ACLARATION: This review contains spoilers from the third season of Stranger Things.With only three episodes in, the third season of “Stranger Things” made it clear that it goes full ‘coming of age’, but in eighty-something naivety and not so scoffating and not so scoffing and more recent stories to the “Lady Bird” (2017) or “Eighth Grade” (2018). There are no social networks here that make things complicated, nor excesses, but there is an interdimensional entity that turns Hawkins and its inhabitants upside down. Our young protagonists are just beginning to leave childhood to pass the hormone-overwhelmed puberty, and these changes, not so gradual, affect some more than others. Poor Will Byers has been having a hard time since that first episode in 2016. Now, freed from the yoke of Upside Down, he tries to make up for lost time with his friends, between role-playing games and outdoor adventures, but the rest of the gang is already in another, occupying their days with summer romances coming and going , and messages in Russian to be deciphered. The kid, much more sensitive than his peers – it seems that the Duffer brothers like to play with ‘ambiguity’ and don’t decide whether to define it as gay or not, where would the problem be?-, weighs this new dynamic and flees to their lair in the forest to remember the good fri before the Mind Flayer gets his thing back. Will isn’t the only one who perceives this arrival. Eleven and Max continue to advance in their friendly relationship and, playing with the girl’s powers, begin by “spying” on Mike and his cronies and then furiously follow Billy. So they discover that something strange is happening with him and heather Holloway (Francesca Reale), the missing (allegedly) missing lifeguard who, in his visions, is quite wrong. After researching here and there, and swiping in the boy’s room, Eleven manages to get some particular images, suspecting Heather was kidnapped. The weird thing about it is that Bill can feel his presence, something that had already happened to Mike, but we know it’s because the kid is controlled by the Upside Down.
With puberty, friendships get complicated
“Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” is a chapter in which all the characters play it as detectives. In addition to Max and Eleven in search of the lost lifeguard of the title, we have Nancy, who is not allowed to be amazed by the taunts and jokes of her peers – all big, sexist and very unpleasant gentlemen – who do not believe in the history of rats. As the script does not allow me to send them to hell and do hers, she continues to investigate and decides to return to Mrs. Driscoll’s house for evidence to prove her hypothesis. Of course Jonathan decides to accompany her, and what they discover is somewhat disturbing, as the old lady seems to have been infected with the same “disease” that affected the rodent. Meanwhile, at the mall, Dustin, Steve and Robin continue to try to decipher the Russians’ message and discover the “spies” who should be scattered around the place. After several failed attempts, and close-ups of female butts in tights, Robin manages to decode it, drawing the conclusion that it alludes to a delivery that will take place at night in the mall itself. What are armed Russian agents doing on a late delivery at a Hawkins mall? It’s quite a mystery, like the ease of these kids to interpret ultra-secret messages. If anything is made clear during this season, and this episode directed by Shawn Levy in particular, is that “Stranger Things” decided to embrace a gnoinous, fanciful and unlikely side when it comes to its mysteries, one that prefers to break the suspension of disbelief in favor of entertainment. Where was that terrifying aura inspired by Stephen King and John Carpenter? Until “The Goonies” (The Goonies, 1985) they have a little more coherence within their fantastic adventures.
What’s the Spanking planning from the other side?
Still, everything works within this universe created by the Duffer brothers, which continues to open questions chapter by chapter. To the Russians scattered over Starcourt and Heather’s disappearance, there is the little problem of magnets and magnetic fields that make Joyce nervous. After planting Jim during her no-date, Mrs. Byers gets into Hawkins’ labs to make sure that no macabre hand has ever experimented with the Portal and the “other side” again. The tour is good for Hopper and Joyce to have an intimate moment and be steert about some feelings, fears and plans for the future. It also proves that the place was closed and abandoned months ago, but the police chief has a violent encounter with an unknown subject. The end of “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” puts a little spice to the issue when Eleven and Max arrive at the lifeguard’s house and discover that everything is going from strength to strength. Heather, Billy and the girl’s parents have a more than pleasant evening, but nothing is as if it seems to the eyes and the Holloways end up becoming the new victims of Upside Down. It all turns out to be interconnected, and through the eyes of Billy the Mind Flayer (that huge spider-shaped bug that appears at the end of the second season) he manages to recognize Eleven as the girl who locked him in on the other side.
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