House of R - ‘Stranger Things’ Season 1 Revisited

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Mal and Jo are back in Hawkins and the Upside Down for a rewatch of ‘Stranger Things’ in the run-up to the fifth and final season. First up: Revisiting Season 1! They talk about their original experience with the show and hand out some superlatives! (00:00) Intro(06:21) Opening Snapshot(29:48) Favorite Episode(36:43) Most Important Friendship(48:19) Funniest Moment(51:34) Most Emotional Moment(01:01:24) Scariest Moment(01:08:41) Most Electric Moment(01:14:22) Best Coming-of-Age Moment(01:19:00) Honoring the Nerds(01:25:32) Best Quote(01:27:31) Most Memorable Visual(01:33:35) Goopiest Goop(01:35:50) The Internet Was Wrong About This(01:41:29) Favorite Pop Culture Reference(01:45:02) Most Potent Use of '80s Nostalgia(01:46:55) Fit Lord(01:49:46) Best Needle Drop(01:51:33) Most Netflix-y Subtitle(01:52:32) Most Enticing Endgame Setup(02:01:57) Biggest Season 5 Question(02:10:24) Season 1 MVP Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna RobinsonProducers: Carlos Chiriboga and John RichterSocial: Jomi AdeniranAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greetings. And welcome to House of Arr, a ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory and Rubin. Joining me today, something's coming. Something hungry for blood, something hungry for pods. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activio yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of probiotics and 20 years of scientific expertise, Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual. Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive

discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has returned and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger, and a ruthless rival range. willing to protected secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dunton Ranch starring Colehauser Kelly Riley, Annette Benning, and Ed Harris now streaming on Paramount Plus.

It's Joanna Robinson. Yeah, hungry for blood. That's me. Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, do you copy? Over? Over. Hey, buddy. Hi, pal.

Oh, Joanna, we are here to talk about stranger things. we are here to revisit Stranger Things Season 1, but also in doing so to begin our larger Stranger Things Rewatch, our months-long March to the final season, to Season 5. Next month, we will be revisiting season 2. In August, we will be revisiting season 3. In September and October, that's our plan as of now. We will be revisiting the double volume drop of season 4. And then, of course, we will have new pods on all of the season five drops. Thrilled to be back in Hawkins with you, thrilled to be back in the upside down with you.

I can't wait to revisit this story together. This has been really fun to rewatch this season of the last couple weeks. Absolutely. A joy. A joy. Before we decide today whether to cast protection or fireball, though, some very quick programming reminders

about some other stuff that we're covering as well. Next week, Squid Game 3. It is the third and final season of squid game. So they say, so we think. So we will be back in another Netflix binge next week with a couple episodes on the newest squid game season. Meanwhile, over on the Ring Reverse, the Midnight Boys. A pew-poo-poo! We'll be covering the second drop of Ironheart and Jurassic World. They'll be doing both of those next week. Joanna, I'd like to ask you an important question. How can the folks follow along? Oh my gosh, great question. I suggest you subscribe to our pod, House of R and also to the Ring orverse. Why not while you're at it? Follow us on social. We're on TikTok. We're on Instagram. We're on Twitter. We're all over the place. So follow us there. You can watch us, of course, on the Spotify app or on YouTube on video. What a delight. What a joy. There will be some video clips in this pod today. So you might, if you want to gaze upon the adorable children and beleaguered adults of Hawkins, Indiana, you can, you can, you can, you can, you can, watch us on the video platform if you're choosing. You can always email us,

hobbits and dragons at gmail.com. That's right. We got at least one beleaguered adult here today on Zoom as well. I'm a little under the weather. It's both of us. No, you're in the bloom and vibrancy and youth. You're slowly dying. I have surgery today. We're doing really, really well. Nothing was going to keep us from this pod, though.

Everything's fun. Joanna. Mallory. We usually issue a friendly neighborhood spoiler warning, and it's a pretty obvious one today. All of Stranger Things. This is, of course,

a season one revisited pod, and so we will be primarily focusing on everything that happens in season one that left a mark on us. However, we want to be clear with folks, this is a re-watch. Yeah.

of season five, in essence, we are building toward the final season. And so we will be talking about things from other seasons as well today. Would you say mostly, though, that will be confined to like the last couple categories that we're going to hit today? I think that the final categories will be the most prominent. And so if anybody wants to avoid them, we have a couple like end game set up, look ahead prompts at the end today. I do think some, and then this ends up being a thing in season three or like this is a through line might naturally come up today. I would say it's probably going to be like a 90% season one and then some other, you know, Harbingers of Future Doom or Young Love either as we go. So everyone has been warned, but hopefully if you are watching

Stranger Things for the first time, this is a safe and welcoming space. You can also always save the pods and come back when you're caught up. And if you like us are like, wait a minute, the first season of Stranger Things came out nearly one decade ago in the year 2016 in the month of July. I need a refresher. Then, boy, do we have a pod for you. So here's how we're going to do this day. Because, you know, something that we tend to do in the House of ours do two to three-hour podcasts on one hour of television. When we are instead talking about eight hours of TV and one podcast, we can't go quite as deep, of course. So we are going to do another favorite thing of ours, which is hit some highlights in category form. We have, much as we did for our Batman Begins Pod recently, 20 categories today.

It's a lot. But a lot of them are going to be zippy. I'm so excited because as usual, we'll be surprising each other with our picks. I'm so excited and genuinely interested to see what level of overlap we have because we covered season four together in real time. We had the pleasure of covering season four together. So we have a sense certainly of some of our shared passions. That was several years ago. That was years ago.

We've changed us people. Do I remember? Do I remember? I'm as human beings? No. So, you know, we'll see. A lot of surprises await. Okay, Joe, listen, friends don't lie.

It's time to pod. But in Snapshot. We just mentioned that we potted about season four together. You also noted that that was many moons ago, many years ago. So just before. before we dive into season one is like a very quick primer, a very quick refresher for anybody who didn't listen to our season four first watch pods. What is your overall relationship to stranger things? Yeah, so I was definitely at Vene Fair when the first season premiered, I'm sure I told this exact

same story on the season four pod, but I have such a strong memory of this, which is that I got this greeters. It was a time in Netflix's original programming that there wasn't so much content that I couldn't possibly watch all of, you know, so I was watching every single Netflix show that they sent our way. And this was just not on people's radars very much at all. You know, Ors the New Black was so huge. Hustod's So Cards is so huge. But this is just like a silly little Winona Ryder. Oddity and Winona Ryder obviously had been in sort of like a massive, you know, she had done Black Swan, but she was like pretty much in like a career decline at the time. It was like a nostalgia oddity.

What is this Winona writer 80s thing, horror thing? And I started watching and I was just blown away by the first episode. The score, when the sin score comes in, the font. I got it. Like just everything. And I had, I think kind of recently been watching a bunch of horror classics like Halloween and all of those, like sort of filling in some gaps of my classic horror education because horror wasn't like a huge genre in my household growing up. And then I also had these

really fun memories of when I was in college and we would stay in Davis for summer session and it was like really sticky hot outside. Like so hot outside. We would watch horror movies sometimes on summer nights and we were there for summer session. And so it just felt like summer. I felt like, I felt like melted popsicles and like screen doors swinging. And like that's what it felt like to me to watch these first episodes of Stranger Things. And as much as I've enjoyed the journey since, and I really enjoyed covering season four with you, I think season one is by far the pinnacle of what the show ever was. And again, that's not a huge knock on the other seasons. I just think this was like came out of nowhere. It was originally meant to be just like an

anthology show. But Netflix was so captivated by what the Duffer's created inside of this set of characters in Hawkins, Indiana. They're like, actually, can you build out the mythology of this world? And then the show was like this massive phenomenon and just got so huge beyond anyone's wildest imagination. So, yeah, that was my Stranger Things Season 1 experience. How about you? Yeah, I love the show just broadly.

It's been a big part of the last nine years of my life. You know, I've rewatched it many times. I really enjoy revisiting it every time. Season one was not a day one this has dropped as a binge, and I have anticipated it and have sat down and carved out eight hours. But, like, you know, that was year one of the ringer. I'll be returning later to some 2016 ringer discourse about season one of Stranger Things in one of our categories today.

Okay, all right. I've gone into the blog archives, so I'm excited to read a couple passages to you. Excellent. Written by none other than Chris Ryan, him. stay tuned, folks. If that's not, if that's an enticement to stay tuned, I don't know what it is,

god damn it. What a tease. But within, you know, days, the buzz was genuinely inescapable. It was a true sensation, like a true craze. And I also have a very vivid memory of sitting down to watch it for the first time

and just being like utterly captivated. I'm so excited to go through the first season with you today and talk about the things that either like maybe stand out anew to us now, revisiting it. Again, I'd like to just say once more nearly a decade later, they're still making the show nearly a decade later. Many of the child characters are now in their 30s. Yeah. What a time. Well, the kids, so the young kids are now about the age of the older kids were. Were when they started. Yeah. And the like original teens are now like 33.

Yeah. It's wild time. And I've, I've enjoyed to, you know, varying degrees every subsequent season. I think my power ranking currently is 1, 4, 3, 2. That sounds right. I'm curious to see if that holds up as we go. I will say, though, like, 3 is much closer to 4 in my estimation than to 2. I think I'm higher on 3 the most. I have, like, an incredible amount of affection for season 3. And that's one of the things I'm actually most excited about in the entire project is getting to season 3 with you and talking about, like, being a kid going to the mall and going to the community pool and stuff. I just like, of course, Hoppers Hawaiian shirt goes what's not saying. But I'll say it anyway. So you mentioned the viewership, the reception. Let's just quickly contextualize some of that to the extent that we ever can with a Netflix show where this stuff is like tightly guarded in a black box and is as difficult to access as the upside down unless you have found the mother gate. Per a variety article from 2016, which was sharing data from Symphony Advanced Media, Season one was at the time, at the time, the third most watched Netflix series to date. That was behind Fuller House.

And Orange, you mentioned Orange is the New Black, Orange is the New Black season four. Fulair House. That's astounding. When I came across it, I was like, that's the thing I forgot existed. Wow. Currently, Netflix has a, like, keeps a running list of the top 10, you know, most viewed seasons. And two Stranger Things seasons are in that top 10 per Netflix season, four checks in at number three and season three checks in at number 10. And I would say that just

bodes well for season five. And that's something else that we should kind of in like a big picture way note here. And this was not the case coming out of season one. Coming out of season one, it was just like, when are we getting more? Is this the best thing that is happening? Coming out of season two, which was, you know, a little less warmly received and less beloved, though, you know, still plenty of affection for it. We entered a cycle of the run-up and part because of just the massive gaps in time, the weights between seasons of like, are people still going to care about stranger things? Do people still want stranger things?

Is anybody going to watch stranger things? And then season three and season four were both also hugely watched, but also well-received and well-liked. And season four was like a craze. So that's pretty fun. When season five drops, it will have been three and a half years between seasons. And so I think that narrative will be present again, but also like it's the end of one of the biggest shows of last decade of physique guys. I don't think after what happened with season four,

there is to get that question with season five. And I think season four, we loved it. We covered it. We had, there was a lot for us to love about it. I also rank it second. But I also think there's this combination of like COVID, the emergence of TikTok. Like there were so many TikTok memes about the season. Eddie Munson is like this huge, like social media phenomenon.

So I think like. Kate Bush rising up the charts. Yeah, exactly. Kate Bush. So I feel like content-wise, I think it is a solid, should have just been one season, but that's fine, solid split season. And then circumstantially, I think there was a lot of things that brought eyeballs back to a show that maybe people had, you know, sort of stopped thinking about for a little while. Yeah. Interesting. I'm curious to see how with season five dropping in, not one nor two, but three parcels, all megacized, as we understand it, not in terms of episode

volume, but in terms of the length of every episode? All holidays. A lot of Stranger Things movies to watch on Netflix over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's essentially. And folks, we'll be here to podcast about all of it because we love you. Happy holidays. This is a nugget that I found, who knows what any of this means again with Netflix, but I thought this was just, again, something that maybe spoke to what you're identifying about that really instantly gripping nature of season one. This was not a show. show that had to work to build to a mass interest. There's a Washington Post article from nearly a decade ago. It's like really throwing me. I haven't all these like, how, my God,

how old are we moments lately? I talked about this on our 28 years later pod, but listening to Alfie Williams, who's 14, the young star that show, talk about like what's your obsession, puck culture obsession. And he was like, stranger things. I remember when I first started watching that show and I'm like, I don't know when that was because he was four when season what came out. And like, I don't know. At one point he was like, maybe he was 10. I don't know when he was allowed to watch Stranger Things, but he's just like,

this thing that's been existing is almost as long as I've been alive. And I'm like, that's a lot to take in. It makes me feel quite old. And as decrepit as our dear season four, Palvechina. Mallory is infirm today and I'm having surgery. So we're doing fine. So this Washington Post piece was citing some Netflix data that, you know, one of the things in Netflix likes to study and occasionally like plop out into the world is here's the thing we actually will share is when they hook, the hook episode, like when they hook. And the way that they define that is like 70% of the audience that gets to that episode finishes the season.

And first season, one of strangers things, the hook episode was episode two. Basically, if you started the show, you finished it. Yeah. Which is just like, amazing. There's a lot of TV out there and a lot of binge drops, especially in this era. And the fact that people are like, I'm going to finish all eight hours of this and I'm going to do it without complaint and frankly, joy in my heart. What a thing. A lot of TV out there, a lot of binge drop.

