Synopsis:
In advance of a star's imminent transition to a supernova, the Enterprise is sent to evacuate a science station established to study the phenomenon. Not being able to locate the station personnel, Kirk, Spock and McCoy are themselves taken as captives by a highly-powerful species (HPS), the Vians, apparently to serve as rats in some grand experiment. While prisoners of this experiment, the three meet Gem, a member of an empathic race, which, while unable to speak or communicate, can heal with a touch.
The party's attempts to escape are thwarted by the HPS, but during the course of these events, each of the three demonstrates a willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of the others. When Kirk is badly hurt by the Vian's experiments, Gem demonstrates her ability to heal him, though at considerable risk to herself, by taking on his wounds and his pain.
Eventually, McCoy is wounded so badly that he is in danger of dying, when the captors reveal that the purpose of their "experiment" is not to learn anything about humans, but to test the value of the empathic race to be saved from the coming supernova of the nearby star. As Gem attempts to heal McCoy, Kirk scolds the captors for having lost their own compassion in an effort to demand it in others. Chastened, the Vians let everybody go.
Analysis:
The episode is plagued with long segments without any dialogue or action of any kind as we focus in on the suffering or the emotions of a particular actor (Kirk suffering, Gem being sympathetic, Spock being solitious). This takes a potentially interesting problem and makes it boring and uneventful. This, coupled with the reluctance of the captors to explain what they are doing, means that fully half the show grinds on with no development, the apparent gains made by McCoy and Spock rendered meaningless, and nothing happening or changing.
Spock's tricorder works, then fails to. Exits appear and then are undetectable. Scotty and Sulu do nothing aboard the Enterprise. McCoy can do nothing to heal the wounded except administer a painkiller. The Vian antagonists are almost motionless and non-responsive, offering nothing to ponder, or reason with, or struggle against and ignore nearly every overture from Kirk. And although Gem is attractive as an actress, having the camera stare at her motionless for minutes at a time becomes tedious, particularly since she has no lines of dialogue throughout the episode. The bottom line is that the audience is starved for interaction of any kind.
As is common with all the original series, this episode suffers from the common tropes of the Highly Powerful Race who is able to exert complete control over the Enterprise away team. Although Spock is eventually able to counteract that control with the emotional equivalent of the Chinese finger trap, it makes little difference to the outcome of the story.
In the end several good ideas are offered, such as the conundrum of being able to only save a single planet's inhabitants from the impending destruction of the system, and the difficulty in choosing which one to save. But no real discussion is offered, since it seems like the Vians have already made up their minds about who to save and are just toying with Gem, like perfectionist maiden Aunts.
Similarly, the crew's altruism is manifest in several different ways, for example in their instinctive willingness to bring Gem with them in their escape from the Vians. If only the resolution of these conflicts weren't dismissed summarily at the end, without any serious consideration or intelligent solution.
What redeems the episode is the cleverness with which McCoy gets the better of both Kirk and Spock, and the obvious compassion that Spock shows to the dying McCoy.
Unresolved issues: What about the other planets that are doomed to be consumed by the supernova? Millions of people are about to be exterminated in the flash of a dying sun. Can the Enterprise do nothing for them? How does Kirk's compassion interact with the prime directive?
Does the prime directive prohibit interaction even with advanced societies such as the Vians? Could the Federation have saved the Vians?
To what extent are the Vians violating the prime directive? Are the Vians' efforts to save Gem's species noble or a mistake? It is likely that a Federation consistent with its own prime directive would see their efforts as a misguided effort at best, and possibly even an evil to be opposed. The underlying problem created by the dying star is one that is barely even touched upon but it presents a perfect opportunity to talk about real-world applications of the prime directive and how it is informed by compassion.
So the moral lessons of the show are that humans are good because they are altruistic, and you shouldn't lose sight of your compassion even when trying to accomplish a greater good.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5.
Monday, October 23, 2017
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
ST:TNG The Naked Now S1 E2
This is the episode that established familiar patterns. We start with Picard's narration, and are presented with an initial problem - communication has been lost with another Starfleet vessel investigating a scientific curiosity, the collapse of a star system. This has all the hallmarks of a great Star Trek episode: the routine aboard the ship, the scientific parameters that will affect the way the story will play out, and then the confrontation with a mystery that needs to be explained.
To be sure, there were still some awkward scenes, clumsy dialogue, but we were working toward something. Data was a little too forced, but his is a character that takes some developing.
