The second season finale of Stranger Things could have served as a concise end to the series, if they had wanted to give it a British-style wrap-up after a limited number of episodes. Everything's wrapped up in a nice package: the portal to the Upside Down is closed, the sinister Hawkins National Laboratory is shuttered, Sheriff Hopper has taken guardianship of Eleven, there's been #JusticeForBarb, and our heroes all seem to be having a pretty good time at a 1984 school dance.
But they also teased a shot of the formidable Mind Flayer in the other dimension, hinting that all is not well in fictional Indiana. And thus the story continues with the third season of the series, set to debut on July 4, and a trailer recently dropped.
Well this seems like a fun candidate for a play-by-play. Let's see what's in store:
In an opening vignette, Dustin returns home from camp feeling depressed that no one is around to give him a welcome except his turtle. Takeaway #1: Yertle managed to survive Dart's ravages. Takeaway #2: Tews does not care that Dustin is home, because he is a cat.
Dustin is lured into his living room after his electronic R2-D2 and companions come to life and shuffle away. Like all good pals, his friends have broken into his house and are planning a surprise "welcome back" using telepathy. The last part is Eleven's doing, naturally. She's apparently a bit out of practice, given that she was throwing boxcars around last season and now she's getting a nosebleed from piloting half a dozen toys roughly 50 feet.
It's all part of a sweet attempt by Dustin's friends to give him a surprise, though maybe they should have realized that it isn't the best idea to surprise someone who's had to fight hellbeasts for the past couple of years. Lucas gets some Farrah Fawcett hairspray in his eyes for his trouble. Also, Dustin apparently lost his front teeth again.
The trailer fades to a rendition of "Baba O'Riley," which is a bit on the nose since it literally shows the gang out there in the field. They're erecting some sort of antenna, which I'm sure is going to lead to all sorts of speculation about what it's for. Given how casual they're all being, and a later shot where Dustin glumly watches a couple of girls traipsing away from the site at nighttime, I'm guessing it's some sort of nerdy AV club thing and not anything related to the Upside Down.
On to the hometown newspaper, where Jonathan and Nancy are pensively waiting in the hall. Are they interviewing for a job? Do they have another shadowy government agency to take down? Speaking of which, I sure hope they included the hometown paper in last season's media blast that shuttered the Hawkins National Laboratory.
Sam's near-homicidal brother is working as a lifeguard, which doesn't really seem like a good fit for him.
Sheriff Hopper is in a restaurant, where he's able to light up a cigarette because it's 1985. Joyce is dining alone with a glass of wine, looking sad. There's a lot of people looking sad in this trailer.
But at least Eleven and Sam are having fun, and have apparently become closer friends as evidenced by a brief shot of them bopping along to some music. I'm going to guess it's Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing."We gotta install microwave ovens...
In a voice-over, Mike says they're not kids anymore and asking if they thought they'd be playing games in his basement for the rest of their lives. I'm kind of sad that Mike et. al. are about a quarter-century away from being able to do just that with Settlers of Catan and Terra Mystica.
This voice-over is also accompanied by a drenched and mournful Will looking at a photo of the group dressed as the Ghostbusters from the previous Halloween. I'd scoff at Will getting teary-eyed over something that happened eight months earlier, but I seem to remember fifteen being an age where you realized that you were going to look back wistfully on your high school years, so I'll cut him some slack.
Eleven and Sam hit the mall, with Eleven being particularly awed by the spectacle of modern commercialism. Elsewhere, a group of protesters decries Hawkins' mayor and the mall, expressing its love for downtown. I'm also guessing the department store Joyce works at isn't competing too well against mall discounts.
Said mayor is probably going to be a bit of an antagonist this season, given that he's enough of a narcissistic ass to add a "Mayor Kline Presents" sign to the Fourth of July fair. In the midst of Hopper telling someone, probably Joyce or Eleven, that he wants the town to be a place they feel safe in, we see that he's apparently going to do battle with a gun-wielding hitman in a house of mirrors.
Eleven is going to find herself back in the creepy zone, with some crimson lightning reminiscent of what we saw last season. Better get those telepathic powers back up to speed.
I mentioned in a previous post that maybe Billy would be humbled enough to do a Steve-like transition out of douchebaggery. He's apparently going to be possessed by some sort of demonic creature instead.
Star-Lord is going to show up to lend a hand. That's nice of him.
And then we get quite a few rapid shots, including:
Eighties Mike Pence welcoming everyone to the Fourth of July fair.
Lucas again fighting evil with a slingshot, a full year before Stephen King made it common practice with It.
BUTTS!
The continuing proud tradition of Steve getting the shit kicked out of him. Can he finally get the chance to turn the tables this season and give someone else a well-deserved beatdown? Or at least get a girlfriend?
And this season's horrific creature from another realm, chilling out in the administrative offices of the mall, maybe.
And as a palate cleanser, Steve and Dustin are even better friends now and have an adorable imaginary sword fight at the nautically themed ice cream shop where Steve works and is contractually required to wear an embarrassing uniform. There's a maybe love interest for Steve working behind the counter, but she's currently more concerned about how many children he's friends with.
