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Stranger Things Conspiracies (feat. Scott)
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Happy New Year! TCS is back with a special episode all about eerie 80s series Stranger Things following its epic finale. (Spoiler Alert!) Our favorite guest Scott joins us to recap and break down the final season of episodes and answer your questions. Plus, Tyler leads a deep dive into a "Conformity Gate" hole of conspiracies.
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Transcript
Introduction to Stranger Things Special
00:00:11
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Thrills, Chills, and Spills, where we spill the tea on all things theme parks, special events, and of course, the spooky season. This is a different episode. This is a Stranger Things special where we're just going to go over things about the show as a whole, but most importantly, the the final season that just came out. And we have a special guest. But before we get to that, I'm Rafa.
00:00:36
Speaker
I'm Kelly. I'm Tyler. And I'm Scott. We have Scott. um Joey isn't with us. He was, you know, he wasn't able to make it to tonight's episode, but we have Scott. So, um so yeah. So thank you for joining us, Scott.
Spoiler Warnings and Social Media Jokes
00:00:50
Speaker
Of course. But to start off, we've got some spills and this will be Stranger Things related since this is a Stranger Things episode. Also, lots of spoilers. If you have not watched all of season five, then don't. Then what's wrong with you? Don't listen to this. Pause it here and then come after you First of all, wake up. Second of all, come back later. no Yeah. Also, like I want your TikTok algorithm. because like How have you not seen spoilers at this point?
00:01:18
Speaker
So this isn't a spill, but my buddy that I work with, we share a little cubicle, and he is waiting for his wife to finish a different show before they start season five. And i was like, how have you not ruined it yet? You know, what's going on? And I guess he's just stayed off social media ever since the seasons came out. sos Incredible. Incredible. I didn't watch the finale until yesterday.
00:01:41
Speaker
Well, you have an excuse. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't have an opportunity. Yeah, at least we were busy during that time. So it's not like you were like stuck at home or stuck at work or something. you know I literally walked in the door and like threw my bags down and turned the TV on. and and You must have been been actively avoiding.
00:02:01
Speaker
ah Yeah, I was doing my best. I couldn't even wait like the day of on New Year's Eve, so I can't imagine waiting this long after, which is only a week later, but still. It was tough.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, but um but all right, well, let's go into the
Theater Experiences and Fan Reactions
00:02:15
Speaker
spills. Scott, what you got? so My spill is just a general take on common courtesy in life.
00:02:24
Speaker
um So I went to go see the finale in a theater, right? i know where this is going. was very excited to do this. And, um you know, I got to the mall at 4 o'clock and the show was at 5, right? Perfect, you know, plenty of time.
00:02:42
Speaker
and then, you know, get my popcorn, come in, the preview start, go up, get a bathroom break, come back, I'm all set. About 20 minutes into the final episode, my the people on the left side of me decide to show up, and, you know, they get in an argument with the people next to them about their seat numbers, then they sit down, they both get on their phones, they're talking,
00:03:05
Speaker
So my whole spill is just like, if you're going to a movie, let alone a special feature presentation, show up on time, know where your seats are, and please don't record the screen and get on your phone and and talk to the person next to you. It like it really took me completely out of like the element and the bubble that I was in. You know what I mean? I was so i was so socked in and ready, and then...
00:03:27
Speaker
I felt like I, you know, I just felt like I couldn't enjoy it the way that I wanted to because they were just literally like screen up recording the screen on their phone. Like anytime anything important happened, they would whip out their phone and just start recording. So just don't that. Were they like teenagers?
00:03:46
Speaker
You know, they they seemed like they were... They might have been late teens. They didn't seem super young, though. You know what I mean? Which is what... if they're Old enough to know better, at least. Old enough to know better, for sure. Right? So, yeah. it the just you know It's bad enough to do it in a movie, let alone a completely sold-out theater of people that showed up for the 5 p.m. one.
00:04:10
Speaker
You know, like, you know, everybody in there is is locked in, ready to go. Like, I'm sure the people behind us were like, what the heck? I don't know. Anyways, that's my spell. just Just don't show up to movies or feature presentations late and record the screen.
00:04:24
Speaker
Don't be that guy. Yeah, for me, it was it was a lot of people like, with their flashlights trying to get to their seat and i get it it's dark you don't want to fall but some of these people like multiple people at the same time like they'll be like a group of like six people and all six of them have their flashlight like out and like the show just started and they're over here like trying to find their seat i'm like can you just get to your freaking seat already like what are we doing and it ends up being like so bright in there so yeah besides that though i mean as far as the theatrical release of it all i i did enjoy it i don't know about you guys but i'd
00:04:56
Speaker
had a pleasant experience, which we'll go into that later. But, but yeah, i did enjoy that. guys all saw it in the theater. Wow, i'm jealous. I like re-watching it at home more, but I don't know how much of that was the people next to me. or just like There's a lot of very close-up shots in Stranger Things. And when you're on your TV in your living room, those hit differently than when they're when you're in the front row of a theater. My seat was in the front row, so that was all I could get. so you know like it's just like That's a lot of hopper in your face when it's just like. You're just like looking straight up his nostrils about. Yeah. Like it's just okay. Like maybe the front row was the mistake in that regard, but I enjoyed rewatching it at home for multiple reasons, I guess you could say. so
00:05:44
Speaker
All right. So I guess I'll go next. So my spill, I just think I love stranger things. I am a stranger things fan, but I do think that some of these hardcore fans were kind of annoying during this season because um I feel like nothing can please them. um and They just wanted to complain about everything. I mean, we'll go into like the the writing of the stories and and you know everything that has to do with the show. We'll go into that later. But I just feel like people have gotten too... They get too comfortable with their...
00:06:17
Speaker
I guess like
Fan Theories and Speculations
00:06:18
Speaker
with the theories that they come up with and then they get mad when it doesn't end up being that. And it's like, I get the fun in like coming up with these like predictions and all, but like, why are we pissed off over like little changes or little things that didn't end up happening that you thought were going to happen? Like, I just feel like everybody just felt like kind of, they were kind of acting entitled to the way that this ended as if they were owed something, but I mean, I don't know. To me, it was just kind of annoying how everybody's complaining about how the show was or what this decision't decisions they made. And I feel like, I mean, this is a spoiler to obviously the rest of the show, but obviously this wasn't a Game of Thrones where they ended up killing off X amount of people. And I feel like people were very pissed off about that. And I just, I didn't see Stranger Things being that kind of show.
00:07:06
Speaker
um But I don't know. I just it kind of annoys me how pissed off people are getting over little things like that. Like get mad about the story. Don't get mad about the character deaths, I guess. So I don't know. That's that's my spill with that.
00:07:18
Speaker
People just need to chill in general. Like everyone. i like They are like, you know, if you had a better idea, why aren't you writing TV shows? Exactly. yeah so you're not in the writer's room, participate.
00:07:33
Speaker
Don't anticipate. Just you know just enjoy it. Yeah. like I feel like they were just like they didn't want to enjoy it. I feel like they were just waiting. Everybody was waiting in this finale. And I don't know if you guys had seen the rumor. I don't know if it is a rumor or if it is a fact. But apparently the Duffer brothers had said earlier on that five deaths were going happening, which I was like trying to look everywhere. And I didn't see that anywhere. So I think that was just, it was, I figured it was a rumor that just blew up and everybody truly believed that we were going to have five major deaths. And it obviously did not happen. And they're pissed off that everybody stayed alive. And it's just like, like be mad because you thought it was crucial to the story. Don't be mad just because you didn't get the shock value that you wanted.
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah. i That's how I feel about that. i just didn think In their defense a little bit, you have to think like, i would imagine most of those people being immature about it are probably still fairly young, which means they probably started watching this show at like 10, 11, 12 years old. So they literally grew up with the show because it's been on nine, 10 years since the first season. So i mean, they're more invested than we are when we started it at,
00:08:46
Speaker
20, 21, little bit older for some of us, but. 39. Scott, one month ago. i have thoughts on that. We'll talk about that later. But, um but yeah, I don't know. Overall, I just, I just feel like everybody was expecting like,
00:09:06
Speaker
like an end game kind of situation. They were
Predictions vs Reality in the Finale
00:09:10
Speaker
expecting like a big, like reveal when it came to the deaths of the show. And I don't know. i just feel like people are getting too pissed off for no reason.
00:09:17
Speaker
Well, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but no, so in no season, do they kill off somebody that wasn't introduced in that season? Yeah. Barb, on Bob, you know, like Billy, well, I guess Billy, Billy might be the outlier. Yeah. Second season.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah. But like, it's always been an ancillary character, you know? And like, I mean, the good guys at least. Yeah. right Yeah. For sure. For sure. Whatever. That's my spill.
00:09:49
Speaker
Kelly, Tyler, you guys want to go? I can go. I don't really have a spell. I just have questions, which we'll get into when we talk about things. I just have questions, some things I was like really thinking about during volume one.
00:10:03
Speaker
And I guess too, also, even though it was only like five days to ponder that. And this is not a criticism of the writing of the final episode. I just think that there were some things that felt like they had some weight and importance that weren't really tied up.
00:10:18
Speaker
um I think they did a lot of tying up some big things, but... yeah I just have questions. And also, i am here for the crazed lunatics that came to my theater dressed as Demogorgons. I am here for the- I wish. I'm here for people that came in full hair, makeup, and costume.
00:10:41
Speaker
I was not one of those people. I was wearing sweatsuits and a blanket. But I really felt like I was being left out by not dressing up. I was like, God damn, this is my kind of thing. I love a theme. I love a party. yeah There were people in there with onesies and their face was the middle of the Demogorgon head.
00:11:02
Speaker
That is so awesome. and you know run You know what? They probably looked better than the Demogorgons in the Six Flags Great Adventure a Haunted House. There were more of them.
00:11:15
Speaker
There were more of them. i all know I saw a Vecna with the hand and it looked real. I'm like, where are you guys getting these? Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
00:11:27
Speaker
I love that. Yeah, we didn't have any fun people like that. I wish, but I will say like I did, like I'm very happy that I saw this in theaters. I feel like it was an experience. It was awesome.
00:11:40
Speaker
There were like big scenes that I felt added to the experience overall. Which we'll go into more detail on those on those scenes. But like, it was just, I don't know. I felt like it was very exciting. Nobody was too annoying, at least in our screening.
Theatrical Release and Fan Culture
00:11:53
Speaker
Like they weren't loud or anything like that. i mean you did get like the loud gasps, like if something was about to happen. And the clapping. but We got a lot clapping. Yes, and yeah and the clapping, which I expected all of that. So I i think that's why I wasn't pissed off. It was fun. It made it fun.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And you can always go back home and watch it. yeah like there was you know It's not like you couldn't go and watch it again. The hardest part for me was I wanted to eat all of the movie theater snacks because they gave a voucher. Did you guys get that too? The $20 voucher to like get snacks? Technically nobody was able to use it. Really? I mean, you use it you were able to use it, but like, um that wasn't what I was going to say. um Basically, like, I guess Netflix is not allowed to make money.
00:12:36
Speaker
Like, for the screening since it's on Netflix. So they had to sell it to you as a meal voucher so you can use it for concessions. I see. Well, I sure did use it and I really wanted to eat all of the goodies, but I had to get up and run a half marathon the next day. So I was like, don't do it. but So we made it in line for 45 minutes. Yeah, the line was insane. For concessions and the screening was about to start and we're like, let's not take any chances. Because some workers were saying that the screening would have 10 minutes of previews. Others would say 25 to 30 minutes.
00:13:09
Speaker
Some were saying that some screens have just started right away. I'm like, I'm not taking that chance. I know. i'm just missing We're lucky we got there when we did. Typically when we go to a movie, which is not often, but Tom goes to a lot of movies, he shows up 20 minutes after the movie starts because he doesn't care about the previews. He doesn't want to see them.
00:13:23
Speaker
And we were trying to decide when to leave. And he was saying that. And I was like, oh, no, no, no, no. What if there's no previews, number one? And number two, like I heard that they've added so many showtimes. going to a ton of people there. Like we need to go early. We went maybe like an hour before it started and we waited in the line until five minutes before showtime to get, yeah to get our vouchers.
00:13:47
Speaker
Wild. It was a wild time, yeah but I loved it. We were all discussing theories in the, in the queue of the concession stand. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yes, Tyler. real spill is going to come later in the show. It's too much for me to fit into this segment. But basically, it's going to be me versus three haters. So stay tuned for that. It should be very entertaining. um But
Nostalgic Influences and Spielberg References
00:14:17
Speaker
my secondary spill for now is Biler, which if you don't know, that's like the online craze movement of people...
00:14:26
Speaker
I hate using the Gen Z terminology, but shipping Will and Mike as a couple. Now, I'm not trying to like step on the queer community's toes or anything, but I just saw no evidence of this being a two-sided, really a two-sided like crush or whatever you want to call it.
00:14:46
Speaker
Obviously, Will liked to Mike. I did not see any evidence ever in any season that Mike felt the same way. I don't know where these people are getting this. Did you guys ever? heard I did not feel it. And I think as, as Will came to terms with,
00:15:00
Speaker
his sexuality, he, i feel like he was, there was no, like, I'm heartbroken that he doesn't like me back. Like he was happy to just have him as his friend.
00:15:12
Speaker
Like that's the vibe I got. Yeah. It was part of the whole thing for him. It was the whole realization, you know, that was part of his whole realization, right? Is that that's okay that it doesn't impact their friendship. Right. yeah.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yeah, Mike wasn't like weirded out or anything like that. I mean, I think it was a great scene, but I just i don't see any vibes coming from Mike at all. No.
00:15:36
Speaker
No. the The interview where Caleb throws out the Biler thing at Finn, I don't know if you guys have seen that or not, but... scott you've You've seen all of the interviews.
00:15:47
Speaker
We know. um You have no idea. okay You guys really don't have any idea. I think we did.
00:15:56
Speaker
Also, did we say like why you're a guest tonight? like How this all happened? We kind of did. We alluded to it. Okay. um mean got so like me ra Scott, tell us how quickly you watched the episodes.
00:16:12
Speaker
So I watched seasons one through volume one of season five in a stretch of four and a half days. Incredible. I have a question.
00:16:24
Speaker
Where the... were you the past nine years of life? Okay, so I watched the first episode of this show a long time ago.
00:16:35
Speaker
Okay. Just the first episode only. And I don't know why I didn't follow up because I enjoyed it. I remember enjoying it. I honestly think that it like freaked me out a little bit because i'm not I used to not be a spooky bitch at all. Okay? So you guys are responsible for me embracing anything spooky at all. The notion of anxiety or tension while watching something is like horrifying to me.
00:16:59
Speaker
Like it's genuinely like it is, it it keeps me out of certain things is the best way I know how to put it or it used to. But, um, I don't have an answer for the prior nine years and 10 months of my life. I don't, I can't answer that. Okay.
00:17:17
Speaker
But, uh, So after Thanksgiving, I had been telling Tyler for about a month that I would watch the show. Right. Because, you know, we all know our boy. Not a lot gets him riled up. OK.
00:17:32
Speaker
So when when I asked him, I was like, this is your shit. huh This is what gets you going. And he was like, yes, this is it. And then Rafa was like, it's my favorite show of all time. yeah it in And so I was like, all right, I'm going ah i'm going to do this. And you know i got home from i got back to l LA after going up to Portland for Thanksgiving.
00:17:54
Speaker
And the job site that I work at was shut down for a few extra days because it's been raining in Southern California to unprecedented levels. And they don't do electrical construction in the rain.
00:18:05
Speaker
And it just so happened to work out that the A couple of days after I got back, I had this window from like Wednesday to Sunday where I had absolutely nothing to do.
00:18:16
Speaker
It was raining. I was in between paychecks. So you know we're living we're living on the poverty train for a few days. And ah so I got the i got the Netflix 4K, no ad subscription, and I locked in you know like I...
00:18:32
Speaker
Like I told you guys, I'm a God tier binge watcher. If I'm going binge watch something, I'm going to binge watch it. Like, I don't know what else to tell you. You know, like we we start at 9 a.m. m and season one is done by like 4 p.m. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, it just, it goes faster than you think it would if it's all you do. So, uh, texted me like at, like at 7 a.m. and you were like, Oh my God, i just finished season four. And I'm like,
00:18:58
Speaker
7 a.m. was like, it's late as hell where you're at right now. Like, what are you doing? Yeah, yeah. Like, the first day, i think I might have watched seasons one, two, and three in like in like, one general sitting. I'm not going to lie. That doesn't.
00:19:11
Speaker
Like, they're they' it's not like it's a 12-episode per season, hour and 30-minute, hour and 40-minute show, you know? Like, yeah it it's eight show it's eight episodes, you know? I don't i mean, it probably wasn't one day. But I cranked out the first bit very, very quickly, for sure. And and what's funny is, like, I was texting Tyler, like, nonstop at the start. And then...
