As we approach the end of Stranger Things 3, at this point you have to commend it for being easily the biggest season to date. While the previous seasons prided themselves creating alternate universes, having Eleven toss the occasional car or whipping up a looming cloud monster to bother our leads, our third trip to Hawkins has aggressively expanded in scope in a variety of ways. The town of Hawkins itself has grown from a subdued, autumnal community to a bustling summer place; the secret experiments of Hawkins Lab have now ballooned to an underground Russian base located beneath the new local mall; the cast has grown to adopt new fan favorites and most impressively of all, the visuals of the show have matured from skinny Demogorgon’s and cloud monsters from providing a house-sized antagonist that’s entirely comprised of melted, human flesh. Well, expect things to get even bigger as we barrel our way to a big finish – but in classic, penultimate episode fashion, there’s still some extra stakes to squeeze in there before we’re done.
The Mind Flayer has now absorbed all of its melted, mind controlled followers, grown to a worrying height and has decided to end it’s beef with Eleven once and for all as it zeros in on her location. However, when it arrives, it faces stiff retaliation from a shotgun wielding Nancy and an axe waving Jonathan who do their valiant best to repel the creature, but even Eleven’s formidable powers aren’t enough to prevent her gaining a nasty gash on her leg. As the group flee and take refuge in a supermarket to tend to her wounds, Mike gets a long awaited call on the walkie talkie from Dustin.
Dustin, in case we’ve forgotten, has been off on his own adventures having discovering and escaping a hidden Russian laboratory that’s trying to continue experiments into the Upside-Down. However, while he, Steve, Robin and Erica all ultimately escaped, the two older members of the quartet are still high off their asses on true serum due to an unfortunate bout of torture. But while they lay low in a screening of Back To The Future in the malls cinema, the third and final group have their own issues to deal with.
After hearing a radio broadcast stating that the Russians are going after some kids, Hopper and Joyce have almost correctly surmised that it’s their kids who are in danger and have dragged captive Russian scientist Alexei and conspiracy theorist Murray with them to the big fairground bash that’s being thrown by the corrupt Mayor Kline.
With Dustin’s group and Eleven’s group finally joining together and incredulously trying to catch up on recent events (Erica and Lucas are especially shocked to each see their sibling there), but they’re not out of the woods yet.
With the Mind Flayer preparing for a second assault and the wound it inflicted on Eleven’s leg suddenly going all painful and gooey, it seems that the kid’s most powerful weapon has been taken out. But conversely, the Russian agent known as Grigori is closing in on Hopper’s group with the intention of tying off all lose ends.
With so much now to keep track of, I’m not entirely sure where to start when reviewing The Bite. The cast, plot and scale of The show has now grown so large, that it’s tough to ignore that some members of the OG cast are getting somewhat lost in the shuffle. Take Will for example, who technically started all this in the first place by going missing – all he has left to do these days is feel a tingle in the back of his neck whenever the Mind Flayer is close and continue to rock the worst bowl cut in modern history. Similarly, Jonathan now just runs around after his girlfriend looking confused – however, while I feel for the actors involved, I can’t really complain as the newer cast members who have risen to prominence have more than earned their spot. Sadie Sink’s Max is a welcome form of dissension in the ranks that’s allow Eleven to behave like a normal human; an increased role for Brett Gelman’s Murray gives both Hopper and Joyce someone new to be yelled at by and best of all, Maya Hawke’s Robin has somehow become one of the most enjoyable characters despite only just appearing barely six episodes ago and yet nails a touching moment where she comes out to Steve as gay.
Of course, this is Stranger Things and as we all know, not all the new characters get to have happy endings (*cough* Barb and Bob *cough*) and while I personally thought it was lifeguard Heather who would be this series brutally unfair sacrifice, it actually turns out that the shock murder of Alexei hurts so much more.
Cut down by a silenced bullet by Grigori imeadiately after discovering the wonders of America via winning a cuddly toy at the fairground, the cartoon loving Russian scientist proves to be a painful casualty of a season that most people (myself included) worried was becoming too light hearted – but when your cast becomes this big, unfortunately you have to break some eggs. Still, as fun as it’s been for the show to not only spread its cast, but also to tailor make the actual genre for each group, it’s probably for the best that they all start coming back together otherwise we’d be denied that moment where everyone all acts as one big unit to dispel what evil lurks in Hawkins this time.
Speaking of evil, the Mind Flayer’s glow-up from malevolent, gaseous, string-puller to house-sized, flesh beast has been greatly helped by some cracking visual effects and a genuine sense of danger. As a monster lover, I genuinely think it’s cool that even though we’ve had the same monster for two seasons in a row, the fact that even a bellowing, interdimensional creature can have similar growth and progression as, say, Dustin, means that the threat feels fresh while still carrying a hunk of backstory. The fact that the creature has managed to score a major hit on its hated enemy, Eleven, only heightens the fact that the plot is moving as fast as that Graviton ride at the fairground, but it also hints that some major changes are on the horizon.
With the penultimate episode in the bag, it just goes to show how well Stranger Things has set up it’s characters that the vast majority of them still manages to have moments that land despite all the crazy shit that’s going on (no offence to Will and his goose-pimply Flayer sense). From Murray’s genuine horror at Alexei’s murder, to the little oasis of quiet where Robin is mistakenly convinced that Steve will be repulsed by her coming out, it stands at how good the show can really be that it makes space for such genuine emotions when there’s a scene where a 14 year-old girl uses telekinesis to tear the head a monster made of human flesh in two. One episode to go? Flay it ain’t so.
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