S01.E04: The Body

[Athena]

Description TBA

[SeanC]

I'm unclear why the boys think Elle needs a makeover to go to school, or, for that matter, why they need to go to such lengths to hide her from parents.  Sure, hide that she's living in the basement, but why not just introduce her as a new acquaintance?

The teachers at that school are clearly not very good at monitoring student activity, seeing as they managed to ignore that fight at the assembly for quite a while even though like the entire school was watching it.  Elle taking revenge on the bullies was telegraphed, but still fun to watch.

[Anela]

I think this was the best episode so far - unless it's just that I was more focused this morning. I want to snuggle in and watch the rest, but I also want to stretch it out a bit.

When the sheriff cut that body open, I was half expecting an alien baby to pop out, like the one in "V". 

[benteen]

I was very glad when Mike shoved that bully down.  Telegraphed but still enjoyable.

Winona's character might be one-note but I'm enjoying David Harbour's character a lot on this show.

Edited July 19, 2016 by benteen

[DrLar]

Wow so the tech is so advanced they can make bodies look like real bodies, did they need to stuff it with cotton? LOL

They went very dramatic, just touching the skin it should felt plastic and no need to even open it.

I thought at first it was Barb's body but no, they don't seem even looking for her at all.

[hincandenza]

4 hours ago, DrLar said:

Wow so the tech is so advanced they can make bodies look like real bodies, did they need to stuff it with cotton? LOL

They went very dramatic, just touching the skin it should felt plastic and no need to even open it.

I thought at first it was Barb's body but no, they don't seem even looking for her at all.

It only had to look like a dead body, which they could do with some pictures, some latex, and a decent artist.  No one would touch the body, is the point: the six troopers who pulled it out of the water were in on it, the autopsy was performed by a statie, and the family was only allowed to see- not touch- the body from behind a glass panel.  Once the body is buried, the con is complete.

[Primetimer]

Whatever this creepy thing is, it's got hold of Joyce's Christmas-light Ouija board, and it's bursting at the (wallpaper) seams with helpful advice.

View the full article

[tvsoothesthespirit]

It's nice to see some people coming around to understand that Joyce might not be as crazy as she seems. I get tired of the, "seemingly crazy person actually knows the truth," thing pretty quick.

I like the show, I like the call backs to the '80s. So, so many things on this show were actual things I had/wore back then. I get distracted from issues with the show by memorabilia!

The story itself is fairly compelling and I definitely want to see what happens next.

It's also really great to have a show I can watch with my elementary-aged son that I can enjoy, too.  So tired of "Kickin' It!"

[LilJen]

I'm glad the sheriff and Will's big brother and Nancy are taking the bull by the horns and just going for it in terms of figuring out what the heck is going on.

[Chyna]

On 7/16/2016 at 9:24 AM, SeanC said:

I'm unclear why the boys think Elle needs a makeover to go to school, or, for that matter, why they need to go to such lengths to hide her from parents.  Sure, hide that she's living in the basement, but why not just introduce her as a new acquaintance?

And why the wig and the dress? In the sweatpants she'd already been wearing, she just looked like one of the guys. Maybe that's just kid-thinking.

[Racj82]

Why did they makeover Elle? They think she looks weird with haircut and everything and they are assuming she would draw attention like that.

Also 80s makeover Montage 

Why did he cut open the body? Because that's for the audience. 

[Armchair Critic]

The pink oxford button down shirt with the jeans and skinny belt. That's exactly what I was wearing back then in high school, they really do get the clothes right.

[Armchair Critic]

I am assuming that Will is at his house in another time/dimension because El brought the boys to Will's house and said he was there and also we saw Deb (or is her name Barb?) at the swimming pool when it was empty and old.

Notice the guard at the morgue was reading a Stephen King book?

Edited July 25, 2016 by Armchair Critic

[Misstify]

I too wondered why they needed to put Eleven in a dress, wig, and makeup...then I realized, homage to E.T.'s makeover scene.

[mahree]

On 7/24/2016 at 7:23 PM, Armchair Critic said:

Notice the guard at the morgue was reading a Stephen King book?

