December 4, 2025 • 35 mins
Join Jason and Rosie as they return to Hawkins to catch up with those crazy adult kids we all know and love. First they are recapping the events of episodes one and two of season five then they will be breaking it down in the discussion at the end, and sharing their predictions for where we go from here and have the conversation: is Stranger Things still hitting in the same way?
Join us tomorrow for episodes 3 and 4.
Follow Rosie: IG & Letterboxd
Follow X-Ray Vision on Instagram
Join the X-Ray Vision Discord
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Today's episode cand it's spoilers for Stranger Things episodes one
and two of the final season season five. Hello, my
(00:24):
name is Jason gets Ups and I'm Rosey Knight and
welcome back to Xtra revision of the podcast where we
dive de be to your favorite shows, movies, comics, and
pop culture comedy Over my Heart podcast. We're bringing you
three episodes a week plus days outsider.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
In today's episode, We're back, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
There's egoes, there's blowouts, there's big hair, there's fights, there's
demic organs, there's X Men references, it's Stranger Things.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
There's back, and we're in.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
There that's still in high school. And me and Jason
are recapping episodes five oh one and five oh two
for you and guys.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Just remember production note.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
This holiday season, we'll be sharing a couple of short
stocking stuff for episodes with you. With so many great shows, movies, comics, books, toys,
all kinds of fun things we want to explore, these
episodes will help us cover some extra content we wouldn't
usually be able to cover on our normal episodes. We
had our first few episodes last week, and keep an
eye out for more throughout December.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But first episode five oh one, the Crawl, we open
in the Upside Down Z's back in back in the
day nineteen eighty three when Will Byers was first trapped
down there and he's being hunted by the demogorgan and
(01:43):
who finds him but Veakna, And basically this reframes what
we knew about Will's disappearance into the Upside Down, that
it wasn't just like one of those early forays into
the battle between good and evil and Hawkins and Vecna.
It was actually some part of Vecna's long plan. Yes,
(02:07):
whatever that plan is.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
He definitely chose well.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And we get this really creepy moment, which is hilarious.
I was watching this with Nick, who has never seen
any strange thing.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Because it was so funny.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
The post is so funny where he is just like like,
she's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Like wait what.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
He doesn't understand what's going on, but it was really
funny because the moment that we see them, we see
Vecna put his kind of creepy mouth thing.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Into your mouth. It's really bad.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And Nick was like, you know what, here's an outsider perspective.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I probably would have turned it off after that.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Why is he putting that in an eleven year old's mouth,
And I was like, thanks, granddad, but yes, now it's
only four years later.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Shockingly, Jason, where we caught.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
It's the present day later. And by the way, this
is the opening featured a de aged Will Bias.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
They should have just shot that in the time when
he says, if we're watching.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The irishmid or something, yeah, like come on, we cut
to the president's now nineteen eighty seven, but basically like
four years nearly to the day later from the flashback,
Hawkins is under a government occupation. Everybody in the town
is taking this essentially in stride. Steve Harrington and Robin
(03:26):
are now working at the local radio station, where you know,
Robin is like the hot DJ in town giving updates
about the military occupation, but in a subversive way where
it's like she's kind of criticizing it, but also in
a way that makes it somehow palatable to the military.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, she's doing a lot of like and next this
great song Kids in America and kid Yeah, I hope
you're doing okay in this version of America, which kind
of sucks, but you know, lots of fun.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I love I love Maya Huac in this role. They
truly were blessed to get her.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Meanwhile, the military is there to do a couple of things,
one of which we're gonna find out about, the other
of which is obviously to find eleven, track her down
and take her prisoner. She's doing her Jedi training out
like in the woods, like jumping over cars and blowing
(04:27):
up pumpkins and doing all that stuff. Hopper and Joyce
are you know, checking in with her. Meanwhile, Dustin is
still in school at twenty six years.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Old and a school. It's my biggest question, send him
to college.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
He's he's devastated over the death of Eddie at the
end of season four and the sacrifice Eddie made, and
the fact that the kind of the jocks in school
certainly still still view Eddie as like a piece of
shit hell fire club murderer and don't celebrate him in
the way he deserves to be celebrated as someone who
(05:06):
literally kind of soft saved the world, you know, a
little bit kind of saved it. Meanwhile, the mission, part
of the military's mission is to they're going into the
upside down for something. They do a controlled burn, which
is like a flame throwing open this very vaginal birth
(05:28):
canal gate into the upside down. Hopper is going to
go in there, and you know, uh.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I guess like look for Vecna. It's kind of look
for to hunt him down and care.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It's kind of how in Godzilla, the American legendary monster
us stuff. To get into the hollow Earth, you have
to follow a titan.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
This is kind of their version.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
They sort of sneak in after the government, right like,
I don't notice.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That's the plan, and then the kids are going to
be outside basically tracking him in parallel in the right
side up, keeping within radio range so they can always
like know where he is. Meanwhile, Holly Wheeler, Mike and
Nancy's once very minor character sister is now taking her
(06:18):
steps into the foreground of our story. She's in middle
school now and she's got an imaginary friend. Uh not
even I don't know, like imaginary adult friend.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I know it's it's very imaginary.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, yes, named mister what's it? Who? Is a character
from Madeline Lengles A Wrinkle in Time, which she's also
reading and which is kind of the big eighties pop
culture drop of this season thus far. A teacher sees
her talking to this imaginary mister. Imaginary Air quotes mister
(06:51):
what's it? And doesn't see anything, just sees her talking
to to air. And obviously people are concerned that night
our heroes do the crow all and Will's the back
of Will's neck goes fucking crazy. God, it's going. It's
going nuts now. And Will's connection with the upside Down
(07:14):
and specifically with a Dema Gorgon and the upside Down
is like stronger and more amplified than ever. He basically
sees through its eyes, thinks its thoughts, sees everything it sees,
and does he hunt against soldiers and stuff?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Does he control it?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It's hunts down the soldiers to stop them from getting
to hop By.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I think they want us to feel like.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
The connection might be that big because it kills all
the soldiers but leaves Hoppa.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
But we don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's a good question, right whether it goes both ways,
And I think you're right that it's certainly open for debate.
The Dema Gorgon then makes a beeline towards the Wheeler
House in the Upside Down, creating a portal to like,
you know, drill through the interdimensional barriers. And who should
(08:06):
be in the house at the moment, but one Holly
Wheeler who's like you know, in her bedroom being being weird.
As the lights start flickering and the portal to the
upside Down opens in the corner of the bedroom and
the demo Gorgan peaks its disgusting head through and roars
at her. Okay, let's take a quick break and we'll
be right back with episode two. Episode two, the Vanishing
(08:44):
of Holly Wheeler. We pick up right where we left off.
It's chaos at the Wheeler households. Holly is fucking screaming.
