It's Totally Tubular!
SPOILER WARNING! This article contains a LOT of spoilers for Stranger Things 2, so if you haven't seen it and are spoiler wary, you can read my non-spoilery review HERE!
Stranger Things 2 is one of the few horror tv series which actually get into the genre and deliver on it's promises, and as promised, here is my full review on the show! Instead of a total recap (because that will need about a dozen articles), I'll be highlighting arcs and details that either encompass the entire show, or that just must be mentioned.
So here goes!
1. Will the Baddie
Yup, our good friend and the central object of Season One's investigation into the Upside-Down was one of the baddies of this season.
After his sojourn in the Upside-down for a week and being captured before he was finally rescued, Will retained a connection to the dark dimension that was first thought to be PTSD, until it was realised that his constant 'episodes' meant he was seeing what was happening there at present. By then, it was too late. The connection had grown in power and the Shadow-monster --the super creature of the upside-down --had taken over most of Will's mind. Luckily, Mike realised what was happening and put him to sleep. After he had coldly deceived the Department of Energy's soldiers to their deaths.
The scene where he struggled against his bonds and even attempted to choke his mother was one of the most tense of the season. At the end, the Shadow-Monster virus was forced out of him just before the gate to the upside-down was finally closed.
2. The Gate
As the season began, we find out that the gate to the upside-down, whose opening began all the trouble, is still open at the Hawkings Lab! No one, it seems, knows how to close it so it was quaratined and cordoned off, while soldiers and scientists kept constant watch on it, using flames to kill weeds from the upside-down that were finding their way through it into our world.
All that was good and fine, until it turns out the gate wasn't quaratined at all! The gate had stretched down underground and become HUGE, admitting vines that were all connected to the Shadow-monster and that were growing and stretching underground. This also became home to growing demogorgons which Will had coughed up several times after he returned. Until the gate was closed, there was no way to stop the Shadow-monster, who had already 'flayed' Will's mind.
3. The Shadow-monster
If you were scared by the Demogorgon of Season one, you should be downright terrified by the Shadow-monster.
Although we never see him except vaguely (and in shadow, hence the name), the Shadow-monster is the big baddie of the season --the one who controls the demo-dogs army, the vines beneath the ground, and who hijacked Will's mind. As Mike and his party explain, he is a super organism who controls everything else that resides in the upside down.
The closing of the gate broke his connection with the vines and the demo-dogs in the real world, but he still lives in the upside-down... and from the very last scene, he is not very happy with the gate closing. This is definitely not over!
4. Eleven's journey home
And this is where we were deceived! El, it turns out, found a way out of the upside-down almost immediately after the climax of season one! However, on returning to Mike's, she saw that they were under watch from the 'bad men' and decided to live in the woods instead, living on wild squirrels and other things. After a while, she reveals herself to Hopper who had not given up on her and had been dropping her favorite eggos in a box, and the two go to live together in a house in the woods.
Throughout the season, Eleven, like almost every adopted child, tries to find out where she belongs, and where her true home is. Until the very end, her story remained separate from that of the other characters --in fact, she was not even in the same state with them for two whole episodes!
Her journey begins from Hopper's house, to finding her mother and living with her aunt Becky (who fans will remember from season one). However, when she sees that Becky doesn't really understand the extent of the danger and how to protect her, and that her mother is brain damaged, she realises there isn't her home afterall. So she runs away and finds her sister, another survivor of Dr. Brennan's experiments who ha escaped much earlier and was now living a life of criminal vengeance with the crew she had formed. Although El feels connected to her, she breaks off when she realises she's not like them and can't kill mercilessly as they do. Then she sees both Hopper and Mike in danger and in a moment of clarity, realises being with Hopper in Hawkings is her home, and that she shouldn't be looking for protection, but be the one protecting.
Oh, and she's now pretty bad-ass with her abilities too!
5. #justiceforBarb
After season one, the hashtag trended on twitter for about a month! Fans asked why the lovable Barb was killed so unceremoniously, and got no justice and clamored for it. Well, the showrunners responded to this and promised justice for Barb in season two... and yup, we got it!
After pretending for Barb's still-hopful parents for almost a year, Nancy gets fed up and enlists Jonathan help in setting a trap for the Department of Energy to get just the evidence needed to shut it down, and with the help of the reclusive private investigator, they get it out to major news outlets, forcing the D.O.E to admit culpability and shut down the Hawkings facility. All for Barb!
6. Teenage Drama and Love Triangles
While the first season was about kids, teenagers and adults, this season gets rid of the 'kid' genre alnost totally. Mike, Lucas, Dustin, El, and newcomer Max are all teenagers now and it's easy to see the stubborn teenage tendencies in them as the season progresses. Join in Nancy, Chris, Jonathan and Max's brother Billy, and we have one big teenage drama.
Nowhere do we see this most than in the very many love triangles that play out over the season. There's Chris and Jonathan falling for Nancy, who switches from Chris to Jonathan mid season, and the Lucas-Max-Dustin triangle. Even El gets into a triangle with Mike and Max, although that should be easy to resolve since Max kisses Lucas at the season-ending school dance. The intense feeling of jealously wrought in El though... well, we'll have to wait for next season to see!
Also, there's a triangle teased between Joyce, her new boyfriend Bob (who died tragically and broke our hearts) and Hopper.
7. Yup, Stranger Things have happened... and we're used to them!
One last thing worth mentioning is the way every major character from season one seems so utterly unmoved by the strange nature of the occurrences this season. Like they've all understood intuitively that 'nothing will ever be the same again'. I mean, Chris had his bat in his car's trunk for almost a year! And it seemed perfectly natural to set a demogorgon (demo-dog!) trap, and to move towards them when they ran away to the lab. All in a day's work, gentlemen!
What was your favorite part of this season, and your general view? Let's hear it in the comments!
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