Volume 2

So far, the focus of volume 1 was to get the narrative from the season 4 cliffhanger up to this point (the children being taken, Will’s powers coming out). Nearly all of it has been set in Hawkins, but as volume 2 plays out, we get to see far more of the Upside Down.

But don’t worry, we’ll get to the Abyss soon enough.

Episode 5

We open in the aftermath of the attack. The military is scrambling to resecure the area, with Akers as the nominal commander trying to hold it all together. Little attention is being paid to the captives, so the party members here—El, Will, Hopper, Nancy, Dustin and Murray—all sit together, with Kali, to figure out what just happened.

It’s clear to Hopper that with Vecna’s escape, El’s desire for vengeance has only grown stronger… and that Kali is enabling it. Getting El alone, he tries to warn her off this path, telling her that killing Vecna won’t bring Mike back and that yes, Vecna has to die, but she can’t do it for vengeance alone. Hopper says that he knows that feeling—there’s a hole in her where Mike once was and it’s filled with hurt, a hurt so bad that it feels like it’ll never go away. He knows what that’s like. He also knows that you can’t fill it with something else, instead you let it shrink until you can live with it. El says that this will never go away. But at least Vecna will be dead.

This then becomes the subplot between the two of them—instead of canon’s rehash of Hopper not trusting El because she’s too young but then she proves that she’s strong and capable. That subplot started in season 2 and was concluded in season 3, so we don’t need it again. Instead, El’s need for revenge is pushing her into the dark, and Hopper is desperately trying to save her from it.

The survivors of the ambushed military transport return, including the other party members. Kay, battered and pissed off, takes command again, after berating Akers for how poorly he handled the situation following Sullivan’s death. Joyce and Jonathan are reunited with Will, and learn that he has powers, gained by somehow piggybacking through Vecna’s mind (much like in the canon). Joyce and Jonathan are scared for him, but Will says that he’s not scared, or at least, not as much as he used to be—he feels better now, stronger.

The full party reunites (in the general area by the gate, not exactly under arrest but not being let go). El has gone quiet again, and exchanges a meaningful look with Kali… and then they look toward the gate. The party, in particular Dustin, discusses if they can use Will’s powers to find Holly and the other kids.

This is interrupted when the soldiers start yelling, and we see that El and Kali are at the gate. They step through, and El looks back at the party—particularly at Hopper—with a distraught expression of sadness and pain. Hopper cries out for her—but El closes the gate, sealing off Hawkins from the Upside Down.

Alone with Kali on the other side (in the first time we’ve really seen the Upside Down in full this season), El is unable to locate Vecna—he’s blocking her out. So she and Kali set off, on foot, to find him, and kill him.

Back in Hawkins, the shocked party manages to slip away from the military during all of the confusion, regrouping. It now consists of Will, Joyce, Hopper, Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Dustin, Lucas, Erica, Robin, Argyle and Murray. They get to the Byers old house (which is unoccupied, essentially condemned), outside of town, and we spend the second act of this episode in the aftermath of what’s happened, as the party spends time recovering and figuring out what to do next.

Will wanders their old house with Joyce and Jonathan, as they process his powers and the fact that he’s becoming far more confident and capable than he’s ever been—but Joyce and Jonathan can’t yet see that Will doesn’t need their protection anymore, and criticize the idea of him putting himself in any further danger. Will pushes back, reminding them that there’s no way for them to not be in danger anymore… but at least now he can fight back, now he can help. If only, he says, he’d been able to help earlier… then maybe Mike wouldn’t be dead. As he tears up, Joyce and Jonathan comfort him, telling him that it’s not his fault.

Awkwardness hangs over Nancy, Jonathan and Steve. The former couple have been avoiding each other, which had been easy enough to do with everything else going on, but now it’s becoming more difficult, and painful for them both. Steve tries to comfort Nancy, who—grieving her brother and her father, and terrified for her sister and her mother—is still in a reeling, no-bullshit headspace. She misinterprets Steve’s honest attempt to help her as him making a move, and shuts that possibility down once and for all. This leaves Steve hurt, but Nancy is too out of it to care about being nice. Dustin witnesses this, but says nothing to comfort Steve.

Sometime during all of this, an interaction between Argyle and Murray would be hilarious (seriously, imagine these two stuck in a room together). And it would provide some much-needed comedic levity.

Hopper and Joyce have some time alone (which they haven’t had much of recently). They talk about their kids. Hopper’s angry at El, and worried about her, but Joyce reminds him that she’s strong, way stronger than the rest of them—she’ll be okay. Hopper says that he knows she can take care of herself, but he’s scared about her obsession for revenge, he’s scared of who she’s turning into. Joyce tells him that part of being a parent is trusting your kid to make the right choices.

Which is when we, as well as Joyce and Hopper, catch a glimpse of Jonathan sitting nearby with Argyle, coughing as they try to hide the joint they’re smoking.

Hopper gives Joyce a look that says, Oh, really? But Joyce says that he (Jonathan) is under a lot of stress right now, and what he’s doing isn’t even what she means—she’s talking about the big stuff, the important stuff. You have to trust your kid. Hopper, though, asks if she’s been trusting Will—essentially, calling out her own parenting problems. Which Joyce doesn’t appreciate.

At some point, Murray asks Hopper about his “distress call,” if this mysterious calvary is actually going to show up—it’d be nice to actually have some backup. Hopper says that, considering there’s been nothing so far, they have to assume it’s not happening. They’re on their own.

Lucas and Erica have a scene together, one that isn’t just Erica being mean to him. Bit of a tangent here, but the show hasn’t treated her all that well—not just in the canon season 5, but in general. She starts off great—tough, resourceful and strong-willed—but she doesn’t have much development or depth beyond occasional flickers of kindness.

