• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Stranger Things [SPOILER THREAD] We're All Fleas Now

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Mr Clark was awesome, and I hope season two features more of him. I really want to know why he knows about all this obscure stuff and just kind jumped right on board with all the very bizarre stuff the kids ask him about.

Because he's the best kind of science teacher! The nerdy kind who wants kids to love to learn and bring that out in them.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Love that there is still mystery at the end of the show, but idk how they can top it. A new monster? eh... more abiliity users? eh... Maybe a focus around will searching for EL because she is in trouble and being convined by his friends?

The UD is an entirely new reality in which we've explored 1 small area and seen, what, 2 beings from?

There is a ton of material to mine from that.
 

jond76

Banned
Steve was a great character. He could have easily been a terrible cliché, but he was very real. A decent guy with some shitty friends.

He really wasn't in the wrong to confront Jonathan about the pictures, because that was creepy. He knew the graffiti was terrible but was mad about how he thought he was being played. Nice moment about buying a camera also. Good character.

Great show.
 
The UD is an entirely new reality in which we've explored 1 small area and seen, what, 2 beings from?

There is a ton of material to mine from that.

Very true. Like monsters that are bigger than that one. that would be awesome to see them do a knight in shining armor rescue series, going back and forth in order to solve clues and advance to places, etc.

kind of like a video game >=D
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Very true. Like monsters that are bigger than that one. that would be awesome to see them do a knight in shining armor rescue series, going back and forth in order to solve clues and advance to places, etc.

kind of like a video game >=D

Just wait till it gets to 1985 in the show and the kids get themselves a Nintendo Entertainment System. Will is going to get caught by "Bowser" next time.
 

Aurongel

Member
They were -this- close to making a beautifully executed little self contained thing...

And they fucked it up. Oh my god that ending was like something out of a cheesy made for TV movie from the 1990s.
 
Steve was a great character. He could have easily been a terrible cliché, but he was very real. A decent guy with some shitty friends.

He really wasn't in the wrong to confront Jonathan about the pictures, because that was creepy. He knew the graffiti was terrible but was mad about how he thought he was being played. Nice moment about buying a camera also. Good character.

Great show.

I agree wholeheartedly! :D
 

Aegus

Member
Was it intentional that the first place the kids try and talk to on the school radio is Australia? Down Under. Upside Down.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
They were -this- close to making a beautifully executed little self contained thing...

And they fucked it up. Oh my god that ending was like something out of a cheesy made for TV movie from the 1990s.

How so? They flipped several tropes on their heads and tied up the major plot points in a fairly concise and satisfactory manner while leaving a couple dangling threads to build on later on. I think overall it set out to do exactly what it meant to and did a damn good job. I do think the story with Hoppers daughter juxtapositioned against saving Will was a bit on the nose but otherwise I thought it all ended rather logically and in an entertaining manner.
 

Salsa

Member
it was great. those kids are fucking incredible. I know it's all great but that's my main takeaway. it's like a new Stand By Me. I bet most of the time in pre was spent doing casting cause god damn.

barb coulda been handled a bit better. those poor parents.
 

Salsa

Member
also

yDH4vMW.jpg
 

SRG01

Member
Oh I just realized another connection:

Will and party casting fireball at the Demogorgon at the beginning... and Nancy, Johnathan and Steve lighting the monster up in flames later in the season.
 

RyanW

Member
One part of me wants to learn more about this particular incident before the show starts through like a short comic series or something but another part of me wonders what really could be explored from that period that wasn't shown in the show.

I guess they could just do an origin story esque with El starting with her mother and following more of El. I just want more of this universe.
 
Oh I just realized another connection:

Will and party casting fireball at the Demogorgon at the beginning... and Nancy, Johnathan and Steve lighting the monster up in flames later in the season.

Ah, yes that is a good catch! Also, no need to use spoiler tags in the spoiler thread. :)
 

Timeaisis

Member
Oh thank god we have a spoiler thread. I need to talk with this with no limits.

I loved this show to death.

A couple of loose strands:
-Can Will now communicate with the other side like 11?
-Is 11 alive? The eggos defintely seem to point that way.
-Does Hop work for the fed now? If so, he seems to be playing them with the 11 thing. Hard to say.
-Are there more creatures in UD? There were eggs.
-Why did the monster need to come to the other side? I know he's drawn to blood, but surely he's survived in his own dimension for a while before that.
-Speaking of which, did 11's first contact alert the creature of the other dimension, allowing him to pass through?
-How did Will escape the monster for the first time? Barb woke up with the monster nearby, remember.