But again, nine years ago, a much sparser field, it was so much easier to be on top of everything nine years ago. Both as people who talk about television and people who want to watch all of the television. 450, like, screeners in my inbox thing was still a minute away. Yeah. Like, Disney Plus wasn't a thing. You know, Apple TV Plus wasn't a thing. Prime Video was like barely, it was like Netflix had this chokehold. The streaming wars were.

And you know what? Guess what? So it still does. Netflix still does. But the streaming wars is a crowded field, truly. Critical response, fan response. Our old pal rotten tomatoes imperfect, deeply flawed metric. Here's what that had to say about Stranger Things season one.

97% on the old tomato meter, Joe, the critics. 96% on the popcorn meter, the audience score. 76 on Metacritic. People like season one of Stranger Things. They sure did. Let's very quickly prime some of the additional context. You've noted, like, the Winona Ryder of it all already. Some of this is just like, who were the key players?

So Netflix. Okay, the ability to put something in the world, bank to whatever extent, any streamer, could at that point on a lot of eyeballs, at least knowing a thing was there in the carousel on their home screen, et cetera, right? Just like awareness at scale, the binge drop, of course. And to your summer point, while season one is, of course, set in the fall, set in November, it did come out in the height of summer, mid-July. Some of the other key players in addition to Netflix, the cast, that combination and that particular

Stranger Things Alchemy of tapping into like 80s or 90s nostalgia with the adult cast. Not for everyone, but for some. And then the... Basically in season one, just Winona. Just Winona. And then it'll build. And then it'll build, yeah. And then the gold mine of finding these young actors who were wonderful are in balance with the adults.

Like, David Harbour, my personal favorite. And when owner-writer have, like, lead billing on the show. It's, I think it was striking at the time, but it's particularly striking on a rewatch where you're just like, yeah, this actually isn't, it was never intended to be, and it also isn't an execution. Skeleton crew, say, a show we love. Right. Where, like, the adults are kind of other than Judd, like incidental to the story. They're not actually carrying equal weight. This story, while the children are the heartbeat of it in their relationships, as we'll discuss today, or the heartbeat of it is really balanced across the kid, teen, and adult character.

In season one, in a remarkable way. And then I think that balance shifts in later seasons. And I think nowhere do you see this more than in something like Karen Wheeler, played by Carabono being like, she's so much more present in this season than, you know, I mean, barring her phenomenal turn at the swimming pool later. But like, you know, she's so much. But she's so much more of a character this season than she will be in later seasons. And like, even though Carabona will retain. you know, not recurring but starring billing going forward. It's just sort of like, and this happens constantly across, you know, if you watch something,

Bill loves talk about this, but you watch like 902 or the O.C. Like a lot of those parent characters are so much more of a presence in early seasons. And then the sort of like teen stuff swallows the show a bit more. So much show that Cindy and Jim Walsh have to like leave the country. But like, I think that like. Obviously, Joyce and Hop remain very important. But I think the balance starts to tip towards. And like critics of the show, it's really been interesting for me to spend some time on the Stranger Things Reddit boards where there's like a small but vocal contingent of people who don't like anything past season one, which is like, you know, your own experience and that's fine.

But they're like, oh, then it became like a kid show and all about the ships and all about this, that, and the other thing. when season one was really a show for adults that kids happen to be in. And I'm like, I don't really agree with that. But I do agree that the balance of the equation tipped in future season. Just because these kids were so phenomenal, like the young kids, you know. Yeah. And there's also, like, then that core kid group fractures, like, just in terms of the pairings and people. It's not always, like, the same group together.

But also just in terms for the adult cast, the sheer volume of, like, people they have to make room for really expands. Like, obviously we will have our beloved Bob, Sam Owens, Dustin's mom enters. We meet Lucas's parents, et cetera. So there's just, like, more tonnage. And sadly, that comes at the expense, a little bit of Karen and a character I will be talking about elsewhere today. Ted? Yeah. I've got some TED content coming for you.

Fear not. Joe, this show is made by the Duffer Brothers. Matt and Ross, who knows. now have, after the success of Stranger Things, Upside Down Pictures, this overall deal with Netflix, they will be making more stories set in the stage show that they put on. Have you seen that? I didn't see it. But when I was in New York, there was just at, like, all the subways were just sort of, like,

papered with the ads for it. It was. I'm sure. If you're a Stager Things fan, I'm sure that is a super fun, like, theater experience. Similar to, I think, like, how people feel about going to see Chris Child. You just, like, want to be in the world longer. And I hear that, like, the stagecraft is very cool. similarly to crush a child.

Do they like send upside down particles like out into the... I have not seen it. Do they project them on the... I don't know. Bad babies, if you've seen it, let us know. Some of their key ingredients just to set the stage here before we dive into our categories, obvious one, but a big one. 80s nostalgia. In every respect.

The pop culture homages. Amblin, kids on bikes, E.T. The Goonies. Stand by me. overtly invoked by our core characters many times, obviously. Nothing could be more central to season one than Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Atari, video game culture, et cetera, on and on and on. The list goes, obviously the music, the walkie-talkies, all of it.

We have a category coming later on the 80s, so we'll talk about some of the aspects of that that gripped us the most. But the show is unmistakably, like the time frame is not incidental to the story. It is unmistakably set in small-town-town U.S. Hawkins, Indiana, in the early into, as we build across the seasons now late, the next final season is going to be set in 87. Exactly. 80s.

And the time period is a huge part of that, as are the other things that were happening in the early 80s and throughout the 80s, that are present in the character's life and fuel the world. Something I think that's really interesting when you think about Stranger Things. I think about it a lot in terms of a show, a much less popular, but nonetheless, I think an incredible show, freaks and geeks, which only had one season, which launched a bunch of careers, which Andy and I talked about on the Stick the Landing series that we did on PrestiTV, etc. A show that I loved, but a show that was made by people who were teenagers in the 80s. And so in the 70s into the 80s. And so they were like, this is our lived experience. We are, I am Sam Weir. I played these D&D games,

blah. The Duffers were born in like 84 or something like that. And so they weren't teens, they weren't even like the age of the youngest kids in the 80s, this is a show that is reflective of growing up, like, with 80s pop culture. So it's not like, I lived this. It's I saw this on television and this is my idea of it, which is there's nothing wrong with that, but it's a different engagement with the time. So, like, when you watch the nerds of freaks and geeks, again, a show that I love, like, you're like, oh, these writers just wrote down conversations they actually had in

middle and high school and stuff like that. And then when you watch these kids, you're like, this is someone who watched E.T. a lot made this show. And again, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I am more the Duffer's age than anything else. So like, but this is like nostalgia through the another lens of like sort of pop culture filter. That makes sense, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting watching this with Adam because he's a little older than me. And so a lot of the core pop culture tenants in the story, he was like, I was at the theater. And I was like when I was like in. Because I was born in 86, so I'm also similar age to the duffers. And yeah, I'm like, well, these were just the things that in, like, elementary school, in middle school, you started to think you, like, understood the world by consuming the things that clearly had been the biggest deal. And that's just really fun. I think, like, the other thing that, you know, we have to say about season one,

because whether you talk about it kind of, like, the concept, the key ingredients in the cauldron, even just like the first few trailers for it, how it was presented and positioned, the fact that this show, in season one undeniably, and I think still overall, managed to not just be like a reference factory,

not just be a pale pastiche, right, but its own wonderful, fully realized world that incorporated all of these elements of reference or influence as, strands in the DNA, but not the totality of the DNA, is, I think, a huge part of why it works and why it's proven lasting. Anything else you want to say before we dive into our stranger superlatives today, Joanna Robinson? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think, well, I just want to say, in addition to all of the pop culture stuff that you've talked about, D&D,

Stand By Me, all that sort of stuff like that, there is also this sort of like, and this is something that, this is when I love being friends with someone like Dave Gonzalez, who is is like a conspiracy theorist or a scholar of conspiracy theories more like. And so he'll be like, oh, well, this is based on this real thing that the government did or this thing that's signed, you know, and like, you know, this body in the quarry is this. And so it's like there's also this sort of governmental conspiracy, satanic panic. Statetic panic. Like all of that stuff, pulling from the culture as well as the pop culture inside of this exploration of the 80s, which is really good.

That's a great shout. And that stuff will obviously become more overtly textual in the subsequent seasons. When the Russians get a little more involved. Yes, exactly. And when Satanic Panic is a huge part of a plot line as well. But yeah, it's here from the jump. And then I guess the other thing that we haven't noted, and we'll come up later today in a category,

but should say in terms of just cementing time of place, the music. I mean, you know, the score you noted. The score is astounding. But the needle drops and the score and the way that they work together. It's like... Yeah, but that's synth, man. Yeah, it's great. It's great.

And also it's one of those things like... We've talked about this a lot with Star Wars music with the John Williams score and other scores that we love as well. But it is one of those things where you could be anywhere on any day and you could hear it and you would just be ported to a feeling. Yeah, and it's interesting because... So I told you that I was watching it with my friend Diana who's never seen it before. But she's hugely into synthwave and, like, play synthwave music all the time.

goes to synth wave concerts. And so she's just like, fuck yeah. And she was like, I think this is, and she like named the exact synth that she thought was playing and stuff like that. And I was like, oh, fantastic. Amazing. This is a different level that I could never operate on. But inside of the music world, there has been this massive wave of nostalgia for like the

synth 80s, Tangerie Dream, sort of like idea of things. And so that's been really fun too, to like know that that has been exploding in the music world while, you know, we're all on our nostalgia kicks in our various places. So, yeah. Truly. I love it. Wow, that's advanced. I'm just like, that's Peter Gabriel.

You know? As you know, I lived in the same house with Diane and her ex-boyfriend during COVID, and he kept ordering since. He just, like, collected since. And it was just like a thing. During COVID, there was just, like, constantly since arriving at the house. And I was just like, this is... How interesting.

This is a lot. I don't have to deal with that guy anymore. Bye-bye. All right. Anyway, great stuff. Okay, it is time for our categories. I don't know what you're picking. You don't know what I'm picking.

We have a few clips each that will be dotting in as we go. It is time for our stranger superlatives. Okay, Joanna, our first category today is favorite episode. What do you get? This is actually quite easy for me because, okay, so Stranger Things is a binge drop. I don't know if you're going to agree with me, but Stranger Things is a binge drop. And in most seasons, and we'll see if this remains true upon rewatch, I have a hard time distinguishing episodes. This is like a true binge mash for me.

I don't have like the one where, et cetera, except, you know, like dear Billy, there's like a few sort of standouts. But so for me was either the premiere or the finale. I'm going to give it to the premiere because I just think that like, yeah, I just think, you know, and Will's still here and seeing all the boys together in their D&D campaign. And every, you know, like, I mean, I'm ready to bring in Ted Wheeler right now. Just say, I hope you're enjoying your chicken Ted is like an all-timer of a line, honestly. But everything, we get everything in this first episode. It's all here.

We get Hopper, Pop and Pills. We get everything is happening. Joyce is unraveling already. Everything is already served up to you on a platter. So I'm not surprised that the hook is like an episode two. But honestly, I just think like episode, I would be curious. So 70% completion rate from episode two. I'd be curious how much lower the completion rate is from episode one.

Because I dare say it's probably not much. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the pilot is just extraordinary. It's really good. So that's my pick. I'm with you. I think that this is one of the best pilots. Like, this is just not only a fantastically entertaining and gripping hour of TV, but it establishes everything crucial.

I mean, the show builds and grows, of course, any successful story does. But it establishes so much right away about the tone, the intent, the mystery, the sense of place, the sense of time, and the character dynamics. Like you said, the fact that we get like the horror at Hawkins Lab, you know, the chase at the beginning, eventually over. over the course of the episode Brenner and Co. And their hazmat suits, the glimpse of the Mothergate divides. You're like, what the fuck it's happening? You go from that opening Hawkins Lab first glimpse

into the kid, they're just understanding immediately the depth of the friendship between these children, like that first D&D party and the way that their bond is on display. And this is just like an expert way of showing us what part of the mission of the show it was going to be,

which is like incorporating the mythology from these touchstones in real life and making them. part of the story. And it's, of course, not just in the friend group and with the D&D game, like the dynamics at school are established right away, you know, with the mouth breathers, right? Troy, the bullies, the safe haven of AV club with the Heathcith, Hamshack Radio, like, all of that is there right away.

And then, of course, also right away, we understand that, as we do from real life, like, life is just radically different. Only a few years later, we have our high school characters right away, you know, Steve leaving notes for Nancy, meet him, and, you know, and then. in the bathroom, making out at school. Nancy has to study. Nancy has to study. So many flashcards.

