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Stranger Things

Stranger Things

For this episode’s recap, I am going to focusing on the two primary things that were discussed just to keep it short and sweet. Like the episode’s title name ‘Chapter Six: The Monster’, we get some more theories that surround the general existence and behavior of the monster present in the world of Stranger Things. We also get some more insight into who ‘Eleven’ is and how she is connected to the monster’s ability to traipse between its dimension and what we perceive as our “regular” dimension.

First, we’ll deal with the monster…

Last we left off, Nancy was being chased by the monster in its dimension after trying to find where a dying deer had been dragged to. Jonathan was frantically trying to find her and discovers the slowly closing tree where Nancy had crawled into. Nancy, in the meantime, is trying to escape from the monster. In the last episode we figured out that sudden sounds can catch it off guard, but the sound of Nancy’s breathing doesn’t seem to register. Whether it’s due to the actual volume or pitch of the breathing, we’re not sure. However, even as it’s right near her, she managed to run a good 20 feet or so to the tree portal without it noticing her. Luckily, Nancy survives this encounter with the  monster. Will the next time be her last?

When Jonathan and Nancy go back to her house, Nancy is the one to start connecting the dots behind the monster’s behavior. She compares the monster to a shark due to its appearance whenever blood is spilled, which allowed me to give myself a pat on the back since I had theorized that after viewing the second episode. However, this further confirms the theory that Barb is probably pretty dead since her blood was what drew the monster to her. Nancy also notices that the monster only really seems to attack at night, suggesting that it’s possibly a nocturnal predator. This makes sense since we have yet to see someone during the day get mysteriously whisked off into the ‘Upside Down’ yet. The two bosom buddies conspire together to set up a trap to bring the monster to them by using fresh blood as a lure. Two scenarios come to mind as a result of this plan. 1) The plan confirms that the monster has a love affair with blood and they both die. 2) The monster doesn’t show up and they will wallow in their own outlandish embarrassment. I’m thinking the first scenario is the most plausible. Regardless, we have more clues to help us figure out how to take down the monster…

Stranger Things

Stranger Things

Now, we’ll focus on ‘Eleven’…

This episode we began to get more of an idea of the volatility and power behind ‘Eleven’ and her abilities. We also get an explanation as to how she came to develop these powers once Hopper and Joyce discover that the clues they’ve been following to find Will actually connect to ‘Eleven’.

We start off this venture in Joyce’s living room where she is lightly drilling him for information regarding what he had seen in the lab. It comes out that he had seen a child’s room and, after a slow thought process, Hopper puts two-and-two together that the child may be connected to a woman – Terry Ives – he had read about in his research on Dr. Brenner. Hopper and Joyce come to a consensus that they need to find Terry to determine what actually happened to her missing child.

However, as they soon discover, Terry Ives is mentally gone. When they arrive to the Ives’ residence, her sister answers for her and tells them that it is a lost cause. As we see in this scene, Terry Ives is catatonic due to paid experiments she did with Dr. Brenner in the 1950s in order to make some quick cash. These experiments involved taking different types of drugs like LSD and being placed inside a tank full of water that amplifies the feeling of nothingness, the same type of tank that ‘Eleven’ is placed in when Dr. Brenner wants her to hunt people down with her mind. It is revealed by Terry’s sister that she had been pregnant during these experiments, showing us that the drugs may have had a hand in how ‘Eleven’ developed her powers. Even more surprising, we learn that ‘Eleven’ has a name – Jane. Although Terry believes her daughter is alive, her sister admits that Terry had miscarried. Whether or not this is information she received from Dr. Brenner and his laboratory or whether this is something she actually witnessed is another story.

Stranger Things

Stranger Things

These two factors – the monster and ‘Eleven – come together when we are taken back into a flashback where Dr. Brenner has ‘Eleven’ go into the isolation chamber full of water to go find the monster she ran away from in the previous session. He assures her that she is safe, however, he knows nothing. He’s making empty promises to her in order to take advantage of her abilities for his own personal gain. She returns to the pitch black terrain we saw her in last episode and she is a tiny white blip in a sea of darkness. ‘Eleven’ focuses and soon, in the distance, we make out the monster feasting on something. It doesn’t appear to hear her in the soundless dark and she approaches it slowly. It isn’t until she touches it that it registers she’s there and it roars. She screams.

And then the opening between worlds is born. We see ‘Eleven’ and how her fear creates the rift between worlds, cracking the walls of the laboratory. This leads us to her admitting to Mike that it is all her fault. She had opened the gate and that she was the monster. Mike, being the sensible person that he is, tells her that this is not true. And, in fact, the monsters in Stranger Things are just under our noses, blending into the scenery unlike ‘Eleven’ or the monster lurking in the ‘Upside Down’.

That, I believe, is the lesson behind this episode.

GENERAL THOUGHTS & MUSINGS

  • I did not really touch upon it, but Steve is probably my least liked character of this series. I also think he personified the monster title that this episode emphasized. Within the past couple of years and the rise of awareness surrounding rape culture and the entitlement exhibited by men in the current dating world, his behavior towards Nancy rubbed me the wrong way, especially since he was the one spying on her and refusing to take her words into account. His wounded pride couldn’t take the thought that she had chosen someone lesser than him and so, as is pretty typical at this point, he and his friends decide to slander her character in a public forum. I am sincerely hoping that he either gets a major attitude change or that he gets killed off because he’s been irking me since the first episode.
  • I’m still hoping that they find a way to develop Nancy’s character a bit more. I want to like her, but she still feels incomplete.
  • The more info we get on ‘Eleven’, the more she is appearing like Charlie from Firestarter. She is being groomed and kept isolated by someone interested in her powers. She is volatile and powerful. Her origin stories with a mother being experimented on are almost the same. Can I just re-name her Charlie please?
  •  With two episodes left, I hope the pace is picked up more. This episode was slow.

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Sarah Musnicky

Sarah is a freelance writer and self-described workaholic. She loves fantasy and sci fi and will admit having dual loyalties between Star Trek and Star Wars as well as Marvel and DC. When she's not being socially awkward, she is in a corner obsessing over dragons, cute things, and a need to master all languages on the planet. She would like to be a professional blanket burrito when she reaches the peak of maturation.