Warning do not read unless seen episode.
This episode to me is one of the best season finales in my book and what it really should be. One of the good things about it is it doesn't end of a cliffhanger which is really getting old for me and I personally find a bit lazy for most TV seasons, it's like having a huge build up but no payoff because the writers forgot what should happen at the end. This one does end in a payoff but also a set up for the next season.
As usual we see the Strange Avengers at work; team 3 Joyce and the Sheriff they go into the Upside Down dimention and it really doesn't disappoint and show that a live action TV show (a good one) based on the video game "Silent HIll" can be made. We see the dark version of Hakins which is just all dark and messed up it might not be Hell but it's pretty damn close. It constist of a lot of tenticles, some kinds of spores, organic material of unknown origin, we see a bit of a postapocaliptc landscape as there are ruined cars and buildings.
The suspense is great throughout it, I'm just completely on edge from it's oppressive dark disorienting atmosphere, but also afraid that one or even a few of those really messed up monsters are going to show up. We do see them find Will whom some sort of icky worm shoved in his mouth for some reason, I'll admit it was just painful seeing the Sheriff pull it out due to it's length.
And of course the suspense doesn't let up as Will is not breathing and both are fighting to save his life. We even see some flashbacks learning a little more about the Sheriff which is really heartwrenching as we see he's lost his daughter to Cancer which sucks and you can see why his life and state of mind has been in a funk for a while and how this case with Will corillates. From the way it's handled it almost seems like Will isn't going to make it which I'll admit made me worried but then suddenly he recovers and I'll admit that made me smile a little.
For team 2 we see Nancy and Johnathan preparing for battle against on of the creatures at his house. Both in a way have kinda became badasses as we see some of the elaborate traps they've set up, having a gun, and creating a mace. The battle doesn't disappoint as it is just suspenseful as we see the lights flicker and I'm just rapidly looking around wondering where is the creature going to pop up next.
I really like how we see everyone has a hand in this battle, though the supprising one is Steve himself, whom has really gone though a supprising change I honestly didn't expect. That's interesting because we see he really does have deep feelings for Nancy and doesn't want to lose her but most importantly starting to listen to his conscious telling him to step up, and he does when he wacking that thing with the mace bat. And all three successfully lead it to the trap and cook the thing, fire we see seems to be it's weakness always seems to be the best weapon for aliens.
Team 3 we see a little bit of hide and seek as Mike, Lucus, Eleven, and Dustin their all evading that lead scumbag scientist and the scum he rides with. One badass moment was seeing Eleven using her Scanner power and make the eyeballs of a group of scumbags explode.
I really like a moment just when all four are captured it doesn't look good, however we see some guts from Mike but the extent of his love for Eleven as he is willing to die to protect her same with the other three. But I also like what Eleven says to that lead scientist, despite only one word it was I thought a great moment showing she is no longer his property, he is not her family, Mike and his friends are. And there is a payoff when one of those creatures comes to the school and is just killing everyone including that scum scientist, couldn't help but cheer a little on that.
We then see despite getting out of that situation, they now got the monster to deal with and sadly ill equipped (makes sense their not of legal age to buy real weapons or even trained to use them.) Though due to the room their hiding in it would of been cool seeing the kids use some of the scientific equipment to defeat that monster which I'll admit was a bit of a lost opportunity in that scene, but then again they all had limited time, it takes a while to start up a chemistry set and preparing and mixing chemicals and I'm not sure how vast their knowledge in science is.
We see Lucus shooting rocks at the Monster which of course do no good except slow it down (same with bullets), though I was personally thinking what if that monster had another weakness possibly the center of it's mouth as it opens. It then comes down almost to the final rock and we then see Lucus hit the monster dead center and it then just flying back and hits the blackboard hard as if it's been hit by a car, I remember that moment thinking yeah bullseye b....But then we see it was Eleven awakens and thought darn, oh well it was cool anyway and Lucus fought that's what counts.
It then comes down to a heartbreaking moment that really made me cry, and the fact when Mike professed his love even kisses Eleven and told her about all the things they'll do together made it all the more tragic, both never had enough time together. Eleven feels the same way for Mike but has to do what she must to save his live and the rest. We see her use her power in full which hurts the monster but herself and we see the monster is destroyed discentergrated to ash and so is she.
Part of the ending though gave me a good feeling as we see things have returned to normal but also some changes for the better. Like Joyce's home actually looking better, from how cleaned up it is and taking down some of that sad wall paper, having a Christmas meal. We see Mike and the rest of the group are back together once again play Dungens and Dragons on a new campagn having fun. But despite that Mike near the end of the scene looks at the empty tent where Eleven lived and I'll admit that made my heart sink, you can see the loss of her still resides in him; for him in the words of Sarah Connor, "Even though we had little time together, we loved a lifetimes worth."
However I wouldn't fret too much, because we see near the end the Sheriff, puts some meal along with the Eggo walfles in a box, so Eleven may'be back because after all we saw ashes of the monster but that didn't mean it was also hers. Also we don't know the full extent of her abilities, may'be when disentergrating that monster she might have inavertantly teleported somewhere; I don't know we'll have to wait and see.
Also we see Will in his time at the Upside Down inavertantly has gained some Scanner power himself, as we see him have a brief vision of the Upside Down. That little scene alone just shows that the strange adventure for the Strange Avengers is far from over, in fact it's just begun.
Rating: 4 stars