Flashcards is really a boy, that took me back. The bickering with the siblings, there's a lot of great family dynamic stuff to highlight as we go today, but season one is a really good at breakfast and at dinner, like at the Wheeler family table, you know, Mike and Nancy, everything. It's just wonderful. And then, you know, the kind of dual mystery of where did Will go and where did 11 come from? Like, this is just a lot of balls in the air in one. episode and it works wonderfully. I didn't remember whether or not we got 11 in the very first episode,

but we do, you know, and so it's just like it's, and the danger of the world and, you know, goopy creatures that we will come back to and all sorts of stuff. So, yeah, it's, it's an astounding hour of television. It's so good. Just because I don't think it'll come up in another category today, hopper will, to be clear, but, you know, the hopper intro, which is wonderful. And that part will be coming up later. I do want to shout out. In the hopper, Joyce scene, because Joyce, Joyce and Jonathan right away, it's like, where's Will? Yeah, Jonathan's like, yeah, well, it's like, Joyce just thinks something is wrong immediately. Joyce is at the police station. Yeah, yeah. And when a hop is like hand-waving it, and this is another thing that I really love about season one

and think is actually kind of amazing about season one is the duality and combination and blend of, like, the characters who are open right away to believing something, whether it's something horrible or something extraordinary. And then the characters who are skeptics and have to move from a position of doubt into a position of like a dawning awakening. Everybody's on their own, like, place on the spectrum there.

But it's not just a story where everyone right away is like, I believe that something amazing is happening. It's also not a story where nobody believes that. And I think that variance is really crucial. Hop responding to Joyce men in the pilot by saying, my mom thought I was on the debate team and I was really, I was just screwing Christy Carpenter in the back of my dad's Oldsmobile.

Wonderful stuff. Just historic. intro across multiple scenes. And of course, also a somber hopper opening in many respects. The electricity sparking and frying the phone, Will's breathing. And on the 11 appearance front, because I have the same experience that you do. Like, I've seen the first episode of Stranger Things so many times at this point. And every time I sit down to watch season one again, I'm like, you know, yeah,

it'll be interesting to meet Ellen episode too. Every time, no matter how many times I see it. Because I think it just feels so rooted around the D&D kiddos. But no, Ella is here, like, right away and the bare feet and the buzzed hair and the hospital gown alone in the woods. Everything with Benny's is with Ellis in episode one. So sad. And then, you know, that iconic, the reason that, of course, we all should remember, episode one is because it's like an iconic closing of the pilot.

Mike Lucas and Dustin looking for Will turning their flashlights and finding 11. It's like, I get chills every time still. So it's just great. My runner's up. My runner, I was not the finale, actually, though I think the finale's really good. That's another thing about Stranger Things. So many shows in the streaming area are just like, I'm into this at the beginning, and then the finale is dog shit.

Yeah, yeah. The Stranger Things finale's are like consistently good. Yeah. I think episodes five and six in the middle of this season are really good. And I was not surprised, but, yeah, Flea and the Acrobat and the Monster. I was interested, but not necessarily shocked to see how many of my category. picks today came from those episodes. They're meaty and really good. I really like the bathtub, which is the penultimate as well. That's also great. It's a good season. Good season of TV.

Okay. This is this next category is one where I suspect we will also have the same pick, but who knows? Because there are a lot of places that you could go with this, including subsets inside of a group, who may be all very different picks. Most important relationship. And this is not like objective fact, what is most important to the story that you could interpret it that way. To you, what is the relationship inside of season one that whips you the most for? Giving us a disclaimer for subjectivity. Subjectively, I would love for Carlos to play my first clip. Ooh.

It wasn't his fault? No. So you're saying he wasn't way out of line? Totally, but so are you. What? And so is 11. Oh, give me a break. No, like, you'll give me a break.

All three of you were being a bunch of little assholes. I was the only reasonable one. That is, of course, our beloved Dustin. talking to Mike Wheeler about his rift with Lucas over something that 11 did. It's Dustin Will Lucas, Mike, and 11. It is the kiddos. That is also in my pick. Okay, great.

It is the kiddos. It feels like a cheat to do that group. But, like, so many things are so important. This fight, and then later when they go to Lucas's house to talk to Lucas about it, the moment where Elle rescues Mike from the quarry. and chases off the bullies and the three of them, Dustin and Mike and Elle sort of embracing that little cuddle puddle pile, which is an iconic image.

Dustin talking about getting their, you know, years after they had all been friends. And he's like, I get it. Lucas is your best friend, right? And I'm just like kind of cure a little later. And Mike's like, no, like, you're my best friend. Will's my best friend. Like later on, it's supposed to be a little bit more like Will and Mike were the best friends and the other. But like in this season, it's like we are a campaign, a group, a unit.

And then the tensions around introducing someone new how Lucas feels like threatened and upset by that. And that will happen every time someone new comes in, when Max comes in season two, you know, who feels threatened by that. So the sort of tenuous balance of young friendships. But those kids and their connections to each other and the way in which. L-11 is embraced into that group. First, yes, mostly by Mike who fancies her. But then, like, you know, Dustin, who is like, can you levitate this Millennium Falcon? Like, all of this is really cool.

So that's my pick, yeah. Yeah, I think it has to be the D&D party and then L as a incorporated member. I will say, like my, I almost picked, in part because I will be returning not only to the D&D party, but to a lot of the key aspects of why they are the pick here in other categories. Like sometimes I try really hard to avoid story beat or thematic overlash my pick. It's just like impossible with this exercise. It's too important.

But I did, thinking about the emphasis on this group across some of my picks, I did consider strongly here going with Joyce, Jonathan, and Will, just the Byers family, which I think is a real. like heartbeat of the show as well, but I'll hit them in some other category. I considered Joyce and Will. Yeah. You know, like Joyce knowing that Will was out there and all of that. But that will come up for me again.

Yeah, we'll hit it elsewhere for sure. And I will say, like, I love Hopper, obviously. This is such, you know, an important joy season. And of course, Winona Ryder was so important for the show, grabbing people's attention in the first place. I've never loved Nancy, and I've never loved, I like some of the Jonathan and Will stuff, but I've never really loved Jonathan that much. And then they were still figuring Steve out because they did like a sort of seven of eights through this season reversal on what they wanted to do with Steve.

So that's just like a real sort of whiplash turn on a character. So like the older teens are just like not my fave in this season. And like eventually when we get to like Robin and the other things like, you know, and then of course when they figure Steve out, that is very important. to me and all that sort of stuff like that. But in this season, the will they, will they, won't they of, like, Nancy and Jonathan or all that sort of stuff like that has never gripped me. So that's, like, kind of a miss for me.

But the young kids, like, hell yes. I'm definitely higher on Jonathan than you. I, of course, now feel compelled to say that I do not condone Jonathan, hiding in the woods and taking photos of Nancy changing in Steve's bedroom would like to just get that on the record and be clear. That said, I think I have, we talked about this in season four, but I am so. moved by the Jonathan Will Bond that

like that really elevates Jonathan for me quite a bit. But I'll try a little bit more about Jonathan in another category. On the Steve point, yeah, it is amazing to rewatch season one because I consider like Hopper's my favorite character. That's House of Arc canon. Steve is my second favorite character.

I think Steve Dustin and Hopper are my top three. I apologize once again for not having a woman in my top three. I don't know what it's wrong with me. I think it's like for me it's like Steve, Steve Robin Dustin is like my, my, Stephen Dustin are just undeniable.

And then it's like, yeah, everyone has their, who's their personal favorite? You had Robin in. It's like so good. Robin's really good. So,

but on the, on the front of the party, like, yeah, I think, again, I'll hit, I'll hit some of the other

subplots of the party dynamic and other categories. But what a wonderful portrait of young friendship. I mean, this is just amazing. And the way that it ports you back, whether you like,

had a D&D party or not, whatever your version of it was. So just like, who were those formative friends for you, right? Was it your middle school friends? Was it your high school friends? Was it your college friends? Like, whatever. Was it your elementary school friends? Was it someone in your neighborhood who you rode bikes with? Like, there's just something so deeply and beautifully relatable about that idea of the people who you went to school with and you shared a neighborhood with. And in the summers, you went to the pool with. And like, you lived your lives with these people. Like, that's what it was to be like a young kid back in the day and just like hop on your bikes. Your parents were like, maybe I know where you were.

No? Really? This is not my experience. I mean, like, yes, in that like, like, my sister and I took our bikes to theater camp every summer and our parents had no idea where we were like, yes. But in terms of like, I think what's so beautiful about these kids is like finding your people. And not all of us found our people when we were this young. Like, I would say it took me until like sophomore year of high school to find like, like, I had. friends, but I'm not sure I had, like, friends who I think I was just sort of like,

oh, this is what friends are supposed to be, right? Or this is who I'm supposed to be for a really long time. And then I, like, found my people. So when I think about, like, that energy of the D&D campaign, what is that energy like? It's the group of friends I found in high school when we would, like, get together and watch movies and, like, play Triville Pursuits and so like that. But it took me until I kind of had a driver's license or figured that out. Totally.

That's what I was saying, like, maybe it's high school, maybe it's college. Like, whatever time it is in your life, like, when you do find those people, you're like, we have the same interests. We want to... I have, like, very vivid memories of, like, the kids I was biking around with in elementary school or the kids who live behind me in middle school who I spent all the time with. They're, like, not people who I... I may be, like, Instagram, DM a couple of them every now, and then we keep in casual touch some of them, but they're not... Like, my best friends or my college friends. Like, those are the people who are, like,

most central to my life. But I see, this still just, this, like, kind of surfaces so many powerful memories for me watching this group. I love, in particular, on this... front that moment in chapter two where they have to explain to 11 what friendship is. And Lucas says, a friend is someone, is this shared effort, which feels so perfect that they're all explaining it together. Lucas says, a friend is. And Mike says, someone you do anything for. And Dustin says, you lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards. And then Mike jumps in. And they never break a promise. And Lucas says, especially when they're spit. And I was like, spit. And Lucas says, a spit swear means you never.

never break your word. It's a bond. And then Mike says that's super important because friends, they tell each other things, things that parents don't know. And I love this like idea that the code of friendship is the holy text of their lives and then to watch it be tested. You know, like you noted to, I love that Dustin moment that you played in your clip. I love not only the all three of you being a bunch of little assholes, but like then I love also in chapter six when he's like, like, do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone Pass? We couldn't agree on what path it takes. We split up the party and those trolls.

It took us out one by one. And it all went to shit. And we were all disabled. So we stick together no matter what. And then so like you have the pledge and then the challenge and the test and then working your way your way that friendship is so core to like acceptance. Their journey of acceptance in all directions. You know, when Elle reveals like, like, Mike, I.

I open the gate. I'm the monster. This is, of course, a series long. Am I the monster or the superhero? Yeah. Through line and tension. And Mike says, like, no, you're not the monster. You save me. Do you understand? You save me. Like, L needs a friend. Just like any member of that party needs a friend sometimes to help you understand who you are to, like, work your way through your fears about the world around you or yourself. It's just, like, beautiful. It's beautiful. And also when Dustin is like, you have to offer your hand to Lucas, it's law. The rule of law. It's the rule of law. Be banished. You know, like these ideas are there's like these codified rules of their friendship. And like we'll get to Barb in a bit in our unpopular opinions about Barb.

But like, you know, there is something there in terms of like Nancy dating Steve, Barb saying you're going to be. so cool. And just sort of that idea of like when those friendships fracture, like, well, I'd be left behind. I don't think Nancy and Barb would have stayed friends, honestly, even if Barb hadn't been snatched, you know, like I think they were on different paths in their, in their journey through high school. And that happens. That just happens. Absolutely. It's a great shout. And I love that like that goes in all directions too in the season. Like maybe someone is moving toward popularity or newfound acceptance, but then there are plenty of moments in the other direction where like, and this is again a through line, Mike, you know,

he doesn't, there's that moment where he tells Elle, he doesn't want her to think that he's a wasteoid is the word he's, he's embarrassed that he's been bullied and that she might find out. And then like we build across seasons to like, L is the one in that position where she doesn't want Mike to know that kids are picking on her that they don't accept her, even though, as he'll say, like, who would understand better than, better than I would? But like, whether even the people closest to you, like, it's human nature to wonder if you will ever be held in judge. or like if something will be the thing that makes you look someone. It's just like part of the experience of this is a great coming of age story.

And that's part of the experience of like being young and being alive. This idea of showing the messier parts of yourself to other people. And how many things inside of stranger things are, how many messes are created by people not being willing to share the messier parts themselves with other people, which is just a very human thing. Like what Will hides or what Max hides or what all these people hide for me, other because they're afraid to show their messier sides to other people. So, friendship. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Our next category. Funniest moment.

You know how we're like, let's mix things up and sort of spread things out? No, it's just going to be Dustin again, right? It's just Dustin again. Carlisley plays clip. She's our friend and she's crazy. She's our friend and she's crazy. crazy, genuinely gets like a full, like, body laugh for me every single time. I do have some runners up, but I don't want to step on what your pick is. So what's your pick? Mine is one that you have already mentioned today. Carlos, let's, let's hear it. I hope you're enjoying your chicken test. What did I do? I can't. I can't overstayed how much this makes me laugh every time.

I hope you're enjoying your chicken dead. And the look, the withering side eye. I hope you're enjoying chicken, Ted Wheeler. Very little total runtime in every season, but always delivers as a completely oblivious... We should just obey the authorities. Yes. Here's some other highlights. Just a few of Ted's other gifts for this season.

This is our government. They're on our side. Nancy, with Mike, as the kids are all. lining. No, no. Absolutely not. This is to Brenner's crew. Our son with a girl, I mean, believe me, if you had a girl sleeping in the house, we know about it. Wouldn't we? Ted never has any idea what is going on. Always believes the wrong thing. And it is just incredible. He is just also so emotionally unavailable and out of touch in episode four. After they believe that will, their son his best friend has died and that his decaying course has been found in the quarry.