However, the great promise couldn't last this time. The premise of the story is that affected individuals lose their inhibitions. Sadly, that means that all the female crew immediately begin making sexual advances to the nearest male to the point where Tasha immediately seduces Data, with the clear implication that they had an extended sexual encounter. The sexism here is deeply uncomfortable, since none of the male crew is similarly affected. It plays into deep stereotypes of women's sexuality as repressed promiscuity. Nevertheless, beside Tasha, Deanna throws herself at Riker and Beverly throws herself at Picard. And this is in the second episode.
Almost as a distraction, we have the beginning of the descent of the character of Wesley Crusher as an annoying know-it-all that Picard should have flushed out the nearest airlock the moment he tried to worm his way on to the bridge. This episode established the pattern that led to Wesley being universally reviled. First, he's constantly whining about what he's not allowed to do, but at the same time his genius far surpasses anyone else in the crew, and he singlehandedly saves the ship in the end.
This is also the first glimpses of how hard it was to write for Tasha Yar. Picard's musings about the source of the intoxication. Before Riker has even seen the information, he's already telling the captain that he's got it all figured out, and before Picard has understood it, he confidently telling Dr. Crusher that the answer is on its way to her. These announcements seem pre-mature at best, yet we are given no clues that this is the early onset of the disease.
the other inconsistency is that the disease seems to be transmitted by close contact, and yet the explanation is proximity to the collapsing star system. There's no attempt at an explanation for why Data is affected
Finally, the show comes crashing down around Wesley Crusher becoming intoxicated. He takes over the entire ship, re-routes control down to engineering and then places everybody in an extremely precarious situation. This is an untenable situation for the cast, and both Patrick Stewart and Wesley struggle as actors to bring believability to the scene.
Story References: This episode is a direct reference to The Naked Time TOS S1: E4.
Rating 1/5 so much went wrong here, so many instincts that led the writers astray, virtually no one escaped from the episode unscathed.
To be sure, there were still some awkward scenes, clumsy dialogue, but we were working toward something. Data was a little too forced, but his is a character that takes some developing.
However, the great promise couldn't last this time. The premise of the story is that affected individuals lose their inhibitions. Sadly, that means that all the female crew immediately begin making sexual advances to the nearest male to the point where Tasha immediately seduces Data, with the clear implication that they had an extended sexual encounter. The sexism here is deeply uncomfortable, since none of the male crew is similarly affected. It plays into deep stereotypes of women's sexuality as repressed promiscuity. Nevertheless, beside Tasha, Deanna throws herself at Riker and Beverly throws herself at Picard. And this is in the second episode.
Almost as a distraction, we have the beginning of the descent of the character of Wesley Crusher as an annoying know-it-all that Picard should have flushed out the nearest airlock the moment he tried to worm his way on to the bridge. This episode established the pattern that led to Wesley being universally reviled. First, he's constantly whining about what he's not allowed to do, but at the same time his genius far surpasses anyone else in the crew, and he singlehandedly saves the ship in the end.
This is also the first glimpses of how hard it was to write for Tasha Yar. Picard's musings about the source of the intoxication. Before Riker has even seen the information, he's already telling the captain that he's got it all figured out, and before Picard has understood it, he confidently telling Dr. Crusher that the answer is on its way to her. These announcements seem pre-mature at best, yet we are given no clues that this is the early onset of the disease.
the other inconsistency is that the disease seems to be transmitted by close contact, and yet the explanation is proximity to the collapsing star system. There's no attempt at an explanation for why Data is affected
Finally, the show comes crashing down around Wesley Crusher becoming intoxicated. He takes over the entire ship, re-routes control down to engineering and then places everybody in an extremely precarious situation. This is an untenable situation for the cast, and both Patrick Stewart and Wesley struggle as actors to bring believability to the scene.
Story References: This episode is a direct reference to The Naked Time TOS S1: E4.
Rating 1/5 so much went wrong here, so many instincts that led the writers astray, virtually no one escaped from the episode unscathed.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
ST:The Next Generation. Encounter at Far Point Station. S1 E1
As an inaugural episode, this was a fairly weak story. Surprisingly weak, given the scope of material they had to work with and the strength of the actors, particularly Picard. With any new show there are always the usual allowances made for the new cast just beginning to work together, and unsure of how the writers are handling them.
Given the background of this series, one long in the planning, with huge expectations, great anticipation, and a passionate following, this should have been a powerful episode. The audience should have been treated to motion picture level directing and writing, which would have addressed those issues. My feeling was that this wasn't just your ordinary sit-com start-up, and the directing here wasn't up to the task.