Cujo.

[stillshimpy]

When they put that blond wig on El, she reminded me so much of Elizabeth Perkins when she was younger.  It would never have occurred to me without the hair, but they plopped a blond wig on the kid and suddenly I had an urge to look up the actor to find out who her parents are, because....really similar bone structure. 

[nodorothyparker]

I like that this episode started with their counterparts thinking both Joyce and Eleven were crazy, unhinged, etc., only to come around and realize they did understand exactly what they were saying and doing.  Much better than the old crazy person is crazy and no one believes them until it's way past too late trope.  Hopper is really growing on me as character after initially thinking he would just be the usual small town sheriff who exists mostly as a roadblock to the other various characters trying to get where they need to go and not getting it until right before the credits roll.  Whatever else he may be, he's a good enough detective to start seeing how nothing about Will's "death" is adding up and keep asking questions.

All the Stephen King homages are killing me.  Of course the guard is reading Cujo, another '80s story about a mother battling to save her kid.

I didn't mind the abbreviated '80s /E.T. makeover of El as much as I find it interesting that this little girl who has no societal references for so much of life outside the lab apparently has some internalized idea of "pretty."  Considering that girls weren't typically going around with buzz or even pixie cuts all that much at the time, it didn't really strike me as odd that the kids would want to do something to disguise her appearance and keep her from standing out to anyone who might see her.  Most wigs of the type that would have been lying around in a box at this time though would have been pretty obvious and terrible and the pink dress does look more like something left over from the '70s.  Maybe it was Nancy's?

Mike vs. the bully was predictable but still enjoyable.  And yeah, I do remember adults suddenly happening to be looking the other direction despite being right there until they saw how it was going to play out.  

[Jade Foxx]

On July 24, 2016 at 4:23 PM, Armchair Critic said:

I am assuming that Will is at his house in another time/dimension because El brought the boys to Will's house and said he was there and also we saw Deb (or is her name Barb?) at the swimming pool when it was empty and old.

Notice the guard at the morgue was reading a Stephen King book?

Throwback to the Twilight Zone?? 

(Little Girl Lost)

[WendyM]

I thought of that Twilight Zone episode too--the little girl in the wall crying, lost in another dimension. So creepy when I was a kid. But then I dismissed it because it's from so long ago and I haven't read anything about their referencing TZ. Or have they? Cause that would be a whole other bunch of tropes.

[fauntleroy]

I have got through Ep 4 so far, and wanted to come in and mention how inauthentic the dialog of the boys was! Guess I am in a minority in that - it seems to me they yell at each other too much - they seem manic and forced - too obviously scripted. They should be quieter and slower. As kids we were better at lurking and plotting, and didn't race around so much. And the one who brought all the snacks, come on, too staged. But then, child dialog almost always seems that way to me - the kids are 'acting'. With the exception of Eleven who benefits from mostly keeping her mouth shut and only has to glare.

I do appreciate the free-range life of the kids, and am appalled really, at its loss in modern life. I'm a bit older and in our day, if you came home from school and were still in the house 30 mins later, your parent (usually mum) would assume something was wrong with you. Otherwise, get out of the house! You would disappear until dinner time - parents did not want to see you, it was considered unhealthy to be home. They didn't need to know where you were at all times, and it was assumed you had the resources to fend for yourself.

I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in, and the biggest difference I think, is that the outdoors is depopulated. Just the occasional dogwalker. Where are the kids? Indoors, or off to some adult-supervised activity. Sad!

Other notes: It is unconvincing to me that the cute and supposedly bright girl sees anything in the slimy 'ladies man' Jean-Ralphio and his awful smirking friends. Cannot stand Wynona Rider's character of course. Stop screeching for two seconds will you! The Sheriff's character has some nuance. I hope that Modine's would be give more dimension than simply Dr Eeevil.

Edited August 15, 2016 by fauntleroy

[nodorothyparker]

My only real issue with the dialogue has been the repeated use of the word douchebag.  It's just not a word I remember hearing much until sometime this last decade.  I did squee with delight when one of the kids called another a wasteoid.  Such an '80s insult. 