00:19:36
Speaker
And then like, and then Rafa and then Kelly, just the, the, the text started to grow, which, uh, yeah. But I mean, I would say that the experience, so I'll be able to explain why I'm so invested in the show, even though I have such a short tenure in it later, but,
00:19:54
Speaker
Overall, it is just it hit home to me on a lot of personal levels. It reminded me a lot of growing up, even though it was just a you know i wasn't I didn't truly grow up in the 80s. I was born in 86. But the the similarities between my house and the Wheeler house are shocking. you know Just like the absent-minded father. like all All of it is just very, very much hit home. The nostalgia hit home.
00:20:23
Speaker
You know, you you hear things said about the Duffer brothers, like they they grew up seeing the world in Spielberg frames. And i very much grew up in that era. You know, E.T., Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, like everything about all just the the throwback shots, the you know, the...
Character Focus and Screen Time Debate
00:20:41
Speaker
the way that they that they purposely did certain things as as callbacks to things from other movies, you know, like frame-by-frame comparisons. You know, you guys have probably seen some of those, I'm sure, right? The bikes, you know, all all that stuff. It just hit home very, very much. And ah and so I just got into it, you know?
00:21:02
Speaker
It's just a that's just how I roll. and then And then by, like, the end of season two, it was like, well, now I have to know. So then that imp impaired then that imperative almost started. and it was like you know Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, at my job, I get, I get, you know, I'm a project manager and when there's not much going on at the project, I just sit there all day. So, you know, it was just, even when I went to work, you know, it just kept going. So it just, it just is what it is. Yeah.
00:21:30
Speaker
I want to, I looked back at our texts and I think this is funny. One of the first texts you said, starting tomorrow night, probably won't hit my goal unless I really binge, but we'll report back.
00:21:42
Speaker
That wasn't true. And then ah like four texts later, i may never recover from Bob. um The next day. the next day Yeah, yeah, that ah that hit hard. i'm not this I love Sean Astin.
00:21:58
Speaker
He's one of my favorite actors, and I love that character. It was just the epitome of a cheesy 80s character. don't know. Yeah.
00:22:08
Speaker
And like they, they did the, it, maybe this is why people were bummed with the finale because like in earlier seasons, like they would do the tease, like somebody was going to die and they would actually die. You know what I mean? But then, and then that didn't happen in in the final, in the, you know, finale or whatever, but.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that that you all have some very rogue text messages explaining. I mean, I was, I was literally sitting on my couch, with like a blanket wrapped around my head, like a bonnet. Like, you know, I was, I was very, ah you know, cause there's nothing like that experience when you truly have nothing spoiled for you at all, you know, and, and you've been watching it nonstop for however many days or however many hours. It's just like,
00:22:52
Speaker
It's an emotional roller coaster. It was awesome. You know, like I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. Honestly, the craze is just kind of incredible to me. It almost reminds me of like the midnight showings of Harry Potter when the new movie would come out and how popular those were.
00:23:09
Speaker
i agree. Yeah, no, it's it's so good. It's funny because Dex was also texting me at the same time. He binged all them, not as fast as you did, but he binged them like, Like with, I think in like two weeks he was done, i think. So he did it pretty quickly.
00:23:24
Speaker
um yeah, it's such a great show. Like overall, like, I mean, obviously like thoughts on the new season is one thing, but overall, like the show is, it's a great show. Like, I just feel like everything about it, like you were mentioning that like it was like rainy in California. Like I feel like it's a cozy show too. I don't know. To me, it's kind of a cozy show. Like I think it's just very like comforting. The characters are fun. Like everyone is like a different personality. It's like, i don't know. It's just a fun show.
00:23:51
Speaker
Yeah. Everything about it just, it just feels like how things used to be. and yeah And like, you know, it just, it's a great show.
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Do we want to get into our predictions that we made? Yeah, let's do it. Also, apologies. I didn't submit any after I texted you about this, Kelly.
00:24:13
Speaker
but It's fine. It's fine. I probably didn't answer because I was trying to come up with mine and figure out what to say. But no, no I was like, I was like, we should you to do predictions. and you were like, yeah, Tyler already thought of that, bro. i just Never followed up. Yeah.
00:24:32
Speaker
Well, three of us have predictions, and Joey made some too. We can read those out. But yeah, basically we just were predicting what the finale was going to be after we watched volume one and two.
00:24:45
Speaker
So can go first. Go ahead. So I said coli is actually a bad guy. Her vibes were just like...
00:24:57
Speaker
I don't know. Her vibes were off for me. Her accent was gone. She kept calling Henry our brother. i don't know. That was really weird. So that doesn't seem like that was quite the case, but I don't know. Something was off about her character the whole time. I think.
00:25:13
Speaker
um Next one. I said, Derek will do something major. I'll on Neville Longbottom. I'm making lots of Harry Potter comparisons to tonight. Apparently. Yeah. Which, that was kind of true. He, like, pulled Holly into the cave or whatever, and then didn't he, like, tell Vecna to suck a fat one or something? Yeah. Suck my fat one! With his chubby little middle finger that was the shape of actual triangle.
00:25:43
Speaker
He is the funniest. I love derek yeah it said Derek. It's that strength, you know? He could beat Vecna's arm. He's that strong. Yeah. That's kind of true. I mean, we'll look past the part where he did like 15 seconds of cardio and then was ready to just die right there in the forest.
00:26:03
Speaker
Such a good character addition, though. Such a great character. Delightful Derek. Yeah. um I said, I was very vague here. I said it will be a mostly happy ending. Vecna will die.
00:26:17
Speaker
Seems to be true. and say so The last one, we'll see, we'll see. The last one I said, Dr. K and Kali have some sort of connection. Like the letter K was giving me vibes. And yeah, I guess not. We don't really know what happened. about they should have killed.
00:26:39
Speaker
Yeah, we don't even know what happened to Dr. K. Yeah, that's one of my big questions. The whole that big question all re disappeared. I don't know. um All right, so I'll go next. I think we were both on the Kali hate train. um But I said that Kali is being controlled by Henry slash ah Vecna.
00:26:58
Speaker
I also thought that the Steve and Dustin conversation when they said, you die, I die, I thought that was like foreshadowing that they were both going to die or one of them would die.
00:27:10
Speaker
But that didn't happen. um joyce's story arc includes with her sacrificing herself to save will i feel like this season they were showing a lot of like joyce trying to be very supportive of will i'm trying to be very protective of will even though she has been throughout the seasons but this time it felt like she was mostly worried because she knew like he was going through it when it when it came to vecna I also thought that Murray, one of the Wheeler parents and Mr. Clark or is Mr. Clark, right? That's the teacher.
00:27:42
Speaker
That's his name. Yeah, Mr. Clark. I was like, they're all goners. They're not goners. They're OK. And then my last prediction, this was kind of kind of true. um I said, Elle might have an Elphaba kind of situation where everyone thinks that she died. Dude. But.
00:28:01
Speaker
Sorry, Tyler. We're about to talk about Wicked. But, like, it was 100% an Elphaba situation. She got in the freaking floorboard. Right. No, no. It was an identical. Yes. In the story. In the story. In Mike's story. But right when the scene was happening, I literally looked at Tom and I was like, Rafa said this. When I read that, was like, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is the same thing. like This is the same scene. The same scene. They have used the same damn set.
00:28:31
Speaker
When I read the outline today, i was I was like, I almost texted Kelly like, did Rafa timestamp this? you know because like I was like, there's there's no way he was this spot on with this prediction. I did not think it would happen. i'm Okay, like I i kept thinking, i don't know, because the closer that we got to the end of the season, at first I started off thinking everybody was going to die. Even though Volume 2 I still had some predictions of people dying.
00:28:56
Speaker
The closer we got to it, to the ending, I kind of started feeling like, I don't think anybody's going to die.
Emotional Impact and Unresolved Plot Points
00:29:02
Speaker
Like, I don't really see it going that way, but we'll see. um But then I was like thinking, like, you know what? Like, Elle would probably be the perfect one to just fake a death, I think. Like, she has powers. And then we had Kali in, you know, in the mix here as well. And then Will had some sort of control with Vecna. I was like, dick they can probably figure some way to, like, make it look like she killed herself or something. So that was the reason why I predicted that. But I'm like, I don't think it's going to happen. And they did it exactly the same as Wicked.
00:29:32
Speaker
I'm sorry I spoiled Wicked for you. Literally. Tyler was like, damn, I haven't finished. I haven't watched Wicked. i'm like, I am so sorry. I'll watch it at some point, maybe. Yeah. 20-year-old Broadway show. They do an H.A. townhouse.
00:29:52
Speaker
um All right. that I thought Kali was going but Eleven wouldn't. um I kind of thought, and they made do you think so much of the plot point in that final episode is like, what is Eleven going to What is she going to And it went back and forth multiple times. I thought she wasn't going to die.
00:30:14
Speaker
and I guess that's still up for interpretation. But I also thought that Kali was up to no good. um This next one, I felt like, so, you know, the scene in, I forget which episode it was in volume two, where like Max and Holly are about to leave Kamazaten and Max is like, you can't come with me. Like the music thing only works for me. you got to find your own way out, that whole thing. And it was just after she discovered what happened with Henry and the guy shooting his hand and the briefcase and all that stuff.
00:30:44
Speaker
I almost felt like Holly was like really affected by that. And like, like she still had that connection to Mr. What's it like deep in her heart. And she was going to like avenge him somehow. And it ended up that he kind of, his character was avenged a little bit by Will, not Holly.
00:31:00
Speaker
But I felt like they never showed, they showed Holly and Max running, but they never, correct me if I'm wrong, showed like Holly trying to exit in back into like, like they showed her just ending up in like the abyss or the his lair or whatever.
00:31:17
Speaker
Right. When she like ran out. Well, she followed she did the fall. Well, I was after her. Yeah, she fell through the ass. But like when she was running from camazots or whatever it's called to like get back into like real life.
00:31:32
Speaker
Wait, what do you mean? like When she was running life. What are you talking about?
00:31:38
Speaker
Volume two? Yeah, volume two. Because she shows up in the lair and she pulls the thing off of her own face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But before that, like when Max is running, she hears Lucas playing the music and she's like coming out of it.
00:31:50
Speaker
And she tells Holly, like, you have to find your own way out. We see Holly running, but we never see her like run like where she ends up, right? Like later do. Yeah. She ends up in Vecna's lair in the abyss. Exactly. So I thought that she chose to go back to that memory of him. Like she, she didn't try to actually escape back to like her real life. I think she was like going after, like she was affected by,
00:32:18
Speaker
Well, it's never been about going back to your real life. It's going back to your physical body. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I meant. And since her body was there. Right. Yeah, yeah. Once she got there, then that's when she starts busting out of the thing or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe because her body was actually in Dimension X or the Y as opposed to Max's actual body. Was in the hospital. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
00:32:41
Speaker
Yeah, but anyways, he was kind of avenged, just not by Holly. And then, oh, and I said, doesn't matter because he's going to die, meaning back then. And then I said that none of the original main cast of kids dies.
00:32:54
Speaker
And that's kind of true. Yeah, true. Yeah. um i can read joey's because they're pretty funny yeah yeah he has good ones he said henry is freed from the control of the mind flayer joyce is involved because of their school connection which i have questions about that collie pulls some shit that puts 11 in a situation where she might die but michael hopper save her somehow unfortunately not Joyce pulls herself puts herself in harm's way to protect a child, but she doesn't die again.
00:33:25
Speaker
Something about their wormhole world collide theory is wrong and requires a pivot using more household objects to explain. That's just partially true. Yeah. When, like, the, you know, the ah you know the antenna, or the... Yeah. It wasn't just, like, a seamless transition from tower to abyss. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
00:33:45
Speaker
Jonathan and or Murray die. Dr. K dies as a result of something indirect. And then people finally move away from Hawkins, Robin and Vicki become U-Haul lesbians.
00:33:55
Speaker
Is that supposed to be in New England? And Will gets gay or in San Francisco. I don't think it's Nebraska. Yeah, i don't think so either. No. Will gets gayer in San Francisco. I mean, where was he when he goes off to the city or whatever? He was in a gay bar. getting gayed Yeah, but where? It might have been San Francisco.
00:34:18
Speaker
I think it was New York. I'm going to assume that Hawkins does not have any gay bars. No, not he left off. and At the dinner, Hopper said we'll be closer to the kids.
00:34:29
Speaker
And I think he meant both Will and... Because Jonathan is at NYU. Yeah. I think that I took it as Will and Jonathan moved to the city together. Okay. I like that. That's cute.
00:34:41
Speaker
But... All right. So I guess we'll go into the episodes now? Hell yeah. All right. So... Yeah. So... Okay. So we start off with The Crawl.
00:34:51
Speaker
Okay, perfect. Okay, so in the crawl, we flashback to Will's capture in the Upside Down for season one and see Vecna infect infect his mind with the tentacle down his throat. Months after the Rift incident, the U.S. military led by Lieutenant Akers and Dr. K have quarantined Hawkins and have a base camp on the...
00:35:11
Speaker
on the throughway to the upside down in the middle of the town. Eleven being hunted by the military group is hiding away with Joyce and Hopper and training her skills. Dustin is emo about Eddie's death and provokes the cool kids by sticking up for him. Gets beat up as at his gravesite.
00:35:28
Speaker
The older kids... Led by Robin, work at WSQK radio station that they use to relay coded messages to the group about sneaking into the Upside Down, which he does, but then a Demogorgon attacks military vehicles.
00:35:43
Speaker
Attacks, yeah, military vehicles. Will can telepathically see the attack go down and has a vision of a demo going to the Wheeler's house and opening a gate into Holly, the youngest Wheeler's bedroom.
00:35:55
Speaker
So that is episode one. Thoughts on the episode? I'm trying to like put myself back into like when I just, I mean, i watched all of volume one in one, in like one, like together.
00:36:09
Speaker
Um, yeah so like basically there was no break between the episodes, but I thought the episode was good. I was just excited to be there, to be honest. I was just excited to be there. i don't know if I can even break it down by episode.
00:36:23
Speaker
It just all kind of blends together. don't even know if I can break it down by episode. It all just kind of blends together by volume, I think. Yeah. They had to set they had to set a bunch of things up. You know, it's been three years. So. Yeah.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah. Which I will say, um overall, like, I am not, I understand the circumstances. There was COVID. There was the writer's strike, you know, for the, you know, the time jump. i don't like that it happened, though. um I feel like,
00:36:53
Speaker
We went from such an intense ending, you know, in season four, and then we jumped to this and it kind of makes makes things a little weird. Like, obviously they did a lot by adding to like Max's story. I feel like that was great how they went about that.
00:37:11
Speaker
um But I don't I don't know. I feel like the time jump kind of hurt the show a little bit. um And I think it's kind of, i i found it kind of funny that even by the end of everything, they still consider it like the Hawkins earthquake, um which is interesting.
00:37:31
Speaker
But I don't know. is this I feel like the time jump kind of hurts it. I feel like we we miss out on so many chapters. yeah what like What was going on in between all that time? Like it went from like them fearing the upside down to like just going there and they're like all right, we got shit to do. And like, I think i think some of the plot points, though, like like, clearly you see how much effort they've put into these crawls because yeah they have it, like, down to a science. So it's like, oh, over the past however many months they've been doing this and doing this and doing this. Like, they they were a well-oiled machine in this episode, which I think helped to bridge that gap a little bit. And I think one other... what really is a mild plot point is like, I was like, Dustin is so emo in this episode. Like he's straight up rocking the full mullet now.
00:38:18
Speaker
He's so emo. And I was like, I kind of forgot that he was so connected to like, so distraught over the Eddie thing. I was like, Oh yeah, that all happened. And then like, I get that they used Eddie's death as like fuel for a lot of like, Oh, we got to kill Vecna and stuff. But it's just like, I never really got that attached to characters that were only around for a season. I don't know.
00:38:40
Speaker
don't know. Yeah. I mean, i know i mean like he was a great character. He was a fun character. Yeah, he was a great character, but I don't know. i just especially Especially knowing that it was like two years since the events of season four, I'm like, okay, kid, like we're still being emo about it. not Not to say there's anything wrong with coping, but i just feel like I would have... i don't know. I feel like two years later, like could we have done something else with Dustin's character besides him wanting to like avenge you know Eddie? like I don't know. i just...
00:39:09
Speaker
ah I don't know. I wasn't a fan of that. Shout out to Gaten Miller also, though. He's so talented. He's incredible. He's incredible. yeah And Joseph Quinn. Yeah. Because, like, dad that... I think that the the the the Eddie and Dustin thing was such...
00:39:27
Speaker
there were so many deep callbacks to very nerdy things in their one-on-one conversations. And like that scene where they're, you know, playing with the shields and he grabs him and tells him to never change and stuff. Like, it's just, yeah that all did happen it just felt so real.
