Stranger Things 3 Episode 7 Review – “Chapter Seven: The Bite”

Stranger Things 3 Episode 7 “The Bite”
Written by The Duffer Brothers
Directed by The Duffer Brothers
Premiered July 4, 2019 on Netflix

It’s Independence Day 1985 in Hawkins – and with it comes Stranger Things 3‘s lumbering penultimate episode, in the form of a disgruntled Russian assassin and an enormous, incredibly unpleasant monster made of flesh and teeth. Constructed as an episode of dramatic, profound movement and tension from the moment Mayor Kline yells “are you ready for some fireworks?”, “Chapter Seven: The Bite” mostly delivers on its own promise, with a big opening set piece and a heartbreaking slow-motion montage – but in a rather unsurprising twist, it is the quietest scenes of the hour that both leave the greatest impact, and lay a few of the season’s shortcomings.

Though Robin and Steve’s extended drug trip becomes a bit cumbersome during their slapstick opening moments in “The Bite”, their scene in the mall’s bathroom is easily one of the season’s best, and another fantastic wrinkle in Steve Harrington’s journey of self-discovery. While many of Stranger Things 3‘s bigger plot notes have drowned out characters like Will, the Russian subplot’s provided an avenue to build out a powerful friendship between Steve (the show’s thinnest character back in its first few episodes) and Robin (the show’s new and complete wild card), in what’s become arguably the most well-crafted arc of the season – which is too bad that it is isolated from everything else in the season, minimizing the impact its story, which really embodies the fundamentals of Stranger Things‘ entire ethos, has on what’s around it.

It’s rather impressive how much weight “The Bite” is able to give their conversation, though: though they spent “E Pluribus Unum” being beaten and drugged by Russians before Steve and Erica’s big rescue attempt, this scene feels like the true climactic moment of their arc, Steve confessing his love for Robin, and her confiding in Steve that she’s a lesbian – and when she was staring his way in class, it was really past him and to the woman sitting in front of him.

Robin’s vulnerability at that moment is so powerfully captured, in a welcome reversal in tone from Mike’s “You don’t even like girls!” comment while arguing with Will earlier this season. Unlike Mike dismissively chiding his best friend or failing to be vulnerable with Eleven (more on that in a moment), Robin confiding in Steve serves as a powerful moment of character for them both – and more importantly, for Robin, gives her an opportunity to finally be herself, and express what that means, around someone she truly trusts. It supplements Steve’s journey, while still allowing Robin space to exist and author her own story – it’s a really strong moment, one without a lot of the usual pretense of contemporary coming out scenes.

That scene, of course, stands in stark contrast to the other relationship scenes of the hour: both Mike’s stammering apology and Murray’s wink, wink monologue (repeating his creepy speech to Nancy and Jonathan from last season – lest we forget, he encouraged them to fuck in his house) lean too much into the awkwardness of their moments, without considering that the underlying stories behind these moments are severely underdeveloped, and trying to squeeze juice out of these stories in the final act ends up being a counterproductive waste (like when Hopper and Joyce unexpectedly hold hands in the Tilt o’ Whirl, or Mike fails to tell Eleven that he loves her).

I can believe Hopper’s desperately in love with Joyce, just as I can believe Mike truly loves Eleven: but the legwork needed to establish these relationships as meaningful, dynamic components of Stranger Things 3 really hasn’t been done – and what nascent efforts have been made, have been less than convincing. Mike and El’s conflict immediately dissipates when Mike realizes he loves El (which… he probably already knew?), and there’s never been any inclination Joyce has any interest in Hopper; Stranger Things is asking us to invest in these romances, but they’re built on much flimsier foundations than the Steve/Robin friendship in the very same episode – which renders them both a bit inert in the moments “The Bite” tries to lean on them.

When “The Bite” turns its attention away from these less-engaging subplots, and focuses on the dual terrors of Grigoli and the Meat Flayer, it finally feels like the stakes are being properly raised for Stranger Things 3‘s impending climax. At least, it feels a lot more concrete than in previous hours, when Eleven gets infected by a Flayer bite (whatever the hell that means), and poor Alexei’s American dream dies when he realizes the game was rigged against him after all, and he’s unceremoniously shot dead by Grigori during the Hawkins festival (where he dies alone, in what might just be the single saddest plot development in the first three seasons of Stranger Things).

