‘Stranger Things’ Season 4, Episodes 4-6 Deep Dive
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Hello and welcome back into the ringer verse, your nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. I'm Joanna Robinson and joining me.

Now that she has figured out all the things that she needs to do to move to Salt Lake City to become one of Susie's many siblings, it's Mallory Rubin. Hi, Mallory. How are you? Joanna, I love that plan because if you think I'm going to spend this podcast in the armpit that is Mike Wheeler's basement, you're out of your mind. Yeah.

All right, here we are. Part two of our three-part Stranger Things coverage. Molly Rubin is like in the thick of Star Wars celebration right now. And she is pressing pause on a galaxy far, far away to come back. I pulled her out of a galaxy far, far away back to Hawkins, Indiana. What a place to be. You know what I mean? Through a water gate.

A little mini Watergate. We love that. We're here to talk about episodes four, five, and six of Stranger Things. If you missed our first installment, that's also in the feed. So we talked about one through three already. Find that. That dropped on Friday.

Talking about four through six today, and then we'll be back with the finale wrap-up episode next week, next Tuesday, I believe it is. Also elsewhere in the feed, there's discussion from the Midnight Boys on Obi-Wan Kenobi. You'll hear soon from Mallory and me on Monday, the deep dive, our deep dive on the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi. We've seen it. We have a lot of things to say. We're excited. I can't wait! So many beer takes. It's just...

I'm so excited. Block out a couple hours on your schedule for that one. So that's all happening. Plus like the constant news out of Star Wars Celebration that Mallory and the boys are doing, plus a live show out of Star Wars Celebration. There's just endless, endless content on this feed for you. So you can follow all of that.

By following the ringer verse on social on Tik TOK, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter. And if you're following them on social, you've been seeing all the dispatches that Jomie has been doing from star or celebration, uh,

fun times. What you are missing by not being in the Ring of Heroes text group are the shots of Van Poolside. That's just for us. Those are special for us photos. But everything else is available. Joanna, have you been enjoying the 97 text messages per hour where one of us asks Arjuna what time we're supposed to be at a certain place? We're meeting where? Wait, where are you? What floor are you on? Is that super fun for you? It's fun. It's not at all fueling my FOMO. It's fine. So...

Yeah. We miss you. So spoiler, spoiler reminders, obviously last thing we need to do here. As I mentioned, we are talking about episode four, dear Billy, episode five, the Nina project, episode six, the dive. We will not be talking about the finale episode seven.

supersized, chunky finale of the part one. The jumbo finale, as we like to say. Jumbo. We'll be saving that. Yes. Point of order about that. For our finale episode, we're going to be doing a mailbag segment with our pal Jomie. So please do keep a lookout for a prompt from Jomie on social, on the Facebook, on Twitter about your Stranger Things questions so we can all chat together about our many, many thoughts and feelings and concerns about Jomie

Steve's manscaping tendencies. Do you have opinions? I have opinions. Let's all talk about them. Do I have opinions on Steve's chest hair? I do. I can't wait to chat about that with you. And I'm excited for not only today's pod and the finale pod, but yeah, the mailbag I think is going to be a rich text after the season of Stranger Things. I'm super excited for the mailbag questions. Send them over.

We're going to do, I mean, we're going to keep things pretty tight today because we've got that lengthy finale podcast. So anything we missed today, we'll be talking about then. But I do want to talk about a few big picture questions with you, Mallory, here at the top, if that's all right with you. I think this is a perfect opportunity to talk about this podcast.

sort of the budgetary thing that we mentioned in the first three, covering the first three episodes, I think they really come into play here with a lot of spectacle sort of laden sequences. You've got Hopper's sort of big elaborate escape from the camp. You've got Joyce and Murray crashing the airplane. You've got the one-er shootout in the buyer's like LA home, California home. The,

What is all this spectacle doing for you? Does Stranger Things need this amount of spectacle? Are you thrilled and overjoyed to have blockbuster vibes come to your TV show? What do you think? Interesting question. I could use a 24-7 live stream of...

the moments after Hopper's great escape, specifically when he is sitting down, licking peanut butter off his fingers and just luxuriating in that ingestion of protein and deliciousness. So that I enjoyed. I have some questions about the amount of frostbite

He must have incurred and whether he's going to have to lose a limb or two while running through the snow barefoot on that already grossly injured ankle. In general, it's a good question. I mean, I don't this. This obviously the substance and spectacle discussion was something that was a real present through line in the concluding episodes of Game of Thrones. And in general, I think my take is the same, which is I enjoy spectacle in my television programming life.

when it doesn't come at the expense of the substance, when it doesn't come at the expense of the story. There were certain sequences in this season of Stranger Things to date where it was fun and thrilling to see the cinematic heights that they're attempting to reach. It connects, I think, to what we discussed in the first pod, which is, do we feel like we're away from certain swaths of characters or just certain people for too long? And...

This was the stretch of episodes, this middle three, where I started to... Of course, right? Because you get to the end, even though there's a very long seventh episode coming, and then we know we're going to have two more episodes in volume two. I started to think, oh, wow, I've gotten like...

no time really learning anything about Jonathan, for example. You know, we get a couple lines of insight about how he's thinking about his relationship with his family and Nancy, but there's very little progress in like a major character's arc. And that's just one example. So my preference is always to have more of that

And less of the former. But if the balance is there, I don't mind it. I didn't I found like on a rewatch that it was notable how few notes I took on the Murray Joyce Yuri plotline in particular, like nothing there really felt consequential. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun. That doesn't mean it wasn't entertaining. But did it move the story? Didn't move the plot forward? Yes. Did it move their their character arcs forward?

Not as much. What do you think? And I feel like you and I might have a different take on Hopper, but I kind of felt similarly about some of the Siberian prison monologues about Hopper. I'm not sure I felt like I learned anything more. It's not like I didn't know that he needed Joyce in Eleven. It's not like that's his character that we've been following from the start. And for me, all the stuff with the adults kind of feels like

a time stretch. It's exciting and there's a lot of spectacle and all that sort of stuff, but it feels like a time stretch to keep the kids unsupervised, you know? Yeah. To keep Hopper away from Eleven because if Hopper were there or even if Joyce were there, would...

Brenner and Owens be able to like have Eleven all to themselves? No, I don't think so. Do you know? Yeah. So I feel like we can see kind of some of the plot mechanics going there of them trying to keep certain pieces separated on the board. And to your point about like storylines for certain characters, um,

For me, the biggest, the most glaring drop of an interesting storyline in these three episode chunk is Lucas. I thought he had such an interesting story starting, and then it's just sort of like, you're glad that he's not fully gone over to the dark side of the jocks and that he sort of misleads them and runs back to the Scooby gang at the beginning of episode four here, but...

Then he's there to help Max and he's there to talk to her about things. But what about his story, his desire to grow and change from the group? I thought that was so interesting and I was sad to see it just sort of dissolve here. So I'm with you. More of that stuff. Okay, so let's talk about some of the meatier stuff though that we get because this is...

