Stranger Things re-review: my verdict on season 2 episode 5 & 6 - full recap
Join us for our latest re-review of Stranger Things - this time season 2 episode 5 & 6 👀
- Our Stranger Things recaps continue through season two.
- This week we are looking back at episode five and six.
- But what did I think of them?
It is time to take a trip outside Hawkins - in our latest Stranger Things re-review. Our journey back through season two continues with our heroes splintered out more and more.
The Upside Down is continuing to menace our favourite fictional Indiana town - especially if you are a farmer. It is a bad time to be growing pumpkins in the Midwest, that’s for sure.
Will is still in manic, supernaturally possessed, drawing mode, and new partnerships are starting to be formed. Join me for our latest re-review of Stranger Things!
Chapter Five: Dig Dug
Synopsis: Nancy and Jonathan swap conspiracy theories with a new ally as Eleven searches for someone from her past. “Bob the Brain” tackles a difficult problem.
Stranger Things has been gradually splitting its heroes out further and further, sometimes literally, in the second season. The D&D gang is no longer united in a quest, instead Lucas is concerned about lying to Max, Dustin’s new pet Dart is becoming quite the pest, and Mike is running support for Will.
Nancy and Jonathan have left the town to enlist help from Murray Wallace, the worst conspiracy theorist in the 1980s. Eleven has run away from Hawkins in search of her ‘mama’ - in an upcoming episode I’ll touch on the show’s habit of keeping 11 out of the way until climatic moments in more depth.
For the first time in the series, I felt like it was all becoming a bit too much stretched. There is so much going on in this episode, it doesn’t feel like plotlines get the chance to breathe - in the way they would have in season one.
Don’t get me wrong, it is all very compelling stuff - except for maybe Murray, who is probably the worst character in the whole show. It just feels like they’ve packed too much into an hour runtime.
Eleven’s trip to see her mum and the tragic story of what happened to her, feels like it doesn’t quite get the time it needs. It is such a hefty, weighty, and sad plot that it feels as if it should have been the focus of the episode, instead of a C or D plotline.
Even a mid-tier episode of Stranger Things has some fantastic stuff, the grossness that is the Upside Down infested tunnels that Hopper falls into makes for some gnarly imagery. The flashes we get of Eleven’s mum are deeply effective.
Plus it ends on an all-time great cliff-hanger with Will going into a seizure as the government agents start to burn away the Mind Flayer’s roots. It is scary and makes you want to hit ‘play next’.
Chapter Six: The Spy
Synopsis: Will's connection to a shadowy evil grows stronger, but no one's quite sure how to stop it. Elsewhere, Dustin and Steve forge an unlikely bond.
After the more sprawling and slightly fractured previous episode, Stranger Things quickly manages to get things back on track. Now, this is more like it, and it is the start of one of the best dynamics in coming episodes and seasons - Steve and Dustin.
In my memory of the show, Steve Harrington ended up on ‘babysitting’ duty much earlier than the 14th episode. But it was worth the wait, in just a few brief moments, it is quickly established as a lived-in pairing - it feels like Steve and Dustin are two people interacting.
During my re-watch, I have often highlighted how, at its best, the show manages to thread the needle of plot and character development. Its strongest moments have grounded big moments in how it affects the characters we love.
This episode is the perfect example of that, the hunt for dart is a plot moment but it is used to introduce Steve and Dustin as a pairing and also develop Lucas and Max’s relationship. It makes the ‘plottier’ side feel more important because it is leading to character growth.
It is the same with the other side of the episode as Will is taken to the Hawkins Institute following his collapse. The moment in which he no longer recognises Bob is heartbreaking.
The stakes are ratcheted up as it becomes apparent that the youngest Byers is in serious danger - struggling to recognise Hopper and Mike. It culminates in a final reveal that he is The Spy and has been sharing information with the Mind Flayer.
A bit of a mixed bag this week and for our next instalment of this re-review, we will be focusing on one episode. The black sheep of Stranger Things: season two episode 7.
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