El’s latest fight with the Flayer is a moment of unification for Stranger Things 3, inverting her relationship as protector of the group, when they instead have to save her from the monster and tend to her injuries. Unfortunately, there’s just not a lot to cling onto: Mike’s not-declaration of love falls flat, and as it occasionally has in the past, El’s character gets a bit lost amongst the exposition dumps and sci-fi flavor text she’s so closely entwined with.

Does El feel she’s in mortal danger with her injury? How does this threat of the Meat Flayer inform her character? These fundamental questions – questions earlier seasons painstakingly depicted through flashbacks and emotional swellings of music – are all but ignored here, instead, her dilemmas give voice to the other characters of the show, rather than continuing to inform her character as she figures out how to interact within Hawkins, rather than around it (or outside of its reach). Sure, she’s learned a sense of fashion and the word “bitchin’”, but it feels like somewhere in the last few episodes Stranger Things 3 ditched the arc of maturation and self-discovery it hinted towards with Eleven, as her relationship with Mike pushed back to the center and the story shifted to her fighting the Mind Flayer.

Ultimately, that renders the more exciting moments of her story – which eventually leads them back to Starcourt where Steve, Dustin, Robin, and Suzie have been all season, where everyone finally meets up for the first time since “Suzie, Do You Copy” – less effective than say, poor Alexei’s brief Americana experience, which stands alongside the bathroom scene as one of the season’s highlights. While the foreshadowing here is obvious (Murray explaining the rigged economics of fairs is a neon sign of danger for our communist friend), it’s still heartbreaking to see Alexei murdered at Griogli’s hands, reducing the character to a Russian version of Bob, a character sketched out just long enough to serve their plot purpose, then ripped out from under the audience as an emotional device.

It’s effective, but oddly familiar to the broader strokes of Bob Newby last season, one of a few ways Stranger Things 3 is remixing the first two seasons as it heads towards its climax. We’ve got a final showdown with the monster looming, Joyce and Hopper dealing with shady government shit, and a re-emergence of Eleven’s biggest (and gaudiest) powers: on a minute-by-minute basis, “The Bite” is oscillates between thrilling and predictable. And when examined as a critical component of a larger whole, “The Bite” sells the promise of Stranger Things 3 a bit short as it neatly arranges its pieces on the board for the impending extended-length finale.

It’s a tale of yin and yang: where Stranger Things 3 has soared with characters like Robin and Alexei, it’s fallen off a bit with the Byers boys – and even Eleven at times, whose character development’s been stunted in recent episodes, as Hopper went off on his own adventures and she became a delivery device for the show’s more showy, supernatural moments. As all of its pieces finally come together into a single narrative (something that literally takes 20 seconds of jump cuts between characters to resolve, itself a bit revealing on how thin this season’s plotting got in parts), “The Bite”

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• RIP Alexei – his star didn’t shine long, but it shone bright. We’ll pour out a Slushee for you.
  
• I wish the Grigori/Hopper fight in the hall of mirrors was a bit more dynamic; it’s visually inticing, but ultimately a predictable (and predictably anticlimatic) scene. We’ll see part 2 of this showdown in the season finale, of course.
  
• It is 37 and a half minutes into episode 7 before any of the Stranger Things parents wonder where their kids are. However, you gotta love Ted’s nonchalant “I’m sure they’re getting into trouble!” comment.
  
• Remember New Coke? Because Curtis has an awkard monologue explaining the product placement for you (right after a shot of Eleven in front of a wall of Eggos, because of course).
  
• So… there’s something moving under Eleven’s leg, right? Can’t be good!
  
• Have Will and Lucas never been in a grocery store before?
  
• Dustin: “It’s official. I’m never having kids.”
  
• I understand the whole Back to the Future Alan Silvestri score homage, but the sudden shift to a traditional Hollywood score for a distractingly long portion of the episode is jarring.