Stranger Things is always because Eleven is this sort of like wild orphan in the woods figure. There's always been this idea of like found family. We've got these home family dynamics that are

on the, on the very spectrum of dysfunctional, but together as a unit and especially like our core kids together as a unit, you know, we hear Mike and Will talk to each other about this, like, guess, guess it's down to us again. Like we got to do it again, this, this core family. But I'm wondering what you think about like this triangulation of 11 with

Brenner father figure, the Hopper father figure, like the Papa, the Hopper. And then this sort of interesting father figure-ish thing we get in Jamie Campbell Bower's character, who we meet here is like a, not quite fatherly, but sort of an older, sort of a different guidance that comes into her life. What do you think of that triangulation? Great question. I think even though this is not exactly what you asked, I would also, I would throw in

the parallels that emerged between the bullying with two and some of the other kids that Elle experiences back in the prior timeline, the 79 timeline, and the memories, and the similarities there with what she experienced in Lenora out in California with Angela and those other crews, the other groups, because it reinforced, you already mentioned the line, but Will, you know, saying to Mike, like, that was you guys who saved me. That was you guys who,

And when Mike says, looks like it's going to be us again, Will says, it always is, isn't it? That the place that not just Eleven, but so many of these characters, Hopper, to your point from a minute ago, et cetera, not just the kids, right, have found a sense of belonging and the kind of comfort and understanding that allows them to be more wholly themselves is just absent in a really stark way in other places.

time periods and locations and relationships in their lives. And so it makes that thing that they have found together feel even more precious. The Brenner question is a really good one because, and I was curious to ask you about this, he's like very tender toward Eleven throughout these three episodes. And...

Whether that is a bit of wisdom that he's attempting to impart or, you know, a gentle pat on the shoulder to try to comfort her. But when she's in Nina, when she's in the tank and we get to see Brenner and Owens together, for example, we see as always that she's a piece on the board, right? She's a part of the game. And I was struck then to think back to the opening sequence in the first episode of this season, right?

where we see Brenner going through his daily ritual, the crossword, everything we talked about last time. And we get that sequence with him and Ten during Ten's lessons, drawing the sun, drawing the dog that Ten thinks is a cow. And again, the sort of like

loving tenderness that Brenner seems to be imparting in his relationships with the kids. And I'm not sure how I felt pretty like unmoored by that. And I think that's the intention, right? To make us unsure of what he is trying to actually establish with these kids, because he does seem to have a fondness for them, but they are tools for him. They are weapons for him. We have seen the horror that he has inflicted. How much was that always true?

and how much changed because of what happened in that key moment, in that key memory. I think putting kids in a lab no matter what means you're already there. And taking Jane away from Terry. That's the thing. I'm in the same place. We can't let ourselves forget all of the horrors that he inflicted. And I think it's underlined before that. If when she's in the tank,

If Owens is like the good cop in that scenario, right? The only one who's occasionally like, are we going too far? Should we do this? Is this okay? Do we need to help her? All that sort of stuff. But then you rewind back to the end of episode three and the beginning of four where, or actually it's five because she's,

Gone for all four, right? Where he's just laying this con job on her. Like, it's your choice. You get to decide. Look at all these people are here because you're so important. And then when she tries to run, what do they do? They grab her and they drive her. The guards, the injection, shaving her head, putting her in the hospital. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So she's a prisoner. So Owens, even though we like to think of him as...

Will has this instinct about him, right? He couldn't save me. Why would we put all of our faith in him? Right. And Riser has always been such interesting metacasting because of his...

alien's role. Like, that's why he's in here. This, like, corporate interest kind of guy. So... Yeah. And even if he's relatively speaking more well-intentioned, he's still complicit, right? Because he is still bringing her to this place. And again, it's sort of a farce, this idea that she or anybody in that situation would have any choice. And so I think to get back to your initial question, I think it's smart to put us as viewers in that same...

even though we have the logical parts of our brain activating and reminding us of all of these things and not allowing us to buy in or trust, we have these same moments of vulnerability that Eleven or any other person would experience where the soothing embrace, that desire to believe that somebody who has failed you before, deeply, deeply failed you and misled you and used you, might actually have your best interest at heart when you know that that isn't true. That's pretty compelling. I want to...

Swing back to one thing and then use it to jump to the next, which is something you said about these kids, about this idea of found family. It reminds me of one of my favorite books.

quotes from a Stephen King film actually stand by me where Richard Dreyfuss is narrator character as he's like telling this whole story about this adventure that these kids have in, in the woods going to try to find a dead body. Right. And he's, and he's writing about it and he's looking back on it and he says, I never had any friends later on. Like the ones I had when I was 12, Jesus does anyone, which is one of my favorite lines in like all of cinema. But I think that's a core thing.

part of what the Duffer brothers are using into this, which is just sort of like, it's so special, this, you know, these kids on bikes running around together. And similarly, I wanted to use that to sort of transition into a film I know you watched recently and talked about on the rewatchables, which is E.T., right? This Amblyan idea of kids on bikes, um,

In E.T., in the Goonies, in various things, stems directly out of as we launch into the 80s. Like, why was this so prevalent in the 80s? Why was this such a thing in the 80s? And I think it has to do, I mean, smarter people than me have talked about this before, but it has to do with this whole

End of the 70s thing. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence, actually, that Dustin is making Watergate jokes because and maybe this is just me being informed by the fact that I'm obsessed with the TV series Gaslight right now. But like thinking about 1979, Jimmy Carter, president of the United States, gives this famous speech about a crisis of confidence, right? We have a crisis of confidence in our society.

in our structures, in all of our levels of authority. And that's what Stranger Things has always been so interested in, which is...

And distrusting authority, distrusting the government, and then distrusting even the parents. And it's just going to have to be the kids. The kids are going to have to do this. The kids are going to have to feel this through. And how much of that hangs over the 80s in both these kid adventure movies and even in these teen horror movies. The parents are never...

helpful here. How do you think that's interacting, I mean, especially with what we see with the town hall meeting that happens in these episodes? How are you feeling about that theme as it resonates through this middle section here? What a great question. So I think that

There's a spectrum, right? Because you have... It was amazing to finally get a moment where you had these family units in Hawkins finally come together. Like, I've had so many moments watching Stranger Things over the years where I'm like, why are Mike's parents and Lucas's parents and Dustin's... Like, why aren't they on the phone with each other more trying to figure out where their kids are? And some of it is just because this was a different moment in time. We weren't all like...

you know, find my friends tracking each other and sending our little like Apple Maps CTA, right? It was a really unique little, I was thinking about that this morning. I was like, because I grew up in the 80s, you grew up in the late 80s, 90s. Like, does it feel like it was such a different time? It does that like before then, I'd say it's true sort of in the 70s too, but I think before then, like,

Because maybe because like moms were made to be at home more or whatever it is. I think there was like that tighter control on kids. And then we swung out and then we swung back. Anyway, sorry. Go on. Yeah. But I can think of like all of those moments.

You know, I was born in 86, September of 86. So a few months after this season of the show is set, but I can think of so many afternoons in like elementary school, just riding my bike around the neighborhood with my friends and that feeling of freedom that you have the possibility to get to explore and have an adventure, right? And then when you actually start to, as you noted, lose faith, and this is not, I'm not saying I ever went to like solve a

mystery on part with the upside down. I was mostly looking for like a snowball and some marshmallow topping. But when you start to lose faith in the structure around you and you realize that you have the capacity to do something on your own, it's a really empowering thing. So with the parents, I'll take this moment to shout out the season four tour de force.

