You can tell from the way it was edited that Hopper isn’t dead. As soon as he was trapped in the room I said to myself “He’ll jump into the gate”. Then they cut to black right before the explosion and don’t show him being ashed so he is most certainly alive. Is he the American in the stinger? Maybe, maybe not but he…

I think the point of the turn at the end was not to humanize Billy, but to show El that she was right to find the human in him.  This is a brutal season, and one where the kids’ expectations (especially El’s) are thwarted.  She’s depowered in the end.  Except that she still has one weapon, the emotional leverage she…

I will agree that the death not existing cheapens the death.

I found Mike to be the worst by far, even bringing down Lucas, making their scenes unpleasant to watch (in the first half especially). He was terrible to Eleven (who should just hang out with Max all the time).

2 things: 1- there’s no visible evidence of any Hopper goo. They went through a lot of $$$ in the first scene of the season to show the consequences of the “key” failing.

I do suspect that Hellboy looms in how the cliffhanger was constructed. The original cast was pieced together from spare parts, before anyone had a clue that the show was going to be a hit, and so most of these actors are pretty easy to lock down. Meanwhile, while this was being scripted/shot, Harbour was the star…

Honestly the only thing that the beach memory thing brought up was why his mother abandoned him to his father.

This. I thought they did a great job of showing us why Billy turned out the way he did without excusing his behavior. El being able to reach him through the memory of his mother was a nice call back to Jonathan, Joyce, and Mike using memories to reach Will. 

There’s a trope where unless we see a body, there’s a good chance a seemingly dead character is still alive. Eleven saw Barb’s body so we know she’s dead. Hopper’s fate is inconclusive since his body was not recovered.

As has been alluded to below, we need to be careful to distinguish between bullies and homicidal sociopaths. Steve was a bully (until he became a hero). Billy was a sociopath destined to become a murderer, rapist, or both. Many of King’s “bullies” are in the Billy category. Run-of-the-mill bullies don’t torture and…

Yeah, I think maybe the real issue here is simply labeling Billy as a ‘bully.’ Steve was a bully. Steve engaged in all sorts of behaviors designed to humiliate people weaker than him, including both Nancy and Jonathan. It was implied by his relationship with his friendship with his fellow bullies that until Jonathan…

My takeaway both from the reveal of Billy’s father in S2 and his past in S3 was that it explains in large part why he is, but it in no way excuses his behavior. I felt the same about his final gasp of anything human in the last episode. Forgetting everything that he did in Season 3 when under the influence of the Mind…

Are you downplaying the role a physically and emotionally abusive parent has in their child’s development? Billy always made a ton of sense to me.

“Historically there just weren’t any black mermaids”

I hate that racism in America is going to force me to have an opinion on the remake of The Little Mermaid of all things.

“The demands of action and comedy, however, are apparently much too great a weight for this action-comedy to Lyft.”

a purple-haired lesbian surrounded by her teammates with giant “DARE TO SHINE” signs around her is like, an incredible image as we reach the end of Pride Month, it makes my gay little heart so fucking happy.

In an era where beloved figures are being revealed as giant pieces of shit, it’s nice when, every once in a while, someone you already hate turns out to truly be dogshit.

Since Justin Timberlake has been yammering on and on about how he loves being a dad and his kid is his inspiration and all that shit, we need to press him on this issue. Is he antivax? Does he know his wife was doctor shopping? Does he think his kid has been on the CDC recommended vaccination schedule? Does Justin…

Also, Theater, unlike other really expensive outings, does have a segmented ticket structure in many ways, allowing students, minors, and the industrious to find less than full price access. I just saw Gary (which was hysterical) for free the day before the Tonys.  I also saw Hillary and Clinton (Metcalf is amazing,…