Stranger Things
Season Two
Episode 8
One Question:
Why use a whole episode?
If you think about it simply, I guess you could sort of understand.
One of the things I don't get though is why they just didn't switch perspectives like they usually did. I mean, it would have been the tiniest bit confusing but if you actually have brains you could follow it. And (almost) everyone has brains, so you get what I mean.
That makes me talk about all of the stuff that was going on in the episode before that. Honestly, it's been so long since I've watched/finished the show that I forgot what happened in the episode before, but it was episode 7 out of 9 so something pretty important must have been happening.
If you put it like this, everything that happened before didn't just stop when El went on her mini adventure. She was gone for what, two days? Unless the episode was set back in time two days, all of the crazy stuff happening at Hawkins wouldn't just be put on hold for her, right?
That's what I don't get.
Yeah, some people look at it differently. It was a good experience for El to get out and do something different for a change.
But the way her sister was portrayed. I get it, she's supposed to be someone that can influence El into channeling and taking control of her powers. The thing is, they used their powers to murder people. I can see the abilities being used for good intentions, but murder? I agree that Hawkins Lab was a cruel and evil place, but going as far as killing people? That's a crazy level of unjust.
In that moment, I was glad El realized that it wasn't exactly right to kill. The man she was killing begged for life and she obliged, which I was grateful for. He had a family and a life and even apologized for his wrongdoings. He was sorry for terrorizing the girls when they were younger. At least he realized what he was doing was wrong.
The thing is, putting the words El and murder together don't really fit well. She got involved in some illegal stuff, but realized her own wrongdoings in that fact. I mean, at least she learned a lesson.
Let's focus on another thing she realized. By the end of the 40 minute episode, El managed to come to terms with the fact that her friends needed her now more than ever. That realization was very important to the storyline and yes, it was cute in some ways, but she could have learned that lesson in so many other ways.
Shifting away from that topic, I know the new look El got from that was badass, yes, but did it really do anything special? No.
That's just my opinion though.
One last thing I didn't understand was that WAY in the beginning of the season, the whole thing kicked off with Kali. Her group was driving in a van to get away from the police, yada yada, and then the van went under a bridge, so that's when Kali used her abilities to make one of the policemen see the bridge collapse, even though it didn't really happen.
That was confusing for me. I had no clue what the heck happened because one minute the bridge collapsed and now it's not collapsed. Yeah, it was explained later, but not until a full episode dedicated to Kali and El.
The start did some foreshadowing I guess, if you even want to consider it that. It was a cool way to start, but they could have done so much more with the start like foreshadowed with Dungeons and Dragons or something other than confusing all of us with the random girl in a van who's running from the police and somehow made a bridge collapse but didn't. And then they even made it so much more dramatic when she wiped her bloody nose with the back of her hand in such an unnatural position to show the numbers 008 on her forearm.
*gasps*
So dramatic, am I right?
Overall, it was an enjoyable episode to watch, no matter how much I disliked some of Kali's group members. Some of Kali wasn't my favorite either, but she had much more world experience than El and used her powers for something other than saving other people. Yes, her character was a good addition, but if she doesn't show up again, will El basically act like none of that ever happened?
They're sisters. That would be terrible if she forgot her sister, but then again, her sister murdered people for a living, so I get it.
I hope you enjoyed my mini rant.
More updates coming today.
<3
