Mike, Dustin, and Lucas bring the silent, scared girl to Mike’s house, hiding her in his basement. They named her “Eleven” based on the “011” tattoo on her arm. The boys learn that Eleven has powerful telekinetic abilities. They speculate she might be connected to Will’s disappearance and can help them find him, this episode also dives deeper into Will’s disappearance.
Joyce is convinced she can communicate with Will after a second unsettling phone call where she hears his voice, and the phone is once again fried by a power surge. The house lights flicker, leading her to Will’s room where a wall begins to distort in a humanoid shape, causing her to flee in terror before returning to the house. Jonathan drives to Indianapolis to confront his estranged father, Lonnie, who shows little concern for his missing son and insists Jonathan come live with him. Jonathan leaves, snapping pictures of the woods and surrounding areas where Will’s bike was found, giving a frantic and apprehensive tone to the story.
I think this episode was good for presenting a mysterious tone or a more suspicious tone. Sheriff Hopper is informed that Benny Hammond, the diner owner who fed Eleven in the previous episode, has died by homicide. Hopper, who was friends with Benny, begins investigating and interviews a local who mentions seeing Eleven, mistaking her for a boy resembling Will. Hopper’s search around Benny’s death leads him and his deputies to find a torn piece of a hospital gown near a drainage pipe that runs toward the Hawkins National Laboratory, raising his suspicions about the lab’s involvement.
Nancy, Mikes older sister, begins to have strange experiences of her own when her best friend Barb goes missing after they party at Steves house (Nancy’s boyfriend). Jonathan, who is in the woods taking photos of the missing boy’s last-seen locations, coincidentally photographs the party from afar, capturing images of Barb sitting by the pool just before she is abducted by the monstrous figure giving a teen angst or foreboding tone. Overall, these first episodes were good for setting up the future, especially for season 5, introducing Eleven and the Upside Down, and giving us the 80’s Sci-Fi horror kind of feel.
