Stranger Things – ‘Will the Wise’

After a dark cliff-hanger which saw Will violently penetrated by the shadow monster, the fourth episode of the latest season of Stranger Things deals with the consequences of this as we see an eerie change take over Will, who would without a doubt be the most unfortunate Netflix character of all time if it weren’t for the fact that they created a television series for A Series of Unfortunate Events earlier this year.

Having been absent for a lot of Season One, Noah Schnapp has really succeeded with the more abundant material that he’s been given this time. He’s managed to make the horrors that happen to Will feel so real, and he does a great job in this episode providing a sense of foreboding as we try and fathom what’s happened to him (and it helps, of course, that he gets to act alongside the excellent Winona Ryder). What Schnapp does so well in ‘Will the Wise’ is combine the human Will and the inhuman monster within him, such as when he eerily tells Joyce that ‘he likes it cold,’ before walking off with an aloof innocence, or when he is crying into his mother’s shoulder one minute, and then rapidly scribbling out drawings with a vacant gaze the next.

On that note, how exactly Joyce matches up all these drawings and manages to make coherent paths with them is anybody’s guess. The whole thing feels a tad ridiculous, and seems perhaps like a slightly forced attempt to recreate the first season by once again cluttering up Joyce’s house with a zany clue about what’s going on with Will.

He was so inept in this episode that I struggle to feel all that scared for him

We also see Hopper and Eleven’s relationship worsening in a rather dramatic argument. The argument is artistically creative and enjoyable to watch, as Hopper attempts to assert his authority over the super-powered child, but it is disappointing from a story perspective, especially in regard to Hopper’s character. While the idea is supposed to be that he is inexperienced and over-protective as a father, he ends up just coming across unreasonable and cold. In particular, the fact that he still cannot forgive Eleven the next morning (as we are momentarily led to believe he will) almost makes it seem like he wants to alienate Eleven from him more.

But Hopper manages to annoy me even more later on in the episode after he has been at Joyce’s house for a while, by committing one of my least favourite TV tropes – abruptly leaving the house without explaining why or where he’s going to the person with whom he was just trying to work things out with. It’s unrealistic, sloppy writing for Hopper to run off with no explanation, and is an obvious contrivance in order for Hopper to be alone with no one knowing where he is. On the whole, he was so inept in this episode that I struggle to feel all that scared for him, as he enters the Upside Down just before the credits roll.

Ok, that’s a lie. I am indeed very worried for Hopper, because one poor episode can’t make me turn against a character who had previously been built up as one of my favourites.

The other characters very central to this episode are Jonathan and Nancy, who head off on an adventure together much like they did in the first season. The scene where they are waiting to meet Barb’s parents is really quite eerie, because Season One had built up an inherent suspicion towards the government men at Hawkins lab. However, it eventually transpires that Dr Owens is rather friendly. Whereas Season One was sustained by the mystery of what was going on at Hawkins lab, Season Two stops short of going a similar way by giving a rational explanation in this episode, explaining why the secrecy is necessary in a Cold War context. There is definitely still a slightly amoral edge to the lab, particularly in Dr Owen’s trivialisation of the ‘mistakes’ of his predecessors, so it’s clear to see why Nancy and Jonathan are dissatisfied with what they hear, but their alleged plan to burn the lab to the ground feels distinctly irresponsible.

For an episode that spent a lot of time building up suspense, this gruesome sight felt like a much-awaited pay-off

There isn’t that much left to note with the rest of the cast today. Eleven finds information about her mum and uses her powers to see her, so it will be interesting to see where this goes. Steve and Billy’s rivalry is rather uninteresting because it’s so on the periphery of the story, although I’m more worried about Billy’s hostility towards Lucas which appeared to be racially fuelled.

Meanwhile, Max is still being kept out of the boy’s group even though it seemed like Mike accepted her last episode, so it might end up taking something big for Max to officially become one of the crew. All in all, there isn’t too much to say about the boys other than Will in this episode. Their most memorable moment in ‘Will the Wise’ is taken solo by Dustin, as he finds an enlarged Dart feasting on his cat. For an episode that spent a lot of time building up suspense, this gruesome sight felt like a much-awaited pay-off.

And so, now that the men at the lab have come across as slightly more benign, it seems like Dart and the upside-down that Hopper finds himself in will be the main antagonists moving forward, as we will hopefully move closer to finding out more about the monstrous force that’s terrorising Hawkins this year.