From our guy Ted Wheeler. This is just... And Ted has always been one of the poster parents on the show for just a total lack of awareness, like absenteeism. Does this guy have any idea what is going on? The most meaningful plot impact that he's ever had was in season three when...

The legend Buono saw him napping in the recliner with Holly and felt a pang of guilt and affection for her family and decided not to go meet Billy, right? Ted, in these episodes, saying to Dustin...

You could try sticking together at a different house for a change. Not like, oh, I'm so glad we have eyes on all of you. Right. Why are you always here eating my food, loitering in my home? Or when he later says, I think at this point, anything is possible. And Karen's like, our children are not murderers, Ted. And he says, don't put words in my mouth. See, she does that twist my words. He's a

He's a representation of an archetype of a certain type of parent. Then you have the parents like Joyce, who are super invested, super plugged in, would do anything, would go literally to the ends of the earth to protect their children. But even then, in this period of time and inside of the story, made the decision not, as we talked about last episode, to tell the kids that there was a chance Hopper was alive, to withhold that crucial bit of information that would be the most meaningful thing in the world to them.

if they knew it, right? And so with Hopper, I think he's an interesting one because, again, why is Elle maybe...

prone to long for this kind of relationship. Well, even Ellen Hopper, like their relationship is one of the most meaningful things in the show to me. And I loved it so much in seasons two and three. But Elle rebels. Elle and Mike can't wait to challenge everything that Hopper's throwing at them. And Hopper has to ask Joyce for help with talking to them about basically what it means to grow up. So the nature of the relationship between the parents, even the most well-intentioned one, even the even the most

and active ones. I think you're right what you said before. You almost like have to remove that completely for the kids to make this final breakthrough. Yeah, I think that's so interesting. Also, I'm forever just like in love with your love for Carabuono. Oh,

I've just absorbed it so much from Chris Ryan via osmosis, but she is really, she's just on a legendary run in this television program and I love it. And we have Susie's dad who's kind of an embodiment of all of that. Like the father who is literally locked away in a room using something he took from his child because he doesn't trust her to have it and has no idea what's unfolding around him. I don't understand anything that happens in that household. We'll get to that in a second. I loved it.

The last big picture thing I want to talk about is this idea of memory and trauma, right? Because this is like the clear parallels here are Max and Eleven, right? And the way in which Max uses, she's haunted by these traumatic memories, but then she is able to escape

with these fonder memories that she has these flashbacks to shopping sprees and you know uh school dances and whatever else uh the case may be with it with the kids and then you've got 11 who's trying to work through a traumatic memory in order to regain her power um you know a

Hopper's obviously in a nostalgic, reflective mood. You've got, like, several other memories. And part of that is, like, Stranger Things folding back in on itself, like, looking back at its own run of seasons. But I don't know. I think that's a really interesting... And you've got Victor Creel, of course, like, his memory, that info dump. Like...

The way in which this season is trying to talk about trauma and memory and the way in which these things can either haunt you or, if you're done carefully and slowly and methodically, help you if you dig into a memory while in a deprivation tank and a white onesie. So, I don't know. Yeah.

What are your memory, trauma, thoughts, and feelings about this season? Yeah, I have a lot, and I'll follow up on that maybe as we go character by character in some more contextually specific ways. But broadly, I'll say that I was struck by the conflict that was presented in these episodes, the direct opposition between Papa saying to the group,

Now, this is very important. If you allow anger or emotion to invade your thoughts, you will fail. I promise you. Do you understand? And then 11, channeling.

internalizing acting on the lesson that Peter had given her about actually tapping into a memory that makes you sad or angry. Right. And those are, those are opposed ideas. And then the other variable is something like what happens with Max, with the memories, the flashbacks, you know, at the snowball with Lucas shopping with L all of the scenes with her friends, where those happy thoughts come.

are presented as the antidote to Vecna weaponizing the painful memories. Happy memories are the thing that you can use to challenge that. Now, I was...

it won't shock you to hear powerfully struck by the Patronus comp here, right? Like the, the, the Patronus like effect that the music in general has for, for Max, but it was, it was less so even the music, the music was the way to open the fog and see her friends. It was her friends ultimately. And the flashes of those memories that seeing them sparked. And it's like, it reminds me on the one hand, it reminds me of, you know, like a moment in, in deathly hallows where Patronus,

Harry is surrounded by Lily and James and Sirius and Lupin. And it's like one of my favorite lines, you know, the dementors chill did not overcome him. He passed through it with his companions and they acted like Patronus is to him. Like the people that you care about the most can become the magic and the protection for you. But then the, then because that line in that moment is like one of the most flattering comparisons I can make in terms of something that I love in a story. So then I have to swing back and say, well,

On the one hand, it's emotionally impactful, but does it feel inside of these episodes like too deus ex machina-y because it's introduced just right on the brink of needing it? You know, we learn about the music. We learn about the power to provide this lifeline mere minutes before it's going to come into play. Like, did it feel like it was embedded enough in the character journeys and the mythology of the story to land fully? Not only that, but the way that, um...

the lead psychiatrist at the asylum, like, says it. Yeah. She just drops it in such an unnatural way as they're, like, sort of walking through this music room. So that all did feel like it came together a little clunkily. They at least, like, say...

seated in the Walkman and the Kate Bush earlier. Like we had already seen Max listening to the song. So, and I liked that Lucas had to be there. Lucas who knows her better than anyone else, like has to be the one to figure out what the song would be. It's also a great song. So great that we don't mind hearing it sort of faintly over and over and over again. Yeah.

for the rest of the season. And it's funny, on the Max beat, I remember you said in the last conversation we had, you weren't really worried about Max. I will say, I honestly wouldn't mind if they... Sounds so callous, but I wouldn't mind if some of these stakes got a little higher for how...

much these kids are playing with fire and in these adventures, like Steve just swimming to the bottom of the lake and touching a portal. Like what, what was the plan there? Why was that? Why did that ever seem like the thing to do? Um, swimming co-captain certified lifeguard. Um, but then you don't stay in the water where a tentacle might get you. We're all like, get out of the water, Steve. Um, the, uh,

When Max is running and the portal is closing, maybe this is just me watching too many Joss Whedon shows, but I definitely thought she was not going to make it. I thought the portal was going to close on her. We were all like, she's going to make it. They're right there. She's going to make it. And then I thought maybe she wouldn't. And not necessarily that that would be the end of Max, but maybe that she would be trapped in that house for a while or whatever. Right.

But then she didn't, and she's fine. And as long as she keeps her headphones on, she's fine. And, you know, that's it. I don't know. She did pose the question, what if I get tired of this song? And it's no longer my favorite, you know? Too bad. Kate Bush is eternal. There's no getting tired. All right, let's do our little, like, character by character. We're not going to go, again, too deep, deep, deep on this. We will dive deep in the finale, but...

The 11th stuff we get, we're getting more and more into this lead up to whatever happened in 1979. We get her bullying experience. Again, these bullies are just beyond vicious in a way that I don't fully understand. But I have a question for you about the tiny L, tall L technique. Yeah.