H Karen is in the bathroom getting ready to like.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Zone out and bad mumming it up as always.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Somehow does not hear the screaming and crashing and banging
and Dema Gorgons slamming that's going on just down the hall.
Ted Wheeler is outside shanking golf balls into the tree.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Both these parents need to stew out. Also, we didn't
even mention the fact that in the first opening of
the show, after we see DHD well you also like
lun I just everyone's living in the Wheeler House like
it's like a blended family sitcom and.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Over it is over it, Holly runs to go you know,
find mom in the bathroom and Mom's like, what are
you talking about? Like, okay, this is a dream. But
then it turns out, guess what, the demo Gorgan's there.
Karen steps up, attacks a demogorn with wine bottle, gets
in some good hits.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I gotta say, impressive amount of hits from Karen. That's
the desperation of an agrie mom. I love to sit
and the mcrogan actually also, I was pretty shocked in
the moment where the demo Gorgan sort of like the
way it uses its hands, It almost like just claws
through Karen's stomach, no issue, and it demolishes the dad
(10:15):
when he should mention him.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Ted comes in. Ted comes in with the golf club,
gets absolutely fucking wrecked.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Might be dead, it looks like.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And then and then the Demigorgon, after getting stabbed a
couple times with this broken wine bottle, just slashes Karen
about the neck and she's really really fucked up, and
Holly has been dragged into the upside down. But before
the portal seals eleven, going against the set crawl plan
(10:46):
and the demands of fucking sex addict David Harper.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Harper tells a terrible dad.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Guys, just like awful dad, always been an awful dad.
And I wrote an article about him fucking twenty nineteen,
about season three, and I stand by it because this man,
he's talking time about you're going to do it quick on.
You got to that's not even your.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Child, who listen? He is that they had a deal
that unless she hit a certain number, she could not
come on the mission to the Upside Down. But now
she's got to go because she's got to save Holly Wheeler,
so she goes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Fuck.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Meanwhile, the military eventually shows up locks down the Wheeler house,
and they're convinced like, oh now we're on the path
to eleven. We're gonna find her now. And they're you know,
studying photos and surveillance and trying to figure out like, okay,
who do we how do we really like find her? Meanwhile,
and they figure out like, oh, if we if we
(11:42):
zero in on Jane, that's maybe the way to do it. Meanwhile,
on the Upside Down, Ellen Hopper reunite when Elle throws
him into a tree and they have an argument. They
have an argument about like what are you doing here?
But there's really no time to talk because you know, uh,
(12:03):
the Demi Gorgan is down there, and you know, Ella's like, listen,
we need to find Holly Wheeler. And Hopper's like, what
the sister. He's like, yes, Lucas, she's a minor character.
That's what was like, that's what we're doing now, okay,
and he's like very Burgrudgering is like fine. Back in Hawkins,
Nancy and Might go to the hospital, and Nancy is
(12:25):
just very, very very upset because like she has seen
versions of something like this happening, and she blames herself,
and Lucas meanwhile reminds them that, hey, think about the
timing here.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Oh okay, finally somebody clever.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
This is like, let Lucas be the w yes and
be the will of this show. We know that this
is gonna he should be the style historian.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Like yes, he's so glad he said.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
When he said this, I was like, oh my god,
finally someone who's like keeping a calendar or a journal,
like you guys are just acting like this is knew,
but it's been happening for four years.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Like Lucas is making a planet. I can't wait to.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Talk about that. Okay, So Lucas, Yes, Lucas is the
only one who's like, oh my god, this is like
like four years to the day of when Will vanished,
Like in three days, it's gonna be exactly four years.
And why didn't Vecna if he really wanted to hurt us?
Why didn't he like kill Karen, like he could have
(13:26):
killed everybody in the else he didn't. What's he like?
There's something else going on? But what is it? Will
then says, oh, yeah, by the way, I'm seeing through
the demo organized, so like my connections to the upside
down is like changed and it's more amplified. And I'm
not just sensing Vecna, I'm sensing other stuff. It's like
a hive, like a hive mind.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Okay, Jason, how how wide on a scale of one
to ten, did when going to ride his eyes go
when Will said that he had this new power?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
It went very wide. It's crazy by this time that
four years you're still acting like this is new and
she can't believe what's happening, and it's like, Joyce, babe,
this has been going on.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I'm like, I can't been good like and everyone knows
now too, Like your city is under quarantine. You are
no longer like a mom having to hide the fact
that you believe your kid is still alive, like there
is a military occupation of porkins, which also Jay said
something else I want to ask you about because I
feel like American culture is obsessed with putting fictional American
(14:40):
towns into quarantine zones, and I want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
But anyway, back to the recap.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yes, let's we'll talk about that after the next ereak.
So then Robin is we learn is has a girlfriend
named Vicki. She's a nurse and also nurse slash candy
striper outfits of the eighties.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Insane, Insane that they would make people with that.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
They look like they should be legitimately hawking like candies
and in a cinema coffee in a cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah. Completely.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Anyway, Robin has a girlfriendamed Vicky, and they're treating Will's
goosebumps and his seizures, and they're figuring out like, Okay,
maybe we can use Will to like track back. Now,
Joyce does not love that idea because so you're my
son and we're not doing that, blah blah blah, and
(15:32):
Will's like, yes, I am because like, you gotta let
me do what I'm gonna do, because again this has
been gone for four years mom, and like let me
do it.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Jonathan and Steve are arguing about really Steve's pred election
to like do stuff to impress Nancy. Like they had
this pissing contest at the radio station about like who's
gonna climb up the ladders to the top of the
fucking radio tires, Like, guys, calm down. Let me Also,
(16:00):
I just want to say, like Jonathan ran out first.
He kind of started it and then acted like a victim,
like Steve, why are you why are you doing this?
Speaker 3 (16:08):
No, I'm a Jonathan. Hey, he can go in the
trash with Dustin, I mean with no notice.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Sorry, Dustin, I meant help.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Oh god, he was like Jonathan was like one wrung
up the ladder and out of breath. So maybe don't
talk about your fitness Jonathan. Anyway, So they're talking about
this like stop, you know. Jonathan's like, hey, stop doing this,
like it's really annoying Steve. Meanwhile, Steve is like, Dustin,
(16:38):
I know you're lying about the fact that like you're
beat up clearly and that your bullies did this, but
you're trying to say, like, oh, I fell off a
ladder or some bullshit like I and.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Dustin and Steve obviously in some kind of argument off
the Eddie's death, like Dustin feels like he didn't do
enough or something, which again taking away one of the
loveliest elements of the show, which is their friendship.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
But yes, Dustin did get beating up. He did make it.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And now with this tiny little John Watter's mustache and
his mullet, he is embroiled.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
In the Holly Wheelerss situation.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Mike and Nancy disguised themselves as hospital staff to get
in to talk to Karen. Karen, you know, her throat's
been torn out, so she has to write stuff, but
she writes what she remembers. And Will and Robin realized
that Will's latest collapse was him seeing from Holly's point
of view. And now between Karen's notes and Will's visions,
(17:35):
they kind of figure out, like, what's going on, mister,
what's it? Holly's imaginary friend is Vetna Henry Creole and
he's luring her to the upside down for something, Yes, Bob.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
And he's gonna keep her family safe and yeah. I mean,
Karen's really going through it. Literally, all she could write
was just the word Henry. So well, it was going
badly for her, and he's going badly for Holly because
now she's in the creole the creepy creole house and
h Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Let's take a quick let's take a quick break, come back,
and let's discuss straight the first two episodes of Stranger
Thinks the final game, and we're back. Okay, I have
(18:32):
a Before we get into our general thoughts, I have
a I have an overall opinion that I'd like to share.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Please.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I think that in the future, for shows such as
this that cast younger actors and have a story that
unfolds over multiple seasons. I think Game of Thrones is
another example of this. Lost is another example of this,
(19:00):
although less centered on young there's only one young character.
