Stranger Things, Season 3, Episode 5: The Flayed; Episode 6: E Pluribus Unum
Hoooly shit that's a very intense pair of episodes, huh? And I just said it at the end of my review of the fourth episode that the cast really needed to get together and actually share their discoveries for the storylines to really feel like they're progressing. And for the most part, the earlier half of episode 5 ends up with most of the Hawkins cast -- the D&D Party as well as Nancy and Jonathan -- end up working together and basically pooling their information. There was definitely an attempt for Eleven to contact papa Hopper, but considering that Hopper and Joyce are off in the woods uncovering a Red Dawn conspiracy, the kids are on their own.
And for the most part... it kinda works? Again, the two B-plots are still kind of iffy for me. The actors do help make the storylines feel a lot better than they otherwise would've, but I genuinely do feel like I'm a lot less invested in the entire Russian conspiracy storyline. It's done relatively well, for sure, even if the fact that Team Dustin is able to sneak around the Russian base below the mall is stretching my suspension of disbelief a fair bit. But compared to the D&D Party trying to uncover what the Mind Flayer is doing, both the Hopper/Joyce and the Team Mall Rats doing their investigations are pretty m'eh. Both storylines do escalate pretty quickly in this pair of episodes, but, again, I still don't particularly find either of them as engaging. They're not bad, or out of place in the ridiculousness of the world of Stranger Things, it's just that they're kind of less interesting.
Hopper and Joyce try and go on their own to investigate all the weird buildings on the mayor's evidence -- hilariously, without bringing anyone in the loop, so when they actually do find a pair of scientists in a facility under a farm, and end up being overwhelmed by Grigori the badass Russian Terminator. Hopper's competent and lucky enough to manage to escape with the scientist "Smirnoff" Alexei in tow, but after met with the setback that is an exploding car engine, they're forced to walk all the way to a Seven-Eleven, appropriate a car from poor Todd, before going off to find Murray from season two. And after a bunch of comedic bits involving slurpees, Alexei pussying out from driving away, conspiracy nutjobs looking for listening devices and Joyce being 110% done with all this bullshit, they end up realizing that the Russians are essentially trying to open a gateway to the Upside-Down again, finding out that Hawkins is a place where a gate was opened before, and can be opened again. (Some of this are from episode 6, but I'm summarizing)
Meanwhile, Team Mall Rats ending up spending a chunk of the episode just trapped in the elevator itself and just being confused, and mostly it's Erica cracking jokes, Dustin shipping Steve and Robin, and Steve pissing on the side of the elevator. Also, they discover that the weird sci-fi green goop is actually like science fiction super acid that eats through metal. Then they sort of sneak around the huge Russian facility under a mall, Steve finally gets to win a fight and beat a Russian agent... and as the quartet are gawking at the Russians' science experiment in trying to open a gateway to the Upside Down. Erica's hilariously competent observations and recognizing things like comms rooms are easily the highlight of this particular jaunt.
Still, the highlight of episode 5 is still the rest of the cast, the D&D Party, as they basically realize that most of the paranormal events that both Nancy and the kids are experiencing are thanks to the Mind Flayer, and they basically discuss and realize that Billy, Heather, Mrs. Driscoll and potentially many others are actually "flayed", becoming dominated minions of the Mind Flayer. A quick investigation to Heather's house ends up with more damning evidence of this fact -- it's cold, there are signs of a struggle, and apparently the Flayed (that's what the show's calling them) are also consuming weird-ass chemicals. Figuring out that the 'flaying' must happen somewhere and the Flayed probably have a base, they set up a plan to basically release Mrs. Driscoll and allow her to go to wherever the Mind Flayer is, well, flaying people.
And as the D&D Party arrive in the hospital, thanks to the sassy nurse, only two visitors are allowed to enter, which are Nancy and Jonathan. The kids... well, Eleven basically extends an 'olive branch' to Mike, which is pretty cute. Honestly, all of the fluffy interactions between the kids in this episode are pretty cute, other than the weird "they're conspiring against me" scene.
Everything goes straight to hell pretty quickly, though, when Nancy and Jonathan end up being attacked by their old bosses Tom (and Bruce), and it's... pretty damn creepy. The action scene perhaps ran on for a bit too long, but it's honestly very tense and brutal, and I did like the synchronized pain felt by the two avatars of the Mind Flayer when Jonathan and Nancy manage to simultaneously injure their opponents in different parts of the hospital, via scissors and a fire extinguisher.
At this point, it's honestly uncertain if killing or stopping the Mind Flayer's going to restore all of the Flayed, and at the moment... it seems that that's not going to be the case. Because when Nancy and Jonathan defeat their respective opponents, they end up liquefying into meaty goop. Okay, they won... right? But then the goop starts moving together, and, of course, they fuse together to reveal the true, full form of the giant rat-flesh (well, human-flesh, now) giant creature we've seen in the Mind Flayer's base. Which is... well, it's a fleshy, meaty abomination of a thing. Honestly, "abomination" is probably the closest thing I can call it. It's an ooze monster with limbs and a very disgusting, disturbing maw. Smash to black.
And then episode 6 begins with basically a lot of odds stacked against our heroes. Nancy and Jonathan managing to outrun and beat up two enthralled adult men is believable. But the two of them fighting against a gigantic mass of gibbering flesh that can also liquefy into meat soup to wedge itself through doors? God damn, that was an intense chase scene and I am genuinely surprised Nancy lasted that long. If the Mind Flayer had actually just stabbed her or ate her instead of getting up into her face, we'd be one less main character. Thankfully, Eleven shows up to completely and utterly annihilate the Mind Flayer's fleshy body by way of telekinetic smashing through the room, and then throwing it out of the hospital.
