Welcome back for the third installment of the Summer TV Binge of Stranger Things, looking back at season one, episode three (released July 15, 2016):
“Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly”
Written by Jessica Mecklenburg
Directed by Shawn Levy
In the third part, Joyce attempts to communicate with Will via the lights; Hopper and the police pay a visit to Hawkins Laboratory, as well as the library, and learn about Project MKUltra; Mike returns to school; and Nancy realizes Barb is missing.
1. A Gruelling Demise
This episode opens with Barb’s abduction as seen from her point-of-view, and it’s a surprisingly gruelling and drawn out death, as she finds herself in the Upside Down’s (empty) version of Steve’s swimming pool, and struggling to climb her way out. This is our first glimpse of the Upside Down, where everything appears to be desolate, and covered in plant tendrils and cobwebs. Because it’s dark, Barb probably doesn’t realize she’s in another dimension: either way she’s too afraid for her life to contemplate what’s going on. She screams to Nancy for help, but she can’t hear her: poor Barb probably died believing her best friend was enjoying sex with Steve too much to care.
2. A Rock and a Hard Place
Ironically, Nancy felt weird the morning after, and probably regretted hooking up even more after Steve’s friends loudly mocked her first-time experience in the school cafeteria. (“Oh Steve’”s friends certainly suck, all right.) However, if you thought she’d already start daydreaming about the less obnoxious Jonathan, one of Steve’s friends catches him developing the photos he took of the pool party in the school’s darkroom, and the gang subsequently confronts him over his creepy behavior at the end of the day. Poor Nancy: her boyfriend pals around with utter jerks, and his potential alternative is socially awkward to the point of violating her privacy — I’m surprised she didn’t start to suspect they had something to do with Barb’s disappearance.
3. Hard Work
Let’s focus on the scene where Nancy calls Barb’s mom for a bit: think about how much effort was spent on recreating the ’80s for this character who only appears once this season, from her make-up, hair, and costuming, to finding and dressing an appropriate house, complete with a clunky dial phone. I wonder if there was a conversation about only showing Nancy’s side of the conversation to save money, but it was worth it because it made the scene feel real and natural, as if Mrs. Holland could return onscreen later in the season.
Similarly, I think of how much work went into Hopper and Officer Powell’s visit to the library, when they look up newspaper reports mentioning the laboratory and Dr. Brenner stored on microfiche. (For the record, this was the first time I ever saw microfiche, and I was fascinated to see ’80s characters researching information on large monitor displays the way we do.) I hope the crew had a lot of fun creating these fake news articles, and then turning them into microfiche documents.
4. First Contact
As implied by the title, this is the episode where Joyce buys and installs a ton of lights — including Christmas decorations — to communicate with Will in her house. Karen Wheeler comes over with Holly to console her over her son’s disappearance, and Holly is drawn by the lights into a small room where the Demogorgon is lurking in the walls. Fortunately, her mom and Joyce notice and pick her up, causing the creature to refrain from abducting her. It’s a good thing Mike and Nancy’s little sister has fairly responsible guardians!
Holly tells Joyce she noticed something, prompting her to create a spirit board with the Christmas lights. It tells her to “R.U.N.,” as the Demogorgon finally emerges from the walls, like a monstrous Santa Claus. We don’t get a great glimpse of it, as the lights go haywire, but we see its long, slim humanoid body, and a head with no facial features, save for many, many lips, as if it were a closed flower made of entirely of flesh. Suffice to say, Joyce doesn’t stick around to find out what its teeth look like.
Continued below5. Mixed Messages
In one of Eleven’s traumatic flashbacks, we see that one time she was forced into solitary confinement, she fought back and killed the two men restraining her, prompting a proud Dr. Brenner to finally show her some affection, and to carry her away to a more comfortable room. No one should have to bear the trauma of taking a life, least of all a child, yet she was rewarded with (what passes for) love by her abusive father figure for it.
The episode concludes with Mike, Eleven, Dustin and Lucas witnessing Will’s body being seemingly recovered from the lake. Mike loses it at El, believing she lied about telling him they could find him, and El apologizes, which only incenses him. The ending of this episode is already incredibly downbeat, with everyone believing Will is dead, but it’s especially dark for Eleven, whose attempts to do genuine good have been met with blowback. The track played at the end happens to be Peter Gabriel’s cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” which is bitterly ironic for her — Eleven must feel like she will never escape her past, and can only bring misery to others’ lives.
Other Things:
– As if we didn’t feel sorry enough for Eleven, we see here how even the most innocuous things (a can of Coke, a cat, or photos of Nancy’s childhood) can trigger unhappy memories.
– Based on how many sandwiches he packs for Eleven, Dustin would definitely stock up on all the potions in Dungeons & Dragons.
– So Hopper went on a date with Marissa the librarian? Hawkins is a small town after all!
– Nancy’s classmate Ally is a reference to The Breakfast Club‘s Ally Sheedy right?
See you all next week for “Chapter Four: The Body.”