00:39:41
Speaker
Like their connection felt like, To me, at least, it felt it felt so, so real. like Like, they really, truly bonded, and they they they saw each other. They knew who each other were. They weren't afraid to be themselves around each other. I don't know. It just... Yeah. But I also...
00:39:59
Speaker
agree with everything about Dustin just being way too emo in the, in the, in the start of this whole season. I feel like they overdid it. I don't know. I mean, it didn't bother me like that much. It truly didn't, but I just felt like, okay, like what what are we doing here, Dustin?
00:40:13
Speaker
And to your point with the time jump, right? Like, i mean, it's, it's however many months later, 18 months later, like grief, at least in my experience, grief doesn't hit like that two years removed from it.
00:40:25
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. So like to be that to be that stuck on it still is a little bit of a of a stretch. But yeah, it felt like like it just felt like Dustin's character was stuck like immediately after season four, whereas like everybody else's storyline is ahead and it's on season five.
00:40:47
Speaker
100%. That's a perfect way to put it. Yeah. That's yeah That's kind of how i feel about that. Cause what else do we get? We got like Robin's synopsis of the last 18 months, right? Like that's pretty much it. Right.
00:40:58
Speaker
And then yeah, the ending of this episode was insane. um with, you know, and with the Demogorgon going into the wheelers household and then ah ripping up the parents and that's when they snatch Holly.
00:41:14
Speaker
um Yeah, that whole sequence, like that was a great way to end the episode. Very tense. I had no idea what was going to happen. I thought that the Wheelers both died um at this point, but they didn't. but well het didn't didn't see and see or The first episode cut with the Demogorgon opening up the rift. Yeah, we didn't yeah that so see the Yeah.
00:41:37
Speaker
Oh, shit. Okay, so that's episode two. Okay, i was over here. This is why. And it was just like, boom. you know like You're just in a demo fight between Mrs. Wheeler and... and That's yeah true. I was over here thinking that was episode one. That wasn't episode one. Oh, shit. Okay. but yeah But that that whole sequence was incredible, though. It it was so awesome. and And shout out to Mrs. Wheeler.
00:42:01
Speaker
Love Karen Wheeler. I love Karen Wheeler. yeah. he's in she she She deserved all that amazing like screen time and character development. That was sick. 100%. Also with the mom vibes.
00:42:16
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I mean, I think my only – because i was this was one of my complaints about this season, and I guess I'll talk about it now that we're talking about the Wheeler's. I – i I think I kind of had hoped for season five or the final season to be more about the kids, like the the core group. And I feel like this season focused a lot on Holly.
00:42:38
Speaker
I was expecting a lot more screen time from the main cast and it was primarily Holly this season, um which there's nothing wrong with it. I feel like her story was great. I feel like they did something great with that story, but For it being the final season, I was kind of hoping for the main cast to be like the stars of the show, which they still were to some capacity, at least like towards the end. But Holly was like the main focus. But I mean, it didn't bother me that much because I feel like we got more out of Karen. Karen is a great character, which we didn't get much. I mean, we did get some...
00:43:11
Speaker
more i guess depth like when it came to her character when the whole billy thing was going on in season two or season three i can't remember which season that was it was one of those season three with the well season three right yeah so there was that season which we didn't get too much but we got a little bit you know when it came to the wheelers but but yeah it was it was great to see more of them this season for sure I think Holly or Nell's performance was also like incredible for such a young actress. She killed it. like yeah Just like her facial expressions, like, oh my gosh, she's so like far ahead of her time. like
00:43:49
Speaker
People are like, why did they recast Holly? It's like, well, look at her. watch the episodes yeah like oh yeah And she had that much screen time. Like you had to get somebody that was going to be able to do all that. And she nailed it. She did a great job.
00:44:01
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So I guess we started talking about the second episode then. So the demogorgon comes in attacks everybody, the parents, you think they're dead because he just, those scenes were pretty wild.
00:44:13
Speaker
You were intense. was like, wow, this is like an insane action scene for like early on in the season. Loved that. He takes Holly to the upside down and then Eleven goes to the upside down, finds Hopper, and the two of them begin searching for Holly until they find a giant wall that reminded me of Game of Thrones. I'm like, what is the deal with this flush wall?
00:44:31
Speaker
And then Jonathan and Steve have some weird energy regarding Nancy's attention. They're like always fighting over her. Lucas continues to hope that Max wakes up from her coma in the hospital. Nancy and Mike put the pieces together that Holly's imaginary friend, Mr. What's It, is involved in her disappearance. Robin encourages Will to use the hive mind to track down Holly and then Karen, while hospitalized,
00:44:55
Speaker
writes down that Nancy and um and tells Nancy and Mike that Mr. What's-its-real-name is Henry, and now they're putting together that it's Henry Creel, who's Vecna, and then Will realizes that his visions are from Vecna's point of view.
00:45:09
Speaker
I liked this episode. I feel like when I was like first watching it, I was kind of like, ah not a lot happened, but like thinking back about it now, a lot of a lot of story progression happened, putting all the things together there.
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. This was a good episode. let me see. I'm just trying to Yeah. I mean, I was looking at, um there was a scene. Cause I remember prior to the, the season dropping the Duffer brothers had like recommended like certain episodes to be watched um prior to season five. And there were a lot of like scenes where you would see like Holly, like interacting with like nothing. Like there'd be like, she'd be like looking at a wall and should you could tell she sees something. and um And now that we see that, like, obviously, Holly is involved in all this, like, it you know, it kind of ties that together.
00:46:01
Speaker
doesn't It didn't just ditch that whole situation. um Vecton's been playing the long game with the kids. Right, yeah. With Holly, at least. Like, he's she he's been there. um but ah But, yeah, this season, i mean, this sum this episode...
00:46:18
Speaker
see Yeah, I feel like this was a great episode, especially seeing the interaction between Robin and Will. um We never really got much, but, you know, when it came to them and and it was really nice to see like that bond. I feel like we have been stuck on the Dustin and Steve train and and like Elle and Mike and and Max and Lucas. But then like seeing the connection between um Robin and and Will was was refreshing.
00:46:44
Speaker
um It was like a natural connection between the two of them. That was that was a fun watch. A hundred percent. And, you know, like again, shout out to the acting in the show, right? Because I feel like the way that Maya Hawke expressed Robin's emotions, just, it felt very real and natural. And, in you know, you got to think about the timeframe that they're into, right? In the situation that they're in and what they're talking about and how much of a, it was not like it is now 30 years ago when it comes to that kind stuff. And, and, and I think that they were able to sow that,
00:47:18
Speaker
delicately and well in regards to how those two interacted in that in that part of that that episode for sure i really really enjoyed that some of the best writing in my opinion yeah yeah i agree with that um So I don't know with with this episode, i don't really think I don't I can't think of anything else.
00:47:37
Speaker
Like it was i mean, it was interesting to see the whole like realizing that Will was seeing through Vecna, which I didn't think that was going to be the case. Like the whole reveal with Will in general, I just didn't think I didn't think there was going much of a connection with the Will. I knew there was going to be something OK, there was going to a connection, but not in that way.
00:47:58
Speaker
um where he can like see that, that was like something that I was like, whoa. was like, okay, that's that's pretty neat. Yeah, Karen's hospitalized. This was also the scene where we saw Nancy and Mike dressed up as like a patient and a nurse. That was pretty fun as well. Yeah, but I love that. Yeah, with this episode, i don't think I have anything else to say with this.
00:48:23
Speaker
I think we can move on to the third one, the Turnbow Trap. Yeah, yeah, because I feel like it builds up to that. So yeah, the next one, um Henry's next child target is Derek, which is the class bully. Hopper and Elle overpower the military and interrogate Akers. Is it Akers? Akers?
00:48:42
Speaker
and The main military guy. <unk>ll do it Yeah, same the main one. okay where was I? um Which leads them to believe that Dr. K is holding Henry at the military base. The group believe believes that Henry lured Holly, so they they decide to use Derek as bait to trap the Demogorgon and implant a tracker into it to eventually find Holly before more kids are taken.
00:49:03
Speaker
Murray smuggles weapons to the group. Erica, via her friend, Derek's sister comes over. for dinner and drugs the family to booby trap their house for the demo.
00:49:15
Speaker
Which by the way, till the very end of the season, they're still asleep apparently. We don't know what's going on with tina's Tina and the parents. like theyre We never hear anything about the parents, which I think is hilarious. It doesn't matter.
00:49:31
Speaker
Yeah, it doesn't matter, but it was just... it was They're in the barn. They're yeah on the brink of death, roped up in the barn. Who cares? Pretty bad. But um Holly finds herself in Henry's childhood home, receives a letter to come into an into a nearby woods, even though Henry tells her not to, she leaves to find Max there.
00:49:53
Speaker
And that's like the big reveal. That was a good reveal. And it was so well done. i loved it. Very much a Lord of the Rings callback. I don't know if you guys are familiar with when Gandalf comes back.
00:50:07
Speaker
the the silhouette you know there's a lot of lord of the ring stuff in the final season like they really leaned into some of that some of the lord of the ring like i don't know any i don't i'm sorry i haven't watched any of the lord of the rings i know i'm sorry but um i know i have to get to that i will get to it i just haven't watched them but yeah i mean besides that i mean i totally believe you i mean they there's a lot of influences this season like you there are a lot of references you can see a lot of like influence when it comes to certain scenes and how they film certain things. um And I could see that being, when I saw that scene and I saw the reveal, i was like, yeah, this is definitely reminiscent of something like, you know, that's like big from before.
00:50:46
Speaker
um yeah, that was a great reveal. The whole, the whole pie scene was hilarious with Erica, you know, down to the fake apology where she's like crying to Tina telling her like, I'm so sorry. And all these things. And she ends up making the whole family eat the pie.
00:51:03
Speaker
Um, and then I think this is when we start to hear, I think it's the first time we hear Derek say, suck my fat one. Um, cause he was like, I think Tina came over to the room and was like, mom says to come down for dinner. She's like, tell mom she could suck a fat one. hilarious.
00:51:20
Speaker
But, um, but yeah, that whole scene is hilarious. Um, but yeah, no, most importantly, the max reveal is, is like the highlight of this episode. It might be the highlight of the whole shebang for me. No joke. Like I was it reveal the the end of season four.
00:51:38
Speaker
was the hardest hitting thing that happened in this entire show by a mile in my opinion with with the whole the way that lucas's character is screaming to erica for help yeah max in in the way that that scene is acted with the whole like i don't i don't want to die i'm not ready to die like yeah it was it was heartbreaking when she came when she came back and her character like was it was confirmed that like she's still alive even though she's in henry's mind like like i was that was i was i was vert I was vertical. you know It's a stand-up moment for me. like yeah like we we We elevated off the couch, not in a Vecna way, but in a celebratory way. but
00:52:23
Speaker
Okay, so then we go on to the final episode of Volume 1, which is Sorcerer. Um, Hopper and L get into the military base and fight off everyone, including Dr. K, but find that Henry isn't being held there. Instead, Callie eight is, Max explains to Holly that they are trapped in Henry's memories called camazots. Will's group is attacked by a demogorgon by, but Steve, but Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin chase it into the upside down. The military catches onto to the children being potential victims and take them to detain them.
00:52:57
Speaker
Will has a vision of Holly being like, Holly being restrained by the tentacles along with three others and spots for eight more. Will's group devises plan to smuggle the children out of the military base. But during this attempt, three demos and Vecna himself out out of the upside down kill a bunch of military men and kidnap Henry's targets.
00:53:19
Speaker
Vecna tells Will, That kids are the perfect vessels to reshape the world. Will then unlocks Eleven-like abilities to kill Demos that are about to kill Mike, Lucas, and Robin.
00:53:31
Speaker
i feel like this is the part where Vecna's character really gets elevated. Like, obviously he was a bad guy. Yeah. But here it's like he's preying on children at this point.
00:53:43
Speaker
Yeah. And I think we have the obvious like comparison to like a child predator pedophile. At least that's the vibe that I got that they were trying to convey. But it really, Vecno was like all the way up here with his level of evilness starting in this episode.
00:54:01
Speaker
He had a pretty sick reveal too. Yeah. Like when that thing started like opening up, that was really creepy. That was really cool. Incredible. it comes out is his new costume. He's snacking shredder.
00:54:14
Speaker
Freaking, oh, Zempik Vecna, man. like i am for I am obsessed with Jamie, the actor. Like, if I'm watching interviews, it's of him. I'm obsessed with him. he's as a he's a He's a fun interviewer. Like, the videos that I've seen with him, he's really fun. So interesting.
00:54:32
Speaker
Yeah, such an interesting actor. And the fact that he can do that voice is insane. It's insane. that. Yeah. And he's going like back and forth with the voices because like there's a lot of scenes where he's jumping from like Vecna to Henry, like, you know, and it's just crazy hearing the, kind of like the difference between like the octaves of his voice. It's just crazy. He did. He did great. And I, I've watched some of the like YouTube behind the scenes making of the episodes. I'm sure you have to Scott.
00:55:03
Speaker
um But like the scenes where he's, you know, like you see the scene of him kind of like wrestling Derek and telling Derek that he's going to kill his parents later in the season. Like between takes, he like completely ignores the presence of everyone because he's so in it. He's like so in his character. And then like they show him after they're done with all the takes, like hugging Derek's, you know, hugging him as an actor. Like, are you okay, man? Like literally, like, we'll let him go. Yeah. yeah That's awesome.
00:55:32
Speaker
Yeah, they they really killed it with, I forget her last name. I know her the casting director's first name is Cameron. I forget her last name, but she's kind of like a Hollywood legend, so to speak, from a casting director standpoint. And, you know, add this one to the list because that was a perfect, perfect pair. yeah I mean, along with the casting, I just feel like the writers do such a good job with these new characters too. Like,
00:55:58
Speaker
Like, I feel like Henry was just, and Vecna were just introduced and they are like, I don't know, like, they're so good. They're such highlights to their, to their seasons. And then even Derek, Derek doesn't have all that much screen time this season, but his character is so funny.
00:56:16
Speaker
And like, it, I don't know. It's just, it's awesome. You could just tell that like, they are writing these characters and they're fighting, they're like finding the perfect people to like, you know, perfect actors to to play them. On that topic, sorry to interrupt, but it's like in the middle of my brain.
00:56:32
Speaker
um I was a little bit skeptical as Noah Schnapp got older about his acting abilities. Seems like a genuinely great person in interviews. Seems like a good person. But I was a little skeptical. I think, especially in this episode, he killed it.
00:56:49
Speaker
that That last sequence was one take. He showed it in like the making of the episode. I'm like, I was really impressed. I was like, okay, yeah, he's, he's, he's doing the thing. And the slow-mo wiping of the blood, I was like, yeah that was sick.
00:57:05
Speaker
That was badass. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think my only thing with Noah Schnapp, cause I was going to mention that. So I don't think that he's a bad actor. i think he's, he's good. And like he, like, like you said, like, I feel like in an an intense scene like that, he nailed it. And I feel like in a lot of the intense scenes, at least in this season, and especially in the finale, like he nails it when it's like those really intense ones. i just feel like the conversations that like whenever he's not going crazy, he's just having conversations with the friends. There's, it's kind of awkward. Yeah.
00:57:36
Speaker
I don't know. like It feels kind of awkward. I think it's my only complaint with his acting. I feel like he's great like with like crazy emotions like when he's really going through it. If he's angrier, he has to show like you know that kind of like rage. like He's great. But lower than that... The subtleties are a little bit awkward. The subtleties are a little awkward. but i mean Maybe that's just him, though, too. Because he's kind of that way. Yeah.
00:58:01
Speaker
It could be because you see the actors in these interviews and like you kind of like see how they are. You can see the similarities with their characters. Like Dustin, like, you know, the actor, Gaten is, you know, he's, I feel like that's Dustin. Like they have like the same wit and it's hilarious. Yeah, and the way that they allowed the character, you know, I guess that's one of the benefits of a show that starts with people that are so young and and grows with them, you know, and and the Duffer Brothers have received a lot of praise for allowing those actors to have so much input into the characters, you know. Yeah. If if I understood the the things i've I've seen and read correctly, like,
00:58:38
Speaker
even every pretty much every season they start shooting before they've even finished writing it you know and then they literally take input from the actors about how they feel like their characters should evolve and yeah and and then they like will leave after they filmed a couple episodes write a couple more film um you know kind of come back jump back and forth between writing and and being on set to film thus the whole sean levy thing right but yeah yeah it uh Yeah, it's it's awesome how they've all evolved. in
00:59:10
Speaker
But I'm with you on the on this subtle awkwardness in some of those, in some of the just pure dialogue scenes in this season in particular. Yeah, i do I do think he gets a lot of hate, though. He's not a bad actor.
00:59:25
Speaker
like he did He did great like on this show, like especially them growing into this. like You got to remember, they were like 10 years younger when they started filming this. like And he's the youngest.