Meanwhile Team Mall Rats have been found out because the soldier Steve knocked out recovered quickly enough to alert the entire base, and... well, while it's realistic enough that they can run around for a while and hold back a door, the older kids Steve and Robin get arrested and beaten up by the Russians while Dustin and Erica manage to escape through a ventilation shaft. The torture scene sort of alternates between some of the comedic beats of Steve's own jokes (USS Butterscotch!) and his insistence that they aren't working for anyone, they're just a bunch of ice cream stand workers who found their way by accident. The torture itself isn't played for laughs, though, and the show has enough restraint to not actually indulge in gory fingernail pulling or anything. In fact, the most we see is the truth serum bit which got the two of them to confess bits and pieces of their paths while giggling like idiots.
While Steve and Robin do their own bonding over Steve's admission that all that popularity in high school amounted to jack shit, Dustin and Erica do some bonding on their own because they're fellow nerds -- just about different stuff. Pretty neat, and they quickly commandeer a little golf cart like vehicle as well as an electric prod apparently meant for Demo-dogs. Eventually, they manage to cause a distraction with the green super-acid enough to charge in, zap the doctor torturing Steve, and free the two of them.
Meanwhile, the D&D Party, after Eleven gets rid of the fleshy abomination, ends up regrouping as Eleven basically prepares to abuse her scrying powers. Man, Eleven is just fixing everything on her own... and we get into an interesting argument between Max and Mike. Max's argument is essentially simple -- Eleven has agency over her own body and her own powers, and, of course, everything she does is her own choice. But Mike's concerns honestly is kind of relevant, too -- we've seen times in the past where Eleven pushed herself way too hard, and trying to prevent that from happening is also a very valid concern. Instead, Mike's point of view is essentially demonized as him basically not respecting a woman's choice... which doesn't exactly translate well to this particular situation.
And, anyway, because Stranger Things moved quickly, that discussion is quickly tabled in favour for Eleven finally going into a trippy mind trip into trying to see into Billy's mind and maybe rescue him. And she ends up in a beach and goes through a very quick montage of Billy's shitty childhood, his abusive dad, and his mom that left him. That's... kind of unsubtle (not as unsubtle as the original revelation of the abusive dad, but still) but eh, it's not that bad. Eventually, Eleven discovers where the Mind Flayer is operating out of, Brimborn Steel Works.
But this information comes at a price, as Eleven seems to return to the room she was originally in... only to find out that it's still an illusion. The Mind Flayer, speaking through an avatar of Billy, mocks Eleven, telling her that "you let us in", with a neat flashback to the first season when Eleven fought the Demogorgon. The Mind Flayer gives a pretty chilling bad guy speech, talking about how they've been "building it" for her... specifically, to end her. Thankfully, Eleven manages to pull out from the mental bond, returning to her friends... but the Mind Flayer is planning to do something huge as it recalls all of the Flayed... and they all gather at the Steelworks, one by one liquefying into meaty gloop that the Mind Flayer's meat abomination body absorbs to itself.
Final boss fight time, it seems!
Overall, there are some clumsiness in the writing of these two episodes. I think the mall Russian base stuff is still pretty weak overall, and there were some parts that didn't gel particularly well, but I did really love the sheer creepiness of the Mind Flayer, and, as always, the actors really end up selling the scenes that are going on even if the plot itself isn't the most complex or well-juggled. Pretty tense stuff, honestly.
Random Notes:
- Random geek-out bit for this pair of episodes? The absolutely random and out-of-nowhere bit when Dustin and Robin talk about Promethium and how it's a material featured in DC comics' Cyborg's origin story. And I'm pretty sure Cyborg debuted early in 1980's, so he'd be a pretty recent superhero in the comics of 1985!
- God damn Gaten Matarazzo really killed it (as well as my eardrums) with that amazingly realistic set of shrieking when they were in the elevator in the beginning of episode 5.
- Mayor Kline is right, Grigori does look like Arnold Schwarzenegger from certain angles.
- The running gag of Alexei really loving 7-11 slurpees is hilarious.
- The whole thing with the Mind Flayer's fleshy abomination avatar being able to shapeshift into human form, which, upon defeat, sets up the second phase of the boss fight as they fuse together into a larger abomination, isn't just a very D&D boss fight, but also very video-gamey. I love it.
- Mind Flayers in D&D do tend to dominate lesser species and use them as slaves, but I don't think they're actually called "Flayed", at least to the best of my knowledge.
- It's easy to miss, but the Flayed arriving on the hospital actually lead to a bunch of dead hospital workers that Nancy and Jonathan run past.
- Dustin does an off-screen recap of the first two seasons for Erica, and while Erica accepts everything about telekinesis and extradimensional invaders, she doesn't believe that Lucas played any part in it.
- Grigori intimidating Mayor Kline on that spinning gravity ride is just so hilariously ridiculous and over-the top and I love it.
- That hospital scene was pretty creepy and awesome, with a great use of flickering lights and confined spaces. But also pretty cool is just how all of the Flayed just stop what they are doing in the middle of the 4th of July celebration and march off like zombies. Also, Heather, her mom and Mrs. Driscoll are explicitly shown to be absorbed into the Mind Flayer's meaty body, so, uh, they and everyone who becomes the Mind Flayer's meat soup body is just straight-up dead, then?
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