Episode 6

We open with the party breaking into the old, abandoned Hawkins Lab. They get down into the basement where the original gate once was, and spend a little time getting prepped, having last-minute discussions and finalizing the plan.

Will knows that he’ll be able to track Vecna with his powers once they’re in the Upside Down, so he has to go back in there. Joyce and Jonathan don’t like it, but Jonathan helps Joyce at least accept it—however, they’ll both be going as well, over Will’s protests, because they won’t leave him unprotected.

Dustin insists that he’ll be going in as well, ignoring the arguments and pleas for him to stay behind—even getting snappish about it. Ever since Mike died, he’s been alternatively withdrawn and distraught, and this has only gotten worse since El went back into the Upside Down. He’s too insistent, and mean about it, so the party gives up and lets him come, too.

Hopper also finds a way to make one last “distress call” to his unknown ally. He leaves another message, telling them that this is it: if help doesn’t come to Hawkins soon, everything’s going to be destroyed. He concludes by saying he hopes like hell someone’s on the other end to hear this, that they didn’t die out there in the desert.

Back in downtown Hawkins, at the site of the closed gate, the military has locked the area back down. The town is quiet… for now. Dr. Kay and Lt. Akers sift through intel, trying to figure out what’s happening that they don’t know about. Kay thinks this was too easy. She can’t trust that El and Kali will die in the Upside Down (Kay is particularly pissed off about Kali’s “betrayal”), and she doesn’t expect the rest of the party to just sit back and let things stay like this. They’re planning something. She sees in their intel that Vecna had used four people as sacrifices to open the Hawkins gate… but one of them survived: Max. Suspecting that she might still have a role in this, Kay tells Akers to send a unit to the hospital to keep her under surveillance—but to be ready for anything. If Kay gives them the word, that squad will neutralize Max, immediately.

Back at the Hawkins Lab, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that, since Vecna wants Will to reopen this gate, there’s going to be some kind of ambush waiting on the other side. And so those who are going in—Will, Joyce, Jonathan, Hopper, Nancy, Steve, Dustin, Lucas and Murray—are armed to the teeth. Robin, Erica and Argyle will stay behind, in theory to guard the gate (although Robin is pretty vocally unsure about what they’ll be able to do against the monsters). With everyone prepared (or as prepared as they’ll ever be) Will begins to use his powers to slowly reopen the gate.

Meanwhile, Holly is busy in the Creel house (in Vecna’s mind), trying to get the other children to see that Henry isn’t who he says he is, and that he isn’t trying to save the world. The others don’t believe her, but we do see Derek trying to stand up for her.

Max has been exploring the mine tunnels, and we now see her come upon the scene where Henry, as a child, stumbled onto the scientist with the case and the gun. Max witnesses that scene play out as it does in the canon: Henry is shot by the scientist and in a panic crushes the man’s head in with a rock, then is corrupted by the Mind Flayer smoke from the case. This shows us that Henry wasn’t born psychic, he was instead infected with powers by the Mind Flayer. And he’s dependent on it for those powers.

The mine tunnel rocks as if an earthquake has hit, and we cut to Vecna in the Upside Down, shaken, as he realizes what Max has found. Furious, he appears as Henry inside of his mind and tries to walk through the entrance but can’t… quite… do it. Instead, he locates a pack of demodogs that are still in Hawkins—having survived the previous battles—and commands them to go to the hospital and kill Max.

Will finishes reopening the Hawkins Lab gate, but catches a glimpse inside of Vecna’s mind (due to the immense stress of Henry trying to confront his traumatic memory) of what’s just happened. He tells the party that Max is in danger—and without a second thought, Lucas turns and runs off, his destination the hospital. After some brief confusion about what to do about this, Will yells at Robin to go with him, because she has just as much to defend there as Lucas does: Vickie.

So Robin races after Lucas, meeting him in the parking lot and taking one of the party’s cars to get to the hospital. The rest of the party knows they’ll have to trust Lucas and Robin to handle it, and that the sooner Vecna dies, the more likely Max will be safe. So, leaving Erica and Argyle to “guard” the gate, the rest of the party—Will, Joyce, Jonathan, Hopper, Nancy, Steve, Dustin and Murray—armed to the teeth, step into the Upside Down.

They expect an ambush and find—nothing.

The Upside Down version of Hawkins Lab is empty. They get up to the surface, and the characters who haven’t been here before—Dustin and Murray, as well as Joyce and Hopper (who haven’t seen much of it before now, at least)—stand in awe of what they’re witnessing (a moment that the canon didn’t bother with). But the others can tell that something is different—the storms in the sky have grown fiery, more violent. When Dustin hears the people who have been here before say that this isn’t normal (even for the Upside Down), he murmurs, “Wormhole.”

