Stranger Things season 2, episode 4, Will the Wise, recap: is Will possessed?
Warning: this recap contains spoilers!
Finally, the pieces are sliding into place. If Stranger Things season one was about Will vanishing into the Upside Down, second time out the Upside Down has – cue: ironic twist buzzer! – vanished into him (minds = blown). The Lovecraftian cloud beast which descended upon him in part three has now, at some level, taken possession of the youngster. But to what end?
And how does it relate to the mini Demogorgon Dustin has been unwittingly stuffing full of delicious nougat? Also, is there any possibility show-runners and creators the Duffer Brothers might give Eleven a vaguely interesting storyline? Otherwise – leaving aside Millie Bobby Brown’s searing performance – what was the point in bringing her back?
1. What has the cloud monster done to Will?
With its smoke tendrils tunnelling into his eyes and nostrils, the apparition clearly has cruel intentions for the Hawkins boy (Noah Schnapp). As mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) rushes to his side, and his friends scream his name, Will snaps out of the vision – but we soon learn his ordeal at the hands (tentacles) of the beast has only started.
2. Joyce is powerless to help her son – and it's heartbreaking
“It got me mom… I felt it everywhere – and I still feel it," Will told Joyce as she confronted him with the etching she had taken from the home video of trick or treat night (in which the monster had appeared framed in the static)
"I'm here Will," his mother responds – but what protection can she offer from a supernatural entity that has literally gone under his skin – and is causing his temperature to dip, so that “Zombie Boy” – as he is mocked in school – has the body heat of a walking corpse? "He likes it cold," says Will refusing a bath – suggesting that the "It" is within him somehow and has no intention of going anywhere.
3. Can Eleven and Hopper patch things up?
Furious at Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) for leaving the cabin and trying to meet Mike, Hopper (David Harbour) imposes the harshest punishment he could imagine – an open-ended prohibition on television (no more precious Eggos either). As their row descends into a shouting match, Eleven uses her powers to prevent the police chief removing the TV. "You have got to understand that there are consequences to your actions," screams Hopper – in what was one of the season's most intense scenes yet. Is their friendship – forged in crisis – unravelling? If so, what sort of foes might the pair make for each other?
4. Why did Doctor Owen go so gently on Nancy and Jonathan at the lab?
It was a clever plan to draw out the spooks from the Hawkins National Laboratory by pretending to arrange a "tell all" meeting with Barb's parents. Nancy and Jonathan’s suspicions are certainly vindicated as under-cover spies descend on them in the park and they are bundled off to the facility. But then, a surprise as Doctor Owens (Paul Reiser) readily confesses that security breaches at Hawkins led to the death of Barb. "I'm the schmuck they brought in to clean things up," he says, leading Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan to the portal to the Upside Down.
His warning is simple: if Nancy and Jonathan blab about the Upside Down, the Soviets and other hostile parties might put the information to nefarious use. It is their national duty to stay schtum – with the implication that unpleasant things might happen were they to neglect that duty. Unbeknownst to him, of course, they’ve taped the entire conversation – quite an achievement considering Nancy's walkman is the size of a breeze-block. A plucky gambit – but can the two person Scooby-Doo team plausibly execute their plan to “burn the lab to the ground”?
5. Why is Dustin lying about 'Dart'?
His friends continue to search the school for the missing slime-monster (including a bonus dumpster dive for short straw-drawing Lucas) – unaware that Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) has smuggled his “pet” home under his hat and is plying it with nougat. He received his just desserts as the adorable blob sheds its skin, Xenomorph-style, and having transformed into a mini version of last season's Demogorgon. snacks on the family cat. It’s a valuable lesson as to the importance of being truthful of your pals – and a reminder that Dustin is this season’s sacrificial knuckle-head.
6. Where is the Steve-Billy rivalry going?
The new kid in town (Dacre Montgomery) has fun knocking his rival (Joe Keery) to the ground during basketball – but seems more conciliatory as they banter in the shower. Are these foes being teed up as potential allies? It would be straight from the Big Book O’ High School Movie Cliche (obviously a good thing). And what of the revelation that Billy and Max (Sadie Sink) aren't actually siblings? As the season approaches halfway, we eagerly await further details regarding the out-of-towners – and why, in particular, Billy is so paranoid about Max's safety.
7. So Will is in fact possessed?
"They're growing…spreading," says the tearful pre-teen as he tries to explain to Joyce and Hopper how the extra-planar entity had changed him. It has planted thoughts in his head – which he can only articulate as a multi-page crayon drawing of looping tendrils (possibly a call-back to Richard Dreyfuss's crazed mash potatoes sculptures in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind).
Still, there is method to the mania: Hopper recognises the swirls as representing a network of underground passages and digs his way into just such as tunnel under one of the rotten pumpkin passages (we’ve obviously all been on tenterhooks regarding the rotten pumpkin patches story). Within, the air twinkles with supernatural motes – indicating a connection to the Upside Down. So much for Doctor Owens cleaning up the "mess" left by his predecessors.
Stranger Things | Season 2 recaps
8. Did you have a lump in your throat as Eleven reached out to her mother?
Rifling through the files stashed in the basement of Hopper's shack, Eleven stumbles upon documents relating to her mother. She next uses her telekinetic powers to mind-morph to the side of the disturbed woman, who is whispering gibberish from a rocking chair. When Eleven manifests, her mother slips out of her reverie and utters a single word: "Jane". This is presumably Eleven's real name – and it is wrenching to see her closest living relative turn to dust and leave the little girl in the dark (even if it is another powerful showcase for the ever more impressive Brown).
