S01.E07: The Bathtub

[Athena]

Description TBA

[SeanC]

Dustin gets some valuable practise on his moment-killing skills.

The bike chase was well-done, though I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that they didn't go full rip-off and have Elle make the bikes fly.  The guys being so thrilled with her power display was fun, though.

This show has a lot of great minor details, like Nancy stopping to goggle at the Byers' wrecked living room.  I also liked that we finally get to see some meaningful interactions between Mike and Nancy, who had a nice dynamic here.  And everybody finally gets filled in on what everyone else has been doing up until now.

I hope Mr. Clarke gets the Teacher of the Year prize at that school.  Though I'm not sure why he would know how to make a sensory deprivation tank ("Fun.").

[luckyroll3]

2 hours ago, SeanC said:

I hope Mr. Clarke gets the Teacher of the Year prize at that school.  Though I'm not sure why he would know how to make a sensory deprivation tank ("Fun.").

That part was great!  Especially Dustin guilting him into giving the information in the middle of his date.  But why did he know the exact parameters for building one....without google!  Lol!  I also loved that even though it was a strange request, for Mr. Clarke, it was par for the course with this group of kids. 

[Guest]

I didn't understand why they didn't just make the bathtub the sensory deprivation tank.  One bag of salt, no hoses, no breaking and entering, no pool assembly or obvious clue left behind for the bad guys.  I guess that latter is probably why.  

I'm ignorant on science but I'd be able to intuit enough info to make a bathtub into one-- warm but not hot, dark, quiet and enough salt to make you float easily.  

[hincandenza]

On that, I think part of it is how a bathtub is small and narrow; even a kiddie pool gives her room to float without bumping the sides, which is what the sensory deprivation is about: no light, no sounds, and no sense of touch or space (the water is body temperature, and dense enough you float).

[RachelKM]

"Why are you keeping the curiosity door locked?" might be my new response whenever I feel someone isn't fully engaging in my rabbit hole musings. Also, I need a Dustin tee-shirt or coffee mug stat. 

[sacrebleu]

Quote

This show has a lot of great minor details, like Nancy stopping to goggle at the Byers' wrecked living room.

This! It was a really small, but great reaction to the weirdness in the midst of the monster hunting drama. I liked that they stopped for that beat. 

[Primetimer]

Everyone finally starts working together, as Stranger Things hurtles towards its conclusion.

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[Guest]

On 7/20/2016 at 6:48 AM, sacrebleu said:

This! It was a really small, but great reaction to the weirdness in the midst of the monster hunting drama. I liked that they stopped for that beat. 

I chuckled at that instant because in my head Nancy was thinking, "Oh great, my new love interest lives in a shithole trailer..."  Which I know was not the intent.

[Chyna]

On 7/18/2016 at 10:23 PM, RachelKM said:

"Why are you keeping the curiosity door locked?" might be my new response whenever I feel someone isn't fully engaging in my rabbit hole musings. Also, I need a Dustin tee-shirt or coffee mug stat. 

Dustin is EVERYTHING.

Minor question: When Bully Kid shows up at the police station with his mom after El broke his arm, he describes her (shaved head, etc.), and Hopper knows who he's talking about. But how does Hopper know about El? I can't remember him seeing her.

[SeanC]

5 hours ago, Chyna said:

Minor question: When Bully Kid shows up at the police station with his mom after El broke his arm, he describes her (shaved head, etc.), and Hopper knows who he's talking about. But how does Hopper know about El? I can't remember him seeing her.

When Hopper was investigating Benny's death and spoke to the dude who was in the diner when Elle first showed up, the guy gave him a description of a boy with a shaved head.  He initially thought that was Will, but by episode 7 had determined otherwise.

Edited July 23, 2016 by SeanC

[Pollock]

On 19/07/2016 at 0:24 AM, Winston9-DT3 said:

I didn't understand why they didn't just make the bathtub the sensory deprivation tank.  One bag of salt, no hoses, no breaking and entering, no pool assembly or obvious clue left behind for the bad guys.  I guess that latter is probably why.  

Maybe because the walls from which the monster comes from were far away from the pool?

[Chyna]

11 hours ago, SeanC said:

When Hopper was investigating Benny's death and spoke to the dude who was in the diner when Elle first showed up, the guy gave him a description of a boy with a shaved head.

Ah, OK. I forgot about that. Thanks.

[bilgistic]

I don't get the egg thing. Still-good (to eat) eggs sink in water while old/not-good eggs float (you can ignore the date on the carton--you're welcome), but I'm sure that wasn't the point of the "tank" egg exercise. Maybe something about the salinity?