I have a theory that Will has latent powers which the monster was drawn to. Actually, I have a theory that the monster had been going after 11 all this time. If you look back, everyone that has been "taken" has been a kid with short hair. The adults are just killed and or eaten.

Is the monster trying to use kids for some purpose? Was it trying to get at 11 for some reason? Seems like it is attracted to blood for feeding, but it seemed to have had something more planned for Will and Barb, don't you think?

Just some thoughts.

Also, Dustin was my favorite character.
 

jetjevons

Bish loves my games!
Am I the only one that thinks the flash of Upside Down world after Will vomits the slug is the slug crossing back over. The slug is clearly a baby petal monster, right? So it needs to get back to its environment?
 
Oh thank god we have a spoiler thread. I need to talk with this with no limits.

I loved this show to death.

A couple of loose strands:
-Can Will now communicate with the other side like 11?
-Is 11 alive? The eggos defintely seem to point that way.
-Does Hop work for the fed now? If so, he seems to be playing them with the 11 thing. Hard to say.
-Are there more creatures in UD? There were eggs.
-Why did the monster need to come to the other side? I know he's drawn to blood, but surely he's survived in his own dimension for a while before that.
-Speaking of which, did 11's first contact alert the creature of the other dimension, allowing him to pass through?
-How did Will escape the monster for the first time? Barb woke up with the monster nearby, remember.

I have a theory that Will has latent powers which the monster was drawn to. Actually, I have a theory that the monster had been going after 11 all this time. If you look back, everyone that has been "taken" has been a kid with short hair. The adults are just killed and or eaten.

Is the monster trying to use kids for some purpose? Was it trying to get at 11 for some reason? Seems like it is attracted to blood for feeding, but it seemed to have had something more planned for Will and Barb, don't you think?

Just some thoughts.

Also, Dustin was my favorite character.

The thing that Will puked up looked just like what was in Barbara's mouth, so I'm guessing it's some kind of larva or similarly bad thing. I wonder if he's permanently "close" to the other side after being there so long or something, who knows.

I'm certain 11 is alive. Hopper seemed pretty set on getting food and putting it there, so I assume he knows she'll come for it.

I think they likely just debriefed him. I'd bet that Brenner and that scary woman were operating solo and the feds wanted to know what the fuck happened. But who knows.

When 11 first saw the creature in UD, it was messing with that yellow egg-looking thing, IIRC. I'd wager there's definitely more creatures, although maybe not the same kind of creature.

I bet it came to the other side when she tore the rift open. Maybe it never had the opportunity before that.

I doubt we'll ever know much about Will's time over there, unless it's a focus of S2.

What I really want to know (assuming S2 doesn't just totally go another direction) is what exactly Brenner was thinking with sending her to make contact after the first time she got scared. And what his intent was with UD at all. The whole "make a psychic weapon" stuff is pretty clear, but not why he was so intent on UD.
 

jmood88

Member
They were -this- close to making a beautifully executed little self contained thing...

And they fucked it up. Oh my god that ending was like something out of a cheesy made for TV movie from the 1990s.
Any examples of made for tv movies with similar endings?
 

Timeaisis

Member
They were -this- close to making a beautifully executed little self contained thing...

And they fucked it up. Oh my god that ending was like something out of a cheesy made for TV movie from the 1990s.

I guess I can see where you are coming from. The ending did suffer from Return of the King syndrome. It felt like it was ending, then boom, another scene. I felt that it should have probably ended at the hospital scene. If they wanted to tease Season two they could've flickered the lights. Fade to black. That would have felt much more self-contained, at least to me.

Instead they had a bunch of scenes afterwards seemingly as a means to set-up season 2 and check in with the remaining characters. Hop and his Fed buddies. Time skip. Hop in the forest with eggos, Will with his weird condition, Nancy and Steve back together plus romantic tension between Nancy and Jonathan. Y'know, the typical "here's what you can get excited at in season 2!" stuff. I get why they did it, but it did feel forced and kind of weird. Probably because up until the end of Episode 8 Stranger Things felt like a long movie or a miniseries instead of a TV show. And now with that it felt like a TV show.

