The Unofficial Stranger Things Encyclopedia E-Book

Tom Crossland

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The unofficial encyclopedia to the amazingly popular Netflix show. Can't remember who is who? Don't know what a mouthbreather is? Need a guide to all the episodes? Want to know more about the comics, games, music, auditions, food, cast and crew, and much more? Confused by the more obscure pop culture easter eggs? The Unofficial Stranger Things Encyclopedia contains all you could ever wish to know about Stranger Things. Get ready for the ultimate Stranger Things crash course.

Leseprobe

Tom Crossland

The Unofficial Stranger Things Encyclopedia

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Copyright

© Copyright 2022 Tom Crossland

All Rights Reserved

Contents

A-E

E-H

H-M

M-S

S-Z

A-E

AARON SIMS CREATIVE

The company who designed the dreaded dimension hopping Demogorgon in season one. They contributed around one hundred special effects shots to the original season and had a team working around the clock to bring the slime drenched monster to life. Aaron Sims said that designing the Demogorgon's nightmarish fleshy flower like mouth in season one was by far the most complicated part when they were creating the monster. Opening and closing this mouth took a large number of intricate motors and was a complex and time consuming mission. Steffen Reichstadt was the creative director of the company that helped produce the Demogorgon. The only brief from the Duffer Brothers was that they wanted the monster to have no discernible face. The creature was not known as the Demogorgon during the development phase. It was simply known as the beast or the monster. It was only named the Demogorgon much later in order to lace the monster into the Dungeons & Dragons themes and mythology of season one.

ACCENTS

Charlie Heaton, who is from Yorkshire in England, had an absolutely torturous time on the show trying to say the name Nancy in an American accent so in the end they simply decided to dub him whenever this name cropped up in relation to his character (and it obviously cropped up a LOT given that his character Jonathan is Nancy's boyfriend in most of the show). Millie Bobby Brown, who is also from England, said that a scene in season one where Eleven reads some of Nancy's diary aloud while snooping around the Wheeler house was cut out because she suddenly sounded all English whenever she said the name Steve. For some reason or other, having to say certain names caused the otherwise perfectly convincing American accents of Charlie Heaton and Millie Bobby Brown to temporarily malfunction. Dacre Montgomery, who is Australian, said he listened to a preposterous amount of American podcasts to make sure his American accent was convincing as Billy Hargrove. Dacre Montgomery, happily, did not trip up over any particular names in the show his character had to say.

ACTION FIGURES

Mike Wheeler has some Star Wars action figures in season one - which definitely DON'T impress Eleven very much. Most boys had Star Wars action figures and models in the early 1980s. In season two we see that Lucas has some He-Man figures - which Erica is playing with. By the power of Grayskull! He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a must watch cartoon for eighties kids. McFarlane Toys have a fairly extensive range of Stranger Things action figures these days. The figures include the Demogorgon. They've even released a Barb Holland action figure. She is, appropriately enough, clutching a little Trapper Keeper school folder.

AGENT ONE

Dr Brenner, the dastardly and unemotional human villain of season one, was known simply as Agent One in the pilot script. It's probably fair to say that the character still needed fleshing out a bit - which thankfully happened when Matthew Modine was cast and given licence to modify Brenner somewhat.

A-HA

Steve Harrington's hair in Stranger Things was inspired by Morten Harket - the lead singer of Norwegian synth popsters A-ha. A-ha are best known for the music video to Take On Me and doing the Bond theme for The Living Daylights. The 1980s was a decade of ludicrously big hair so Steve Harrington must have been very at home in this era. It could be that other gargantuan haired pop stars of the eighties like Duran Duran also inspired the lavish locks of Steve. Steve's luxurious quiff in season one was designed to make him look like a preening self-obsessed idiot. They wanted Steve to look irritating because his character was supposed to annoy you. It was only late in season one that Steve began his incredible and unexpected journey from teen panto villain to arguably the most popular character in the show. After this, his hair become less annoying because we now liked Steve. In fact, that remarkable hair is now a signature trademark of Steve and we wouldn't have it any other way.