Karen's like, should we go to him? And Ted's like, you don't die. We'll come to us when he's ready. You don't think that that would be the moment to go check on your son. Ted is just a consistent comedic highlight for me. I get such a kick out of him. And not to get to, we watched the first two episodes of season two, and I'm really trying not to talk about them at all.

but when we get the establishing shot of the Wheeler House and it's the Reagan Bush sign, it's just like, yep, that tracks. Ted Wheeler. Ted Wheeler. Big Reagan guy. Oh, man. Hit me with some of your runners up. Dustin again, it's Dustin. Dustin to 2011, we never would have upset you if we knew you had superpowers. All of his, all of his commentary on the powers is just really good. So great. Mr. Clark.

Yeah. Where exactly are you from? 11 says the bad place in Dustin says Sweden. Shout out Spotify and our overlords. And then hop to saying mornings are for coffee and contemplation. I've got that coming in another category. Pretty extraordinary. Yeah.

That's my best. You're most emotional moment. Yeah. It's pretty much. Yeah. Could be. Could be. Speaking of the most emotional moment, Joe, let's swing tones from laughter to tears.

I am banking on you having. my tide for first. So I went with this one because I really feel like probably you'll have the other one, but we'll see. I'd be surprised if my pick is something that you think I picked here.

Oh, really? Yeah. But maybe. But it might mean the thing you're thinking I might have in another category. There's a lot of category bleed in this exercise. I cheated a little

and smashed two little moments together, but they're like back-to-back scenes. And it is somewhat an adult, well, rest in peace. Benny? Hamburger guy? What's his name? Benny? Yeah. Benny recipes, Benny. But an adult being nice to 11 and is Joyce being nice to 11, telling her she's brave and then comforting her when she's in the bathtub. Carlos Lee plays. Beautiful. And if it ever gets too scary in that place, you just let me know, okay? It's okay. I'm right here. I'm right. Here. First of all, like, you know, Joyce has been focusing her mom energy so hard on connecting.

to Will, you know, at the expense of her relationship with Jonathan to a certain degree, and it's all understandable because she is just, like, at her wits end, trying to figure out what the fuck has happened to her son. So, like, everything in Joyce is going through is completely understandable. That she is able, yes, she is motivated by encouraging 11 to help her find Will, but there is still just this pure mom energy coming from her. And the fact that, like, an adult, eventually it will be Hopper and 11 is, like, you know, It's such a key relationship. And when she's in the bath, it's Joyce holding one hand and Hopper holding the other.

You know what I mean? So, like, he is there, but he does sell 11 out at the end of this season. Dude, let me tell you something. Of all of the, like, this really, like, I have so many core fundamental character questions about this on a rewatch. That's number one on my list. Yeah. Hopper selling 11 out. But, like, it just matters so much.

to me. Rewatching these season, I was like, I can't wait to get to the point when Joyce is nice to 11 because I, because, and also we've just been watching her go into this, you know, black box space and like, it's such a traumatic experience for her every time and the way in which like Brenner has perverted this idea of Papa and the way that we like met her mother, Terry, and like how, you know, destroyed she is and all this sort of stuff like that. And so Joyce just like, you know, having her Jody Comer, I recognize this woman giving birth like the mama and me recognizing the mama and you like stuff with Terry and then like showing up for her daughter here. It just matters a lot to me.

So yeah. That's a I have, that's part of my logic for a pick in another category. I agree with you. I think that is just so moving and so beautiful in all directions. Joyce being able to nurture and care for a child while searching for her own 11, getting that maternal tenderness that she's never experienced. I love the idea of what you're highlighting about, like, that traumatic and perverted relationship and also space then being like, let's, you go back here and it's still scary, but it can be to help. Like you're not a weapon or a tool.

You're part of the family. She says, you're safe, you know, and that gives 11 the resolve to sort of keep going after she's seen something goop out of Barb's mouth, which we'll come back to. Yes. What is your, okay, I thought for certain, I would know your most emotional. But you tell me what it is. My clip is a bridge to my actual pick. It's like set up for my pick. So we'll listen to my clip and then I'll explain what my actual pick is.

Carlos, can we hear my most emotional moment set up? 12 years. 12 years she's been looking for. When she shows up at Benny's five nights ago, which means we got a chance. You know what I would give for a chance? Okay. So that is Joyce and Hopper, of course. That conversation is from Chapter 6 after they leave Terry and Becky Ives' home and they're sitting in the car.

And that is a way into my pick and also just this core aspect of this core relationship, the relationship between Hopper and Joyce, which, you know, known each other for decades. We'll explore that more in future seasons. Hopper's memories of Sarah, of his daughter. This is what you thought I was going to pick? Here we go. Great. We're so in sync. Stitched together with Hopper and Joyce searching the upside down for Will. I can watch this 500 times and I will be reduced to a puddle. Like I'm about to start crying right now. When they spot, it's across the episode. But like, the couple most keen and intense moments inside of it, when they spot the stuffed animal at Castle Byers and the upside down and then we flashed to the hospital and Hopper is cradling his dying child in her hospital bed reading her Anne of Green Gables. It just makes me feel glad to be alive. The way that David Harbor reads, it's such an interesting world, like shreds me. It just shatters me. And then we cut to like that shot of him in the stairwell alone crying. And like we know.

this is like his relationship with his wife. Like their marriage dissolved in the wake of losing their child. And like you start to see already the way that the grief is so heavy in his in his isolation. And then to build toward, as you mentioned, the CPR. Finding Will, administering CPR, Joyce is like, Will, it's me. It's your mom. I love you so much. I love you more than anything in the world.

Please come back to me. Please wake up. She's like begging him. And, you know, I won't get into all of the specifics on the spoiler front here, but like we build across the season to the seasons to this idea of like what can be your tether. What can be your tether back? We'll talk about that more as we go. But this idea here of like it's Will's mother's voice, but also it's Hopper like refusing to let Joyce suffer the way that he did, the way that he pounds on his chest and it's just like, come on kid. And you can feel how his loss, like the way that losing his child, losing Sarah redefined and reshaped his life. And it's just like, come on kid. And you can feel how his loss, like the way that losing his child, losing Sarah redefined and reshaped his life. life and he just like will not allow that to happen for Joyce. And the evolution of the Joyce Hopper bond, which is other than Steve and Dustin, which is the single, like, greatest invention in the history of story to me, I just can't believe they came up with that. It's magic. I can't wait

to get to season two to talk about it. Joyce and Hopper are the other most important core relationship in the show to me. And that's true across the seasons, but it's so like, it's so just foundational here, watching it develop in the way that Hopper moves from, like, skeptic to true believer, to frontline fighter, the way that his loss and grief and how that has oriented and reoriented his life informs the decisions that he makes in this sequence. The slow, like, drip of what we learn across the seasons building toward, you know, these really heavy, weighty moments, like throughout the show, like in season four when he's talking about this idea of being a black hole. Like, we get the beginning.

of that here. When he says to Marissa, the icon, slight total shift here, but like Hopper just like getting laid in the middle of this crisis and clearly being so good and bed that this woman, Marissa, comes out to the cold portion is like, come warm me up, let's go. And what is he's like, you ever feel cursed? Like this idea,

not just that he has lost something and that is deeply tragic, but that there is a greater pull on his life. Marissa, run. Run so far away from bed. Run back to bed for another total of a sack. Run so far away from. Hopper right now. Which Hopper romantic glimpse is more meaningful to you in season one, this moment with

Marissa or a genuinely iconic exchange with the librarian who he ghosted? Or in terms of romantic encounters, is it Mr. Clark convincing a woman to wash the thing with him? I love the thing. You know, I would happily watch the thing. This woman seemed less excited to watch the thing, you know? man-splaining about the microwave bubblegum. My guy was trying to get into some microwave bubblegum of his own later that night. Gross, disgusting. Absolutely. Vile.

As eager, I would say, it's warm. It's wet. Oh, man. So, yeah, that was my pick. As I guess you knew, it would be beautiful. Yeah. Great stuff. I'm really glad to you picked it because, I mean, yeah, when Joyce earlier in the season says,

that she knows it was Will because she knew his breathing when you know your own kid's breathing. And then she sees the look on Hopper's face and she's like, oh, fuck. You know, we will have a close captioning category later. And I considered just putting sobbing, which is under Hopper when he's like in the stairwell, crying his giant body curled up into a ball

in the corner of the stairwell. The way that is all deployed in the final episode is exquisite stuff. It's so good. And obviously just crucial, fundamental setup for this incredibly meaningful future with Hopper in 11. Scariest moment.

And listen. This is so easy. I was going to say this is hard because there are, for me, no shortage of contenders. Season 1 is scary. So easy. Is Jonathan Beyers taking photos of Nancy Wheeler addressing? John is a creep show taking photos of Nancy Wheeler addressing.

I really like Jonathan, but this is so tough. This is so tough. You're like, I mean, Steve is supposed to be this horrible bully. Again, a canonical, what is connolly truly is that, like, the Duffers rewrote Steve's ending of this season. They were going to kill him. He was going to be horrible. There was even, like, there has been some stories that maybe he was going to, like, sexually assault Nancy. Like, there's all this stuff that they were going to do with Steve.

But when Steve is like, hey, you creep and breaks his camera, I'm like, I'm on Team Steve here. Of course. Yeah. Oh, man. The moment in the Johnny, the red light, the development room. What are the ones called?

Photography rooms with the red light. I don't know. I'm playing. I'm having a, I can't think. Dark room. The dark room. Thank you.

When Nicole is like, seize them. Yeah. And then Steve will say this when he's stomping on the camera. He's like, he knows it's wrong. And he does because he's like

snatched them down. I mean, like, I understand that the kid does not have a dark room at home, but like he developed them at school? It's a no for me. John, what are we doing? It's a no. This is worse than anything coming through the wall, anything gnawing on something else.

This is, this is it. I can't challenge the convention. It's a fantastic and inspired pick. Thank you. I love complex characters, but when I rewatch season one, I'm like, I really like Jonathan and wish he had not done this. Like, I would like this to not have happened. Obviously, they need the photos so that they could spot the demigorgia behind bar about the diving board. But even so.

He could have taken photos of like, If he had taken photos earlier of the kids partying down there. Even that is so weird. Even like hiding in the bushes to take pictures of your non-friend classmates who were shot running beers at a pool party, you weren't invited. It's just horrible. It's bad. But if you had stopped there, it would have been in this category. But when Nancy takes her shirt off and the shutter is still clicking, absolutely no.

But listen. George McFly is a peeping Tom. So, you know, this is just classic 80s shit, I guess. Oh, my. There's a good number of things that fall under classic 80s shit, I guess. Yeah, no doubt. Incredible pick.

Might be the pick of the pod. Thanks. My scariest moment selection is a little bit more conventional. For me, it's a tie between two Demogorgon moments that I genuinely find horrifying and on first watch found, like, I was like, am I going to sleep tonight? And then I was fine. And as we've discussed many times in recent pies, my tolerance for this stuff has gone way up.

But in 2016, I was still like, this is upsetting to me. We were still so innocent. A sweet summer child that I was. Hadn't been hardened in the blood vented. By a pandemic. 28 years later yet. Yeah, we're that. The initial demigorgon pursuit of will in the pilot is terrifying.

You have it coming? Is it a demigorgian? We'll save that for later. I'll save that for my series later. I'm excited. I didn't have tantalizing tease. The first flash of the light on the bike, the silhouette and the road, the crash running home, the dog, beloved Chester. I'll be mentioning him in another category today, parking, the waiting form outside the window, the sliding of the latch, the phone not working, running out to the shed, tiny little Will buyers.

Will is so little. Of all of the kids, Will and season one, you're like, this is a, like, child. And what I love... Loading a shotgun in the Sheds. I know, again, I'm trying to talk about season two, but the fact that Noah Shannab, who, like, just took a little longer than the rest of the kids to shot... He's now nine feet tall. But in season two, he's, like, a foot taller, shorter than the rest of the... He just looks so, like, runty and stunted compared to them, and as it should be, he's, like, riddled with slugs and shit.

Anyway. A sweet little dark. The other really, I think, effectively scary stretch, and there are a bunch. But the other one that takes the terror cake for me here is the stretch at the end of episode chapter 5 and beginning of chapter 6 with Jonathan, Nancy, the deer, and the demigorgon in the woods. The cry of the inter deer and that whole thing, just very upsetting. We've learned, like, when they're training to shoot, Jonathan has this traumatic past with

Wani Shocker, you know, forcing him to kill him to kill him. a rabbit. It's all very upsetting. And then Jonathan's like bracing to take the gun and put this poor animal out of its misery. And then it is sucked into the dark by a creature of another realm and the trail of blood, horrifying. Realizing the deer is missing, horrifying. The single most insane inexplicable thing that any character in the show does to me is Nancy crawling into the mini-gate in the tree? We're going to come back to that. What the fuck is Nancy Wheeler doing? That's deranged. Without even being like, hey, Jonathan, tie it ropes around me or something like that. Yes, I'm going to go in.

Make sure you hold my foot. Like something. And then the sight of the demigorgon feasting on its prey, the first step on a vine that, like, gives us that hive mind activated awareness indicator. Like Jonathan hearing Nancy screaming, but not being able to find her, it's all just genuinely scary. This is one of those things where I'm like, if I watched this when I was like 10, I just don't, I think I would be fucked up from it. But I was pretty soft. It's a great pick. I have a follow-up.