I would I would suggest to the showrunners to think
about shifting the show so that it more closely tracks
real life time.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Like, there's nothing in this season of Stranger Things, in
my opinion, that says Dustin still has to be in
high school. No, like these kids still have to be
They don't have to They could be in college.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
They could be junior college.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
They let Steve leave high school and get a summer job,
you know, like, at least let these kids do that.
Like Dustin literally looks like he's twenty five and owns
a mechanics office.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Like I Also, I.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Don't personally think that the trapping of the eighties at
this point is so important that they needed to keep
it there. I think they could have fully gone to
the nineties at this season. Also, like every has done
time jumps, there's no harm in a time jump. I
was assuming there would be a time jump. I did
not think it would just go straight in. So I
(20:09):
will say, you know, it's not exactly like the world's
most fresh take, but I do think that it takes
you out of the show, like for me personally as
somebody who's followed the show the whole way through the season,
but also as people watching with someone who had never
seen the show, Like it is Riverdale levels of distracting
(20:30):
this season, how old the kids are and why there's
no narrative reason because like the basketball bullying stuff for
Dustin not one of the strongest subplots. Like, there's a
lot of subplots here, and I feel like you probably
could have xd out a few by allowing it to
age a little more naturally.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I agree, And I think that I'm always a sucker
for the end of a show montage that's like, oh,
look how young everybody was and look what they look like. Now,
that's always like an emotional drunk that you can bang.
And you can do that if you let the characters age. Yeah,
I just find it. I just think to your point,
(21:15):
it is mega distracting at this point, and and why
not just do that because you could also age up
the themes, like you could have more or just like
more adult I think, happy, what am I gonna do
with my life? Am I ever gonna find like a
person to be in a long term relationship with?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
These are all.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Things that like you can do that in this space
of Hawkins is so interesting. And I will also say
I totally agree with you because I think that, for example,
I do want to see and we're never gonna get this.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I get it maybe in.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
A cool book twenty years down the line that's sorted
by an incredible genre, right and we don't even know
yet who's probably writing, you know, has been hotel foun
fiction right now, maybe there'll be an eleven book that
deals with this, but the maturing of the themes would
have allowed us to deal with the fact that Hoppit
essentially kidnapped a child, kept her in prison by the way,
(22:08):
kept her imprisoned in a wooden.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Shack for a year, and is now still a bad dad.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Like I would have just like a tiny bit of
eleven being like, I'm twenty one, now, what does that
look like?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
What am I real? You know, there's something I think
that is missing in that.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
But also I would say that, yeah, Ian Will being
addicted to drugs to like try and deal with the
abduction or something, so many interesting analogus I feel like
they could have done, as these kids are all now
in their twenties. But saying that, I also understand that
this show has a lot to wrap up if you
(22:47):
have been following it, So I will say that I
do think, you know, one of the big critiques in
my living room and also in the internet, is like
this is just to show. These first episodes especially, are
lots of people just having conversations. But if you are
invested in those characters and care about where they're going,
then you care about the conversations. But it's not necessarily
as a texted Jason last night. Not a great jumping
(23:09):
on point.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
No, No, you have to have watched every at least
a very good YouTube explainer, or if you're watching with
someone who doesn't know, get ready to be the explainer,
which is also fun.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yes, so that's really my take. Let people let the
kids age?
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Why not let them age?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
What do you think Beckner's big plan is going to
have been all along? Because that's what I feel like
we're leading to. Why taking the kids? Why the telekinesis?
What does he want? He's promising this safe space?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Like who?
Speaker 3 (23:41):
What is really going on here? Because for a long
time the baddies were really just the American government and
Eleven's dad, but they're kind of shifting that. Have any
Henry Creole theories?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I don't. I think maybe he wants to create like
a nuclear family down there, oh with like how it
maybe like a and like a have like a normal
quote unquote normal ish kind of life downer. But honestly,
I have no idea. I don't see where it's going.
I don't, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Do you have any thoughts about it?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I think that they're the fact that they had him
as mister Watson and they're playing into these kind of
like ideas of why isn't he killing them and what
does he really want?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I think there is going to be more depth to it.
We know he's another.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Exploited child like Eleven. It's very X Men coded. Maybe
they're going to try and make him their magneto this
season and he's not as evil as they think. But
it's going to be interesting to see, especially because I
think what we're really leading to here from the opening
and where we leave this episode is some kind of
will Vecna showdown, and that does lead me. I will
(24:51):
say to one of my other issues with this couple
of episodes so far, I do not think that Noah
shap and Will as a character and the way they
write Am necessarily has.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
The juice to be the lead.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Mebby Brown in the first season as Eleven was like
this exciting, enticing Jean Gray esque like Superhero Force.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I don't know who that is right now.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I think now everyone just has to be following their favorites.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I don't think there's a clear lead.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
To your point. I think one of the things the
show is maybe not done great is kind of reorient
itself around who its best performers are. Like, I don't
know that having Sadie Sink, who's awesome, unbelievable, be comatose
for this open, crazy portion of the last season and
(25:42):
like not involved at all is necessarily the best idea.
Like Lucas to your point, as the only one with
a brain, definitely should be in a lot more scenes
and more central than he is. I don't care about
I don't care about Dustin's bullies. These are the high
school hijinks are like things like I don't care about now.
(26:05):
To me, it's like the VECNA showdown.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Is That's what we're leading to, right? And the thing
is I love everybody knows this, no surprise. I love
shows about young people and their day to day lives
and having a young group of people I can root for.
But it is not believable that Dustin is being beaten
up by a bunch of teenagers. It's not an important
story point. We've done it. That was the plot line
(26:28):
of last season. School does Suck.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I was bullied. Bullies are bullies. People bully each other.
