Stranger Things 3 Episode 4 Review – “The Sauna Test”

Stranger Things 3 Episode 4 “The Sauna Test”
Written by Kate Trefry
Directed by Shawn Levy
Premiered July 4, 2019 on Netflix

At some point, Stranger Things 3 was bound to feel the weight of its own ambitions: “The Sauna Test” is that very hour, bookending a terrific opening and closing with a mish-mash of scenes that unfortunately lay bare a few of season three’s flaws, mostly borne of the season’s much larger scope and the expectations placed upon it. It’s certainly a fitting title, though: as “The Sauna Test” proverbially turns up the heat on a number of its plots, the season’s strengths and weaknesses are coming acutely into focus.

Like season one’s “The Body” and season two’s “Will the Wise”, “The Sauna Test” follows the now-established Fourth Episode rules of Stranger Things: a pair of important discoveries pull the season’s many plot threads closer together, unifying the larger narrative as it reaches its halfway point. While some might trigger this as a natural way for any drama to expand and contract over the course of a season, how Stranger Things does this in particular is an interesting, if uneven, mix: these fourth chapters often represent a larger shift in tone for the season itself, forming a clear demarcation from the fun, nostalgic 80’s hangout show into its grander ambitions as a supernatural YA horror series.

Of course, this sometimes comes at the cost of its own storytelling, making these specific fourth chapters great barometers for the world building and character work of the season so far, as the last “normal” episode before the Creature Feature elements begin to take over the show’s humanist elements. And some of those choices work really well; how this season has centered itself a bit on exploring Max’s rambunctious character has helped so many of the Loser’s Club storylines blossom – and for a brief moment, Stranger Things gives Karen Wheeler a really emotionally potent moment, when her and a rejected Nancy bond over the things that make them the women of the Wheeler family.

These storylines and moments highlight the impressive elasticity of Stranger Things, when its scenes are focused on the present, and not leaning on teases of what’s to come. But there are times when the series is prone to forgetting to exist in the moment, and it leads to moments like, say, Erica Sinclair’s entire presence in this episode – which involves a whole lot of annoying dialogue and vacillating, for what could be accomplished in a single scene, which would maybe give “The Sauna Test” some room to actually resolve their story in this episode (they are literally left in limbo, the elevator her, Steve, Robin, and Dustin are trapped inside cascading below Starcourt at what appeared to at least be approaching terminal velocity).

The other big question mark of Stranger Things 3 is Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship; it almost seems like they’re still together simply for the fact of giving Nancy’s investigation a bit of texture, because it feels like Jonathan has receded into the background of the series, only briefly springing forth so he could get into an argument with Nancy over class privilege – something that springs out of absolutely nowhere, as season one’s whole thing was the Byers family was a “weird” family of divorce with a pair of strange boys, not a household defined by their impoverishment. In previous seasons, Stranger Things has allowed these ideas to exist in slightly more subtle ways (the comparative images of Byers home versus the Wheeler home, for example), but here, Jonathan breaks out the hammer and just starts smashing away at the structures of economic class that cause them to approach their summer internships differently (seriously – why is Jonathan talking about paying bills? His internship presumably paid him… zero dollars?).

Though not a false note, it is one that rings a bit hollow, and is an accelerative moment that sticks out like a sore thumb against the rest of the ‘sauna tests’ in the episode. Though the one Billy gets at the end of the episode is far more literal, Stranger Things 3 turning up the heat on the Nancy/Jonathan relationship just points out how flat and uninvested the show’s really been in those two since Murray encouraged them to fuck in his bedroom last season – which makes their breakup an enormous speed bump, in an episode that’s mostly spent racing to its haunting (though somewhat reductive) climactic showdown between Eleven and The Artist Previously Known as Billy.

Look, I like that scene a lot – it establishes some stakes for the season beyond “some extras in Hawkins are being corrupted by the Mind Flayer”, grounding the scene in Billy’s horror at what he’s been watching himself do, Will’s anxiety of the Mind Flayer’s power and influence, and Eleven, who meets her match for the first time (that we’ve seen at least… wink wink) when Billy fights off her telekinetic attacks and nearly kills her in front of the rest of the Loser’s Club (minus Dustin, who remains the character siloed off from the main group this season… it was Eleven last season, and Lucas next season). But it also is a bit formulaic, leaning on the same construction as so many other scenes of its ilk since “Chapter Eight: The Upside Down”, where the action of the scene is not trusted enough to carry the dramatic weight, so there have to be a bunch of strobe light effects, wet sounds – and of course, it has to end with Eleven collapsing in someone’s arms and crying, which has become kind of her go-to move whenever she has to use her powers.

Those dramatic choices pull away from the scene a little bit – but only a little, as Billy’s terrifying assault, and the subsequent reveal of just how many “bad things” Billy has been up to in a short few days ensures that Stranger Things 3 is hitting the halfway point with a proper escalation of the stakes (remains to be seen what the repercussions for the town sheriff beating the shit out of the corrupt mayor are, but that certainly counts as an escalating event). In some of those moments, one can feel Stranger Things 3 stretching itself at the seams a bit – but then, in other moments, like Karen’s brief monologue to encourage her daughter, is a strong reminder that deep down, Stranger Things still has most of its heart in the right place.

The more Stranger Things 3 adheres to that idea, that we are inspired by the ones we love, and that the difference between regular people and heroes are those who are just willing to not stop trying, the stronger and more dynamic its bigger, more fantastic conflicts become. And sure, as Stranger Things continues to grow and expand (in narrative, budget, audience, you name it) those moments may be a spread further apart – but as long as Stranger Things 3 can continue to find these pockets to reground itself in the characters we know and love, the stronger, and more coherent, its shifts between comedy, drama, and horror will be.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• “You can’t say America without Erica.”
  
• At this point, shouldn’t Eleven or someone just be carrying around tissues for her?
  
• Hopper, according to Mike: “he’s just some lonely old man who hates joy.”
  
• “Maybe I should just hang out with my species.” It was in this moment that Mike realized he had fucked up.
  
• Max suddenly becoming an idiot skeptic is real annoying; how quickly she is willing to wave away the very obvious problems in front of her sells her more than a bit short.