That being said, just consider everything after the hospital scene a prologue for season 2, and move on.
 

lilltias

Member
Was the girl shooting the revolver "go to hell, you son of a bitch" a Jaws referense? Monster being attracted to blood and all.

I want a list of all references! The fight in the alley reminded me of They Live.
 

Truelize

Steroid Distributor
My thoughts

- this show will win awards. The child actors were incredible. I watched the show with my eight and ten year old sons and they both mentioned how awesome the kids acting was. Yeah it wasn't a "those kids are awesome" situation. It was a "is this real? Those kids make it seem so real" situation. 😎


***************************************************
- has there been any talk about how it's possible that Eleven was originally traveling into an empty dimension that only her mind could access. Her subconscious. That the monster could have been her "darkside" and by making contact with it she gave it access to reality. She created a door in for herself and then by touching the monster it gained the ability to create a door back to where she was.
The monsters domain changed drastically after she touched it. Wasn't an empty world/dimension any longer but a mirror dark world of the reality Eleven was from.
Doesn't Eleven even say she is the monster at one point?


I loved this show. And I'm already loving all of this thread. Just want to get people's ideas about what my thoughts above are.
 

lilltias

Member
Also, El a reference to Kal-El? She is the one with the superpowers after all.

I think I liked the story arch of Steve the best actually. I guess somewhere I didn't want Nancy to end up with him, but it made the story less cliché and more interesting.
 

A-V-B

Member
Aw, so they're really gonna make a Season 2? This show would've been pitch perfect ending on that ambiguous note.
 

Truelize

Steroid Distributor
Also, El a reference to Kal-El? She is the one with the superpowers after all.

I think I liked the story arch of Steve the best actually. I guess somewhere I didn't want Nancy to end up with him, but it made the story less cliché and more interesting.

I didn't feel that El was anything more than a shortened version of Eleven. Which she is very likely the eleventh test subject.
 

Dalek

Member
My thoughts

- this show will win awards. The child actors were incredible. I watched the show with my eight and ten year old sons and they both mentioned how awesome the kids acting was. Yeah it wasn't a "those kids are awesome" situation. It was a "is this real? Those kids make it seem so real" situation. 😎


***************************************************
- has there been any talk about how it's possible that Eleven was originally traveling into an empty dimension that only her mind could access. Her subconscious. That the monster could have been her "darkside" and by making contact with it she gave it access to reality. She created a door in for herself and then by touching the monster it gained the ability to create a door back to where she was.
The monsters domain changed drastically after she touched it. Wasn't an empty world/dimension any longer but a mirror dark world of the reality Eleven was from.
Doesn't Eleven even say she is the monster at one point?


I loved this show. And I'm already loving all of this thread. Just want to get people's ideas about what my thoughts above are.

Your eight year old wasn't freaked out by this show? I thought when I saw the trailers that my daughter might like it-but I thought the actual content was way scarier than she could handle.
 

lilltias

Member
I didn't feel that El was anything more than a shortened version of Eleven. Which she is very likely the eleventh test subject.

Yeah I know but it could still be a reference. But I guess I am probably over thinking this, starting to see things that are not there.
 

ValleyJoe

Neo Member
I may be remembering things incorrectly, but didn't Hopper find his dead daughters stuffed animal in the underworld? Anyone think it's possible that the government/scientists faked his daughters illness and death to get possession of her for experimentation? Maybe she was the original test subject before 11? They included the doll for some reason, and Hopper certainly seems to be working with them in some capacity at the end. I don't really see any other motivation for him to do that other than him thinking there is a chance of finding his dead daughter in the underworld. Of course he may just want to save 11 as a form of emotional redemption/catharsis after losing his own daughter, but why bother showing him finding the stuffed animal?
 

Dalek

Member
I may be remembering things incorrectly, but didn't Hopper find his dead daughters stuffed animal in the underworld? Anyone think it's possible that the government/scientists faked his daughters illness and death to get possession of her for experimentation? Maybe she was the original test subject before 11? They included the doll for some reason, and Hopper certainly seems to be working with them in some capacity at the end. I don't really see any other motivation for him to do that other than him thinking there is a chance of finding his dead daughter in the underworld. Of course he may just want to save 11 as a form of emotional redemption/catharsis after losing his own daughter, but why bother showing him finding the stuffed animal?

