Josh-da-man

I had the orderly pegged as 001 early on, and also had the Creel's kid was probably Vecna, but not that all three were one and the same. Nice swerve there.

Throwing Copper

For the folks who hadn’t finished all 7 episodes yet, I think Variety spoiled who Vecna is in a tweet and headline on Monday.

Kinda ridiculous

Gunde

Good on Jamie Campbell Bower. For someone who's done mostly crap being very meh, he was really great this season. I didn't even recognize him under all that good acting

bluesix

hahahaha! so sick....

Throwing Copper

He was good. I had never heard of him before and didn’t recall ever seeing him in anything.

postermen

The casting of Jamie Campbell Bower to play an older character and Robert Englund to play a younger character caused me a lot of confusion about El's timeline.

Cellar Door

Not sure I follow. Jamie Campbell Bower was playing Henry Creel, the son of Robert Englund's character, Victor Creel.

postermen

According to the Stranger Things wiki, there is a 28 year difference in age between Victor and Henry. In real life, the difference is 41 years (I would have guessed even more than that). El's time in the lab in the lab would have to happen over many years to make sense to me.

Cellar Door

Ah, I see what you mean. But, yeah, you can't go by the actors' ages. That's true for many tv shows and movies.

MLBFan24

Just finished and I enjoyed the half season overall, with my only big complaint being the excessive parallel plots (7).

Trim it down to 3 or 4 plots and you can easily shave 15-20 minutes off per episode.

I could have done without the Hawkins lab and Russia plot.

bchbdaddy

001 is how Anakin should have been. Dude was awesome.

Decker

But remember that while Victor exists "now" (1986), Henry, as we see him, is from a previous time in Eleven's life (1979). So the difference isn't really 41 years, but rather just 34 years.

Decker

I recognized him immediately from Sweeney Todd where he plays a large supporting role.

Josh-da-man

Two Grindelwalds in the same photo...

MLBFan24

My part 2 theory:






Deftones

I sort of put together the orderly was 001 early in this episode. He seemed awfully helpful and knew he would gain something by helping Eleven. Him being the son of Creel was a bit of a swerve. I don't like how they explained his back story, basically just giving him powers and not explaining anything about how or why that happened. That seemed dumb.

​​​​​Outside of that, pretty badass. Lots of good stuff. Amazing how they can make Steve completely awful in S1, yet now he is one of the best parts of the show.

Cellar Door

GoVegan

I really enjoyed this whole season, but it cracked me up that "Papa" had lied to the kids and told them there wasn't a 001. "Nah, kids, we started counting at 2 for some reason."

Decker

"You know, like TV channels."

johnnysd

Same. I did not connect the two things at all, but all the hints were there.

dhmac

Yeah, I think if they had gone with him being Patient Zero, it would've been a better twist and not so easy to predict.

Cellar Door

I'm interested in everyone's thoughts on this:

There has long been speculation among the ST fandom that Will may be gay. The show has dropped some hints in that direction--even going back to season 1 with some of Lonnie's comments about Will (according to Joyce). This season, there is the scene with the girl trying to flirt with him in class and he does not reciprocate. And Will's school project/poster appeared to be about Alan Turing, the famous mathematician who was prosecuted for being gay. Nothing definitive, and it could just be that Will is an introvert and socially awkward

This season, some fans have taken this idea further and they think Will has a crush on Mike. He acts a little jealous that Mike hasn't written/called him like he does with Eleven. And there is Will's mysterious painting that he brought to the airport when they went to pick up Mike (but then appeared to get nervous and didn't show him the painting), and he also grabbed it just before they fled the Byers' house in the shootout. I'm not sure what fans think the painting will be revealed to depict--Will and Mike riding a horse together, shirtless?

Personally, I dunno. Will being gay seems very plausible to me, perhaps even likely. But him being in love with Mike seems like a stretch, storywise. It would introduce a pretty tricky emotional conflict that would seem to be at odds with the general tone of the show. We did have the storyline last season with Robin and Steve, and that was handled well, I thought. But Robin was a new character and it was easy to transition from "Steve likes Robin" to "she's gay and they're just going to be friends." Will crushing on Mike would completely change the dynamics of the main group of kids and would seemingly require much more time to explore and develop to do justice to a subplot like that. Unless... one of them doesn't survive the season, which I think is a real possibility.

The painting, at least, has to come into play in S4 Part 2, so maybe that will provide some answers.

Decker

My opinion? : Will is so, so gay. And in love with Mike.

My big concern? : His unrequited feelings will erupt in a violent tragic event in Hawkins.

HN

Maybe Will has a thing for Eleven

Josh-da-man

Yeah, it seems like Will does have a thing for Mike. Goes as far back as season three when he was shown to be sort of jealous about Mike and Eleven being a couple.

That could make for a really uncomfortable storyline, because the 80s were a really homophobic decade. In that late 80s time period, a kid -- particularly from the rural midwest -- admitting that he's secretly in love with his best friend would be an explosive situation and probably get Will completely ostracized from the rest of the group.

It's easy for us to look at the situation now and not think it's a huge deal, but thirty-five years ago... that shit would get really ugly. These four kids are already outsiders, and if Will came out to Mike, it would freak him the fuck out and probably send him off into a homophobic panic.