AIMEE MULLINS

Pennsylvania born athlete, actress, and fashion model who plays Terry Ives in Stranger Things. Mullins was born with fibular hemimelia (missing fibula bones) and as a result, had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was one year old. Mullins competed in the Paralympics in 1996 in Atlanta. Her events were the long jump and sprints. She has appeared in many movies and television shows. Her more recent appearances include Devs and MacGyver. Aimee Mullins has worked tirelessly to encourage girls who want to take up sport. She was also Chef de Mission for the United States at the London Olympics.

AKIRA

The Duffer Brothers have openly said that Akira was an influence on Stranger Things. Akira is a 1988 Japanese animated film based on a comic. Akira is set in a future Tokyo and features psychics, telepathy, telekinesis, and secret government labs. The Duffer Brothers are big fans of Japanese anime and pop culture and this has weaved its way into Stranger Things. Japanese comics and films often tend to be more violent and blood splattered than Stranger Things but there are certainly elements in the show which have Japanese pop culture DNA. The scene in the season one finale where Eleven gruesomely takes out the government agents in the school corridor is straight out of a violent sci-fi Japanese manga.

ALEC UTGOFF

The actor who portrays the sympathetic and Slurpee loving Soviet scientist Alexei in season three. Utgoff was born in Ukraine and moved to England with his family when he was fifteen. He then appeared in a number of British TV shows and had small parts in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and San Andreas. Utgoff knew going into Stranger Things that Alexei was going to be killed off by the end of the season but didn't mind at all. He was happy to have landed a part in Stranger Things and willing to do whatever the Duffer Brothers wanted. Utgoff says he was very touched and delighted that people seemed to like Alexei.

ALEXEI

Alexei is a Soviet scientist who has been forced to work on the Upside Down drilling machine the Red Army have secretly constructed beneath the Starcourt Mall in Hawkins.

Alexei is kidnapped by Hopper - who enlists Murray Bauman as a translator. Alexei finds himself caught in the middle of a very difficult situation. He is very reluctant to betray his superiors and his country because that could have awful (and deadly) consequences but he is also unhappy to have to work on the Upside Down project. Over time, Alexei becomes friends with Murray and begins to trust these seemingly crazy Americans who have captured him. Alexei likes the United States (especially Burger King and Woody Woodpecker) but, sadly, he isn't destined to experience it for very long.

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

There are a modest trail of Alice in Wonderland Easter eggs in Stranger Things. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865 and written by Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Charles Dodgson. Dodgson was also a scholar, poet, and mathematician. He conjured up the surreal adventures of Alice as a means to entertain the children of some friends during lazy summer days by the river. White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane is heard when Eleven is in the diner in season one. When Hopper visits Terry Ives there is a picture of Alice in Jane's bedroom. The former could be a reference to LSD (which was part of the MKUltra experiments). The latter might simply be that Eleven is rather like Alice - a little girl bemused by a strange world (the strange world in this case is the humdrum reality of ordinary life outside the sinister lab). Another connection is that Millie Bobby Brown played young Alice in ABC's Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (which was a spin-off from Once Upon a Time).

ALIEN FRANCHISE

Stranger Things is positively awash with references to the Alien movie franchise. Alien franchise references are literally all over the place in Stranger Things. The Demogorgon creature in season one of Stranger Things is very HR Giger (the Swiss artist who designed the beast in Alien) and the use of a man in a suit rather than digital effects (though digital effects had to be used at certain points to depict the Demogorgon in season one) to bring the monster to life was largely inspired by Alien.

In the 1979 Alien movie, 7'2 Nigerian visual artist Bolaji Badejo was hired to wear the alien suit and play the fearsome monster from space. Badejo was a student in London at the time and spotted by agent Peter Archer in a pub. Archer knew that Alien required a very tall and thin actor to wear the xenomorph suit. The alien suits worn by Badejo in the film cost $250,000 to produce. Badejo worked on the film for four months and found it a gruelling experience. The Nostromo set was cramped for someone of his height and it was unbearably hot inside the suit. Mark Steger would have an equally challenging and exhausting experience inside the Demogorgon suit on season one of Stranger Things.

Hopper and Joyce's expedition to the Upside Down in the season one finale deliberately evokes the crew of the Nostromo exploring the bleak storm battered LV-426 in the original Alien film. In season two of Stranger Things, there are explicit references in The Spy to James Cameron's Aliens when the DemoDogs overwhelm the soldiers in the tunnels - a similar fate befalling the Colonial Marines in Aliens when they explore the xenomorph tunnels of the colony they have been sent to investigate. There are point of view shots of the soldier's helmet cams in both Aliens and The Spy and a soldier in Stranger Things even utters the words "Stay frosty..." - just as Michael Biehn's Hicks does in Aliens.