00:59:36
Speaker
and And right. So he's like, what? Like he's probably like 21 or 20 years old right now. Like the kid grew with this character. Like, you know, I mean, he probably doesn't have much experience or or who knows, maybe he does. And I don't know. It's just, I feel like people don't give him enough credit, but he's, he's a good actor. Like you can't, I don't know. I feel like you can't really say he's a bad one, but, um but yeah, no, like the whole reveal with him and the powers was, was an awesome reveal.
01:00:05
Speaker
um Will the fun wise. What was that? Will the mother wise. Yeah, no. that That was pretty cool, though. I don't know. That was a lot of fun. And and and that that was like a moment where I was like, oh my god, what the hell is going to happen? like ah You have like the the the demos like with with Robin, with Mike, with who else? Lucas.
01:00:29
Speaker
Lucas. There we go. like With them three, I was like, what the heck is going to happen? And then like that was like a pretty... Like not shock. Well, yeah, for me, was actually shocking. It was a shocking reveal for me. I was like, what?
01:00:41
Speaker
was like, what the hell's going on? But yeah, it was, it was really cool. I for sure thought that Mike was going down. in that moment. you know like he's He's the first one that they kind of freeze frame, you know, like yeah in the demos jumping at him and he's just like, ah, shit. He just like leans back and is like, oh, oh no, it's over. It gigs up and then and then they cut to black very much like they did with Steve in the tower in episode you know and in the finale. But yeah.
01:01:07
Speaker
I like the cut to black and then come back that they do too. Like we're going to cut to black and leave you in the dark for three seconds and then come back. yeah So simple, but so effective.
01:01:18
Speaker
So effective. Yeah. I love it. But all right. So then going on to volume two, we start off with shock jock, which is, which we start off with the kids awakening camazots.
01:01:31
Speaker
um Holly and Derek know what is happening, but the rest of the kids believe Henry is saving them. Max and Holly go through Henry's memories, searching for an escape route while Derek distracts him. But Henry is on to them and threatens to kill Derek's family.
01:01:46
Speaker
Will's group uses voltage from the radio tower to re reanimate a dead demo so that Will can reconnect to the hive mind and try to kill Henry. He breaks Henry's leg and saves Max, who is dead.
01:01:58
Speaker
who Henry is trying to kill. Hopper, Elle, and Kali escape the base. Kali tells them that Dr. K was using her blood like Dr. bre Brenner used Henry's blood to create more powerful children.
01:02:10
Speaker
Dustin believes that destroying a shield can weaken Henry, but finds Brenner's journal at the lab and realizes he is wrong. He tries to warn everyone, but before he can, Nancy shoots at the shield. So this episode, um the scene where Max, where Will helps Max and Holly escape. That was awesome.
01:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, that was so sick. I am very perturbed by the lineup of pregnant bodies. Oh, it was like the darkest thing in the whole show. I was like, yeah what the heck is going on here? And if they don't have a pregnant body in this house at HHN, I'm going to lose it.
01:02:51
Speaker
Oh, they're going to have... They better... I still, I feel like... I didn't even think about that. Oh my God. This plot point is so important, I feel, to the development of all of what has gone on degree in in the lab, but also it still leaves so many questions.
01:03:13
Speaker
I feel like that's the the biggest unanswered... unanswered storyline is like, I feel like we've gotten so just so so many glimpses of that whole lab situation, right? Like in episode or in season four, we got the most I felt when we were like seeing one and and connecting that one is Henry and that you know, that whole thing. But it's like every season I have so many questions and maybe that's their intention is to leave some of that up for interpretation, but it's like, yeah.
01:03:50
Speaker
the using of the blood, and it's like questions about, so did he use Henry's blood to create the rest of them? And if that's the case, the age difference seems to like not line up great. I don't know. There's just like a lot of like details that maybe I'm just not supposed to be thinking about that are kind of flying around my head as Kali's given that reveal. I'm like, I don't know. i don't get it. Yeah.
01:04:20
Speaker
I don't know. I and i feel like my my biggest complaint about this season is actually that I feel like they didn't... I feel like whoever made the decision of making this eight episodes is ridiculous. I feel like we needed... i feel like the whole... i feel like Callie should have had more screen time. i feel like we needed more like of that story like elaborated on. i feel like even though we did get the whole Henry and Vecna like backstory in season four...
01:04:50
Speaker
at the end of volume one, we got that little glimpse of them in high school or the whole high school setting where we see things about Joyce and we see that hopper and the wheelers are there. So we're expecting there to be a connection, which we'll obviously talk more about later. Cause that's in, you know, well, you know, that's more revealed later on the end, but they don't really do much with that.
01:05:11
Speaker
And I feel like, why didn't we get more backstory on Henry's connection to everybody else and, That's the most interesting thing to me is like the whole Henry story.
01:05:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like we needed more. And then, like, even though, like, i I'm not the biggest Kali fan, like, i I wasn't a big fan of her in her initial season. But bringing her back now, I feel like they she had such little screen time and we really got nothing from her.
01:05:40
Speaker
And it's probably the reason why we were questioning, like, her loyalty and, like, how, like, authentic was being. The vibes were still off, regardless of her, like... always off. Being a martyr again. I don't know. Just something was not right with like, I don't know. I just didn't get in in season two when she was being a badass doing her thing. And, you know, I liked her character. Then I was like, good, good for her. And I know people there were a lot of there was a lot of hatred toward that part of the season. And like, why are they doing this? But.
01:06:08
Speaker
I thought it was interesting and I thought her character this season was so uninteresting. Like she obviously was there to reveal this whole, you know, plot point about the lab and what they were doing, but that was like literally her only purpose. And the rest of it was like so underdeveloped that I was like, why does she give me bad vibes? Because there were like yeah no good vibes to be given, you know, like, Yeah. I don't know. Overuse of like sister and brother. Like it just felt very forced. And I'm like, why are you talking like that? You're creeping me out. You're creeping me out. Yeah. Like you're doing a little much right now. Like, I don't know if I can trust you or not. And like, we didn't get enough story from, from her. And that's why I feel like, you know,
01:06:53
Speaker
the conclusion to her character just isn't as, I guess, impactful. at least for me, it wasn't. I was like, she got shot. She was going to kill herself anyways. Deuces. Right. Like, she's done. So I was kind of like, okay. Like, I feel like this would have been a bigger reveal or like a bigger deal if we got to know her a little bit more. Because we knew badass Kali from like season two. With an accent. we don't know...
01:07:18
Speaker
and the And the whole accent thing too, exactly. like But then, you know, we don't know anything about her now, like after all this time that she's been like trapped with them. we don't know.
01:07:31
Speaker
Underdevelopment of her and the Dr. K situation. Like the there needed to be more about that. I think if they were going to use that as such a big story point, because that's basically all that is why it ended the way it did. What she told eleven Yeah. So... I don't know.
01:07:50
Speaker
I feel like they brought her back specifically for Mike's story. They just needed to fill in some other shit. But they brought Ape back so that they could write that part about Mike's... You know, which we'll get to in the at that last episode. Right. But, like, that all the other stuff, they tried to just build a little bit of of a character arc around her by showing the pregnant ladies, you know, which...
01:08:15
Speaker
That part con confused me because it was like, is Dr. K taking it to another step where the the mothers are in the lab too? Because I didn't get the impression that Eleven's mom was in the lab when she was born. Yeah, that's why I'm so confused as to what all that was about. And also, like, they're calling Henry brother.
01:08:34
Speaker
but like if Well, they refer to each other as sisters. Right. think that they just look at it like they're everybody 1 through 12 are brother and sister. Got it. But like yeah he's almost like... don't know.
01:08:47
Speaker
Maybe this is because i have medical knowledge and I know how babies are actually made. But like... we're missing we're missing some pieces here blood doesn't make a baby you know blood maybe they're the blood is where the power comes from and they're transfusing these pregnant women to get the special blood into the baby for when they're born that's great and fine but it's like who who decides who's pregnant babies or I don't know i don't know where are these women and and who are they yeah I think that that's the evolution, right? Is that Dr.
Finale Breakdown and Emotional Scenes
01:09:21
Speaker
Brenner was trying to transfuse Henry's blood directly into children.
01:09:26
Speaker
Whereas Dr. K takes it to the next step and says, we're going to try to do it prior to birth. At least that's what I took. I would be totally wrong on that. But like, it doesn't explain anything that you just asked, yeah but that's, that's how I interpreted it. It was like, they gave the original 12 that we see in season four, so to speak,
01:09:49
Speaker
they had Henry's blood like directly given to them or transfused. Whereas Dr. K kind of tries to take the evolution of the project one step further to solidify a more concrete result, so to speak, or whatever. Right. At least that's what I thought.
01:10:04
Speaker
But all right, let's jump over to the next episode. Cause I feel like that leads into the ending of, of episode five. So the next episode is escape from Camazots and the fallout from Nancy's shot. The lab begins melting. Nancy and Jonathan are trapped in a room.
01:10:18
Speaker
Thinking they're dead, they have an an amicable breakup scene, but luckily the melting then stops. Dustin explains to Steve that the Upside Down is actually a wormhole to another realm. Max and Holly see a memory of Henry as as a young boy scout killing a man in self-defense who shot him in the hand.
01:10:34
Speaker
this dude This dude has a briefcase that seems important. Erica. I was getting lazy writing these. I love this by the way. This dude got a briefcase that means some good.
01:10:50
Speaker
All right. Erica recruits her teacher, Mr. Clark, to help them to help them. Henry uses Will to track Max into the real hospital, into the real world in the hospital, and he sends demo dogs to kill her. Opera, Elle, and Callie reunite with the others in time for Elle to free Will, who is able to warm war to warn Robin.
01:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, warn Robin. Her girlfriend, Vicky, and Lucas at the hospital what's about about what's about to happen. Karen Wheeler is a badass and saves the group by detonating a laundry machine and killing the demo dogs. Max hears Kate running through the hill. Kate Bush is running up the damn hill and escapes Camazotz. Wakes up from the coma.
01:11:31
Speaker
Max reminds Holly that she is heroic heroic and tells her she has to find her own way out. That whole hospital scene is awesome. Sick. Loved it. Loved it. And I love the nod to Jurassic Park in that scene where they're hiding like when, when they blow up, basically, and that, that whole scene, he's like saying like, I can't turn off the, the music, like, cause you know, Robin kept telling Lucas, he needs to turn off the, you know, the song.
01:11:58
Speaker
love that whole scene. Love that entire scene. It's so great. Yeah. Everything about that scene was so great. And then the but when he's just like, I'm not turning it off.
01:12:09
Speaker
like i don't know. I love that so much. What's a ridiculous thing though? Lucas kicked the Demodog, which I'm like, how did he just kick it? And then the elevator closes. How did he just kick it? Yeah, that was kind of wild.
01:12:24
Speaker
i was like i was like, I don't know. That would have happened. I think his leg would have been gone, but whatever. Okay. It was, it was exciting. but um Demo dogs have chins too. And uppercuts land no matter where. Also, back to the acting, Sadie Sink killing that wake-up scene.
01:12:46
Speaker
I think Sadie Sink is the best actress in this entire series, in my opinion. She's talented and she's so pretty and I'm obsessed with her. She's so pretty. That's the Lumax both when she... The end of season four, like I already mentioned, and then that wake-up scene.
01:13:02
Speaker
Yeah. It's just peak. It really is. like if If you have a problem with that scene, like you're dead to me. I don't... I mean, that that wake-up scene...
01:13:13
Speaker
I was sobbing. It was almost just as emotional as season four when that whole initial like thing had happened. Dude, I've cried movies. I've been moved to tears by a lot of things in my life.
01:13:27
Speaker
the The end of season four in the wake up scene were the only times that I've verbally, was, I mean, I was bawling my eyes out. Like, I don't know how else to describe it. like I've never been moved so much to to tears by a show or a movie or anything. I mean, genuinely. like those Those scenes were incredible. They they were just incredible.
01:13:52
Speaker
it was It was so good. that That scene was really good. The Nancy and Jonathan breakup, that was that had to happen finally. i just feel like it was leading up to that. like i kind of saw it coming. And I find it very funny that a lot of people on social media seem to have not understood that it was a breakup.
01:14:11
Speaker
Which I'm like, how did you not think that it was a breakup? like it was To me, it was very clear that it was a breakup. Yeah. yeah a lot of people seem to have not understood that. And now I was like, wow, like, okay.
01:14:22
Speaker
Like, but yes, it it was absolutely a breakup. But yeah, that was, that was a great scene as well. um I feel like if there was any scene to kill off any of the main characters, it would have been that scene with Nancy and Jonathan um But then obviously the melting stopped and they were okay. Those kind of scenes give me more anxiety than anything else.
01:14:45
Speaker
All a trash compactor in Star Wars. I cannot handle the stress of the, on the, on the, the, the eventual death about to happen.
01:14:56
Speaker
yeah I love that you made that connection because I feel like that's something that blows right over everybody's head and it's exactly what they were trying to get is that is that tension, you know, that building. Yeah. yeah That kind of anxiety I'm not here for.
01:15:11
Speaker
No. Oh my God. Oh, my God. Yeah, I had no idea what was going to happen, but it was so good. It was such a good scene. I thought that the breakup itself, too. i Again, I was shocked that people were confused by it. I thought that it was, i don't know.
01:15:25
Speaker
I mean, that's what an amicable breakup is like. You know what I mean? Like, if you really love the person, but you know that you're not supposed to be with them anymore, like, i don't know. Like, that's, it felt real to me. I mean, maybe rushed, given the circumstances, but, you know, hey, they're in the upside down under. Yeah. And they think they're about to die. Yeah. Yeah. Like they're being honest with each other.
01:15:45
Speaker
i don't know. I loved it. Yeah. That was, that was a good scene. But yeah, both, you know, situations between Nancy Jonathan and then um Max and Lucas, great scenes, both very emotional, but of course, you know, Max and Lucas I think was the more emotional one, but, but they were both great.
01:16:04
Speaker
um And then what else? I'll just jump right into the next episode. The bridge. Max reunites with Urbody, but Holly wakes up in the other realm.
01:16:16
Speaker
We see her falling through the Upside Down, but Vecna pulls her back. Dr. K orders... Ackers to find L. Dustin explains the other dimension is called the Abyss. Max tells everyone Henry is trying to merge the worlds together. Steve suggests drawing the the dimensions close to L. Close. No, I'm sorry. Close. So L. can confront Henry and they all blow up the upside down. Kali convinces L that they must die after they kill Henry to prevent K or anyone else from continuing the experiment.
01:16:49
Speaker
Will comes out as gay to all his friends. Erica and Mr. Clark open the military base for murray and most of the group to drive into the upside down holly is unable to convince the other kids that henry is bad news henry links with all 12 kids to try to carry out his plan yeah so i giggled there because like and no like i feel like noah's scene the coming out scene was a great scene I do feel like it was awkwardly placed. I feel like the scene personally, like I understand the reasoning for them putting it in episode seven, but I kind of feel like had this scene happened, which again, everybody wouldn't have been together, but if it would have happened,
01:17:37
Speaker
before the the initial reveal then maybe would have been like an almost an even bigger deal that he has powers i guess or that he has this control i don't know i felt like the timing of it was kind of awkward in episode seven especially because we're like ramping up to this like grand finale and even though this was very important to his character and like you know you know, getting this off his chest and truly releasing himself from like, you know, all these like evil thoughts that, you know, Vecna is putting him through.
01:18:08
Speaker
um i don't know. i just feel like that whole scenario was long overdue, but I mean, it had to happen. And I think that Noah Schnapp did a great job with that scene, a very emotional scene.
01:18:19
Speaker
um So I, besides the placement of when they decided to do that, like, I feel like it was a very well done scene, which a lot of people are saying that there were things that he said that reminisce. Like, it's like saying things that Henry would have said.
01:18:36
Speaker
um That's what a lot of people were saying that the whole thing about getting ice cream at Melvads, which apparently um it's where where Joyce worked, right? That's where she worked in season one. a hundred percent.
01:18:49
Speaker
Yeah. And it was like a hardware store. um maybe we'll get to that general store yeah we'll get to that we'll get to that like that but you know people we'll get to those we'll get to both of those main points from will's coming out speech right but i mean overall i feel like it was a very emotional thing i feel like people were just focused on the things that he was saying and how he was saying and they're like no it's vecna it's henry i'm
Critiques of Season Pacing and Plot Decisions
01:19:10
Speaker
like this is very obvious it's very obvious that it's an emotional scene and it's in a very important like scene for the character i don't think It's one of those scenes that is supposed to give off anything. But who knows? The best part of that whole scene was Jonathan's reaction.
01:19:25
Speaker
Incredibly well-aisted by Charlie Heaton. That's the part about it. Because like Joyce knew he was... that like He wasn't coming out to Joyce or Robin. At least in my opinion.
