Sunday 8 September 2019

Stranger Things: Season 3, Chapter Six- E Pluribus Unum

“You remind him of a fat Rambo...”

Dustin and co see the big Russian lab, they see the portal into the Upside Down... and things get chaotic. They run. Meanwhile, in the hospital, the monster, which looks absolutely bloody terrifying, is after Nancy and Jonathan. It's not exactly a relaxed beginning, and the monster really does look awesome, and clearly not all CGI.

The resolution is, of course, Eleven shoving it forcibly out of the window, from whence it oozes under the ground, returning to its home. More bad stuff ensues with the Mayor, who is completely under the control of the big boss Russian man, and with the Fourth of July going on and stuff, the anniversary of the Americans' independence from, er, us.

The scenes where Hopper, Joyce and Conspiracy Theorist Bloke interrogate Russian Alexis with brinkmanship threats of giving him the wrong flavour of drink from Burger King, a torture method almost as notorious as the comfy chair, are comedy gold. But these methods get results, and Joyce and Jim hear of the Russian attempt to open a portal to the Upside Down, right there in Indiana, beneath their feet, with the finest Soviet scientists in an impregnable fortress impossible to breach, guarded by the mightiest Soviet warriors. Getting in is simply impossible.

Meanwhile, having got in, unarmed kids Dustin and the splendid Erica are comparing notes. Erica now knows everything- and, wonderfully, her only note of scepticism is that her nerdy brother Lucas was part of it. Meanwhile, Steve and Robin are being interrogated by non-comfy chair methods, not a pleasant experience, especially when one’s interrogators won’t believe the truth. But at least there is a blatant connection between them being developed and it’s blatant that they will end up together. And Robin is really, really cool.

The kids, meanwhile, are progressing the main plot strand and, rather cutely, Mike accidentally blurts out to his friends that he loves El. Aaaw. El has the dangerous mission to psychically locate the Mind Flayer’s HQ via Billy, which she does, but not without a horrific tour of Bully’s abusive childhood; I hope his dad suffers an unpleasant death, I suppose, but sadly he represents a real life horror not hiding behind metaphor, rather than the fantastic.

Except.. it was all a trap. Billy’s final speech is chilling. The Mind Flayer now has El where it wants her and can see through her- and it plans to kill everyone...

Yep. That was bloody excellent, as per usual.

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