Stranger Things S03E03-04 Review: Scrying Eyes & Aboleths

Stranger Things, Season 3, Episode 3: The Case of the Missing Lifeguards; Episode 4: The Sauna Test

Another solid pair of episodes, although as with the second season, there are some of the B-plot that I really end up not really caring for all that much. For the most part, the most exciting events that happen throughout episode 3 and episode 4 are the ones that involve the core group of kids. Episode 3 basically continues the boys and girls hanging out on their own after Eleven and Mike's breaking up, and I really do love the fun bit with Eleven and Max just having a sleepover and bonding over superhero comics and playing spin the bottle to essentially 'scry' on people, to borrow a D&D term. While initially it's another ha-ha-teenager-fun stuff with them shit-talking the boys, this ends up taking a turn for the sinister when Eleven goes through a pretty dark vision of seeing Billy doing strange, potentially evil things involving Heather the lifeguard.

And throughout episode three, everything sort of plays out like a find-the-clues montage, with four different teams going on their own detective adventure (or a Nancy Drew book, to borrow a term that Nancy's shithead bosses love to use). Obviously, Eleven and Max trying to investigate whatever sinister things that Billy's been up to, including him seemingly abducting and/or killing Heather the lifeguard, is the most plot-relevant one. But Hopper and Joyce (after a brief and frankly unmemorable argument) also go and investigate the old laboratory to try and figure out the magnet plotline, Nancy and Jonathan continue on their own investigation of the weird rats, while the mall squad try and decipher the Russian code.

The mall squad storyline is perhaps the most boring out of the bunch, mostly leading to a series of gags and some obvious Steve/Robin shipping, and, of course, it's good old Robin that ends up solving the Russian code while Steve and Dustin spend the entire episode accidentally chasing a jazz instructor. Not going to lie, that was hilarious. The Nancy/Jonathan one also ends up not being particularly impressive, with most of the beats being similar to the previous episode (their bosses are sexist assholes, so they try and show him up) although the payoff of poor Mrs. Driscoll going crazy and eating the fertilizers herself and having to be carted away by an ambulance is a lot more creepy and decidedly involves them in a bit more concrete way than before.

Hopper and Joyce, meanwhile, return to the laboratory and mostly found... nothing but bad memories, but it leads to a surprisingly tender moment between the two as they reminisce on how harsh things must be to lose a loved one and how hard it is to move on. In contrast to Hopper earlier throwing a childish tantrum over being stood up on his date, it's actually very mature of him. Of course, things go completely haywire when they encounter some mysterious man that ends up leading them to the episode's action scene sequence, ending with Hopper getting clonked in the head.

Eleven and Max are going around collecting clues -- finding Heather's bag in Billy's room, going to the pool, and eventually having Eleven straight-up just look for Heather's house. It's a pretty awesome shot of the two girls pedaling in the rain to try and get to Heather's house and save her from whatever Billy is planning... but then turns out that Billy is just having dinner with a very much alive and healthy Heather. Sure, Billy might be a smarmy douche, but Eleven and Max end up returning home, more confused than anything. Of course, this is all a facade. Heather's parents (her dad is Nancy's boss, which is a neat little bit of interweaving I didn't realize) turn out to be the marks for Billy and Heather, who quickly assault the two parents... because Heather, like Billy, is now a thrall and a minion of the Mind Flayer (the fourth episode essentially confirms that it's the Mind Flayer), and the two parents end up getting not fed to the huge fleshy rat-corpse abomination in the abandoned building, but seemingly just turned into more thralls of the monster.

More importantly, though, is that the Mind Flayer in Billy recognizes Eleven as his foe from several years past, which is troubling.