We all stuck where ad my kids?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But like, you don't need that this is not a
new fresh take that is adding anything to the stranger.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I will add bullies don't stop after school like they
can if you This is so back to my original
kind of why why not let them age? I can
see where if you're the Duffers or Netflix, you're thinking, well,
we bought a show about kids in high school, and
you know, it's like you didn't all of a sudden
(27:03):
graduate the characters and cheers to what do they do
outside of the park? Right, you don't do that, like
let's keep a foremat and let's keep a setting that is,
you know, we're in Hawkins and the kids are in school. Okay,
I sort of understand that, But all of these things,
if you really wanted to do it, like Dustin's Bullies,
(27:24):
nobody's leaving Hawkins, no wite the fact that there's interdmensional portals,
constant demagorgon attacks, margar disappearances and murders and like weird
things happening all the time. Everybody's sticking around. So like
Dustin's Bullies, they don't Yeah, they don't have to leave
(27:46):
town because they're not in high school anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Exactly could have all that.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Also, I would say a funny narrative pitch I would
have thrown into this is like I would have just
been like, yeah, that all in that twenty but actually
they still have to just essentially stay in high school
in this like because this is because.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We're in the quarantine.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Like that would have been an interesting matter, like Stacys,
like you're not really in high school, but you've got
to stay in the high school building doing college or
whatever because it's quarantine. I feel like there are ways
they could have explained it, but instead it feels like
it's relatively tired.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I'm also like, I don't like the way that now it's.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Like Lucas is a traitor and he'll never be able
to play basketball again, and it's like he's like the
only black kid on the basketball team. That was an
interesting plot line last year, Like let's continue that and
get him a batter haircut. We know it's already been said,
but it's true. Things that I most want from this
season I want Eleven. I loved I got that moment.
I mean I texted the group chat the moment when Eleven.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Jumps over that bus. I got that feeling.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I got that little bit of ambling magic that Jean
Gray learning how to use her powers.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
That exactly what you want.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
The oh wow, that looks like something that couldn't happen.
It feels real. I want to see Eleven in her powers.
I can leave Joyce and Hopper behind, which is funny
because I do think that Joyce, for the first three
seasons especially, was probably like one of my favorite characters.
But now, like, let these kids go. These are adults
like Hopper teachers. You know, Ian mentioned like Hopper treats
(29:21):
Eleven like she's six, like she's It's even more perturbing
when you see the way she looks.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Also, get her a better outfit. What was that training outfit?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I mean, I think that her outfits have been always terrible.
Let's just be honest.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
True, it's true. They've never she's never had the good looks.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
She's always looked a mess. I will say that. I
I here's the things that I think are working, the
upside down stuff, like the set pieces. I think the
piece is a great I think the action is actually
really amazing, like great amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
On the radio, I'm wonderful, Robin.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
On the radio is wonderful. I'm loving all the upside
down stuff. I would like to say, eleven cut loose
more like it's cool the training. I agree with you,
Like when she makes the big jump, I got that.
Like to me, it was like when Luke uh strangles
Java's gone right, like oh oh no, like, oh god,
(30:18):
he's he's figured it out. He's powerful now. But I
would like to see her use it more.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
I would like to see her David Harper's head with
that pumpkin power and then no one's gonna be telling
you what to do. You are literally like a god
in this world. Just fucking destroy the military, kill the
demo Gorgan like reimagine what's hawkings in your favor.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
What's working for you?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
I love I love Robyn. I love the radio stuff.
It's very fun. It's very like pump up the jam.
It's very Christian, A is very it's so much fun.
I want I want, let's let Steve be having fun again.
He's having a bad time this year, but you know what,
he's always great when he's having fun, when he's protecting
his crew.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
So I want to see him and Dustin reunite.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I want to see him and Robin kind of get
that real banty friendship back.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I love that Robin and Jackie are together.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I think something that I did think was really cool
this episode and felt very like normal and well done
and real, was the fact that, as has long been speculated,
that Will is gay, and there's kind of been a
little bit of talk about it in the last season.
Will gets Will goes to follow Robin to see if
she can help him, and he sees her and Jackie kissing,
(31:35):
and he's so shocked, and they have this great conversation
about it, where Robin's basically trying to protect herself. But
I think that we will get to see Will deal
with these feelings that he has for Mike, and I
think we might actually get a bit more of a nuanced,
interesting version of it than I feared we would get.
I like the idea that there's some kind of older,
queer person in his life.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So I think if.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
They can make those character moments hit and sing the
same way that the set pieces do, because the action
is good. And I have to say, this is the
first season where I've thought the Demogrgan looked scary. Other
times I've been like, yeah, it's a demagogan. He's a
crazy fantasy creature. But that kind of like really ridged,
kind of scarred version that could just sort of scoop
(32:17):
out Karen's guts with its hat. I was like, Okay,
this thing's actually pretty gnarly, Like, yeah, let the kids
let loose.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I would love I love them.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
I love a show where or a TV show or
a movie where the kids get like shared powers.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Obviously, we love the X Men.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Shazam did that really well in the comics and the movies,
So I definitely feel like I would like to see
obviously Will highest likelihood of getting a power because he's
already connected to the upside down. But I feel like
Holly Wheeler, they're trying to show, Okay, she is connected
to the upside down. She could end up also being
a kid who has powers. And I think that ultimately
we're gonna be in a good situation where the end
(32:58):
of Stranger Things set up a new generation of kids,
maybe with powers. Maybe Veckner's family becomes this kind of
powerful kid. I'm gonna tell you guys, and you know what,
I know, you guys are gonna be dragging me in
the discord a dragonbildline.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
But you know what, It's okay, I accept it.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
I like the Lost Daughter episode of Stranger Things season three.
I've already talked about it, I've written about it. I
would love to see a little throwback to Eleven's true family,
to the other kids like her, to a potential some
kind of power showdown where you get multiple kids and stuff.
That's just what I like, just what gets me through
the day. So I would like to see something like that.
