Circling back to the events of these episodes, Erica (Priah Ferguson) proves to be a crucial addition to the team once again—and it’s not just because the girl’s always got quips. She visits the Turnbow house under the pretense of making up with her old friend, Tina, who happens to be Derek’s older sister. She serves the entire family a pie laced with benzos that Robin stole from the hospital. Once the Turnbows lose consciousness, they’re wheeled away to an isolated barn under the care of Joyce, Will, Robin, and Erica. At the same time, Nancy, Steve, Jonathan, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin (who’s mercifully back with his friends) modify the Turnbow home with tripwires to ambush the incoming demogorgon. Their fight with Vecna’s pet goes down as smoothly as you’d imagine, which is not that well at all. The creature escapes, and, instead of letting the bullet tracker do the work, Steve follows it all the way into the Upside Down with Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin in tow. It’s a ridiculous choice, but Steve does have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So now, the four of them are trapped in hell, with his beloved car stuck in the same slimy wall that Hop and El came face-to-face with in episode two. And no one has made any progress so far.
El and Hop at least try to get information out of a military soldier to find out what, exactly, the government has been up to. They ultimately go straight to the source, infiltrating the military base under the assumption that they’ve got Vecna trapped in there. El can’t use her powers because they’ve set up a device that weakens her, so Hop decides to venture behind locked doors, unsure whether he’ll survive his meeting with the devil. Cue another heartfelt goodbye between the surrogate father-daughter duo, except I didn’t find their tearful exchanges as moving. Stranger Things has already played this card before. El “died” in the season-one finale, and Hopper turned to ash at the end of season three. Except they both survived because this show is too scared to lose main players. So I wasn’t shocked that Hopper didn’t die. Instead, he figures out what—or rather, whom—the military has kept in there and takes El inside to reveal that, bam, it’s her “sister” Kali Prasad (Linnea Berthelson). Remember Kali, right? El went to Chicago in season two to meet the fellow Dr. Brenner survivor, only for Kali to give her a goth makeover and then never be mentioned again. Well, here she is, trapped by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) for who knows what nefarious reasons. For most people, including yours truly, Kali’s debut hour, “The Lost Sister,” stands as the show’s weakest. So I’m curious to see what the Duffer Brothers have in store for this duo.
Kali isn’t the only surprise return. Sadie Sink is a sight for sore eyes, especially because I assumed Stranger Things would hold off Max’s return for its December episodes. Technically, she’s not really back, but she does meet Holly in Vecna’s mind, where they’re both currently trapped. Don’t be fooled by the scenic, sunny mountains where they are. Max walks Holly through the danger they’re in, revisiting how she’s spent the past 18 months in captivity, striving to escape before resigning to her fate. The wall—that goddamn wall—is the only place where Vecna can’t hurt them because even he’s too scared to enter. What secrets and memories does this place hold for him? Regardless of the questions her appearance raises, I loved getting Max back this soon into season five after Sink’s performance in season four blew me away.
In the land of the living, an initially angry Derek joins the team after witnessing the demogorgon arrive. When he attacks everybody, Joyce bravely steps in front of the kids, and you’d assume she’d get lightly scratched or something. Nope. It’s clear that even if he doesn’t know it, Will tapped into Vecna’s hive mind and made the demogorgon leave. At this point, do we think he’s potentially stronger than Eleven? With Derek safe for now, they plan to hide all the other kids who’ve been seeing “Mr. Whatsit” so that Vecna can’t take any of them. But they’re too late because the military has already wrangled them under its protection. In another classic Stranger Things move, the crew comes up with a slightly unhinged plan to rescue them: Derek will walk right into the barracks so he can be kept with the other children, and from inside, he’ll lead them into the tunnels in the bathroom. There, Mike and Lucas will be waiting to guide them out, so Murray and Robin can drive them out of town. Good? Good.
Everything goes fine, and most of the kids are well on their way out of Hawkins. But this is Stranger Things we’re talking about, so things go awry as soon as the demogorgon army shows up. And it’s an army, alright. Multiple creatures jump out of multiple gates, clawing into every human being they see. A few chase after Murray’s van, and a couple of them run after Erica and Lucas in the tunnels. Mike, bless his heart, steps up and tries to shield the younger ones from the demogorgons. But no one stands a chance once Vecna strolls out and coolly crushes those still alive and standing in his way. (Don’t worry, no one important is hurt—duh.) He then talks solely to Will in a scene staged to replicate the premiere’s cold open. Vecna confirms he wants weak children to mold them into his soldiers, using them to reshape the world. Whatever that means. I’m still unclear on the end goal. Does he want to turn everything into the Upside Down, and if so, why take the kids? And why does he walk right back after conversing with Will, not bothering to check if his resurrected demogorgons killed anyone? If he had stayed, Vecna would’ve seen Will take them out in that fantastic closing scene. “Sorcerer” ends on such a high note that I can’t believe we have to wait for a whole month to see what happens next.
Stray observations
- • So whatever happened to the rest of the Turnbows? Are they still drugged and unconscious in that barn? I’d hate to be them when they wake up and discover Derek’s vanished into the dark pits of the Upside Down.
- • Er, I really need them to explain whatever’s going on with Sadie Sink’s wig or hairstyle, and why they chose to make it so distracting?
- • The many pop-culture mentions and references in season five so far include The Great Escape, Mission Impossible, and Miami Vice.
- • I hope the show has something cooler in store for Linda Hamilton.
- • If somehow anyone still cares, Jonathan has purchased a ring for Nancy, hoping it’ll be the Band-Aid over their relationship issues. Sure, dude.
- • Max tells Holly to go back to Vecna’s house and pretend everything is fine because she has a new plan for both of them to escape. It gives Holly a new challenge, and I think Nell Fisher is up to the task. She’s a remarkable addition to the cast.
- • While it’s nice that Karen and Ted Wheeler are somewhat involved, I need to know what Dustin and Lucas’ respective families think they’ve been up to for the past couple of days.
- • Everything is so intense that I feel like episodes three and four are lacking in banter a bit, particularly with Steve/Robin and Steve/Dustin. At least the Sinclair siblings remain reliably funny together. But I need Stranger Things to remember its true powers lie in the electric dynamic this group shares with each other, as evidenced in the point below.
- • It’s beautiful that Will, when it’s time to use his powers, reflects on his conversation with Robin earlier in the episode. While strolling in the tunnels, she talked to him about her first crush, realizing that she’s a lesbian, and how she found herself in the process. I’m not sure where Will’s feelings for Mike stand, but it’s certainly important that his powers peaked after the montage of his childhood with his pal.