I don't know that I fully need it. Do you know what I mean? Like, I think that if you just put Elle in a flashback and give and show me tiny Elle once, I would just buy into the concept and I don't need the constant reminders that she's tiny. How do you feel about it? I don't know if I have a strong feeling on it one way or another. Honestly, like I think you're as a viewer, you're

aware of where you are in the timeline, but it's helpful still because we are moving around through so many different character arcs and so many different moments in time and memories to have that like orienting, reorienting principle. I think it's also just interesting to see El...

consider herself. That's the part I liked about it, I think. That's interesting. And especially because she's needing to revisit all of these traumatic moments from her life because that's what Brenner needs. That's what Owens needs. They're on the clock, right? She's going to sink. No, she'll swim. None of that is her choice. And so these moments where she gets to pause and really assess her own life, I liked, especially because it's part of this larger question about how...

Exactly the flashes that Eleven is experiencing before she's in Nevada are back in her memory set because a big part of the plot in these episodes is that she does not remember. She doesn't remember the bulk of this. I mean, is it possible that the vicious bullying in California started the triggering?

That was my read on it. Because the combo of the experience and then also the actual language parallels between Mike saying to her, what did you do? And then cutting to the flashback of Papa saying, what did you do? That maybe that... The similarity in the adjacencies there would have called up those flashes, even though she does not have the full picture of that exact sequence yet. Right. So it's a delicate balancing act. I think ultimately it worked. I think also I want to just...

Drop in on this idea of agency for Elle because I can't really figure out if this was a false promise or not, but it feels like she's offered a choice. You've got some of your power back that you can use maybe temporarily, but if you work with me, I can bring you back to full power. In fact, maybe even more powerful than ever before. And that's when she calls him Papa and takes his hand, right? And she walks herself back.

back into the lab. And so I think whether, whether or not that was a genuine offer he was making her, or if they were just going to come and drug her again, if, if she decided not to, I think that, um, it speaks to what we were talking about last time, which is, you know, um,

Elle doesn't want to be a normal girl because even as a normal girl, she doesn't feel like a normal girl. And so this offer of you can have your powers back so you can feel shiny and special and not in that vulnerable place that you – I mean, I'm using normal with air quotes around it, but not in that vulnerable space you felt like in California. You can go back to being the shiny superhero, the apple of Mike's eye, all that sort of stuff. These are the things that she's worried about.

that he's offering to fix for her, right? Yeah, absolutely. And the explanation even that he provides of where, what happened with her powers in the first place, the comp that he makes to a stroke and the way that he anchored

that information download in again like the inside of Eleven's mind not oh because it could have been something like hey the bite the bite in season three there was a toxin that was put into your blood right but that's not that's not actually it was centered in in in her mind just as the way forward is and then you pair that with

You know, the note that she leaves to Mike in that language of, I have gone to become a superhero again. And she signs it from Elle on the heels of the from Mike. Love that from her, honestly. She just says that. Great stuff. Great stuff in the prior episodes. And it is...

It is so sad to me. We talked about this a little bit last time. I, you know, I understand structurally that the show will move back to Eleven having her powers and that'll be a pretty crucial part of the end game, I assume, of the rest of not only this season, but this series.

And I think we'll probably speculate on that more in our next pod. But it is so sad to me, again, that she feels like she has to do this in order to be the fullest version of herself. And you have that like sequence with the kids where, you know, Max is saying we need Elle to get her powers back. And Steve is saying everything was way easier. We had this girl, she had superpowers. And I was just like, yeah, you mentioned her.

I love that for many. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. Meanwhile, you guys are there. You're doing it. You found Skull Rock. It took a little while after the whole compass plot in season one, but eventually you remembered that whole compass plot and you figured out that the compass was pointing you toward a gate. You found the gate. They can do it.

actually. And that doesn't make Elle any less special, but I think that they're going to have to keep walking that line where every other character embraces their own ability to impact the story and their own fate, right? And where Elle realizes that she's more than just whatever comes out of that tank or whatever the person who's next to her at a table or a room in a given moment tells her she gets to be.

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All right, let's talk about, let's wrap up California really quick because we all left California. Everyone left California, right? We'll come back to a lot with Elle and... Oh, for sure. And Peter and everything there. There's a lot more. We could honestly do probably just like an hour on that here. There's a lot to parse. So we will, we should, I think we should just mention one thing, which is a key moment. It's just that in one of the memories we see, Peter tells Eleven about one thing.

And he tells her in the same exchange, sometimes Papa doesn't tell the truth. He's planting these seeds of doubt directly with Eleven about Papa. And he's also, in addition to the memory lesson that we mentioned already, giving her this larger sense of the world that they inhabit together. This is also key new information for us as viewers. And then we see that he is being punished. Punished.

And dragged. Like shocked and dragged. For interacting. Yes. And for interacting with Eleven, the book that Brenner gives him. There's this constant, Brenner says this thing like, the camera in my lab sees everything, right? So we're constantly getting shots of the camera, of the camera POV, of Brenner sort of casting glasses around and stuff like that. So that's all, it's all in the mix there.

I do want to talk about Mike and Will real quick. So before we leave California in this sort of like spectacular Sean Levy, the director of the episode, flexing his like, I make movies skills by giving us a one or a shootout of the house.

We get what you and I like, which is conversations in rooms. We get a pair of Mike and Will conversations. One is about Eleven and Mike feeling like that the fight that they had was like real or adult, something you can't come back from. And then they have another conversation where they sort of start to heal the rift in their friendship, where Mike tries to sort of explain himself and

And he's talking about how when Will left Hawkins, yeah, Dustin and Lucas are still there and he loves them and he's got the Hellfire Club and all of that's happening. But he says, it's Hawkins. It's not the same without you. I feel like I lost you or something. And he says, we're friends, best friends. And the look on Will's little face, right? When, you know, he says, best friends. This was...

And then Will packs his painting and is packed back. Packed the painting in that moment. Yes. This was so touching. And we got a follow-up moment, too, when they're on the road, because that was when they're packing up at home. On the road later, talking about Elle again and talking more specifically about opening up, because Mike is sharing some regret that he has about not knowing what to say to Elle. And Will replies to him,

giving his friend some counsel, but also, clearly speaking, we think, you know, about himself. Sometimes I think it's just scary to open up like that, to say how you really feel, especially to people you care about the most, because what if they don't like the truth? That was just heartbreaking. That scene that you mentioned, which happens sort of like in the junkyard, right, is...

so interestingly shot. There's, you know, besides some of the flashy stuff, there's some interesting camera placements in this season. And one of those, like, they're shot, I mean, there's a couple different shots on that, but one of them is, like, from far away through some junkie cars, like, far away sitting on the hood of a car. We are, like, the camera's placed behind something or we're looking through something at them. And I think it just speaks to, like,

you know, either the director was like, let's just put the camera here or I choose to read into like, you know, the things that are in the way of wanting to connect with someone. So, yeah. So Will and Mike, as you mentioned, could the thing that's in the way be a massive plume of marijuana smoke? I do want to talk about Argyle. I want to talk about Argyle, but I think that you mentioned that

We don't get a lot of Mike this season. And that's true so far. So far, that's true. And or will for that matter. But I think they are making sure that the little moments that we do have with them are really tender and a lot of the emotional wellspring for the season. And then there's comedy with Will.

with Argyle, big fan of Argyle, big fan of his pineapple and pizza monologue, the whole surfer boy pizza sequence. Him rolling up to, I sent this clip actually to friends of mine, him rolling up to the Byers California house and being like, man, Byers is having a party without me. That's not cool. That's not cool, man. Like I just, you know, classic, like basically Spicoli, but it's just, it's great stuff. I think my two favorite Argyle moments in this stretch were when, um,

As they were heading into Susie's home, Mike, you know, reminded the group that they're very religious. And Argyle says, I'm like, super spiritual, dude. Psychotic. And the absolutely incredible moment before them when the...