(33:38):
But yeah, I mean, I have to say, I'll give
them one thing. I don't know where it's going, and
that's kind of for a show like Stranger Things, so
I'm gonna give.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Them no idea where it's going. I am completely confused
as to what Henry's motivations are. Maybe some sort of
like like old school like bullying beef.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I will always say it's really funny because I also
last night before watch Before you Know, after watching Stranger
Things again and before recording this, I watched The Chair Company,
and that finale is just like so insane.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
It's that I can't that I can't kind of like,
I'm basically just in a situation where I can't stop
connecting the two things because The Chair Company ends in
a way that would see Mork into a Stranger Things.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So I just hope that Stranger Things goes as weird
and wacky as the chair company is. Let them run loose,
go crazy, be weird, and hopefully.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Do some interesting stuff.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
And I'm really excited when we talk about the next
couple of episodes because we're we're going to be able
to dig into a bit more of the extraneous law
that they've built into Stranger Things, is my understanding, and
I love extra books plays, all that kind of weird
stuff that adds to it. So I think it's going
to be a fun, fun conversation. The next episode of
(35:01):
X ray Vision, we will be diving into episodes three
and four of Stranger Things season five, and of course news.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening, Bye bye.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie
Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Korfman.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Our producers are Common Laurent, Dian Jonathan and Bai Wag.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kauffman.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Special thanks to soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi our Discord moderator,
Warning.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Today's episode cand it's spoilers for Stranger Things episodes one
and two of the final season season five. Hello, my
(00:24):
name is Jason gets Ups and I'm Rosey Knight and
welcome back to Xtra revision of the podcast where we
dive de be to your favorite shows, movies, comics, and
pop culture comedy Over my Heart podcast. We're bringing you
three episodes a week plus days outsider.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
In today's episode, We're back, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
There's egoes, there's blowouts, there's big hair, there's fights, there's
demic organs, there's X Men references, it's Stranger Things.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
There's back, and we're in.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
There that's still in high school. And me and Jason
are recapping episodes five oh one and five oh two
for you and guys.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Just remember production note.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
This holiday season, we'll be sharing a couple of short
stocking stuff for episodes with you. With so many great shows, movies, comics, books, toys,
all kinds of fun things we want to explore, these
episodes will help us cover some extra content we wouldn't
usually be able to cover on our normal episodes. We
had our first few episodes last week, and keep an
eye out for more throughout December.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But first episode five oh one, the Crawl, we open
in the Upside Down Z's back in back in the
day nineteen eighty three when Will Byers was first trapped
down there and he's being hunted by the demogorgan and
(01:43):
who finds him but Veakna, And basically this reframes what
we knew about Will's disappearance into the Upside Down, that
it wasn't just like one of those early forays into
the battle between good and evil and Hawkins and Vecna.
It was actually some part of Vecna's long plan. Yes,
(02:07):
whatever that plan is.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
He definitely chose well.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And we get this really creepy moment, which is hilarious.
I was watching this with Nick, who has never seen
any strange thing.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Because it was so funny.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
The post is so funny where he is just like like,
she's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Like wait what.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
He doesn't understand what's going on, but it was really
funny because the moment that we see them, we see
Vecna put his kind of creepy mouth thing.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Into your mouth. It's really bad.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And Nick was like, you know what, here's an outsider perspective.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I probably would have turned it off after that.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Why is he putting that in an eleven year old's mouth,
And I was like, thanks, granddad, but yes, now it's
only four years later.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Shockingly, Jason, where we caught.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
It's the present day later. And by the way, this
is the opening featured a de aged Will Bias.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
They should have just shot that in the time when
he says, if we're watching.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The irishmid or something, yeah, like come on, we cut
to the president's now nineteen eighty seven, but basically like
four years nearly to the day later from the flashback,
Hawkins is under a government occupation. Everybody in the town
is taking this essentially in stride. Steve Harrington and Robin
(03:26):
are now working at the local radio station, where you know,
Robin is like the hot DJ in town giving updates
about the military occupation, but in a subversive way where
it's like she's kind of criticizing it, but also in
a way that makes it somehow palatable to the military.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, she's doing a lot of like and next this
great song Kids in America and kid Yeah, I hope
you're doing okay in this version of America, which kind
of sucks, but you know, lots of fun.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I love I love Maya Huac in this role. They
truly were blessed to get her.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Meanwhile, the military is there to do a couple of things,
one of which we're gonna find out about, the other
of which is obviously to find eleven, track her down
and take her prisoner. She's doing her Jedi training out
like in the woods, like jumping over cars and blowing
(04:27):
up pumpkins and doing all that stuff. Hopper and Joyce
are you know, checking in with her. Meanwhile, Dustin is
still in school at twenty six years.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Old and a school. It's my biggest question, send him
to college.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
He's he's devastated over the death of Eddie at the
end of season four and the sacrifice Eddie made, and
the fact that the kind of the jocks in school
certainly still still view Eddie as like a piece of
shit hell fire club murderer and don't celebrate him in
the way he deserves to be celebrated as someone who
(05:06):
literally kind of soft saved the world, you know, a
little bit kind of saved it. Meanwhile, the mission, part
of the military's mission is to they're going into the
upside down for something. They do a controlled burn, which
is like a flame throwing open this very vaginal birth
(05:28):
canal gate into the upside down. Hopper is going to
go in there, and you know, uh.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I guess like look for Vecna. It's kind of look
for to hunt him down and care.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It's kind of how in Godzilla, the American legendary monster
us stuff. To get into the hollow Earth, you have
to follow a titan.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
This is kind of their version.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
They sort of sneak in after the government, right like,
I don't notice.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That's the plan, and then the kids are going to
be outside basically tracking him in parallel in the right
side up, keeping within radio range so they can always
like know where he is. Meanwhile, Holly Wheeler, Mike and
Nancy's once very minor character sister is now taking her
(06:18):
steps into the foreground of our story. She's in middle
school now and she's got an imaginary friend. Uh not
even I don't know, like imaginary adult friend.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I know it's it's very imaginary.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, yes, named mister what's it? Who? Is a character
from Madeline Lengles A Wrinkle in Time, which she's also
reading and which is kind of the big eighties pop
culture drop of this season thus far. A teacher sees
her talking to this imaginary mister. Imaginary Air quotes mister
(06:51):
what's it? And doesn't see anything, just sees her talking
to to air. And obviously people are concerned that night
our heroes do the crow all and Will's the back
of Will's neck goes fucking crazy. God, it's going. It's
going nuts now. And Will's connection with the upside Down
(07:14):
and specifically with a Dema Gorgon and the upside Down
is like stronger and more amplified than ever. He basically
sees through its eyes, thinks its thoughts, sees everything it sees,
and does he hunt against soldiers and stuff?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Does he control it?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It's hunts down the soldiers to stop them from getting
to hop By.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I think they want us to feel like.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
The connection might be that big because it kills all
the soldiers but leaves Hoppa.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
But we don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's a good question, right whether it goes both ways,
And I think you're right that it's certainly open for debate.
The Dema Gorgon then makes a beeline towards the Wheeler
House in the Upside Down, creating a portal to like,
you know, drill through the interdimensional barriers. And who should
(08:06):
be in the house at the moment, but one Holly
Wheeler who's like you know, in her bedroom being being weird.
As the lights start flickering and the portal to the
upside Down opens in the corner of the bedroom and
the demo Gorgan peaks its disgusting head through and roars
at her. Okay, let's take a quick break and we'll
be right back with episode two. Episode two, the Vanishing
(08:44):
of Holly Wheeler. We pick up right where we left off.
It's chaos at the Wheeler households. Holly is fucking screaming.
H Karen is in the bathroom getting ready to like.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Zone out and bad mumming it up as always.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Somehow does not hear the screaming and crashing and banging
and Dema Gorgons slamming that's going on just down the hall.
