Cold Open:  Hop is at Joyce’s home and she is acting way crazy and the decor doesn’t help her case for her sanity.  She explains that Will must be alive because she talks to him through the Christmas lights – as one does.  He explains that when his daughter died, he saw her everywhere and she will go crazy if she keeps this up.

Mike’s House:  Mike’s pissed at El.  El is playing with the Walkie Talkie and doesn’t understand his outrage.  He yells at her, making her focus even more.  She hones in on Will’s frequency in the shadow world with her mojo and he is singing The Clash. She nose bleeds. Good call back!  Mike calls Lucas and explains that Will is alive.

Roll Credits

Mike gets the guys together and convinces them that Will is alive and El can communicate with him.

Hop talks to Creeper as the State medical examiner is showing Joyce her dead son.  She storms out convinced that the body is not Will’s.

High School:  Steve is concerned that Nancy will reveal that he was drinking.  Nancy acts all high and mighty chastening Steve for being self-centered.  Word, Nancy?! Really?! WORD?! WORD?! The Hypocrisy Gods all just had a collective stroke! WTF???!!!  Nancy storms off (we hope that she will look up the words Hypocrisy and Frenemy!)

Creeper argues with his mom in public.  She screams that she saw a monster without a face and that Will is still alive.

The boys decide to dress up El up like a girl to infiltrate the school’s AV Club tech room because the transmitter is stronger.  This has created a number of E.T. comparisons, but honestly, so they put her in a dress?!  Big Whoop!  Mike says that she is pretty.  This leads to a very sad moment when El looks into the mirror.  She sees the girl, the normal girl, that she could’ve been, if not for Evil Modine.  Evil Modine better hope he never crosses paths with El again.

Evil Modine’s Government Facility:  They send a tethered Red Shirt into the evil membrane to explore the shadow world.

High School:  Nancy is being questioned by the deputies.  They treat her like the bad friend that she is.  We learn that Barb’s car is gone.

Hop is interviewing his local medical examiner and learns that the State Police took over the autopsy and it was all kinds of fishy.

The boys nearly secret El into the AV Club to do her mojo and communicate with Will, but they are stopped by Mr. Clark.  He insists that they all attend the assembly and then the AV Club is theirs to use.

Nancy gets home and Karen disappoints me as well.  Karen is mostly concerned with her daughter’s promiscuity and not the disappearance of Barb – Nancy’s purported best friend.  Apparently, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the bob. Maybe, Nancy’s sociopathic selfishness was learned behavior.  Karen, you’re in a timeout!  Nancy storms upstairs and looks at Creeper’s photo of Barb and notices the Monster in the side of the photo.

Evil Modine’s Government Facility:  Evil Modine is able to communicate with the Red Shirt.  Red Shirt is a term of art from Star Trek TOS. When a person in a Red Shirt was sent to investigate something, the result was a dead Red Shirt.  Red Shirt exclaims that he is not alone.  The tether jerks wildly, they attempted to pull the Red Shirt back, but all that is retrieved is a bloodied harness. Yeech.

High school:  The bullies are joking and laughing about Will.  Mike confronts the World’s Shortest Bully (WSB) and, when he turns, Mike shoves him.  The WSB attempts to attack Mike, but is frozen in place by El who also makes him urinate on himself.  Then, a teacher appears and breaks up the altercation.  I guess since it was the 1980’s the teachers were all doing cocaine somewhere and were too busy to monitor a gymnasium full of students.  

Funeral Home:  Nancy is talking to Creeper.  She shows him the Monster figure and he can’t explain it.  He’s about to blow her off, but she mentions that she saw something in the woods.  Creeper asks if it didn’t have a face?  Nancy freezes.  They are starting to believe.

Hop is questioning a guy at a bar; the bar guy reveals that he was the one who found the Byers boy. Hop discerns that the man was lying to him because he claimed that quarry was owned by the government, but infact it was privately owned.  Outside, Hop lays a serious beat down on this bar guy who really spills the beans.  Bar guy reveals that he was told not to let people too close to the body.  There’s a 1980s creepy sedan in the background that Hop chases with his pistol drawn.  Hop realizes that he is firmly in the deepest of shit.

Meanwhile, at the coolest thing to ever happen in an AV Club Room anywhere … ever: El is honing in on Will.  She flashes back to when Evil Modine has her look at a picture of a man.  She thinks he wants her to kill him.  Not a big stretch to think that.  Evil Modine wants her to hone on him and have her repeat back what she hears.  We travel to a room where the man in the photo is saying a series of random words.  Back to El, she not only hones in on him, but broadcasts it on the PA system.  VERY COOL!  Evil Modine realizes that El is way beyond his understanding.

We return to the AV Club room.  They hear banging.  Will and his mom are talking through the wall.  Will goes to the tear that the monster created the night before.  Briefly, they can see each other and the boys and El can hear the communication.  Joyce hears the monster coming and she tells Will to run.  Then, BOOM – the equipment shorts out!  Joyce grabs a sledgehammer from her Shed and breaks a huge hole in her wall, but all she sees is the cold and all she hears is winter birdsong.

High school darkroom:  Creeper and Nancy are in the darkroom and he enlarges the portion of the photo of the monster.  While they are waiting for the enhancement to develop, he describes how he likes to observe people.  Creeper, please stop saying things like things like this.  It’s creeping me out.  It’s not really creeping Nancy out. I do not understand Nancy – AT ALL.   The picture develops and the Monster is in focus.  YIKES!

Hop goes to the morgue.  The State Trooper on guard is reading “Cujo” – AWESOME!  Hop is crossing the Rubicon! He punches out the Trooper, enters the morgue, and struggles with what must be done.  He takes Will’s body out and pauses and then, takes out his knife.  Hop must know if this is actually Will and he is throwing everything away to find the answer. His knife is above the deceased boy’s chest and he makes his incision. No blood.  He cuts deeper and finds- cotton.  It’s not Will.  Hop’s face says everything- WTF?!!!

Joyce’s house: Lonnie, the deadbeat dad, returns to Joyce.  They hug.

Hop walks up to the Evil Modine Government Facility with bolt cutters and breaks in!

Thank you for reading!!!  LIKE IT!!! I am also glad because technically I might be a Millennial.  I’m young again!