Stranger Things 2: Episodes 1 – 3 recap and review

Stranger Things 2 publicity photo. Image courtesy Netflix

Hopper and Eleven

As most of us knew before the season even began, Eleven escapes the Upside Down. Basically, she just crawls out without any explanation as to how her body put itself back together. (Not, at least, within the first three episodes.) The first thing she does when she’s free is to return to Mike’s house. But when she sees the police interrogating him, she decides to leave and spend a few months in the woods where she nearly freezes to death and lives on a diet of Eggo’s and squirrels. Eventually, she and Hopper reunite and he takes her to a cabin on the outside of town that used to belong to his grandfather.

At first, it appears that Hopper and Eleven have really nailed down their routine. They lay tripwire around the cabin, invent a special knock and use Morse code through the radio to communicate. But as time goes on, Eleven becomes more restless and frustrated that she can’t see Mike. No matter how many times Hopper explains that it’s not safe, or how many Eggos he feeds her, or what story he tries to read to her — he is, in fact, trying really hard — he obviously doesn’t know how to raise children at this age. Especially not the kind that can slam doors with her mind.

Unfortunately, Eleven’s isolation drives her to the brink as she begins the search for her mother. I still wish we had more moments between Hopper and Eleven, though. I understand they’re both trying to replace something. But there’s a moment where Hopper reaches across the table and ruffles Eleven’s hair, and it just hits such a visceral note. Like, here’s the gruff police chief with super mid-Hellboy dadbod trying his best to keep not just Eleven, but the whole damn town safe, putting out little fires left and right, and we still don’t know the nature of his agreement with the government.

Then, we put him in the room with lovable, curly-haired pint Eleven who still doesn’t need to say more than three words to steal the entire scene and it’s just … such a wonderful dynamic to watch. Moreover, I think it speaks mostly to the power of each actor and the fact that it takes more than a minute to warm up to either of them.