Stranger Things 2 Ep. 6 – “The Spy”
Mike Sprague
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Welcome back to Dread Central’s daily recap/reviews of the second season of Netflix and The Duffer Brothers’ “Stranger Things”. You can find our recap/review of the previous episode right HERE. Now let’s get to it!
The previous episode of “Stranger Things 2” titled “Dig Dug” ended on a high note, to say the least. And the sixth episode of the Netflix original series “The Spy” picks up with just as much speed. We begin with Will still freaking the f*ck out and being rushed into the ER of the energy plant on the hill. An intense beginning to say the least.
We then jump to Steve Harrington and Dustin crushing to Queen and being a generally awesome pair. The two show up at Dustin’s house to deal with Dart in the cellar and Steve – armed with his signature spiked-bat – finds a gooey skin Dart left behind in his epic growth spirt. Not only is it obvious now that Dart has doubled in size but he has dug a tunnel right the out of Dustin’s basement Shawshank Redemption-style and into the wild woods beyond.
Cue the synth music and glowing red titles.
We then enter the story good and proper to find Winona Ryder’s Joyce telling an entire room of scientist, including Paul Reiser’s Dr. Owen, to go right ahead suck it. Turns out not a single one of these geniuses can figure out just what the hell is wrong with young Will. I mean, my little sister figured it out, but these guys? Nope.
Meanwhile, we rejoin Nancy and Jonathan at conspiracy nut Murray Bauman’s lair of crazy. The three celebrate their new plan to rat out the powers that be and chug vodka like frat boys who don’t know any better. And in what is one of the best scenes Nancy and Jonathan will ever have together, Murray straight up calls them out for not pushing through the sexual tension and just getting it on like Donkey Kong on his pull-out couch.
Murray then slinks off to bed setting the two teens on a collision course of f*cking that doesn’t take them long to hit head first. Their awkward sequence of should we/shouldn’t we was an utter delight and I all but cheered with Jonathan finally showed up at her door and planted his kisses of love.
Because this show is for kids, unfortunately, we cut away at this point and join Hopper up at the energy pant of the hill. Dr. Owen takes Hooper down into the bowels of the building and shows him that the Upside Down has been growing like a cancer outward from the gateway in the lab and creating caverns of evil under the city of Hawkins.
Cue ominous synth track.
Meanwhile, at Will’s bedside, Joyce lets Samwise in on the whole mess. Again, since Joyce isn’t Lucas (call back to yesterday’s recap/review) Samwise believes every word and is all-in to help. Gotta love, Sam. Always there till the end. Let’s just hope he thinks of the eagles a little sooner in this story.
Next up we rejoin Nancy and Jonathan for breakfast at Murray’s house of love. The three nom eggs in silence until Murray gives out the best sexual innuendo the series has ever, or will ever attempt. As the teens eat their breakfast, Murray smiles on like a scheming nutcase and politely asks Jonathan how “the pull-out” was.
Record scratch.
He meant the pull-out couch, of course.
Or did he…
Murray then gives the teens a bottle of vodka for the road (not kidding) and tells them to f*ck off forever. What a sweet, cordial host. I can only hope this is not the last we see of Murray. Fingers crossed. While this is going down, Lucas shows up at Max’s house and convinces her to join him on his adventure to the junkyard to meet up with Steve and Dustin to engage in mortal combat with Dart. Max agrees and they’re off the races.
Back at the sinister energy plant of the hill, Dr. Owens believes that poor little Will Byers is now possessed by the Upside Down (duh) and brings in a science experiment to demonstrate. Dr. Owens has a techie take a blowtorch to a bit of living tentacle from the pumpkin patch and sure enough, as the fire hits the tentacle, Will feels the burn. In a big way. This is going to cause major problems in the future.
