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Posted July 19, 20191 Comment Television Worth Watching

Let’s catch up with Stranger Things episode 8 (season 3) and end-credit scene

In the final episode of Stranger Things season 3, Max, Lucas, Erica, Will, Jonathan, Nancy, Dustin, Steve, Robin, Mike, and a completely exhausted EL meet up at Starcourt Mall. They all start shouting the information they know. When El’s leg starts to pulsate.

Remember, the Mind Flayer injured her leg during their fight at Hoppers cabin in the woods and now she’s infected!

Jonathan runs to grab a hot knife to remove the little flayer out of her leg. El, exhausted and in immense pain, decides she is going to use her powers to remove it.

She’s been overdoing it all season, to be honest.

Anyway, she throws the little flayer across the floor and who steps on it but Hopper!

Yay!

Joyce, Hopper, and Murray made it to Starcourt. Everyone is accounted for and they commence plan “get the keys, turn off the Russian power beam, and close the portal to the Upside Down”.

Dustin and Erica convince Hopper and Murray that Alexei’s plan is too dangerous. They should know because they’ve been in the secret facility. Hopper agrees that they can navigate but they can’t go down into the hive.

So Dustin, Robin, Erica and Steve drive off to the hill where Dustin set up his satellite earlier in the season to make sure they have a dependable signal and connection with Hopper’s group.

Hopper can tell that El is out of energy and tells her to rest rather than come down into the base with his group. His group leaves the mall and El’s group of Mike, Max, Lucas, Nancy, Will, and Jonathan prepare to take a separate car (Nancy’s mom’s car), but the car doesn’t start.

Unfortunately, Billy is still connected to the Mind Flayers conscious from when she looked at Billy’s memories. Billy sits in his car and scares them back into the mall and the group tries to flip over a car into order to scavenge a part for their car. El once again tries to use her powers but they don’t work.

Just as El is realizing her powers have taken a nap, the Mind Flayer comes crashing through the roof of the mall.

Mike, Max, and EL get separated from Lucas, Will, Jonathan, and Nancy. They try to escape through the gap, but the Mind Flayer so close to catching them that Lucas has to use his slingshot to distract it.

Off the back of the distraction, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, and Nancy escape out of the door to fix the car.

In record time, might I add.

Billy, still in his car, drives full speed ahead and tries to crash into their car. He fails because Steve manages to make back to the mall in time to save the day!

Let me back up.

Steve left with Robin, Erica, and Dustin but while they were sitting on the hill, but Mike sent a distress call to the Scoop Troop due to Billy’s arrival, so Steve sped back to the mall, in the same yellow convertible that Hopper stole, to help. Good thing he did because the Mind Flayer was about to ruin everyone’s life.

His actions allowed Lucas, Jonathan, Will, Nancy, and himself to get away in Nancy’s mom’s car. The Mind Flayer chases after Nancy’s car. But Billy, who is clearly superhuman right now, spots El, Mike, and Max trying to get out of the mall and chases them into the back area.

Meanwhile, Dustin and Erica are navigating Murray, Joyce, and Hopper without a hitch.

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Joyce and Hopper go to get the keys from a safe and Murray climb the vents to reach the generator for the beam. When it’s time to open the safe, there is a discrepancy with Plancks Constant, which puts the entire operation in danger.

However, Dustin is finally able to get in contact with his girlfriend Suzie using his satellite. After a sweet and precious moment of them singing ‘Never Ending Story’, Hopper and Joyce are able to open the vault. Which allows Murray to fry the servers powering the beam.

Back at the mall, Bill catches up with Mike, Max, and El. He punches his sister (Max) and knocks out Mike too! He picks up El and takes her to the middle of the mall just as the Mind Flayer arrives to FLAY HER!

All seems well with Hopper’s group though, until the terminator shows up. He knocks out Hopper and Joyce just as they are about to turn the keys to shut down the beam.

He and Hopper get into a huge brawl that takes them down into the area of the beam. Joyce has to turn the beam off on her own, but she tries to wait for Hopper to get back to safety. He’s too engaged in his fight with the terminator. He slams the terminators face into the beam effectively sawing him into pieces, but this forms an electric fence of sorts.

Hopper’s inability to get passed the electric fence causes him to self-sacrifice staying put in the room him the beam explosion while Joyce turns the keys.

