I rewatched the Vanishing of Will Byers and, as promised...here is my random-ass commentary. This is not a strictly chronological post, but it does generally follow the order of appearance of characters at least.
Under the cut because this got way longer than I expected it to.
Every time I see the date at the start of this episode, I can't help but think about how Will vanishes four days after Azazel visited Sam Winchester. Like. SPN and ST could so easily exist in the same universe, it's kinda nuts.
The HNL scenes actively bore me on a rewatch, to the point that I struggled not to (and eventually gave in and did) skip through some of them. This is a tad amusing to me because the scenes with Dr Brenner are part of what drew me into the show in the first place.
The first time I watched Stranger Things I'd had exactly zero spoilers AND the only true horror I'd ever consumed was It (the book, not the movie) so I was unfamiliar with the tropes and references that I now know exist in abundance in this show. As a result...I was absolutely BAFFLED by the Lab/Dr Brenner, the Upside Down, and El. I sat on the edge of my seat trying to figure it all out from the first second of the first episode to the last second of the last (at the time, there was only one season), and every single plot twist and jump scare really got to me.
Basically what I'm saying is...the Duffers, or whoever it was, did an objectively fantastic job of building suspense and pulling in first time watchers in season 1...and a pretty terrible job of ensuring the lab scenes in particular would continue to be entertaining on a rewatch. It's a good thing the stuff in Hawkins proper is so engaging, ey?
I did find myself thinking about how El's escape is reframed in season 4 while watching what I could of the lab sequences in this episode. They did a decent job with that retcon, all things considered, though I have ThoughtsTM about her plotline in season 4 that I suppose I will save for...when I rewatch? when I finally start writing fic again? I don't know.
Next up: The D&D game + Will vanishing
Okay so the D&D games consistently echo the events of the show through metaphor. They either predict what's going to happen or summarize what already happened, over and over and over. The focus tends to be super tight on Will, and this first game is no exception. However...Mike's the one pulling the strings in this game, and it ends with Will biting it. What I can't figure out, from watching their faces, is whether Mike intended for the demogorgon to be part of that fight from the start, or whether he added it in because he saw the Party was disappointed in his mob choice. He did have the figurine...but...that doesn't actually mean much. They keep all their D&D stuff in a pile on that table even when they aren't playing.
I don't know where I'm going with that, I just noticed so...in it goes.
Another thing I found myself thinking about a lot: Will follows Lucas's advice to cast Fireball and he ultimately gets "got." Afterward, when he runs home after seeing the demogorgon he goes for the shotgun—and ALSO gets "got." He could have cast protection in the metaphor game...so...what was the real life equivalent to "protection" that he could have used?
Alternatively: maybe Will's house was supposed to be his protection spell, but no one was home- i.e. he failed that throw, too. This would heavily imply that it didn't matter whether he used fireball or protection, he wasn't going to win that encounter. Ouch.
ALSO. Mike later says that Will chose Fireball and put himself in danger to protect the Party. While I'm pretty sure that was Mike throwing everything he had into convincing Lucas they should look for Will ("he'd look for us so we gotta look for him," essentially), it led to another thought: If the game reflects real events, then doesn't that mean Will was also trying to protect the Party when he got the shotgun? Why would he do that when they weren't even there?
I'm probably thinking about this waaaay too much. Woe.
Oh, and speaking of the shotgun: Will Byers knows how to load a gun well enough to attempt it under extreme stress. Who taught him that? We know Lonnie made Jonathan kill a rabbit, but…Will would have been pretty damn small at the time. (Joyce says later in the episode that she last heard from Lonnie a year ago, and we see evidence later in the season that getting hold of him at all has been a consistent challenge.) So: was it Lonnie or Joyce? It's hard to imagine Joyce teaching her small child how to use a shotgun, but I mean…it's Indiana and it IS in her shed…?
Actually, I'm going to stop myself right there because I just remembered Jonathan got a handgun from Joyce's glove box. We don't see her use guns much (at all?) but she clearly knows how to use them so maybe she did teach Will. Huh.
Hopper's entrance is one of my favorites ever. It's right up there with Castiel's barn scene and the 9th Doctor, honestly, which is kind of funny because none of those characters are anything alike. Hopper's clearly an alcoholic, he takes a lot of pills, he reads Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea is a wrecking ball of a symbolic prop given Hop's backstory, gotta say), he's half dressed, he's hungover, he's late for work, he's sleeping on his couch with the TV on, his house is a wreck, he'd be a bastard even if he wasn't a cop…and I instantly liked him. Irrationally. Irrevocably. Why am I like this?
I have to take a second to giggle about the TERRIBLE police procedure in this episode, however. I'm out here doing extensive research on how police and prisons work to make sure a two paragraph fic scene is impeccably accurate and Hop's just like "Yo I'm just going to use my bare hands to pick up this missing kid's bike I just found suspiciously alone on the side of the road, and deliver it to his mother instead of taking it in as evidence. Also I'm going to enter the Byers' house and search their shed without a warrant. Totally chill, right?"
Important related question: Why the hell does a town as small as Hawkins have THAT many police? Especially given the weirdest thing that's happened recently is an owl attack.
Okay things might get a little sticky now because I'm going to talk about the Byers and I have some opinions about Joyce and Jonathan that run afoul of some popular fandom takes.