01:19:36
Speaker
They already knew. You know what I mean? yeah And then it felt like maybe that, and then like Jonathan probably already knew too, right? Like like the whole scene where he sees him in the rear view mirror in season four. Yeah, I think he knew.
01:19:49
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So like, I feel like, my biggest knock on it is like, that should have been a scene between the four main characters. You know what I mean? We're like, we didn't need Hopper and, and every, like, I don't know. We didn't need the whole so cast ensemble in that room. Like, why was Murray there? Like you didn't have to come out to Murray. Yeah. Like you needed to have that conversation with Lucas, Mike and Dustin. You know what I mean? Erica was like, okay. Like like but everybody here. Yeah.
01:20:21
Speaker
I'm pretty sure I saw the ghost of Barb in the background listening in, too. Like, everybody was like... like but so but I think I texted you this, Rafa. Like, what are they going to do? Have six different scenes where he talks to the different characters in the show? So maybe they just wanted it to just do it all in one swoop.
01:20:38
Speaker
you know Everybody knows now. Yeah. You don't like girls. Like, you know, like... It just doesn't... I mean, it didn't surprise me, but I guess we're the audience, and we were totally given clues earlier on. you know I thought the scene between... well yeah, we'll get to the tower. But yeah, it I just felt like that great scene, but it it would have been more intimate if it was just the four of them, in my opinion. Yeah.
01:21:06
Speaker
So my biggest problem with this episode is we find out such a big plot point for this entire season in regards to the upside down and the abyss. Like for four and a half seasons, we've known about the upside down and what it is. And in the penno penultimate episode of the entire series, you're going to just flip that upside down. Sorry for that terrible pun. But just like...
01:21:31
Speaker
Everything changed right before the finale. We don't even have time for that to soak in and even like think about what any of that means. I feel like. Yeah. Fully agree. And I was kind of annoyed watching it. I was like, Oh, they're just going find Brenner's journal and Gaten or Dustin's going to be like, no, it's actually this. And now all of a sudden, everything we've thought for the last 10 years of our lives is like not true. Yeah.
01:21:56
Speaker
And honestly, Wormhole seems just kind of lazy to me. They couldn't have thought of something better than Wormhole. definite i They tried to tease it right with the whole scene with Mr. Clark and Erica being in the classroom. right like And as soon as you see that, it's like, okay, well, this is obviously where they're going. like I saw that prediction all over the place before the yeah the volume two came out. But but yeah it did seem like...
01:22:22
Speaker
That's just one of those things where, you know, again, I know that I'm the easiest critic in the world, but it's like they had to do something, right? to do something. They did something. Yeah. You know but you know what I mean? like it is like a I don't know. i get Again, this is the why I feel like this end this season was too short. um i feel like there were things like introducing the Abyss, like we literally got this.
01:22:47
Speaker
Episode seven. We only have one more episode. We have nothing else to work with and when it comes to like the abyss. And, you know, I don't know. I feel we needed more time with that. We needed, we needed more time with a lot this season.
01:23:02
Speaker
This episode just really proved to me that the Duffer brothers just, not I'm not trying to discredit their writing, but it's very obvious that they were kind of winging it from a certain point.
01:23:12
Speaker
I know it was said that they wrote one season and were not expecting to go any further with it. And then it just became so popular, so they went further. But they really just didn't plan all of this out to the end until way later, in my opinion. Yeah, I agree. i feel like yeah I feel like they they did a... I feel like they planned the ending...
01:23:36
Speaker
Like, I feel like they, like, as far as, like, the end-to-end, like, the whole 45-minute epilogue, like, I feel like that, you could tell that they wanted that from, you know, from the start, like, at least to end it that way and to have that whole sequence. um But everything leading up to that, I feel like, at least with this season, i feel like they just didn't know what to do and how to wrap it up.
01:23:59
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like we'll probably get to this when we when we talk about this last episode here, but I yeah think... and And I'm not hating on this because i love what I love about this show is the characters. And like, obviously I love spooky shit, but like, I love feeling like we knew who these people were. So I'm not going to hate on the 45 minute epilogue, but what that did is it cut down the final battle scene into what felt like five seconds. It's like, everybody does their little part. And then all of a sudden Vekma is dead on a stake. It's like, ah
01:24:36
Speaker
what we just learned about this place, how it even exists. Everybody's, in I don't know. It just felt so like in the midst of the whole finale episode, that scene felt like it should have. And I didn't need it to be longer. I just felt like it was like,
01:24:52
Speaker
so like hastily done almost in order to give the rest of that epilogue kind of stuff, which like, I like it. Cause I liked knowing how they wanted things to end for all the characters, but it also felt kind of like lazy on the plot point of like how to get rid of Vecna and the mind flayer. I don't know.
01:25:12
Speaker
I don't know. I will get, well'll we're going to go into detail on that, but like, I i don't know. i feel like that scene, I didn't mind it as much. I just feel like they, I feel like it would have added more like tension to the scene, like the whole battle scene, like had it been a little bit longer, we added a couple more scenes where we have some like near misses of like somebody almost dying or something like we were like, cut away from it and go to something else and come back. Show what's happening with like Dr. K in the military or something to make it like a little bit more drawn out. I don't know, man.
01:25:43
Speaker
They made it very like, I don't want to say realistic because obviously nothing about this show is realistic, but For lack of better words, I guess realistic in the sense that like they just went, they got it done and that was it. They just didn't add the tension that you normally would find in a movie or in a show that has a grand scene like this. Like, I don't know i feel like we would normally get something that would build the tension. And this time around, they were just like, no, going to get the job done. And then we're going to go and see where these characters go.
01:26:11
Speaker
I want to summarize eight since we kind of started. healthy god yeah so me do what yeah The one thing I have to say about about seven is that like in every season, the penultimate episode, which shout out Tyler, it's one of my favorite words and you already used it, but I'm going to use it again. ah The penultimate season, in every single one, that's the one where they have like the, all right, here's the plan. This is the plan. This is what we're doing.
01:26:38
Speaker
Yeah. Like yeah all, like every single season, they do that in the second to last episode. And so there's so much more going on with the culmination of the whole series that you lose sight of the fact that they're following the same formula that that they've done throughout the entire show.
01:26:55
Speaker
Because as the fan, you have a lot of questions, right? But like, that doesn't mean that they have to answer them, I guess. You know what I mean? Like, so I don't know. I liked episode seven.
01:27:07
Speaker
That's all. liked it. Before we get into until the final episode, I feel like volume two was a little too hated. i feel like a lot of these conversations that we got were needed. I feel like a lot of these scenes were needed.
01:27:19
Speaker
um i enjoyed it. I don't know. I feel like people were like hating on it too much. I thought it was good, but yeah, I don't know. Six was my favorite. six of both volume two Six was my favorite of the second volume.
01:27:35
Speaker
The middle episode. Yes. Yeah. Six was a good one. Yeah. Cause that was the scene with the hospital scene. Yeah. So that was a great scene. um i mean, that was a great episode. Yeah.
01:27:47
Speaker
Yeah. I would agree. I think six was my favorite there too. but Yeah. I mean, I thought it was a good, I thought it was a good volume. I i didn't hate it. and I feel like everybody was hating on it too much, but no one's happy with this apparently, but okay. So, so episode eight, the last episode, the right side up, Elle, Kali, and Max enter Henry's mind and stop him from merging worlds, but he transforms transforms into Vecna, who then tricks Hopper into breaking Elle's link while she's in the tub. The military attacks and kills Kali. Elle kills Akers and his team. The kids come to believe Holly and comes to believe holly and she helps them to all Will sees Henry's past and learns he was corrupted by a small piece of the Mind Flayer that was in the guy's briefcase in the cave.
01:28:32
Speaker
There's a giant bottle scene, a but bottle scene, battle scene with the group and the Mind Flayer. With the help of ellen and Will's powers, Henry is impaled and joyce's Joyce axes his head off.
01:28:44
Speaker
The Upside Down is detonated. The group is arrested by Dr. K, but released when L chooses to stay behind in the crumbling Upside Down. Fast forward 18 months, older teens reunite and drink on a rooftop. The younger teens graduate high school.
01:28:58
Speaker
Hopper proposes to Joyce. The main characters, I'm sorry, the main the main group plays D&D and Mike tells stories of their futures and a theory on how Elle is still alive. Yes. Okay.
01:29:09
Speaker
thoughts I okay I will say i even though I have my complaints about this season I do love how this season ended I I i loved it I thought it was very well done i have no complaints I mean I mean yeah I do have complaints I mean little like things I can nitpick here and there but I don't know i feel like as a whole like they got the job done i feel like the Duffer brothers did what they had to do to end to end the story like yeah there could have been more tension when it came to certain scenes I feel like Well, starting off with a really intense scene that I feel like people weren't talking about as much. And I was like shocked in the theater, the whole L scene when Hopper shoots at the tank. I was like, i was like, wait a second. The whole theater gasp. We were all like, yeah, we were like, holy crap. Like, did that really just happen? And then, you know, as you know, they showed the scene progressive, like, wait a second. I was like, this is going to be like a whole illusion. I feel it. and then it was.
01:30:06
Speaker
Brilliant writing, though, because in that moment in that moment, you're thinking like, oh, oh, no. Yes. Like, nobody saw that coming. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, imagine if Hopper actually shot L to death. You know what I mean? Like, if you think that that's what's happening...
01:30:22
Speaker
like And then it just cuts to credits at that point. Yeah, yeah like they go so they go Soprano style and it just cuts to black and it's like... That scene was insane and I feel like people are not talking about it. I'm like, that was a great scene. Like that was very intense. One of the highlights of the finale for sure. Absolutely. I was like, oh, oh,
01:30:44
Speaker
yeah The throwback to Hopper's daughter, right? With her saying, and you've you've always been the problem. And that battle with Hopper and himself. Because obviously he's like you know he's he's a very depressed alcoholic in season one, right? You know what mean? it like I don't know. they just That scene was it was awesome. It was awesome to see he Hopper and Vecna square off in some sense for just a moment.
01:31:11
Speaker
You know what I mean? Where Hopper doesn't show that he's afraid of him. Henry tricks him. yeah Yeah, it was. i loved it. I thought it was great. Yeah.
01:31:22
Speaker
Love that they ended how they started playing d and d I don't know anything about that world, but I thought that the ending was really cool. i loved how emotional all of the cast was during that. And obviously that was like yeah their real emotions too. And I absolutely love, i know people are like kind of hating on,
01:31:45
Speaker
the how it ended for Elle, but I love that ambiguity. And I think like it goes back to Hopper having that conversation with Mike about like, you have to move on and his way of coping with that was kind of creating that story, I think for himself. And yeah then it's up to interpretation for the viewer, what actually happened. i I thought the way that they filmed it and revealed that in that final scene was so well done.
01:32:14
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like it gave, like, it was a very comforting and and not so, i guess, like, depressing way to, like, end Elle's character. Like, even though, like, I mean, I think that she's dead. dead. many people probably think that she's not, but... 100% alive.
01:32:34
Speaker
What was that? What? 100% alive. She's dead. He made that shit up, Scott. Yeah, I think she's dead. No chance. I love this.
01:32:47
Speaker
we will get I have to go back to the battle scene real quick, though, because everybody's like, oh, it's so short. It's so short. they like Literally me. everything about yeah i know but everything Everything about the whole... like like they talk about the hit points and they talk about how they need to lure them to the kid. It's like, it's like a video game. It's like an 80, it's like an early nineties video game to a T with like, you've been fighting the same thing and you can't figure out how to do it. And then eventually the whole team gets like their, you know, you see Lucas shooting the, the balloon of, of alcohol at the hit point on the leg. And then Mike shooting the flare. yeah It just, it was such a callback to,
01:33:28
Speaker
Just some real nerdy shit, I guess. I don't know how else to describe it, but like, it didn't seem too fast to me. It really didn't. It felt like that's how it happens. Eventually you unlock how to beat the boss and then you beat him.
01:33:40
Speaker
Like, that's just how it goes. You know? like it It felt like the entire time they were playing D and D and figuring out how to kill this thing. And they finally found the tricks and they ended up doing it. And also this was the first time that everybody was together. Like,
01:33:55
Speaker
we have not seen everybody in like i mean i don't know has has there ever been a moment that like every single person was in the upside down like together i don't i can't remember anything like that many of them for sure right there was a lot of them there even joyce i feel like joyce is never there and then they're all in the abyss right now let's be real guys this is fantasy they would all they all would have been dead in real life so obviously you know we got to take that in as well The cinematography of Elle's jump too. Yeah, that was so cool. And then just like the rip down when she when she gets into the into the rib cage. You know what I mean? And like yeah that whole back and forth and Will, the whole I'm not you know i'm not afraid of you anymore. We're not afraid of you. Like it
01:34:37
Speaker
man, I just, I don't like if you're, if you didn't like it, like what, what do you, what, do did how do you get here? I mean, I love that scene in the theater. I feel like that, that scene alone made watching it in theaters worth it.
01:34:51
Speaker
um I feel like that was very cinematic. in the cut but The cutbacks with Joyce and the acts to like every individual, like you know this is what she did to Nancy. This is what she did to Jonathan. or or This is what he did to Nancy, to Jonathan. to like that i mean It was powerful. to I thought that was a very, very powerful scene to show.
01:35:13
Speaker
this is the trauma that this character has caused everybody that's in this room, you know, and you could, you pair that with the gruesomeness of what Joyce is actually doing. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like that's kind of lost, you know, like there's not a lot of times where you get a 10 swipe ax chop to the neck.
01:35:32
Speaker
Yeah. you thought Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Yeah. My bad. I didn't mean to disrail us, but I had to come back to the battle scene real quick. I'll put in my third Harry Potter reference and say that was like the Molly Weasley moment when she was like, ah not my daughter, you bitch. Yeah, I really felt like that. Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah, for sure.
01:35:53
Speaker
Love that. Love that. But um what was going to mention? There was also another scene. ah Everybody in the theater freaked out when they thought that Steve was about to die.
01:36:05
Speaker
that scene was I knew he wasn't going to die. There was no way. No. That's classic 80s movies. you know like If they were going to kill somebody, it would have been like late in Volume 1 or early in Volume 2. It would have been dumb to kill somebody in the finale, I feel like.
01:36:22
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like it would have just it would have been forced. And like I said earlier, I feel like it would have been for the wow factor. i don't think it would have been for anything else. oh And yes, that means I believe el is a laugh.
01:36:38
Speaker
Yes. Before you go into your theories about the rest of this story that apparently is coming tomorrow, how do we feel how do we feel about the show or or how the finale was? How do we feel about how it all ended?
01:36:52
Speaker
So I just had some like overarching thoughts on the full season. um so I thought Holly and all the kids, that was a great storyline. I loved all of them. They were all fantastic actors for their age. And like I said before, it really just elevated Vecna to like the next level of evil for me.
01:37:11
Speaker
um overall though I don't know if it's me or if it's just how long we've waited for this season but I didn't get super emotionally attached to it I just I feel like the rest of them I was right there in the action and this one I was just kind of you know watching it and just trying to hopefully fill in the the plot holes from the other seasons but I don't know I just wasn't super attached to it like Maybe part of it was the characterization. like There was almost no character development this season from Kali, as we discussed earlier. like I didn't care one bit when she died.
01:37:48
Speaker
That did nothing for me at all. I also thought some of the dialogue was very corny in parts. I wrote down some examples as I watched it.
01:37:59
Speaker
um
01:38:02
Speaker
Will said to Mike, like I don't remember exactly, but I'm glad we're still friends. And then Mike's like, we're not friends. We're best friends. That's so corny. And then at least two, maybe three times, they say, we have company when like the military's coming in or demodogs or whatever. i don't know. Just very corny. Oh, so 80s.
01:38:27
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I guess. But it almost felt like they just used the chat GPT-shed answer and just threw it into the script. i don't know. I think that it's it's just, it like Rafa said, it's 80s, man. like that the yeah This show, the whole thing, i know there's so much build-up for the final season, and I know that I wasn't on that train of waiting a decade for it, but...
01:38:49
Speaker
Like every 80s movies, like the good guys win, right? Everybody gets a death scare. Steve got a death scare. Dustin gets a death scare. Nancy gets a death scare. You know, and then they unrealistically come out on top. That's just how 80s movies go. You know, like, I don't know. Like Nancy's dressed as Rambo in the scene. you know think Have you seen a Rambo movie? You know what I mean? like it just Yeah. Yeah.
01:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i ah that's the thing. like I mean, that I appreciate that part, but I do see, like, what Tyler is talking about. i feel like, the like I said, for me, the biggest problem was just how little episodes we had for the amount of story that they wanted to tell. um Like, I hated that we that when Kali, Elle, and Max were jumping through ah Henry's memories, like they were just like, oh yeah, that's Hopper over there. oh there's the Wheelers over there. wanted more of that, yeah. but I wanted more. like tell like What is the significance? like If there was nothing that, if nothing was gonna involve
01:39:52
Speaker
like the parents then why did we even mention them like just say that it was this is henry when he was in school and that's it but this whole time i'm over here thinking that like something is going to be revealed and maybe there's a reason why will was chosen season one and it's because they went to school together like you know henry and joyce but that that meant nothing it was that wasn't a thing like that never happened so i don't know i just feel like they left that kind of like that would have been like a cool reveal to have, but they did nothing with that, which kind of sucked.
01:40:24
Speaker
No, that i think that was my only thing. um Just basically the amount of episodes that we got. I feel like we could have used more time. There was more time we could have spent with some of these characters and,
01:40:36
Speaker
And yeah, but I mean, overall, I love how they ended it. I, I'm not mad about it. It was like we said, it's very eighties. It's good guys one. And that's exactly, and I love how they circled back to them playing D and D again, one last time. And they had that, like, you know, like Kelly, like you were saying that emotional moment that they had, um that was nice. and then the younger, like new generation coming in.
Potential Spinoffs and Expanded Universe
01:40:57
Speaker
That was so cute. I was like, yeah, bringing it back to the kids. Yeah. I, my biggest, my biggest complaint, I'm very, I'm very content with how it ended.
01:41:06
Speaker
um My biggest complaint is just that I wish we had, to me, the most interesting part of the entire story of the show is Henry's backstory. And I just want to know more of it. And, yeah I guess there are so is some rumor that the supposed spinoff is going to be connected to his backstory in some way, but not really involve him. So maybe we'll learn more. It'll give us some more context about that. But I i just, I'm so interested in that part. And I feel like that's the big, the the the most questions I have are kind of about...
01:41:37
Speaker
I feel like we have just like snippets of what happened with him, you know? Yeah. So that's um the Broadway show, the first shadow that apparently gets deep into the lore of Henry, which Apparently they worked, I haven't seen the show obviously, but apparently they worked some of that play canonically into this season, which I don't agree with because there are very few number of relative people that got to see the play. But yeah apparently a lot of his backstory was revealed prior to this season in that play, which maybe we'll take a little TCS trip up to Broadway soon.
01:42:16
Speaker
Maybe. Oh my God. I would love i love to see it. I already told you, Tyler. I'm 100% in. Yeah. We'll see Stranger Things in Hamilton. One, two. One, two, yeah. Okay. All right. We'll talk about this after because now... how great How great is the scene, though, where you think that Henry is like maybe going to have that Darth Vader moment where he's where he flips and redeems himself, but then like that one note hits on the soundtrack and he's just like... He's like, no, man, I like being bad.
01:42:47
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I was so happy that they teased it and they brought us to that head and then they were just like, no, no, no, this dude is e evil evil. I love that so much. Him saying, like, we are one, like, that guy is brilliant. He's so good.
01:43:05
Speaker
That scene is incredible.
01:43:10
Speaker
Yeah, like, my my my mom didn't watch any of the show and then she was just like, I watched the finale. And I was like, wait a second, what, Mom? And she was like, that scene in the in the cave where you learn about his backstory was just so powerful. It was like her only feedback about the whole thing. it i was like, that's incredible, Mom. but Because because that that scene was great, man. Jamie Campbell Bauer is just a legend. in that the legend He's legend. He's so good. Yeah. yeah yeah that man when the when the soundtrack hits that note and he's like but i saw the world you like it's just yeah yeah
01:43:48
Speaker
it was really good but but yeah and 11's alive okay no she's not yes she is she's alive no there's no there's no nosebleed there's kryptonite she could not have been using her powers to get into mike's mind But if Callie was in that hospital, which didn't we see her die like when they were still in the in like the lab or wherever they were? like Was it the hospital? No. All we saw was her with her eyes closed.
01:44:19
Speaker
Okay, her eyes were closed. But didn't they blow that shit up first? That's what I thought. like They blow the or they blow the matter the matter up. You can see that the hospital doesn't flatten. Okay?
01:44:30
Speaker
Then the vacuum is created. the original lab is at the very center of the upside down. So it would be the last thing to be pulled apart by the vacuum and space created by destroying the wall.
01:44:43
Speaker
It's in the very center. It's just physics. I love this for you guys, but she's dead as fuck. Okay. I'm sorry. She is so dead. She is so dead. She's definitely dead. I mean, but just you know we'll go into that we'll get next guys got some things to say about that, but okay. Wait, what are we going jump on to jump into next?
01:45:06
Speaker
What scenes, this is a question from me. What scenes oh do you see from this season, making it into the HHN house, which is obviously happening. And we'll talk about that more next week, but okay here's my, here's my hot take. I kind of don't want them to do the house.
01:45:23
Speaker
Yeah, I don't want gonna it. don't it. That's my hot take. I'm sorry. I love it, and I'm still going to be very excited to go into it. But I just feel like, what are we going to do with this season that we haven't seen already? Besides, like, like maybe i guess...
01:45:42
Speaker
these house i guesss are never These houses are never the best houses at HHN. But as a Stranger Things fan, I get so freaking hyped to see what they put in there. Right. No. And and that's I've always enjoyed them. I know going enjoy them.
01:45:55
Speaker
It's like the people last year that loved Fallout because they loved the game. Like, objectively, they're not the best houses. But I love Stranger Things, so I'm going to love the house. It's just going to be... It's the connection.
01:46:06
Speaker
We're going to have a Vecna hallway, probably. Like, i don't know. Oh, man. I hope we do. And the walls going to have all of his slimy little yeah tentacle tethers on the walls. i walk through That's got to be in it.
01:46:21
Speaker
Got to have the Beck in a hand through the face scene. Oh, they that that's a they better do it. They better. Got to have a will wipe on his nose. That better be like a hatchet and chains like scare with the claws going through the face. Such a good scare. 100%.
01:46:37
Speaker
Yeah, they need to see that. i would be I would be blown away if they tried to pull off a Maxi, like the will Will the Wise scene. you know like If they try to do that in a house with like a suspended...
01:46:52
Speaker
Demogorgon that's like floating somehow. you know like that That would be awesome if they pull it off. I think that the there's going to be an abnormal amount of melting lab in the house. yeah There will be ah an abnormal amount of melting lab. There will be so much melting lab. There's so many scenes in this that are crucial.
01:47:14
Speaker
Yeah. yeah like The cave. Yeah, the cave has to be. yeah The briefcase. Like, all of these things need to be in it. Yeah. yeah Yeah.
01:47:25
Speaker
The soundstage isn't enough. You're going to use one character throughout the whole freaking You're gonna have a bunch of little Hollies jumping out. Like, instead of, like, Henry's and Vecna's, like... Oh, whatever.
01:47:36
Speaker
I'm excited. I'm excited. I've never thought about that. I hope they don't do that. If it's just a bunch of Holly screams like that, would did that's what they did. Lucy and fall out. They really did that. with that In season four's house, they had a bunch of Eddie's jumping out.
01:47:53
Speaker
They never, you never saw not all that much. It was, it was Eddie jumping out all the time. And it was like, Chrissy, wake up! Like over and over and over again. Oh my god. I'd never been to HHN back then, so I didn't even watch the show. I had no idea. Hopefully Derek jumps out and tells me to suck a fat one. Oh my gosh, that would be incredible. but but we'll You'll hear it before you get in the room though.
01:48:19
Speaker
the other The other tricky part is there was a lot of grand special effects scenes in this season, which they cannot pull off in a house. Were they going to have Eleven standing there as the upside down freaking crumbles? Like, how are you going to do that?
01:48:38
Speaker
maybe it If they focus in on a couple key points and don't try to make it the whole show, like the whole season, I think that that would be advantageous for the house. you know like They could make the house just about the Max E scene, right?
01:48:51
Speaker
like or Yeah. They could do like a massive house and just do the entire series. They might do that too. But just, I don't know. They could do it just because, i mean, I feel like you're going to have all the upside down rooms or settings that are all upside down. That's going to be like the same thing over again. The only difference is that we'll have the caves. We'll have like certain rooms that are new. Like we'll have like Holly's room, like that whole scene and the kitchen scene with Karen.
01:49:22
Speaker
Um, Oh, they'll definitely have Holly's bedroom for sure. Yeah, that'll definitely be. You got the whole Creel house too, or like the, yeah with all the kids, you know, like a scene with all the kids with their heads snapped back like that. That could definitely be a room. Guys, guess what?
01:49:41
Speaker
I'm getting the Creel Lego house. It was a Christmas gift. yeah didn't even know that was a thing. yeah that was a Christmas gift.
01:49:52
Speaker
That is awesome. Hell yeah. i always get the spooky Legos. All right, Tyler, this is your time to shine. Tell us.
01:50:03
Speaker
No, wait. We still have one more question before that. Oh, we do? Oh, shit. My bad. Oh, yeah. Okay. ah What character are your co-hosts most like? I'm terrified by this. I'm obviously Max.
01:50:17
Speaker
No, not because you're Ginger. Okay, we're going personality. You are Jonathan. I'm a creeper with a camera. No. With a sideways walk. You are very even keeled. Very little emotion. and Except for when it really matters.
01:50:36
Speaker
Smart. Quiet. Pothead. Pothead. There you go. ah I don't know. if I don't know. I was going to say Mike.
01:50:48
Speaker
mean yeah I don't know if you accept that more or less than Jonathan Tyler, but I hope you do. ah It's not about accepting. i was going to say Mike for myself, though.
01:51:00
Speaker
don't think so. He's too corny. But I feel like he's... don't know. He's also very even-keeled and just kind of like... don't know. Sort of.
01:51:13
Speaker
I could say the Jonathan for Tyler. All right, who's who's Joey? yeah Joey. He's not here.
01:51:25
Speaker
Joey is Erica. Erica! but The sass level matches for sure. I share i fucking love Erica. Same.
01:51:38
Speaker
Same. She's like, is it season three where she's like, I'm ten, you bald bastard. Yeah. She has some great zingers. That was genuinely my only complaint about the finale was the lack of Erica. Even though it started with that great scene with her and Mr. Clark, that I thought was great.
01:51:58
Speaker
But it was like they had to land that one punch and then move on. You know what I mean? They had to throw that in there and then they were like, alright, that's That's all we can fit in. I'm sorry, we can't give you more Erica, but we tried to give you one zinger. Alright, Joey. Joey is Erica.
01:52:16
Speaker
For sure. That's really funny. Scott, I think you're Dustin. This is why I was terrified. Why? My least favorite character in the whole show. Are you serious? your least favorite No, he's so smart and nerdy and well-spoken emotional. He is you. I appreciate those those comparisons, but... Not Evo, Dustin.
01:52:43
Speaker
I would rather have died and been Eddie. Oh my gosh. No, I'm kidding. No, no. no i accept. I accept. I'm kidding around. He's my least favorite of like the main characters though. And my, that's just, you know. Mike is actually my least favorite.
01:53:03
Speaker
but I feel like he's favorite character on the entire show, honestly. Oh, Dustin. Yeah. Oh, I thought he going to say Mike. I was like, Mike is useless. Let me rephrase. He doesn't do anything.
01:53:14
Speaker
This last season had me very... Well, I guess... Okay. the Up until the point where he breaks down to Steve in the stairwell, I was just like so fed up with Dustin's character this season. like He just felt like he was... I was so frustrated by he was handling The whining invention.
01:53:36
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah And then like, and then just being like, I fell off my bike. Like, no, dude, just tell people that like, you got your ass gang beat. You know what I Don't tell me when you fell off your bike, like say you were at Eddie's grave and you got bum rushed. You know what mean? Like, that's like, that's a way better excuse for why you're late. And I fell off my bike, but i I see where you're going. I appreciate i appreciate what you're saying.
01:54:03
Speaker
Regardless of my opinions of his character this season, I appreciate that. I'm going to go based off of just the way Kelly gets about HHN speculation and theories. I feel like you go full on Robin. i was going to say Robin. thought you were going to say Joyce like putting things on the wall. Oh my god.
01:54:25
Speaker
Okay, like I can say Joyce. I was going to say, okay, I can say Joyce, but I was going say Robin. I feel like Robin, the way she gets, like, super excited about, like, when she's explaining things, I was like, that's Kelly right there. that That's Kelly with HHN spec.
01:54:37
Speaker
Yeah. I can see that. Yeah. 100%. She's also got, like, baseline anxiety. And she actually, she's anxiety and in. is anxiety. he' like That's right. Yeah.
01:54:50
Speaker
And inside out. Yeah. So that voice, now all i hear is anxiety when she talks. Yes. That's me. but Also, maybe the best one-liner in the whole season, in my opinion, with the whole, it's too big, it's not going to fit.
01:55:06
Speaker
Oh. like That was a piece of, yeah. I thought that was hilarious. What is wrong with you?
01:55:17
Speaker
Rafa, I see you as Steve. You're just like always in a good mood. Like nothing really gets you down for the most part. Just kind of like like golden retriever energy a little bit.
01:55:31
Speaker
Yeah, I see that. I see that. I also see like aspects of like Murray, like the comedic relief. i love You know, I love that combo. the Steve and Murray combo is hilarious. I fucking love it. well yeah I had you as pegged as Lucas.
01:55:46
Speaker
Lucas? Because like you're you're this you're the you're like the the rock you know I don't know. like you Lucas seems to hold his shit together regardless of what's going on the most in the whole show. like He never has like a freak out moment. you know what I don't know. like ah yeah You're calm, cool, collected. Lucas is always calm, cool, collected in my opinion.
01:56:08
Speaker
yeah i But I also 100% understand the other two as well. Yeah. I'll take it. I'll take it. But you know what I was just thinking about the other day? i was watching some of the season one episodes and I forgot how much of a hater Lucas was to Elle.
Conformity Gate Theory Exploration
01:56:25
Speaker
Yeah. He's such a hater. He was like, she's a freak anyway. Like, don't don't want listen. I'm like damn, kid. You're so mean. but you know what? He was right because look at all the shit she brought. Like, that was kind of crazy.
01:56:41
Speaker
But all right. right. Now it's time. It's time. Now it's time, Tyler. This is your time. All Two hours in. Listen up. Listen up, people. So there's this thing going around called conformity gate. If you haven't seen it yet, you're not on stranger things, Tik TOK or reels. But basically what it's saying is that there were a lot of things that seemed weird out of place or potentially put in place to send a message in season five slash the finale. And that,
01:57:17
Speaker
the finale, you are actually seeing this from Vecna Henry's point of view. Okay, so that's probably a little confusing, but I'll go through a lot of examples. And some people,
01:57:32
Speaker
take that theory to the next level and say that that is not the real finale and that the new finale is coming out to tomorrow, which is, will be January 7th. It will be in the past. and It will be in the past by the time you hear this. By the time you hear this, you'll know if If they're wrong, which they and they probably are.
01:57:54
Speaker
Before we go through this, because i'm I'm going to rebuttal to almost every single one of these things that Tyler's about to say. But but I will say that if this is true, that so all all things I'm about to say aside, if this is true, the Duffer Brothers...
01:58:09
Speaker
are the... I mean, it is it would be the most iconic, genius thing that anybody in the history of movie or television has ever pulled off if they actually did this.
01:58:21
Speaker
Agreed. Agreed. Now... So I hope that it happens, but I don't buy it. I will say... I don't want it to happen. I'm content... I am full conformity gate as far as we are seeing things through the lens of Vecna.
01:58:39
Speaker
um I don't completely buy that there's a new season. I think it's more just things that were added in to potentially like Easter eggs to see you or to make the viewer see it in a different way.
01:58:51
Speaker
So. Okay. i have a question before you start. Okay. And maybe you'll get into this. How are we seeing it from Vecna's point of view when we're watching his death? Okay, well, what they're saying... Okay, so what they're saying... No, no. So what they're saying is that Mike... They're saying that Mike is... The only folks are bigger hole than I was ever going to. I'm just kidding. Wait, what? No, no, no. Go, go, go.
01:59:18
Speaker
you're saying that They're saying that Vecna has taken control over Mike, and that's why we're getting a lot of... Like, when he told like the whole story with Elle, like that... like They're basically saying that Mike is the reason why...
01:59:32
Speaker
Like what was, there were a couple of examples. So I think it's more so not necessarily that we're seeing it through the lens of Vecna. I guess maybe I said that wrong, but Vecna is putting this memory, this potentially fake memory, fake ending into everybody else's mind.
01:59:50
Speaker
So they watched him die, although maybe he didn't actually die. That's kind of what I was getting at, if that makes sense. Okay. um So I watched like three hours of TikToks and Reels and Reddit threads and everything. So I compiled a decent list. I have two.
02:00:09
Speaker
Scott already. Yeah. He just held up a full notebook of notes. We were texting earlier. um Do you want me to just run through them or do we want to go one at a time or how do you want me to do it?