I took Dustin bringing the snacks as a shoutout to the scene in Stand By Me when the kids buy junk food as provisions for their trip down the railroad tracks.  That movie's been on TV a lot to mark its 30th anniversary and Vern bitching about not them not being able to get Twinkies for breakfast despite him only pitching in 7 cents never fails to kill me. 

One of the biggest differences for me, having been this age in '83 and having a child this age now, is that everybody and their dog didn't have a cell phone then to record anything and everything and immediately call the cops or child services if they saw a child they didn't think was being parented properly.  If asked, a lot of parents now will say they're more afraid of being reported than they are of anything their kids might actually do because it does happen and more than you might realize.  My parents certainly had their opinions of what other people let their kids do but they mostly muttered about it and went about their business, only occasionally getting involved enough to mention to me or my siblings that they didn't want us hanging out with a particular kid or going to their house.

[Kel Varnsen]

11 hours ago, fauntleroy said:

Other notes: It is unconvincing to me that the cute and supposedly bright girl sees anything in the slimy 'ladies man' Jean-Ralphio and his awful smirking friends. Cannot stand Wynona Rider's character of course. Stop screeching for two seconds will you! The Sheriff's character has some nuance. I hope that Modine's would be give more dimension than simply Dr Eeevil.

To be fair, Will's mom ended up with a pretty big dirtbag. She seemed relatively bright and I remember what Wynona Rider looked like when she was younger.

3 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

My only real issue with the dialogue has been the repeated use of the word douchebag.  It's just not a word I remember hearing much until sometime this last decade.  I did squee with delight when one of the kids called another a wasteoid.  Such an '80s insult. 

 

The "Lord and Lady Douchebag" sketch aired in 1980 on SNL, three years before this show was set.

[PatternRec]

7 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

My only real issue with the dialogue has been the repeated use of the word douchebag.  It's just not a word I remember hearing much until sometime this last decade.  I did squee with delight when one of the kids called another a wasteoid.  Such an '80s insult. 

I was 13 in '83 and don't recall the word douchebag used all that much, but in '83 without the internet slang was also a lot more regional so maybe I just never heard it where I lived (though I grew up in NYC - I thought we got all the cool curse words first :p ). 

The one that stuck out for me was mouthbreather, which I never heard 'til mid-nineties. Also when the two cops ask each other is Hop is "off his meds." No-one outside of a hospital said meds back then. And do the writers remember what psychiatry was like in the '80s? Especially for a tough guy cop? "Walk it off." 

While we're on the topic of anachronisms, were Nutty Bars a thing in '83? Because if they were my mom and I are gonna have some words about how we never had them in the house. 

[Danny Franks]

So it wasn't really Will's body then. The evil doctor and his people created a fake because they're scared that the chief will come sniffing around their facility again, I guess. But do they know that the thing has got Will? It's in some kind of alternate dimension, by the looks of things. And can create different entrances, wherever it is? What does it want with Will and Barb? So many questions.

Poor Jonathan, having to cope with planning his brother's funeral as well as dealing with a mother who appears to be increasingly unhinged. And what's he supposed to be, 17? Tough life. But it looks like he might have the pretty and waifish (and honestly, about 14 years old looking) Nancy as his love interest. So, win some, lose some, right?

I figured the kids realised they needed to give Eleven a makeover because her hairstyle would have been extremely unorthodox for a girl in that period. It would have attracted undue attention. And they instantly knew she was a girl when they met her, so maybe they didn't consider she could pass as a boy. I really liked seeing her wonder at all the mundanities of a town that she's never seen before. All the people, the buildings, the sights and sounds.

The two bullies are such colossal assholes, in the way that only kids can be. Laughing about another child's death, genuinely untouched by it. It reminds me of Donald Glover's stand up bit about how children are awful, because they haven't developed consciences yet. And they cast the perfect young actors for the roles. Those ugly, adolescent, punchable faces must spark the inner kid in everyone, remembering similar sort of asshole kids from school.