Oh, if you had rejected my Jonathan Byers creep show one, I would have said, and again, this is inspired actually by watching this with Diana because, like, we know what happens. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she didn't. Right. And so when baby Holly goes down the hall into Will's room and the wall starts to move, and she didn't know whether or not this is a show where a little baby girl is going to get eaten by a wall. And so, you know.

And that's a very scary moment. You know, like, I know baby Holly trauma tracker. I know baby Holly is going to be fine. Well, I don't know. I'm going to say. We should be maintaining a running list like that moment where, you know, like Holly sees 11 sneaking down the stairs at the dinner table. And it's like, as far as Holly knows, this is just an on-ack-knowled stranger in her home.

And then the fucking blinking lights and the wall moving. Like, let's introduce our season two. Let's do a baby Holly therapy watch. And then we'll track it. I love it. You know what else? Actually, I find this is more upsetting than scary, but like, when Hopper cuts open fake Will's body. Yeah.

Oh, it's just cotton. Pulls out the stuffing. I just, when he's first moving the knife, I'm like, this is just, yeah. A lot. Okay. Our next category is open to interpretation. This is going to be a fun one. You could go in any number of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,

directions with this. Most electric. Is it most literal electricity? Could be literally involving electricity. A bolt of electricity through a phone. Could be sexual electricity. Yes. It could be emotional electricity.

It could be intellectual stimulation. The lightning bolt of the mind. Joanna? Love it. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued, ask your doctor about zeppbound. Tersepatite. The first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine.

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Garlic aoli. Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa. Forty grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes. next. New sweet green wraps hit different. Order now at order.s. Sweetgreen.com. This is my favorite category. Electricity, of course, is so key to the entire series. This is, I'm going to set up, I have a clip here. I'm going to set it up just because it's maybe not as obvious listening to it.

But this is Joyce in a cupboard with a handful of Christmas lights trying to make contact with Will. And then the sound you'll hear are the lights glowing as Will responds to her as best he can. Literally electric, but also very emotionally electric. This is my pick in another category. I love that we have a lot of the same picks but in different spots. This is interesting. That's great. Carlos, we play this, please.

Will. Are you here? I mean, it's a beautiful mom. Again, I don't know if that's the one I should have wasted a clip on, but like it's just like. Well, again, as you know, people can watch and then they can see it. You can watch it. You can watch it light up. It's just like, it's actually quite beautiful.

Gorgeous. And all the stuff with the Christmas lights is so iconic. That might be tipping where I have it. Oh, okay. Resurfacing. Sure. To you, not to the audience. Who has no idea what's coming.

What's your most electric? That's a great pick. Okay. I am going with the electricity of the mind. The mind. This is, I don't think this is going to surprise you because I've mentioned this to you before, to this day, four seasons in. We'll see if this holds up.

This is going to be a classic Malone. the House of Ar says this is my favorite thing, and then 20 other times I say about something unrelated, this is my favorite thing. Right now I'll say, I think this is my favorite Stranger Things moment still. There might be 50, 50 other things that actually knock this off the list as we go, but I just, no matter how many times I revisit this, it gives me a chill, like, head to toe. Carlos, can we hear it? The veil of shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world. It is a place of decay and death.

A plane out of face places monsters. It is right next to you and you don't even see it. Dustin, the icon, again coming through with the victory here. He's just the fucking best. That is from Chapter 5, the Flea and the Acrobatte. Great episode I will be returning to it in other categories. The kids are trying to piece together what they heard will say. Dustin are going through with a, it's like riddles in the dark.

The best. I will also be coming back to that. L still recuperating says upside down and then Mike recalls the prior flipping of the board and then he flips it again and he says what if he was there meaning Will at his home? What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side? What if? And he flips the board.

This is Hawkins. And this is where Will is the upside down. And Dustin says, like the veil of shadows. And then he gets his D&D book and he reads that above, quote, a plane out of phase, a place of monsters. it is right next to you and you don't even see it. That last line, it is right next to you and you don't even see it, is like spine tingling to me.

It's just so, what it does that I love, obviously it connects deeply to the core mission of the show to like incorporate these aspects of story into the story that they're making. It is just like, you know what's cool imagination, right? And I fucking love that. And the way that, again, I think the show, so smartly and deftly edited the way that this is intercut with Hopper, penetrating, phrasing, deeper and deeper. Yeah.

I love, I love, I would like the show to have just a touch more of Hopper penetrating deeper and deeper, and this is my personal opinion on it. Okay. This is your hope and dream for season five. Oh, yeah. Okay. As you know, I actually will be genuinely disappointed if that's not something that we get. Hopper infiltrating Hawkins Lab further and further. And just like...

naming the core element of the show here. We get the upside down label. Our party working with their wits and their curiosity, like puzzle it out. And using these pop culture touchstones to explain the world around you, just could not be more our shit. Like, it could not be more our shit. I love that. It's so funny.

I was so gratified when they did this because, again, I'm sorry that I have a million stories about this. But it was so fun to watch the season through the eyes of someone. who had not seen a stranger things in the year of our Lord 2025. Yeah. And Diana, like, kept called, like, Diana, who's like, well, has played a lot of D&D as well versus in the world of D&D. Like, she was like, kept calling it like the nether realm, the other, the like negaverse. Like she had like all these other.

And I was like, it has a very famous name. I think you've heard it. She's like, I have not heard it. I was like, I think you've probably, like, I think when you hear it, you'll say, oh, I know that. And then she was like, nope. And I was like, you've never heard of the upside down. She's like, no.

I was like, okay. Yeah. Here we are. Diana's a real one. She's a legend. She really is. She just lives her life. Great stuff.

Yeah, so that's my pick. I just love that moment. Who better to give it Dustin than Dustin? Frankly, no one. Okay. Best coming of age moment. This is tied for me. Like, I almost put this in funniest moment.

Carlos, will you please play this clip? It's mindful. They'll be like your new parents. Nancy, she'll be like your, Your new sister. Will you be like my brother? What? No.

No. Why know? Because... Because it's different. It's my runner up. Mike being like, not your brother. Yeah. No, I am not your brother.

I am not like your brother. No. You know, and then he'll talk to her about Snowball and he'll lay a smackaroo on her. Like, you know, it'll, you know, they have, their little first kiss and it's very, you know, it's very cute. But him being like, no, not your brother. After having denied to Nancy to everyone else that he likes her, despite being like pretty, so pretty, pretty, pretty. Pretty good. Pretty, pretty is. So yeah. Nancy and Mike being

like no more secrets and I'm both immediately lying to each other about their crush is just great stuff. Yeah. This is a fantastic pick. This is my, I love the like, yeah, I'm just like, I know you're not supposed to go with your sisters, just to the school dance grade stuff. School dances. You know what? I'm going to put a bit in it. We actually will get the snowball in season two. I'll save my school dance thoughts for then. I love that pick. In general, I think all of the, my pick is very related. And it also connects not only to your pick, but to our shared pick for the most important relationship and just the dynamic and shifting dynamic inside of a core friend group. Yeah.

Dustin explaining to Mike why Lucas is upset with him from Chapter 6, The Monster. This is after Mike's botched apology and Lucas's insistence. He's like, well, I'll shake, but on one condition, L's out. And then Lucas is pledged to just go out on his own and look for Will. And then Dustin and Mike are biking. And Dustin, philosopher, sage, says, sometimes your total obliviousness just, just blows my mind. He's your best friend, right?

This is the debate that you already talked about who's the best friend. And then Dustin basically is like, none of that matters. What matters is he's your best friend. Then this girl shows up and starts living in your basement and all you ever want to do is pay attention to her. And then Mike says, that's not true. And Dustin says, yes, it is. And you know it.

So young friendship in the show, like, full stop, the best. But young friendship tested by change is like actually, I think my favorite thing about the show. Yeah. It's a coming of age story, right? And like that question of can you make room for something new, whether it's a new person, a new idea, a new interest, without it feeling like it's come at the expense of like testing and maybe breaking the soul and sanctity of the original. contract is just like an endlessly captivating thing to watch. You called this out earlier, but like the fact that Lucas is the one who is so upset by this here and then he is like, I mean, Dustin, Dustin, too, but Lucas is really like,

Mike, make room for Max in season two and is on the other side of it. And Mike's a little bitch about it. Mike just does not handle it. Well, a little bitch about it. That also just feels like all of it's so true to life the way that these things move and shift based on which seat and spot you occupy in that new thing. And all of this connects toward, I'll save the particulars. But as you know, because we talked about it in a backward-looking way in season four,

like one of my favorite moments in the entire show is a moment where Will and Mike kind of discuss this very idea in season three. Like, well, what does it mean if this is changing, which I just like melts my heart in season three. That scene just kills me. So just, yeah, I think this is great. And like all of this kind of connects, obviously, to the formative friendship stuff that we talked about already today.

And it's like, I like this. I like that this group feels like the most important bond in their world and also like a thing that's not always easy. Like that feels real and true. And I think the show just like depicts that beautifully. It's great. Okay. Speaking of our favorite little nerds,

our next category is the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when your uncool award for the nerds, for honoring the nerds. That is, of course, your favorite passage from Almost Famous. I got emotional when I saw that you put this in the notes. It felt like a real friendship moment for us. Yeah, that's it is. I just love you and I think you're the best. I love you.

What is your pick for this category? This is easy for me. Carlos Lee, please play this clip. You said he takes what? Merckwood. Merckwood. Yeah. Have you ever heard of Merkwood?

I have not. That sounds made up to me. No, it's from Lord of the Rings. What was the habit? It doesn't matter. He asked. Great. You already mentioned Middles and Dark.

You know, we get some Lord of the Rings references throughout, but them calling a road Merckwood and then just saying that to Hopper before then Mike explaining where actually it is on the map because it's not a real. It's a made-up name, Lord of the Rings name they have. And then also just inside of that moment, Luke is saying it's from Lord of the Rings and Dustin well-actoring him and saying it's so good. It's really, really good. So, yeah.

Oh, man. That's a great pick. I love it. This, again, this is a crowded field. There are so many good choices here. I am going with a, I'm sticking with our party once again, hard not to. But I am going with a Mr. Clark. smuggle here.

Going to hit a couple great, really crucial Mr. Clark moments. Carlos, I'm going to preamble a bit before we get to my clip. The first one from Chapter 5, the Flea and the Acrobat, the backdrop of this is Will's funeral?

Like the funeral luncheon grim? But our kids are on a quest. And they have to ask Mr. Clark for some insights about evil dimensions, shadow dimensions, the veil of shadows upside down. Carl Sagan, Cosmos, other dimensions, Hugh Everett's many worlds interpretation, no, actually like an evil dimension, the veil of shadows. Mr. Clark does not miss a beat in the face of all of this. He picks up a pen, he picks up a paper plate, and he begins to draw. He says, well, picture an acrobat standing on a tightrope. This is still to this day, one of the great scenes in the history of the show. Now the tightrope is our dimension and our dimension has rules. You can move forward or backward. But what if right next to our acrobat, there's a flea? Now, the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat, right?

Now here's where things get really interesting. The flea can also travel this way, along the side of the rope. He can even go underneath the rope. Upside down. Exactly. But we're not the flea. We're the acrobat. In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat.

Okay, and then they start to ask questions. Their minds are firing. Can they go upside down? No. Well, how could they maybe get to the upside down? They'd need enough energy to create a tear in time and space. And the way Mr. Clark just punches the pen through the plate as emphasis, you create a doorway. Like a gate?

Sure, like a gate. I mean, this is just obviously foundational to how we and the characters will understand the connection between these realms. And then he also, like, he tells them, because they ask, well, what if this already exists? And he says, it would disrupt gravity, magnetic fields, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole. Science is neat, but I'm afraid it's not very forgiving. This is crucial season four quadruple gate set up that line. I was like, whoa, revisiting that.

And then the other scene that I want to cite in this smuggle bundle here is the sensory deprivation tank lesson from Chapter 7, the bathtub, the phone call, Start interrupting the date when he's watching the thing that you mentioned. 10 p.m. on a Saturday. Great stuff. And Mr. Clark, who was always happy to entertain a conversation, even he is like, Dustin, it would be great if we could talk about this on Monday. I am talking about melted plastic with a hot woman in my home. I found the one Asian woman in all of Hawkins, and I'm showing her the thing. And then we get this exchange.

Carlos, can we hear it? You always say we should never stop being curious to always open any curiosity door we find. Dustin. Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked? Just a top-tier bit of manipulation from our favorite nerd, Dustin. But like that idea, the curiosity voyage, the curiosity door, the fact that our heroes, like our core characters here love to learn. They think school is fun and interesting. They think that their science teacher is a superhero.

and he proves to be. Like when they ask him questions, he engages and he indulges and he answers them and he has fostered an environment where they're encouraged to think critically and ask questions and explore new ideas and, like, cultivated trust in them to believe in themselves enough to like ask something like this. I just think is amazing. It's just so awesome. It's funny because, like, I was thinking, like, how did they get his home phone number? And then I was like, oh, wait, they just have a phone book. And they could just like look up his phone number. Anyone's phone number in the phone book.