02:00:20
Speaker
One at a time. Okay. of us were working today. i would do Just to be clear, I'm fully bought in on conformity gate. I don't necessarily think that there's a new episode. That's next level. I would love it if there is, but anyways. All right. So Max told us to look at things that are out of place and that's how you escape. So that's what we're doing. That's how I'm starting this. So, um,
02:00:47
Speaker
This first one, I've already heard Scott's rebuttal. It is kind of grasping at straws here, but in one of the graduation scenes, they're all sitting there with their arms crossed like Vecna stands, basically. And Scott's like, well, there's like three in the front row that aren't doing it. and all these actually so First rebuttal, no, they're not. Okay. im not on theres There's only so many variations of sitting.
02:01:16
Speaker
There's three out of six people in the front row not doing it. Okay. I said that was a weak one. Hold on. ah Let's go, baby. Why were their gowns orange? The green has always been their color. Orange is their secondary color. Why would their gowns be orange when Ted Wheeler holds up a pamphlet that shows a green cap on it while he's sitting at the graduation? Why did it get changed from orange to green? Because the Duffer Brothers are Swifties.
02:01:47
Speaker
i This was one of my big maybes because when Lucas is playing basketball, too, they're green and yellow. They're not green and orange. Right, exactly. Their varsity jackets are green and yellow. Things can change. The school probably changed a lot after the you know earthquake.
02:02:02
Speaker
After four of their seniors died a couple classes ago. They just changed their colors. the other so The other theory of this is that the Duffer brothers just don't have any idea what they were writing and just completely missed all of these details.
02:02:19
Speaker
And yeah, I don't believe that for one second. um This is a big one. ah I will say... re buttt all for the i No, I was just go to say that I know for a fact that while they were filming Episode 7, the Duffer brothers left and flew back to L.A. to write the finale while Sean Levy was filming Episode 7 because they didn't have it written.
02:02:40
Speaker
So there might be some truth to that. Interesting. Interesting. All right. um This is a big one. Okay. why at the graduation, why was Hopper the chief?
02:02:52
Speaker
Hopper killed hundreds of U.S. military members. Who made him the police chief? How does that make any sense? That is just what Vecna Henry knew him as from years prior.
02:03:06
Speaker
Where would that even come from? Somebody also brought up that um that they were like, how was he like back at work like so easily after the events? Because didn't everybody think that he was dead this entire time?
02:03:23
Speaker
Right. He was supposed to have died. Exactly. so that was So that I'll give you. Also, going back to the graduation, because did you... i don't know if you have it any in your notes. Do you have on there the the merch that they're selling with the year of the graduation? Do you have that on there? No, I don't have that one.
02:03:38
Speaker
Okay, so... 1989. They're Swifties. Life of a showgirl colors. so I'm telling you. I didn't get the reference earlier. Thank you. No, no. I can tell.
02:03:51
Speaker
So about the hoodie. So about the hoodie. um So they're selling a hoodie with like with like pictures of the surviving, you know, gang. So everybody minus l And it says class of 87. But in the graduation in the episode is class of 89. So like, why are they selling merch? It says class of 87. Somebody asked up.
02:04:13
Speaker
Is that like official Netflix merch? I don't know if it's official. I tried finding it and I was like, I don't know what I'm looking at. so Okay. Yeah. I mean, maybe that's the same way that other Six Flags parks get the wrong merch from a different Six Flags. It could be anything like that. It could be. Exactly. Yeah. But I just wanted to touch up on that since you were on Graduation.
02:04:34
Speaker
The military would have pardoned and done everything they could to restore everything back to normal. Nancy would also be on death row if if we're just going to take this literally, right? Like she AR'd a bunch of troops down. and you you know like like it They're pardoned for their silence.
02:04:53
Speaker
That explains why they didn't get in trouble. That explains... everything related to the military. Like what are they going to do? Admit that they had a bunch of pregnant ladies in a lab. yeah like yeah yeah great yeah but there There's a difference between being pardoned and then, you know, quietly moved somewhere else, witness protection, you know, some sort of program like that. And then just being made the same police chief of the town that you've lived in your entire life as if nothing ever happened.
02:05:22
Speaker
I think there's a big difference between that. I'll give you that. Like I said, there's some maybes in my rebuttals. Yeah. Okay. This one's a major stretch. I don't believe this one, but I thought it was interesting. These are all a stretch. No, they're not. No, they're not. yeah I'm getting the stretches out of the way first.
02:05:41
Speaker
so People said that ah multiple actors had the same Vecna hair, like the little swoopy part in the front. I heard about that one too. I mean, okay, that's just an 80s style. I don't know if I buy that one.
02:05:56
Speaker
yeah They had to change their hairstyles as the season went on to show that time has passed. Yeah, I mean, even though... lazy Late 80s, short hair was in 10 years, but...
02:06:07
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you know, I wrote down hair same. No, they don't. Dot, dot, dot. Yeah, that one's fair. That one was a stretch. Okay. um In more of the graduation scenes, over the left shoulder of the main characters that they zoom in on. Kelly, you look so done with this. Like, you don't believe a word that I'm saying, but anyways.
02:06:32
Speaker
There's somebody wearing glasses that are strangely similar similar to the ones that Henry Creel wears. Like, almost the same. No, it's multiple scenes. It's multiple people. And these glasses look awkward on them.
02:06:49
Speaker
I mean, I wrote down, do you know how many people didn't have contacts or Lasik back then? Everybody's high. Everybody's glasses aren't like my glasses. They're like basic glasses.
02:07:00
Speaker
ah But why is it one specific person just perfectly centered over their left shoulder in perfect view for the viewer to see them? It's not somebody deep in the background. You can make something out of any scene and make it Absolutely you can make you believe that every code name for a house spec map is a certain movie and next week I will.
02:07:23
Speaker
Wrong. I don't believe you when you say that.
02:07:27
Speaker
He said wrong. if If you see the visuals, I feel like it would make more sense. I don't think you've seen the scene that I'm talking about, but it's really, it seems intentionally placed to me.
02:07:39
Speaker
I'll send you a text. I love how we're all coping just like mike is. That's fine. I'm not even halfway done yet. Oh, yeah. This is wild to me. That was number seven out of 34 that I've written down. Okay.
02:07:52
Speaker
This is wild to me. First of all, I'm getting so tired. Oh, my God. um This is wild to me because Tyler is the least conspiracy theorist person that I could ever possibly think of in life.
02:08:05
Speaker
This is why this is a real theory. I am grounded. I don't believe in conspiracy theories. This is legitimate. You want to believe in this, though. I don't care about it. No, I don't even want to believe it. I don't care. and That's the ending. That's the ending. I was happy with it.
02:08:22
Speaker
But all signs are pointing to this. Let me continue. All signs are pointing to this. Episode title, Joey. If you hear this.
02:08:34
Speaker
So the dial thing, whatever on the tower, it went from red to gray. Okay. And gray is the color they explained when you forget a memory or something's out of place, it turns to gray.
02:08:50
Speaker
What you can't explain that as a a plot hole or like a What's it called where it's you know not intentional? um Like a glitch kind of thing. like um i don't what it's called. There's a certain word for it and in movies. But anyways. um This also received a maybe from me. That that received a maybe. maybe why Why would they do that? It's not like they have multiple dials. There was no dial that they used that was gray. They intentionally changed the color of that dial.
02:09:22
Speaker
And it's the same with Dustin's hellfire shirt. All of the hellfire shirts were white. Why is he suddenly wearing a gray hellfire shirt at graduation? Never have we seen a gray hellfire shirt.
02:09:36
Speaker
Also the the roundabout. Yeah. The merry-go-round that Holly was on. Yeah. but Yeah. also turned to grit yeah the The gray thing is one of the only things like you know they get a legitimate maybe from me. That's one of the only ones. Okay. Okay.
02:09:52
Speaker
um In the background in the Wheeler house, there's a game called What's It? Okay, whatever. um That could be why Holly calls him that, though.
02:10:04
Speaker
Yeah, I always thought that Mr. or What's It was a name um that they came up with. No, it's in Oracle in Time. yeah Mrs. What's It is a character in Oracle in Time. It's from that book, which I have not read. I never thought that that was like the actual like name or anything like that.
02:10:20
Speaker
This one is a little iffy. I know Scott does not believe it, but why is Steve coaching baseball? He never coached baseball. He played a basketball. That's the only sport we've ever seen.
02:10:33
Speaker
But at one point, we see Steve swinging a baseball bat. At Vecna, at the Hive Mind. That's the only time that Vecna has seen Steve like playing a sport, so he just put him playing baseball. I know, because they're graduating from high school. It's the spring. It's baseball season. Ain't nobody playing basketball right now.
02:10:57
Speaker
My response to this one was, who gives a beep if he's coaching basketball or baseball? you know but It's season. But he was so big on like having all these kids. So I feel like that was just like a nod to that. Like, I don't think it was, i don't know.
02:11:14
Speaker
But the connection was the spring. The connection with the Vecna memory, Hopper being the chief, Steve playing baseball. Like I do, again, that gets a maybe that, that part of the connection. It could have been nothing. You might be right, Kelly. It was just spring and they just needed a a plot device for him to show that he's still you know mentoring the youth or whatever. I don't know. Something to think about.
02:11:38
Speaker
um There's a scene of Mike at the very end. I think it's like the last five or 10 minutes. He's wearing the Creole glasses and he's in the exact same pose that they showed Creole Henry Vecna in an earlier season. I don't remember which one. If you watch the TikTok, you'll see the visuals.
02:11:56
Speaker
If you watch the TikTok, you'll see the visuals. The pose is also known as a side profile. It's just a side profile shot. Yeah, it's literally the side of his face. He's standing. My response to this one was, no, he's not.
02:12:08
Speaker
Period. Did Mike ever wear glasses before? he got older. clue. It happens, okay? a year and a half older? he just graduated high school?
02:12:20
Speaker
No. yes Yes, you can need glasses at any point in your life. Your eyes can can... Okay, but why would they feel the need to add that in? What plot point does that serve? They're just showing time has passed, just like his hairstyle.
02:12:34
Speaker
in in In that scene, time more time has passed than the 18 months, too. That's his vision of himself in the future. yeah Even though it's taking place in his bedroom, his character is significantly older in that scene.
02:12:46
Speaker
I think it was just with glasses. You guys want to believe. you All um We're getting through this. Don't worry.
02:12:57
Speaker
Oh, this is this. I've been waiting for this all day. We talked about this one a little bit, but Will said he likes getting milkshakes from Melvalds. But obviously Melvalds is the general store.
02:13:10
Speaker
But back when Henry was a kid, that's when they sold milkshakes. Will would have never had a milkshake from Melvalds from season one. It was a general store. We did not see any milkshakes in there.
02:13:22
Speaker
So to expand on this, he also says that he wants to get lost in the woods. And the conformity gate theory is, well, he doesn't want to get lost in the woods. Last time he got lost in the woods, he was captured by and brought to the Upside Down. But guess what?
02:13:37
Speaker
fuck Kids play in the woods, okay? And none of us have had a walkthrough of Melvault's. Maybe there's a deli on the other side of the store. You know what I mean? like It's like, we don't know. Yeah. Like, who, what? Like, yeah, maybe they sell milkshakes, man. Who knows if they sell milkshakes? right You're right. You're right. But this is the thing.
02:13:58
Speaker
I'm thinking from a writer's point of view, if that's true, which it very well might be, why would they put that in? That's a weird thing to put in the monologue otherwise. yeah Why would they put that in there? it It serves a purpose, is my point. It serves a purpose that they put that strange sort of out-of-place dialogue in there.
02:14:17
Speaker
So wait a second. I'm just having an epiphany right now. You're coming at this like the Duffer brothers are smart, not they're just leaving these gaps in the story. Like they did this all specifically. Yes, of course. Oh, I thought this was all like, oh, like this is all plot holes and they didn't write the last season well. No, no, no, no.
02:14:37
Speaker
These are all intentional. Well, most of them at least. Like I said, some of them are a stretch and we're reaching here. Okay. Most of these I believe are fully intentional. Now I don't know what purpose that serves, whether it's for ah pre a new episode of an actual finale or just to make the viewer think a little bit harder about what's actually going on in the finale. But I 100% believe that they were put in there purposely and they serve...
02:15:03
Speaker
um a purpose but um also the other thing about will i didn't put it in here but i forget which point but joyce is asking him like hey don't you want to put a coat on he's like no no i'm fine like he says it multiple times well the mind flayer likes it cold is this Is this the new evidence that you didn't reveal earlier?
02:15:25
Speaker
ah No. Oh, shit. But again, that's another point. It can easily be explained away just as... filler dialogue, but why would they specifically say that? That's a weird thing to say if it serves no purpose. Like why would we care if Will is wearing a jacket or not? Why would that take up five, 10 seconds of dialogue?
02:15:47
Speaker
Because it's proving the point that Joyce is, ah is being an over-worried mom, which she is the whole first three quarters of the season. But in Tyler's defense though, right? The mind flayer likes it cold. We know this from season two.
02:16:02
Speaker
Right. And we also never see Will expel any more Mind Flayer particles out of him like everybody else, even though he was definitely still connected to the Hive Mind.
02:16:12
Speaker
so True. That's true. You're kind of proving my point here, bud. I'd like to surprise you. So where okay where did this come from?
02:16:23
Speaker
Where did Conformity Gate even... When did that even come about? Yeah. I don't know. just really got into it like starting yesterday, but I found it has been building since about three days ago.
02:16:35
Speaker
Yeah. through Three, four, dot three, four days ago, people started connecting these dots. Yeah. has been just an avalanche. So if this ends up being real, what, where, where does this go? Like, what would, what would happen? I mean, obviously we don't know exactly what would happen if it is true, but like, what do you guys think would happen in this case?
02:17:00
Speaker
Well, I don't know. i'm I think at the most, if any of this is intentional, it's the same reason that they have made the ambiguous ending with Eleven. They just want people to be thinking about their show.
02:17:13
Speaker
And I don't disagree with that. That's my whole point is that these are weird and they are intentional. They're not things that are just, most of them are not things that are just happenstance or coincidences. They are too intentional to be coincidences. What purpose they serve, I don't know, but they were put in there for reason.
02:17:34
Speaker
to that point, I was always looking at this from the lens of like, people were just trying to hate on the finale and say that the Duffer brothers were like incomplete in their writing effort or like, like the, everybody keeps saying the word plot holes, which really bugs me. Yeah. they don't know what means yeah And it's like these, the, the plot was very clearly solved, you know? But if, if this is like, these were ambiguous subtlety things that they did on purpose, um,
02:18:04
Speaker
to create this vein of speculation alongside the vein of speculation for l then i i enjoy this significantly more yeah i think people are just i think people are just like i think it's people that are pissed off about how it ended like i think they're just trying to cope with it and they're trying to look forward to something that might not happen yeah so mean don't the The theory ranges. I'm 100% bought into this theory, but the range goes from these are a few Easter eggs to make the viewer think a little bit harder about the finale all the way to, oh my God, this is a fake ending.
02:18:48
Speaker
There's a new episode tomorrow. Whatever. Those are like the two extremes. But absolutely, at the very least, I don't see how people don't see these and are like, they definitely tossed us some Easter eggs in here to make this fun. I get on board with that maybe for for maybe a handful of the things you've said.
02:19:07
Speaker
Okay. Well, I'm not done. So let's Okay. yeah Yes. Let's go, baby. Keep them rolling. Try not to fall asleep on me. um Robin says in her radio monologue, 18 months later, she says, this is not the Hawkins that she remembers and it feels different.
02:19:25
Speaker
Again, strange i strange dialogue to put. Why would Hawkins feel that different? It's only been 18 months. Because it is completely different from...
02:19:38
Speaker
Prior from everything that happened.
Finale Symbolism and Theories
02:19:40
Speaker
i don't know. That was that. Yeah, but she was she was only in she's older. She had only been on in on this whole thing. What? Two years, three years at that point. Like she remembers what Hawkins was like. Yeah.
02:19:52
Speaker
i don't know. Again, could be nothing, but I feel like it's something. um We have a little bit of symbolism here. Mike walking through the door at the end seems very similar to the way the Truman Show ends, where they walk he walks up the stairs and like the door closes. I feel like that could be some symbolism. um Have you guys seen the Truman Show? It's been many years for me.
02:20:14
Speaker
This is another one that got a fur maybe from me right out of the gate. There's a lot of Truman Show callbacks throughout the whole series, or season rather. Mm-hmm. Okay, so my last three points are things that point to an episode being released tomorrow. So before I get to those, Scott, do you have any more um just general ones related to Conformity Gate?
02:20:37
Speaker
I should have written down what I was responding to. I only wrote down my responses, but a couple of them, like Vicky isn't in anything beyond that, beyond like the you know effectively the scene where they open up the basement door. And I wrote down, she's a hoe and ratted them out. so you know Robin realized that she couldn't handle the real shit because obviously she couldn't. She was freaking out the whole time and and the overbearing. you know so she They just broke up and are gone.
