Stranger Things is back with a massive slice of 80s nostalgia and a new supernatural threat
to keep the residents of Hawkins on their toes.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and today I'm delving into the second season
of Netflix's critically-acclaimed sci-fi horror series to discuss the ending and some clues
about what it means for Season 3.
I'm also starting my Stranger Things giveaway, so, for your chance to win a Funko Pop of
your favourite Stranger Things character, just make sure you're a subscriber and leave
me a comment on this video with your thoughts about the show.
Spoiler alert, obviously I'm discussing the finale of season 2 plus other episodes from
the first two seasons of Stranger Things, so take care if you're not all caught up.
Remember back in season 1 when Mike asked Eleven to go to his school's annual dance,
the Snow Ball?
Well, at the end of season 2, around a year later in the show's storyline, the pair finally
made it there!
But this is Hawkins, Indiana and, Stranger Things is getting at least a third and fourth
season, so we know that things won't be "all happily ever after" for our AV Club friends.
And to prove just that, as the camera moves out of the school and into its parking lot,
it starts to rotate, taking us back to the Upside Down, and we see the Shadow Monster
looming over the school!
So, why is the Shadow Monster back at the very end?
I mean, didn't Eleven just close the interdimensional gateway and didn't Joyce just drive the thing
inhabiting Will's body out of him?
Well, yes, but that victory is just a temporary one as Stranger Things creators The Duffer
Brothers have specifically said that the Shadow Monster will carry over beyond season 2, becoming
a main villain of sorts for the series as a whole.
Let's look then at how our heroes defeated the extra-dimensional big bad this season
and how their actions leave things open for the monster's return in season 3.
Similar to season 1, the Season 2 finale finds Eleven battling the show's monster once more
to save her friends.
El's role this time is to close the interdimensional gateway, which is a cathartic experience for
her as she feels responsible for having opened it in the first place.
Obviously, closing the gate requires an incredible amount of exertion on El's part.
We already know that using her powers drains her, for example, she collapsed after taking
out the agents pursuing her and her friends at Hawkins Middle School last season.
Thankfully, her journey away from Hawkins to meet her mother this season also led her
to Kali, aka Eight, another young survivor of Dr Brenner's experiments, and she taught
El to control her powers by channelling her anger about events from her past.
Given El's treatment at the hands of Brenner, or Papa as she calls him, she certainly has
a lot to work with on that score.
Still, as she tries to close the gate, you can see the energy she summons as she even
levitates, and the physical toll on her is such that she bleeds from both nostrils.
But closing the gate isn't just about shutting down an actual portal to the Upside Down and
saving her friends.
So, what else does it mean?
Well, think back to when Kali tried to persuade El to stay with her so they could use their
gifts against all the people who'd hurt them.
In that moment, Kali used her powers on El to make her see an apparition of Dr Brenner
who told El that, 'You have to confront your pain.
You have a wound […], a terrible wound, and it's festering, and it will grow; spread;
and eventually, it will kill you.'
Figuratively speaking, then, the gate El closes is also the wound she has to repair in order
to heal herself of the emotional and physical pain she endured at Hawkins Lab and of the
guilt she feels for unintentionally and indirectly causing current events.
And like an especially bad wound, the gate and the surrounding area are red and angry-looking,
they pulsate, and something nasty seeps out.
But as soon as the gate or wound is closed, the scene is flooded with blue-tinged light,
a visual sign the characters have moved from danger and rage to calmness and healing.
However, that won't be the end for our chaos-causing creature as we see the outline of the Shadow
Monster behind the gate before El closes it, and that monstrous smoky tendril that reached
out to try and stop El from doing her job seemed to be forced back into the Upside Down
rather than destroyed.
Eleven does the heavy lifting, so to speak, in closing the portal, but the AV Club gang
are instrumental in clearing the path for her to reach the gate when, along with Max
and Steve, they enter the tunnels and set the main hub area on fire, drawing the demo-dogs
away.
Something interesting happens here though when Dustin gets sprayed by a huge flower-like
creature in the tunnels.
He's wearing a mask at the time but complains the spray goes in his mouth.
Something similar happened to Hopper in an earlier episode when he was sprayed and trapped
by the vines after breaking into the tunnels.
Both Dustin and Hopper seem healthy at the end of the season, but I wonder if there could
be an incubation period for an infection that may affect them next season.
When Will was recovered from the Upside Down in season 1, he had a huge tendril in his
mouth which presumably infected him with the slug he coughed up later.
I don't think either Dustin or Hopper will be affected in the same way as Will, but the
hive-mind monster already showed how it spreads itself and operates, and it's ominous that
at least two more characters have potentially been exposed its influence.
And let's not forget, there's always that demo-dog that Dustin and Steve put into the
fridge for safe-keeping.
Will, of course, plays a bigger role this season than last as he becomes a host body
for the Shadow Monster at the end of the third episode.
Mike believes Will has gained the power of truesight with the ability to see what the
Shadow Monster is planning.
Mike sees this as a way for the gang to spy on the evil entity; however, as we see later
in The Spy episode, it's the Shadow Monster who uses Will to spy on Hawkins' residents
and manipulate events, setting a trap for the soldiers in the tunnels.
The group eventually understands that what's inside Will is part of a hive mind, with the
Shadow Monster acting as the central brain, which Dustin likens to the Mind Flayer in
Dungeons and Dragons.
Mind Flayers are evil creatures with tentacle-like heads that feed on their victims and also
enslave others with telepathic mind-meld-type powers.
Mind flayers themselves are also guided by a central elder brain, which in Stranger Things
seems to be the Shadow Monster itself.
And Mind Flayers also reproduce via tadpoles that end up implanted into humanoid beings
where they feed on the subject's brain and eventually take its place.
In Stranger Things, Will coughed up the slug-like creature at the end of the first season and
the way he slowly loses his memory and identity to the Shadow Monster in Season 2 parallels
the idea of Mind Flayer tadpoles slowly eating humanoid brains.
Joyce understands that this entity inside Will is like a virus and so she sets about
exorcising the demon-like spirit from Will's body by tying him up in front of a fire and
electric heaters.
This works and we see the Shadow Monster leave Will's body and escape out of the cabin into
the night sky.
This is a victory for Joyce in saving her son yet again from the evil behind the Upside
Down, however, it hasn't necessarily been killed, just temporarily banished and is waiting
to return.
So, did you enjoy Stranger Things season 2 and do you have any theories about the ending
or anything else from the season?
Or perhaps you've got a theory about season 3?
Let me know what you think in the comments below and also make sure you subscribe for
a chance to win my Stranger Things giveaway!
And congratulations to the winner of my Blade Runner 2049 giveaway, who's on screen now.
If that's you, make sure you contact me so I can get your details to send you the prize.
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on for Flicks And The City to get them as soon as they're ready.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!