Stranger Things Season 2 Thread *Spoilers*

[Vegan Daddy]

Also, while I really enjoyed the addition of Max (It's nice to have a "normal" girl in Mike's age group), I didn't really care for her brother. As of now, there's really no explanation for his behavior, but not only that, it seems as if he's in a completely different show. It's like everyone else is at a 5, but he's dialed to 11 every scene he's in and it doesn't work for me. I'm hoping for some more pay off with his character in the next two episodes. I'm hoping there's more to him than just a step brother pissed at his step sister for making them move away.

Eh, we know Billy's father intimidates and beats him. He's just mimicking his dad.

[ZeroBG82]

I felt the same way too. It was a filler episode; a waste. This season was good but not as good as last season.

We have radically different definitions of what "filler" tv is. This wasn't just some throwaway to pad out time. This was the climax of Eleven's entire arc in the second season. And yes, it is placed in odd place, but the episode ends up showing WHY it is placed where it is. The critical juncture in the episode rests on Eleven seeing the cliffhanger ending from the previous episode with her powers. And finally being forced to do the thing she hasn't been allowed to do until now, choose.

Her arc is interesting in that it's so different from the other cast members, who all face physical threats. Like Will last year, she's largely taken off the table for most of the season. But, unlike Will, she isn't being held or restrained physically. Her prison is in her mind. Everybody keeps telling her where her home is. Where she belongs. Even Hopper, well meaning though he is, insists he knows better than her where she belongs. Her mom isn't home anymore, her aunt proves untrustworthy, and her lab sister just wants to tell her how to live her life for her own good. But when she sees Hawkins in danger, she finally gets to choose for herself where home is.

I mean, the final sequence at the gate really drives this one home, and isn't at all subtle. Intercut Jane struggling with the Gate with Kali's illusion-Papa discussing Eleven's "wound". The Gate is Eleven's pain. The world is broken because she is broken. It's festering, spreading and infecting everything in her life because she won't, or can't, deal with it. And when she finally takes the steps to become healthy, to open herself to people and make her own choices about where she belongs, she gains the power to seal the Gate and finally close the wound.

Interestingly, Will's story is about as subtle. He's unable to talk to everyone about he feels about his trauma, or his growing frustration with how they are treating him since the year before. Feeling like he's being maneuvered through his life without agency, no longer a person but a prop. And so he literally becomes a puppet of a metaphysical evil until everyone is able to stop treating him like he's made of glass.

[Zero Hunter]

I think they really did a great job of not only keeping the quality of last season up, but actually surpassing it. I loved that Mike was not the focus and Dustin and Lucas got a chance to really shine too. Everyone got a good story line this season which I was not expecting. All of the new characters worked which is kinda rare on a show like this. Max, Billy, the investigator, the Doctor, and poor Bob all worked for me. I liked that Paul Riser was actually a pretty good guy since I thought he was just going to be Mathew Modine part 2.

I knew Bob was at risk but man it hurt my heart when he went down.

[Za Waldo]

It was probably around the Dig Dug episode that I realized these episodes didn't have the same titles as the video from last year.



Not that I remembered what they were all called from that video, but I knew there hadn't been one called Dig Dug. I did remember there was and episode called Madmax and The Pollywog from the video, and I remembered there being something that sounded like a slasher, but other than that I didn't remember them. Made me wonder how much the show had changed during development from that time a year ago to when they started filming. Looking through what the episodes were called made me wonder that even more, as the last episode of those original titles is The Lost Brother, with the third to last episode of the actual episodes being The Lost Sister.

Kind of makes me wonder if originally this season was going to be more about the stuff with 11, them dealing with her being gone, and if Billy Hargrove was original meant to be a bigger threat.

That video by and large also just has cool titles than what they actually ended up having in the final product.

Yeah, I thought the sister plot was silly. Felt like a different show.

Right? I didn't like it at all. They basically wasted an episode on something that had nothing to do with what was happening this season.

This is fucking crazy given it's the best episode of the whole season. That episode made me wish this whole season had went more that direction than what it was, which was basically a slower more drawn out rehash of the first season. That episode is also the whole reason 11 was able to do the thing she did at the end. It was also a more entertaining and fun take on Star Wars than the last two actual Star Wars movies.

Overall I'd say this season was weaker than the first, but the last three episodes were really good. Overall I was just left wishing they'd of went a whole different direct with this season. Originally, back when I was watching the first season when it had just come out I figured that's how they do it, given how much King was there, I just figured they'd do some other strange thing that happens to take place in Hawkins, Indiana. But then the show became too big to do something that interesting. The 11 episode thought is like a sneak peek into what this season should have been.

Hopefully in season 3 they don't give Winona Ryder another home crafts project to reveal some mystery. It was pretty goofy and dumb they had her do another one, it's only going to be more so the more they do it. Is SNL going to be new this week? I predict a sketch in which we get previews of upcoming seasons (or looks back from the future) in which we see a series of craft projects her character does that uncover some clue about something.

[Saturius]

Yeah, I kinda get the hate for the 008 episodes, but quite frankly, it's what re-energized me while watching the show. Up until Eleven gets to Chicago, I thought the Hawkins plot was meandering for FAR too long. Everyone else says these episodes slowed things down, but for me they kicked things into overdrive. I found Kali's(spelling?) story very entertaining and her world view and shades of grey were very welcome. There was a lot going on emotionally and plot wise in those episodes. I was left wanting a LOT more of her and her gang. Besides, season 2 kinda got away from the backstory of the experiments those scientists did to kids, so it was nice to revisit that in some fashion.

My favorite line of the season was when Dustin said to Steve "You did good, You still got your ass kicked, but you did good." I laughed.

Strangest part of the season was Nancy and Jon getting together. I knew it was gonna happen, but after it did it's like the show wasn't interested in acknowledging it. I mean, damn, I don't even think the two characters had any real conversations between each other at all after it happened. That was a strange thing to do for several episodes. It's like they didn't care to continue writing for that plot at all.

[Qwerty]

I still don't give a cheap about this series. I watched all of season 1 and now all of season 2 and it still just doesn't appeal to me. Except for Nancy. She's a fox.

[Sain]

Like most people, I wasn't feeling the gang introduction episode. I understand breaking the tension of the main story, but this just felt crowbarred a bit cliche, and out of the blue.

Say what's going on in Hawkins is landscape within your cone of vision. The sister episode is like turning my body in the opposite direction, with no sight of what I was looking at previously. I should have been able to see both stories at the same time if that makes any sense.

Her traveling to wherever it was felt like a literal representation of her deviation from the main story.

Other than that, this season was as immersive and engrossing as the last. Also gad dammmit these kids can act.

[Midvillian1322]

Havent finished it yet so im not reading the spoilers. But lol it took me 7epsiodes to realize billy(Macs psychotic strpbrother? )is jason from the power rangers movie

[Kevinroc]

IAlso, while I really enjoyed the addition of Max (It's nice to have a "normal" girl in Mike's age group), I didn't really care for her brother. As of now, there's really no explanation for his behavior, but not only that, it seems as if he's in a completely different show. It's like everyone else is at a 5, but he's dialed to 11 every scene he's in and it doesn't work for me. I'm hoping for some more pay off with his character in the next two episodes. I'm hoping there's more to him than just a step brother pissed at his step sister for making them move away.

He's a racist. And he is being bullied by his father so he in turn bullies those smaller than him. He's not that complicated.

[godisawesome]

Billy was pretty much just Max's personal antagonist; he's a counterpart to the school bullies from last year that helps illustrate Max's similarities to the boys.

Overall, I did like this season a bit better than the first, but I will admit there's a conflict in my mind over the 008 episode. It was a great episode on its own, and teases some fascinating possibilities for next season, but breaking away from Hawkins in the middle of the cliffhanger is questionable. They also relied a bit more on subplots and breaking up the party this season, so you have to square with that if you judge the show.

I actually just finished a small podcast series on Season 2, complete with some predictions in the last episode. It's a little sloppy; I kind of did a combination reaction and commentary. If anybody's interested, just search "of stranger things than these" on Apple podcasts. Don't follow the link in my signature, it's broken.

[C_Miller]

He's a racist. And he is being bullied by his father so he in turn bullies those smaller than him. He's not that complicated.

I hadn't gotten to that point yet. SO yeah, it worked better for me in full context. It just seemed oddly disconnected for a show that doesn't delve too much into subplots. Either way, I really liked the second season better than the first.

[Za Waldo]

He's a racist. And he is being bullied by his father so he in turn bullies those smaller than him. He's not that complicated.

The show totally pussied out on that aspect to the point I'm not even sure why they tried going their in the first place. I do not buy that a racist character would dance around saying racist shit like they have him do in the show; and if you're not going to go for it, then why even put it in?

It's also hard to tell if he himself is actually racist, or if it's just the dad. The first time in comes up it's in reference to the dad, and when he later see dad (much later) he's unsurprisingly a violent racist asshole. Is the brother just kind of watching out for the sister, is he just a racist, does anyone really care given the stuff with him kind of goes nowhere? I don't know.

Watching the show I just couldn't help but wonder if he was original meant to have a way bigger role, with it being cut down to what we see now. As the show is he just kind of feels superfluous. Wonder if like a year ago they were mostly going to play up him as this big King teen villain like in Stand By Me, It, and Sometimes They Come Back? Like he maybe this big villain, with the Gremlins thing being more of the focus, and Mike pining for 11 with stuff like her training with her sister (I guess brother originally) on Dagonah and it being revealed where she's been happening around the end. The way those old titles are makes me think maybe the big threat of this season was just going to be this slight undercurrent, and it was also going to end similarly to how it does with the shadow Cloverfield monster with the alt Alien head (which now the Alien series has already used in Prometheus) looming large in the Upside Down at the dance or where they all where together.

[BeastieRunner]

I thought part of the rewrites were to add 11 back? She was supposed to die and her brother comes to save the gang? But they loved her character and retained her for flashbacks but saw how popular she was?

[BeastieRunner]

Don't be named with a b name in this universe ... Barb ... Bob ...

[Za Waldo]

I thought part of the rewrites were to add 11 back? She was supposed to die and her brother comes to save the gang? But they loved her character and retained her for flashbacks but saw how popular she was?

I don't know. I don't know anything about how it was originally going to be. All I know is going by the original titles the show seems like it was going to be paced pretty different. A lot of episodes names are different, but Pollywog is in there, and that comes as episode six as opposed to episode three. Then you've got episode seven called The Secret Cabin, which I'm going to guess was the place were they were going to reveal where 11 has been all this time; I can't remember when it happens in the actual show, but it's like episode one or two when we find out about the Cabin with 11.

I'm just kind of guessing based on how Billy feels like he was meant to be a bigger character than he actually is, and the original titles seemingly hinting at Season 2 being a much different show based on those title. I can see the original idea for this season being more low-key, they don't have 11 and Mike is dealing with thinking she's dead and their main adversary is this very violent and racist but still human character. Like it's mostly that, but Will is seeing things (although it probably doesn't blow up into as big of a thing) and Dustin is playing Gremlins and that'll get totally out of hand at some point. Could also see the original plan for the episodes to be much more compartmentalized, which each episode just following one thread as opposed to like three or four...so being like The Lost Sister where we're just following 11 as she's with Kali. So like maybe The Boy Who Came Back To Life was originally a totally Will focused episode with the Will stuff from Trick or Treat, Freak and Will the Wise. That could even mean it was . That would also make the whole structure of the show different, with episodes playing more like little movies that double back on themselves a some point to reveal something thing or another. Do it like that and you could still have the overall happening of this season play out the same and still have The Lost Sister as the last episode, it'd just been it'd likely follow 11 back to Hawkins where she closes the gate.

Do you mean 11 was originally going to died this season? Because the ending of the last season kind of indicated she was still alive. If they were going to kill her this season, that seems like a really weird move to pull given the first season did a fake out with her death.