Stranger Things S2, E9 (Part 1)
Eleven reunites with her crew in Hawkins during a highly emotional scene. Hot-tempered Mike doesn't take very well to finding out his girl has been living in such close proximity to him all year; he tries to get physical with Hopper, the only police chief to ever resolve such a conflict by hugging it out.
Billy, still the show's most giant tool by a long shot, makes a pit stop at the Wheeler house in an effort to find Max. Karen answers the door, fresh out of the bath, and seems to be immediately thrown out of orbit by her visitor. (Her facial expression when Billy informs her that Nancy isn't her type.) Clearly a great set-up for some kind of juicy affair subplot. You go, Karen. Let's be honest.
With nothing to find but a flirtatious mom at the first place, Billy's next stop is at the Byers's. When he realizes Steve is lying to him about Max, he accosts him in the front yard. A brief albeit violent fight scene ensues in the kitchen before crazy Max shoves a syringe in his throat. Nice move.
Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy draw up this exorcism-style setup inside an abandoned home in the woods for Will. It's been determined by now that the cold is what perpetuates the evil inside of Will, so they strap him to a mattress and surround him with heaters.
More writhing and reeling ensues, along with a lot of shouting. Noah Schnapp must have lost his voice quite a bit during the filming of season two, because that's mostly what he does in it. The three manage to exorcise the upside-down entities out of Will, as what appears to be a cyclone of serpents whirls up and out of his throat.
This leaves Hopper and Eleven to "close the gate." At this point I feel the need to take a step back and point something out: Hopper is a police chief. Not just an officer. A full-fledged chief. Does crime just stop occurring whenever this guy needs to duke it out with the upside-down?
I don't know. You'd think someone he works with would know what was going on by now, or at least be concerned they hadn't heard from him.
In any case, when Hopper and Eleven lower themselves into the upside-down via Hawkins Lab, the real big showdown occurs. Between Steve and the kids fucking around with Dart, and Will's possession, by the time I got to this part I was pretty burnt out from emotional investment; I didn't know if I could go on.
There is just so much intensity--the loud music, yelling, and nose bleeds are mostly what I'm talking about--that by the time Eleven closes the gate with another one of her telekinetic rages, I wanted to fall to the floor with the rest of the beasts.