[EmpressElle]

Average sixth grade science fair project--"How Much Salt Does it Take to Float an Egg?"

[bilgistic]

I have an English degree.

[GarnetGirl]

As someone who spent nearly three years without front teeth and was the one with the most sense in her group of friends (and also pretty awesome at being a moment killer), I can relate deeply to the character of Dustin.

[AimingforYoko]

52 minutes ago, meligator said:

I'm afraid Barb is done for after being dragged back down into the pool.  

You called that, unfortunately.

[nodorothyparker]

That chase was everything.  Just everything.

This episode cemented my love for Dustin and Mr. Clarke.  I love that the guy can be on a date at home on a Saturday night and still find it in him to answer a student's questions.  "Why are you keeping the curiosity door locked?"  Hee.  Yes, the world was a VERY different place before the internet and Google.

When they were building their do it yourself sensory deprivation tank on the gym floor, all I could think was how very pissed the janitor and probably PE teacher is going to be when they see the inevitable fallout to the hardwood.  Considering the conniptions they used to have over "street shoes on the gym floor!" I shudder to think what the reaction is going to be to pounds and pounds of rock salt and a couple of hundred gallons of water in a collapsible pool after a lot of traipsing back and forth with garden hoses.

While I did think it was a nice touch for Joyce to be so reassuring and mothering to Eleven in going through it, there was still something a little uncomfortable about the adults, knowing what had happened to Eleven and hearing of the physical toll using her powers takes on her, immediately diving in and asking her to do it to help them.  No, they didn't really have much choice about it but it would have been nice to see them at least acknowledge that they were using her too.

[Danny Franks]

I know others have commented on this, but it is absolutely cracking me up, how oblivious all the adults are to their kids. Mike, Dustin and Lucas are involved in a giant conspiracy involving illegal experiments on children, and their parents don't have the slightest clue. Mike tells his mother, "if anyone asks where I am... I've left the country", and she's just utterly bamboozled. It's great.

But I do feel like Eleven should have been sat in a basket on the front of Mike's bike, draped in a blanket. Only in this, it's the vans that are flying, not the bikes. This show really wears its references on its sleeve, doesn't it?

The scene with officers Eddie and Lou (no idea what their real names are) making fun of the bully for being beaten up by a little girl and pissing himself was funny. But man, how real was it that his mother was a well to do, middle class lady who thinks her son is an angel?

The three storylines converging so suddenly was executed pretty well. And it was definitely the right time for them to all start working together. I liked seeing Nancy and Mike interact, and that Jonathan was close enough to Will to remember the walkie talkie.

The kid who plays Dustin has a long career ahead of him as a comedy sidekick. He's pure gold.

"Sensory deprivation? What is this for?"

".... Fun."

Joyce being motherly to Eleven was quite touching, when you think about the way her 'papa' has always treated her. I guess there's something to be said for love and kindness getting results that privation and cold, clinical detachment can't. Shame about Barb, but I guess she always was something of a redshirt.

[Capricasix]

#FreeBarb

[PatternRec]

17 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

The kid who plays Dustin has a long career ahead of him as a comedy sidekick. He's pure gold.

I mentioned in another thread, he seems to me what Seth Rogan would have been like as a kid. 

[thuganomics85]

It was great seeing all of the main storylines finally intersect and see all the group of characters together.  It only just started, but I enjoyed some of the new interactions, like Joyce's scene with Elle, and more of Hopper and Jonathan's tense interactions.  My favorite though might have actually been seeing more of Mike and Nancy together.  They really do act like siblings who get on each others nerves, but still care for one another.  But I was cracking up over how they promised to no longer keep secrets from one another, only for both of them to deny to the other that they are so totally not interested in their current partner of the opposite sex, even though they totally are.  In their defense, they're really more lying to themselves first!

Didn't occur to me that this was leading to them making a makeshift pool, but that's what they did thanks to a old pool, a lot of road salt, and help from Mr. Clarke, the best teacher ever.  Not better happen to him in this last episode!  Anyway, Elle goes back to the other side and unsurprisingly finds out that Barb is totally a goner.  Will is alive.... for now.  That final scene did not look good!

Lucas helping the gang out and the escape from Dr. Brenner and his goons was great, but I have a bad feeling that might catch up to them. Especially since Hopper and Joyce just got themselves captured.

At least Steve apparently realizes he was a major dick and a half.  Still has ways to go at digging himself out of the hole he put himself in, but, hey, awareness, at least?  His other two "friends', though... come on, Creature!  Aren't you hungry, again?!