“…the wave was 7 feet.” – Eleven

Once again, Lucas causes a much-needed distraction by using the fireworks he and Will took from the supermarket to bomb the Mind Flayer. Billy is trying to pen El down but she uses the pleasant memories of his mother to break the mind control that the Mind Flayer had on him.

Billy is freed from the Mind Flayer and stands up to fight it. Unfortunately, he gets killed in the process.

As the night ends, the government finally arrives HOURS after Hopper and Joyce called and everything gets locked down. Three months later, Joyce follows through with moving out of Hawkins.

I’m not surprised. She loved two men and they both died due to conspiracy.

Wrapping things up, El still can’t use her powers. Mike and El are back together. Will is okay with growing up now (per his temper tantrum about Dungeons and Dragons). Larry Klein got arrested! Joyce moves with Will, Jonathan, and El, while Lucas, Dustin, Nancy, Max, and Mike stay behind in Hawkins.

El also reads a heartfelt letter from her father, Hopper, who is presumed dead. And everyone breaks off into their new directions.

However, in an end-credit scene, we are shown another underground facility in Kamchatka, Russia. Prisoners are being held and used for testing and food.

You see two guards trying to choose who to pick for this round. One guard says, “Not the American”. They do choose another prisoner and of course, he’s thrown in a cage where a hybrid Demo-dog/Mind Flayer thing most likely consumes him.

Thoughts and Questions

Was Jim Hopper sucked into a vortex when the beam exploded? Is he the American that the Russians are holding prisoner at the end of Stranger Things?

Also, will Eleven every be as strong as she was at the end of season 2? She literally exhausted herself throughout the entire season. Honestly, Max made Mike feel like he was wrong for managing her power use, but in the end, he was right. El ended up overdoing it.

How will season 4 bring El, Joyce, Will, and Jonathan back to Hawkins?

Season 3 of Stranger Things was amazing. I was on the edge of my seat from episode one. Even though you don’t have to have seen seasons 1 and 2 to understand what’s happening. I appreciate callbacks to those seasons that reward you for following the series.

Each character served a purpose. Of course my favorites Dustin and Steve stole the show. But, the addition of Erica and Robin was great their plot. Plus, I really enjoyed the quarreling between Hopper, Joyce, Murray, and Alexei as well.

Previous: Let’s catch up with Stranger Things episodes 5-7 (season 3)
Previous: Let’s catch up on Stranger Things episodes 1-4 (season 3 recap)

Previous: Let’s catch up on Stranger Things (season 2 recap)
Previous: Let’s catch up on Stranger Things (season 1 recap)

Posted July 16, 20192 Comments Television Worth Watching

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.

Previous: Let’s catch up on Stranger Things episodes 1-4 (season 3 recap)

Posted July 12, 20193 Comments Television Worth Watching

Let’s catch up on Stranger Things episodes 1-4 (season 3 recap)

So much happened in this season of Stranger Things! It is a truly exciting episodic adventure and I am glad I watched it. However, there was so much happening that I decided to break up the review into two parts. It’ll be easier to follow that way I’m sure.

Let’s catch up on Stranger Things episodes 1 through 4 in season 3.

Everything is going somewhat well in Hawkins, Louisiana when we meet back up with Eleven (El) and the gang. Hopper is miserable because El and Mike are getting more action than him every night. Local businesses, including Joyce’s, are closing or suffering because a new mall has opened called Starcourt. The entire community is spending time there at the new mall and people are losing work too. But, overall things seem normal.

That is until a blackout in Hawkins knocked out the power for a moment and rats start gravitating toward a warehouse in town. Joyce notices and tries to get Hopper to help her investigate with her, but he’s too preoccupied with trying to date her. Eventually, he comes around and they follow a lead to find out if Hawkins Lab, which was destroyed last season, is the root of this issue.

Not too much is happening until we catch up with Billy, Max’s older brother. He’s a lifeguard this summer and has the hots for an older woman. They plan a date and Billy takes his car to pick her up, but he never makes it because he drives past the warehouse that is giving off weird vibes and attracting crazy amounts of rats at this point.

Somewhat of a shock wave knocks Billy off course and causes an accident. A shadowy figure drags Billy into the warehouse and I assure its all bad from there.

As a result of Billy’s abduction, the older lady is stood up, sort of. It’s okay though because she has a husband and children. One of those children is Nancy.

Nancy is dating Jonathon Byers. They are interning at the Hawkins post this summer, but the editors treat her like she’s incompetent. Nancy comes across a story regarding rabid rats eating chemicals around the town. The editors don’t take her seriously, so she decides to investigate on her own with Jonathan.