They're connecting the dots on the Susie plan. And Will sings, you know, a bar calling back to the Dustin Susie never ending story musical moment from season three. And Argyle says, that scared the shit out of me. The nothing man. That's some proper existential shit right there. Like very meta line for this story. I love that. Argyle is my best friend. All right. So let's let's go to Susie's house. Something a sequence that you love that I'm less sure of.

To me, it kind of feels like an excuse to use Susie again when the plot doesn't really demand it. I'm trying to figure out what the reference they're going for here is. If it's like cheaper by the dozen, which of course, like...

As the Steve Martin movie came out after this, there's obviously an earlier movie from like the 30s, I think, or the 40s maybe. Or Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead or Home Alone. Like, what are we doing with these all these creative kids running amok in this house here? Or does it matter?

It's a great question. I don't know the answer to it, but I can tell you that I hope season five of Stranger Things is directed by the child who was making the movie with his sister, Tabitha, and said, Father, your terror! It looked genuine! Such a delight. I don't know. I think that

In a way, it definitely connects to the question you were posing earlier about kind of all of the flash and the pomp and the circumstance of the spectacle across these episodes. Would it have been better to just have another, especially because of how impactful the moments between Mike and Will are? Would it have been more impactful to have another just quiet conversation? Definitely possible. I think that one of the things I also love about Stranger Things, and this is not like the airplane crash question from earlier, but something like this is just...

The chaos and unpredictability of youth is...

And I like as precocious and inventive and ingenious as these kids are, like the number of times in these three episodes in particular where Dustin has just the question in the exact moment that he needs or just the insight in the exact moment or Nancy goes full Nancy Drew and solves it again. I actually like the reminder that other kids in this world are smart and inventive too and are having their own fun and their own adventure. So I found it like kind of anchoring in a way that I enjoyed. Yeah.

I will say that, like, Dustin has so many answers to so many questions, but I did like the moment where he's like, we really need Will, man. Like, when Susie makes her drawing and he's like, what the hell is this? Basically, he's like, artistically, we need Will. Will is obviously very advanced with the crayons. You know, we had the entire inside of the buyer's home covered in season two with the...

The vine map. I thought that Max's drawing of Vecna's was incredible. She made puzzle pieces of a house. Yeah. It's amazing. Bravo, Nancy, for being able to origami it together. Yeah, lovely. It was a pretty cool moment. It was great.

All right. That brings us to Hawkins. Should we go to Hawkins? Let's, let's do it. All right. First, I want to talk about Jason and the jocks really quickly as like a villainous presence this season. They disappear for like a whole, an episode and a half. There was like halfway through, I think it was episode four. I was like, where are the jocks? What are they doing? I didn't miss them, but I was like, where are they? I thought the sequence with, I think it's Patrick on the basketball team dying over the water. That was stunning and great. Eddie's panic.

Jason in the water, all that sort of stuff was great. I thought, um,

And then we get to this town hall meeting. And this is something, Jomie's not here today. He'll be here for the finale. But Jomie was like texting me. He's like, ah, no way. They're letting this kid run the mic at the town hall. What's going on here? And I was like, why didn't the cops try to cut his mic at all? But I think it does speak to that thing we were talking about earlier, which is in the last episode about satanic panic. Yeah. And also the Salem witch trials and how often it was like,

you know, in, in the crucible, the most famous story about the Salem witch trials, it's, it's one youth accusing another youth, um, and sort of whipping up hysteria in the community. And so I, that really works for me. And the fact that the season starts with Jason running the mic at the pep rally and like quoting scripture then and quoting scripture now, like all of that sort of stuff. I think it, I think they laid proper, proper track for that. What do you think?

Yeah, I think, too, it connects to the larger we talked last week about or last week. God, what is time? Yeah, what is time? Who can say? We talked last pod about how much we loved that cafeteria sequence from Eddie where he's talking about the nerds and the jocks and conformity is the real danger to society. And I thought that there was something really thematically like rich and resonant about the fact that so many members of the town are actually willing to.

to just believe the handsome, popular basketball star. You know, are they going to believe the members of the Hellfire Club? Are they going to believe Eddie? Are they even going to believe their own kids? Probably not, right? But they have... It wasn't like quite the rapturous reception that he receives at the pep rally. Right. But there was a quality I was struck. I was struck by the quality of like preaching. Yeah.

to the congregation. Right. And like, could you have just shifted a few things and seen him in the, the snake handling preacher sequence of justified? It's like not that far away. I was literally just thinking about, yeah. Right. Seen from justified or anytime. Honestly, Boyd Crowder decides to take the mic and try to run the show. That's so funny. Please always justify it to me. Yes, I will share one of our many shared favorites, but I think that, um,

I think now is a really important time to talk about Eddie and to talk about why do you think it is? You know my theory. Why do you think it is that Eddie calls Nancy Wheeler? Everyone else calls her Nance. I just want to clear out here for some isoball for you because you're reading on this. This is my favorite thing in years. I laughed so hard when you put this in the doc.

They call Dustin Henderson. They use less names on some of these buyers, like blah, blah, right? But Nancy's always been called Nance, as far as we know from various people. He calls her Wheeler in a way that feels like kind of familiar. My theory was that given how we're pretty sure Nancy should have graduated like two years ago and we know...

That Eddie is a three-time senior, is he that familiar with her because they've both been repeating senior year for three years? This killed me. Is that Eddie's connection to Nancy? This made me laugh so hard. Whether Nancy and Jonathan have actually always been this age and I just somehow missed it, or they did in fact retcon their ages, no longer matters to me because this is my new official headcanon, what you have just shared here on this podcast. I think the actual answer is probably that he's in a club with...

with her brother, Mike, and probably just has been saying Wheeler a lot, and it feels like normal and natural to him. But I'm going with your explanation, which I love. Also, gotta shout out Eddie. I know he was not thrilled about it. He was scrounging for scraps at Reefer Rick's Abode SpaghettiOs. You a fan? I haven't had a can of SpaghettiOs in eons, but when I was a kid, probably in the top, maybe top five, certainly top 10 list of things that I consumed the most.

I would have to think about me all the time. Fun fact about me, I've never had a Spaghetti-O ever in my life. You're kidding. I've never had a Spaghetti-O. I was like a Top Ramen blue flavor person. I also love ramen. If he had cracked out a pack of Top Ramen, I'd have been like, ah, yes, my youth. Or Cup of Noodles. Love Cup of Noodles too. Why not all of it?

