Stranger Things Episode 5 Review – “Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat”

Stranger Things Season 1, Episode 5 “The Flea and the Architect”
Written by Alison Tatlock
Directed by The Duffer Brothers
Premiered July 15, 2016 on Netflix

Who’s up for a lore dump? With so many allusions, teases, and cutaways in the first four hours, it was only logical that Stranger Things would find itself needing to convey a lot of information to the audience at some point in time, before shifting into the more active, consequential form of storytelling needed for the season’s climactic developments awaiting in the season’s final episodes. “Chapter Five: The Flea and the Architect” is an episode that bears a lot of this narrative weight, filling in details of the Upside Down and what Brenner’s been up to in Hawkins Lab, while starting to pull some of its other story threads ever-so-closely together. Though it’s not quite as showy or thematically resonant as some of the previous episodes, the fact “Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat” is able to balance all of these elements without feeling like an overstuffed drag makes it perhaps the most impressive episode yet.

Opening with one character breaking through a gate (Hopper into Hawkins Lab) and ending with one closing behind another (Nancy in the Upside Down), “Chapter Five: The Flea and the Architect” smartly uses these images of characters pushing their way into places and truths unknown as a foundation for its various stories and developments. The most obvious of these, of course, is starting to sketch in the details of the place Will’s presumably gone, named “The Upside Down” by the group as they try to infer what Eleven was talking about when she flipped their D&D table over in “Chapter Two: The Weird on Maple Street” – which it delivers from three different perspectives, sketching in not just what these wet, goopy portals are, but what is lurking on the other side… and just how difficult they are to traverse, something endearingly explained by Mr. Clarke, who is just trying to use multiverse theory to help a few students (presumably) get over the death of their best friend.

This idea of pushing through manifests most physically through Nancy and Eleven, of course, who give us a couple different perspectives into the places existing beyond the natural realm of Hawkins. Nancy’s is the more straightforward of the two, but is nonetheless satisfying; Stranger Things continues to do a great job usurping expectations for her character, a girl unwilling to put up with anyone’s bullshit, or be faced with an obstacle she can’t find her way around. A poorer reading of her character could make her a shrill moralist, but she’s as unwilling to entertain Steve’s bullshit or Jonathan’s assumptions about her, as she is ready to pick up a weapon and step right into the den of the monster she thinks killed her friend (well, she puts down her weapon before going in like an idiot… but you get my point). She is not only one of the show’s most encouraging characters, but she is a clear sign that this sign wasn’t written with nostalgia and reference completely driving its creative choices; her character is distinctly against archetype for any of the multitude of genres Stranger Things pays homage to, and it brings so much life to what could otherwise be a very pedantic story that drags the narrative, rather than drives it.

Eleven’s parallel journey isn’t quite as unexpected – but it is much more fascinating and engrossing, as we get a glimpse into some of the experiments Brenner was using her for. Using a sensory deprivation tank, Eleven’s flashback in this episode sees her being dunked underwater and sent into what appears to be a space between spaces, an engulfing, unsettling all-black landscape where she can see a Russian man talking into the void to someone unseen – and in the process, draws the attention of something terrible. Between the Demogorgon, Lucas and Brenner, Eleven spends a lot of time in “The Flea and the Acrobat” drawing a lot of negative energy towards herself – through no fault of her own, but in a way that really reveals the dichotomy between the incredible powers she clearly possesses, and how many different entities around her are acting out of fear of the unknown – either by admonishing her as a rational human being, or trying to contain and manipulate those very abilities to serve their own ends.

“Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat” is not just about discovery, of course; it’s also an episode that begins to surface some intrapersonal conflicts, particularly between the Loser’s Club, as the group splinters over Eleven’s and her presumed intentions and allegiances. After trying to lead everyone away from Hawkins Lab, Lucas and Mike get into a fight that leads El to user her powers to push Lucas away, knocking him out and scaring the piss out of all three of them – which is probably deserved, given how much of a dick Lucas has been to Eleven since they met (though you can’t deny he has a point about being led in the wrong direction by someone unknown and dangerous).

We also learn a bit more about the poor Byers family, when Lonnie makes his way to Hawkins for Will’s “funeral” (a scene I love, if only because it has Dustin talking confidentially about telling Will about his own funeral one day), and Jonathan and Nancy get into a bit of a spat in the woods. Lonnie’s wonderful fathering comes full circle in “The Flea and the Acrobat”, as he tries to convince Joyce that they can cash in on Will’s death in order to send Jonathan to “whatever college he wants to go to”, even though that’s obvious it’s something he doesn’t care about. Anchored once again by Ryder’s phenomenal performance, the Byers family material keeps itself from being too on-the-nose or depressing through her utter relentlessness – which leads to the episode’s most satisfying emotional release, when a post-drugged and kidnapped Hopper shows up at her house to tell her that he finally believes everything she’s been telling him.

For such a dense episode, “Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat” does a great job of keeping things moving, even through static events like Will’s sham funeral or Nancy and Jonathan’s extended adventure into the woods in the third act. Well-paced and wonderfully executed, “The Flea and the Acrobat” both widens its narrative lens while doubling down on some of its characters and conflicts, making for a rather rich, if not entirely consequential, hour of the young series.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

• There’s a great little flashback of Joyce cooking dinner while Will draws his D&D party. “Sometimes the bad guys are smart, too.”
  
• Dustin, not impressed with the funeral catering: “Man, these aren’t Nilla wafers.”
  
• There’s a note about Barb’s car being found at a bus station… nobody seems to be buying that story, but nobody is really in a hurry to look into it much either, it seems.
  
• Jonathan and Nancy bond over their broken baby boomer families: “They started their nuclear family.” “Screw that.”
  
• Nancy is very right to call out Jonathan’s “I thought you could just be yourself” bullshit about him photographing her.
  
• The group of people tapping the phones we saw in “Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers” also have radio capabilities, as we see Dr. Brenner listening to the contact El made with Will in “Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly”.