Stranger Things “The Bathtub” has Lucas as Paul Revere “The bad men are coming,” and starts off with a full on attack of Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter. (Before going into the episode, does anyone else see that scrap yard and not think of Stephen King’s Uncle Otto’s Truck?)
The episode begins with Eleven and Mike sharing a moment and almost kissing. Dustin arrives and interrupts this tender moment with news of Lucas’ incoherent transmission. Lucas is excitedly telling his friends that all the bad men are coming.
Cue a Spielberg “E.T” moment where the kids escape on their bicycles. In this instance, however, the bikes do not fly, an oncoming van does. All the kids meet up and the van attempts to head them off. El flips the thing right over the bicycles and the trio escape from Brenner and his heavily armed men.
You have to hand it to Lucas. He only really accepts Eleven after she saves their bacon by blocking their pursuers with the van. Lucas also makes up with Mike. He shows his friends what he found on the other side of that fence as Brenner’s helicopters start sweeping the area for El.
The kids hide out in the scrap yard school bus as the choppers fly overhead.
Joyce and Hopper arrive at the police station and she is furious to find Jonathan in handcuffs. The chief is shown the articles in Jonathan’s trunk and the two have a talk. Mike’s house is invaded by the Brenner “men in black” and they begin to question his mother and father about Eleven.
They tell his worried parents that he is in danger. Brenner asks that they trust him.
Joyce tells Jonathan off for trying to fix things on his own. The mouth-breater; Troy (Peyton Wich) is brought into the police station by his irate and overbearing mother. He describes Eleven to Chief Hopper and he realizes that she is hanging out with the boys.
Steve (Joe Keery) has a falling out with his two jerk friends. (Sidenote: The makeup on Harding’s face is brilliant. The blood looks real and his entire face looks sore.)
Backed by music that is evocative of an entire catalogue of ’80s horror films (Like The Night of the Comet, for instance), Hopper enlists the help of Nancy to track Mike down and help the kids to escape Brenner and his men.
(Speaking of music, the use of a John Carpenter type score, during the school bus scene – i.e. the two bass notes used in “The Thing” – sets up Hopper’s almost comic rescue perfectly.)
The kids meet up with Nancy, Jonathan and Joyce. Mike explains the flea and the acrobat. Hopper recognizes the description of the lab and Eleven agrees to find Will and Barb. She cannot.
El suggests they build a makeshift isolation chamber and Dustin gets some guidance from Mr. Clarke.
(Amusingly, Clarke is watching “The Thing” with his girlfriend, or wife, when Dustin calls about building the sensory deprivation tank, “for fun.”)
The group make their “tank” after taking the town’s de-icing salt supply and Joyce’s wading pool. Eleven is given a set of goggles covered with duct tape to help her in the tank.
Mike and Nancy lie to each other about how they feel toward Jonathan and Eleven. During the entire process, Joyce is the quintessential mother, soothing El before the experiment. Later, when Eleven finds Barb dead, Joyce calms the girl down.
After El finds the slime covered dead body of Barb, she then finds “Castle Byers” and Will. He does not have long left and the alien thing discovers the building, Eleven and Will before everything dissolves.
Heartbreakingly, when El finds Will, Joyce tells her to tell the boy she is coming for him. Will murmurs, “Hurry.”
Hopper starts to leave. He plans on heading to Castle Byers, it is in the woods behind the Byers’ house, and Joyce forces the chief to take her along. Nancy tells Jonathan that they have to get their monster gear from the station.
Nancy tells Jonathan she wants to kill it. As Hopper and Joyce enter the fenced off area the two older kids grab their stuff from the station. The chief and Joyce are caught and Will is being hunted by the creature in the upside-down.
In this penultimate episode, everything has gone spectacularly wrong. The grownups have been caught and Will has been found by the alien predator. It looks like it may be up to Jonathan and Nancy to save the day.
Stranger Things is a Netflix series available to watch all in one go. If you have been watching the show one episode at a time, there is one left to finish up the season. The series has proven wildly popular with audiences and has already been greenlit for a second season.
Kudos, once again, to Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown for creating yet another tissue grabbing moment, or two. Mad props to the entire cast are in order as well. The talented actors all bring this meta horror series to living breathing life.
CAST:
- Winona Ryder – Joyce Byers
- Matthew Modine – Dr. Martin Brenner
- David Harbour – Chief Hopper
- Millie Bobby Brown – Eleven
- Noah Schnapp – Will Byers
- Caleb McLaughlin – Lucas
- Finn Wolfhard – Mike
- Gaten Matarazzo – Dustin
- Charlie Heaton – Jonathan Byers
- Natalia Dyer – Nancy Wheeler
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