The other major failing of this episode was with the writers. And I think it went beyond simply getting a feel for the show. For the very first episode, the audience was given a phantasmagoria of Q's making, where deliberate incoherence was a fundamental part of the plot. It isn't good design to start an entirely new show with an episode where nothing makes sense, where characters are reacting to abnormal and absurd environments, so that we are unable to get a firm idea of their characters.
Understanding the fundamentals of the setting is absolutely critical to appreciating the new and the strange, particularly in a science fiction story. This should have been an episode establishing the basics of the universe itself, what "world" will this new Star Trek take place in, what are the parameters under which we will be operating. The writers chose not to establish this baseline, so it was impossible to really grasp how powerful Q was, how bizarre the situations were, how much danger the crew was in. This show gave us absolutely no point of reference, something critically needed at this point in the series.
In fact, placing this as the first episode went a long way toward messing up the entire first season. Yes, The Original Series had its share of encounters with hyperpowerful beings, and bizarre episodes, but that was after the baselines, the reference points had been set. Moreover, this first episode signaled that the writers were more in tune with the strange Twilight Zone-style episodes - my least favorite from TOS - and it left me uneasy as to what to expect in the future. Personally, Q episodes are the greatest disappointment and the ones I enjoy the least.
The behind-the-scenes story is that the first episode was solely about Farpoint Station and the decision was made to add an extra hour to the pilot by including the Q material. If so, this was unsuccessful. The Farpoint narrative, while less than thrilling, was fresh and introduced the new characters well.
If we had simply left off that first episode, and started with episode 2, the whole first season makes more sense.
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Given the background of this series, one long in the planning, with huge expectations, great anticipation, and a passionate following, this should have been a powerful episode. The audience should have been treated to motion picture level directing and writing, which would have addressed those issues. My feeling was that this wasn't just your ordinary sit-com start-up, and the directing here wasn't up to the task.
The other major failing of this episode was with the writers. And I think it went beyond simply getting a feel for the show. For the very first episode, the audience was given a phantasmagoria of Q's making, where deliberate incoherence was a fundamental part of the plot. It isn't good design to start an entirely new show with an episode where nothing makes sense, where characters are reacting to abnormal and absurd environments, so that we are unable to get a firm idea of their characters.
Understanding the fundamentals of the setting is absolutely critical to appreciating the new and the strange, particularly in a science fiction story. This should have been an episode establishing the basics of the universe itself, what "world" will this new Star Trek take place in, what are the parameters under which we will be operating. The writers chose not to establish this baseline, so it was impossible to really grasp how powerful Q was, how bizarre the situations were, how much danger the crew was in. This show gave us absolutely no point of reference, something critically needed at this point in the series.
In fact, placing this as the first episode went a long way toward messing up the entire first season. Yes, The Original Series had its share of encounters with hyperpowerful beings, and bizarre episodes, but that was after the baselines, the reference points had been set. Moreover, this first episode signaled that the writers were more in tune with the strange Twilight Zone-style episodes - my least favorite from TOS - and it left me uneasy as to what to expect in the future. Personally, Q episodes are the greatest disappointment and the ones I enjoy the least.
The behind-the-scenes story is that the first episode was solely about Farpoint Station and the decision was made to add an extra hour to the pilot by including the Q material. If so, this was unsuccessful. The Farpoint narrative, while less than thrilling, was fresh and introduced the new characters well.
If we had simply left off that first episode, and started with episode 2, the whole first season makes more sense.
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Sunday, April 2, 2017
A Farewell to Grimm
Grimm, the supernatural show that posited a world where normal humans shared a society with mysterious people called (Wesen)Vessen, finally came to a close after 5 seasons. A respectable run, though its cancellation perhaps left its fans wanting a little more.
In the end, Grimm was an excellent show with plenty of creative ideas and strong characters but throughout its run, and particularly when it embarked on its own personal mytharc it suffered from pervasive, recurring continuity problems; problems that left viewers struggling to make sense of the overarching story and sapping strength from the power of the narrative.
Grimm was at its best with individual episodes, running stories of investigation and discovery about who and what the vessen were, how they interacted with normal society, and how their unique abilities created problems for the individuals involved. The writers were masters of pacing within individual plot lines, carefully timing introductions, reveals, climax and explanation.
The show also excelled at creating not just interesting characters but complimentary sets of characters, each with their own sets of strengths and capabilities, each bringing something unique to the show. And with this rich cast, the writers explored the potential for friendships, for rivalries, and for reconciliation. They assembled one of the greatest casts of cooperative friends since the show Friends, itself. This wasn't just a team of co-workers, but a group of friends who genuinely shared and showed affection for one another, with past histories, tensions, hopes and disappointments.
