Stranger Things – my thoughts, questions and musings.

Spoilers obviously.

I like TV-shows (and movies, books, games and whatnot) that keep me thinking. So Lost, for instance, as a famous example, made me go all nerdy with time-travel theory, inter dimensional travel and Foulcault’s pendulum.

Stranger Things made me go all nerdy once again as I tried to imagine what the second season might bring. Or, more to the point, what I’d like to see happen in the second season. So in a kind of top-ten-list sort of way I’m just going to throw my predictions, thoughts and wishes out there.

Did I mention that this article is rather spoiler heavy?

It is!

Smaller things.

 

Barbara’s legacy.
Barbara is dead. We know that now. But I do wish that the show would focus a bit on the fallout of her death. Who knows maybe a (previously unmentioned) brother is out for revenge (a direct plotpoint from a famous 80s Jamie Lee Curtis slasher). After the first season I couldn’t help myself but feeling that the tragedy of her demise was merely glanced at. A bit more of a ripple effect would be nice. The same kind of goes for the kind restaurant proprietor and the other disappearances.

The love triangle.
The love triangle between Jonathan, Nancy and Steve. I liked how Steve became a good guy at the end. But still my fanfiction mind was feeling slightly broken hearted (*sob*). So maybe, next season we can either get Nancy and Jonathan together or; get Jonathan a girlfriend of his own (who he can photograph all he wants).

Steve’s friends.
Then there are Steve’s evil friends. I really want those bastards to get hurt in some way or another (they are THAT good at being despicable). So, I hope the show brings them back just so they can get eaten by some monster. 

Bigger things.

Eleven’s fate.
The big question. And I think the most obvious one to answer. Eleven is alive and well living in the forest. Why else would sheriff Hopper go out there and put those waffles in the box?
No, the questions are rather: ‘where’ is she? Is she in our world or the upside down world? And ‘how’ is she. I mean, she and the Demogorgon did defragment – so maybe she’s some kind of ghost-being.

There isn’t anything to go on on that matter so we’ll just have to wait and see. What I do hope that will happen in the next season is for Eleven to be a bit more of a victim. Hear me out on this one:
Throughout season one Eleven was the girl who arrived just in time to help the boys. She helped them with the bullies, she helped them escape the evil-men-with-guns, she even went to the dark-place to find their missing friend. And what did she get in return? Nothing tangible, only friendship.
So I would like, in the next season, for the boys to make an effort for them to earn her friendship. She helped them out numerous times. Now, it’s time for them to help her out.

One small note here: Eleven did kill several people! Usually, people who commit murder die themselves in a bit of ‘Hollywood karma’. So I do wonder what Eleven will be put through in the next season to level this out.

Will’s fate.
The other big question: What in-the-name-of-Kermit is wrong with Will? Here we have a boy puking slimy worms (Just like that deliciously uncomfortable scene in Neil Gaiman’s The ocean at the end of the lane) –that’s not healthy.
What I like about Will is that he’s pretty much been absent for most of the first season. So we –the audience- got to know all the other kids and characters. But we don’t really know anything about Will. There’s still a distance. We got a few snippets here and there. He appears to be intelligent, (extremely) caring and creative –that’s what we got sofar.

So it’s interesting to see how this ‘unknown’ character plays out in the new season. And what this secret of his might steer him into. Who knows maybe caring Will is slowly becoming a villain. Wouldn’t that be cool? A superpowered Will versus Eleven.

The sheriff’s fate.
One smaller question is of course the Sheriff’s current allegiance. Some men in suits ordered him in the car in one scene. And in the next he’s putting waffles and Tupperware Christmas dinner in a box in the woods.
The most obvious answer is that the Sheriff has taken on the dual role of protector (father figure) of Eleven and the intermediary for the government organization. Which will be interesting to see how this plays out. Especially since the show made such a point of the fact that he has lost his own daughter –and still hasn’t really gotten over it (I doubt anybody could). Eleven can fill the ‘hole in his heart’ as it were. But I do wonder what the evil government guys feel about that?

Dr. Brenner’s fate. (Please don’t let him be dead!)
I loved this cold and calculated villain (‘Jippy, my daughter just killed two guards…it’s Christmas!’). So why shoehorn in a new government representative next season if we already got this wonderful bastard?
But, I can understand if Dr. Brenner is truly dead. Apart from the undeniable fact that a close encounter with the monster usually doesn’t bode well for any long-term health plans. I can also understand that, because he’s the one who caused the ‘rip’ in the dimensional fabric, taking this character out of the equation solves any lingering story strands on responsibility and accountability.

I do, however, wish to find out if he truly was Eleven’s “Papa”. I think he was. And I think there are more secrets in his past that could prove interesting. So with him (probably) dead and eaten -you can’t ask him anymore- time to find out what else Dr. Brenner was cooking up in that military compound. For starters what happened with the ten children before Eleven?

The bully’s fate.
So let’s see if I got this right: In an attempt to murder somebody with a switchblade, while ordering somebody else to (basically) commit suicide by jumping off a cliff, you get your arm broken. Your next order of business is to go to the police to get your own back.
That boy was lucky that Sheriff Hopper had other things on his mind at that time because I wouldn’t be so kind.
Now, I want the kid back next season and this time helping out a bit, making amends. But I think chances are very likely that, if he is returning, his fate is going to be a bit darker that a mere broken arm. 

Stranger things.

The monster’s fate.
The monster is dead. We know that. But Sheriff Hopper also found an egg in the upside-down world. So how many eggs are there left? And, more importantly: where is mommy? Are there more monsters coming? I do hope so because ‘flowerhead’ (as I lovely call him) was a doozy.

One thought that crossed my mind as I watched the show - when we learned that the monster is attracted to blood. If I remember Japanese culture correctly: if a boy spies on a girl in a not-so-gentleman fashion he gets a nosebleed. Since taking pictures of half-naked girls isn’t very gentleman-like, in Japan, poor Jonathan would have been screwed.

The upside-down world.
I love how the show handled the idea of a parallel dimension. I don’t know whether it’s intentional or accidental –anyway, it works beautifully. Because the big problems with these world encompassing things is that the show makers have to bring it down to a small level.

So person of interest, for instance, has a world controlling supercomputer but only shows what takes place in New York. The Strain, as another example, deals with a worldwide vampire apocalypse but, again, only focuses on New York. And this is where the difference lies between those shows and Stranger Things. In person of interest and the Strain the show makers force themselves to focus on that small part of the big picture.
In Stranger Things, however, it’s the other way around. Because the interdimensional gate is set in (Stephen?) Hawkins Indiana there is no point of showing the upside-down world in Tokio Japan.
So even though we can assume that the upside-down world is global the story is helpfully constrained to that little town in the USA because that’s where the only door is. 

Some things.

So what’s my prediction for the next season? I’m assuming that a new monster will pop up. And since the monster can make its own gateways –its hunting ground might become a bit bigger. So there’s going to be a lot more upside-down world travels and some weird Lovecraftian encounters. It’s going to be a fun (for me the viewer – I don’t think the characters will like it) ride to explore.
So there you have it. My musings about the next season of Stranger Things. In a year time I’ll find out whether I was right about any of these (wishful) thinkings.