What a time. Great stuff. I love this pick. Great pick. The fact that Mr. Clark does the punching through the paper plate move, the interstellar event horizon, dark. Like, anytime someone's trying to explain like wormholes or portals, this is like a key trope. And just very memorably used inside of the show. I really love.

So, yeah. Neither of us picked, but we must remark upon it. the joy that all of our beloved nerds get to experience when 11 makes Troy piss himself. But we can't get through the pot without noting that. Is that for the nerds? Okay. It's a big moment for them. They're like,

Troy pissed himself from the little school. I love when they tell Will when they have the like Mary Pippin and Sam jumping on Frodo's bad moment with Will at the end of the season and like they're catching him up on everything and his reactions and when they're like, Troy pissed himself. And he was like, what? So good. So good. But okay, our next category is best quote.

This is so weird. I really struggled with this one. This is the last one I did not because I had so many options. I was like, surely I'm missing like a profound quote because we already did like funniest moments. So it's not funniest. So it's like I was trying to find something profound. And I know later seasons definitely have those moments. And they exist here.

Maybe you're going to come out with a banger. Then I'm going to be like, damn, that's what I should have picked. But I'm going to go with Friends Don't Lie. That's just like the quote of the season. But I really did struggle with this category. What do you have? Friends Don't Lie is Cortex. I love that one.

If I had not picked it for my most electric moment, I would have picked. It is right next to you and you don't even see it for this. But I went in a different direction. You've already mentioned this. Carlos, can we hear my pick? Joyce is very upset. Flo, we've discussed this. Mornings are for coffee and conval.

Completion. Coffee and contemplation. Flow. Is that how you make your way through the old ringer offices in the morning? Oh, my God. I wish. Coffees are for pod prep and meetings. Or mornings are for pod prep and meeting.

I just love coffee and contemplation as he is like arriving late to work, ready to handwave, the case of the century in favor of a donut and hot cup of show. I have just never like, it's going to do. town on that donut. Like, really, really. I mean. Phrasing. Nothing I say, like, I could say anything. And it's not going to find a way to make it sexual.

It's not going to touch you talking about microwave bubble gum. Hot plastic, microwave bubble gum. Disgusting. Listen, 16 minutes into this season, we have already seen our guy hop. Well, actually, I'll save what we've seen him doing for the next category. Almost memorable visual. Okay. Yeah.

Just like no note stuff from Hopper. Let's get to our next one. It is most memorable visual. What do you have? This is so easy for me. Now, listen, are there more iconic things? This is all subjective. Podcasting is subjective.

Is it like the Christmas lights on the alphabet? That's like, you know, became iconography, obviously for the show. But I'm going to give it to Steve Harrington with the baseball bat in the buyer's living room. Great pick. The fact that this was. was before they decided to last minute redeem Steve, that Steve is like, ha ha, isn't this graffiti funny? And then the next episode's like, you guys are assholes.

And I'm like, Steve, you were there with the graffiti. Okay, whatever. Anyway, so late in the day, redemption for Steve. We love a character on an arc. Steve shows up. We love a character on an arc. Yeah. Zee shows up.

He thinks about leaving and then he comes back. He gets the baseball bat. It will become an iconic sort of Steve accessory. This was supposed to. to be Lonnie. The way this season was written, it was going to be Jonathan and Will's dad, Lonnie, showing up feeling bad about his interaction

with Jonathan and he was going to show up and save Jonathan and Nancy. Feeling bad about trying to turn his dead kid into a payday? The fact that Steve is so important to everything that happens going forward. Imagine if Lonnie was like a key character of the show going forward. So yeah, Steve Harrington with baseball bat

in the buyer's living room. Which is a fantastic book sort of thing. Absolutely fantastic pick. All right. I'm going to show you mine. Oh, thank you. I have two picks. I would fuck that zombie.

Thank you so much for asking. All right, I've got two picks. Here's my first one. Obviously. Just going to describe it for people at home. It's a hopper, belt open, dad bod on full display. And then the caption says,

inhale and exhales and exhales deeply. shirtless. The pants on buttoned and unzips such an incredible and important touch. Hair tasseled, rip in a sig first thing in the morning. It's just absolutely incredible. I love it so much. Again, this is like our introduction to the character. He wakes up. He's in this like trashed through an apartment. He's about to like pot pills and wash him down with a morning beer. Put that trip to the porch. Meaningful and memorable. My co-selection. is, as alluded to earlier, from chapter three, holly jolly, and it's what you picked in another category.

Like, the use of the lights is, yeah. It is iconic. Like, it actually is iconic. This is a recurring visual motif across the seasons, the way that light will be used to communicate across the realms. But this episode, chapter three in this season, obviously the lights are very key in the finale and elsewhere in the season. But this is kind of the showcase for how this will feel.

function, and I love the way it builds. Like, Joyce first thinking that Will is talking to her through the flicker of a bulb, and then, like, going to the general store, like, Donald? Just ring me out. Bring me out, Donald. And then, like, stringing all of the lights across the ceiling and the walls. And that moment that you mentioned with Holly, like, following the blinking lights down the hall toward the wall.

And then Joyce alone, and the lights glowing and the pup Chester barking and Joyce nestling in the cabinet. with this cluster that she thinks is her son and the, you know, the, the, the, the blink once and blink twice and then realizing that that's not sufficient. That's not going to be enough. So she has to paint the letters on the wall to make this little key. And then the right here on the heels of L taking Mike and Dustin and Lucas there to be like, Will is here. And we're like, ooh, and then the run as the lights start to just dance madly and the demigorgian explodes through the wall. It's just like it's visually stunning. It's very creative and memorable.

and just become such a core part of the show's visual language, you know, everything from flashlights as vessels to light bright. Like, this is like, just real key text here. It looks fucking awesome. Can I, am I allowed to introduce a slight well actually from the Redditors? Yeah. And it's only this. And I don't mind because, like, again, when they made season one,

they were like, this is an anthology show. And then they were like, oops, we have to like make it all connect. So there's some season one stuff that you're like, eh. So one of the things is like, Kirkman. if I'm misremembering this. But when you're in the upside down, you know, like, first of all, upside down, frozen 1983.

So that's fine because we're in 1983. But like, you can, like, sort of see light and move light, but it's not a one-to-one. So Joyce painting the letters in the wall, the question is, like, would we'll just see, like, 26 light bulbs?

You know what I mean? Like, he's not going to see the letters on the wall necessarily. So how does he know how to, light up the lights. Is a question, Reddit's asking that I don't have the answer to. No one on Reddit had the answer to. And so they were just sort of like yada yada

yada hand wave and that's fine. Interesting. Yeah. I think they slightly tweak the rules in terms of how the communication be of light works. The particles of light when you're in the upside down in season four is definitely like an

expansion of that aspect of the lore for sure. In terms of the like what is in the right side up, manifesting in the upside down. Yeah, the frozen in time, it's frozen in time on November 6th. So this is after that. Interesting.

Just, you know, and that's fine. And that's fine. Not as troubling to me as hopper being like, I'll tell you where 11 is, frankly. That's way worse. That's way, way worse. What? Oh, man. Okay, Joanne.

Our next category is goopiest, goofy. This was my suggestion, and then I was like, why did I do this to myself? I had to, like, scroll back through everything to look at all the goopy stuff to pick the goopies as goop. But I actually think it's quite easy. And it is the tree gate that Nancy crawls herself through. It is just, to quote Ghostbusters to, dripping vis-goo. It is just like K-Y jelly o'clock. And that's what they actually use in these special effects.

So I'm not just talking about microwave bubble gum. They use K.Y. Jelly for this. So it's just like she looks at this hollowed out hole in the tree and it's just like actively sliming. And then she crawls through all this like memories and kelp that are like filled the slime. Like there's some shit we're going to. I was saving some of the other goopy shit for some of the closed captioning moments. But like, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, this is it for me. This is this slimy tree gate situation that Nancy's like, well, that's where I got to go. And then she she crawls through and she comes out the other time. and her hair is just like smeared in goo. All right. And then when her hand comes back through the gate. Yeah, that's gross. All goopy.

It's gross. No. Great Beck. I'm going with Elle using her mind to squeeze the brains of Connie and Brenner's other stooges in Chapter 8, the upside down. The blood starts coming out of their eyeballs. Yeah, a very mountain and the viper-esque sound effect when it's just like, And the subtitle here is, in fact, squelching, choking. A lot of squelching.

A lot of squelching. It's a very squelchy season, yeah. No, no, I am going to talk about season four for just a second here. Hit fast forward like twice if you don't want to hear it. No psychic warfare at play here as far as we know. Certainly we can see no twisted limbs, but still the bleeding from the eye and the squeezing of the brain, such a direct tide. how Vecna kills, that it is troubling?

It's notable. It's troubling. It's notable. Okay, this is the one I'm most excited for. It's the internet was wrong about this, a.k.a. our excuse to talk about Barb, a character who the internet fucking loved. We don't like her. We do not.

We think, we think, I mean, listen, did she deserve to die in such a disgusting manner? No. However, if she is saint, she's just so judgment. And like, I get it. Her feelings are her. She feels left behind, like, all this or stuff like that. I, too, have been at parties where I feel like I don't belong, like, all this or stuff like that.

But she's so judgmental of Nancy in a way that we just don't like at all. I'm with you. I have a lot of room in my heart for people who are like, is my friend too cool for me now? That's a bad feeling. However, I am mystified by everyone's adoration of Barb, who is just a really bad friend, even though, yes, she's going through it. I stand by, this is where I'll be reading you a passage from a Ringer blog, because I stand by my take, which has been committed to print. Oh, great. There's an article published on the Ringer.com.

What a great website on August 19, 2016. Wow. Christopher Ryan penned a cherished little bit of Ringer content that sprung to life thanks to a viperized. in exchange in Ringer Slack and the Ringer office. And it is titled, Why did Summit the Ringer turn on Barb from Stranger Things? I will read an excerpt to you. I will not read the entire thing, but I will read an excerpt.

Oh, please. Can I wait? Remember Chris wrote this. However, three. However, the reception to Stranger Things is following a familiar arc in American popular culture. Nothing can be loved without also being hated. The counter-revolution is taking place at a new content site called The Ringer. Founded by Bill Simmons, the Ringer.

The Ringer specializes in profiling lonely NFL players and celebrating the work of Todd Phillips. I mean, honestly, still true. But within this seemingly benign editorial venture lives a lunatic fringe who target the most beloved Stranger Things character, Barb. Quote, the only thing upside down about Stranger Things is the obscene obsession that human shrug emoji barb has spawned, exclaimed Mallory Rubin, who owns one cat, at least two pairs of shoes with laces, and a postmates history longer than the Bible. This is how you know, this was almost a decade ago, the sneaker count there. I know. I was going to be like two, but other than that, the brand is very strong. I'm pretty consistent.

I don't think you're really, you don't postmate as much anymore, do you? Or is that your number one? A lot of door dashed in my life. Yeah, doordash. Yeah, I mix it up. The quote continues, Barb Love has seeped through our walls and exploded through our speakers at its high time. We lock it in a bear trap, beat it with a baseball bat and lighted on fire.

What exactly did Barb contribute to this story? She failed to shotgun a beer. Slut shamed her best friend. Contaminated a family pool with her oozing bodily fluids and then fucking died. a tale full of heroes and charmers. Barb's just another haircut. She's the ego waffle. No One Toasted. The Waukee. No One Turned on. I'm right side up. People, I'm out on Barb. Reactions to Rubin's infective mirror those of the crowds attending Donald Trump rallies. Perhaps they don't know what they are saying, but they sure are saying it loudly.

Danny Chow, competitive eater and part-time basketball blogger claimed, quote, I watched 1.5 episodes of Stranger Things Waiting for Barb to Get Iconic. Never happened. This, okay. It's a whole article waiting for you if you want more. Just delicious, incredible, great work from Chris, great word from you. What a time to be alive. I think part of this might be, like, you and I share are sort of like, who gives a shit about Barb.

I never got so riled up because I didn't, I was never, like, I don't know if you watch Strange Things after the end. internet had already made a big deal of Barb, which might have been like a problem where you're sort of like, why is everyone talking about Barb? She's barely in the show and then she dies and who the fuck cares. And I had the displeasure of watching the show and then watching the internet lose their collective mind for no good reason over Barb who gives a shit. So rest of pieces, Barb, we hate you. I just think Barb was so mean to Nancy. I don't think she was like mean. She was just like annoying and like, don't go upstairs and fuck around with Steve.

I don't know. I didn't like it. This isn't you. This isn't you. Yeah. But it's just like, I guess I will say this. And this is my worst quality. I enjoyed Stranger Things a lot more before it became like a Barb ego meme, which is like what it felt like it became after it really hit the internet. You know what I mean? So like this is my worst. Waffles are delicious though. Waffles are delicious. Eggles are my favorite.

Are they your favorite? You're more team waffle than French toast or pancake? Oh, yeah. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Now I know anything about you that I didn't know before. Leslie Nope and yours truly. Big waffle fanatics.

Great stuff. Leslie Nope is a character on another television show, not from the 80s, but it does bring us to our next category. Favorite pop culture, Thai, influence. Indiana reference. Or that would work out. The great state of Indiana. Joanna, what is your favorite of all the many choices? Pop Culture Tie, influence, homage, anything.