I'm not really interested in the odd anachronistic word or turn of phrase, to be honest. The whole show evokes the early 80s so well, that I will give them a lot of leeway for the odd, tiny misstep.

[thuganomics85]

So, that really wasn't Will's body, but I'm guessing an extremely elaborate set-up from Dr. Matthew Modine and the rest of the government spooks, to make it look like it was him.  I'm continuing to guess that there is some kind of other dimensional thing going on, and I guess the creature takes its victims to this place, but he somehow managed to run and hide, unlike poor Barb.  Not sure how he was able to get Joyce to briefly see it, but it's safe to say there are still a lot mysteries left to solve.

I do like that Joyce won't be working against everyone for too long.  While not everyone has all the pieces together, it seems like both Johnny and Nancy think Will has been taking by this mysterious "person", and they believe Joyce really did see it.  Hopper clearly thinks something shady is going down with the government and is preparing to take action.  And the boys are back to believing Elle again.  Can't wait to see the pieces be put together, and maybe everyone teaming up.

The boys giving Elle a makeover was probably unnecessary, but I'm sure it was just an homage to all the films that have done it in the past, so I don't mind.  Plus, I'm guessing it was also to make it more obvious that Mike is crushing on Elle.

Glad Elle finally met the bullies and one of them paid for their actions.  I did like that Mike knocked one of them to the floor on his own, without help.  He probably would have gotten his ass kicked had it not been for Elle, but I'm glad he had some strength in him.

Still enjoying the Karen character and her just doing her best to be a good mom, even with everything going on.  Cara Buono is making the most of her screentime.

[Knitting Hippie]

I was 13 in 1983 and am loving this nostalgia-fest as well! The prairie shirt Barb wore in the first episode was identical the one I had in 6th grade. As were the large frame glasses. Steve was wearing the every-kid-had-a-pair Nikes with the red swoosh in this one. Nancy's Trapper Keeper was just like mine too.

The nods to E.T. and Poltergeist are plentiful. In this episode alone we had the guy tethered as he goes into the muck ala Mom with the rope going in to get CarolAnne. Joyce talking to Will is similar to the conversation between Mom and CarolAnne as well ("someone is in here with me"). I totally (fer shur) saw the dressing up of Elle as a nod to dressing up E.T....blonde wig and all.

[Dobian]

This show is getting better with each episode.  I do like the 80s movie references, though there is a fine line between giving something a nod and just copycatting.   I hope the show doesn't cross that line.  The Heathkit shortwave radio...I had one of those in the 70s.  Before the Internet, you would tune in the shortwave and listen to radio programs from all over the world.  I even wrote to the Soviet Union once and they sent me their radio program guide and materials.  I'm surprised I wasn't investigated as a Russian spy, lol, but I was just a kid after all.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Dobian

[SeanC]

On rewatch, I like how the previous episode ends with Mike storming off, furious with Eleven.  As this episode opens, they're both hanging out in his basement, with him still mad at her.  Mike's too gentlemanly to let furious disagreement interrupt his offering her accommodations.

[EarlGreyTea]

31 minutes ago, SeanC said:

On rewatch, I like how the previous episode ends with Mike storming off, furious with Eleven.  As this episode opens, they're both hanging out in his basement, with him still mad at her.  Mike's too gentlemanly to let furious disagreement interrupt his offering her accommodations.

That was cute. Mike is far and away the Elliot of the group (from E.T.). He accommodated her in only the way a kid can - showing her his toys and the La-Z-Boy, giving her his sleeping bag, stealing Eggos for her. A friendship formed as only kids can do. Finn Wolfhard said the Duffers likened the beginning of their friendship as Mike finding a puppy he wanted to take home and care for. Eleven is the meatier role, but Mike is my favorite character. I think he does well with the serious scenes too. The look of complete pure adoration he gave Eleven as she walked out in the dress and wig was great. I also noticed the smirks Dustin gave him in the background as he said "Pretty....good. You look pretty good."

