Stranger Things Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street

I'm having a hard time keeping all the names straight so here we go:

The Party:

• Mike: Dungeon Master Kid
• Lucas: Intense Kid
• Dustin: Comedic Goofy Kid
• Eleven: Kid with Psychic Powers

NPCs:

• Joyce Byers: Winona! Mother of Will, who is missing
• Jonathan Byers: Her teenage son
• Officer Jim Hopper: A hard drinking copper with a tragic past
• Nancy: Mike's sister
• Steve: Her lame wanna-be boyfriend
• Dr. Martin Brenner: Matthew Modine, agent looking for Eleven

The kids have rescued Eleven and they brought her to Mike's house. They give her some clothes and she's not so keen on being shut in the bathroom.

Mike decides to hide her in the house for the night. They don't want their parents to know that they are out looking for Will late at night.

Eleven lets Mike know bad people are after her, and they want her dead.

The sister is in school. Oh no, it's the boyfriend. This sleazy dork is having a party - no parents. Ahh excellent, she sees Will's brother and is nice to him. I see where we're going here and I like it!

Mike is skipping school and we're going to do an E.T. thing with Eleven at home.

Joyce goes to buy a phone. I love frazzled Winona.

The agents come to Joyce's house wearing radiation suits. Nobody's home. They make a beeline for the shed where that thing took Will.

Eleven sees a picture of Will. She knows him. Mike's mom comes home and he has to hide Eleven in a closet. She has a flashback to Modine in the lab forcing her into a little confined area. She kept yelling "papa," I think. So maybe Modine is her dad. Quite an alarming flashback. I have no idea what the heck these alien things do.

The cop is called to check out Benny the dead diner guy. Poor guy. The agents made it look like he shot himself. Hopper questions a dude and learns about Eleven. From the description, Hopper thinks the kid might be Will.

Hopper's got some serious beard problems. It's just not happening on the sides. I'll tell you what though, I get the feeling Hopper always gets his man.

Will's brother goes to his dad's to look for Will. He's not there. His dad doesn't seem to care that Will is missing. What a turd.

Back at Mike's, his friends come over. Lucas flips out and wants to tell Mike's mom. This kid does not mess around. Then Eleven forces the door closed with telekinesis.

That night, the cops find a pipe that leads into the mysterious research compound. They wonder if Will went in there.
 

Sister is going to the party. Her friend, who is quintessentially early 80's, informs her that the boyfriend dude just wants to get in her pants. That's right, you tell her! Oh jeez, she doesn't believe her.

Eleven tries to explain to the kids where Will is. He's hiding from.. Demogorgon! Pants-crapping ensues. Great scene.

Will's brother, Jonathan, is going into the woods at night. Come on, Jonathan. Don't! Ohh he's going in, all right. He takes some pictures. He hears screams. It turns out it's the lame boyfriend's party.

OK, now it gets weird. Sister chugs a beer. She peer pressures her friend into doing the same, but the friend cuts her hand accidentally. Man that was awkward. Now Jonathan starts taking pictures of them. Dude. Come on, now.

Joyce gets another creepy phone call. Her phone gets fried again. Yikes. Lights flicker.. Will's boom box starts playing. Holy.. a thing starts coming out of the wall.

Joyce runs right out of the house. Good gawd. That was scary with headphones on.

She goes into her car.. oh man, she's going back in the house! She wants to know where her kid is.

Meanwhile, the sister tells her friend to just go home. Friend is crushed. The sister goes into boyfriend's room, which of course has a poster of a woman in a bikini and a framed photo of a sports car. She takes her shirt off. And look at that, Jonathan the creeper is still taking pictures as they make out.

Sister's friend is bummed out, sitting on the diving board of lame boyfriend's pool. Jonathan takes pictures of her. Jonathan, this is way out of hand.

A drop of blood from her wound drips into the pool. Uh oh. Stuff is happening. A thing is behind her! It eats her! Or something.

I took a screen cap. It's real dark and you really can't see anything, so I bumped up the contrast. Check this thing out:

Jonathan was messing with his camera and missed this event somehow.

Overall

Great episode! They're really giving us stuff. My one concern is that the weirdness won't be properly explained. If these creatures operate by rules, I want them to be explained eventually and be consistent.

Click here to continue on to episode 3.