I wrote this not having watched episodes 8 and 9 yet.
Hear me out:
This is an episode with some of the best moments in the series. The action scene involving the Russian demigorgon was riveting. The kids figuring out Vecna's plan is delightfully reminiscent of the show's old days. But...
I've got some major problems with this episode. First, why is it so long? It's like watching a full-length movie, but even less events transpired. There is a lot of filler, such as Steve and Nancy drama, the police questioning the kids, and Eddie's boring writing. Think of all the other things that could have happened in 100 minutes, then think about what we got. Seriously, you're telling me an episode this long has no time for our friends out in Utah? Do they not matter anymore? Are we ever going to get an explanation on how Papa survived after Season 1? I have no idea.
Also, I really don't buy into Papa's character at all. Like, supposedly now he's trying to help, and he does have a pretty well-written conversation with El early in this episode, but are we supposed to just believe him? Does anyone else remember how evil he was in Season 1 or how badly he treated El at the laboratory? I wish we got a scene showing how he was thankful to have survived the demigorgon attack and how he reflected on his terrible past actions and came to an epiphany. That would have been a good use of some of the 100 minutes of this episode.
And the last thing I want to talk about is, of course, the twist at the end. Hot take, but it was really dumb. Now, the acting performances sold this more than anything. But that doesn't change the fact that this reveal came completely out of nowhere. I guess it clears up Vecna's motivations and gives some history of the Hawkins Lab, but I stand by my point; it's kinda stupid. So the guy helping El escape is 001. Ok, that's pretty cool. It doesn't have a huge effect on the overall story, but cool. So, why is he now killing everyone is this place? Oh yeah, it's because he's just a generic villain with the most bland motivation and ideology of all time. Complete 180° character shift. "I was different and treated differently and the people are full of lies." Isn't that literally just half of all villains? Why does Nancy randomly get seized by Vecna and sees his memories as he disjointedly narrates them to El? The narration is jarring when you realize that he's saying all of this to El, like when he just starts talking about spiders for no reason. It's so loosely connected to his points and took me out of it a little. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it was difficult to watch.
I could mention also mention the terrible action scene at the beginning which is just so difficult to follow, but I'm done. I'm tired of seeing so much unwarranted praise for this, I'll be honest, only decent episode. It misused its characters, especially Papa, and the twist at the end was bad. I was initially going to rate this an 8/10, but after writing all this down, I'm honestly leaning towards a 7/10. I didn't hate it, but man, there was so much potential that got wasted in my eyes. But I guess it's not, since I stand alone on this opinion, so what more can I really do?
Hear me out:
This is an episode with some of the best moments in the series. The action scene involving the Russian demigorgon was riveting. The kids figuring out Vecna's plan is delightfully reminiscent of the show's old days. But...
I've got some major problems with this episode. First, why is it so long? It's like watching a full-length movie, but even less events transpired. There is a lot of filler, such as Steve and Nancy drama, the police questioning the kids, and Eddie's boring writing. Think of all the other things that could have happened in 100 minutes, then think about what we got. Seriously, you're telling me an episode this long has no time for our friends out in Utah? Do they not matter anymore? Are we ever going to get an explanation on how Papa survived after Season 1? I have no idea.
Also, I really don't buy into Papa's character at all. Like, supposedly now he's trying to help, and he does have a pretty well-written conversation with El early in this episode, but are we supposed to just believe him? Does anyone else remember how evil he was in Season 1 or how badly he treated El at the laboratory? I wish we got a scene showing how he was thankful to have survived the demigorgon attack and how he reflected on his terrible past actions and came to an epiphany. That would have been a good use of some of the 100 minutes of this episode.
And the last thing I want to talk about is, of course, the twist at the end. Hot take, but it was really dumb. Now, the acting performances sold this more than anything. But that doesn't change the fact that this reveal came completely out of nowhere. I guess it clears up Vecna's motivations and gives some history of the Hawkins Lab, but I stand by my point; it's kinda stupid. So the guy helping El escape is 001. Ok, that's pretty cool. It doesn't have a huge effect on the overall story, but cool. So, why is he now killing everyone is this place? Oh yeah, it's because he's just a generic villain with the most bland motivation and ideology of all time. Complete 180° character shift. "I was different and treated differently and the people are full of lies." Isn't that literally just half of all villains? Why does Nancy randomly get seized by Vecna and sees his memories as he disjointedly narrates them to El? The narration is jarring when you realize that he's saying all of this to El, like when he just starts talking about spiders for no reason. It's so loosely connected to his points and took me out of it a little. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it was difficult to watch.
I could mention also mention the terrible action scene at the beginning which is just so difficult to follow, but I'm done. I'm tired of seeing so much unwarranted praise for this, I'll be honest, only decent episode. It misused its characters, especially Papa, and the twist at the end was bad. I was initially going to rate this an 8/10, but after writing all this down, I'm honestly leaning towards a 7/10. I didn't hate it, but man, there was so much potential that got wasted in my eyes. But I guess it's not, since I stand alone on this opinion, so what more can I really do?