Ted Wheeler is outside shanking golf balls into the tree.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Both these parents need to stew out. Also, we didn't
even mention the fact that in the first opening of
the show, after we see DHD well you also like
lun I just everyone's living in the Wheeler House like
it's like a blended family sitcom and.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Over it is over it, Holly runs to go you know,
find mom in the bathroom and Mom's like, what are
you talking about? Like, okay, this is a dream. But
then it turns out, guess what, the demo Gorgan's there.
Karen steps up, attacks a demogorn with wine bottle, gets
in some good hits.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I gotta say, impressive amount of hits from Karen. That's
the desperation of an agrie mom. I love to sit
and the mcrogan actually also, I was pretty shocked in
the moment where the demo Gorgan sort of like the
way it uses its hands, It almost like just claws
through Karen's stomach, no issue, and it demolishes the dad
(10:15):
when he should mention him.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Ted comes in. Ted comes in with the golf club,
gets absolutely fucking wrecked.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Might be dead, it looks like.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And then and then the Demigorgon, after getting stabbed a
couple times with this broken wine bottle, just slashes Karen
about the neck and she's really really fucked up, and
Holly has been dragged into the upside down. But before
the portal seals eleven, going against the set crawl plan
(10:46):
and the demands of fucking sex addict David Harper.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Harper tells a terrible dad.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Guys, just like awful dad, always been an awful dad.
And I wrote an article about him fucking twenty nineteen,
about season three, and I stand by it because this man,
he's talking time about you're going to do it quick on.
You got to that's not even your.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Child, who listen? He is that they had a deal
that unless she hit a certain number, she could not
come on the mission to the Upside Down. But now
she's got to go because she's got to save Holly Wheeler,
so she goes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Fuck.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Meanwhile, the military eventually shows up locks down the Wheeler house,
and they're convinced like, oh now we're on the path
to eleven. We're gonna find her now. And they're you know,
studying photos and surveillance and trying to figure out like, okay,
who do we how do we really like find her? Meanwhile,
and they figure out like, oh, if we if we
(11:42):
zero in on Jane, that's maybe the way to do it. Meanwhile,
on the Upside Down, Ellen Hopper reunite when Elle throws
him into a tree and they have an argument. They
have an argument about like what are you doing here?
But there's really no time to talk because you know, uh,
(12:03):
the Demi Gorgan is down there, and you know, Ella's like, listen,
we need to find Holly Wheeler. And Hopper's like, what
the sister. He's like, yes, Lucas, she's a minor character.
That's what was like, that's what we're doing now, okay,
and he's like very Burgrudgering is like fine. Back in Hawkins,
Nancy and Might go to the hospital, and Nancy is
(12:25):
just very, very very upset because like she has seen
versions of something like this happening, and she blames herself,
and Lucas meanwhile reminds them that, hey, think about the
timing here.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Oh okay, finally somebody clever.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
This is like, let Lucas be the w yes and
be the will of this show. We know that this
is gonna he should be the style historian.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Like yes, he's so glad he said.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
When he said this, I was like, oh my god,
finally someone who's like keeping a calendar or a journal,
like you guys are just acting like this is knew,
but it's been happening for four years.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Like Lucas is making a planet. I can't wait to.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Talk about that. Okay, So Lucas, Yes, Lucas is the
only one who's like, oh my god, this is like
like four years to the day of when Will vanished,
Like in three days, it's gonna be exactly four years.
And why didn't Vecna if he really wanted to hurt us?
Why didn't he like kill Karen, like he could have
(13:26):
killed everybody in the else he didn't. What's he like?
There's something else going on? But what is it? Will
then says, oh, yeah, by the way, I'm seeing through
the demo organized, so like my connections to the upside
down is like changed and it's more amplified. And I'm
not just sensing Vecna, I'm sensing other stuff. It's like
a hive, like a hive mind.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Okay, Jason, how how wide on a scale of one
to ten, did when going to ride his eyes go
when Will said that he had this new power?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
It went very wide. It's crazy by this time that
four years you're still acting like this is new and
she can't believe what's happening, and it's like, Joyce, babe,
this has been going on.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I'm like, I can't been good like and everyone knows
now too, Like your city is under quarantine. You are
no longer like a mom having to hide the fact
that you believe your kid is still alive, like there
is a military occupation of porkins, which also Jay said
something else I want to ask you about because I
feel like American culture is obsessed with putting fictional American
(14:40):
towns into quarantine zones, and I want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
But anyway, back to the recap.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yes, let's we'll talk about that after the next ereak.
So then Robin is we learn is has a girlfriend
named Vicki. She's a nurse and also nurse slash candy
striper outfits of the eighties.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Insane, Insane that they would make people with that.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
They look like they should be legitimately hawking like candies
and in a cinema coffee in a cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah. Completely.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Anyway, Robin has a girlfriendamed Vicky, and they're treating Will's
goosebumps and his seizures, and they're figuring out like, Okay,
maybe we can use Will to like track back. Now,
Joyce does not love that idea because so you're my
son and we're not doing that, blah blah blah, and
(15:32):
Will's like, yes, I am because like, you gotta let
me do what I'm gonna do, because again this has
been gone for four years mom, and like let me
do it.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Jonathan and Steve are arguing about really Steve's pred election
to like do stuff to impress Nancy. Like they had
this pissing contest at the radio station about like who's
gonna climb up the ladders to the top of the
fucking radio tires, Like, guys, calm down. Let me Also,
(16:00):
I just want to say, like Jonathan ran out first.
He kind of started it and then acted like a victim,
like Steve, why are you why are you doing this?
Speaker 3 (16:08):
No, I'm a Jonathan. Hey, he can go in the
trash with Dustin, I mean with no notice.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Sorry, Dustin, I meant help.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Oh god, he was like Jonathan was like one wrung
up the ladder and out of breath. So maybe don't
talk about your fitness Jonathan. Anyway, So they're talking about
this like stop, you know. Jonathan's like, hey, stop doing this,
like it's really annoying Steve. Meanwhile, Steve is like, Dustin,
(16:38):
I know you're lying about the fact that like you're
beat up clearly and that your bullies did this, but
you're trying to say, like, oh, I fell off a
ladder or some bullshit like I and.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Dustin and Steve obviously in some kind of argument off
the Eddie's death, like Dustin feels like he didn't do
enough or something, which again taking away one of the
loveliest elements of the show, which is their friendship.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
But yes, Dustin did get beating up. He did make it.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And now with this tiny little John Watter's mustache and
his mullet, he is embroiled.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
In the Holly Wheelerss situation.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Mike and Nancy disguised themselves as hospital staff to get
in to talk to Karen. Karen, you know, her throat's
been torn out, so she has to write stuff, but
she writes what she remembers. And Will and Robin realized
that Will's latest collapse was him seeing from Holly's point
of view. And now between Karen's notes and Will's visions,
(17:35):
they kind of figure out, like, what's going on, mister,
what's it? Holly's imaginary friend is Vetna Henry Creole and
he's luring her to the upside down for something, Yes, Bob.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
And he's gonna keep her family safe and yeah. I mean,
Karen's really going through it. Literally, all she could write
was just the word Henry. So well, it was going
badly for her, and he's going badly for Holly because
now she's in the creole the creepy creole house and
h Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Let's take a quick let's take a quick break, come back,
and let's discuss straight the first two episodes of Stranger
Thinks the final game, and we're back. Okay, I have
(18:32):
a Before we get into our general thoughts, I have
a I have an overall opinion that I'd like to share.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Please.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I think that in the future, for shows such as
this that cast younger actors and have a story that
unfolds over multiple seasons. I think Game of Thrones is
another example of this. Lost is another example of this,
(19:00):
although less centered on young there's only one young character.