02:21:04
Speaker
That's what I got out of that too. The conformity gate theory is Vicky is not anywhere there because Henry never knew her. He doesn't even know who she is. but yeah i think ah Robin makes some sort of comment like here's to overbearing exes or something like that. I think they just broke up.
02:21:25
Speaker
So another one, another big one that I had was like the the whole like Vecna lives in the promotional material. And it's like, yeah, at the end of season four, we didn't know if Vecna was dead or not. Like he did live. He was alive in season five. That's a stretch to me. ah The whole searching last episode, fake ending on Netflix. If you type almost anything into Netflix that doesn't bring up another title and hit enter, Stranger Things pops up right now.
02:21:49
Speaker
if they're They're just, they're pushing the show. like it So like I don't... I don't buy into that. The whole, like, there's no number behind the final episode, the graphic, right? Because in season two, three, and four, they would say Stranger Things.
02:22:02
Speaker
Like, yeah there wasn't one in the first episode. There wasn't one in the last episode. You know, like, yeah. So, there, I think that there are In every maybe that I have written down, if we're looking at this from the lens that it's the genius of the writing of the show to plant that seed in your mind as an alternative thing to think about, I like this way more than from the lens of like they messed the finale up, which is the way that I originally was taking Conformity Gate. ah My evolution has happened live. I mean, those are really just the two. Doing it live.
02:22:35
Speaker
You either believe in conformity gate or you believe that the Duffers are kind of crappy writers. I mean, those are the two choices here because these are real things that are being pointed out.
02:22:47
Speaker
Yeah. and i I mean, I love the idea of of, I just think if that was their intention, they would have made it more clear, but maybe not. Who knows? I'm not them participating. Don't anticipate.
02:23:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't I feel like I mean, if anything, if this is hinting at anything, I feel like it might be hinting at the spinoff that apparently is in the works, not the animated show, the other spinoff that they're talking about, um where apparently they're going. I mean, I don't know how true this is, but I think they they said that they're going into the the briefcase and that piece of the mind flayer. Yeah.
02:23:24
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. If that were the case, then that'd be pretty cool because obviously we're getting more, you know, more of Henry's story or at least where that comes into play in that world. But yeah. 100%. And in that is exactly what the spinoff is about. Hold on once. Well, yeah.
02:23:42
Speaker
Yeah. That is what the spinoff is about. it It could be that they're doing all these things just to, you know, psych, you know, people out for, the future of, of this world since it's not a hundred percent done. All right. I'm in the, I'm almost done here. Let me roll through these.
02:24:01
Speaker
So like I said, the extreme of the theory is that the real finale will be released tomorrow, January 7th. And there are multiple reasons to believe this and they're pretty compelling. I don't know if I believe them, but let me go through them. yeah,
02:24:16
Speaker
They rolled a seven, right? At the end, in season one, seven meant that you lost. Will rolls a seven. He's like, the Demogorgon got me. It then took Will seven days to be found from the upside down.
02:24:29
Speaker
January 7th is seven days after the finale aired. Okay. Maybe. Sure. Whatever. So moving In the credits next to the Stranger Things manual playbook. I did see that one. Yeah.
02:24:44
Speaker
The dice is sitting on seven. Yeah. You know, when it at the end of the like cartoonish style credit roll. Right. Mm-hmm. um Okay, so the official Stranger Things account posted, TikTok account, posted a video with Mr. Clark, the science teacher today.
02:25:05
Speaker
just sort of promoting the finale, whatever. But in the background, you can see an analog clock. it The time is exactly 1.07. Exactly. And it is very, very clear to see. You cannot tell me that that's a coincidence. There's something going on there. Taylor Swift really did her work. Let me tell you. like what is like When I heard that, I'm like okay, come on now. that Yes. Okay, maybe. Yes, yes. But why would it be 1.07? Yeah.
02:25:32
Speaker
Okay, moving on, moving on. That's one of the strongest things. I mean, that was released today, and it's very plainly obvious that it was at 1.07 on the clock. that That part was like, oh, shit.
02:25:44
Speaker
They posted a video I wrote five hours ago. It's probably more like seven hours at this point, though, of the behind-the-scenes thing, which, by the way, we didn't talk There's a behind-the-scenes thing being released on the 12th of the making of Season 5. Did you guys see that?
02:26:00
Speaker
Yeah, i did see that. I did. I'm excited for that. But it was like a promo for that. It showed a clip of that. Exactly one minute and seven seconds long. And at the end of that video, Dustin says, tomorrow we will do it again.
02:26:16
Speaker
This is also true. Like, could these all be queen coincidences? Yes. But that is too many coincidences in my think everything that they're doing today is just trolling. It could be trolling. It could be trolling. But they have some sort of... My entire point of all of this is that these have been done intentionally. Whether it's to troll, whether it's to promote a spinoff, whether it's to just...
02:26:41
Speaker
give the viewer a different perspective of the finale. I don't know, but my entire focus on the show for another week or two. Yeah. Yeah. It's done intentionally. That's my entire point of all of this.
02:26:54
Speaker
I 100% agree with that. Yeah. Lastly, Noah Schnapp posted a tick tock. um I lost it now, but he posted it today and it says like, ah hold on. Actually, i got to find it Tell you what it was.
02:27:13
Speaker
Also, side note, i Matt and Ross Duffer did an hour-long interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, which is where a lot of this stuff came from, was from their responses on that podcast. ah it's ah It's a great lesson i listen. I listened to it. Didn't they make a statement that there was like one more thing that they can't tell us yet or something like that? 100% they did.
02:27:34
Speaker
yeah And and matt started to talk about it or yeah Matt started to talk about it, and Ross was ross literally put the brakes on him like Like live on the podcast. Like, whoa, we like Netflix is going to do that. that part is very intriguing to me.
02:27:50
Speaker
But also in that podcast, they confirmed that Elle can't use her powers. So take that for what you will. She's dead. You're dead.
02:28:03
Speaker
All right. um And then Noah Schnapp posted eight hours ago on his TikTok account, I believe to be his TikTok account. It's got him and a girl dancing. They've posted. it is a new account, but they posted well before the finale.
02:28:17
Speaker
um He said, this one's close to my heart. See you January 7th at 7 p.m. EST. Could very well be an interview that he was in that's airing or something.
02:28:28
Speaker
But i don't know. That's something. He could just be trolling us. I don't know. So what's great about this too, is that Tyler and I are talking about this for like two hours back and forth via text earlier. And then I i open up Instagram and I go to reels and there's a reel that they released on like November 25th of Dustin or of Lucas putting a tape in the cassette player and hitting play. And it says tomorrow in the play buttons backwards on the cassette. And like the cassette gets flipped over as he's putting it in. And I was like,
02:29:00
Speaker
oh my God, this is all real. And then I looked at the date and it was like, this is posted on November 25th or something like that. But I put in the comments, I tagged Netflix, like you need to repost this today for the plot. Like do it please troll the world.
02:29:18
Speaker
Anyways, that's all I have. It really only scratches the surface, honestly, of stuff I've seen. um I'm not saying there's going to be anything else. I just think these things were intentionally added in.
02:29:30
Speaker
for whatever reason, but they are there and they are not coincidences. Sorry to go full Joyce Byers on you guys for 30 minutes. That's like the only, that's like the only time you'll hear me be a conspiracy theorist, but yeah.
02:29:43
Speaker
No, I love it. Earlier I was like, you, cause you know, embarrassing moment here for me, but I'm, was like, you sound like Nancy Wheeler in the spinoff audio book that I'm listening to right now. And he was like, I'm more like Joyce in season one about to hang lights up on my walls. That made me laugh out loud when I read it. like I love it.
02:30:02
Speaker
absolutely I think, I think, okay. I do think that we're going to get more like stranger things. Yeah. like so like things. I don't know. like i I just don't know if it's coming tomorrow. I feel like if anything, maybe they'll announce something at the end of the documentary that's coming out on the 12th.
02:30:24
Speaker
Like, if anything, I don't think anything, I feel like I really can't see it. You know, that's also a significant number. 12 kids, 12 hands on the clock. 12 was, there's a lot of 12, you know, yeah what's after 11, 12. I feel like it's, I don't know. i feel like if anything, we're going to get something from that documentary, like at the end of the documentary, if anything.
02:30:45
Speaker
um But tomorrow, like, I don't know. I, I am not sure. We'll We'll see. By the time everybody listens, we'll know. God, I mean, we might know by the time this episode is done being recorded. Yeah. Hey, maybe, maybe.
02:31:06
Speaker
All we have a couple of questions. I'm not too many, but but we have real quick. real quick Yeah. We're going to We're going to get through them pretty quickly. We're at what? Two and a half hours now.
02:31:19
Speaker
All right. So Carl wants to know what the hell happened to Linda Hamilton. we don't know. Yeah. We have no idea. they that i'm not gonna even read the rest of it but yeah yeah we don't know what happened to the military they disappeared yeah that that whole storyline there was just no there was no major purpose to them i feel like they brought they wanted to bring you know they wanted to bring her in she's sarah connor right sarah connor from terminator yep yeah sarah connor It was just a cool nod, sci-fi nod. i don't think there was much to the character overall. I think they just wanted to bring her onto the cast for the final season. I don't think there was much to it.
02:31:57
Speaker
yeah so If Elle was using her powers, she should have ripped her into the upside down right before the portal collapsed. That would have been sick. Exactly. Yeah, we should have. We should have gotten that, but...
02:32:08
Speaker
Whatever. Brayden wants to know, what are your opinions on the recently announced spinoff? And I'm talking about the not I'm not talking about the bizarro animated show that's coming out soon. um I don't know much about it. My general opinion on spinoffs is they take things further than they need to. Just if it ends on a good note, just leave it on a good note. We don't need all these spinoffs and everything.
02:32:33
Speaker
yeah i mean i'm i'm liking that you know the times that they've shown the duffer brothers talking about it they they're very they keep mentioning that it's very separate to the world that we have currently on stranger things so i like that um i feel like we're done with stranger things it's you know they did what they did and that's it but um yeah i don't yeah i'm excited i mean i'm i'm Intrigued.
02:32:59
Speaker
I think that these guys have pinned a very specific style of storytelling that will carry weight across to different plot lines and characters. So like when you hear them say that it it will be Stranger Things adjacent, it will feel like Stranger Things, but it won't be Stranger Things. I'm excited to see what they do.
02:33:15
Speaker
they've learneded They've earned my anticipation for whatever they decide to do next. that's the way that I look at it. I don't think we're going to get like an MCU or a star Wars universe out of stranger things because there's, there's not multiple planets. I would prefer it that way too.
02:33:31
Speaker
Yeah. But I do think that we'll get additional stranger things stories. You know what I mean? Like, hopefully better done than like, you know, the fantastic beast stuff to call it. Yeah. A hundred percent.
02:33:45
Speaker
hundred percent. All right. Um, Emma wants to know, I've only seen the first season. Is it worth it? If you didn't watch past season one, i don't think it's worth it for you. I feel like season one is a great season.
02:33:58
Speaker
If you didn't want to continue after that, I don't think you're going to get into the rest of it. Maybe you will. I mean, I feel like season four is quite the shift. um I feel like we we go we dive a little more into horror after ah you know at that point.
02:34:14
Speaker
um But I don't i don't know. Maybe you'll like it after season four, but you'd have to watch everything leading up to it. All-time comment from Kelly going into season four was her only comments were season four gets darker.
02:34:27
Speaker
And then... it's like Yeah, yes, it gets just a little darker. Yeah. 100%. But yeah, I don't think, I don't know. Emma, if you didn't like it, you know if you didn't like season one, then I don't see you liking the rest of it. So give it a watch. We love it. But I don't i don't know if you couldn't go past. Yes, it's worth it.
02:34:49
Speaker
We're doing an entire three-hour podcast on it. So. i think She might not have to watch it at this point. I don't think she listens to our podcast anyway. So if you listen to this, Emma, let us know. But if anybody listens this far into it, honestly, I'd be surprised. i see and This is MZ's Emma, not UK Emma.
02:35:09
Speaker
Oh, okay. Gotcha. That makes more sense then.
02:35:14
Speaker
Well, sorry, Emma. I thought you were different, Emma.
02:35:18
Speaker
um okay dex said how did derek fit through that tiny hole that's rude he is delightful um ethan what's your favorite song on the entire stranger thing soundtrack um should i stay or should i go that's probably my favorite one mine was when they did the promotional material for four and they used the journey separate ways separate ways yeah so good yep that's what i was gonna say that one that is a bit i'm running up the hill i know it's overdone but it is it's so good it's so good and it didn't bother me hearing it in season five again they the use of it is great but yeah i think i'd go with the um with the journey the journey song
02:36:05
Speaker
So this is just a funny tidbit. Like three or four years ago, when I'm like playing Xbox Live with my buddies, we're all singing, running up that hill, and I had no idea why. i was just like, these guys are really into this song. No clue. that Until I watched season four. No that' no joke.
02:36:21
Speaker
that we talked about it that night. I was like, I got online specifically to be like, how did you guys not tell me about this? return right So Meredith would like to know, did you like the happy ending? If you had to kill any of the main cast in the final episode, who would you have chosen?
02:36:38
Speaker
Yeah, we kind of already answered that, I think. Yeah. My answer, i think, was Mary. Yeah. Oh, I mean, out of the main, I mean, okay, I was happy with the ending. liked the happy ending. um If I were to kill anybody off from the main cast, I feel like it would have been... Hopper. Annoying.
02:36:56
Speaker
um I feel like, I mean, it wouldn't have done much to the rest of the story, but I feel like they would have stuck to that Hopper and Hopper killing Elle thing, that would have been pretty insane. would have been...
02:37:10
Speaker
Diabolical. Just for the shock value, I would have liked that, but... Let's be real. i' I'm glad they didn't kill anybody off. so i'm still I'm still upset with Joyce for not at least going to look over the edge and at the end of season three. like That's my biggest quote-unquote plot hole ever. like Oh, you're just going to assume homeboy is vaporized and gone?
02:37:34
Speaker
You're not even going to go look? he's He's literally six feet below the platform he was just standing on, and he ends up in a Russian prison because of your lack of thoughtfulness.
02:37:47
Speaker
All right. So Fitz was next, right? Yeah. What is your ranking of the five seasons? I can go. Yeah, you can go. i need to write it down. Okay. um From best to worst?
02:38:00
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Four, one, five, three, two. The middle kind of blends in a little bit for me, but I'm going to go one, three,
02:38:15
Speaker
Two, three, five. Yeah, I think that's right. um Do you want to go, Scott? You want me to go? No, no, go ahead. Go ahead. All right, so number one, I have season four.
02:38:27
Speaker
Two, I have three. Three, I have one. Four, I have two. And five, I have five. okay Okay. I have four, five, three, two, one.
02:38:41
Speaker
Five up there. Okay. Number one, the worst season? I mean, when I say worst, that's like really, really relative because I don't think any of them were bad. Yeah, nothing is the I loved every single one of them.
02:38:54
Speaker
I... the the four and five thing is purely related to the Lumax in those scenes. Like that, that just hurt her, you know, yeah falling into the coma, coming out of the coma that, that elevates those two seasons to me. And then the whole scene with Max and, and L in the mall, you know, it's just, an that's, that is the most feel good TV show episode. You know, I dump your ass, like all that stuff. it's yeah awesome If that doesn't make you just laugh like a little kid, like, you know, like whatever.
02:39:25
Speaker
You're not my kind of people. I don't know what else to say. I feel like the vibes in season three were really fun. I think that's why i have it so. I love the vibes in three. Yeah, the the vibes in three just took me right back to like, you're going like that that gap between like eighth grade and in high school and maybe you've kissed a girl for the first. Everything about it is just incredible. Like they captured that emotion and the mall, you know, love them all.
02:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, that was fun. All right. So that was almost three hours of stranger things. um Yeah, that was a lot. Obviously we will ask, i I would like to know Joey's thoughts on the
Closing Remarks and Social Media Call-to-Action
02:40:08
Speaker
season. So maybe we'll ask him on the next episode just to give us a quick little review of his thoughts about that finale, at least.
02:40:16
Speaker
um But of course, make sure you guys follow us um on Instagram. X, even though we don't really use X, but go ahead and follow us on both of those. And we should be back soon, pretty soon. um This was just a little bonus episode just to cover stranger things. But next week we'll be back with some regular thrills, chills and spills stuff. So, so yeah, anything you guys want to add before we say goodbye?
02:40:47
Speaker
Just ah tweet us, tag us on Instagram, whatever your thoughts on episode nine, once you watch it. Oh my God. Get the fuck out.
02:40:59
Speaker
Get out. Okay. Bye. That's tea actually.