Stranger Things, Season 1, Episode 2: The Weirdo on Maple Street
It's a chapter that's mostly about setup, again, but at the same time also moving the plot forwards. More mysterious things happen, while our core cast discover a lot and at the same time not much about Eleven (a.k.a. El). We get to learn that she has no notion of normal societal norms, we learn that she doesn't understand privacy, we get to see that she's hella afraid of closed doors and being alone, we get to see a flashback that shows her tossed into a cell in front of her papa. Mike bonds with her with La-Z-Boys and teaches her the concept of friendship, whereas his two buddies Dustin and Lucas are more concerned about the fact that Eleven happens to recognize the still-missing Will. Oh, and is telekinetic, able to control doors and shit. Oh, and she points at the D&D wizard figurine and places it in front of the Demogorgon, noting that Will is 'hiding' from something.
There's a bit of an E.T. feel as Mike teaches El all about the human culture and all the fun stuff that young boys get to, which I felt was a bit odd that Mike immediately assumes that El is this almost alien quantity as opposed to just a lost and sick little girl, but okay, I'll buy it. There's not much else beyond that, even though the kid side of things takes up a significant portion of the episode.
Meanwhile, as Joyce (Will's mom) gets more desperate as mothers tend to be when their children are missing, his brother Jonathan goes to talk with his father, who's an ass. Oh, and Joyce gets to hear Will's voice on the telephone once more and confirms that it's him and not some hopeful static... only for the electricity to cut out. And then Joyce finds that Will's radio and light is playing at full power, and while we're left to puzzle just what the fuck happens alongside Joyce, the goddamn wall moves and reaches out, the first overt display of horror in the show. And, yeah, it's pretty effective even though it's slow and deliberate. Now whether the thing that reaches out through the wall is Will or the monster...
Chief Hopper's search for answers is... more methodical and probably not the most interesting thing in the episode, but it still works as a way to tie in both the missing Will and the seeming murder of Benny, the dude that took in 11 last episode. Will ends up apparently being a possible suspect for murdering Benny, or at least involved in some way.
Oh, and government people have tracked down either the monster or 11 (jury's still out just what escaped from their containment) and are canvassing Will's house all Ghostbusters-style.
Nancy's romance with Steve, and the whole 'yeah I'm totally not gonna fuck oh no wait I'm gonna fuck' is equal parts realistic and boring as all get-out. It does at least lead to something interesting as Nancy's geek friend Barb gets apparently abducted by the mysterious entity, while Jonathan, who's going off nearby in search of Will (and photographing Nancy's tryst with douche McHormones) photographs almost everything in the party other than the actual moment of disappearance. It's... a weird bit and this particular part of the story is one that I truly feel is weak and uninteresting. It's obviously leading to something -- Nancy's involvement in another disappearance and all that, but still...
Overall, it's more of an episode that's far more concerned about setting the tone and getting characters from point A to point B, so nothing actually spectacular happens here.
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