Stranger Things: Season 3, Chapter Three- The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

“What is happy screams...?”

We begin with a reminder of what decade it is as El and Max perv over, er, Ralph Macchio. But we then move to an interesting little episode of various parallel bits of detective work. It’s also an interesting episode for character- after discussing the Mike situation with Max, El uses her powers to spy on the boys(!) and heats lots of outrageous sexism and, fortunately for the requirements of the plot, no mention of the fact that this is all Hopper’s fault. Yet. This is the episode where Hopper is pretty smug, something which I suspect won’t last. I’ve noticed this season he’s been more of a comedy character, though, not written so three dimensionally. I hope that doesn’t last.

But we then turn to Billy, and doing the same thing with him weirdness... and him doing something dodgy to a girl. Meanwhile Steve, Dustin and Robin... well, just Robin- translate the Russian message and decide what it means- there’s some kind of exciting Cold War spycraft going on at the mall- and yes, I’ll get back to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy very soon! Joyce is investigating the magnets, dates with Hopper be damned. Finally we have Nancy and Jonathan pushing the rat story, although the sexist men running the paper are still sexist dicks.

This may be an obvious plot structure but it allows things to move forward while the characters can breathe. We have Dustin and Steve having, well, the most childish chat ever, while Will is genuinely upset at his friends for letting the party split apart and obsessing over girls rather than play D&D with him. I’m not sure about the implication that D&D is for kids- I’m a husband and father who works full time and while, yes, it’s a time consuming hobby, I played it as recently as earlier this year. And I’m 42. But the broader character point Rings very true; puberty and change can test friendships.

Joyce and Hopper also find some dodgy motorcyclist frequenting the dirty lab, which Joyce suspects to be the source of the magnetic weirdness, another plot thread, while Mrs Driscoll is suddenly behaving like a rat. And there we have Billy, and the girl he attacked, recruiting her parents to their creepy little cult- one of whom is the editor of the local paper.

It’s all largely set-up three episodes in, with more mystery than threat, but the characters, azevwr, keep us hooked.