Stranger Things - 'Chapter 5: The Flea and the Acrobat'

I love these guys.

And we're back to Stranger Things, thanks to a quiet evening in which to focus on some quality TV instead of half-watching trash.

The good news is that Hop isn't dead. Despite penetrating to the heart of Hawkins Power and Light, he is neither eaten by a monster nor disappeared by security, presumably because a police chief is a bugger to disappear. Instead they drug him and dump him back in his trailer, where he goes a bit crazy looking for - and finding - bugs. Then he gets news that a couple of hunters have gone missing, and it's kind of wonderful that when told where he refers to it as 'Mirkwood', just like the kids do. Ultimately he decides to talk to Joyce about it (see above) and props to both actors for a masterclass in confused paranoid jabbering.

Well, I say paranoid, but the conspiracy continues as a Hawkins tech comes to look at the fried ham radio. The principal explains that it's used by the AV club, and is popular among the 'non-athletic' kids.

Jonathan and Nancy set out to look for the monster, Nancy bringing a softball bat and Jonathan his dad's gun - Papa Byers briefly appearing with the intention of exploiting Will's disappearance for financial gain. They bond briefly, then fall out because each looks down on the other for being a snob of one kind or another, but stick it out to find Barb. In all honesty, Nancy is getting pretty badass by this point, and we can only hope she won't spoil it by doing something stupid like plunging headlong and solo into a mysterious and fleshy rift in a tree trunk.

The boys consider where Will could be and El tells them 'upside-down'. By reference to the D&D board, they realise that she means another plane of existence, which Dustin likens to the Vale of Shadows, an evil reflection of the material plane in this world's version of Dungeons & Dragons, which actually sounds a lot like the Upside-Down as we have seen it. At Will's funeral they quiz the science teacher about alternate planes - props to the teacher for knowing exactly what the Vale of Shadows is - and receive the titular explanation: The acrobat can go forward or back along the rope, but the flea can climb onto the sides; or the Upside-Down. For a human to pass through would take a massive amount of power to generate a gate, and Dustin - who is on fire this episode - realises that there is a massive power spike of some kind messing with all of their compasses.

Glub.

As they attempt to track the distortion, however, El recalls her own first encounter with the Upside-Down. Placed in an isolation tank in order to better focus her powers on spying on a Russian, she was pursued by the creature. Frightened for her friends - and in particular Mike - she deflects the compass needles, which precipitates a fight with Lucas. She intervenes, hurling Lucas aside, which of course sparks anger from Mike and ends with Lucas storming off and El running away.

In the woods, Jonathan and Nancy find an injured deer. Neither can quite bear to put it out of its misery, but then it is dragged away. Nancy finds a mysterious and fleshy rift in a tree trunk, and when Jonathan doesn't hear her first call, goes in solo and headlong, finding herself in the Upside-Down and confronting the monster. This time, Jonathan hears her scream, but finds only her pack, missing the closing rift entirely. I can not imagine this is going to work out well for him. It's like Richard Marx' 'Hazard' all over again.

'The Flea and the Acrobat' has some brilliant moments, and moves the plot forward, but I admit I left feeling a little let down by Nancy's last-minute dive into stupidity. I know she wants to save her friend, but seriously... Ah well. The series is still a cut above average and, while boneheaded, it's a very eighties decision to have made. Overall, the eightiesness remains on point, with basically every aspect of the production spot on.

Moreover, despite a somewhat reduced role this episode, Hop and Joyce were a delight, with Hop's appearance at the door and insistence on unscrewing every Christmas light bulb to look for microphones a particular highlight.