But we’ll remember going there for quite some time.It’s been over a year since the first season of Stranger Things burst onto the scene, an enthralling mashup of eighties pop culture iconography that garnered huge critical and commercial acclaim. There’s a chance we might not visit Hawkins, Indiana again. It’s a beautiful, fitting send-off to a great character, a great season, and a great show. We see him sit at his table and write from the heart, in his own way. As Eleven reads the script he wrote for the heart to heart that never happened, his voice brings the words to life. Jonathan laments that 17 years of his life have been packed away in just one day, but his goodbye to Nancy is touching and heartfelt.
Eleven confesses to Mike that she heard him say he loved her back at the cabin - and she tells him she loves him too. And that means we have some tearful goodbyes.
But the sad news is that Joyce, Will, Jonathan, and Eleven are moving away. Dustin is being relentlessly mocked by Lucas and Max for singing a duet with Suzie. Steve and Robin get jobs at a video store. With the Battle of Starcourt over, the kids are trying to settle into normal life. We jump three months into the future for the epilogue.
I hope there won’t be a fourth season, in part because I don’t know how Stranger Things would function without him.įashionably late, the Army arrives. The knowing nod he gives to Joyce in his final seconds is heartbreaking. The second is that the destruction of the machine will also kill Hopper. The first is that Joyce has to turn both keys on her own. Hopper is able to throw the goon into the machine, which damages it but also prevents him from making his way back to the control room. Meanwhile, Russian Terminator catches up with Hopper in the lab, and they fight - this time to the death.
Free of the Mind Flayer’s corruption, he holds it back to save Eleven, sacrificing himself in the process. Billy is able to easily overpower the kids and present El to the Mind Flayer, but before it can gobble her up Lucas, Will, Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, and Robin arrive with Chekhov’s fireworks, kicking off a visually stunning sequence in which El is able to get through to Billy by referencing his childhood, his mother, and his happiness. Still, I can forgive “The Battle of Starcourt” some small missteps, as there’s an awful lot of awesome stuff here. This is the only part of Stranger Things Season 3, Episode 8 that I’m not entirely sure works. He has put Suzie on the same frequency band as everyone else, so the entire cast has to listen to the pair of them belt out a duet. Luckily, he knows someone who does: Suzie! She’s real! Unfortunately, because Dustin hasn’t contacted her for a week and immediately wants a favor, she won’t budge until he sings. In the base, Hopper needs the Planck constant to open the vault, but Dustin can’t remember it. But they still don’t have a long-term plan. Without Eleven’s powers, the kids are stranded until Steve arrives in the nick of time to bail them out. Still, “The Battle of Starcourt” is underway. Hopper, Murray, and Joyce are able to sneak into the base disguised as Russians, and even plan a date while they’re at it - that kind of forward planning is never rewarded in this genre, guys! You should know that! Nancy and Jonathan will be chaperones for her and the other kids.Įxcept they won’t, because Billy has arrived and sabotaged their car, leaving them trapped in the mall with the Mind Flayer on the doorstep. Eleven wants to fight, but she can’t her powers have drained away, and to keep her safe, Hopper wants her away from the mall. That team is comprised of Hopper, Joyce, and Murray. Steven and Robin take Dustin and Erica to Dustin’s makeshift super-antenna so that they can beef up the radios and guide the infiltration team through the base. The gang needs to break into the Russian base, steal the keys from the vault, use the keys to destroy the machine and thus close the rift, then kill the Mind Flayer. After a brief recap of prior events, everyone goes over the plan. Yep, Hopper, Joyce, and Murray arrived at the Starcourt Mall, bringing the entire band back together.
Once the worm was yanked loose, it was tossed aside and crushed under Hopper’s boot. Eleven had to do it herself - telekinetically. Jonathan tried to cut the thing out with a knife, but only made a mess of the situation. Stranger Things Season 3, Episode 8 picked up where the previous one left off, with Eleven’s leg wound betraying the Mind Flayer’s parasitic presence.