While all of that plot development b.s. is going on across town, we rejoin Dustin and Steve on the train tracks for a little Stand by Me fun. The two are chumming for Jaws– I mean Dart and share one of the funniest, most charming, and badass scenes in all of “Stranger Things.” Including Steve finally letting someone (Dustin) in one just how the hell he keeps his hair so luxurious. Hint: Farrah Fawcett spray and love.
Hopper then attempts to get ahold of Eleven via CB radio but she doesn’t answer. This is due to the fact that she is f*cking miles away from the cabin in the woods and currently chilling at her mom’s house. Hopper doesn’t know this though – he would be piiiisssseed – and thus gives a truly heartfelt speech to the absent preteen anyhow.
Gotta love Hopper.
As Hopper is in the parking lot pouring his heart out to deaf ears, high up in the energy plant’s tallest tower, Dr. Owens and his team of white males talk about how they’ll have to, in the end, sacrifice Will to kill off the Upside Down. Dr. Owens protests and it seems like he might not be the season’s villain after all.
Wait, so then who will be? Will? Eleven? Samwise?
I guess we’ll see…
Now let’s cut back to the Scooby gang getting back into the action with Lucas and Max meeting up at the junkyard with Steve and Dustin. Once there, Lucas and Dustin get into a bit of a spat concerning Max and Dart and Steve breaks it up in glorious fed-up babysitter fashion. I love this new dynamic Steve’s got going on. Let’s hope they keep the ball rolling.
As Steve and the gang get the junkyard all Home Alone booby-trapped, Will tells the scientists at the energy plant that the Upside Down’s weakness can be found in a particular cavern in the labyrinth below ground. A team of soldiers then heads down into the darkness armed with machine guns for a showdown with… what exactly? Dart?
We’ll find out soon.
While we all anxiously await the fate of this group of random scientist-soldiers (deadly combo right there), back at the junkyard, Dustin gets into a fight with Max which sends her into the metaphorical arms of Lucas. Amateur move, Dustin. Hope he still gets the girl. Speaking of the girl, just as Max is letting us all in on a very personal tale, Dart emerges from the thick fog that surrounds the junkyard. Hungry for human meat.
It’s then up to hero Steve to go out and meet Dart head-on for some noggin-bashing spiked-bat style. But, oh sh*t. There’s a catch. It seems that Dart can multiply. Wait, what? Muh, who cares at this point. Sure, I’ll go with it.
Let’s move on.
Dart and his posse of Darts almost eat the ass right off Steve, but thankfully he gets back to the Bus Fortress just in time. And speaking of just in time, right as Dart and friends are about to breach the bus’ walls and chow down, the demon gods are called away.
To where? Well, the tunnels of course. Dinner is served and it’s not gonna taste like teenagers and Farah Fawcett spray. Oh, no. These Dart Dogs are gonna eat like kings. Feasting on the sweetmeats of soldiers and scientists.
Yes, this episode wraps up with the Dart Dogs dropping the mighty smackdown on the soldier-tists (waka, waka) and then breaking their way up through the tunnels and into the lab where all of our main players lie unguarded.
And the kicker? Will orchestrated the massacre and resulting invasion. Oh, snap. Guess Will is all set to be this season’s villain – even if he doesn’t mean to be. After all, it’s obvious little Willy style is possessed as f*ck.
As the Dart Dogs rise up from the hell below the facility on the hill we cut to credits on the absolute, hands-down best episode of “Stranger Things” we have seen thus far. Fast-paced and filled with humor, heart, twists, and turns this episode took us from casual fans of the series to full-on fanboys in 45 minutes flat. Impressive considering how middle of the road we found the first season to be.
Plus, this episode gets major bonus points for featuring exactly zero scenes with Eleven. What did we do to deserve this, TV Gods? Whatever it was, it was well worth it. Bring on the next episode – right now! Hoor-ray Netflix!
Check back with us tomorrow for our recap/review of “Stranger Things 2” Ep. 7 – “The Lost Sister”.
Categorized:Reviews