Anything else that we haven't said about Max that we should say? I thought the return of Billy was really well, you know, that's an excellent use.

of a character that never actually really worked for me but like i i thought it was great to bring him back here um dear billy for all the moms super into it um the letter structure of the episode reminded me a lot of one of my favorite lost episodes greatest hits yeah when charlie is sort of knows he's gonna die and is is putting down a list of stuff here i thought this was really great work from from sadie sink um

What do you think? Agreed. I think she's been awesome all season. Even the moment where she's asking earlier in the season if she's going to get one of the t-shirts and making fun of the facial expressions. Really? Mike's like, oh, you're mocking me. Really great. But I thought that the letter was so...

She had to land the performance and they had to land the writing of that because these are characters who actively despise each other. And that was what ultimately was so impactful about it is that she steers into that head on, right? Like the part where she said that, I imagine that we could have become friends. Yeah. Good friends, like real brother and sister. And I know that's stupid. You hated me. I hated you. But I thought that maybe we could try again. That really hit me because...

That idea of being robbed of the ability to try again is a real through line for a lot of these characters. It's one of the things that unites them across. And, you know, we'll talk about Hopper, I think, very, very briefly. But maybe we can just embed it here even. Like, I... No, we'll talk about it later. I don't know if we'll talk about it later. I'll just say quickly, in case we don't, that it won't shock you to hear I was...

In general, I agree with you about all of the monologues and the Russian prison sequences. The specific download of his grief and shame in terms of the guilt that he carries from his past, I was moved by and, again, was just struck by how many of the characters have their version of that. The person that they think they failed, their fear that they won't be able to protect somebody again. And it, like, I don't know if this is, like,

cynical me like we don't know when or if hopper's making it back to hawkins indiana but we have to imagine it's gonna happen before the season's over to be really clear we don't know mallory and i honestly on the microphone with you right now don't know but like my first thought when he was exposing that vulnerability in himself is like does that make him vulnerable to vecta do you know what i mean like could he yeah

And it's going to be my question for Hopper. It's my question for you right now. What song would bring you back from the upside down, Mallory Rubin? Oh, my goodness. So it's not necessarily... It could be favorite song, but it's really more the song you never tire of. The song that you can listen to on loop endlessly and that always...

The thing is, I like a lot of sad music. Me too! A lot of music is sad. Yeah, a lot of the music I like is super, super somber. Like, my favorite song is If You See Her Say Hello, which is, like, one of the saddest Dylan songs. I love that. I'll go with...

I think Ian Dillon's song is a good idea because you should pick a long song. Yeah, that's not one of his super long ones, but I could pick a really long one. I'll go with... You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go with some Billy Joel. Going to have the little pep and the energy that we need on our very quiet soundtrack across our nine hours of TV here. I'm going to go with The Longest Time, one of my favorite songs. I can listen to that 500 times in a row and never get tired of it. Do you know if you ever get stuck...

In like a creepy disassembled mansion in the Upside Down. I know how... I know all the words the longest time I sang it in my acapella group in college. Oh my God! So if you need me to like acapella you out of the Upside Down, I can. I need that...

whether or not I ever get lost in any sort of other dimension. I'm hoping that we can make that happen right here on the pod. I mean, right now, if you're up for it. If not, maybe at a later date. Love that song. I'll consider doing a finale. I have been a fool for lesser things. One of the great lyrics. I love that song. It's a great song. What's your pick? I think mine...

I was trying to think of one that modulates a lot, that feels like a whole ride. So it's harder to get tired of. And it's long, I would say. And I can listen to it endlessly. I think it's Jeff Buckley's Lover You Should Have Come Over. It's a really long song. It's a very sad song. But it almost feels like five songs together, like paced together. Wow, what a great pick. Yeah, all right.

That will, that's what we'll rescue. If you see us in a trance dangling in the air, you know what to put on. Break out your Walkman. Yeah. Get out your Walkman or, you know, bring out the Spotify. You know, yeah. Spotify didn't pay for this, but let's just say. Okay.

Steve and Dustin, my best friends for the rest of my life, my favorite people on the planet. First of all, number one, I love that Steve's stupidity is a good excuse for Dustin to explain what's going on to us, the audience. Love weaponizing Steve's stupidity. A wonderful, wonderful excuse. Dustin was too mean to Steve in these episodes. That's my take. But Steve is mean to Dustin. I love that in their relationship. I think that when Steve said...

When they're trying, one of the many moments where they're trying to suss out, this was like the timeline question. You know, Lucas is asking if the gates didn't exist in the 50s, how did Vector, they're trying to figure out the timeline and he's like, straightforward my ass. You know, honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then it wouldn't hurt you. I loved that. It was so,

I love when he calls, uh, Dustin a butthead and Eddie agrees. You are a butthead. Great. What a fun eighties thing to say. Also shout out to Justin's Sherlock impression. This is my favorite thing about the timeline here. Oh, this was great. Yeah. Uh, Dustin does a Sherlock impression. We should remember that in the eighties, Sherlock wasn't what it is now. IP wise. Uh,

but my parents used to watch Jeremy Brett play Sherlock Holmes on like Masterpiece Theater or something like that. So I'm just imagining that like Dustin and his mom would watch the Jeremy Brett 1980s Sherlock Holmes together and that's where his impression comes from. I

I love this. It's certainly not Robert Downey Jr.'s quote unquote British accent that he's doing. A great quote and a great impression from Dustin that then just chef's kiss perfection Steve tried to recreate for Nancy and just completely botched. Mangled. Wonderful. Steve also, we have to say, we can't end the podcast without saying because I think this was something that we're very fond of Steve. He's a shared fave.

Didn't know what Mordor was. Tough one for our guy, Steve, the hair Harrington. And like this episode ends with a cliffhanger of like, is Steve is getting snacked on in the upside down. Imagine dying before you get to read Lord of the Rings. Devastating. I don't want that for devastating. So let's hope he's okay.

Okay, Robin and Nance, let's just talk about their little adventures really quickly. Oh, my God. Robin, I've never felt so seen by a character on this show, Jo, than when Robin was complaining about having to dress up. The itchy clothes, the tight bra. Fuck it. Give me the pajamas. Me too. I'm with you, Robin. Hard same. Also, for me, it was also when she was talking about how uncoordinated she is when running. She is the best. Robin...

Such a relatable icon. Love her to death. I also love, you know, so they go undercover, they do their little like Silence of the Lambs undercover bit. We get a Robert Englund cameo, of course, horror master. Apparently Robert has been like lobbying the Duffers for years to have a role on the show. And they finally found this for him. But this is, you know, the actor plays Freddy Krueger, plays Victor Creel, tells his whole backstory, which is a very like Amityville horror, American horror story story.

sort of thing. I feel like the dream a little dream, dream a little dream of me music cue is like a Freddy Krueger reference, possibly like he's in your dreams, et cetera. We also, you know, on the chalkboard when they walk past at the at the at Pennhurst, there are song titles scribbled on the that was in the listening room. Moonlight Serenade, Red Sails in the Sunset. I'll see you in my dreams. Wrap your troubles in dreams. Yeah.

So that kind of continues in the little Easter eggs in the chalkboard. Yeah. Music has a calming effect on the broken mind. Didn't you know? Robin's incredible speech that she gives to like con them into this whole thing before she bungles it later. Just incredible stuff. My hawk.

