Stranger Things season 2, episode 2, Trick or Treat, Freak, recap: HP Lovecraft in Hawkins

Warning: this recap contains spoilers!

The pressure to follow up a phenomenon as zeitgeist-crushingly successful as series one of Stranger Things must be intense, so you have to credit the Duffer Brothers for maintaining their composure and setting about the task at an unhurried – even nonchalant – pace. That, at least, seems to be their plan in the second instalment of the sci-fi romp’s greatly anticipated second season. 

While Trick Or Treat, Freak fills in some of the details of Eleven’s unlikely escape from certain doom in last year’s finale, once again the emphasis is on laying the track for future conflict rather than dazzling us in the here and now. In some ways, part two feels like a reworking of episode one – as Will is once more menaced by visions of the Upside Down netherworld and Nancy struggles (again) with guilt over Barb’s death. 

The fun here lies in reconnecting with the characters. Mike, Will and the other nerds go trick or treating dressed – but of course – as the Ghostbusters, while Hopper (David Harbour) continues to explore the mystery of the rotten pumpkins (note to the Duffers: rotting pumpkins are not an especially gripping mystery). 

But the only substantial revelation is that new girl Max’s brother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) is Hawkins, Indiana’s new resident bad boy – in the sense of being genuinely violent and dangerous (as opposed to Steve, who is a bad boy in the sense that he has probably considered frosted tips).

1. For how much longer can Eleven stand the isolation of the woods?

Having sacrificed herself for Mike (Finn Wolfhard) last season, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) was – in the world of the show at least –  presumed dead. But no! We flash back to the immediate aftermath of her tangle with the Demogorgon – as she finds herself in a negative-image version of the school, from where she quickly crawls to safety. 

 Making her way to Mike’s house, she sees it is overrun with police and agents. Through a sliver in the curtain Mike thinks he catches a glimpse of his friend but can’t be sure. His suspicion that Eleven is still out there is reinforced later as – in the present – she use her psychic powers to connect with him and whisper his name. The insinuation is that Eleven is bored and restless being cared for by Hopper. How soon before she leaves the safety of his secluded house and does something rash?

2. Step aside Steve – newcomer Billy is a proper bad boy

In addition to dressing like a reject from the Michael Jackson Beat It video, Billy is verbally abusive towards younger sister Max (based on the information presented thus far we’re assuming they are siblings) and clearly revels in mayhem. He comes crazily close to mowing down Mike, Will and that gang on their way home from school, with only Max’s last minute grab of the wheel saving the kids. Presumably Billy would have steered away anyway – but maybe he wouldn’t. 

3. Has something horrible happened to Joyce and Bob? 

Oh, how you toy with us, Stranger Things. With his bumbling, wide-eyed demeanour, Joyce’s nice guy boyfriend Bob (Sean Astin) may well be for a sticky end (that’s usually how it went down in Eighties horror movies). But has it really come so soon? Barely had he suggested to his girlfriend (Winona Ryder) that they move, with her kids, for a new life in Maine than the doorbell sounds. We presume it’s trick or treaters – as does Bob, who is done up as a naff vampire for the occasion. But when the door opens we cut to black. Rule one of Eighties horror: a cut to black means someone has died. 

4. Things went a bit Carrie for Nancy at that Halloween party

Still wracked with guilt over the disappearance of Barb – who was eaten by the Demogorgon while her best friend was upstairs with Steve – Nancy (Natalia Dyer) drinks herself into oblivion at the Halloween shindig. Steve’s attempt to wrest a cup of punch from her results in the red gloop splashing all over her white top – presumably a reference to the gory conclusion of Brian de Palma’s Carrie. (We know you're sobbing, Nancy, but it could be worse – you might for instance be covered in pig’s blood.) 

5. Steve needs a good cry

Consoling Nancy in the bathroom secret softie Steve (Joe Keery) has his heart shattered into a million tiny pieces when his blathering girlfriend lets slip that she’s only pretending to love him. Viewers will nod sagely – having suspected all along that her true feelings are for awkward but cosmopolitan Jonathan (Charlie Heaton). When Steve is at home writing terrible college application essays, Jonathan is chilling to Kurt Vonnegut and Talking Heads. On behalf of nerds everywhere we’re hoping Nancy sooner or later sees the light. 

Stranger Things | Season 2 recaps

6. Is Dustin dead too? 

That eerily rumbling rubbish bin was inevitably opened by dorky Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). Something unexpected waits within – but that’s where the Duffers teasingly ended the episode, as the screen faded to black and – a great touch, obviously – the Ghostbusters theme roared in. Will (Noah Schnapps), for his part, has a bad night too as bullies jump him while he is trick or treating – teasing him with the already hated refrain of “zombie boy”. Down he goes, straight into another Upside Down vision. 

7. Did you spot all the Eighties references? 

Eleven is a dead ringer for a trick-or-treating ET as she dons a white shroud and cut holes for eyes. And, as pointed out above, Nancy covered in booze is a hat-tip to Carrie. The monster menacing Hawkins from the Upside Down, meanwhile, looks distinctly Lovecraftian, with its huge tentacles looming over the speechless Will. In season one, Dungeons and Dragons was the big reference. For the second series, have the Duffers gone all Call of Cthulhu on us? 

Stranger Things: all the hidden (and not-so-hidden) references

8. How are you enjoying the 'relationship stuff'? 

The Duffers have stated that the charm of Stranger Things has as much to do with the personal arcs of the characters as with the nasties hiding in the woods. True to this sentiment, they are doubling down on the soap opera elements in season two. 

Witness the tension between Mike/Will and Dustin/Lucas over tomboy Max (Sadie Sink), with the former aghast at her presence on their trick or treat trek and the latter fancying her to bits. Elsewhere, Joyce – we’re presuming she isn’t dead – is confused as to what sort of future she wants with Bob. The only major character spared a relationship backstory thus far is Hopper – though, to be fair, he’s too busy trying to solve the Great Rotting Pumpkin Mystery (pssst…it’s Cthulhu).