[FoundTime]

On ‎7‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 9:52 AM, SeanC said:

I hope Mr. Clarke gets the Teacher of the Year prize at that school.  Though I'm not sure why he would know how to make a sensory deprivation tank ("Fun.").

Since this is set in the 80s and packed to the gills with references to films from that era, I assumed that Mr. Clarke had seen the movie Altered States* (1980) and geeked out on the isolation chamber enough to find out how to make one.

*Great movie, btw. William Hurt plays a scientist who experiments on himself (hallucinogens + total immersion tank) and appears to revert to an ape stage as a result.

[VCRTracking]

Loved that everybody is finally coming together!

Joyce comforting Eleven hit me directly in the feels.

[Tyro49]

Why didn't Nancy and Jonathan tell the adults about the "gate" in the tree they had found? They could have gone "in" that way, instead of trying to run the gauntlet at the plant.

[Lamima]

On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 1:17 PM, Tyro49 said:

Why didn't Nancy and Jonathan tell the adults about the "gate" in the tree they had found? They could have gone "in" that way, instead of trying to run the gauntlet at the plant.

Just binge watched this show. And the tree sealed up after Nancy got pulled out. It went back to tree. Though I suppose they could still use it same as they used the house walls to get the monster out.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Lamima

[ripple596]

What happened when the DOE lady visited Mr. Clark? Did anything come from that? I think they just showed him answering the door and it was her there. she may have had a gun & I thought he was going to be killed.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Finding out that Troy's mom is one of those bossy entitled "WHAT IS YOUR NAME AND YOUR BADGE NUMBER?!" kind of parents was no surprise at all. I bet even if Troy told his mom the entire story (including holding a knife to Dustin and forcing Mike to jump into the quarry), she would still defend his psychotic little ass.

Speaking of asses, Steve is still an ass. In the last 24 hours, he has spied on Nancy, called her a slut, let his friend spray paint a very public message about her being a slut on the movie theater, refused to believe Nancy when she told him that nothing happened between her and Jonathan (so now he has publicly declared her to be a slut AND a liar), picked a fight with Jonathan by blaming the Byers family for Will's disappearance and calling Joyce crazy, called his best friend an asshole, and then blamed said best friend for his (Steve's) own toolishness. I don't care if he offered to help clean the spray paint off the theater. That seems like the very least he could do for starters. As his BFF pointed out, Steve did nothing to stop him from spray painting the theater or the alley so he is just as culpable for the actual graffiti in my eyes.

I hope the DOE lady didn't bug Mr. Clarke's house/phone while she was there the other day. Otherwise, Brenner and the Hawkins Lab people know exactly what the kids are up to with the sensory deprivation tank. So despite the fact that Brenner & co know that Mike, Lucas, and Dustin are with El, no one is watching Joyce's house? I was surprised that they were able to go back there without being confronted by anyone from Hawkins.

Dustin and Mr. Clarke are awesome. And this is a reminder of what things were like before the internet. I remember at one school I attended in the 90s, there was a list of all the teachers' home phone numbers distributed to the students. Another time, a friend of mine had to call the school principal. He just went to the pay phone, looked up the principal's name in the phone book hanging underneath, and called the principal at home at 8pm on a school night. Heh, but he wasn't calling to use the principal as a human google for directions! I love that Dustin thought it was totally normal to call Mr. Clarke on a Saturday night to ask him how to make a sensory deprivation tank and I also love that Mr. Clarke attempted to put it off until Monday but gave in thanks to Dustin's well worded guilt trip.

I also loved the kids debating about whether Nancy trying to walkie talkie them was a trap. "Like Lando!"

Poor El. It's not just the physical and mental toll that using her powers takes on her. Just imagine being in her position, traveling to a dark place and finding things like dead Barb. That would scare the shit out of me as an adult so I can only imagine how scary it would be for a kid to do that (I think El's aunt said that she was 11 or 12?).

Since everyone left the Byers house knowing that they were going to put El in a tank, I was really hoping that someone had the forethought to bring some dry clothes for her to wear afterward.

On 7/23/2016 at 6:34 PM, bilgistic said:

I don't get the egg thing. Still-good (to eat) eggs sink in water while old/not-good eggs float (you can ignore the date on the carton--you're welcome), but I'm sure that wasn't the point of the "tank" egg exercise. Maybe something about the salinity?

Yes, they were using the eggs to see if the water was salty enough for El to float in it.

On 7/24/2016 at 9:46 AM, bilgistic said:

I have an English degree.

I had to laugh at this comment because just a few weeks ago on Pretty Little Liars, while trying to figure out how to deal with something pretty fucked up, one of the characters said, "I have a Master's degree in American literature. There's nothing I can't handle."

Edited July 12, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo