This review contains spoilers for “Stranger Things” Season 2, episode 1.
As is Netflix’s custom, “Stranger Things” released its entire second season this weekend, on Oct. 27, just in time for Halloween. And that’s a good thing, too, because these episodes are potato chips for the eyes. You can’t just stop at episode one.
The forty-five minute long episodes feel all too short, especially this jam-packed premiere. While the Duffer brothers did a fantastic job of weaving all the storylines together, three characters really grabbed me tonight: Will Byers, Jim Hopper and Barbara Holland. Yes, that’s right, Barb.
In the boys’ first scene at the arcade things take off in Hawkins. While Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair and, of course, Will Byers are at the arcade, it’s all Will; as we know from the trailers, he is thrust into the Upside Down mid-sentence.
“I felt frozen,” he later describes the sensation to Dr. Owens, played by Paul Reiser, who works as some sort of neurologist at the Hawkins National Laboratory. Noah Schapp, who plays Will, delivers a stunning performance as a scared boy trying to make it past his previous ordeal and live the normal prepubescent life of someone who isn’t experiencing what Dr. Owens calls “flashbacks.”
According to his mother, Joyce Byer, played by Winona Ryder, they’ve been coming in for “months” for Will’s supposed PTSD (which Joyce also probably has, given her reaction to the phone ringing). Given that this is the anniversary of the event that happened last year/season, it is assumed that around this time, these flashbacks are going to get worse, and all the family can do is go on as normal until Will wants to talk about it. It’s clear these adults have no idea how bad things are going to get.
While Joyce and Will believe it’s all in their head, Jim Hopper, played by David Harbour, is dealing with something more tangible. In between listening to town complaints about a Russian spy girl with superpowers (wonder who that could be?), he’s checking out some pumpkins that have mysteriously rotted overnight. Unless these are some pumpkin/banana hybrids, neither pumpkins nor any other gourd species rots this quickly. The farmer suspects poison, but after hearing something in the cornfield, Hopper suspects something worse. With no evidence, however, he goes home to find a half-eaten waffle on the table.
Finally, the most exciting scene. Actually, it’s heartbreaking, but what the scene suggests, is worth the wait. Barb is dead. There’s no denying that. Barbara’s parents, however, have no idea.
When Nancy, Barb’s friend and Mike’s older sister, played by Natalie Dyer, visits Barb’s parents, she finds out that they sold their house to pay an investigative journalist to find their daughter. Unable to take the guilt, Nancy hides in the bathroom. This was one of the most controversial things about last season – Barb was all but forgotten. From this moment however, we can only hope that Barb might just have justice at last.
Overall, very exciting developments are in store. Will is somehow connected to the Upside Down, Hopper has potentially been harboring a fugitive and Barb might finally be laid to rest. My theory, before watching the rest of the series, is that Will is the leak to the Upside Down. What do you speculate will happen next? Oh, let’s be honest- you binged it all in one go, didn’t you?
Written by Sydnee Brashears.
