I’ve got to say, hinging the entire plot of the final season of Stranger Things on a character that literally no one has given a second thought about for nearly ten years is pretty funny. When that Demogorgon pushed through dimensions and into the bedroom of little Holly Wheeler, I’m sure I’m not alone when I audibly went “huh?” when it revealed that the first step of Vecna’s new endgame predominantly involved a character whose name I’d probably forget if it came up in a pop quiz, and yet here we were.
Of course, as confounding as it was to me, it’s nice to know that even in its final season, Stranger Things hasn’t lost that sense of self-awareness as it spawns a running joke that sees virtually the rest of of the entire cast looking just as confused as I was that such an insignificant side-character has now become a living mcguffin to get season 5 to pick up speed. However, meta jokes about their own plot aside, Chapter 2 has the rather unenviable task of taking all the status quo shifts of the previous episode and actually getting them moving…
As unlikely as it may sound, Vecna’s first move in his interdimensional endgame was to target Nancy Wheeler and send one of the slavering, petal-faced creatures known as a Demogorgon after his prey. While clueless patriarch Ted Wheeler is easily flung across the room, Karen goes full warrior mother and comes at the monster with a broken wine bottle to protect her cowering cub – but even this proves to be ineffectual when compared to the raw power and slashing claws of Vecna’s roaring footsoldier.
Caught utterly unawares, the only people able to react in time are a shotgun totting Nancy and a leveled-up Eleven who arrive too late to save Nancy’s sister, but just in time for El to leap into the closing rift between worlds to give chase in the Upside-Down. The only thing left for everyone else to do is try and regroup in the aftermath and pull things together. While both Karen and Ted are gravely injured, they both are taken to the local hospital in time to save their lives and with Hopper also stranded in the other dimension, the group splits further in order to figure out what to do next.
In the van that they use to monitor the Upside-Down, Steve, Jonathan and Dustin bicker and argue about various things, while Eleven and Hopper manage to reunite in the Upside-Down to pick up the Demogorgon’s trail, but while Joyce’s motherly grip remains tight on Will, Robin manages to maneuver him past his mother and out into the field when they hatch a plan to use his Vecna-sensitive senses to track the arch villain down.
However, it’s the team of Nancy and Mike who make the biggest headway when, after sneaking in to meet with their seriously injured mom, they discover the identity of who Holly’s imaginary friend really is. Step forward Mr. Whatsit – or should I say: Henry “Vecna” Creel.
There’s always that bit in a season of Stranger Things where there’s a distinct join that connects the set up of a new status quo with the sight of the actually plot starting to rumble into motion. Last installment got us reintegrated with the whys and wherefores of the cast while walking us through the multi-pronged Vecna hunting operation that’s been occurring between seasons – however, it’s all been revealed to be something of a herring as red as Upside-Down lightning as the plans it took and entire episode to build instantly come crashing down the second a Demogorgon stick it’s face into Holly Wheeler’s bedroom. If I had to bet money on it, I was utterly convinced that the Wheeler parents where going to be used as a blunt instrument by the Duffers to show that this season would be boasting a serious bodycount, however, despite getting carved up pretty good by a set of brutal talons, they still (barely) exist in the realm of the living and I strongly get the feeling that the creators are gleefully fucking with us when it comes to the mortality rate of the sizable, beloved cast. However, despite the fact that the elder Wheelers are still clinging to life (would anyone have been that bummed if Ted had bought the farm?), that doesn’t stop that opening sequence from being something of a barn burner. Not only do the creators dip into their love of 80s by visually nodding to Poltergeist as the Demogorgon tries to yank a little blonde girl through a orangey portal in the ceiling her bedroom, but Karen Wheeler finally gets her moment to shine by coming after an otherworldly creature with with a broken bottle like a crackhead in a bar room brawl.
However, from here the episode has to pull back on the momentum in order to move the season into the start of the mystery section of the show which once again sees everyone splitting up and dealing with their own issues while we wait for all the various plot threads to all start picking up the pace, but surely one of the more intriguing ones are finally seeing Mike and Nancy Wheeler unite. Famously announcing that they’d never keep secrets from one another ever again at the end of the first seaso, and then amusingly going on to barely be seen exchanging a word for the next four seasons, a Wheeler team-up seems insanely overdue and probably one of the more fun fusion of characters we could possibly hope for at this point. However the added fact that it’s their ravaged mother they have to quiz over the disappearance of their sister makes things tangibly personal. Also, the bond that’s building between the out Robin (or at least as out as a girl could get in a small town in 1987) and the deeply closeted Will could prove to be the making of a perfect team as long as the notoriously protective Joyce doesn’t figure out that she’s been bamboozled by the rabid gabbing DJ. Slightly less engrossing, however, is the macho posturing that exists between Steve and Jonathan that made even more maudlin by the addition of a sullen and battered Dustin. Knowing the show as well as I do, I’d be stunned if the trio didn’t soon become mired in some three-way bromance as they all bond and the fact that after multiple seasons apart we have a daddy/daughter team up between Eleven and Hopper while trapped deep in enemy territory that also seems to have a predetermined outcome as the bearded, protective patriarch will undoubtedly see that the child in his care is more than capable of protecting herself is some form of allegory for growing up.
However, are things as obvious as they first appear? With the reveal that Vecna as assumed his human form as Henry Creed to enter Holly’s consciousness as her imaginary friend, Mr. Whatsit, in order to groom her for some horrible fate, it’s obvious that the continuing (and amusing confusion) that Holly is the key to this new attack from the Upside-Down us proof that we’re due a massive rug pull. We’ve seen Steve and Jonathan at odds before just as we’ve seen tension between El and Hopper before, but with the Wheeler parents somehow surviving a gruesome fate, are we being led into a false sense of security before some terrible shoe drops?
Like clockwork, the second episode drops into place that comes with the slower pace that always comes from the gears of another complex plot grinding into life. However, while some of this year’s mix and match groupings seem a little going-though-the-motions, others seem to be potentially inspired – however, despite the shock effect of the mauled Wheelers taking effect, I feel we ain’t seen nothing yet once Vecna gets his misshapen groove back.
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