I personally credit Silas Wier Mitchell for crafting that relationship between Monroe and Nick, setting the tone for a relationship that was echoed with Hank, and later Dru Wu. I hesitate to diminish its importance by calling it a buddy show, but by the final season, each of the principles was able to firmly establish lasting personal relationships among everyone on the team. And it was this feeling of mutual support that carried the show over some of its rocky passages.
Where Grimm struggled, however, was with long term storylines. It seemed that on several occasions the writers of the show would make abrupt reversals of characterization and show direction, would seemingly disregard previously established concepts, and would shift the focus and importance of many of the key elements presented. For example, Sean Renard and Adelind Shade were successful in engineering the death of Nick's aunt and fellow Grimm, murdering her in the hospital. Later we find them working hand in hand with Nick and Hank. Adelind was an evil hexenbeast, then a sympathetic mother, a helpless fugitive, an estranged and outraged antagonist, back to being a love interest and finally a companion for Nick. And each of these transitions seemed to be more bewildering and unjustified than the last.
This kind of show whiplash happened over and over again. The writers could never find a satisfying role for Juliet to play on the team. She was initially introduced as a veterinarian, which they seemed to be hinting would help her integrate into vesen (Wesen) culture, as a sort of doctor with unique perspective on vessen maladies, and perhaps insight into what kind of animal they might be dealing with. I believe that they had originally envisioned Juliet as a research resource (Ex.: what kind of animal would make this bite mark, or use this chemical?) but they found after the introduction of Rosalee that the spice shop filled that role more successfully.
Monroe and Rosalee became the resource on Wesen, instead, and between the library of ancient Grim lore, Rosalee's reference library of cures and remedies, and later Adelind's mother's spell books, the team became a powerhouse of arcane research, leaving Juliet without a role to fill. Her later transition to Eve was an obvious re-sculpting of her character in a desperate attempt to make her relevant.
And these kinds of character shifts happened with others as well. We've already mentioned Adelind character reversals and those of Captain Renard, and it was unclear if these were character flaws, or if they were victims of their own wesen nature (as the coins of destiny and Adelind suggested), or if they were simply expedient sacrifices to a confused writing team. It's difficult for a show, where the premise is a core team of friends against the forces of darkness, to sustain too many unsupported character reversals, particularly when they were handled so clumsily and without foundation.
In her own way, Trouble went through several transitions, none of which seemed to develop her character or give her any lasting meaning. We introduced her, only to ignore her, bringing her in and out of focus several times without giving her a satisfying ending, and finally dismiss her entirely. In the conclusion she has a climactic fight with Nick, which doesn't seem to do anything more than kill time. Nor was it enjoyable to see Nick beat up Theresa, in the way that it might have been to see a match between a Grimm and a Zauberbeast. Theresa was an amazing character but one which, like Juliet, the writers were never able to integrate into the premise of the show.
For example, Meisner was a great character introduced int eh Adelind and Diana story line. We brought him back for the Black Claw story, only to kill him off again, resurrect him as a ghost, and finally render his work meaningless when Trouble tells us that Black Claw quietly collapsed off camera while we weren't watching. Instead of a satisfying confrontation and struggle with Black Claw, the whole story line just seemed to be forgotten and summarily wrapped up with a single line of dialogue. The writers, after having gotten the audience invested in the threat that Black Claw represented, just abandoned it and went off chasing some new shiny thing. And Meisner became a throwaway prop to demonstrate Renard's ambition and Bonaparte's evil
In the end, we never got a satisfying conclusion or rehabilitation for Renard's betrayal and we got to shrug it off with a quick "I'm sorry for my bad decisions." We left unexamined the fact that Diana killed two people, that Juliet had Kelly's head chopped off and mailed to Nick in a box. Like so many story lines and plot elements, these were things we were just too busy to resolve.
In the end, Grimm was an excellent show with plenty of creative ideas and strong characters but throughout its run, and particularly when it embarked on its own personal mytharc it suffered from pervasive, recurring continuity problems; problems that left viewers struggling to make sense of the overarching story and sapping strength from the power of the narrative.
Grimm was at its best with individual episodes, running stories of investigation and discovery about who and what the vessen were, how they interacted with normal society, and how their unique abilities created problems for the individuals involved. The writers were masters of pacing within individual plot lines, carefully timing introductions, reveals, climax and explanation.