What a winner. She's great. No notes. No notes for Robin. I love that because even though, of course, the whole thing is a farce and they're playing out a con, a lot of what she was saying was anchored in truth, right? Yeah. Great stuff. Did you think that there was a potential clue in that sequence when they were walking outside and Hatch is giving them a tour of the premises and they ask, you know, could the patients escape?

And he says they could, but the vast majority choose to be here. They like it here. Like, is there any sort of connection to that idea with either the upside down more broadly or... And I think we'll probably circle back to this in the next pod because we don't have a lot of time to parse it here. But this third realm that Vecna seems to be inhabiting, Max says that

Like she wasn't supposed to make it to that point that she did. He didn't seem happy that she found him there. And also like we see him plugged in, in the upside down, in the Creel house. We see the Creel house. And then there's this third place. And the, the, the closest thing that I could think of in terms of the associations of elsewhere. I thought the third place was the Creel house. So this is what I'm asking. So like,

Okay, we have the regular world, right? We have Hawkins. And then when they're in, we'll use the Creel house as the anchoring point. The camera flips, we see Vecna plugged in in the attic of the Creel house and the Upside Down. But then where's this, like, psychic dimension, this other third realm where he's interacting with Max? Oh, you mean like the Creel house that's the... Because that's where the Creel house is shattered. Oh, the shattered Creel house. The red, foggy Creel house. The place where he has Fred and Chrissy wrapped in the vines and the spires. And the reason I was...

You know, Dustin, again, kind of coming through with the lines we need. He's saying, well, maybe you found the maybe you penetrated his mind. Is it such a leap? Right. And I'm interested in that because, again, of Eleven, you know, if we think back to season one and Elle's initial encounter with the Demogorgon and the way that she has used this sensory deprivation across the seasons to make some sort of psychic connection.

this third like i'll call it the psychic realm for for shorthand i guess and like what is unfolding there and max even says at one point to fecknell like you're not really here and he says i am and i just thought that was interesting because it felt like a totally distinct location from the upside down yeah that's a good point the regular thought about that that we see the the krill house intact because he's always plugged in in the upside down yeah yeah yeah great

Great point. Did you know we always like to talk about the camera spins? Did you notice when they're in the house and the camera spins from the kids to Vecna in the attic? By the way, you asked me how I was doing on the horror front. The haunted house sequence scared the shit out of me. I loved it. Let me just say that on the record. It's so good. It genuinely did not settle into me. We get then shortly after when Elle, after she smacks Papa in the face with paddles, is running out. We get that same spin of the camera. Yeah.

And it's right on the heels of seeing that with Vecna and the Upside Down. I think that... But you were talking about Robin and Creel. I'm sorry. No, no, no. The Creel information was... The download was a rich text. There was a lot there. There's a lot there. I think the thing that he says that honestly speaks to your point is this idea of all evil must have a home hiding, nesting. You know? Yes. It's so funny that you mentioned, like,

that the Pennhurst inmates don't escape inmates patients is what I should say not inmates don't escape because they like it there I thought you were going to make a connection to L like could she try harder to escape where she is no she there's something comforting about it for her that's interesting

TBD in our finale discussion, but I have a really quick question. We'll come back to the Creel house. Yeah, I have a really quick question. Why is everyone so emotionally invested in Nancy and Steve's love relationship? Like, so invested. Like, it's fine to want your friends to get together, but like, so invested. This is tough for Jonathan. It really is. It's a rough one for Jonathan because he's so out of line. A lot of people are all Jonathan's friends too, in theory, or most of them are. I think that Robin...

really wants Steve to be happy, right? And knows because of all of these exchanges they've had, you know, that car ride in the first episode where Steve's like, do I just want another relationship where it's just like...

great casual sex, you know? And everyone watching is like, sounds amazing. What's the issue, Steve the Hare Harrington? But when Nancy's watching him take his shirt off and she's looking at him and then Robin's looking at Nancy, looking at him, smiling because she sees that the affection is still there. I don't know. It's, I guess, you know, it's one of the original ships of the show. Are you team Nancy Steve? Are you team Nancy Jonathan? I'm team Nancy.

I'm team Steve being happy. Like, Jonathan does... That's the thing. I think everyone just wants Steve to be happy. Not that they don't want Nancy to be happy. Jonathan does very little for me, but Nancy doesn't do, like, a ton more for me. So, like, if it makes Steve happy, sure. Nancy and Steve. But, like, overall, um... I...

And here's the really unfair thing that happened. And again, I like Jonathan Byers actually the most in this season when he gets to be a pothead in California. But like his wig, Charlie Hinton's wig is like doing nothing for him. And when you contrast it with, again, Steve Harrington...

It's a tough look. Speaking of the hair on Steve the Hare Harrington, do you have any thoughts or feelings about the chest hair? I do. That Justin has thoughts and opinions on? I do. Let's just state for the record that canonically Steve has graduated in his college age, even though he's not in college, and that he is played by Joe Carrier, a 30-year-old adult man. Now I will answer the question. Yes.

I loved this sequence so much. The fact that, again, Nancy's looking at him, everyone's checking him out, and then Lucas is remarking through the binoculars, he can't believe how hairy Steve is. And Dustin says, right? I keep telling him he needs to tame that jungle, but he claims the ladies dig it. And then Max asks to look and takes the binoculars and just keeps looking as Lucas and Dustin stand there with their eyes wide. Iconic. This whole stretch with Steve shirtless...

This has, like, the feel... Like, you could have just planted this right into Teen Wolf, right? This has, like, real, you know, 80s teen heartthrob energy. And I loved it. I thought it was great. I was thinking of Johnny Depp in the original Nightmare on Elm Street, like, takes his shirt off for no reason. And it's just, like, laying on his bed with his shirt off, listening to music on his headphones. You'll notice everybody else dives in to the lake fully dressed. Only Steve felt the need to disrobe. This was for...

and for us I guess and for Nancy um Steve shout out to the Duffin Brothers and like I mean we should say that horror usually in the 80s would like give us a lot of shots of of female bodies so this is like a little a nice little subversion from the Duffers alright um should we talk about where you definitely don't want to go shirtless which is

uh, Russia, Siberia, essentially. Um, not much to say that we haven't already said about this. None of this. I, every time we go back to this, I wasn't that interested to be honest with you. Um, except I do want to shout out the Foley sound work on the lighter on the guard that Hopper eventually steals the letter from. There's two moments when he lights a cigarette and both time you just hear like every single, um,

chink and flick of that lighter so that we know it's on him when Hopper steals it from him. Mm-hmm.

There's a monster in a prison. There sure is. Which, of course, we saw in the stinger in season three. So we've been waiting for this to surface here. You know, when they walked past the door earlier and the flicker and they walk past the door and they stop and they think they're going to be taken to their fate and then it's to this room full of items to feast upon. Meat. A lot of meat. A lot of... Just a lot of...

Greasy meat. Greasy meat. I have a real hang up about loud chewing, like a real hang up about loud chewing. And what I would describe, I guess, is like unnecessary mouth noises. Ring of Earth contains adult content. You know, context specific, I guess. And that sequence, that meal was a difficult one for me to watch on that front.

