Stranger Things 2 Episode 2 Review – “Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak”

Stranger Things Season 2, Episode 2 “Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak”
Written by The Duffer Brothers
Directed by The Duffer Brothers
Premiered October 27, 2017 on Netflix

It’s Halloween in Hawkins as Stranger Things 2 – and though many people might expect a fair amount of spectacle for a holiday episode, “Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak” is instead an incredibly dense episode as Stranger Things 2 continues to stretch its (noticeably extended) narrative legs. But it is an episode defined most acutely by its closing images of Dustin pulling off the lid of a garbage can and looking inside; while there’s a solid amount of intrigue built into its disparate parts, there’s a distinct lack of momentum in the overwhelming majority of its stories that leave it all feeling every so slightly inert when it tries to stand on its own.

“Trick or Treat, Freak” opens by filling in the gap between “Chapter Eight: The Upside Down” and “Chapter One: MADMAX”, showing that Eleven woke up in the Upside Down, made her way out, and evaded the cops and survived long enough in the woods to be found by Hopper (the latter show in another flashback sequence later in the episode). This, of course, allows Stranger Things 2 to do a number of things at once; it keeps Eleven in place while the other stories of season two develop, allows the series to explore Hopper’s attempts to heal – and also keeps Mike at a safe distance, giving both a bit of gravitas as they pine for each other across Hawkins (and for a brief moment, across the void in between realities).

As you might expect fledgling teenagers to be, Eleven’s a bit indignant about being stuck at home during Halloween (a nice little note: El wanting to dress as a ghost while the party dresses as Ghostbusters) and Mike is pissy, angry that the rest of the group seems ready to move on and accept Max into the group, replacing El while he continues to try and reach her on his radio every single night. There’s even a bit of gamesmanship between Dustin and Lucas, as they poke each other over who might draw Max’s attention first – which makes it all the better when she shows up at Halloween and scares the shit out of all of them, ensuring that she’s joining the party on her own terms (even if Mike sits back, complaining under his breath about her joining the group at all). As one would hope, Stranger Things 2 isn’t just running with the group’s status quo, and uses both Max and Will as entryways to challenge the group as they sit on the precipice of both adolescence and the terrifying discoveries awaiting in an alternate dimension.

This sense of angst spreads from Hawkins Middle to Hawkins High, with high school Halloween party (thanks, Tina) that continues Stranger Things‘s strong work with both Nancy and Steve. Their supposed breakup is kind of the only real consequential action of the episode (again, there’s a lot of setup happening in these two opening hours), and even that is really story aimed at character development to come in season two. Textually, it’s not a surprising move; given the two of them first hooked up the literal moment Barb was murdered, their supposed love story was a tainted from the start – but as season one progressed, their relationship also proved to be a bit of a limiting factor for both characters. Separating them – and making it such a painful, raw moment as Steve realizes what drunk Nancy is telling them – brings new potential to the storytelling for both characters, one of many examples of Stranger Things 2 using its expanded space to allow characters to diverge and branch out into their own stories, though it remains to be seen whether it will be able to payoff all of these stories within the space of the next seven episodes.

For the most part, “Trick or Treat, Freaks” focuses on the changing dynamics between characters, illuminated by Halloween, rather than defined by it; outside of the party being in their Ghostbusters costumes for the entire episode (they missed the memo that nobody at Hawkins Middle was dressing up for school this year, leaving them in costume all day), Halloween is mostly a backdrop for an episode that, as a whole, feels more like a second part to the season premiere than a second episode unto itself. Though season one certainly leaned into the binge-streaming formula (bookending each episode to simulate an ongoing narrative, in the old Netflix ethos of a season being an “X hour movie”), both “MADMAX” and “Trick or Treat, Freak” are noticeably slower, more deliberate episodes; while the show’s aesthetics have carried over from season one (in particular, the season two iterations on the score so far have been largely great), there’s definitely been a shift in storytelling that allows for more room in scenes like the kids breaking the ice with Max as they trick or treat or Nancy’s continued disillusionment with everyone pretending things are normal, but it comes at the cost of narrative brevity, which makes “Trick or Treat, Freaks” both feel like an incredibly dense hour, but one that is largely inconsequential as inches forward its central narrative.

For now, it gives us moments like Dr. Owens watching the footage of his interview with Will from the last episode, or Hopper staring at rotten pumpkins interspersed throughout the episode, which at times makes “Trick or Treat, Freaks” feel a bit unfocused, or with its attention more on the future, than the present. And while future episodes will certainly catalyze on some of the things established in this episode (like Billy’s attitude and Nancy’s guilt, to name two non-Upside Down related stories), “Trick or Treat, Freaks” doesn’t offer a lot to distinguish itself as a standalone episode of television (something so much of season one does, even with its focused overarching narrative). Expansion always comes at a cost, and Stranger Things 2 is clearly still trying to figure out what to do with all that space and time; but as the stories and budgets grow larger, so do the dangers and threats lurking in The Upside Down, raising the stakes for Stranger Things to deliver on its many teases and allusions.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• Jonathan meets a girl who flirts with him before he notices Nancy getting a little unhinged. He later brings her home if
  
• Poor Joyce: she’s trying to enjoy her Halloween with Vampire Bob, but she admits she struggles to think of anything besides Will when he isn’t in the house.
  
• Dustin is a 3 Musketeers defender.
  
• Boy, one of these Hawkins cops should give Billy a speeding ticket! Also… what does he mean when he alludes to Max being the rest their family ended up in Hawkins?
  
• Lucas’s scream is one of the funniest one-off jokes in all of Stranger Things.
  
• Hopper is still struggling to find that work-life balance, forgetting his promise to be home early for Eleven, and showing that after nearly a year in the cabin, she’s starting to form an independent streak she was never offered while in Brenner’s “care”. Also, Hopper is very correct – teenage girls are terrifying!
  
• Over at Hawkins Lab, they are clearly running some test on the Upside Down, taking a flame thrower to some of its expanding tentacles, and testing video feeds that work in the Upside Down.
  
• Did Eleven kill that poor old man in the woods?
  
• The unfolding, twisting apparition Mike sees in his Halloween vision is incredibly unsettling. Such a well-animated moment.
  
• Still hard to believe people regularly partied to Duran Duran at any point in time.
  
• “If we’re going crazy, we’ll go crazy together.”