I would I would suggest to the showrunners to think
about shifting the show so that it more closely tracks
real life time.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Like, there's nothing in this season of Stranger Things, in
my opinion, that says Dustin still has to be in
high school. No, like these kids still have to be
They don't have to They could be in college.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
They could be junior college.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
They let Steve leave high school and get a summer job,
you know, like, at least let these kids do that.
Like Dustin literally looks like he's twenty five and owns
a mechanics office.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Like I Also, I.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Don't personally think that the trapping of the eighties at
this point is so important that they needed to keep
it there. I think they could have fully gone to
the nineties at this season. Also, like every has done
time jumps, there's no harm in a time jump. I
was assuming there would be a time jump. I did
not think it would just go straight in. So I
(20:09):
will say, you know, it's not exactly like the world's
most fresh take, but I do think that it takes
you out of the show, like for me personally as
somebody who's followed the show the whole way through the season,
but also as people watching with someone who had never
seen the show, Like it is Riverdale levels of distracting
(20:30):
this season, how old the kids are and why there's
no narrative reason because like the basketball bullying stuff for
Dustin not one of the strongest subplots. Like, there's a
lot of subplots here, and I feel like you probably
could have xd out a few by allowing it to
age a little more naturally.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I agree, And I think that I'm always a sucker
for the end of a show montage that's like, oh,
look how young everybody was and look what they look like. Now,
that's always like an emotional drunk that you can bang.
And you can do that if you let the characters age. Yeah,
I just find it. I just think to your point,
(21:15):
it is mega distracting at this point, and and why
not just do that because you could also age up
the themes, like you could have more or just like
more adult I think, happy, what am I gonna do
with my life? Am I ever gonna find like a
person to be in a long term relationship with?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
These are all.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Things that like you can do that in this space
of Hawkins is so interesting. And I will also say
I totally agree with you because I think that, for example,
I do want to see and we're never gonna get this.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I get it maybe in.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
A cool book twenty years down the line that's sorted
by an incredible genre, right and we don't even know
yet who's probably writing, you know, has been hotel foun
fiction right now, maybe there'll be an eleven book that
deals with this, but the maturing of the themes would
have allowed us to deal with the fact that Hoppit
essentially kidnapped a child, kept her in prison by the way,
(22:08):
kept her imprisoned in a wooden.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Shack for a year, and is now still a bad dad.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Like I would have just like a tiny bit of
eleven being like, I'm twenty one, now, what does that
look like?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
What am I real? You know, there's something I think
that is missing in that.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
But also I would say that, yeah, Ian Will being
addicted to drugs to like try and deal with the
abduction or something, so many interesting analogus I feel like
they could have done, as these kids are all now
in their twenties. But saying that, I also understand that
this show has a lot to wrap up if you
(22:47):
have been following it, So I will say that I
do think, you know, one of the big critiques in
my living room and also in the internet, is like
this is just to show. These first episodes especially, are
lots of people just having conversations. But if you are
invested in those characters and care about where they're going,
then you care about the conversations. But it's not necessarily
as a texted Jason last night. Not a great jumping
(23:09):
on point.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
No, No, you have to have watched every at least
a very good YouTube explainer, or if you're watching with
someone who doesn't know, get ready to be the explainer,
which is also fun.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yes, so that's really my take. Let people let the
kids age?
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Why not let them age?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
What do you think Beckner's big plan is going to
have been all along? Because that's what I feel like
we're leading to. Why taking the kids? Why the telekinesis?
What does he want? He's promising this safe space?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Like who?
Speaker 3 (23:41):
What is really going on here? Because for a long
time the baddies were really just the American government and
Eleven's dad, but they're kind of shifting that. Have any
Henry Creole theories?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I don't. I think maybe he wants to create like
a nuclear family down there, oh with like how it
maybe like a and like a have like a normal
quote unquote normal ish kind of life downer. But honestly,
I have no idea. I don't see where it's going.
I don't, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Do you have any thoughts about it?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I think that they're the fact that they had him
as mister Watson and they're playing into these kind of
like ideas of why isn't he killing them and what
does he really want?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I think there is going to be more depth to it.
We know he's another.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Exploited child like Eleven. It's very X Men coded. Maybe
they're going to try and make him their magneto this
season and he's not as evil as they think. But
it's going to be interesting to see, especially because I
think what we're really leading to here from the opening
and where we leave this episode is some kind of
will Vecna showdown, and that does lead me. I will
(24:51):
say to one of my other issues with this couple
of episodes so far, I do not think that Noah
shap and Will as a character and the way they
write Am necessarily has.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
The juice to be the lead.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Mebby Brown in the first season as Eleven was like
this exciting, enticing Jean Gray esque like Superhero Force.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I don't know who that is right now.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I think now everyone just has to be following their favorites.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I don't think there's a clear lead.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
To your point. I think one of the things the
show is maybe not done great is kind of reorient
itself around who its best performers are. Like, I don't
know that having Sadie Sink, who's awesome, unbelievable, be comatose
for this open, crazy portion of the last season and
(25:42):
like not involved at all is necessarily the best idea.
Like Lucas to your point, as the only one with
a brain, definitely should be in a lot more scenes
and more central than he is. I don't care about
I don't care about Dustin's bullies. These are the high
school hijinks are like things like I don't care about now.
(26:05):
To me, it's like the VECNA showdown.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Is That's what we're leading to, right? And the thing
is I love everybody knows this, no surprise. I love
shows about young people and their day to day lives
and having a young group of people I can root for.
But it is not believable that Dustin is being beaten
up by a bunch of teenagers. It's not an important
story point. We've done it. That was the plot line
(26:28):
of last season. School does Suck.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I was bullied. Bullies are bullies. People bully each other.