The casting of Paul Reiser as Dr Owens in Stranger Things 2 obviously trades on his part in Aliens, where Reiser played the corporate villain Carter Burke. Burke was ambiguous at first - just like Owens in Stranger Things. The shot early in episode one of Stranger Things where the scientist in the elevator looks up in terror at something above him and is then pulled up by this unseen horror is a direct homage to a similar sequence in David Fincher's Alien 3. The Duffer Brothers are big fans of David Fincher and designed this scene as a tribute to the director. The scene in season two where Bob is attacked by DemoDogs and Hopper drags Joyce away seems to be inspired by the moment in Aliens where Vasquez is reluctantly dragged away as her friend Drake is about to be killed.

Eleven's dramatic return at the end of the penultimate episode of season two owes something to the scene in Alien: Resurrection where Winona Ryder's android character Call returns to save her friends after the aquatic chase. A similarity in the scenes too is that Eleven and Call are assumed to be dead. It is only Hopper who knows that Eleven is alive. Another Alien 3 reference in Stranger Things comes in season three when the Flayer looms close enough to breathe on Nancy. This happened to Ripley in Alien 3 with the xenomorph.

Eleven's hair in season one of Stranger Things could be an unconscious Alien 3 Easter egg. Sigourney Weaver shaved her hair for the film because her character Ripley lands on a prison planet that has a big problem with lice. Fans have pointed out that Eleven's hair in Stranger Things 2 is a lot like Sigourney Weaver's hairstyle in Aliens. It's difficult to say if this was intentional though because that was apparently Millie Bobby Brown's natural hair. Her hair, if left to its own devices, is curly in real life.

ALL AGES

Stranger Things is not aimed at any specific age group and is designed to be enjoyed by everyone. This could well be the most salient factor in the incredible success of the show. Stranger Things is popular with both males and females and its fans range from children to those who are old enough to remember the 1980s for real. Stranger Things is designed to be like a PG-13 horror film. A classic example of a PG-13 style horror film would be 1982's Poltergeist.

ALLEY BRAWL

The alley fight between Jonathan and Steve in season one is a nod to the memorably elongated alley fisticuffs between Roddy Piper and David Keith in John Carpenter's 1988 film They Live. Charlie Heaton accidentally hit Joe Keery a few times for real shooting this scene. The alley fight is one of the most satisfying scenes in season one because we have been impatiently waiting for Jonathan Byers to stand up for himself ever since Steve smashed his beloved camera.

ALL MY CHILDREN

American soap opera that began in 1970. Eleven watches this show in season two to improve her vocabulary. When Eleven says 'People are going to be aghast' she is impersonating

Susan Lucci as Erica Kane. The choice of Susan Lucci is not random but a reference to Invitation to Hell. Invitation to Hell is a television movie horror thriller directed by horror maestro Wes Craven. Susan Lucci plays a vampish character named Jessica Jones in the movie and the story concerns a strange other dimension hidden within a seemingly ordinary country club.

Invitation to Hell also features Barret Oliver - star of The NeverEnding Story. There is a strange (possibly unwitting?) symmetry to the references in Stranger Things 2 because we later see a lab employee watching the kids sitcom Punky Brewster. Invitation to Hell also features Soleil Moon Frye - who played Punky Brewster. Invitation to Hell is very much Wes Craven in restrained small screen mode (if you didn't know who had directed this film you wouldn't suspect it WAS Wes Craven) but you do get someone melted at the start and some dreamlike madness at the end. Invitation to Hell is a trifle on the daft side in the end but it is an enjoyable TV thriller.

ALTERED STATES

Altered States is a 1980 science fiction film directed by Ken Russell and based on the novel of the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. The film stars William Hurt as a psychopathologist who undertakes a number of (increasingly alarming) sensory deprivation experiments with the use of psychoactive drugs and himself as the test subject. This film is enjoyably trippy and outlandish at times - as one might expect of something directed by Ken Russell.