This isn’t to say she has to become softer, but in my Less-Shitty Version (LSV) she’s shaken by what’s happened in the past day, watching her home get destroyed and witnessing, for the first time, the full horrors of the Upside Down. So, she goes to her big brother for comfort. It’s not a deeply tender scene, but Lucas can tell how badly this has affected her (even if she’s trying to hide it). He finds a way to comfort her that doesn’t get too close or vulnerable (their relationship doesn’t allow for that), and it includes the two of them making up a story for their parents about where they’ve been during all this. Earlier in the season, we’d have already seen their parents forced to stay in their home when the military shows up. Lucas and Erica use one of the party’s handheld radios, here at the old Byers house, to call Lucas’ own radio in his bedroom. His parents hear his voice and answer back. Lucas and Erica are then able to talk to them, to assure them that they’re okay. They have to stretch the truth, stating that they’re at Will’s old house and can’t go home because of how dangerous it is, and they lie when they promise not to go anywhere until this is all over. But the family at least knows that everyone’s alive, and Lucas and Erica also promise to look after each other.

Robin and Will have another queer big-sister / little-brother moment, with a discussion of Will’s powerd and his struggle for Joyce and Jonathan to accept his strength as it relates to his fear of coming out to them—he says that if they can’t accept the one, why would they be okay with the other?

He also mentions Mike, and how he’ll never get to admit how he felt—even though he knew it would never happen, and that Mike probably would have hated him for it, he’ll never get the chance to actually know. Or to at least be honest with his best friend, about himself. Robin tells him that Mike wouldn’t have hated him, he would’ve supported Will. She jokes that El, however, might have kicked his ass for trying to steal her boyfriend, but that would’ve led to a psychic-fight… which would be pretty badass. Will is able to laugh about that a little bit, at least.

We get a glimpse of Joyce nearby, not able to hear what they’re saying, but hearing their laughter and noting how Robin—who Joyce hasn’t liked because of how she emboldens Will against her—is able to make Will feel better. She gets Jonathan’s attention and surreptitiously nods over toward them, whisper-asking him if he thinks they like each other. Jonathan, knowing that Robin is a lesbian (or at least suspecting it, if he hasn’t been told so already), assures Joyce that they definitely do not like each other, not like that. But he watches them talking and laughing, and the gears start to turn in his head.

Dustin has been sitting off on his own throughout all of this, seen only briefly when he watched Nancy yell at Steve. Instead of talking with the others, he’s been busy trying to figure out a solution—doing those fancy quantum math equations with chalk on the living room wall, reminiscent of Joyce’s Christmas lights alphabet from season 1.

Steve comes over to check in on him, but Dustin pushes him away again, finally getting angry and telling Steve that he doesn’t have time for his hurt feelings over Nancy, because he’s too busy trying to figure out a way to get them into the Upside Down to save El. Pissed off, and hurt all over again, Steve storms off. Dustin’s expression shows his own hurt at how he’s acting, but he forces himself to go back to work.

Will checks in on Lucas, bringing up Max. Lucas talks about how worried he is with her being at the hospital unguarded during all this, and Will assures him that Vecna doesn’t care about her anymore.

This is when we cut over to the Max and Holly arc. They’ve been in the mine (likely during episodes 3 and 4), to that place inside of Henry’s mind where he refuses to go, trying to figure out what it is about this place that scares him so much… and if they can use it against him. Or even to escape. However, now they can sense something is happening—Henry’s returning. Holly races back to the Creel house in order to maintain her cover, arriving just as Derek and the last of the children begin waking up, confused and scared.

From there, we cut to Vecna as he returns to his new lair (a ruined house, not the Creel house but a suburban one that might be recognizable to eagle-eyed viewers) in the Upside Down with Derek and the children. As the tentacle-cocoon stuff ties them up (which puts them into his mind, like Holly and Max are) he’s hit by a psychic assault from the Mind Flayer, which tells him (in its own freakish, alien way) that the gate between Hawkins and the Upside Down has been closed. We see, quite clearly, that the Mind Flayer is far more powerful than Vecna, and that Vecna is wholly its pawn—in its rage, it blames Vecna for the gate closing, and orders him not only to reopen it, but to capture El and turn her to their cause… or the Mind Flayer will find his replacement.

Vecna, recovering from the berating and abuse, talks out loud to himself as he tries to figure out what he can do. The four smaller gates he opened in season 4 aren’t accessible—they were only meant to weaken the veil, in order to open the main gate, and he doubts that he has time to get it reopened that way, anyway. There are other points, though, other gates that have been opened in the past… but he’s too busy with the children, with using their combined power to prepare the other gate. Until he remembers Will.

Back at the Byers house, Will is suddenly hit by more visions from Vecna of the destruction and slaughter that will be brought to Hawkins, images so horrid that Will is left crying on the floor. When he finally collects himself, he tells the party that Vecna is enraged that the Hawkins gate is closed, and that he needs two gates open—there’s this other gate, but it’s still not clear to Will what that means.

Dustin, though, seems to suspect something… but doesn’t speak up yet.

Will says that Vecna showed him how to get into the Upside Down. There’s another gate that they can use: the one in Hawkins National Laboratory, the one that El opened before season 1 and that she closed in season 2. With his powers, Will can reopen it. They can get in there and save El.

A huge debate ensues, as the party argues the merits and risks of reconnecting Hawkins and the Upside Down yet again—but they know they can’t abandon El to take Vecna on alone. Besides, Vecna isn’t going to stop; he’ll just find a way to connect the two dimensions again, anyway. So they decide that, yes: once Will reopens the gate, the party will go into the Upside Down, find El, and help her kill Vecna once and for all.

Click here for episode 6

Image credit:

• Poster: mikeshouts.com