While everyone else is uncovering conspiracies, Will has dressed up in full wizard garb and is way too excited for a D&D session, while Mike and Lucas are clearly nowhere as excited as they used to be to play in Will's campaign -- and if anyone who's ever played D&D will tell you, if there is one or two players that are unenthused or just not feeling like playing, it can lead to some really uncomfortable playtime. In this case, though, while Will is just trying his best to enjoy himself with his friends, Mike is just so distracted by every single telephone ring and Lucas is far more concerned at helping Mike out. This ends with the pissed-off Mike telling Will off, essentially ranting about how their characters just set fire to themselves and win the campaign via heroic sacrifice. This genuinely casual dismissal really ends up hurting Will so much that he ends up leaving the group, and he ends up ranting about how Mike is destroying their group -- and then Will also throws the fact that Mike doesn't even know where Dustin is as proof that Mike's way into his relationship with Eleven to care about his friends like before.


It's a genuinely heartbreaking scene, honestly, and one I can relate with -- best friends really do break up over things like this. Perhaps not as dramatic, but real life can really just sometimes get in the way. Particularly sad is that scene where Will just smashes up his little hideout is pretty damn sad. Honestly, despite being easily the scenes with the least actual stakes to the character, it's also the most emotional of the bunch.

Of course, poor Will ends up not really given the chance to pursue any sort of conclusive sit-down and talk with Mike and Lucas (who at least had the decency to just try and chase Will down and apologize to him). Just like Hopper's attempts to argue with Joyce is cut short by Joyce just plunging headfirst into investigation mode, Will quickly gets into full business mode when he informs Mike and Lucas ominously that the Mind Flayer is back.

And where episode three mostly features different characters doing their own investigations, episode four ends up with at least three of the teams actually taking decisive action. Thankfully, two of the storylines end up intersecting as Will, Mike, Lucas, Eleven and Max end up realizing and suspecting that the two separate mysteries they are pursuing are actually the same thing. I do really love that as they are discussing and putting their plans into motion, both Eleven and Will are still very rightfully pissed off. Reconciliation's going to take time, particularly for hormonal teenagers.


And that's definitely the action highlight of the episode. The D&D Party, sans Dustin, basically discuss the events, and recap the Mind Flayer's defeat for those of us at home (myself included) who hasn't seen season two since its airing, and Will's theory is that the piece of the Mind Flayer that Joyce and Eleven exorcised out of him was trapped in their world, not sent back through the rift, and said piece is trying to regain power... which would be the rats and the huge flesh-demon creature in the basement. Oh, and Billy and Heather. This leads to their plan to look at Billy (who's wearing a shirt of lifeguard duty now) and decide to trap him in a sauna.

And... honestly, while the other kids help out in coming up with the plan, it's mostly Eleven being the most badass telepathic little girl, closing the sauna room and using chains to hold it together. The plan is ever so slightly ridiculous, with Billy apparently being driven into an angry pursuit just by a mocking teenager's recording going "Biiiillly", but we've seen the dude be volatile and easily triggered even he was possessed and turned into a thrall of the Mind Flayer, so... eh. They trap him in the sauna, and Billy's attempts to appeal to his sister Max ends up being... well, kind of well-done, actually, and as an audience (and Max herself) we're not quite sure how much of it is Billy genuinely being scared and remorseful, and how much of it is the Mind Flayer trying to bluff and buy time to smash the window.

The action scene between the Mind Flayer possessed Billy, complete with pretty horrifying black veins, fighting against Eleven and her telekinetically throwing a bench-press and throwing Billy through a wall... and the fact that as much of an asshole as Billy is, they really don't want to kill Max's brother. Since we're halfway through the season, the confrontation ends in a stalemate. Eleven hurt Billy, and they get confirmation that Billy is the Mind Flayer's new host, but Billy manages to escape.

Meanwhile, the rest of the plotlines here... are a lot less exciting in comparison. I don't think I really care all that much for the mall plot at this point. Dustin, Steve and Robin recruits Erica (honestly, I forgot she even existed) to crawl through ventilation shafts and allow them access to the weird, disguised crates that the Russian conspiracy dudes are stocking in crates. They're transporting weird green glowing things, and at the end of the episode they accidentally activate the lift and are trapped as they enter the Russian lair... but it's just... kinda there, y'know? I'm not super invested, and all the jokes about child endangerment really ends up running true. Dustin and Steve personally know both  the chief of police as well as a literal super-powered psychic, why the hell are they investigating evil Russians themselves? And recruiting another little girl in the process?