Having said that, it was a bit disconcerting to see him screaming at El and then five seconds after she locates Will on the radio, he completely forgot his anger. Little scenes like that show how much they use Eleven, even when their intentions are pure.

[SeanC]

5 minutes ago, EarlGreyTea said:

Having said that, it was a bit disconcerting to see him screaming at El and then five seconds after she locates Will on the radio, he completely forgot his anger. Little scenes like that show how much they use Eleven, even when their intentions are pure.

I don't really see it.  He was angry at her because he thought she was lying about Will being alive.  Once she located his voice on the radio, he realized she wasn't.

[EarlGreyTea]

Just now, SeanC said:

I don't really see it.  He was angry at her because he thought she was lying about Will being alive.  Once she located his voice on the radio, he realized she wasn't.

That's true. I think part of my problem is I keep forgetting how much the kids know versus what we the audience know about her past. WE get what she meant by Will hiding and why she's terrified, but the kids don't. I think Millie does such a good sadface too that it's hard to watch when people are mad at her.

[Margherita Erdman]

On August 15, 2016 at 1:00 PM, nodorothyparker said:

My only real issue with the dialogue has been the repeated use of the word douchebag.  It's just not a word I remember hearing much until sometime this last decade.  I did squee with delight when one of the kids called another a wasteoid.  Such an '80s insult. 

I took Dustin bringing the snacks as a shoutout to the scene in Stand By Me when the kids buy junk food as provisions for their trip down the railroad tracks.  That movie's been on TV a lot to mark its 30th anniversary and Vern bitching about not them not being able to get Twinkies for breakfast despite him only pitching in 7 cents never fails to kill me. 

"Douchebag" was very much part of California slang, at least, in the 70s and 80s. When I started hearing it again in the 2000s, I thought "not again"! because it isn't an expression I'm thrilled to have my kid using, honestly. "D-bag" though, that is a modern innovation ;p

And I agree that the references to Stand By Me are several in this episode and the previous one — most notably the episode title "The Body" — same as the title of the Stephen King novella on which the movie is based.

On August 15, 2016 at 9:05 PM, PatternRec said:

I was 13 in '83 and don't recall the word douchebag used all that much, but in '83 without the internet slang was also a lot more regional so maybe I just never heard it where I lived (though I grew up in NYC - I thought we got all the cool curse words first :p ). 

The one that stuck out for me was mouthbreather, which I never heard 'til mid-nineties. Also when the two cops ask each other is Hop is "off his meds." ...

While we're on the topic of anachronisms, were Nutty Bars a thing in '83?

Well sometimes the truly tubular stuff originates on the West Coast, like, you know?

I agree about mouthbreather though and especially "off his meds." It wasn't until the mass consumption of Prozac in the mid-late 90s that psychopharmacology became something you joked about as something normal people did.

Speaking of regionalisms, perhaps? What are Nutty Bars???

On August 18, 2016 at 9:36 AM, Danny Franks said:

 I'm not really interested in the odd anachronistic word or turn of phrase, to be honest. The whole show evokes the early 80s so well, that I will give them a lot of leeway for the odd, tiny misstep.

For me, anachronisms and maybe-anachronisms aren't taking me out of the show, since it is a fantastical story anyway with a highly meta vibe — but I am having fun kibitzing and remembering what fits and what doesn't, just as we are having fun finding references and visual jokes, puns, etc.

On August 25, 2016 at 8:44 AM, Knitting Hippie said:

I was 13 in 1983 and am loving this nostalgia-fest as well! The prairie shirt Barb wore in the first episode was identical the one I had in 6th grade. As were the large frame glasses. Steve was wearing the every-kid-had-a-pair Nikes with the red swoosh in this one. Nancy's Trapper Keeper was just like mine too.

I was 14 at the end of 1983 and every time Nancy is on the screen, I have an almost physical shiver of identification for everything from the side barrettes to the neatly pressed Oxford shirt to the Trapper Keeper clutched to her chest to the shiny lip gloss.

I think it was last episode we got a close up of Steve's Le Tigre shirt, which was also perfect.

