”Science is neat, but I’m afraid it’s not very forgiving.”
On the one hand Hopper is being the conspiracy theorist hero, sneaking into the lab, pulling guns on people and being awesome. On the other, just as Joyce reaches her lowest ebb, her mansplaining wanker of an ex turns up, telling her he’s crazy, telling Jonathan his Evil Dead poster is “inappropriate”, and generally acting as though he’s in charge although he’s spent an indeterminate amount of time not being there. I can’t stand men like that and I hope he dies. So there.
Hopper is caught and creepily deposited on his sofa, surrounded by carefully placed empty cans of undrinkable lager. But he’s not fooled for one moment, and goes through everything electronic in his house until he finds it- The Big. Clever. I like how this initially unlikeable sheriff has become such a hero. Go Hopper.
Jonathan and Nancy are on the case too, sticking up to hunt the creature; this episode seems to be a turning point. Plus the boys ask their favourite teacher about how other dimensions work, which gives us a cool scene. We begin to realise that a portal into said other dimension must exist. And Lucassoon realised that compass directions are distorted- they can follow north to find the portal. Surely things can’t be that easy?
Well, no. Eleven sabotages the boys’ hunt through telekinesis as she knows the danger they would be in- and there’s a massive row. And this leads to Lucas getting hurt and a lot of drama, leading to weird and unsettling flashbacks for Eleven. But there’s progress on other fronts as Hopper confers with Joyce, finds her bug and reveals that Will’s body is just a big fake. The people doing the digging are finally comparing notes with each other.
But the monster hunt with Nancy and Jonathan gives us the most dramatic moment as Jonathan shoots a dying deer.. and it vanishes in an unexpected and bloody effective jump scare. Then Nancy finds a portal in a hole in a tree, just like a fairy tale, and goes inside to find a very weird place... and the monster. It’s a superb ending to a superb episode and, just when you think it can’t get any better, the closing titles are to the wonderful “Killing Moon” by Echo and the Bunnymen...
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