Fantastic final scene between Rankin and Cahoon, maybe my favorite of the year thus far. And a great return for Carlito Colon, to boot. But good grief am I over the Sam/Ruth thing. 

Spoilers: She was part of Proposition Joe’s early crew before heading out west. 

I was a little skeptical about Cassidy for awhile, but watching him and the hero’s welcome he got at the Highspots Mania weekend show this year I’m willing to believe that there’s potential for him to catch on in a big way with the modern fan. My only concern is whether AEW can have the right stories for him beyond…

Second the nomination! 

If it means Awesome Kong vs Aja Kong, I’m all for her staying in the fold there even on a limited basis. 

Joel McHale IS USAgent

On an anecdotal level I can tell you that several friends of mine who live in DFW went, and had a good time. But, they bought their tickets right after Jon Moxley won the US title assuming that the win would ensure he’d appear on the show. What’s the odds that Mox not being able to wrestle on this show hurt sales? 

Hmm, gotta go .6 on the chin but nowhere near the attitude. 

Guess I’ll be the lone voice disagreeing with the length of that Neverending Story sequence; that and Eleven nearly having a Martha Kent moment with Billy made me strain as much as the gore.

Soooo, did anybody else get an Evil Dead vibe from the battle at Chez Hopper, or was that just me?

SAME. Saw it coming and it still made me sad when the shot hit. 

The thing is, he still cares for her. This is obvious. But in an already-insular town like Hawkins it’s not surprising that Mike or any one boy in the group would basically be play-acting at this stage what he thinks a Cool Dude is. Dustin might have the closest thing to a positive role model in Steve, for goodness’…

I love that Will is taking a lead role in getting the team in position to take on the Mind Flayer. It’s not only a well earned win for him, but makes perfect narrative sense.

Earlier today I saw someone on Twitter complaining about the scene in which Hopper beats the information out of Larry and I have to say, that critique didn’t track for me at all after watching it. Shout-out to Cary Elwes for some top-notch smarm, though, even as Larry’s under duress. 

That’s interesting! None of the malls in my area (SoCal, for the record) had one. So the Sunday loop was always to hit the mall first for clothes/electronics/movies then hit the grocery store on the way back. 

Media person here; in a small newsroom — let alone one in a small town — it’s even easier for a good old boy club like this to fester than it would be at a bigger paper. None of these goons look like they’ve practiced actual reporting in a decade.

OK, one nitpick from an 80s kid: While the point about Walmart is timely now, I don’t remember many malls in the 80s having a grocery store. So Joyce’s work, in theory, shouldn’t be hit as hard as the other businesses downtown.

Plummer has played dozens of roles, most of them far more forgettable. For reasons related to my age and my own shitty taste, I still think of him mostly as the villainous televangelist guy from the 1987 Dragnet movie.

TALK SOME SHIT ABOUT MARMADUKE

Wait, I thought this was the Straight Pride Parade