But where are the textbooks covered in deconstructed brown paper bags?

Nancy's bra seemed a little too Miracle Bra/Victoria's Secret from the future item to me, also. Hard to imagine Cara Buono's Karen buying that or Nancy wearing it, not in 1983 when a pretty push-up lace number like that in a smaller size would have been a specialty, high-end item.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Margherita Erdman

[methodwriter85]

9 hours ago, Margherita Erdman said:

Nancy's bra seemed a little too Miracle Bra/Victoria's Secret from the future item to me, also. Hard to imagine Cara Buono's Karen buying that or Nancy wearing it, not in 1983 when a pretty push-up lace number like that in a smaller size would have been a specialty, high-end item.

 

Nancy's bra is actually supposed to be based on the one that Jennifer Jason Leigh wears in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The costume designer made up a sheet for each character, based on images of fashion clothing from the era.

[SlackerInc]

On 7/18/2016 at 6:34 AM, Anela said:

I think this was the best episode so far - unless it's just that I was more focused this morning.

I sure thought it was.  I loved this episode, and I only had one tiny nitpick, which had to do with an idiomatic anachronism, albeit a different one from the ones others have mentioned (see below).

On 8/15/2016 at 7:35 AM, fauntleroy said:

I do appreciate the free-range life of the kids, and am appalled really, at its loss in modern life. I'm a bit older and in our day, if you came home from school and were still in the house 30 mins later, your parent (usually mum) would assume something was wrong with you. Otherwise, get out of the house! You would disappear until dinner time - parents did not want to see you, it was considered unhealthy to be home. They didn't need to know where you were at all times, and it was assumed you had the resources to fend for yourself.

I see a lot of people online, including journalists and authors invited on radio shows and podcasts, with the same lament.  But while they are all right that the danger of being abducted/molested/killed by a stranger is vastly exaggerated, official statistics show that over the past several decades, there has been a steep decline in the number of kids killed by what are officially termed "unintentional injuries".  Meaning, getting run over by cars when playing in the street, falling from high places, drowning in lakes and ponds, burning up in fires in abandoned houses, etc.  Those kinds of deaths were literally four or five times more common back then.  And that's not including all the serious injuries that were traumatic, maybe crippling, but which didn't lead to death.  Something to think about.

On 8/15/2016 at 3:00 PM, nodorothyparker said:

My only real issue with the dialogue has been the repeated use of the word douchebag.  It's just not a word I remember hearing much until sometime this last decade.  I did squee with delight when one of the kids called another a wasteoid.  Such an '80s insult. 

I was a kid in '83, and I definitely remember "douche" and "douchebag" (this was in North Carolina).  But the one moment that kind of took me out of the scene, and which I'm surprised no one here or elsewhere (from what I can divine via Google) commented on, was when Nancy complained to her erstwhile beau "Are you serious right now?" because he was only worried about the cops and his parents learning about the party and the alcohol involved.  My wife wasn't even born yet in '83, and she said this wasn't an idiom even when she was a teen.  So I think it's quite recent, a 21st century thing.  But maybe it's regional, and someone will set me straight!

[SlackerInc]

It also occurred to me, as I started to watch the next episode, that the sheriff should have told Will's mom she was right about the body being fake before heading out for a break-in he had to know was perilous.

[VCRTracking]

People online have said Will is like Doug(Justin Bartha) in the Hangover movies and it's so true! He's part of the group, but not really...

I love all the different storylines with different characters starting to figure things out separately. I like that all of them are smart. The kids, Joyce, Hopper and even Nancy and Jonathan.

I actually thought Eleven with the blonde wig looked weird until she froze Troy and made him pee himself. Then she wiped her nose and spun and walked away like a badass! I thought "Okay she's an effing superhero."

Edited November 18, 2016 by VCRTracking

[Tyro49]

On 11/18/2016 at 4:30 PM, VCRTracking said:

 

 

I actually thought Eleven with the blonde wig looked weird until she froze Troy and made him pee himself. Then she wiped her nose and spun and walked away like a badass! I thought "Okay she's an effing superhero."

