While helming episodes of Stranger Things has mainly been the stomping grounds of the Duffer Brothers and Shawn Levy, other directors have had a chance to play with the toys in the Upside-Down. But while such names as Nimrod (Predators) Antal and Andrew (Wall•E) Stanton have show up to Hawkins in order to boss a Demogorgon or two around, surely season 5 has turned up the most surprising name yet.
If you were to take a glance over the career of Frank Darabont, you’ll soon see that he a a filmmaker uniquely suited to the world(s) of Stanger Things – yes, he directed The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, but his third Stephen King adaption was the harrowing The Mist; a movie about a small, all-American town finding itself under attack from creatures from another dimension… sound familiar? Add to this the fact that he helped pioneer modern horror television by overseeing the first season of The Walking Dead and that he spent the 80s scripting the likes of A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors, The Blob remake and The Fly II – his goopy credentials are all but perfect.
After Will’s revelation that he can tap into the Upside-Down hive mind and see what Vecna is seeing, he believes that he now knows what the messed up mind slayer is up to. Holly Wheeler is only to be the first disappearance of many as Henry Creel’s monstrous alter-ego plans to keep kidnapping kids for some yet still unknown reason and his next target is notorious bully, Derek Turnbow. With this information, the gang snap into action, plying Murray for more supplies and coming up with an audacious plan that requires the help of the most devious being in Hawkins – Erica Sinclair.
Meanwhile, in some weird, idyllic mindscape located in the Upside-Down, Henry, disguised as imaginary friend Mr. Whatsit, has a captive Holly believing that she’s safe from all the monsters in a picturesque house. While disturbed that she’ll soon be joined by the spiteful Derek, she still trust Henry implicitly – so she’s kind of confused when she finds a map and directions that suggests Henry wants her to break his own rules and enter the surrounding forrest on a mystery quest.
Meanwhile, Hopper and Eleven are still trapped in the Upside-Down and have found their search for Holly or Vecna halted by a massive, fleshy wall. Worse yet, the military has arrived and seemingly have a secret weapon that can nullify Eleven’s abilities; but after Hopper evens the odds with some good, old fashioned bullets, the two strive to interrogate the last survivor only to discover that the military base located in the Upside-Down is holding a being just as strong as El. But while the daddy/daughter duo of destruction stir up a new plan, those still located in the Rightside-Up are all set to use a drugged Derek as bait to attack a Demogorgon and stick a tracker in it to finally uncover Venca’s location once and for all. Needless to say, once again plans go squiffy.
While I’ve repeatedly been incorrect multiple times, I’ve always been suspicious that the Duffers and Shawn Levy only bring in guest directors to tackle the episodes they can’t or won’t direct. However; I have to say that while Andrew Stanton was an impressive get last season, snagging an all but retired Frank Darabont to helm a couple of season 5 episodes is literally too perfect for words as vast parts of his entire career seem to have personally inspired the Netflix show. The Stephen King vibes, the Elm Street 3 flavour of Vecna’s attacks, the ferocity of other dimensional beasts – Darabont isn’t just made for this, he’s a large part of the orginal blueprint.
It’s a bit of a shame then that he’s not given more to play with as aside from a cool face-off with a Demogorgon and a shock, last second reveal, The Turnbow Trap is mostly another transitional episode that’s still building to something far bigger. In some ways it would be like getting Peter Jackson to helm an episode of Game Of Thones and then having him direct an installment where nothing happens – it doesn’t mean its a bad episode (far from it) but I was maybe expecting something more memorable from the guy who was responsible for that ending in The Mist. However, what we do get is a perky episode that not only moves everything along nicely, but we witness the triumphant return of tyrannical teen, Erica Sinclair, as she embarks on he most diabolical mission yet – drugging the family of a friend turned enemy.
While that suspiciously sounds like something Eric Cartman would stoop to, the lion’s share of the episode is taken up with the Hawkins contingent once again trying to put Vecna in check by various means. This means more irritated buddy banter between Dustin and Steve who has the indignity of having a large radar dish bolted to his BMW; more weird dating advice from Murray to Jonathan; more bonding between Will and Robin; and more scenes of Nancy being badass with a shotgun. Like I said, it’s hardly groundbreaking stuff, but it’s lively as it is fun – but as we turn our attention over to the Upside-Down, the Hopper/Eleven thread offers a similar lack of earth shattering revelations. They fight some soldiers, Hopper gets all protective and shooty-shooty and Eleven modifies her powers to extract more information to get them to the next episode; but considering that this is supposedly the final season, if the makers are trying to lull us into letting our guard down by playing the Stanger Things greatest hits, there’s a feeling that they need to pull the pin in their rug pull hand grenade sooner rather than later. Yes, it’s cool that Darabont has gotten to direct a classic episode of Stranger Things where everyone is doing exactly what is expected of them – but what next, get Quentin Tarrantino in to direct a clip show episode?
Despite my apparent frustration, there really is nothing about The Turnbow Trap that warrants any real derision other than its stubboness in not utterly rocking my world, however, aside from the Wes Craven trap building (Nancy Thompson was fucking up Freddy Krueger with booby traps long before Kevin McCallister ever heard of the Wet Bandits) and the subsequent fucking up of a Demogorgon, the episode’s sole jarring moment comes from the last second when an old friend makes their acquaintance. That’s right folks, Sadie Sink’s Max is back (other than in her vegetative state in a hospital bed, or course) and she seems to alive and well and with her sight restored in the strange mindscape that Vecna’s created. Obviously we don’t have a clue about the why, how, when and where – is it Max’s consciousness separated from her body or is it another trick of Vecna? – but there’s a sense that the next episode is winding up for some knockout blow.
The stage has been set to suspiciously keep things as Stranger Things-friendly as humanly possible as we head into the fourth episode and that insanely inconvenient mid-season break. But while matters have been chugging along as usual (Darabont couldnt make a bad Stranger Things episode if he tried), whatever happens next needs to be sufficiently devastating to justify the rather sedate feeling behind the final season thus far.
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