'Stranger Things' Season 2: 11 Things We Learned
This post contains spoilers about Stranger Things Season 2.
Stranger Things' second season is now streaming on Netflix and that means it's time to talk about, dissect, and all-around over-analyze everything that happened. Here are 11 things we learned in Stranger Things' second season.
1) Yes, Will did end up being part monster.
One of the most prominent fan theories about Season 2 revolved around Will and what changes he might have undergone since his time in the Upside Down - specifically, that he might have returned to earth as a kind-of, sort-of monster himself.
That prediction proved true in Season 2. After experiencing several episodes in which he sees this this season's main monster, the Shadow Monster, Will tries to stand his ground and ends up kind of merging with the monster, becoming its eyes and ears in the real world. By the end of the season, Will is de-monsterfied and allegedly safe, but knowing Will's luck. this cannot possibly be true.
2) Eleven has been living with Hopper this whole time.
At the end of Season 1, Hopper was seen leaving Eggos in a box in the woods, seemingly for Eleven. This season, we learned (via flashback), what happened to her after last year's finale. She escaped the Upside Down (obviously), but wasn't able to return to Mike and her friends, what with the officials from the lab looking for her and all.
Instead, she took to the woods and came across Hopper's box. Eventually, they met up and he took her to his family cabin, deep in the woods. Together, they fixed the place up, booby-trapped the property, and established their rules for survival (which basically boiled down to Eleven staying quietly hidden in the cabin until Hopper said it was okay not to).
Aside from the obvious dysfunction of forcing a preteen girl to live alone in the woods with nightly visits from a middle aged father figure as her sole contact with the outside world, the arrangement is actually pretty adorable. Hopper clearly yearns to be the father he didn't get to be to Sara and Eleven needs an adult who actually cares about her in her life.
After almost a year in hiding, however, Eleven's patience grows thin and she breaks the house rules (which is fine since Hopper is tied up with monster hunting of his own anyway).
3) Eleven isn't the only special kid to escape Hawkins Labs.
Stranger Things' second season begins not in Hawkins, but in Chicago, where a group of young, punky rebels are on the run from the police. They divert down a tunnel, which collapses, stopping the police from pursuing them - except the tunnel didn't actually collapse. One of the girls in the car made the police believe it had so they would skid to a halt.
Oh, and that girl happens to have a very familiar 008 tattoo.
After she leaves Hopper's safe house cabin, Eleven goes to visit her mom and, with a quick trip into her mind (remember, Eleven's mom is barely verbal after whatever the people at the lab did to keep her quiet), learns the truth about her past. In the vision, she also sees 008, aka Roman - the girl from Chicago - playing with a younger version of herself at the lab. She realizes that her mom is telling her to find this other girl and proceeds to do just that, using only an old photograph and her amazing mind powers.
Roman immediately embraces Eleven as a sister and invites her into the gang, which is mostly focused on seeking revenge against the people who have harmed them, including key figures from Hawkins Labs. Eleven helps Roman locate a man she's been searching for - the same man who inflicted the paralyzing trauma on her own mother - but stops short of killing him for revenge and decides to return to Hawkins to help her friends fight their literal demons over helping Roman fight her emotional ones.
4_ There is no hairstyle Eleven cannot pull off.
Millie Bobby Brown can pull off any hairstyle. Her buzzcut last year was incredible. This season, she sports a short, curly 'do that would look silly on most people and looks adorable on her. During her badass-in-Chicago sequence, she slicks her hair back and goes punk and also looks amazing.
There's. Nothing. She. Can't. Do.
5) Mike is still TOTALLY hung up on Eleven.
Mike is not over Eleven. He sits in the little basement tent she briefly called home and tries to reach her, seemingly nightly. He's not interested in adorable cool girl Mad Max, because he already has his cool girl. The pining is real.
6) And vice-versa.
Mike's obsession isn't one-sided. Even though she doesn't actually make contact with him (that would be against Hopper's rules), she does go look at him in her mind space, also seemingly nightly. What's more, when she spies on Mike at school and catches Max kind-of, sort-of flirting with Mike, she telekinetically knocks Max off her skateboard. When they meet in person, she ices her out like a true young teen scorned.
7) Nancy had feelings for Jonathan after all.
If you spent last season wishing for Nancy to dump cool jerk Steve in favor of creepy nerd Jonathan, you're in luck. Season 1 ended with Steve and Nancy together and Season 2 begins with them still together - but barely. She's clearly fed up with him and checked out of the relationship.
After a few drunken words of honesty at a party, they split up and Nancy and Jonathan go on a quest to get justice for Barb. During that quest, they make Jancy shippers' dreams come true and hook up.
8) Steve has a softer side.
Steve was the quintessential high school jerk in Season 1, but he's a new man in Season 2. Even before Nancy dumps him, he's different. Yes, he's still pretty selfish (expecting her to drop everything and edit an essay for him the night before it's due), but he's made her a priority.
After the breakup though, Steve takes his most interesting turn as a character yet. While he's on his way to deliver flowers and an apology to Nancy (who is on that quest with Jonathan at the time), he runs into and teams up with Dustin. Their friendship is the best kind of odd couple pairing, like Arya and The Hound on Game of Thrones, but with less murder and more monsters.
9. You should never keep a strange, garbage-scavenging creature as a pet. Especially if you live in Hawkins.
Dustin and Lucas vie for Max's attention, but Dustin does not win that battle. He does, however, find an adorable little alien monster in his trash. Dustin thinks he's found his ET - until D'artagnan (Dart, for short) eats his family cat and grows into a mini-Demogorgon.
It's worth it though because while Mike and Will are off dealing with Will's latest episodes and Lucas is busy trying to woo Max/convince her monsters are real, Dustin is forced to team up with Steve to catch and defeat Dart.
10) The scariest villains are the ones in the real world.
The Demogorgon was terrifying. The Shadow Monster is bigger and, in many ways, scarier. The truly horrifying villain of the Season though? Billy.
Billy is Max's older stepbrother and he's the definition of awful. He abuses his sister. He is heavily implied to be racist. He's a bully. He's almost sociopathically manipulative and charming when he wants to be. He's scarier than any monster on the show because he definitely does exist in the real world.
11) Bob was the new Barb.
At Comic-Con, Stranger Things director Shawn Levy described Sean Astin's Bob as the new Barb.
"Sean Astin as Bob is going to be, I’m saying it, but he’s kind of going to be the Barb of Season 2," he said.
Since then, fans have speculated that this meant certain doom for Bob and that his Barb-esque status would be cemented by a devastating death. They were right. It was.
RIP, Bob. You were brilliant and nerdy and kind and delightful and no one that good and normal survives in Hawkins.
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