The lady at Taco Bell always gives me a large drink for free and all I ever did was say “Hello” “Thank you.” “How are you today?” and generally treat them like a friend instead of a cash register with organs.

80's dad definitely would have had some scene where he’s in a park at a cookout, wearing the classic jeans/no shirt ensemble (Now known as “The Randy”).

Cleaning it in the bathtub/shower may be a good idea.

Yep that same conversation happened in my house quite a bit.

I can remember my Mom one time asking me where I was going and all I said was “Out”...and that was the end of the discussion. Good times.

#JusticeforBob

I wasn’t a latchkey kid but in the summer my mother never knew where I was. In fact, if someone else’e mom fed me lunch, I could be gone for 10 hours and she didn’t care.

I took it as more of an homage to ‘80s movies about punks, like The Warriors. It wasn’t what was really happening in the urban streets, it’s what Hollywood thought was happening.

Nah, it went off full bore into Hopper’s face. He later threw up.

No, Hopper took it in the face too, and was puking up black goo a little while later. But he didn’t have any facial covering like Dustin did. Still, maybe that’s a seed planted (I hope not literally but probably literally) for the next season.

Character arc. They want to give Eleven a chance to understand where she’s from. She has to confront whether her family are the people who know her, or the people who understand her. And she has to at least listen to the dark side of her treatment, but she grows because she knows that she can’t kill without ruining…

Okay, seriously, does anyone give a damn about Dr Brenner on any level whatsoever? He’s a bland character with no personality beyond “generic government scientist”. He’s not threatening thanks to the meek look of Matthew Modine. He isn’t interesting on any level.

Eleven ended up developing her powers in the time with Kali. She needed to be stronger to be able to justify being able to close the giant ass gate, which I thought was pretty clear with the montage leading to her pulling the train.

Also, I think this episode could have been really interesting if you’d cut it down to…

Same here. Plus I was a latchkey kid by the time the early 80's rolled around: parents had their own issues by that point, and as long as you came home at some point they were OK with you going out.

They just had to get Eleven out of Hawkins because she’s too powerful. She’d just use her mind to snap all the demi-dogs’ necks. There’d be no drama.

Personally, I think my most burning question is what, if anything, is going to come of that upside-down butthole farting pollen into Dustin’s mouth? It seemed like a pretty big thing to include only for Dustin to brush it off a moment later if it wasn’t going to have ramifications for next season.

The Duffers have said they wanted to experiment with a different kind of film/vibe, which I think is a huge part of it. But also, the core idea isn’t actually bad - Eleven’s life has been deeply traumatic in ways that are different from the other characters, and it makes sense that she would need to both investigate…

Sequel bait episode! Same with the first scene of the season being Kali. They’ve wrapped up the main story by the end of the season, so they needed some hooks for another season.

No, they got tired of eating it after about four days.

Forget all this. The most important lingering question is: does Joyce Byers still have a dead demodog in her freezer?