3x04 Chapter Four: The Sauna Test

Excellent episode and one of the best in the series. The story was engaging from beginning to end, with moments of tension, humor and action very good. I was very excited for what to come with this threat from the Mind Eater and this mysterious organization. This season promises to be one of the best in the series if not the best. First I wanted to talk about the script. My goodness, that script well written in this episode. The story has got stuck and you get tense to see what will happen. The characters are very good (except for Jonathan) and everyone has their moment to shine. Eeleven then has the best scene of the episode along with Billy. Beautiful work by the screenwriter who raised the standard of the third episode that was already great for the one that is perfect. The direction is again by the competent Shawn Levy, who directed the third episode. I'm even finding his direction better than the Duffer brothers in the first two episodes. Eele can carry the story with a lot of tension by chanting the character scenes for another character without losing the momentum. This is well framed with tension, emotion and humor. A perfect direction. The visuals continue to improve and this episode presented the best visual scenes of the series so far. This evolution of photography is drawing my attention and the director deserves the congratulations. And allied with the special effects of primiera, it makes experience in a wonderful thing. The creatures and action scenes look great in the episode because of the excellent visuals. The soundtrack is also another spectacle apart. Seriously, whoever is composing the soundtrack deserves an Emmy nomination. An exquisite work that still helps give a tense atmosphere and a very serious tone when needed. Already the characters and their plots are too much. Finally Mike, Eleven, Lucas, Max and Will teamed up. The actors are great and they manage to get through every dramatic charge needed for characters. Beyond the chemistry between them. Their battle with Billy possessed was fantastic, leaving me out of breath. Already Winona and Habour are very well in the plot of their characters. Now they are on the trail of this mysterious organization and the two work very well together. Already Steve, Dustin and Robin tilted a hilarious addition with Erica, who was the one who had the most good humor in this episode. This nucleus is very cool and I'm saying that together with the group of Eeleven are the best things of this season. Already Nancy had a nice bow and well defended by Natalia. Her scene with her mother advising her was exciting. I think it's just Jonathan who was a bum in this episode and no function at all. Anyway, one of the best episodes in the series and I can not wait for what awaits me in the future. 10/10.

[7.7/10] That’s more like it! We get answers, disparate groups coming together, and some real developments on these fronts, with a minimal amount of the unavailing interpersonal stuff that the show’s been bad at this season for some reason.

It’s nice to have the kids back together as a crew (minus Dustin, of course). It feels weird to say for a show only in its third season, but it feels like some classic Stranger Things adventuring. Will’s realization that the sensation int eh back of his neck is a sing that the mindflayer is back and possessing people once more kicks off a strong plot for the episode. It’s cause for the boys to call a “code red” and combine their intel with the girls’ suspicion of Billy.

It leads to some good strategizing and good interpersonal work here. For one thing, the confrontation with Billy is one of the most frightening and harrowing in the show’s young history. The trick to lure him into the sauna is clever and makes sense as a way to detect whether he’s been activated. The psychic stand-off between him and Eleven is legitimately frightening given that he’s able to resist in a way no one has before. And throwing him through a damn wall, before a bloodbender style lift shows the force both sides are working with here.

More than that, there’s a personal edge to this. Elevena nd Mike are on the outs (for dumb reasons), but it almost feels worth it when Mike steps into fight am monster because the young women he cares for is threatened, and she more than returns the favor when Mike gets Billy’s ire for his troubles. Their falling into one another’s arms after all of this is cathartic as all hell.

Likewise, there’s an unexpected sympathy from Max toward her stepbrother here, where she really hopes it isn’t him. And against all odds, you feel for Billy here, as he gives a Leland Palmer like performance of someone compelled to do terrible things by an unseen and unbidden malevolent force. It’s easily the best set piece and bit of storytelling in the season so far.

But the bit with Dustin, Steve, Robin, and new joinee Erica (Lucas’s little sister) is almost as good! Theirs veers more toward comedy, especially with the three of them negotiating with Eric to crawl through the vents as part of “Operation Child Endangerment.” But the kids still come up with a good solution to their “secret room protected by an armed guard” problem, and there’s plenty of intrigue to them finding some crazy test sample and being shunted down to (presumably) a hidden bunker underneath the mall.

That said, the other two stories, focusing on the more adult characters, aren’t nearly as good. Suddenly, Hopper is freaking Jack Bauer, torturing the mayor for information and dragging him across the town, with Joyce as his accomplice. It’s nice that both of them get their moment of good detective work (Hopper remembering the Russian biker and Joyce figuring out the map), but it just feels like they’ve totally changed Hopper’s character. What’s more, Mayor Kline is such a cartoony scumbag politician that little involving him lands.

Likewise, Nancy and Jonathan’s stuff continues to be the pits. The editor-in-chief (who’s Heather’s dad and now possessed by the mindflayer) fires both of them, leading to a “You don’t know what it’s like being poor,” “You don’t know what it’s like being a woman” fight between them that’s poorly written. Likewise, the show tries to go for a touching moment between Nancy and her mom with maternal encouragement to keep fighting for the story, with the subtext that Mrs. Wheeler regrets not fighting and settling into what people told her she couldn’t do. But it too has weak dialogue within a relationship that’s never felt particularly built out.

Still, we get answers in this episode, which helps! We know that on the one hand, the mindflayer is building an army of pod people, and having minions like Billy and Heather “activate” and bring it more when it needs to. We also get confirmation that the Russians are experimenting underneath Hawkins, that those experiments are the cause of the black out/demagnetism earlier in the season, and that they’re looking to expand. Those are all answers that build naturally on what we’ve seen before, which helps.

Overall, the adult stories in this one continue to be weaker, but the kid-focused stories have the show pitching its fast ball, and giving us some real answers that up the stakes for the major threats of the season.