The show also excelled at creating not just interesting characters but complimentary sets of characters, each with their own sets of strengths and capabilities, each bringing something unique to the show. And with this rich cast, the writers explored the potential for friendships, for rivalries, and for reconciliation. They assembled one of the greatest casts of cooperative friends since the show Friends, itself. This wasn't just a team of co-workers, but a group of friends who genuinely shared and showed affection for one another, with past histories, tensions, hopes and disappointments.
I personally credit Silas Wier Mitchell for crafting that relationship between Monroe and Nick, setting the tone for a relationship that was echoed with Hank, and later Dru Wu. I hesitate to diminish its importance by calling it a buddy show, but by the final season, each of the principles was able to firmly establish lasting personal relationships among everyone on the team. And it was this feeling of mutual support that carried the show over some of its rocky passages.
Where Grimm struggled, however, was with long term storylines. It seemed that on several occasions the writers of the show would make abrupt reversals of characterization and show direction, would seemingly disregard previously established concepts, and would shift the focus and importance of many of the key elements presented. For example, Sean Renard and Adelind Shade were successful in engineering the death of Nick's aunt and fellow Grimm, murdering her in the hospital. Later we find them working hand in hand with Nick and Hank. Adelind was an evil hexenbeast, then a sympathetic mother, a helpless fugitive, an estranged and outraged antagonist, back to being a love interest and finally a companion for Nick. And each of these transitions seemed to be more bewildering and unjustified than the last.
This kind of show whiplash happened over and over again. The writers could never find a satisfying role for Juliet to play on the team. She was initially introduced as a veterinarian, which they seemed to be hinting would help her integrate into vesen (Wesen) culture, as a sort of doctor with unique perspective on vessen maladies, and perhaps insight into what kind of animal they might be dealing with. I believe that they had originally envisioned Juliet as a research resource (Ex.: what kind of animal would make this bite mark, or use this chemical?) but they found after the introduction of Rosalee that the spice shop filled that role more successfully.
Monroe and Rosalee became the resource on Wesen, instead, and between the library of ancient Grim lore, Rosalee's reference library of cures and remedies, and later Adelind's mother's spell books, the team became a powerhouse of arcane research, leaving Juliet without a role to fill. Her later transition to Eve was an obvious re-sculpting of her character in a desperate attempt to make her relevant.
And these kinds of character shifts happened with others as well. We've already mentioned Adelind character reversals and those of Captain Renard, and it was unclear if these were character flaws, or if they were victims of their own wesen nature (as the coins of destiny and Adelind suggested), or if they were simply expedient sacrifices to a confused writing team. It's difficult for a show, where the premise is a core team of friends against the forces of darkness, to sustain too many unsupported character reversals, particularly when they were handled so clumsily and without foundation.
In her own way, Trouble went through several transitions, none of which seemed to develop her character or give her any lasting meaning. We introduced her, only to ignore her, bringing her in and out of focus several times without giving her a satisfying ending, and finally dismiss her entirely. In the conclusion she has a climactic fight with Nick, which doesn't seem to do anything more than kill time. Nor was it enjoyable to see Nick beat up Theresa, in the way that it might have been to see a match between a Grimm and a Zauberbeast. Theresa was an amazing character but one which, like Juliet, the writers were never able to integrate into the premise of the show.
In fact, showrunner James Kouf recently revealed there's at least one reason he is fine with the show getting cancelled, and that reason has to do with running out of ideas. Here's what he had to say: "You know, 123 times through the fairy-tale world, and you start getting a little slim." CinemaBlend
David Greenwalt, "There was a chance that we would have gotten 22 [eps], and we were going, 'Oh my God. That's a long trek.' We did that for five years."The take away from the show was that the writers were just making things up as they went along. It would seem that they would plan out a season, only to be struck by a new thought partway through and start plunging off in a new direction, leaving themselves and the audience scratching their heads on how their conflicts would be resolved.
