Let’s catch up on Stranger Things episodes 5 – 7 (season 3 recap)

In the recap for season 3 episode 1 through 4, we left Dustin, Robin, Steve, and Erica locked in a secret elevator disguised as a storage room. It took them down into a secret hive facility full of Russian soldiers and scientists. There’s a lot of screaming and dangerous circumstances. The door doesn’t open until morning when guards come to pick up a load of the vials filled with green liquid.

Let’s catch up on Stranger Things episodes 5 through 7 in season 3.

Somehow, Steve, Dustin, Erica, and Robin manage to hide on top of the elevator until the guards leave. As the elevator door starts to close. Steve manages to lodge one of the vials until the door giving them enough time to escape into a corridor clearly not meant for walking.

Back with Hopper and Joyce, they’ve arrived at the final address that they acquired from Larry Klein (the mayor). They hear a pulsing underground which helps them find a secret tunnel under a bed. Two scientists are underground trying to fix their machine.

Bonus, they only speak Russian.

In the midst of Hopper failing to threaten the scientist he’s interrupted by a man I am referring to as the Terminator (the man from the motorcycle attack). He is so similar to the T-100 from the 1984 version.

They definitely didn’t do this by accident.

This Russian assassin character barely has any personality, he seems to have superhuman strength, and he’s very good at tracking. Not to mention, he wears all dark colors and a black t-shirt. All he’s missing is the sunglasses and the Exo-skeleton!

Hopper manages to steal one of the scientists, Alexi. He, Hopper and Joyce escape while dodging a “kill spray” from the terminator. They end up stealing a yellow convertible at a 7/11 gas station and head to Illinois, where the closest Russian translator lives (an acquaintance of Hopper).

After Nancy and Jonathan link up with Eleven (EL), Mike, Will, Lucas, and Max to tell them about the return of the Mind Flayer and the information they know, the group determines that Billy, Heather, Doris Driscoll, and Tom are “Flayed”.

El uses her powers to find out where Hopper is and see’s him heading to Illinois. Because Hopper and Joyce are busy, they decide to go look for Tom (Nancy’s former boss at the Hawkins Post and Heather’s father) at his home.

Somehow, Nancy is able to deduce the exact events of Tom and his wife’s “Flaying” as they walk through the house. And El determines they must have a home base for Flay because – reasons. They go to check on Doris Driscoll in the hospital to release her and let her lead them back to the home base.

While Dustin, Erica, Steven, and Robin are walking down the long corridors of the Russian base, Dustin and Steve figure out that the Russians know about the Mind Flayer and are trying to open a portal to the Upside Down again. They get spotted, but Robin and Steve are the only ones that get caught and get tortured by the General from the very first episode.

They break into the Russian command center, Steve legitimately knocks out a Russian agent and discovers a huge beam trying to rip a hole into the Upside Down.

“You know the rule, 2 at a time!” – Nurse

When Nancy, El, Mike, Max, Lucas, Will, and Jonathan arrive at the hospital only Nancy and Jonathan make their way to Doris’s room. However, she’s not there.

She’s gone!

They get attacked by Tom and Bruce from the Hawkins Post. They’ve killed everyone on the floor, including nurses and other patients. Jonathan gets completely destroyed, but Nancy manages to bus Bruce in the head which also injures Tom and allows Jonathon to kill him.

I have a question about proximity here. Did the injury to Bruce hurt Tom because they were near each other? Or are all of the Flayed affected no matter the distance?

After the hosts die, the Mind Flayer’s goop slugs toward itself and forms into one huge Flayer that tries to kill Nancy. Jonathon tries to save her, but they both almost die. El comes to the rescue and manages to save them for the moment.

“You remind him of a fat Rambo” – Murray

Finally, Hopper, Joyce, and Alexei meet up with Murray to translate. We find out that the Russians are using the transformers in Hawkins to power the underground facility that Dustin’s group stumbled into. They tried to do it in Russia but were unsuccessful therefore they came to the place of origin to complete the process.

Joyce, Murray, Hopper, and Alexi plan to break into the underground facility to blow up the laser machine opening the portal. They call for backup from the government and head back to Hawkins.

“You let us in and now you’re gonna have to let us stay.”

– Flayed Billy

Meanwhile, Billy traps El in his mind while she’s using her powers to search his mind and find the “Flayed” hideout. She sees a bunch of childhood memories before arriving at the Hess Farm location. But now every flayed can see El because she opened Billy’s mind.

Bummer.

El makes it out of Billy’s mind and tells her friends what’s going on and Will starts to feel the Mind Flayer getting closer. They barricade the cabin in the woods, but the Mind Flayer doesn’t care. It breaks open the roof and tries to kill everyone, most specifically EL because she’s the only one that can destroy them. During the attack, the Mind Flayer plants his cells in El’s leg and slowly begins to eat away at her power source.

El, Mike, Lucas, Nancy, Jonathan, Max, and Will run to the supermarket to get supplies to patch El up. Lucas and Will find some overpowered fireworks and then they leave and don’t notice that her blood is coagulating.

Dun Dunn Dunnnn!

Still underground, Steve and Robin are drugged with a truth serum so that the Russian General can find out who they work for because he doesn’t believe they work for Scoops Ahoy! Dustin and Erica make the save and they get out of the secret base alive.

They get back up to Starcourt and Dustin uses his walkie-talkie to get in touch with Mike. The signal is low but Mike figures out they are at Starcourt and both groups meet up.

Joyce thinks that the kids are at the Country 4th of July Carnival so that’s the first place she, Alexei, Murray, and Hopper go. Turns out the kids aren’t there and they have the worst timing because Larry sees them and tells the Terminator.

Next thing you know Alexei is dead and Hopper is being chased by a bunch of Terminators with less conviction. Hopper manages to meet up with Joyce and Murray and they speed away only to overhear a message across a walkie-talkie about kids being at Starcourt!

HEY! The gangs all here.

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