Altered States was almost certainly an influence on Stranger Things - the scene in particular where Hurt is in a sensory deprivation water tank wearing a diving helmet (just as Eleven does in season one of Stranger Things). You might argue that Altered States is an influence on Stranger Things in a very roundabout sort of way in that it influenced sensory deprivation scenes in the TV show Fringe and those scenes - in turn - were an influence on Stranger Things. When it comes to sensory deprivation capers in mainstream (if you can call Altered States mainstream) film and TV then you'd have to say that Altered States was very influential in its own cultish and divertingly eccentric sort of way.

ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS

The concept of parallel universes has long been a staple of science fiction. Shows like Star Trek and Red Dwarf have had great fun with this concept. Some scientists think that parallel universes could actually exist but testing or proving this theory is complex to say the least. In June, 2019, it was reported that at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee, physicist Leah Broussard was trying to open a portal to a parallel universe. The scientists planned to send a beam of subatomic particles down a 50-foot tunnel, past a powerful magnet and into an impenetrable wall.

The concept of the multiverse is that there are many different versions of our own reality. We might even have doppelgängers of ourselves who had a different path of destiny. Stranger Things is less interested in the Sliders style of alternate universe fiction and more into the Lovecraftian style of science fiction and horror. Stranger Things concerns an alternate dimension but it is something we can never really understand and definitely not a place you would want to visit.

ALPHABET

A desperate Joyce Byers paints an alphabet on the wall in season one and drapes Christmas lights everywhere in an attempt to contact Will through a sort of improvised Ouija board. Winona Ryder did the painting scene in one take - which must have saved some time and impressed the crew.

AMY L. FORSYTHE

Stranger Things makeup artist. Her eclectic range of duties on Stranger Things have included everything from making edible fertiliser for Mrs Driscoll to eat in Stranger Things 3 to coming up with Eleven's makeup for the Snow Ball dance in season two. Amy Forsythe, after her time on Stranger Things, has seen more fake blood than you've had hot dinners.

AMYGDALA

One of the influences on the Flayer monster in season two was the Amygdala from the Bloodborne video game. Amygdala are monstrous entities with spider-like bodies.

AMY PARRIS

Costume designer on the show for season two. Amy Parris scoured Etsy for some of the vintage clothes you see in Stranger Things. She also trawled through clothes shops and markets in Atlanta. Her duties included designing Eleven's clothes at Hopper's cabin and the makeover the character has in The Lost Sister. Amy Parris also naturally had to help come up with the Ghostbusters costumes the boys wear in season two.

AMY SEIMETZ

Tampa raised actress who played Becky Ives in Stranger Things. She has appeared in AMC's The Killing, HBO's Family Tree and Shane Carruth's Upstream Color. Along with Winona Ryder (Alien: Resurrection) and Paul Reiser (Aliens), Seimetz is one of three Stranger Things cast members to have been in the Alien franchise. Seimetz was in Alien: Covenant. Amy Seimetz said she based the look and body language of Becky Ives on her grandmother.

ANACHRONISMS

Despite the slavish attention to (period) detail on the show, there are a number of anachronisms in Stranger Things. To give but a few examples, in season one Dustin has a Pez dispenser from 1999 and when Eleven steals waffles from the store you can see brands of modern chewing gum at the cash registers. In season two, Mr Clarke has a periodic table on his classroom wall containing elements yet to be discovered in 1984. These anachronisms go in both directions when it comes to misplaced eras. The tube of Pringles that Eleven eats in season one are in a container from the late 1960s.

The more observant (pedantic might be a better word!) viewer will spy any number of these anachronisms. The ones that pertain to music are not mistakes at all and very deliberate. In the show you will occasionally hear a song (like The Bangles Hazy Shade of Winter or There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths) that hadn't even come out at the time the show (or a specific episode to be more precise) takes place. The people who make the show are obviously aware of this. An anachronistic song can only be a blunder if it is source music (in that it comes from a radio or television belonging to a character) within the show.

ANNA JACOBI

A girl that Steve asks out while working at Scoops Ahoy in the mall. Steve's romantic failures (which he blames on the silly sailor suit he has to wear) at the mall seem to greatly amuse Robin - his co-worker. Anna is played by Erika Coleman.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

Hopper reads Anne of Green Gables to Eleven in the cabin in season two. We saw him read this book to his daughter in season one flashbacks. Anne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (published as L. M. Montgomery). The book is about an eleven year-old orphan named Anne Shirley.

