'Stranger Things' Recap - 'Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street'

Written by Scott Edwards

​THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Things in the town of Hawkins may never be the same again. With Will Byers going missing, the entire town is out looking for the young man, but still have nothing to show for it. While following his latest lead, Chief Hopper gets a call to check out what happened at Benny’s Diner. Seeing his friend has committed suicide, Hopper is able to get a witness to come down to the station to see if Benny had been acting strange over the past week. With no signs of strangeness from Benny, the witness did see a little boy trying to steal from Benny, but was kind of certain that it was not the Byers kid.  With a new place to search, Hopper and his gang of volunteers are on the hunt once again.

Joyce is beside herself and needs time to try and find her son. When getting a strange phone call and only hearing breathing on the other side, she knows that it was Will, but nobody is willing to believe her. With the receiver being zapped out on the old phone, Joyce is forced to go back into town and get a new one, along with enough money to make ends meet until she finds her son. Keeping the phone near her, Joyce gets another call with breathing on the other end, but this time Will is actually able to come through and call for his mom. With the receiver zapped out again, the lights around the house start to act up and the stereo in Will’s room kicks on. With nobody there, Joyce believes that it her boy, but is in for a surprise...since someone else is in there with her.
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While his mother is having problems, Jonathan is doing what he can to find his little brother. Stopping by the school and putting up a missing poster, he is approached by Nancy and offered an apology. Not saying much, Jonathan goes on with his day and to his next stop, his father’s home. Confronting his dad, Jonathan does not believe that Will is there, but is left with something to think about. As his father would love to see his boys, the boys have been trained to hate him, but it might not be his fault for the break up. I can see this getting brought up in the next episode, since there is talk about Hopper and Joyce having a little relationship.

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After finding the little girl in the woods, Mike, Lucas and Dustin have to decide what to do with her. As it is too late already and they would get in trouble if their parents knew they were out looking for Will, Mike makes up a little fort for her to stay in. With a plan to get the parents involved in the morning, everything goes well, but when Mike tries to convince his new friend Eleven that it will be ok, she shows him what she knows of the adults. With bad people after her, she cannot have her whereabouts known, or else she will be going back to the lab that she is happy to have escaped from. As Mike plays hooky from school, he shows ‘El’ all of the stuff around the house, but when she sees a picture of Will, she has an idea about what has happened to the missing boy. When Lucas and Dustin come back to the house after school, they are not happy with Mike’s idea about keeping the girl, but when they see that she can move things with her mind, they may not have a choice. 
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Still not a big fan of this storyline, but it actually produced something. Nancy gets invited to Steve’s house while his parents are out of town. Being able to go out after dark, Nancy gets her friend Barbara to go with her. Seeing that her friend is not acting like herself, Barbara needs to keep an eye on Nancy to make sure she does not fall under Steve’s naughty spell and gives it up before she wants to. But Barbara is sent away as Nancy will do what she wants and does not need a mother figure around her. So Barbara sits at the pool and waits for Nancy to finish up to give her a ride, but the cut Barbara got earlier is still seeping and a drop of it in the pool has excited something from the shadows, maybe the same something that took Will.

Okay, I am hooked. I need to know what the heck this creature is that is lurking in the woods and what it is doing with its victims. I like the investigation work in this episode, as no stone will be left unturned in the search for Will, and while the police have their lead, the boys have one of their own if they can get Eleven to talk. Eleven is like a child that is soaking in everything around her, being able to use the words that she hears, it is refreshing when she asks for a meaning behind it, you never see that in a show or movie. I am still waiting to find out what Dr. Brenner and his team have released on the town, as you can see that Eleven is able to move things with her mind, the ‘boy’ that was released must be much worse.  I don’t even know what I want to see next as there is something in Joyce’s house, Eleven might be able to form a complete sentence, Barbara being taken by the beast?  They are all there, I need to make it through this fast, the anticipation is killing me.

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