This is really difficult. Yeah, it's hard. There's a lot of options. But I have to give it to the ending moment with Will in the bathroom and the mirror and coughing up a future dart, which is a clear homage to the end of Twin Peaks when A.Dale Cooper comes back from the Black Lodge and you're like, oh, few, everything's fine. Our hero's back from this other, another world where he was and everything's fine. and then you find out that he has been infested with evil and he's like, where's Annie? And he's in the bathroom and there's the mirror.

And he's like, where's Annie? And you're like, holy shit, Dale Cooper. So you're like, oh, my God, Will Byers has goop in him. Oh, no. So yeah, so a little twin-pexy ending to this. Does Three Musketeers play as crucial of a role in the future of that story? The Trisciteers are gross. Not a fan.

And should be ashamed of themselves. Nugit. Not a fan. I don't mind. you get in a candy bar, but there needs to be more of a balance of other ingredients. Yeah, as an element in a snick at a series. Not as like an entire meal. This is where Dustin loses us, I guess.

We'll save it for Cs and two. It's his only bad take. It might be. Yeah, this was super hard because there are so many. That's a great one. I love when you talk to him peaks to me. I'll do like, so in terms of incorporation, I think we got to give it to D&D, of course, Pivotal. In terms of homage, I'll go with just the ET kids on bikes.

Blonde wig on 11. Spirit. On wig on 11. Definitely. But for my favorite just series of references, it's a tie between all the Star Wars stuff and all the Lord of the Rings stuff, but I am going to give it to the Lord of the Rings references because I think they're subtler in a way that I really admire. Obviously, like Will the Wise is a Rings-inspired wizard.

The password to Castle Byers is Radicass. Yeah, Radicast. The best. You already mentioned everything with me. Burkewood and the conversation around that. We talked about riddles in the dark. It's just, I don't know, it's like so seamlessly stitched into just their actual conversations and the rhythm of their life.

And you're like, yeah, these kids love this thing, you know, it's great. Hearing Winona say Radagast is like very strong. It's a treat. Very, very good. It's a treat. I will also say Dustin with the Chaucin pudding is, of course, a goodies reference. Will with a tentacle down his throat, very alien, obviously. Yeah, the alien egg. Also the egg, yeah, the egg shell that they find.

For sure. Fire starter, Drew Barrymore, for 11, of course. And then the X-Men. They talk about X-Men issue 134, which is Dark Phoenix. And then we get 11 later going full Dark Phoenix. Yeah, it's great. I also love all the movie posters. This is a thing where I'm just like, this is great.

Like there's a Jaws poster. The thing. Lonnie's like, take that down. It's not appropriate. and when he's looking at what's in Jonathan's room and he's evil dead. This is one where Adam is always like, it would be so hard to find those posters at that time.

And I'm like, okay, okay. He's really, he's like, so hung up on it. I'm like, for me, it's just not a concern, but he gets bothered by it. We used to go to movie theaters and wait for them to, like, take their posters out of the lobby and, like, you take them home. So if you're just like, there is no way well buyers would have that poster. He's like, yeah.

Okay. All right. As usual, you two are aligned. Joanna. No, our next category is the most potent use of 80s nostalgia. I'm not sure this is right, but is right for me. So this is what I'm going for, which, like, I don't know if you remember this, but in the 80s, maybe the early 90s.

Maybe I am misremembered the time. But there were these, like, little, like, crumpled dancing Coke cans that you could, like, that they had, like, a battery in and they would, like, crumple and dance and play music. So when 11 crumple's the Coke can, I decided it was an homage to this, like, thing. that my neighbor Max Horowitz had, the crumpled dancing. Shout out Max Horowitz. Shout out Max Horowitz.

Great call. Not the last time that evolution in the world of Coke will prove central to the story. Stay tuned for our new Coke discourse in future seasons and future podcasts. Sounds great. I'm going with, and under this falls, the kids on bikes, the walkie-talkie, communication system, the basement playdays, etc. but I am going out with the umbrella over all of it, which is not contained to the 80s,

but feels very 80s when you watch it. Parents never know where the fuck their kids are. That is the most 80s thing about this show. Mike saying, tell them I left the country and then running off the back door and Karen's being like, what? I mean, and this will be a thing across seasons. There are stretches in subsequent seasons

where these kids are gone for days. I might be introducing in a future. I will see if it's maybe which season will be right. Will it be season two, maybe season three, certainly season four. We'll have a like hygiene check-in. Oh, when we shower?

Yeah, kids are wearing the same outfits without having cleansed. That's a real Eddie Munson issue later on. It's concerning. But speaking of clothing, Joanna. Oh, yeah. Who is your fit lord of season one? This is easy.

What is it? It's Lucas. He's got. He's got an incredible, like, Mallory-coated jacket, right, with the, like, Shirling Collar, blah, blah, and then when he ties the headband on his head to, like, get ready for battle, this kid is, he's got it. Not only does he have great fits, he knows how to accessorize. Of course, the wrist rocket, one of the most essential accessories from, you know what,

this is not relevant to fit, or fit lord category, but it is making me remember that because it reminds me of what Lucas carries in his backpack. I would be sad if we concluded the pod without noting. Could have had this in funniest moment when Lucas empties out his backpack when they're prepping and he's got like his binoculars and his knife and he's like knife from Nam. And then Dustin empties his and it's snacks. All snacks. Snacks.

Snacks. Someone brings snacks, man. Nutty bars, mazuka piss, smarties, pringles, nilla wafers, apple, banana and trail mix. Like knife from nom. The best. I, yeah. I feel like that says some things about Lucas's home life that I would like to know more. For sure, definitely. My pick for Fitlord of Season 1 is Steve the Hare Harrington.

You know, I did not get to gush on this pot as much about Steve as I will in future podcast where he becomes the most important character in the history of story, obviously. We're actually going to have to, I think, work hard in season two to not pick Steve and Dustin for, like, everything. Every category. It's going to be hard. We'll see. You chose, like, I make no such promises. Diana, like, I told you this.

I had to keep so quiet about Steve because Diana's like, this guy sucks. And I'm like, yeah, he sucks. And then we were like two episodes into season two. We haven't watched past that. And I'm like, Steve, pretty, you know, whatever. And she's like, I don't know. He did some shit. And I was like, okay, when is it going to happen?

I know she'll turn. I know she will. But I'm just like, I thought by season two I would get to like just be more open about this, but I'm still keeping my mouth shut about it. Once he challenges Tommy and Carol about Nancy and then goes to clean the graffiti, even though like when he goes to Jonathan's house, he still kind of slips back into douchebag mode when he's like your hands bandage. Did he hurt you?

I do. He's like, okay, but then he comes back. God damn it. I know. By season two, he's just undeniable. Steve is a classic 80s jock preppy hybrid on the fashion front. You don't like it. I think the hair, obviously, the Hair Evolution Crucial.

We'll talk about that more in future seasons. But the jackets. It's a big jacket. It's a member's only jacket, right? He's just got like, over the course of all the seasons, he's like, I would say that the way Steve dresses both his sneakers. and his jackets really foretold the return of certain current fashion trends.

The tapered gene is great. Wonderful stuff. It's great stuff. Pets and he'll drop. This is a tie for me. The song of the season is, should I stay or should I go by the Flash, obviously. Yeah.

But when it's cold, I'd like to die by Moby, which plays during the CPR, then flashes to Sarah dying, and then we'll come back on the show in a different season. Yeah. Like to return to needle drops. It's a tie for me between those two. I would say the heavy weights are in the season.

Inside the season, certainly, should I say or should I go? I do love the way that, like, it plays on the radio when Jonathan's driving to Lonnie's, and then we flash back to him introducing Will to that music. That's like maybe the scene I like Jonathan the most. Yeah, it's wonderful. Yeah, I love them. The way that Will, it's like his litany that he's repeating to himself in the upside down to maintain that tether. It's great.

The other one that feels like a heavyweight to me inside of the season, but this is admittedly because of future season knowledge is when we get heroes at the end of chapter three because that will come back. Like that's a song that they will, a needle drop that they will return to. But neither is my pick. I am going with Atmospheric Joy Division, which I think is used. wonderfully in chapter four, the body. This is after Hopper has told Joyce and Will that Will has died. Hopper driving away, that shot of Jonathan with his headphones on, crying and mourning and kind of like holding himself in bed and then Joy fetching the axe to assume the position

because she does not believe that this is true. And it's just such a haunting, intense song. And it's a perfect choice for that sequence. I think it's really great. Excellent. Excellent pick. If this show had Netflix subtitles, wait, it does. But like, not really.

We're kind of before the era of the true flesh to Stens Wetly. Nothing tremendous. Flesh Descentz Wetly comes from the show. Yes. Comes from season four. So that's when we first started talking about Netflix subtitles. We're, yeah, I will give it to, as you mentioned, there's a lot of squelching. Yeah.

Squelching bubbling. That's my pick. when the slug comes out of barber's mouth. Rodding barb. Yeah. That's great. If we get a moment like that in season four, it's like demo, slug plug, squelching and bubbling and gaping, festering mouth sore.

Yeah. We get a bit more invocative later on. Yeah. Great. It kind of had to be squelching, bubbling. Bubbling. Squelching, bubbling. Pobbling really steals it.

Okay, this is where we're going to talk some a little bit more explicitly about the future, about what has happened in subsequent seasons and also what might await in season five. So if you don't want to hear that, thanks for being with us today. We'll see you. Bye. Next time, if you've seen all of Stranger Things or you haven't, but you don't mind listening. Our next category is the most enticing endgame setup on a rewatch. This is more like Theory Corner than anything else.

for me and maybe you have something else. But like, so when Will goes missing in season one, episode one, there is a grandfather clock sound in the background. And I actually don't know if this is one of those things the Defer brothers went back in and put in because, as they said, they've just been like subtly editing the show. And yeah, etc., etc. But here's where I come back to the demigorgan question. Okay.

Instead of a demigorgon, was it actually Vecna who took? Will. This is because unlike the other Barb, the deer, all the dead people in the hallway, Nancy and whatever, Will is not bleeding when he is taken. Like, what is it that attracts this thing to him? We just see a figure, a shadowy figure standing up in silhouette. So was it Vecna chasing Will instead of the demagorgon? And here are some bits of evidence. Thank you. You absolute net jobs on the Reddit. You mentioned the lock on the door, the chain on the door sliding off. That's telekinesis, which is something that Vecna can do, that the demigernians cannot do, right?

This theory that this is the only time Vecna came through before season four, which is why the upside down is stuck in November 1983, because this is when Vecna came through the first and only. time before season four. And this idea that Vecna took Will because of the profound connection that he felt to him.

And so, because this ties into this other question people have of was Will singing the clash in the upside down tied to the way that music has been used later in the series

with Kate Bush and other things as like a psychic defense against Vecna? Did Will singing that song keep him alive somehow. And that would be true as a defense to Vecna, but not as a true as a defense of the

Demagorgon, because the demigorgian doesn't really give shit if you sing the clash or Kate Bush or whatever. But that is what saves your mind from Vecna's intrusion. So is this all going to, and if it happens, it would be something of a retcom, which is I'm not mad about, but it would be interesting to me if Vecna was hunting will or even said the Dermagorgan after him in the first place. because Will is special versus this thing is bleeding, this thing is bleeding, this thing is bleeding, etc, et cetera, et cetera.

Also, the demigorgian being able to open gates, which is not really a thing the demigorgian can do in later seasons. Is this something that Vecna was able to sort of like manifest and help happen or is it as a result of the demigorgian connecting to L, like whatever it is? But I like this idea of the vanishing of Will Byers and Will surviving the upset. down, being more closely tied to some of the Vecna-centric stuff that we see later. Yeah, I'm a big fan of this theory, and I think that the centrality of will on the mythology front and the entwining of the will and 11 stories is so central in seasons one and two,

and then like really sidelined in seasons three and four. Like Will is present, but I mean in season three, Will is like, doesn't have a lot to do. And in season four, it's more about his like journey of identity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like the connection between Will and the upside down and every aspect of that realm and how Vecna has, everything that's happening,

it kind of has to be a big thing in season five. It just feels like it has to be. So if this reveal or retcon, whichever, it helps us along that journey, I think it will be worthwhile. The gate thing is another thing that like, yeah, based on the everything we understand about, like the psychic magic opening the gates from what 11 does and then from Vecanus kills in season four. I do have questions on a rewatch where I'm like, how are like these like mini gates? Like what's going on there exactly? And also like how should we be thinking about that in terms of like the closing or opening? gates. So I think all of those points are

are interesting and good. And in general, we just, yeah, we need more of a will resurgence on that lore front, I think. I like that one a lot. Mine is related in the sense that it is also about Vecna and the intentionality of all of this. I actually have a clip for this. Carlos, can you play it? It's reaching out to you because it wants you. It's calling you. So don't turn away from it this time. I want you to find it.

Understand? That is, of course, Papa. Welcome to the chat, Matthew Modine. Yeah. We haven't mentioned him, but it's very important. Quite. After one on a writer being in this, you're like, Matthew Modin is in this, too. That was like, you know, before any of these kids popped off or no one knew who the hell David Harbor was.

