by Sandy DeVito

Episode Eight, The Upside Down, is the final episode of the first season, and in some ways it could have been the end of the series - they took their time officially announcing Season 2 and many of us felt unsure if the narrative demanded more. It certainly ends neatly enough that if they hadn't chosen to continue the story, its ambiguity would not be a disservice per se. Season 2 was greenlit (with episode titles!) as of last month (August 2016), however, so this episode is just a bookend to the wider narrative. 

by Sandy DeVito

I'll be honest, I don't love the beginning of this episode. Mike is cleaning El's dirty face with a wet cloth. She looks in the mirror, touching her shaved head as if to touch the phantom wig that's no longer there. That fucking wig. I hate that wig! To me, the wig is a reminder to El that she's different from other people (heteronormative people that is), and why the fuck do we have to do that? Hasn't she been through enough, being raised in a lab and prodded and given no autonomy up until now? Why does this have to be such a forward part of the narrative? Mike says "you don't need it;" of course she doesn't need it. He reassures her that she's "still pretty" - okay, here's my issue with this. Can you imagine this scene being reversed, and Mike somehow being the outsider? Can you imagine El trying to reassure him he's still physically attractive? No! 

by Sandy DeVito

Episode five, The Flea and the Acrobat (more on that later), starts right where we left off: with Hop being a total badass, and that's what I like to see. This is one of the scenes that really solidifies how cool he is, whilst tossing in a little Reagan-era paranoia for the adults who remember that stuff (or the millennials who've been told about it). We're back at Hawkins Laboratory, and he slips in just as some lab coats are leaving. He finds his way blocked by a hazmat warning zone, does the facial equivalent of a shrug, and busts right through. HOPPPPP. This is, unfortunately, right about the time some security guards who noticed him on the surveillance feed catch up to him. He bluffs for a moment, insisting Brenner is expecting him, and when one of the guards goes to phone it in, Hop lets fly his stony fist once more, managing to also nab his gun and corner the other guy, stealing his security clearance card (did they have pin-pad/card door locks in '83, though?) and getting through a nearby restricted door. Hop is the coolest, hottest 40-something, slightly washed-up cop to ever exist, basically. 

by Sandy DeVito

Episode Four, aptly named The Body, opens right after Hopper's told Joyce and Jonathan about the body they found in the quarry. Joyce refuses to believe it's him, and tries to tell Hopper about the lights and the monster coming through the walls. Hopper, like Jonathan, thinks Joyce is losing her mind, and tries to empathize with her, mentioning how he had to "lock all that away" when his daughter died. "You're talking about grief," Joyce tells him. "This is different." Joyce knows deep in her soul that Will is not dead - she just can't prove it yet.