For example, Meisner was a great character introduced int eh Adelind and Diana story line. We brought him back for the Black Claw story, only to kill him off again, resurrect him as a ghost, and finally render his work meaningless when Trouble tells us that Black Claw quietly collapsed off camera while we weren't watching. Instead of a satisfying confrontation and struggle with Black Claw, the whole story line just seemed to be forgotten and summarily wrapped up with a single line of dialogue. The writers, after having gotten the audience invested in the threat that Black Claw represented, just abandoned it and went off chasing some new shiny thing. And Meisner became a throwaway prop to demonstrate Renard's ambition and Bonaparte's evil
In the end, we never got a satisfying conclusion or rehabilitation for Renard's betrayal and we got to shrug it off with a quick "I'm sorry for my bad decisions." We left unexamined the fact that Diana killed two people, that Juliet had Kelly's head chopped off and mailed to Nick in a box. Like so many story lines and plot elements, these were things we were just too busy to resolve.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Stranger Things and Story Structure
Stranger Things was a huge success, given that it was released during the summer as a short series on the internet-only subscription Netflix service. For anyone who was able to navigate its awkward beginnings, the show captured the audience's attention and held it throughout the season. I think this was because the story was constructed with integrity; it convinced you that it asked concrete questions and would ultimately provide real answers. Rather than ending in confusion and bewilderment, the questions are answered but the answers create deeper questions, drawing you further into the world of the story.
It means that the questions are worth asking, and they are worth the audience's time to try to answer.
The Triumph of the Narrative
There
are three great narrative questions that the story attempts to answer
throughout the chapters. Nearly every episode has some piece to contribute to figuring out each of these puzzles. Each of the characters has its own narrative to explore, but the story itself constantly references these questions
First, what exactly happened that first
evening? We see some of the events of that evening from many different perspectives, but always incompletely. As the audience, we have to piece together the narrative fragments to find our own answer. The show never presents us with a fully formed narrative that explains things from beginning to end. Where it does play fair, however, is that it does give us enough information for us to form our own narrative. It is not ambiguous.
Second, what is happening to the children of Hawkins? What happened to Eleven did not occur in isolation. Many children are involved, including Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas. Something similar happened to Hopper's daughter. There is some piece that ties these characters and their experiences together. Something happened to them or around them that sets them apart.
In my wild speculation, I feel like there is something similar in the backgrounds of their parents, as well. Karen Wheeler and Joyce Byers know more about a past experience than they have had an opportunity to reveal. Possibly this is something Hopper has also experienced.
At this point we don't know, but I would even extend this to Nancy, Barb, Jonathan, and Steve. Its interesting that the town is stratified into age groups: The eleven year olds, the 17 year olds, the parents in their early 40s (?) and the Hopper's admin assistant, Flo, and the middle school principal, and Joyce's boss at the store are in their early 60s
Something has happened in Hawkins, Indiana and the ramifications are continuing to unfold.
Third,
what is the Upside Down? We hear a possible explanation from the science teacher, we see Nancy and Joyce and Hopper make journeys into that strange dimension. We see Eleven travel there through her own mental pathways and we observe Will's struggle to communicate across the barrier between these worlds. But why does it exist and why are there creatures living there? Why are they drawn to our existence?
Beneath the Surface
I also think that the meaning of the story went beyond the narrative. It's not just about finding out Eleven's real name. In order to be able to do that, we need to explore friendship and trust and truth and a whole range of concepts, that were meaningless until we presented them in the context of a monster movie.
First, what is the nature of truth? We explore the difference between truth and falsehood, but also the difference between truth and speculation, and between truth and madness. We see Cassandra-like figures in Joyce and Barb, constantly telling the truth, but destined never to be believed. Joyce, because she is perceived as mentally unstable and Barb, because she isn't bold enough. We see Hopper readier to believe soothing banalities rather than face hard truths.
Second, What is the nature of friendship? In all the important scenes, the characters are exploring the nature of friendship. For the four boys, their existence is centered their friendships with each other, and the enmity between friends and their enemies, the bullies. When they meet Eleven, one of the great questions they struggle with is whether or not to bring El into their circle of friendship and confer on her all the rights and privileges that it entails. While Nancy is romantically involved with Steve, she develops a truer friendship with Jonathan because of their shared bereavement. Nancy and Barb's friendship is tested and then physiclly torn apart
On the other end of the spectrum, we see how people who are not friends behave. A primary example is Joyce's husband Lonnie who left his family. His return upon learning that Will is missing initially seems to be motivated by genuine concern, but slowly we begin to learn what Jonathan knows, that Lonnie is weak and unreliable and moved by greed. Similarly, Steve appears to be friends with his two cronies, but later comes to understand that their friendship lacks permanence. The story asks the question, how do friends behave, and how do people who are not friends behave?
Third, what is the importance of history? The story itself is set in the past, and not some mythic golden age but in a real and proximal past that many of its audience remember well. In fact, if you are in your 30s or 40s, this story could be about you. It could be your past.
