Stranger Things “Chapter Six: The Dive”

OK, so, the series seems to be suggesting that, before the season is out, Nancy may get back with Steve.  Steve is single.  Nancy is frustrated.  He’s not a bad guy.  The two get along.  Sure, I think Jonathan and Nancy make a good couple, but I can honestly say I don’t think I would mind too much if Nancy and Steve got back together.  I’m not, like, super-invested in Nancy and Jonathan, and since Robin prefers women, well, who else is better for Steve?

Dude needs the universe to cut him a break.

So, while Eleven is maybe getting her mojo back, learning how little of her own memories are perhaps trustworthy as it turns out that in this season of Stranger Things, homicidal bullies are everywhere, the episode does take a side trip to Salt Lake City where Mike, Jonathan, and Will tell Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie blatant lies to get her to use her hacking skills to find the Nina Project.  I guess Suzie isn’t completely aware of what’s going on with the Upside Down, but telling her it’s part of a contest to find a 16 bit home game system that is the American version of the Nintendo seems like something that might bite them in the ass later.

Of course, her extended family seems to consist of a lot of really wild children and an older sister who will gladly go hit a bong with Jonathan’s smitten friend Argyle.

Meanwhile, Dustin and his group (he really does act like the leader) find Eddie, and a crazy compass tells them there’s a gateway to the Upside Down which in turns happens to be in the middle of the lake, leading the older kids to take a boat out there while Dustin, Max, and Lucas stay behind.  The younger kids get detained by the local PD while the older kids, well…Steve got sucked into the Upside Down by a tentacle, and this is an 80s nostalgia series, not a Japanese cartoon, so that wasn’t meant to be…let’s say intriguing.  Robin, Eddie, and Nancy follow him down.

However, there’s something I want to address:  Jason.

Jason saw his buddy get killed by the Vecna.  He saw Eddie didn’t do it.  He couldn’t have.

But that doesn’t stop Jason from assuming that Eddie accessed satanic powers to take out his friend.  I know this is the 80s.  The “Satanic Panic” is very much a thing, and kudos to the show for remembering that and not just trying to pretend the 80s was nothing but awesome good times.    And I can accept that Jason as a popular high school jock would have a great deal of sway over his teammates and even other kids at his school.

How the hell does he sway a room full of adults to listen to him when he starts ranting about Eddie and the powers of Satan?

Seriously.  He goes to a town meeting, starts talking about how Eddie used Dungeons and Dragons to access the power of Satan and start killing people, and all of these adults decide to listen to him?  He’s a teenage high school student!  Why is he so influential for people outside of his school?

I mean, yeah, let Dustin, Mike, and Lucas’s parents all wonder if maybe all this pretend stuff is somehow bad for their kids.  I can get behind that.  But how can a teenage kid start a vigilante crowd to hunt down a local long-haired weirdo?

Did the show about monsters from another dimension just make me momentarily lose my suspension of disbelief?

Sure looks that way.  Nancy and the others better save Steve from those bat monsters next time.

Then again, the bigger problem may be Hopper, and only Hopper, knows how to fight the Demogorgon that the Russians are going to toss him to