In terms of Hopper overall in this arc, you know, I again, I'm just such an easy mark when it comes to Hopper. I love this character. I love David Harbour so much. And I'm invested in his happiness and him finding the sense of purpose and comfort that he's seeking in his life. And so the the download, that whole speech, which we already talked about a couple of times,

It worked for me, I think, maybe better than it than it did for you. You know, like I was wrong this whole time. I wasn't cursed. I am the curse. That was so sad. And I just wanted to give him a big hug and feed him peanut butter. But I was struck by how it felt wrong that he was saying that to strangers.

You know, because the key moments for a character like Hopper have really come when he's allowing himself to open up to someone like Elle or to someone like Joyce. And I just miss them being together. I really like it's a delight. You know, a man is a delight and it's great to have our guy Enzo in the story. But I badly want Hopper to reunite with the cast. I think when I look back at Stranger Things overall, the.

having, and again, we don't know anything about, you know, volume two yet, who knows, but this much time passing where he is separate from the cast is not something I'm fond of. Um, can I do my impression of, of Enzo throughout this entire, uh, season? Yeah. American. What are you talking about? Crazy American. Like crazy American. What do you say about that American? It's great. Thanks. Call me next time you need a Russian. Okay. Uh,

We're just going to sum up here. Here we go. Wig watch. You've got something to say here about wig watch this week. It's you, not me. No, this is a question that I have for you because I've been waiting the entire time to ask you about this topic.

This Eleven buzz cut situation. Now, again, thematically very powerful. Eleven has found her sense of individuality, her own style. We got the great shopping sequences with Max in season three. What do you like? She's grown out her hair and to have these other people like rob her of of her individuality and her sense of self.

Storytelling wise, great. What is going on with the wig? So she had actually shaved her head in the first season, right? And so maybe it's just that it looks different. I think Millie Bobby Brown didn't want to shave her head. Yeah. And so it's just it would have not struck me at all if that had only been the thing we saw. But because we have the season one actual shaved head as a point of contrast. Is this a good wig? No, it's not.

It's hard if you're doing a buzz cut wig. That's so hard. It's too thick. Yeah, you can see so much skin if you're doing a buzz cut. And this is like, but you can't do that with a wig. Yeah, it's tough. Though I will say the tiny little double that they got for her that they CGI'd her face on does definitely have. That unknown actress did in fact shave her hair. So there you go. I also have questions like, you and I always get,

it's natural to get a little distracted by like meta questions. Like you and I both, when we watched the show sort of push Steve and Nancy back together, like Charlie Heaton, who plays Jonathan and Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy, like they're a couple in real life. They have been for years. And so you and I both were like, did they break up in real life? And is that why Jonathan and Nancy are, have no scenes together?

this season but uh all evidence to the contrary they like walked the red carpet at the premiere together like they seem to still be together i had a similar question about millie bobby brown like in a lot of the promo i mean we know that she's sort of like was a breakout of of the cast and sort of became i think a bit more famous than the rest of them etc at least so far but um

Like, a lot of the promos, she's not involved. And so I had questions about, like, her being sort of isolated from most of the cast this season. Maybe there was, like, a shooting conflict with something she had to do. Who knows what logistics are involved. But I had some questions about that. Interesting. But no answers. Just questions. All right. Easter eggs and majorly radical, totally tubular 80s references. Anything you want to shout out, Mallory Rubin? Has to be War Games. Dialing up...

Great movie. Great movie. The number that they found inside of the pen and getting the modem tone, piecing together. Because, again, Jonathan and Argyle are just like in a completely different experience than Will and Mike. Different movie entirely, maybe. Will and Mike are very much like, war games. And then you get the payoff of something like Jonathan later asking Susie what the internet is. Wonderful stuff. I loved it.

How about for you? No big deal. Also, Susie's saying hold, hold, I think she just says hold your butts, not hold on to your butts, but that's obviously a Jurassic Park reference, which is a little early, but that's okay. Do you think Susie will go on to write the contributed screenplay? Did you not know that she is actually Michael Crichton? Yeah,

I don't know. She's a computer whiz. I have a lifelong phobia. Most people do spiders, but I have it because I saw the film Arachnophobia way too young. So if you've never seen that film, you could just skip it because you'll never want to stick your hand up a lampshade again to turn on the lights. So don't

Don't watch arachnophobia. I actually want to shout out. This is actually a really odd one, but I want to shout out. So in a completely throwaway moment, these older men are on Lover's Lake, fishing on Lover's Lake.

Thank God. Looking at reefer Rick's and they're like, guess Rick, the justice system, blah, blah, blah. But they're listening to the song traveling man by Ricky Nelson and which is a 1950s joint. And so just something I want to shout out is I love the authenticity of that because there's, I mean, they're older. This is the song of perhaps their generation, but also there's this,

30-year cycle of nostalgia and something that I remember growing up in the 80s is that 50s nostalgia was super, super popular at the time. And so we were all like, a lot of us were listening to 50s music in the 80s for no good reason whatsoever except that 30-year nostalgia cycle. So I loved hearing a little Ricky Nelson in this. All right. Secret scroll watch. This is when Mallory and I, no matter what the property we're discussing, no matter if it's connected to the MC or not, pick a

person who might be an undercover alien, an alien disguised as a human. Mallory, who's your pick this week? A man is a secret scroll. I'm now convinced. It's our guy Enzo. I'm going to go with one of...

Susie's siblings and probably Tabitha. Tabitha, Susie's sister, and or the one who's dressed like Ally Sheedy from The Breakfast Club. One of the two. We'll see. Quick reminder. As I said at the top, please do send in questions for the finale episode. Keep an eye out on the socials for that. We want to hear your thoughts on Steve Harrington's chest hair. The chest hair, as Mallory mentioned, of a 30-year-old man. It's okay to talk about. Okay.

Or if you thought the haunted house was too scary or et cetera, et cetera, or what your song would be to pull you out of the upside down. I'm curious about all of those things. I want to hear them. Anything else you want to say before we, we head out? You know, in the inspiring words of our guy, our guy, I'll try before you deny whether it's a pineapple on your pizza, season four of stranger things, whatever the case may be.

I will offer a quick warning to you all. If you saw Hop dig into that Jif peanut butter and you got excited and nostalgic and you're like, maybe I too would like some Jif peanut butter. Jif peanut butter was recently recalled for, I think, Salmonella. So, you know, maybe a different brand is what I would say for your peanut butter preferences.

Just, I'm going to remind you one more time before we go. There's so much content on the Ring of Earths feed. If you just tuned in for Stranger Things coverage and you're like, oh my gosh, there's Obi-Wan, there's Star Wars Celebration, there's Joe and Mal going really long on Monday, like whatever it is, whatever you need, we got you. We're here. We're going to be talking about so much else going forward. The boys, Ms. Marvel, etc. We're doing it all. So, follow us on social. All that good stuff. Try before you deny. You know where to find us.

Thanks as always to Arjun and Rangupal for his production work on this. Jomie's not here, but he's always here in spirit. And because Steve is running around Anaheim, California, thanks of course to the work of Mike Wargon. And we'll be back with the finale of Stranger Things. Thanks so much. Bye! Bye!

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