Stranger Things 3 Episode 5 Review – “Chapter Five: The Flayed”

Stranger Things 3 Episode 5 “The Flayed”
Written by Paul Dichter
Directed by Uta Briesewitz
Premiered July 4, 2019 on Netflix

The construction of Stranger Things 3 and its many mysteries basically guaranteed an episode like “The Flayed” would occur, an hour spent with the characters in and around Hawkins catching up to the audience. I mean, Steve, Dustin, Robin, and Erica spend almost the entire episode walking down a long hallway, to discover the secret facility we saw in the season’s prologue – in that sense, it’s not exactly the most propulsive episode of the season, but contains more than enough personality and atmosphere to keep it from feeling like it’s just going through the motions.

Thinking back to the opening and closing scenes of “Suzie, Do You Copy?”, where we learned of the Russian’s experiments to open the Upside Down, and Billy becoming a victim to the Mind Flayer, the season’s story really hasn’t progressed too far past that in the proceeding four episodes. There’s been some insular development – a few breakups, Hopper’s Magnum, P.I.-inspired fisticuffs around Hawkins, Robin proving herself more useful than Steve in most cerebral situations – but for the most part, Stranger Things 3 has pushed all of its stories forward passively, without any of its main characters around to witness or participate.

The withholding of information is a bit blatant, but the season’s largely done a solid job filling in the window dressing of season three with a bunch of different bits of texture. Again, some of these aren’t the most appealing – Hopper’s attraction to Joyce rears its ugly head as he brings up Mr. Clarke yet again while they walk Alexei through the woods – but Stranger Things 3 is using these wrinkles and subplots to keep things moving, in ways that Stranger Things 2 sometimes struggled to it. It is certainly a less focused effort than the smaller, self-contained scale of Stranger Things, but an episode like “The Flayed”, which has to overcome underwhelming narrative development and a cascading series of cliffhangers in the back half that leave a good majority of its characters just hanging in limbo as the Mind Flayer’s moves into the next wet, squishy phase of its plan to presumably corrupt all of Hawkins.

The big development in the front half of the episode, of course, is still-surviving Russian scientist Alexei being brought into the fold, which also carries the reintroduction of Murray Bauman back into the world of Stranger Things – which turns out to be the comedic relief of the episode, while the Loser’s Club and former Hawkins Post employees witness the literal becoming of the Mind Flayer in the increasingly chaotic, violent fourth floor of the Hawkins hospital. Though I’m still not convinced of the whole Hopper/Joyce dynamic the series is trying to force upon everyone, Alexei’s introduction at least gives someone else for Hopper to turn his annoyed, semi-self righteous shtick onto (and someone who doesn’t understand him, to boot).

(This story also lets Stranger Things tip its cap to the original Terminator film, in the form of the squinting, extremely resilient Grigori, fresh off kicking Hopper’s ass at the end of “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard”, who spends the episode hunting them down on foot with a leather jacket on. Well done, Stranger Things 3).

From there, “The Flayed” is a cascading series of bad days for the Hawkins characters – beginning with 80s Guy who loses his car to Hopper, and poor Ricky the 7-11 employee, who gets a mild concussion on behalf of an angry, impatient Grigori. But it gets a lot worse, when everyone (minus the Scoops Ahoy team) goes to find Mrs. Driscoll at the hospital – and instead, get bombarded by the dual horrors of the two sexist (and now flayed) Hawkins Post employees, and the ever-relentless teen hormones.

Thankfully, these two stories play out on separate floors – which almost makes it amusing, the light teen melodrama of the lobby playing out while Nancy and Jonathan fight for their lives on the fourth floor. The contrast of scenes is extreme – and though it doesn’t do any favors giving voice to the pointless conflict between Mike and Eleven that’s stewed all season, it works in providing a bit of visual relief amidst the long scenes of strobe lights – a choice that has become a bit of a crutch for Stranger Things, distracting from the horrifying images of Nancy beating in Gary Busey’s face, while Jonathan buries a pair of scissors in Tom’s neck – before they both melt to form a meaty, disfigured little monster, a nasty little image to end the episode on (and one, if you really want to stretch Stranger Things 3 to its metaphorical limits, is a rather twisted depiction of adolescence coming for the fledgling teens waiting downstairs).

The only problem with the electrifying ending of “The Flayed” is that there’s still clearly so many pieces Stranger Things 3 has to move into place before the finale. If it can continue to fill that space with more fun stories, and character moments like the Wheeler women had in the previous episode (rather than more Mike/Eleven nonsense), the better off Stranger Things 3 will be as it quickly works to arrange everything for what looks to be a big season finale.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• Who in their right minds would see a glowing green tube and be like, “that might be a good backup water source?”
  
• Nancy, accepting Jonathan’s apology: “I just look forward to you ever doubting me again.”
  
• It certainly seems Stranger Things 3 is poised to exponentially up the body count of the series – an appropriate acceleration for the season’s darker tone, I suppose, but it’s definitely something the series can’t come back from once it is over.
  
• Boy, there is a lot more void this season!
  
• Lucas recognizing another lover’s quarrel on sight is hilarious.
  
• Boy, Erica is smoking that mid-80s capitalist pack, and hard.
  
• Murray’s home-made metal detector gives the vibes of an Automatic Cancer Machine.
  
• Eleven almost mentioning Max’s “good screams” comment is a great little callback.
  
• Easily one of my biggest laughs of the series is when Steve pisses directly back into the elevator. Such a hilarious, obvious thing a male teenage would do.
  
• RIP to Hopper’s Chevrolet Blazer.