We all stuck where ad my kids?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But like, you don't need that this is not a
new fresh take that is adding anything to the stranger.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I will add bullies don't stop after school like they
can if you This is so back to my original
kind of why why not let them age? I can
see where if you're the Duffers or Netflix, you're thinking, well,
we bought a show about kids in high school, and
you know, it's like you didn't all of a sudden
(27:03):
graduate the characters and cheers to what do they do
outside of the park? Right, you don't do that, like
let's keep a foremat and let's keep a setting that is,
you know, we're in Hawkins and the kids are in school. Okay,
I sort of understand that, But all of these things,
if you really wanted to do it, like Dustin's Bullies,
(27:24):
nobody's leaving Hawkins, no wite the fact that there's interdmensional portals,
constant demagorgon attacks, margar disappearances and murders and like weird
things happening all the time. Everybody's sticking around. So like
Dustin's Bullies, they don't Yeah, they don't have to leave
(27:46):
town because they're not in high school anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Exactly could have all that.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Also, I would say a funny narrative pitch I would
have thrown into this is like I would have just
been like, yeah, that all in that twenty but actually
they still have to just essentially stay in high school
in this like because this is because.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We're in the quarantine.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Like that would have been an interesting matter, like Stacys,
like you're not really in high school, but you've got
to stay in the high school building doing college or
whatever because it's quarantine. I feel like there are ways
they could have explained it, but instead it feels like
it's relatively tired.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I'm also like, I don't like the way that now it's.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Like Lucas is a traitor and he'll never be able
to play basketball again, and it's like he's like the
only black kid on the basketball team. That was an
interesting plot line last year, Like let's continue that and
get him a batter haircut. We know it's already been said,
but it's true. Things that I most want from this
season I want Eleven. I loved I got that moment.
I mean I texted the group chat the moment when Eleven.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Jumps over that bus. I got that feeling.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I got that little bit of ambling magic that Jean
Gray learning how to use her powers.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
That exactly what you want.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
The oh wow, that looks like something that couldn't happen.
It feels real. I want to see Eleven in her powers.
I can leave Joyce and Hopper behind, which is funny
because I do think that Joyce, for the first three
seasons especially, was probably like one of my favorite characters.
But now, like, let these kids go. These are adults
like Hopper teachers. You know, Ian mentioned like Hopper treats
(29:21):
Eleven like she's six, like she's It's even more perturbing
when you see the way she looks.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Also, get her a better outfit. What was that training outfit?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I mean, I think that her outfits have been always terrible.
Let's just be honest.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
True, it's true. They've never she's never had the good looks.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
She's always looked a mess. I will say that. I
I here's the things that I think are working, the
upside down stuff, like the set pieces. I think the
piece is a great I think the action is actually
really amazing, like great amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
On the radio, I'm wonderful, Robin.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
On the radio is wonderful. I'm loving all the upside
down stuff. I would like to say, eleven cut loose
more like it's cool the training. I agree with you,
Like when she makes the big jump, I got that.
Like to me, it was like when Luke uh strangles
Java's gone right, like oh oh no, like, oh god,
(30:18):
he's he's figured it out. He's powerful now. But I
would like to see her use it more.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
I would like to see her David Harper's head with
that pumpkin power and then no one's gonna be telling
you what to do. You are literally like a god
in this world. Just fucking destroy the military, kill the
demo Gorgan like reimagine what's hawkings in your favor.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
What's working for you?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
I love I love Robyn. I love the radio stuff.
It's very fun. It's very like pump up the jam.
It's very Christian, A is very it's so much fun.
I want I want, let's let Steve be having fun again.
He's having a bad time this year, but you know what,
he's always great when he's having fun, when he's protecting
his crew.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
So I want to see him and Dustin reunite.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I want to see him and Robin kind of get
that real banty friendship back.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I love that Robin and Jackie are together.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I think something that I did think was really cool
this episode and felt very like normal and well done
and real, was the fact that, as has long been speculated,
that Will is gay, and there's kind of been a
little bit of talk about it in the last season.
Will gets Will goes to follow Robin to see if
she can help him, and he sees her and Jackie kissing,
(31:35):
and he's so shocked, and they have this great conversation
about it, where Robin's basically trying to protect herself. But
I think that we will get to see Will deal
with these feelings that he has for Mike, and I
think we might actually get a bit more of a nuanced,
interesting version of it than I feared we would get.
I like the idea that there's some kind of older,
queer person in his life.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So I think if.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
They can make those character moments hit and sing the
same way that the set pieces do, because the action
is good. And I have to say, this is the
first season where I've thought the Demogrgan looked scary. Other
times I've been like, yeah, it's a demagogan. He's a
crazy fantasy creature. But that kind of like really ridged,
kind of scarred version that could just sort of scoop
(32:17):
out Karen's guts with its hat. I was like, Okay,
this thing's actually pretty gnarly, Like, yeah, let the kids
let loose.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I would love I love them.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
I love a show where or a TV show or
a movie where the kids get like shared powers.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Obviously, we love the X Men.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Shazam did that really well in the comics and the movies,
So I definitely feel like I would like to see
obviously Will highest likelihood of getting a power because he's
already connected to the upside down. But I feel like
Holly Wheeler, they're trying to show, Okay, she is connected
to the upside down. She could end up also being
a kid who has powers. And I think that ultimately
we're gonna be in a good situation where the end
(32:58):
of Stranger Things set up a new generation of kids,
maybe with powers. Maybe Veckner's family becomes this kind of
powerful kid. I'm gonna tell you guys, and you know what,
I know, you guys are gonna be dragging me in
the discord a dragonbildline.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
But you know what, It's okay, I accept it.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
I like the Lost Daughter episode of Stranger Things season three.
I've already talked about it, I've written about it. I
would love to see a little throwback to Eleven's true family,
to the other kids like her, to a potential some
kind of power showdown where you get multiple kids and stuff.
That's just what I like, just what gets me through
the day. So I would like to see something like that.
(33:38):
But yeah, I mean, I have to say, I'll give
them one thing. I don't know where it's going, and
that's kind of for a show like Stranger Things, so
I'm gonna give.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Them no idea where it's going. I am completely confused
as to what Henry's motivations are. Maybe some sort of
like like old school like bullying beef.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I will always say it's really funny because I also
last night before watch Before you Know, after watching Stranger
Things again and before recording this, I watched The Chair Company,
and that finale is just like so insane.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
It's that I can't that I can't kind of like,
I'm basically just in a situation where I can't stop
connecting the two things because The Chair Company ends in
a way that would see Mork into a Stranger Things.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So I just hope that Stranger Things goes as weird
and wacky as the chair company is. Let them run loose,
go crazy, be weird, and hopefully.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Do some interesting stuff.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
And I'm really excited when we talk about the next
couple of episodes because we're we're going to be able
to dig into a bit more of the extraneous law
that they've built into Stranger Things, is my understanding, and
I love extra books plays, all that kind of weird
stuff that adds to it. So I think it's going
to be a fun, fun conversation. The next episode of
(35:01):
X ray Vision, we will be diving into episodes three
and four of Stranger Things season five, and of course news.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening, Bye bye.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie
Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Korfman.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Our producers are Common Laurent, Dian Jonathan and Bai Wag.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kauffman.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Special thanks to soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi our Discord moderator,
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com