Each character has a personal history that is integral to the story as well. And these histories aren't peripheral bits of character development but directly affect the narrative. We want to know how Eleven got to this point, but we're just as interested in Joyce or Hopper's backstory as well.
Friday, October 7, 2016
Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street Part 2 ST: 2
The great thing about the dinner scene is when Eleven starts walking down the stairs behind Mrs. Wheeler's head. Mike chokes on his milk, and Dustin pounds on the table. Karen and Ted are distracted, but Holly saw El and she is a little unnerved.
Out at Benny's, the indefatigable volunteers continue to search for Will, calling his name. Among them is Mr Clarke (the science teacher) who finds a scrap of cloth at the end of a stormwater drain pipe. The other end leads into the Hawkins National Laboratory.
Mike: Friends, they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know.
And speaking of things that parents don't know, everything that Barb tells Nancy is exactly what ends up happening at Steve's house. Barb is supposed to be Nancy's guardian, and in a way that turns out to be true. Barb is only there because Nancy asks her to be, and in the end Nancy sends her home. But she won't leave without Nancy, because she is a good friend. And she is the one who gets eaten.
Back in the basement, Eleven sits down in front of the D&D grid, does a little divination, and picks up the piece that Will was playing with : "Will," she says.
She brushes all the other figures onto the floor and turns the board over. With a flourish, she places the wizard in the center of the black backing.
Asleep with the phone in her lap, Joyce is jolted awake when it rings. Her intuition has paid off, because it is Will. I think we can't emphasize this enough. Joyce is the truth-teller. Everything she does that seems to be crazy and unreasonable and absurd - it all turns out to be exactly the right thing to do.
Not only can she hear him breathing, but he speaks to her, "Mom..." The phone shorts out again, but now the lights around the house start blinking. She tracks them into Will's room, with a portable stereo system playing very loudly and the lights surging and flashing. Suddenly, the lights go out and the tape player is silent. And something tries to break through the walls of the room, stretching them like they are rubber. Joyce flees in terror from the house, starting her car to drive away.
Just as suddenly, the roaring of the monster is gone, and the lights come back on, and the tape starts playing again. (This is the same tape that Jonathan gave to Will). Mrs Byers thinks of her son again, and slowly returns to the house.
Nancy and Barb visit Steve's house. Jonathan, searching for Will, finds himself in the woods outside Steve's house and sees Nancy goofing around by the pool. Later, he sees Barb sitting alone on the diving board, having been sent home by Nancy. She can't leave her friend alone inside, but she's struggling with Nancy's rejection.
Barb knows that Nancy is probably not making the best decisions, and that all her good advice has been rejected, but she can't abandon Nancy. And in the end, it is she who ends up paying the price.
As we found earlier, Nancy's story is about about moving between worlds. Earlier, we saw her reject her brother and his friends, closing the door on that world of childhood. Here we see her leaving her best friend, her confidant, protector and companion at the bottom of the stairs as she ascends into a different world of sex and dating, a world where Barb is not ready to follow.
It is a moment that Jonathan captures perfectly on film in the ambient light of the pool.
In a way, this current transition is a step that Nancy has to take as well, despite the costs to herself and those around her. This is what empowers her to cross class divides and partner with Jonathan and also to cross over into the world of the Upside Down.
Barb's bleeding hand drips into the pool, and in an instant the monster takes her and she is gone.
After a minute the lights around the pool come back on.
So what about Barb's story?
In this particular scene, I see broad allusions to the Fisher King. Clearly, Barb is a protector; a knight whose task it is to safeguard Nancy. In doing this, however, Barb is wounded, a wound that takes her away from her duties as grail protector. She has to bandage her cut hand, a hand that she cut while trying to participate in Steve's world. Steve's world is a world of alcohol and sex; it isn't a world in which Barb belongs. Nancy can make that transition because that's what she does, while Barb cannot. And, like the Fisher King whose wound is related to sex, Barb is punished for trying.
While she is gone taking care of her hand, the grail (Nancy, in this case) jumps into the pool and is taken upstairs to dry off. Symbolically, it is taken beyond her reach. You can have differing opinions about whether Nancy is making good choices or bad ones, but Barb clearly thinks Nancy is in danger. As a true white knight, this is something that Barb recognizes as bad behavior, and her wound is in some regards a result of that same behavior. In the end, all she can do is sit by the river, or in this case the swimming pool in a sort of paralysis.
Nancy is frequently associated with portals. She is closing doors, opening windows, ascending stairs to greater levels of understanding, plunging into baptismal pools to emerge changed and ready for new experiences. This association will continue throughout this story.
What is Barb's fate?
Out at Benny's, the indefatigable volunteers continue to search for Will, calling his name. Among them is Mr Clarke (the science teacher) who finds a scrap of cloth at the end of a stormwater drain pipe. The other end leads into the Hawkins National Laboratory.
Mike: Friends, they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know.
And speaking of things that parents don't know, everything that Barb tells Nancy is exactly what ends up happening at Steve's house. Barb is supposed to be Nancy's guardian, and in a way that turns out to be true. Barb is only there because Nancy asks her to be, and in the end Nancy sends her home. But she won't leave without Nancy, because she is a good friend. And she is the one who gets eaten.
Back in the basement, Eleven sits down in front of the D&D grid, does a little divination, and picks up the piece that Will was playing with : "Will," she says.
She brushes all the other figures onto the floor and turns the board over. With a flourish, she places the wizard in the center of the black backing.
Eleven: Hiding...
Mike: Will is hiding?
Eleven nods.
Mike: from the bad men?
Eleven shakes her head in dismissal
Mike: Then from who?
Eleven places the model of the demogorgon next to the Wizard
Asleep with the phone in her lap, Joyce is jolted awake when it rings. Her intuition has paid off, because it is Will. I think we can't emphasize this enough. Joyce is the truth-teller. Everything she does that seems to be crazy and unreasonable and absurd - it all turns out to be exactly the right thing to do. Not only can she hear him breathing, but he speaks to her, "Mom..." The phone shorts out again, but now the lights around the house start blinking. She tracks them into Will's room, with a portable stereo system playing very loudly and the lights surging and flashing. Suddenly, the lights go out and the tape player is silent. And something tries to break through the walls of the room, stretching them like they are rubber. Joyce flees in terror from the house, starting her car to drive away.
Just as suddenly, the roaring of the monster is gone, and the lights come back on, and the tape starts playing again. (This is the same tape that Jonathan gave to Will). Mrs Byers thinks of her son again, and slowly returns to the house.
Nancy and Barb visit Steve's house. Jonathan, searching for Will, finds himself in the woods outside Steve's house and sees Nancy goofing around by the pool. Later, he sees Barb sitting alone on the diving board, having been sent home by Nancy. She can't leave her friend alone inside, but she's struggling with Nancy's rejection.
Barb knows that Nancy is probably not making the best decisions, and that all her good advice has been rejected, but she can't abandon Nancy. And in the end, it is she who ends up paying the price.
As we found earlier, Nancy's story is about about moving between worlds. Earlier, we saw her reject her brother and his friends, closing the door on that world of childhood. Here we see her leaving her best friend, her confidant, protector and companion at the bottom of the stairs as she ascends into a different world of sex and dating, a world where Barb is not ready to follow.
It is a moment that Jonathan captures perfectly on film in the ambient light of the pool.
In a way, this current transition is a step that Nancy has to take as well, despite the costs to herself and those around her. This is what empowers her to cross class divides and partner with Jonathan and also to cross over into the world of the Upside Down.
After a minute the lights around the pool come back on.
So what about Barb's story?
In this particular scene, I see broad allusions to the Fisher King. Clearly, Barb is a protector; a knight whose task it is to safeguard Nancy. In doing this, however, Barb is wounded, a wound that takes her away from her duties as grail protector. She has to bandage her cut hand, a hand that she cut while trying to participate in Steve's world. Steve's world is a world of alcohol and sex; it isn't a world in which Barb belongs. Nancy can make that transition because that's what she does, while Barb cannot. And, like the Fisher King whose wound is related to sex, Barb is punished for trying.
While she is gone taking care of her hand, the grail (Nancy, in this case) jumps into the pool and is taken upstairs to dry off. Symbolically, it is taken beyond her reach. You can have differing opinions about whether Nancy is making good choices or bad ones, but Barb clearly thinks Nancy is in danger. As a true white knight, this is something that Barb recognizes as bad behavior, and her wound is in some regards a result of that same behavior. In the end, all she can do is sit by the river, or in this case the swimming pool in a sort of paralysis.
Nancy is frequently associated with portals. She is closing doors, opening windows, ascending stairs to greater levels of understanding, plunging into baptismal pools to emerge changed and ready for new experiences. This association will continue throughout this story.
What is Barb's fate?
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street Part 1 ST: 2
The show opens the same evening on the night where the boys found Eleven. She sits on the couch, still wet from the rain while the boys pepper her with questions. El flinches at the thunder and Mike backs everybody off:
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
Hopper is genuinely affected.
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.
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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