Let’s jump back to 1 year before these events. In a place that looks a lot like Siberia, Russian scientists tried to reopen a portal to the Upside Down. They were given a year time frame to open it and keep it open by an unnamed General who was awfully sweaty.

At first, I thought they were trying to weaponize the portal and its beings, but then I realized the General was sweaty!

Let me explain.

Next time we see Billy, he is a sweaty, nasty, violated mess. That’s when it hit me. Billy is infected by the Mind Flayer and so was the General who gave the order in the previous year!

We find out that the Mind Flayer wants to spread himself across Hawkins and the rest of the world by infecting more people. He tells Billy this much. It sends Billy on a rampage to abduct people and take them back to the Mind Flayer for infection.

We meet back up with El, Mike, Max, Lucas, Will, and Dustin. Dustin recently returned from a camp where he made a high powered satellite to talk to his girlfriend, Suzie.

When he uses it, Suzie doesn’t answer, but he overhears a secret Russian transmission.

Transmission: The week is long, silver cats feed, when blue meets yellow in the west (playing over Indiana Flyer Much)

Mike, Lucas, and Will are caught up in the boyfriend, girlfriend drama with El and Max. So Dustin takes his findings to Steve and his co-worker, Robin, at the ice cream parlor in Starcourt. They begin to decode the message and they discover it’s a message telling the people involved when and where to meet underneath Starcourt.

At the same time, Billy has abducted his lifeguard co-worker, Heather.

El ends up having a weird feeling about Heather and Billy so sure uses her powers to spy on them and sees Heather in trouble. Max and El run over to Heather’s house to find Billy is over for dinner.

Billy almost convinces El and Max to back off, but then Mike, Will, and Lucus call for a code red the next day.

Let me back up.

During that same rainstorm, Mike and Lucus are trying to figure out how to get back with their girlfriends. Mike is broken up with El because he lied to her after Hopper threatened him. And Max and Lucas are on the outs because of El and Mike.

Will just wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons but Mike and Lucas wanted to win their girls back. Will threw a tantrum and ran out in the rain. During Will’s tantrum, Billy and Heather abduct her parents and give them to the Mind Flayer. Will recognizes an all too familiar feeling and alerts his friends that that Mind Flayer is back.

Turns out, Heather’s dad, Tom, the boss of Nancy and Jonathan. The next day he turns up to work looking all sweaty, nasty, and like a violated mess. He fires Nancy and Jonathan for continuing their investigation after they were told not to mess with the rats anymore.

He’s been infected!

Nancy still feels compelled to do this story despite pretty much breaking up with Jonathan due to class issues and losing her internship. With the encouragement of her mother, she sets up to continue investigating the rats.

Remember, the rabid rats are feeding on chemicals around town. Jonathon and Nancy previously met with a little old lady, Doris Driscoll. She caught one in her basement. When they came back to check on her during the rainstorm, they found her eating the rat. That’s what ultimately got them fired.

Code red!

Back with Dustin, Steve, and Robin, they hatch a plan to get into the secret room that the Russians are using under Starcourt by using the vent system. Dustin can’t fit so they bribe a little girl named Erica to help.

Erica shimmies her way into the room and opens the door from the inside. They find cases of vials filled with green liquid. They try to leave with a sample but the room begins to move. The room is actually an elevator to an underground facility.

My guess is that it is the same facility that they are trying to open the portal to the Upside Down from.

Joyce and Hopper were attacked while visiting the Hawkins Lab by a man on a motorcycle. Hopper followed his intuition and managed to get some addresses from Larry, a real estate agent working with the Russians to acquire land and buildings in Hawkins.

Larry tells Hopper that the people he’s working with are not to be messed with. Hopper beats him up after they exchange jabs about Hopper’s past substance abuse issues and go to follow the address trail with Joyce. Larry makes a phone, most likely to the same people he just told Hopper not to mess with.

Meanwhile, Max El Mike, Will, Lucas, and Max plan to lock Billy in a sauna to confirm that he is infected.

Of course, he is and he ends up getting into a fight with El. She almost wins, but she throws him out of a window allowing him to escape.

Billy runs back to his warehouse hideaway to find Heather waiting for him. He tells her how Eleven almost killed him. Heather says it’s okay because “She can’t beat us.”

The final shot of episode four is an entire group of people that they’ve abducted and fed to the Mind Flayer. They are all sitting in wait!