'Okay Boomer' is ageism!!!" Take a seat, honey, y'all invented ageism--remember "Don't trust anyone over 30"?) than Millenials or Gen Zers.

Doesn’t bother me any; every generation of the last century or so has blamed their predecessor(s) for crapping on their prospects, so expecting Millennials to be any different would be unrealistic.  😉

On 8/27/2022 at 6:50 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

They have every right to be furious since the planet they will inherit is burning and the Boomers (as the largest generation) are a huge part of the problem.

Purely an FYI, but your data is a few years out of date; according to Pew Research, the Millennials passed the Boomers population-wise about 3 years ago.  GenX is currently running 3rd, but on track to pass the Boomers before the end of this decade.  

[SoMuchTV]

8 minutes ago, Nashville said:

Purely an FYI, but your data is a few years out of date; according to Pew Research, the Millennials passed the Boomers population-wise about 3 years ago.  GenX is currently running 3rd, but on track to pass the Boomers before the end of this decade.  

I was about to say, how can that be?  There aren’t any more GenXers being born!!  Then I figured it out 🙁

[Nashville]

9 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I was about to say, how can that be?  There aren’t any more GenXers being born!!  Then I figured it out 🙁

Yup; I’m one of the last puffs of smoke from the end of the Baby Boom, and we’re a dying breed - whoops, there goes another one…!  😄

[conquistador]

On 7/27/2022 at 3:43 PM, QuantumMechanic said:

Since she has telekinesis she's always had that power.  Use TK to compress/release the heart (i.e. CPR) until it starts beating again.

Lol - that’s a very short and efficient CPR, then. The benefit of squeezing the heart directly I guess.

On 8/8/2022 at 11:55 PM, Hotel Snarker said:

They always tend to kill off the newest characters each and every season and this time was definitely predictable.

I can get the argument that it is a fantasy and we don’t need to see child heroes die. I just don’t like the writers eating the cake and having it too; both letting Max ”die” with everything that comes with it (opening the gate and so on) but also letting her be magically resuscitated. It feels cheap, they should have committed to one outcome - and her dying was the outcome the season had been building towards.

Makes me wonder if somebody higher up interferred with the original script…

[Taryn74]

Finished my rewatch tonight.

I noticed this time around that Vecna was actually showing El all of her friends fighting (and, as he thought, losing) including Hopper fighting the demogorgon in Russia so that's when she found out Hopper was alive. The way the scenes were cut it looked like WE were just being shown all the action, but Vecna specifically said he was going to SHOW HER what was going on. So that makes El's reaction when Hopper comes in the door at the end more appropriate. She was still overwhelmed emotionally, and her reaction showed that, but not shellshocked the way she would have been if she had no idea he wasn't already dead.

So at the end, when El and the crew at the cabin were staring at the huge plumes of smoke going up, was it supposed to look like a volcano had exploded? Is that what the townspeople are going to assume was going on with the "ash" floating around? Because the one in the center was massive.

Dustin should have told Eddie's uncle that Eddie died rescuing him after the earthquake. Dustin had an obvious limp (he hurt himself jumping through the gate after Eddie pulled the sheet down) so a story about being trapped under something and Eddie died getting him out would have been appropriate and not so vague as 'he died trying to save the town' LOL. It was still a really touching scene though and made me cry. I love that Eddie's uncle never believed Eddie killed anyone.

[Taryn74]

I've been mulling over Nancy's room being "stuck" in 1983 in the Upside Down version when she goes there to grab her guns. Vecna mentioned at some point that he takes on the memories of his victims, becoming more powerful with each death, and I believe it's implied that he can also see our current world through the eyes of the ones he's infected with the Mind Flayer even before he actually kills them (which would explain him having access to things through Will's eyes even though Will never died). I wonder if the UD version of Nancy's room reflects Barb's last memories of it? The last entry in Nancy's diary was the day Will disappeared, but that could also be the last time Barb was at Nancy's house. I don't know that Nancy would have let Barb read her diary, but maybe? Or maybe Vecna can use someone as a vessel to also see other people's thoughts when they're close by or something?