Welcome back for the eighth installment of the Summer TV Binge of Stranger Things, looking back at the finale of the first season, released July 15, 2016:
“Chapter Eight: The Upside Down”
Story by Paul Dichter
Written and directed by the Duffer Bros.
On this episode, Hopper strikes a deal with Dr. Brenner, promising he won’t divulge anything as long as he and Joyce are allowed to enter the Upside Down and retrieve Will. Jonathan and Nancy leave the kids at the school to draw out the Demogorgon, leaving them vulnerable when the lab’s troops come looking for Eleven.
1. Hopper’s Hopes
In between negotiating with Brenner, and finding Will, Hopper and Joyce don’t actually do much in this episode beyond searching the dimly lit Upside Down, so the Duffers took the opportunity to pepper in some well overdue flashbacks to Hopper’s past, depicting the loss of his daughter Sara. (It’s not stated explicitly, but it’s clear she died from cancer or leukemia.) The intercutting between Sara’s death, and Hopper and Joyce attempting to resuscitate Will after they find him is incredibly powerful, conveying the sheriff’s transformation from the apathetic cop Joyce had to plead into taking her son’s disappearance seriously — his grief is no longer an excuse to withdraw from the world, but a fire that’ll make him damn well certain Joyce won’t have to go through the same pain as he did.
Below: Hopper supports Joyce as she helps her son breathe
2. The Teens Turn into Red Herrings
Jonathan and Nancy head to his home to draw out and kill the Demogorgon once and for all, and there’s a lot of great moments in their storyline, from the introduction of the spiked baseball bat, to the duo making a blood oath to attract the monster, and Steve being completely out of his element and terrified when he shows up to apologize (in contrast to the much shyer and nerdier Jonathan.) However, we all know deep down, the final reckoning has to come between the Demogorgon and Eleven, so the confrontation with the teens — as tense and nailbiting as it is — can’t help but feel anticlimactic. It must’ve been a dilemma for the creators, as the teens would’ve resulted in too many characters at the school, but it’s not like the Demogorgon could kill them.
3. Puppy Love
Before Brenner’s goons arrive, Mike starts telling El about how afterwards, he can introduce her to his parents, and she can live with them like a normal child. El asks if that’ll mean she becomes his adoptive sister, which grosses Mike out, and after struggling to explain why, he answers nonverbally by kissing her. It’s an absolutely adorable, cheer-provoking moment, though it has to be asked, why am I shipping these two kids so hard, they’re only children after all. I guess it’s because the the show is asking you to imagine that you were their age so much, so you don’t overthink it, and their supernatural experiences, which are unlikely to be shared by anyone else, mean their love is far more likely to be true. (Could you imagine a flashforward to El and Mike as a 50-year couple today though? Crikey.)
4. Eleven Blows Up
Brenner’s second-in-command, Connie Frazier, and her men surround El and the boys, and the girl responds by squeezing their brains until they cry blood — it’s incredibly hardcore, and reinforces just how angry they made her. The exertion leaves El utterly spent though, and when the Demogorgon arrives, she’s pushed beyond her limit to kill the beast: despite the flickering lights, you can see her eyes have become completely red, and her skin is so pale that you can see her blood vessels. We know because of the subsequent episode that she didn’t really disintegrate with the monster, but if this had been the only season, it would’ve been a pretty definitive — and tragically noble — ending for her, with Hopper planting Eggos for her serving as something akin to leaving flowers at a gravesite.
Continued below5. A Contrastive Ending
The epilogue — which takes place a month later, during Christmas time — plays as a mirror image of the first scene in the series, with the boys playing Dungeons & Dragons. Will is picked up by Jonathan, who awkwardly greets Nancy, before she goes back to Steve’s side, a state of affairs she feels ambivalent about (it’s refreshing though, as it would’ve been too easy to have her and Jonathan already together romantically.) Lucas and Dustin have their comedy double act, but Mike misses Eleven too much to be able to get into the holiday spirit.
The biggest contrast comes when Will has dinner with his mom and his brother, and goes to the bathroom: he sees the Upside Down again, and vomits a Demogorgon larva into the sink. He then returns to the dinner table, and continues tucking in as the camera pulls back, as snow falls, and the credits roll. It’s an ominous yet wholesome final scene, which is an apt encapsulation of the show’s sweetly sinister nature: it’s a show about kids but not for them, perfectly reflecting the R-rated energy of the PG ’80s films (Gremlins, Poltergeist, Temple of Doom etc.) it’s inspired by.
Other Things:
– There’s an evocative moment where Joyce and Jonathan sense each other’s presence in their home, despite being on opposite sides of the Upside Down, an idea that hasn’t been explored since.
– Based on how he greets her, I wonder Brenner may actually care about El, but he’s such a scumbag, does it matter?
– The confirmation that Demogorgons incubate their larva inside hosts naturally gives off big Alien vibes.
– You gotta love that one of the first things Mike, Lucas and Dustin tell Will on his return is that “Troy peed himself.”
See you next week for the first chapter of Stranger Things 2, “MADMAX.”
