'Stranger Things' Recap - 'Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly'

​Written by Scott Edwards

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

As the party comes to a close at Steve’s house, Nancy is already starting to regret her decision about giving it up. Looking briefly for her friend Barb, she returns home to be grilled about what she was doing by her mom. Although she will not admit to what she has done, her mother knows that there is something up with her children and needs to find a way to make them open up.  After school, Nancy sees Steve and his friends picking on Jonathan about his stalking problem and even though she does not believe it, she sees a picture of Barb sitting on the diving board at the pool and now she is starting to fear for the worst. 
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Joyce has found a way to talk with her missing son and it seems to be working out well. As Will is able to control the lights in the house, Joyce stocks up on Christmas lights to track his movements through the house. When she needs more answers than just yes and no however, she paints the alphabet on the wall and allows her son to spell everything out for her. When Will tells his mother that he is in the house with her, she gets the next disturbing message to 'RUN' as the creature from the other side is on the hunt once again. With a plan in place to find Will, the boys head off to school and leave Eleven in the house by herself once more. With nobody home, Eleven investigates the place, but all it does is bring back the memories that she has been trying to escape. With her training fresh in her mind, she sees Papa, (Dr. Brenner’s) face all too often and wants to forget everything about what she has been taught. Meeting the boys after school, Eleven takes them to Will’s house, but the boys do not understand and want answers. They soon get them when a large group of sirens go driving by and they decide to follow them.

While conducting the hunt for Will, Chief Hopper has a thought that the boy might have crawled through the pipe leading to Hawkins' Lab. Being able to gain access to the off limits location, Hopper is able to review video footage from the night the boy went missing, but knows that he is being lied to about it. Thinking that Will might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, Hopper hits up the library to find any new articles about the lab and what might actually be going on there. With plenty of stories to filter through, anything to do with Dr. Brenner rises to the top of the file. Knowing that the doctor is behind some sort of cover-up, Hopper is ready to take his next steps in finding out what happened to the boy, but he gets another call, the one he did not want to get.

Karen Wheeler is losing control of her kids and does not seem to have a way to fight it. Wanting them to tell her anything, they are still keeping secrets from her and it is getting worse. Going to visit Joyce and seeing that her friend is losing her mind, Karen decides to stay and cook lunch with the grieving mother. As the two older women sit and talk, the baby Holly sees the lights turning on and off and decides to follow them. Being taken to Will’s room, she sees what Joyce had seen, a body trying to come out of the wall and grab the living.  Being sent away, Karen believes that her friend has lost her mind, but still cannot understand what is happening in her own home.

Without as much action in this episode, you do have plenty of scenes that are starting to tell the story, along with revealing the creature that is hunting people around town. With the loss of Barb, I am sure that Nancy will have to come clean to her mother and the police about what happened the previous night with Steve, and that will break her heart. Jonathan is trying his hardest to keep his mother sane, but she is more dependent on talking to the lights than actually finding Will. Developing his photos, Jonathan seems to have eyes for Nancy and when it is revealed, he is met with Steve and his friends that break his camera. Even though he has more photos than just the party night, he will not be able to take anymore. I like that you find out a bit more about Hopper as his investigation tactics are sound and he can tell when he is being lied to. He is also a bit of a player around town, being able to get with almost any woman that crosses his path. It is a depressing ending as Will’s body has been located in the quarry, but there is something still keeping his spirit alive and at the house to talk to his mother, I cannot wait to see what that is. On to the next one!

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