Stranger Things - The Bathtub

“The Bathtub” brings most of the principles looking for Will [and Barb] together. Series have a tendency towards building to this episode. The disparate elements scattered throughout the show eventually converge. In Season One, “The Bathtub” [Episode 7] has Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and El fleeing the oncoming convoy of vans as Dr. Brenner and his army seems to be closing in. They head for an auto graveyard that serves as a type of hangout, needing to determine just what the next steps need to be. As that is happening, Brenner and his team masquerade as supposed “help”, trying to persuade Mike and Nancy’s parents that they want to help find their kids because of grave danger possible. When Brenner asks their mom does she trust him, she reluctantly nods yes. However, it is clear he creeps her out. Hopper and Joyce get to the sheriff’s office where Nancy and Jonathan are being kept, with the four eventually contacting Mike through Will’s walkie-talkie. Soon Hopper and Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy rendezvous with Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and El as they determine the best cause of action to recover Will. All set to a synth score that really echoes John Carpenter. Even a clip from Carpenter’s The Thing is on the television as the science teacher is asked to help Hop and the gang to build a similar “chamber” to Brenner’s, which will allow El to return to the Upside Down.

What I liked especially about this episode—besides bringing all these characters together for a mission of recovery—is one specific scene where Joyce and El are alone. Joyce is not only motherly to El but friendly in a way no adult perhaps ever has been. El’s willingness to go into the Upside Down despite the dangers is a testament to her courage and Joyce is beyond appreciative of that bravery. El finds Will in a mock up of his tent “hiding place” but as she is returning to where she belongs he presence vapors away, leaving her to awaken in the tub of the high school gym (made from specifications provided by the science teacher). Barb’s fate is finally revealed and it is a ghastly sight as the body appears torn asunder, slimy, and covered in eel-like creatures. El having to see that, and then be right there where Will is yet be unable to rescue him; she endures some serious trauma. And that ending, where a very weakened and malnourished Will barely lifts from the tent in the Upside Down to observe the noise surrounding him and how the fade to black doesn’t encourage much hope for him is quite a cliffhanger for the next episode. There is also a cute scene involving Mike and Nancy, both agreeing to be honest with each other although when asking one another about their interest in El and Jonathan respectively they brush it off as nonsense. Even Steve Harrington has a nice rebound from his past asshole behavior, addressing how wrong he was to respond as he did, calling his friends to task for their derogatory remarks towards Nancy. He even volunteers to scrub away the “slut” colored on the theater marquee…quite a development in the Steve character, for sure. And Steve did go through a humbling fight where Jonathan was the victor so perhaps it is a turning of the corner for him.

Hopper and Joyce deciding to attempt a break-in of the Brenner lab and how they are surrounded by security guards with machine guns does beg to question that decision…it does seem quite foolhardy. And one has to wonder just how long Mike, Lucas, El, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan can hang out at the high school gym or just where else they can go to remain safe from the clutches of Brenner. Brenner does have bodies/eyes everywhere. El causing a van to flip right over her, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas—as they are on their bikes trying to get away—and right in front of Brenner’s convoy is quite an incredible sequence. Brenner could only look on and grin as if proud of such ability in El do that. Her weakened state is also discussed when Mike and his gang join Hopper and Joyce at Joyce’s house. The episode indeed covers a lot of ground. Also not to be ignored is the discovery that Mike was keeping El secretly in his house’s basement. With the cat out of the bag, the screws are tightening as Will appears in grave danger and Brenner’s army start to stranglehold the town and its environs.