Did you enjoy Stranger Things 2 over the weekend? (I sure did, as much as the pacing completely collapsed under the weight of all the show’s storylines.) The CW obviously hope you’re still craving more 80s Halloween antics, but is this bite-sized Spielberg homage also worthwhile, or is it the new Mac and Me?
1. Zari
Following on from her debut last week, Zari was the best part of the episode. I particularly loved her relationship with Ray, and the study in contrast between their demeanours, which naturally came from their completely different upbringings. He was a lonely kid but his childhood was positively utopian next to her’s. I loved how by the end some of her realism rubbed off on him, and some of his hope and optimism – which you realize was a natural reaction to his loneliness – swayed her.
There’s the little things Zari does this week that made her endearing too, like the way she bites her lip when she realizes she’s going to go time-traveling, or her picking and observing what a phone looked like in 1988. I’m not so sure about her costume, which hopefully will be just for Halloween, because it sure looked like one.
2. I hate Nate again
The whole running joke about Nate finding Ray’s mom hot was really gross. Why is he only attracted to women from the past? Being a history nerd, I really liked the character last year, so it’s a shame I’ve only find him tolerable this season when he’s hopped up on goofballs. Appropriately, he was dressed like creepy old Biff in Back to the Future washing that DeLorean. Still, at least he got punished via snogging from the Dominator Queen, to the point he declared he had to brush his teeth forever.
3. Homages
This episode is a great showcase in what makes a great homage and what doesn’t. The episode is primarily a homage to E.T., complete with plastic curtains and toy cupboards. The episode’s use of Singin’ in the Rain is a great tribute to how the film used The Quiet Man, because it becomes vital to the episode’s plot. Similarly, in the beginning we have a slight Raiders of the Lost Ark nod with young Ray sliding beneath a closing door, and Smith’s man callously shooting the boy feels like a callback to the film’s rifle/walkie-talkie controversy.
Yet the production team overstep it with an utterly risible reference to the bicycle over the moon scene in the film, which is so disappointingly obvious. Nate even says it reminds him of E.T. What would’ve been cleverer is if Ray compared the episode’s events to that film earlier, as part of his whole arc teaching his younger self to realize what was happening was not a fairy tale.
Also, Amaya actually yells at the Dominator Queen, “Get away from him you bitch!,” an appallingly cheesy reference to Aliens. But in the same scene, there’s a pretty subtle Shaun of the Dead reference where Nate considers what records to toss at the angry alien. It’s pretty clear which was funnier.
4. Forced drama
I found Ray’s mom’s spiel to Nate and Amaya about how hard is to raise him incredibly random, given she’s telling it to, what are from her view, just two exterminators. I also found Stein’s subterfuge about contacting his daughter unnecessary, as I saw it coming a mile away, still, at least they’re not writing him out by turning him into a villain.
Likewise, I found the final tribute to E.T. not at all emotionally engaging, because as cute as Gumball is, I haven’t spent two hours with him and Ray like we did with E.T. and Elliott. Perhaps the Dominator Queen made the Legends all weepy as a psychic expression of gratitude?
5. Gumball is actually adorable
The baby Dominator young Ray adopts is genuinely sweet as wrinkly as he is. He resembled baby Groot, which makes sense given how similar the Dominators’s proportions are to the adult version of Marvel’s tree.
He probably died in last year’s crossover though, right?
Bonus thoughts:
– Ray created a predestination paradox showing the ATOM suit to his younger self.
Continued below
– Stein’s grandson is named Ronnie!
– Sara drew the short straw this week, Zari didn’t even suss her out.
– The “awesome costume” line should’ve been cut, we saw it coming a mile away.
– Young Ray apparently uses the wooden fort Will Byers abandoned after Stranger Things 1.
Next week we find out why they named an episode after Mark Morrison’s biggest hit.
