Mike: Alright that's enough. She's just scared, and cold.
In passing, we need to note that Eleven has blood on her yellow t-shirt (the one Benny gave her). Is this from killing the two HNL thugs that tried to stop her at the diner?
El takes a minute to feel the softness of the clothes Mike hands her. It's as if she's not used to wearing them and spends most of her time in the hospital gown. When the boys insist on privacy, this seems like an unfamiliar concept. The writers are trying to offer an explanation for why Eleven is the way she is; she has been de-humanized, lacking social awareness. This is the beginning of an explanation for why she doesn't talk much.
Throughout Eleven's story, we see parallels between the way she has been treated in the laboratory and the way that normal, loving people treat her. In many ways, the words and situations are the same - the words that Dr Brenner says to her are the same as the words that Joyce says to her, for example. She now mistrusts anyone who, like Papa, claims to be trying to help her. It puzzles her to hear genuine caring and affection from people.
More than anything, she hates to be alone. She hates to be shut up in small rooms. The first word she says is on the occasion of Mike closing the bathroom door after her.
Lucas thinks she has escaped from Pennhurst, "the nuthouse in Curlee County". (Pennhurst was a real state institution for the mentally disabled in Pennsylvania, with an infamous past). Mike sees the tattoo 011 - and Eleven reveals the source of her name. I like the ominous nature of the leading zero. If the lab is numbering its test subjects, it obviously left open the possibility of having over a hundred of them. And again to state the obvious, if El is number eleven, then it is highly likely that there were at least 10 other test subjects. And, there is no reason to limit them to 11. Nothing suggests that El was the last of them.
This ties into a larger Myth: El is not the only child in the program. There are others. As we look around the list of people mentioned in the series, we can begin to identify some of them. Later, we will meet Terry Ives from a nearby town who claims that her child was stolen by the government and her death was faked. Terry sets up a pattern: Children in this area of Indiana, highly sensitive or intelligent, apparently died at a young age, all in the same age cohort (currently eleven years old). Hopper's daughter Sara fits this profile perfectly. So does Will.
Mike: "'Night, El
Eleven: "Night, Mike" One of her first sentences.
Mike goes upstairs and leaves Eleven in the basement all alone. The thunderstorm continues outside and El is still scared.
The next morning at the Byers' house: some unnamed service company in a bucket truck is working on the wires on a pole outside. Based on what we know about the listening room at Hawkins Lab, its a fairly easy stretch to say that the Lab is now wiretapping the Byers' house.
Jonathan and Joyce are talking about printing Missing posters when Hopper knocks on the door. Hopper reveals that the search parties have been out all night. Hopper is clearly taking the search very seriously.
Hopper: Flo says you got a phone call.
This immediately ties in with the service truck outside - the mention of a phone call is not a coincidence.
Hopper examining the burned handset: The storm barbecued this pretty good.
Joyce: The storm?!
Hopper: Yea, what else?
Joyce: You're saying that's not weird?
Hopper: No, it's weird.
Hopper suggests it might be a prank call, but Joyce is completely convinced that it was Will. (and she is, of course, correct.) So how was Will communicating through the phone, and why did it burn out? Later, we will see El use a radio to search the Upside Down. Maybe Will can cross the barrier going the other way using a telephone.
Joyce: You think I don't know my own son's breathing? Wouldn't you know your own daughters?
While Joyce is justifiably defensive here, I think the writers are consciously planting in our minds the seeds of the idea that Sara might still be alive. They call to mind the image of Hopper being in the same position as Joyce, searching, listening to breathing on a phone line.
Hopper is clearly moved, but also becomes angry himself. He strides out of the house saying that he's going to have Lonnie (Joyce's ex-husband) checked out. This strikes me as a bit of Scullying. He's trying to eliminate every possible alternative.
Jonathan follows Hopper out to his truck and offers to go to Lonnie's house on the chance that Will might hide from the police. And Hopper seems to struggle to retain his composure, even emphatically popping Jonathan in the shoulder with his fist. Joyce's words seem to have affected him deeply, far more than would be expected from simply bringing up the memory of a lost child. This situation with the parent thinking that she is hearing from a lost child seems to resonate deeply with Hopper. The tires spin in the gravel as the Chief pulls away.
Mike explains to Eleven his plan for having her sneak out the back door and come around to the front.
Mike: And my mom, she'll know who to call.
Eleven: No.
I think it's the mention of the phone call that is the icing on the cake. Of course this is what happened to Benny. anybody that Mrs Wheeler might call will undoubtedly also bring the goons from HNL. And when they come, Mike's whole family will end up like Benny. El has seen what happens first-hand.
Mike: you're in trouble, aren't you?
El nods.
Mike: Who are you in trouble with?
Eleven: Bad.
...
Mike: they want to hurt you? the bad people?
Eleven makes a gun out of her hand and points it first at her own head, and then at Mike.
Eleven: Understand?
The scene shifts to Hawkins National Laboratory. where the listening room has overheard Joyce's call to the police operator. Dr. Brennan is made aware of the breathing, and also something that sounded like an animal. Brennan recognizes it as a reference to the monster.
The volunteers continue to search in the woods
Hopper: Hey! Anything?
Callahan: You?
Hopper: No, Nothing but a dead phone
Callahan: Joyce?
Hopper: She's about one step from falling off the edge.
Powell: She's been a few steps for a while, now, hasn't she?
While officer Powell is a bit insensitive, we're establishing a key point about Joyce's backstory. This agitation about Will's disappearance isn't something that just started. Her emotional instability has been part of her history for several years..
At high school, Steve invites Nancy over to his house because his parents are away. She is intrigued, but is distracted by Jonathan, putting up Missing posters for Will. It is obvious that they are currently on different social scales, but she reaches out to him, even as her social friends are laughing at and pitying him. This is Nancy's role as a person that moves between worlds
In middle school, the other boys notice that Mike is late. He isn't just late, he has skipped school entirely and is back home with El, showing her around the house. She looks at pictures of the family and tries out the recliner, developing trust.
Jonathan is driving into the City to search at Lonnie's house, even though Hopper tells him not to and the radio reminds him of an incident with Will. We take from Joyce's off-screen conversation that Lonnie was supposed to come take Will to a baseball game, and has failed to turn up. Jonathan is consoling Will, who is a little disappointed.
Jonathan: Do you even like baseball?
Will No, but... I don't know... It's fun to go with him sometimes.
Jonathan: Come on. Has he ever done anything with you that you actually like? You know, like the arcade or something?
Will: I don't know.
Jonathan: No, all right? He hasn't. He's trying to force you to like normal things. And you shouldn't like things because people tell you you're supposed to. Especially not him.
That line at the end is particularly telling, only because it emphasizes once again that Will isn't "normal." He doesn't like normal things. He has a perception that is different from most people.
Joyce shows up at the store where she works to get a phone ans ask for an advance, which she gets. It's nice to see that the world is not entirely against her, and that the people of the town still support her. the other tidbit we learn is that she's been working at the store for 10 years. Probably started a year after Will was born. I also wonder if that's when Lonnie left her, forcing her to get a job, but that's speculation.Back at the Byers' house, while Joyce is in town buying a phone, the repairman is back at the front door. He radios the all -clear to the waiting van and men in white hazmat suits emerge, including Dr Brennan. They scan the grounds with odd-looking devices, and Brennan is immediately drawn to the shed in the back yard. Like Hopper before him, he is drawn to that corner, only this time there appears to be some oozing slime coming through the siding. " Extraordinary," Brennan comments.
So this is what Hopper knew was there last episode, but which we definitely could not see. Brennan had his beeping device to draw him to that spot, but how did Hopper know anything was there? Wild speculation says that Hopper is not unfamiliar with what's going on here.Back at the Wheeler house, Mike is still entertaining El. She spots a picture of the four boys at a science fair, and her eyes widen at the sight of Will. She points him out to Mike in the picture.
Mike: You know Will? Did you see him, last night, on the road?
She doesn't answer at that moment, but it brings us back to one of our original questions: What happened the night that Will disappeared? What was Eleven's role in releasing the monster, in the abduction of Will, in her own escape? How does El recognize Will's picture?.
At that moment, Mike's mother returns home. In a panic, Mike puts El in a closet and she is very reluctant to go. Mike tells her about promises. Despite obvious concerns, El enters the closet but we can see her anxiety and it causes her to flash back to the laboratory where hse is being carried by two thuggish orderlies down a long hallway as Dr. Brennen looks on. She pleads with him, calling him Papa, but he says nothing and she is thrown into the room with careless brutality. This is obviously a horrifying and traumatic experience for her. Back in the Wheeler's closet, El is sobbing quietly at the memory.
Downstairs, Mike is explaining to his mother about why he staiyed home from school. Contrary to his own expectations, Karen Wheeler is surprisingly understanding.
Mrs. Wheeler: Michael
Mike: Yeah?
Mrs. Wheeler: I'm not mad at you.
Mike: No?
Mrs Wheeler: No, of course not. All this that's been going on with Will, I can't imagine what it's been like for you.
I just.... I want you to feel like you can talk to me. I never want you to feel like you ever have to hide anything from me. I'm here for you, Okay?
Now there is no particular reason why Karen is being anything other than a good mother, but I'm hearing something else in this scene. I think that Karen is concerned that her children might begin to exhibit some of the unusual signs that other children, such as Will and Sara have done. I think she is being hyper vigilant in looking for early symptoms. It is beginning to appear, in my mind, that Karen knows something more about the unusual things that are happening and she is trying to protect her family.
Upstairs in the closet, El is revealed to be silently weeping, terrified.
Mike: Is everything OK?
Eleven nods
Mike: Are you sure?
Eleven: Promise.
Joyce Byers waits with her new phone on her lap
Hopper and Caldwell are out by the quarry. Volunteers are crawling everywhere still searching for Will. The two talk briefly about how hitting the water from this height would break every bone in your body when Flo calls on the radio and tells them about Benny. Benny's death has been arranged to look like a suicide and
Callahan: Missing kid. Suicide. You must feel like a big city cop again, huh, Chief?
Hopper: Well, I mostly dealt with strangers, back then. Benny was my friend.
This is the first indication of what Hopper did, prior to 4 years ago. Here, Callahan says that he worked as a "big city cop." So prior to 4 years ago, he was a policeman in Indianapolis (?).
Jonathan reaches his father's house in Indianapolis. and we meet Lonnie and Cynthia (his girlfriend).
Dustin and Lucas have been released from school and ride over to Mike's house. The two are not pleased to find Eleven still there. But Mike comes up with an interesting theory that doesn't quite mesh with what we think we saw happen the evening Will disappeared.
Mike She knows about Will. She pointed at him, at his picture. She knew he was missing, I could tell.
Lucas: You could tell?
Mike: Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood, the same place where Will disappeared?
Dustin: That is weird.
Mike: And she said bad people are after her. I think maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will. I think she knows what happened to him.
So if any of this is true, this is a huge bombshell and turns on its head anything that we think we know about last night. Call it the Mike Theory
OK, the Presented Theory (the one that the first episode seemed to show us) was that the monster got loose - broke through the barrier and escaped from HNL. Out on the road, by chance, Will happened to be riding home and ran into the monster. The Monster tracked Will to his house and stole him from the shed in the back.
Mike doesn't know anything about the monster at this point. His theory is that the "bad people" - people from HNL who have guns like the hand sign that El made - are the ones who took Will. Now initially our reaction is to say that Mike just doesn't have all the facts, but we've heard the truth from unreliable narrators before (Joyce, for example). We also instinctively distrust coincidences. Mike introduces the idea that it wasn't merely a chance meeting with the monster but that the Lab people had some hand in Will's disappearance.
The final question here is: how does Eleven know about Will? The story hasn't provided us with even a possible explanation, at this point. She was escaping from the lab that night as well, as evidenced by the torn hospital gown. Did she see Will in the woods? in the Upside Down? Earlier at the Lab? There doesn't seem to be any plausible explanation for when the two of them could have met.
The scene continues with Lucas deciding to tell Mike's mom and Eleven shutting the door to prevent him from leaving the room. Symbolically, the D&D figures on the table shake,and with the final slam of the door, they topple over. The party has been broken up. El's nose begins to bleed.
At Lonnie's house, Jonathan is still searching for will.
Jonathan: then why didn't you call Mom back?
Lonnie: I dont know, I just... I assumed she just forgot where he was. You know, he was lost or something. That boy never was very good at taking care of himself.
Another reference to Wills past as being unusual.
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