It was the same kind of stuffed animal but there isn't a connection there. It was simply to bring up the fact that while his daughter died and he had that deep pain, he wasn't willing to give up on Will.
 

Timeaisis

Member
From Reddit:

I would love to have this to hang up on the wall.

That's awesome. Would buy.

I may be remembering things incorrectly, but didn't Hopper find his dead daughters stuffed animal in the underworld? Anyone think it's possible that the government/scientists faked his daughters illness and death to get possession of her for experimentation? Maybe she was the original test subject before 11? They included the doll for some reason, and Hopper certainly seems to be working with them in some capacity at the end. I don't really see any other motivation for him to do that other than him thinking there is a chance of finding his dead daughter in the underworld. Of course he may just want to save 11 as a form of emotional redemption/catharsis after losing his own daughter, but why bother showing him finding the stuffed animal?

My wife said that it was shown as 11's stuffed animal somewhere in the show, but I don't remember it.
 

XOMTOR

Member
That's awesome. Would buy.



My wife said that it was shown as 11's stuffed animal somewhere in the show, but I don't remember it.

There was a scene where Dr. Brenner came into Eleven's room and presented her with a plant as a gift. The stuffed cat is with her on the bed.
 

bengraven

Member
I don't get the box. Can Eleven step between worlds? If so, how does Hopper know? You'd think she would be living with him or in his house communicating via the lights (what I expected to happen). If he knows she comes out and eats there, especially in the middle of winter, why doesn't he wait for her? What's the deal?




Also, as someone pointed out at the top of this page, I was so happy they didn't kill super nerd but ladies man Mr. Clarke.
 

ValleyJoe

Neo Member
It was the same kind of stuffed animal but there isn't a connection there. It was simply to bring up the fact that while his daughter died and he had that deep pain, he wasn't willing to give up on Will.

That's awesome. Would buy.



My wife said that it was shown as 11's stuffed animal somewhere in the show, but I don't remember it.

There was a scene where Dr. Brenner came into Eleven's room and presented her with a plant as a gift. The stuffed cat is with her on the bed.

Aha that makes more sense. I had completely forgotten about the scene with the plant and the fact that 11 had a stuffed animal as well. Thanks guys
 
Oh thank god we have a spoiler thread. I need to talk with this with no limits.

I loved this show to death.

A couple of loose strands:
-Can Will now communicate with the other side like 11?

More likely PTSD

-Is 11 alive? The eggos defintely seem to point that way.

Probably

-Does Hop work for the fed now? If so, he seems to be playing them with the 11 thing. Hard to say.

Probably
-Are there more creatures in UD? There were eggs.

Assuming it never was on our side until El opened the gate, it had to feed/live off of something so I imagine there's an entire ecosystem that mirrors our own.

-Why did the monster need to come to the other side? I know he's drawn to blood, but surely he's survived in his own dimension for a while before that.

I imagine that because Eleven opened the gate to our world, it no longer had reason to scavenge to find food in it's world when our world is inhabited by so many living creatures.

-Speaking of which, did 11's first contact alert the creature of the other dimension, allowing him to pass through?

Yes.

-How did Will escape the monster for the first time? Barb woke up with the monster nearby, remember.

Going from how Barb woke up, it doesn't immediately eat/use it's prey it saves them for later. So Barbara probably woke up immediately after she was taken to the other side and the creature was close by, while Will woke up the creature was probably out searching for more food/people so he ran. Barbara actually had time to run but she was too confused and scared to make sense of anything and run, that and she was disoriented. Will already knew to run, so when he got to the other side there was no moment of hesitation. That and Will was in his backyard so he knew immediately knew where he was.

I have a theory that Will has latent powers which the monster was drawn to. Actually, I have a theory that the monster had been going after 11 all this time. If you look back, everyone that has been "taken" has been a kid with short hair. The adults are just killed and or eaten.

I doubt Will has any powers, but the second part might be right. Children's body might make for better incubators for the creatures' offspring or whatever those worm leech things are.

Is the monster trying to use kids for some purpose? Was it trying to get at 11 for some reason? Seems like it is attracted to blood for feeding, but it seemed to have had something more planned for Will and Barb, don't you think?

Nothing really planned for Barb, she's dead.
 
Top Bottom