First, however: That little hand gesture Joyce makes when she reaches for Will and he isn't there? makes some sort of noise That hurts every single time. It's just so...cute and domestic and loving and also so, so sad. Meow. :(
Aaand spicy: Joyce has been painted in canon and fanon as this amazingly loving and supportive mom who kicks ass and takes names and never made a mistake in her life…but…watching her scenes with Jonathan I'm reminded again of how inaccurate that portrayal is. Joyce is, and has been, ABSENT for a very long time and she continues to be throughout the show. It isn't entirely her fault; they're super poor, and she does have to work very hard to keep a roof over their heads. However, in her desperation she parentified Jonathan to a damaging degree while simultaneously denying him the capacity to make decisions of his own, and has a tendency to lash out at him when her emotions get too "big" as well. In the scene where she realizes Will is missing, she straight up blames Jonathan for it; later on she tells him it isn't his fault and not to feel guilty, but...the damage was done. Of course he's going to feel like guilty shit! Of course it's going to eat him alive!
Don't get me wrong, I love Joyce. I really do. She's an amazing character and she definitely loves her children…but she has some pretty severe faults that I wish fandom engaged with more. That said: what she does have going for her that does not get nearly enough love is intuition and tenacity. She is the very essence of "Fuck your reality, I'm right and I won't give up until I've proven it." I love that.
Jonathan gets a bad rap in fandom occasionally because of the photos scene in this episode...but...I think the people hating on him for that are sleeping on two important things. First: the fact that he heard a girl screaming in the woods at night and he RAN to find her. He didn't have to do that; in fact, he absolutely shouldn't have. For all he knew, Will was gone because he'd been brutally murdered and running toward a scream would get Jonathan killed, too. But he did it. Second: he's 16 years old. He took some photos he shouldn't have, and yeah, that was super shitty of him. And he's 16. He's a fucking child. I think people forget how young he's supposed to be because he was portrayed by an adult...and to make matters worse, is treated like an adult by nearly everyone in the show save Hopper. I actually really love that Hopper is like "you are a child, stay home" when Jonathan offers to talk to Lonnie. Someone needed to say that, even if Jonathan did ultimately ignore it.
And, my final Byers note: the fact that Will has been labeled queer since 20 minutes into the first season haunts me. Sometimes I randomly remember that scene while doing something completely unrelated and have to stop for a second just to process it all over again. People still try to claim he isn't? Homophobia is real peeps, and it isn't located in Joyce's use of the word queer.
Early show asshole Steve sure is a thing. I'm glad you grew up, kiddo. I wish you could have skipped the trauma on the way but…ey. We all like who you became and to be honest it's kind of fun to see you be an absolute douche bag. I was also fascinated to note, this time around, that while Tommy and Carol are written as these major assholes, they've also canonically been together for at least three years and their body language/interactions as a couple indicate twisted, but absolute, comfort and trust in one another. We don't get to know them all that well, but I like that little detail.
The scene with Nancy and Steve in her bedroom is so similar to the one with Billy and Sidney in Scream that I snort-laughed when I watched it this time. I know it's a purposeful reference, but that doesn't make it any less amusing. It also drives home that Nancy is, in fact, the Final Girl in this franchise. We even got the Final Girl trope: she loses her virginity to the charismatic boy...and someone dies. Immediately. I predict that we will lose Max, Robin, Joyce, Eleven, and maybe even Karen in season 5...and Nancy will walk out bloody and limping, but still alive enough to put a bullet in Vecna's head.
To backtrack just a little: I wish more fic remembered that Nancy not only used to play D&D, but she'd dress up for the part. She knows the rules. Her transformation from elf princess to gunslinging final girl is pretty epic; I gotta say I'm a big fan of the glow-up.
Benny runs a restaurant, but it's in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and he appears to be the only employee, given it took two days for anyone to notice he was dead. How did he stay in business? I'm sad he died; he seemed like someone who could end up on the kid's unofficial support team, sort of like Mr Clarke. Speaking of... Mr Clarke is such a great combination of goodhearted and UTTERLY dorky. He's a stereotype without being boring about it, and we don't get many of those.
Some random issues I noticed that may be answered later and I simply don't remember because it's been a while:
How can the demogorgon take Will to the Upside Down without a gate / push through the actual walls of the Byers' house? I remember there are tunnels under Hawkins causing issues in a later season, but that isn't the case here.
It opens the Byers' door latch with its mind. They aren't normally telekinetic, are they? I remember super speed and smell, but not that. Hm...
This isn't a question, but a thought: in this season at least, strong emotional connection seems to weaken the barrier between the worlds (Specifically seen with Will and Joyce, and Barb and Nancy). Reminding myself to pay attention and see if that remains true throughout, or only when it's convenient for the writers.
Is the air in the Upside Down actually poisonous, or was the lab operating with an abundance of caution in this season? If it is poisonous, what does that mean for the people who went there unprotected later on?
And, finally: what happened to the Byers' dog?
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I am not sure if I will do an episode by episode commentary of the rest of season 1, to be honest. I miiight skip straight to season 2 in my next post, then loop back here later, simply because I've watched and picked season 1 apart so many times...but season 2, not so much.
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