ANNISTON AND TINSLEY PRICE

The twins who alternate as Holly Wheeler in Stranger Things. They were born in 2012 and also played baby Judith in The Walking Dead. The Duffers said that the twins were great scene stealers on season one in particular and their baffled reactions were used to good comic effect. The twins have been in all three seasons of the show and were six years old in Stranger Things 3. A dinner scene in season one was shot from the bemused perspective of Holly Wheeler because they loved the deadpan reactions they were getting.

ANTHOLOGY

The Duffer Brothers had a vague plan initially that Stranger Things (which at the time would have still been called Montauk) could be an anthology show in which each new season would have completely different characters. This idea didn't last very long and they quickly decided that an anthology format wouldn't be the best approach. This sort of format is fairly common today on television with things like Fargo and American Horror Story.

While there doubtless will be Stranger Things stories in the future with new characters at some point (namely when the base show has actually finished) the mere notion that the Duffers might have given David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matterazzo and all the rest of them the elbow after one season and brought in new actors and fresh characters seems retrospectively insane. It's a good thing then that this idea was never seriously entertained. Can you imagine if they'd made a Stranger Things 2 with completely new characters? Fans would not have been happy.

ATLANTA

Atlanta, Georgia, was chosen as the shooting location for Stranger Things. Atlanta's Screen Gems Studios, the production base for Stranger Things, is a 10-stage, 33-acre Atlanta studio complex. The tax rates were a factor but the eclectic geographical nature of the area was perfect for the production requirements. The only problem they encountered with Atlanta as a production base was shooting the Christmas scenes near the end of season one where it is supposed to be cold and frosty. Ice had to be imported in to make these scenes more authentic. Georgia had the generic any town USA atmosphere the Duffers wanted for the show and there were also large national parks.

ANDREY IVCHENKO

Andrey Ivchenko plays the Red Army enforcer Grigori in Stranger Things 3. Ivchenko was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. In real life, he really did once serve in the Red Army for a couple of years. Ivchenko's credits include Falling Skies, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and the TV show The Transporter. Ivchenko was told that the T-100 was the inspiration for his character but he tried not to make Grigori too robotic or emotionless. Andrey Ivchenko was cast as Grigori because of his uncanny resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ivchenko said that when he auditioned to play Grigori he had no idea that he was auditioning for Stranger Things 3. Jake Busey said the same thing. Auditions for big popular TV shows are clearly, for reasons of plot and production secrecy, super cryptic.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

A classic and beloved 1985 time travel comedy adventure film from the Steven Spielberg factory. Back to the Future was the biggest grossing film of 1985 in the United States. This is the film that the Scoop Troop (Steve, Robin, Dustin, Erica) view in season three when they are hiding from the Russian baddies at the mall. Steve and Robin are still doolally from the Russian truth serum so the finer details of Back to the Future's twisty plot are rather lost on them. The score from Back to the Future is enjoyably woven into a few scenes in season three.

Steve Harrington's references to Alex P. Keaton pertain to the character played by Michael J. Fox in the sitcom Family Ties. This is the role that Michael J. Fox was most famous for up until the release of Back to the Future. Back to the Future Easter eggs in Stranger Things predate season three. Max Mayfield in Stranger Things 2 has the same skateboard (Madrid) as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. In that same season, Bob Newby owns a JVC GR-C1 camcorder - the same camcorder that Doc Brown and Marty use in Back to the Future.

BARBARA HOLLAND

The red-haired Barbara 'Barb' Holland is Nancy Wheeler's best friend at the beginning of Stranger Things. Nancy is becoming slowly absorbed into the world of Steve Harrington and his shallow friends Tommy and Carol and Barb is none too happy about this. Barb, who wears huge glasses and frumpy clothes, is an outsider in this little clique and isn't made to feel tremendously welcome when she reluctantly goes to a gathering at Steve's house with Nancy. Barb, very much the spare wheel, is left to her own devices at the party and then attacked by the Demogorgon when she sits out on the pool diving board alone. We later see that Barb perished in the Upside Down. Will Byers somehow managed to survive there but Barb wasn't so lucky.

Nancy, who was upstairs with Steve at this time, is profoundly affected by the strange disappearance of Barb. In season two of Stranger Things, the late Barb drives a major plot arc when Nancy and Jonathan hatch a scheme to expose the lab (who opened the rift to the Upside Down in the first place and then tried to cover it all up) and thus finally get some closure for Barb's parents (who naturally have no idea what really happened to their daughter).

Despite her minimal screen time and the fact that she only appeared in a few episodes at the start of season one, Barb was a character who not only activated future plots in the show but also made quite an impact with fans. Barb was not a cool kid but she seemed happy in her own skin. She wasn't afraid to be different. We see that Barb was much loved by her parents because in season two they are still searching for her and have photographs of Barb all around the house.

Despite her early demise and relative lack of screen time, the character of Barb became very popular with fans of the show. Many related to the character of Barb when they thought of their own teenage years. Shannon Purser said she related to the character of Barb too and enjoyed playing this role. The Duffer Brothers said there was much of their backgrounds and personality invested in Barb because they were outsiders at high school themselves and avoided the cliques and popularity contests of teen life.

BARB'S DEATH SCENE

Shannon Purser said that she enjoyed shooting Barb's shocking demise in the show at the hands of the deadly Upside Down Demogorgon. For the death scene, the swimming pool set had to be covered in vines and slime and off camera crew members pulled at Shannon Purser's ankles to convey the furious struggle between Barb and the monster. The scene much later in season one where we see Barb's dead body in the Upside Down was initially story boarded to be much more grisly. Barb's ribs were going to be exposed - as if she had been shredded by the creature. In the end they decided to tone this down and make it less gruesome.

BASEBALL BAT

Steve Harrington's choice of weapon. His bat in the show is made of resin so that it can't actually hurt anyone. Steve has had many finest hours in the show but his greatest baseball bat moment came when he deployed his trusty bat to fight the Demogorgon with Jonathan and Nancy near the end of season one. We feared that Steve was going to get in his car and drive away (which would have been very sensible but unavoidably cowardly all the same) but - no - he was simply going out for his bat so that he could go back in and help Jonathan and Nancy. This was the birth of the new (and finally likeable) Steve Harrington.

BASKETBALL

The basketball scene with Steve and Billy in Stranger Things 2 is based on a scene in Michael J Fox's 1987 comedy film Teen Wolf. Steve's basketball scenes also use the song Push IT to the Limit - a song from the soundtrack of Al Pacino's Scarface.

THE BATHTUB

Chapter seven of season one. The Bathtub was directed by the Duffer Brothers - who also wrote the screenplay with Paul Dichter (who is credited with the story). The Duffers and Millie Bobby Brown both said they think this is the best episode of season one - mainly because all the different groups of characters on their individual and respective investigations finally meet up and start to work together. This episode begins with the kids - specifically Eleven - in big trouble. Agents from the lab are on the way. Lucas manages to get a warning to them. Eleven has only just got back to the Wheeler house but now it's time to run again.

The Bathtub then has a great stunt sequence that provides another iconic Eleven moment when the children flee on their bikes and are chased by the lab's white Chevy vans. Eleven uses her powers to make one of the vans flip over them and block the path ahead. It's great stuff when the van somersaults over their heads in slow motion after Eleven fixes it with her meanest gaze of super concentration. It is probably the biggest stunt sequence in season one. The child actors are excellent again as they bicker in the junkyard in an abandoned bus. Dustin paces up and down, convinced that they have been double crossed. Lando indeed.

The diminutive fugitives seem to be at a dead end - especially when government agents locate their position and begin to circle the bus. Help has arrived though. Hopper is on the scene and dispatches the agents - knocking them out as they try to enter the bus. It's nice to see that in this episode Eleven and Lucas finally seem to be friends at last. Lucas has been the most vocal in his suspicions of Eleven but he finally apologises in this episode. The gang are finally all together again and now united.

One of the best moments in this episode comes when Mike and Nancy are reunited. Nancy now knows of Eleven (Eleven is even wearing one of Nancy's dresses that the boys gave her when they smuggled her into school to use the ham radio) and a wonderful exchange between brother and sister takes place. The story here finally brings all of the characters together as their separate investigations finally coalesce. They are all now aware that something weird is going on in Hawkins. Joyce is no longer alone in her (previously eccentric) assertion that Will was still alive in some shadow world.

They must contact Will but Eleven is exhausted after her efforts in the bike chase. She needs a peaceful place where she can focus her energies with no distraction. The solution is obvious. A sensory deprivation tank. Dustin telephones Mr Clark in a classic scene to get the nuts and bolts of what is required. Mr Clarke is home watching a film with a date. He tells Dustin they can talk about this at school on Monday but Dustin is so insistent that the curiosity door should always be open when it comes to science that Mr Clarke finally relents and offers some information. This scene is not only funny but also stresses character traits. We see how persuasive Dustin can be and also how kind and patient Mr Clarke is.

So, with the help of a kiddie pool and a gargantuan amount of salt, Eleven floats in the water and contacts Will in the Upside Down. The exhausted and ailing Will is near the end of his endurance and holed up in the shadow version of his woodland clubhouse Castle Byers. There are many touching moments in these scenes. Joyce becomes the mother that Eleven never had as she calms her in the pool and Eleven is comforting to Will in the Upside Down when she tells him that help is one the way. Eleven becomes a mythic character in the way that she can straddle these two worlds with her powers.

Sadly though, the actual rescue of Will will require someone to physically enter the Upside Down and retrieve him. Eleven's trip to the Upside Down does confirm and answer one lingering question when she encounters a very dead Barb with a slug in her mouth. Barb, as we have noted, obviously didn't fare as well as Will when it came to hiding and surviving in the Upside Down. At the conclusion of this episode, Hopper and Joyce break into the Hawkins Lab to search for a way to find Will but are quickly apprehended. If they are to save Will they might have to strike a bargain. Jonathan and Nancy meanwhile, resolve to go and confront the monster.

There's an awful lot to love in The Bathtub despite it being a quieter sort of episode (save for the big chase sequence at the start). It's great to see Mike and Lucas shake hands and make up at the beginning after their argument and it's also great to see Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown get some scenes together. It is naturally very enjoyable also to see all of these characters meet up and interact with one another. This penultimate episode of season one is a very effective table setter for the finale to come.

THE BATTLE OF STARCOURT

Chapter eight of season three and the finale. The Battle of Starcourt was written and directed by the Duffer Brothers. David Harbour has said that he thinks this is the best episode of Stranger Things so far. The episode begins with Eleven using her powers to remove the creature that was inside her leg. It scuttles away - whereupon it is crushed under the boot of the arriving Hopper. Our heroes come up with a plan. Hopper will infiltrate the Soviet base with Joyce and Murray to disable the machine. Dustin and Erica will guide them on walkie-talkies using Dustin's radio tower Cerebro.

Hopper, Murray, and Joyce manage to get inside the base and steal uniforms to blend in. Joyce suggests they should go out on a date if they make it out of the base alive - a reversal of her earlier reluctance. Hopper finds that the keys to the machine are in a vault that can only be unlocked with Planck's constant. However, even Dustin can't remember the numbers. They are saved though by Suzie - who finally makes contact. She is real after all. Suzie reveals the numbers that Hopper needs - though not before she makes Dustin sing the theme song to The Neverending Story with her.

The gang at the mall have further trouble when the Flayer monster crashes through the roof. Meanwhile, Steve is alarmed that he can't seem to contact the mall group on the walkie-talkie so he decides to go and see if they are safe. Steve smashes into Billy's car when he tries to ram Nancy and the others. Now that he has the keys to the machine drilling into the Upside Down, Hopper heads to the control room to shut it down. Billy enters the mall and knocks out Max and Mike. He takes the powerless Eleven in order to give her to the returning Mind Flayer.

The kids attempt to distract the Flayer with fireworks and Eleven manages to reach inside of Billy's memories and make contact with his real personality by reminding him of his mother. Billy sacrifices himself to the Flayer to save Eleven and the others (notably his step-sister Max) as, down in the underground base, Hopper is attacked by Grigori. Hopper indicates to Joyce that she should turn the keys and so apparently sacrifices himself in the explosion to close off the Upside Down.

Three months later we see a news report about Hawkins - which is now becoming infamous as some sort of cursed town where crazy things happen. You'd probably be safer spending Halloween in Haddonfield than spending any time in Hawkins. Mayor Kline is taken away in handcuffs and Steve and Robin manage to get a new job at Keith's video store. The Byers family are preparing to leave Hawkins. Now that Hopper is (apparently) dead, Eleven is going with them. There is a tearful farewell.