I just realized: she looked like one of the blonde kids in the original Village of the Dammed.

[iMonrey]

There seemed to be a disconnect between the end of the last episode and the beginning of this one. Mike ran (biked) home after they saw the body being pulled from the water at the end of the last episode, leaving El behind. Yet at the beginning of this episode she is under her "tent" in the basement once again. Did she follow him home? Did he let her in? I thought he was done with her at that point, why would he sneak her back into the basement?

[EarlGreyTea]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

There seemed to be a disconnect between the end of the last episode and the beginning of this one. Mike ran (biked) home after they saw the body being pulled from the water at the end of the last episode, leaving El behind. Yet at the beginning of this episode she is under her "tent" in the basement once again. Did she follow him home? Did he let her in? I thought he was done with her at that point, why would he sneak her back into the basement?

I can fanwank that she came up to the basement door after a while and he just let her right back in. Pissed at her or not, he DOES have a crush on her, she has superpowers plus nowhere else to go, and Mike is a pretty sweet kid. I think he'd have cooled off after a while anyway, even if she didn't pick up Will's signal.

Mike is my favorite character and I cut him a lot of slack, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think he voluntarily took her back in. Would have been nice to have had a quick scene establishing that, though.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I think the biggest reason that Mike let El back in is because she told him that the bad people are after her. Despite the fact that she thought she had lied about Will, I don't think he assumed that meant she had lied about everything else. It was pretty clear when he first brought her home that she was traumatized and scared so even though he was later mad at her for (allegedly) lying about Will, he still believed that she was on the run from something bad and had nowhere else to go.

This was definitely the best episode so far for me. Finally the storylines and characters' paths are crossing more and we are getting more clues and information. I'm also glad that both Hopper and Jonathan both know that Joyce isn't just being crazy/in denial. I give Hopper a lot of credit for cutting open what he thought was Will's body. I don't think I could have done that. But damn it, Hop, it wouldn't have taken more than a few minutes to call Joyce and tell her you know she's right! That alone would have made such a big difference for her.

When Jonathan said that he prefers taking photos because it's easier than talking to people, he reminded me of Brian Krakow.

Love that both Mike and Eleven got some revenge on Mouth Breather. While I know some people saw the bullies as 80s movie cliches, those little assholes have always existed - even before they were seen in movies. If you didn't know at least one of those little douchebags in middle school or high school, count yourself lucky.

Speaking of which, Steve is showing his true colors even more now. Barb is missing and he's worried about his dad finding out that he had a party at the house. I laughed when he said the police were going to question "everyone at the party" and then named Tim and Carol. Uh, this wasn't some huge rager. Those were the only other people at the party besides you, the girl who disappeared, and the girl who reported her missing friend.

I'm really curious as to how the Hawkins Science Lab people are able to track the monster's victims (aside from listening to phone conversations like NSA which is how they found out about Will). How did they find out that Barb was missing? They must know since they had to be the ones who moved/took her car after Nancy saw it the day after the party.

When I watched the first episode, I thought that Eleven was a monster who had escaped and then killed Will, but now that I know Eleven is a different entity than whatever is inside the lab, I guess going through that gross slime portal in the lab is how to get to the dark version of the world and the monster is pulling its victims in. But then what? We know the monster hasn't killed Will so does it just like chasing people around? It looked like it killed the lab guy that they were trying to reel in, so why hasn't it killed Will yet?

This show has made me so paranoid that when Lonnie finally showed up at Joyce's house, I was like I don't know, maybe that's not REALLY Lonnie!

[CeeBeeGee]

On 9/18/2016 at 1:08 AM, Margherita Erdman said:

But where are the textbooks covered in deconstructed brown paper bags?

GOD, do I remember those! Covering my junior high textbooks was a rite of passage--do kids no longer do this?

[Akenta]

I don't think kids get textbooks any more.  Everything is going digital or handouts.

[Bklyndeb]

It must be my age, but with the missing person lurking in the walls, I thought of Bad Ronald.