Joyce and Hopper are doing their own sort of investigation into the Russian conspiracy, and honestly, I am definitely more than a bit surprised when Hopper suddenly goes straight into beating the ever-loving shit out of Mayor Kline, breaking his nose and threatening to slice off his finger after Kline deflects and makes jokes one too many times. Turns out that, of course, Mayor Kline is basically working with what we know as the Russians, who are also behind Starcourt Mall and he's sort of helping them to expand into East Hawkins. Hopper being 100% done with everything and being happy to resort to physical violence is honestly more than a bit hilarious and scary at the same time. 

Nancy and Jonathan, meanwhile, end up kind of being a pretty boring sequence. They obviously get fired, but the argument between the two, with Jonathan being angry at losing his job while Nancy is angry that Jonathan doesn't get women discrimination and all that ends up honestly mostly falling flat especially compared to, say, Mike and Will's argument in the third episode. Jonathan himself ends up getting sort of left out of the episode while Nancy ends up confiding with her mother and the two of them get a nice mother/daughter scene... and Nancy gets inspired to pursue the story of her own. Which... somewhat disappointingly, doesn't really lead to much. Nancy gets to witness Mrs. Driscoll convulsing with black veins at the exact same time that the same thing's going on with Billy over in the sauna room, but that's about it.

Basically, I really do think that splitting up the party a bit too much ends up with those uncovering the clear B-plots are left with far, far less interesting material to work on. Still, overall, the two episodes really do end up ramping up the tension a lot more, particularly with the pretty cool mid-season promise of an escalation as the story starts to ratchet up to high tension -- Billy and Heather have way more people under the control of the Mind Flayer in that basement than just the parents.

Random Notes:

• Last week it was Ultra Magnus, this week it's a comic book of Wonder Woman and the debut issue of John Stewart's Green Lantern. Hooray for DC comic book superheroes inspiring an actual kid with superpowers! 
• Mike is running a Kalamar campaign... which is released in 1994 independently of D&D, before being acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 2000 as part of D&D's 3rd Edition. Oops!
• The description that Will says about how all of the Mind Flayer's enslaved thralls basically behave like their normal personalities until they are 'activated' is perhaps the creepiest thing about them. Seeing how a post-Mind-Flaying Tom isn't too different from regular Tom really does make you wonder how many more of the side cast might be a thrall of the Mind Flayer. Is the mayor already a Mind Flayer minion? Are the Russians? Is Robin? 
• Last season did an amazing job at ending the season with Police's "I'll Be Watching You" be used as both a happy love song and as a sinister background music simultaneously. Episode 4 ends with a pretty great usage of Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again". 
• That comment that made Will super angry was "you don't even like girls", which is actually pretty neatly ambiguous on whether Will just hasn't reached that age yet (he did presumably spend a fair amount of time recuperating from the whole Demogorgon thing) or if he's actually gay.
• I know I refer to her as "Eleven" throughout all my reviews, and most of her friends call her "El", but isn't her cover name supposed to be Jane Hopper? Shouldn't she be introducing herself to Billy and company as Jane?
• Seriously, though, with all of Max's warnings about how Billy might be doing some things with a girl and whatnot, why the hell is he on the spin-the-bottle scrying list?
• Why the hell would Mrs. Driscoll's family be angry at Nancy and Jonathan checking up on her? Sure, there's the break-in, but even so you'd think they would be grateful that they caught the poor old lady before she hurt herself, whether the cause of her actions was Mind Flayer influence or schizophrenia. Makes me think if it's a cover-up by... someone. 
• Considering how the initial D&D campaign session all the way back in Stranger Things's first season was foreshadowing for the finale... is Mike's pissed-off declaration of how he and Lucas are going to sacrifice themselves to quickly end the campaign and be remembered as heroes a sign that someone in the main cast will do such a thing? 
• Best line in these two episodes is Joyce's hilarious "who are you going to call? The police?"