SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
Will’s plight this season continues to pull at my heartstrings. I cried real tears for him, at the beginning of the episode, seeing him writhe in pain and screaming as he burned. Every episode finds a new way to make me feel for him. In this one it was like triple fold.
First with his burning and then with his amnesia. It’s not very clear how much he remembers or how much time he lost in his memories, but the fact that he didn’t recognise Hopper makes me think that at the very least he remembers up to before being rescued from the Upside Down. At the worst, he doesn’t remember any of the experience, which is, in some ways, a good thing. I’m just happy that he remembers Mike.
I was hoping that his amnesia meant that he was no longer connected to the Thessalhydra, but that was too much to ask for. I wish there had been another way to test his connection to it besides burning the vines, but that seems to be the only stimulus which affects Will as well. At least now we have an understanding of what the connection is.
I’m not sure that a virus is an apt comparison to make. In the case of the vines, sure, they infected the plants. They are the virus. In Will’s case the Thessalhydra literally went inside him. That is more like possession than infection. The hive mind does make sense in terms of how the vines seemed to be sentient. The demogorgons seem to be part of the hive mind as well.
Which, first of all, why are there so many of them?! One was bad enough. Where did the others come from? Aside from that, this hive mind thing raises so many other questions. Like, was the demogorgon is season one under it’s control or was it working independently? Could it have worked independently? What does the Thessalhydra want? Has it been pursuing it since last season? Is Will’s only purpose as a spy? I’m pretty sure the answer to that last one is “yes.”
Which leads me to the third thing that happened in this episode that made my heart break for Will; that he sent the Hawkins Lab personnel into a trap. I was wary of him saying that he knew how to defeat the Thessalhydra, just because immediately before he told Mike he knew how to stop “it”, he’d been looking at the guard’s gun. I really wanted it to be true, that he was helping them to defeat the Thessalhydra, and that he wasn’t completely taken over and he was no longer Will. But that was something else that was too much to ask for as well.
Dustin should have listened to Mike and the others when they told him to kill Dart! I knew it would have been bigger when he and Steve got back to his house. I kind of don’t understand why it grew so quickly, now, when Will upchucked it a year ago, but whatever. I wasn’t surprised when Steve found that it had shed its skin. I was hoping that it had died of starvation, but no, it escaped. They really should have killed it sooner.
I guess their plan to get rid of Dart wasn’t a bad one. Dustin had successfully (almost) lured Dart before and they’d done so with last season’s demogorgon. They had no reason to think that it wouldn’t have worked. Plus, they had no way of knowing that there was more than one demogorgon and that they were being controlled by the Thessalhydra. But leaving the sun roof open was a very bad move.
At least Max believes Lucas now. It stands to reason that she wouldn’t have before so his being upset that she didn’t was a tad unreasonable. It looks like the two of them are headed toward coupledom, which was obvious for a few episodes now. Poor Dustin. He was the one who liked her the most and was damn near in love with her. Lucas was almost indifferent to Max for a while.
Max’s backstory was quite disappointing. She’s just a product of divorce and her, we now know, step-brother is only mean to her because he hates Max’s mother and takes it out on her. I was expecting more from her and Billy. The writers took so long to reveal their origins, that only made it feel all the more important. And we never saw their parents. It was like they were signalling bigger things for her. We could have found this out about her from episode one. Without all of the mystery gassing her up. Also I think Billy may well be a racist.
I’m still somewhat unsure of Nancy and Jonathan’s scheme. It could cause more harm than good and I’m not convinced that it’s the best thing to do quite yet. This is all fueled by wanting revenge, not justice, and that is hardly if ever a good thing. But it did bond Nancy and Jonathan.
My ship finally happened! I was tickled pink by Murray pointing out how obvious it was that Nancy and Jonathan had feelings for each other and how accurately he read both of them. It was hilarious how, even pointed out to them so clearly, they denied having feelings for each other. Not just there, in front of Murray, but in their rooms to themselves and then to each other.
They had to have known that they were lying to each other. They were so awkward in their rejections. I was overjoyed when Nancy opened her door and Jonathan was standing outside. And Murray with his ever observant nature knew exactly what happened the next morning.
Random thoughts:
- Finally! Lucas picked up his walkie.
- Holy crap the portal is HUGE!
- Haha. Sex jokes.
- Steve’s girl advice is terrible.
- I didn’t like Sam but his unwillingness to harm Will in getting rid of the vines made me warm up to him a little.
- The demogorgons explain all of the bones.
All 9 episode of Stranger Things are currently available for streaming on Netflix.