Yeah, this is what made him famous. Yeah, yeah. And rightly so. Rightly so. Rightly so. So that clip, that's Papa, that's Brenner, talking to 11 in one of the memories we get in Chapter 6, the monster, in this key sequence at Hawkins Lab, where having previously gone into the sensory deprivation take and heard this strange sound, Papa sends 11 back in and has gathered these throngs

of assembled to watch and tells 11, whatever it is, it can't hurt you, not from here. There's nothing to be frightened of and then says what we just heard in the club. Now, this has always felt big, always felt crucial like it's reaching out to you because it wants you. It's calling you so don't turn away from it this time. I want you to find it, understand. But it feels newly, hugely significant after season four heading into the end game of season five, knowing what we know now about the history between 1 and 11, between Henry 1, Beckno, whatever we want to call him, in 11, that 11 sent 1 to the upside down in 79. that everything in there, and this gets to what you were theorizing about, whether it's Vecna or a demigorgon, that Vecna is deploying this, like, you know,

thing we learn about the hive mind, this idea of the spider and reworking the particles of the smoke monster into the spider-esque mind flare and putting these particles into these creatures and working his control, controlling in this fashion, that L. found one's army or a soldier in the army by mistake. But is that the case? Because we have all of these things that we learn across seasons.

Like in season three, we have the whole like building it for you, Billy plot with, but in terms of the psychic connection and the opening of the mother gate here. And then the gate spawning psychic kills from Vecna in, season four as he's seeking to like break the dam and and overtake hawkins when l best the

demigorgon in the season one finale and kind of we get the moldy-voldy confetti um and the particles are left behind it just looks so so so similar to how she casts one through in season four it's like identical imagery in season four but in the flashback in the 79 time frame and that papa this idea that Brenner has, as Elle speculates in season four, being actually looking for Peter Henry won Vecna the entire time. Watching this scene and this exchange through that lens, I think, really like amplifies it.

The idea that what happened here wasn't by accident, but was just another step in this twisted shared journey and that Brenner was actually like, where did he go? I know he's out there. I feel like I'm really excited to see, I think this is their intention is to like really tighten the net altogether. You've talked a lot about like your time travel theories and stuff like that. But like no matter what something that Avengers Endgame does is just like wrap an arm around all of the MCU up to that point.

And I think there is something, there are things that season five of Stranger Things can do to sort of wrap itself all the way around back to season one in a way that I'm really excited for. That brings us to our next category. Yeah. Biggest season five question tied to this season. Yeah. Is this tough to differentiate the two? But I will say, I guess my question is, after watching the season, where are you on the idea of does Will have to stay in order to close the upside down? Does we'll have to stay on the other side?

We talked about this a lot when we talked about season four and how we were like, we don't love the optics of this, like, lonely gay kid being. having to sacrifice himself for everyone else's happiness inside of this world. But like, yeah. Or does 11 have to do that? But like this idea that someone has to stay on the other side in order to close the gates forever. Yeah. Is something I've been thinking a lot about in terms of season one, you know? Yeah.

It's still on my mind, too. Related to another key question of like, are those nodes bleeds just going to actually cause a fatal brain hemorrhage at some point? You know, maybe it's easier to offer to stay behind if you're like. Sometimes her ears bleeding too. Roy, I'm just about a blood now. Yeah. This is where I would like to talk about the family dog for a minute. Chester.

What the fog happened to this dog? Now, I know the actual answer. This has been explained in interviews. David Harvard and not like filming with the dog. They've said it. Okay. I find that distressing, but it's... Everyone has a flaw.

It's out there. However, I believe that we are owed a more formal in-universe acknowledgement. And Noah Schnapp saying at a stranger con that they made a grave for Chester is not sufficient. I'm sorry. This dog is like very present in season one, right? Right up to eating the ham and the Christmas Eve dinner. Like no, no, nothing about the dog after that. Also, Chester, like, throughout the season is always like Will's right here.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, that's the thing I'm like, should we be concerned? Is it the exposure to the open gates, particles from the ups and? side down, they led to Deer Chester's demise. Huff too many particles. You know, like, there's one moment in the season when they're about to head through and Joyce, they're like, yeah, it's toxic, sued up and Joyce is like my kids in there,

like the number of times that these characters are exposed to this. Like, should we be concerned? It's worth asking. I do have two more, like, actual serious. And these also, like your one in the prior category are more like kind of theory, theory corner stuff. We talked about this in season, our season four. pods a lot as well, but like is one, is Vecna going to be revealed as 11's genetic father?

Because Becky telling Hopper and Joyce that Terry didn't know she was pregnant while part of the MK Ultra experiment. Now, I know, as I understand it, I have not read the like supplemental novels. Maybe I'll maybe I'll tip it toe in, but I have not, I've not read any of them. But as I understand it, there is a clarification about who the, who the actual, biological fathers at some point in one of the novelizations. Does not feel like the kind of thing to me that could not be changed in the show.

The fact that there are in the newspaper clippings, all of these pictures of like adults who were a part of this experiment and then all of our memories in season four are of these children. And we know that when one, when young Henry became Brenner's lab prisoner, he then started a proverbs.

to try to manifest this power. I mean, this is, like, hideous, obviously, to think about. But, like, the idea that Brenner was inseminating these experiment participants with one's... It's one of your creepier ideas. I just feel like this is going to be the case. I mean, I don't... I don't mean it. But it is upsetting.

They would have to do this really delicately if they did this, obviously. I mean, on the rec conference, there's also the... the whole like when Elle, maybe they explained it and I forgot this, but that in season four flashbacks, Elle can like speak like a perfectly normal human being. And then when we meet her in season one, she is not basically nonverbal. I guess that would be part of the like trauma. Yeah, just like Elle doesn't remember the massacre. Sure. Something trauma. Yes, exactly. And that, yeah, they have to, that's all part of the Nina awakening and restoring the memories and that.

because Brenner compares it to, like, having a stroke where Elle has to get back in touch with her powers, but also just other aspects of, like, her brain activity. So maybe that's the answer. Sure. I thought you were going to say the opposite. I thought you were saying why in season four at Lenora in the Lenora days is 11 still like. We talked about that. Yes, I know.

We talked about that. Okay, I have another big question. And this is one where I'm like, is this so obvious? and I'm just like, why, would everyone else be like, why are you thinking about this at all? Or is this like the big question? So I honestly can't tell, which is admittedly sort of weird. Okay.

But I am still wondering. I think the answer could be explained very quickly. But I'm very open to the idea that there's more to learn here. Why Hawkins? Does the connection between the upside down and Hawkins predate what happened with Henry Creel in the late 50s? because Brenner, as I understand it, unless I'm missing something entirely possible, Brenner was already there because when Henry is like revealing everything to, in that stretch with like the conversation with 11 and the showing, taking Nancy through the

my palace and everything, reveals that his mom reached out to a doctor. And then when the family massacre occurred, Henry's like, I wound up with him anyway. So it was Brenner. So like that establishes, I think, that Brenner was already there. at Hawkins Lab. And so then it's like, okay, maybe it all really did just start as this MK. Ultra-esque psychedelic warfare experimentation. But then my question is why this place?

And maybe the answer to that is literally as simple as like small town USA because like that's a good place to run these government experiments. Yeah. Or, and you'll understand this better once we watch the Buffy, it's a Hellmouth. Is Hawkins, Indiana, and Hellmouth? Even I understand that. Exactly. Yes.

Yeah. And, you know, Becky has that moment with Hopper and Joyce when she's explaining the experiments and says it was started in the 50s. So that gives us some further timeline clarification. And then, like, there's the question of Vecna's powers. Because whether the, is Vecna the genetic father of these other experimental children thing is true or not. Those other children are, like, created in some way. And Vecna's not. So, like, he's, like, he's, you. So, like, he's, you. The question of did Hawkins amplify and unlock powers and abilities that Henry Creel already had? Or did it give him powers in some way? Because it's canon. Henry's like, we moved here. We moved from Nevada, I think, to Hawkins, Indiana because my teachers, our friends. Like, everyone thought I was odd, thought I was different.

is that my interpretation of that is that he already had abilities. He just didn't know how to use them until Hawkins. That was my take. I'm like he was born with powers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In some way. Okay, that's my understanding. That's your understanding.

So that's like what seems to be true. So then it's like Hawkins is a place that unlocked them. We get that stretch where he's at the Creel house and he starts to like move the grandfather clock. I'm trouble and everything with the spiders, etc. So is the veil between worlds thin there and that? That was what allowed him to sort of learn to harness his abilities, but then why is Brenner there? Does he know that in some way? I just have all these questions.

Is it just like the answer is kind of like a confluence of circumstances and events or Stranger Things versions of Hellmouth? I feel like we have to get like an explicit answer to this, right? Let's continue to ask these questions as we move forward throughout the season. We're just asking questions. Did Dustin have enough snacks in the backpack and is Hawkins a Hellmouth? Equally important. Equally important.

Season MVP. You get to pick two, a child and an adult. This is easy. Is it? I mean, the kid one, yeah. The kid is Millie Bobby Brown. Do you think so? I do, actually.

Wow. Just because I know, like, I love Dustin. My pick is Dustin. Of course, but like Gaten's amazing. But like Millie Bobby Brown comes out of nowhere. And again, I think similar to Spike in 28 years later, which you talked about early this week, like so much hinges on this performance. and like hinges on all the kids, but like really hinges on, and like her, the depth of, like,

Gaten is amazing and charismatic and stuff like that, but like the depth of what she's asked to do in terms of like the emotion and the trauma and stuff like that. And she was like so young and came out of nowhere. And I just remember coming out of this being like, oh, my God, this kid is going to be the biggest star in the world. And like, you know, jury's still out on what's going to happen to the career, Millie Bobby Brown. Very famous person, though. I do enjoy those Anola Holmes movies. Yeah, there you go.

That's a great pick. I love that. Yeah, I almost think you could pick any of the kids. Like, they're all, they're just fantastic. My pick is Dustin. I really wanted to not pick Dustin because I think I'm going to have a hard time not picking Dustin or Steve every season for my MVP in the kid teen category. I do think I know one season where I will do something else.

I know that in season four, Will will tell Mike that he's the heart, that he's the heart of the party, but Dustin is the heart of the show, and it's like kind of... That's simple to me. That was like my least favorite thing that happened in season four, Stranger Things. I was, like, offended by that. I was, like, personally offended. I don't know what was going on with me that I was so upset about that. I was just remembering that.

When I was doing this rewatch, I was like, why did you get so mad about that? How weird. Okay. My adult... Yeah. Even though this is Winona's season, my adult is David Harbor. Dude, this is a shock to me. Yeah?

That's not my pick. Who's your pick? My pick is Joyce. Yeah, when I'm on a, I mean, it's when I'm on a runner's season. But that's because I will be picking Hopper in every future season. I just think that like what David Harper brings in the final episode is just like transcendent. It's amazing. I honest, this was one where I was genuinely like, I can't pick him all four seasons.

I have to do something different here. And I think might I pick the peanut butter smuggler or Murray in a future season? Like, I guess maybe. But yeah, I think that I mean, as you know, I agree. Don't count out Sean Aston. You know what I mean? Bob's coming. Superhero Bob.

Superhero Bob. Listen, I'll happily hand David Harbour the trophy. No arguments here. He, I, you know how I feel about him. I think he's just, like, mesmerizing. He's so good. Very special. And quite dreamy.

I don't think the season works if Joyce isn't a successful character. Absolutely true. I think I guess you could define MVP however you want. Yeah. I think I came into this show knowing what Winona Ryder could do. and not knowing David Harper at all. I think that's why I waited it sort of David Harper. Totally. I think for, yeah, that's a great point.

I think for, from less about the performance and more about the character, like, I think that the number of people, Joyce has like a central relationship with that's like a emotional heartbeat of the show. I think I did character in future seasons. Okay. Actors definitely David Harbor for me. That's not, no question. Yeah.

for on the character front for Joyce we already we hit Joyce and Will we hit Joyce in 11 I will hit Joyce and Jonathan very quickly here because we haven't really done that I think that the like

grieving parent who's kind of treated their old single parent who's like treated their older kid as a co-parent and then there's like a real journey of like John they're holding each other to account but also supporting each other

and that's hard to do like the argument on the street that everybody watches on Main Street is, like, so upsetting. I love that scene, and it's like very... And then, like, building toward Joyce, you know, saying in Chapter 7, like, what is this thing took you two? And then thinking about Jonathan, like, oh, right, you're also, like, my boy and my son,

and I don't want to lose you either. And, like, the way that she says, this is not yours to fix alone, you act like you're alone in the world, but you're not, you're not alone. It just, this is, like, beautiful. And then, yeah, I think, like, the scenes with Lonnie are really good, like, the... seeing Joyce through the eyes of other people in Hawkins, the fact that she's like, I just don't care what this town thinks of me.

I care about my kids and the people I love. And then, yeah, like, just Joyce and hop, heartbeat of the show. So I, I, Joyce has so much screen time and so much story weight on her shoulders that, like. This is her season more than any other season. That's true. Did we do it? We felt like the moment to toast her.

We did. Was there anything that you thought would come up today that didn't? I don't think so. we really didn't. I think we got it all. Yeah. I really think we got it all. Even Hopper ghosting on the librarian, we managed to mention them. Great stuff. All right. Cannot wait to do this again next month for season two and to keep it going from there. Thank you to our Dungeons and Dragons will party today. Carlos Chiroboga, John Richter, Arjuna Ramka Powell, and Jomea Deniram. We will see you all.

I mean next week for Squid Game. And next month for more straight-up. And next month in the upside down. Bye. All. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari.

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