Will is able to sense Vecna’s location—it’s not far. The party starts heading out, but Dustin says he has to stay behind, here in the lab. He has a theory, but he needs to see if the scientists left any notes behind to help him confirm it (or, if the Upside Down version of the lab has anything left). He won’t say what his theory is, not until he’s sure. The party doesn’t want to leave him alone, so Dustin tells Steve to stay with him, for protection—surprising everyone, due to how poorly Dustin has been treating him. Steve tells him that he doesn’t want to hang around babysitting again, a statement that actually means he doesn’t want to be around Dustin. But the rest of the party agrees that this is the best option—plus, they don’t have time to argue—and so they leave the pair at the lab.

At the hospital, Vickie (still there as a volunteer nurse), is near the front desk when the unit sent by Dr. Kay comes in and demands to know where a particular room is (Max’s room). As the receptionist argues with the soldiers about patient confidentiality (which results in the soldiers crossing behind the desk and searching through the patient list on their own), Vickie races upstairs to Max’s room and quickly wheels her out, managing to hide her in a nearby room only moments before the soldiers come up to that floor. Finding it empty, they fan out, searching for her.

The party in the Upside Down hasn’t gone far when Hopper asks Will if he can sense El like he can Vecna, and Will says that he can’t… but Hopper insists he tries, so Will does. With some effort, he locates her, and even establishes a mental connection between them—they talk inside of the black voidspace (where El does her remote viewing) and she learns what the party is up to. Distraught, she tells Will to make everyone go back, but he refuses. They’re going to help her, so she might as well meet them at Vecna’s lair. He even tells her where Vecna’s located, and she uses her connection to Will to link herself to Vecna’s mind. Leaving the shared psychic-space, El lets Kali know what’s happened.

On a side note, this episode up to now would have been giving us a few small scenes with El and Kali as they search the Upside Down for Vecna and talk about everything that’s happened, as well as what the future might look like. If there even is one, for people like them.

Will tells Hopper where El is, and he splits off from the party, against their wishes. He’s adamant about getting to her before she reaches Vecna, so that he can keep her from losing herself. He promises he’ll meet up with them—alongside El.

Back in Hawkins, one of the scientists at the military field lab tells Kay that they’re picking up energy signatures similar to the one that the downtown gate gave off—coming from the old Hawkins Lab. Kay suspects Vecna is trying to reopen this gate, so she and Akers head there with most of their forces. Akers asks if she wants to pull the unit from the hospital and she says no, keep them stationed and ready for action, just in case. She adds, though, that they’d better find Max if they want to keep their jobs… and maybe even their lives.

Robin and Lucas reach the hospital, mentioning how this is the second time today that they’ve come racing to get here (the first time was in episode 1, coming to make sure Max was safe during the initial attack on Hawkins).

They find that it’s been attacked again—bodies torn to pieces lie scattered all over. Not just medical staff and patients, but soldiers, too.

Robin and Lucas find Max’s room empty. They try to come up with a plan, and in the process stumble across a handful of survivors who are hiding—patients and staff, including Vickie. She explains that the soldiers got here just a little while before the demodogs, looking for Max—looking for the person who Robin told Vickie had to be protected at all costs (in episode 1). Robin’s surprised that Vickie remembered this, and Vickie says that of course she remembers. She then sneaks Robin and Lucas to where she hid Max. Lucas picks Max up and they begin sneaking out of the hospital.

This sequence then plays out similarly to how it does in the canon, except that Max is still in a coma. The demodogs find them and chase after them, leading to them hiding in the laundry room, about to be scented out… then, a noise in one of the washing machines draws the monsters’ attention, leading to the explosion and the return of a very pissed off Karen Walk ’Em Down Wheeler.

Karen Walk ’Em Down Wheeler photo

Back at Hawkins Lab, we’re treated to a brief, funny interaction between Erica and Argyle. What starts off as Erica’s disdain for a pothead like Argyle, and Argyle being too high and chill to even catch on, evolves into him telling Erica that he can tell she’s scared, but she’s gotta believe in her friends, man, because it’s all gonna work out, you know?

Immediately after he says that, they watch as the military convoy rolls up to the building and sets up a perimeter.

In the Upside Down, the party reaches Vecna’s location—a house in a subdivision like any other, nothing special about it. Will tells them that a lot of the employees of Hawkins Lab lived in this neighborhood. This was Dr. Brenner’s house.

It’s a ruin, torn through by the Vecna’s tentacles. The sky grows even more fiery and violent, and they watch as Vecna levitates from the shredded roof, lifting up Holly, Derek and the other children, all in their trances. As the party gets ready to open fire on him—particularly Nancy, the fury and concern in her eyes—shapes start falling from the sky.

Demogorgons. Demodogs. Demobats.

An army.

Coming from… elsewhere. Raining down on them, landing undamaged around the party and completely surrounding them. While from on high, Vecna grins, and telepathically tells Will that this is the end, that that Will must come with him. It is time to finish opening the gates.

Click here for episode 7

Image credit:

• Poster: mikeshouts.com