Stranger Things 3 Episode 3 Review – “Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard”

Stranger Things 3 Episode 3 “Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard”
Written by William Bridges
Directed by Shawn Levy
Premiered July 4, 2019 on Netflix

It’s a rainy afternoon in Hawkins in “Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard”, as Stranger Things 3 begins to move slightly away from the lighter tone and bright lights of its opening pair of episodes, and into the darker, occasionally more mature tone lying at the heart of season three. On the surface, much of the episode follows the same blueprint of “The Mall Rats”; Robin solves a mystery while Steve and Dustin stare at girls, Nancy stays persistent in the face of cartoonish sexism, and Will laments the days of his lost childhood to extreme emotional effect – but outside of a few fun montages, “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” is a rather dark hour, a sign that Stranger Things and its characters are both moving into a more mature, complicated phase of their lives.

It also represents Stranger Things 3‘s shift into a much larger, hulking narrative machine; though Stranger Things 3 is essentially built around a single mystery – Russians open a portal under Hawkins, letting the Mind Flayer back through to their world – the tendrils of that story have blossomed into multiple individual tendrils of stories. But unlike Stranger Things 2, which widened its lens and spaced out its story beats, Stranger Things 3 is moving a lot quicker through much-denser parallel stories of Russian codes, teenage relationship dramas, and the Mind Flayer quietly growing an army of dead rats and mind-controlled humans to corrupt the soul of Hawkins with.

It would be a lot for any show to balance, and it’s only occasionally that all of these different tones bounce off each other dissonantly; using Max and Eleven’s burgeoning friendship as its backbone, “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” is pretty efficient with its storytelling, even as it continues its parallel paths of three different investigation stories. And it’s one of the better Eleven episodes we’ve had in awhile, if we’re being honest; seeing Eleven push her powers a bit further, using the void to spy on Mike and Lucas before she makes the ever-important discovery of Billy with Heather in the Steel Works basement, is such a fun moment for her, a clear demarcation from the depiction of her in season two. Where season two put Eleven in a narrative box – first Hopper’s home, than her own past – season three has used Mike, Hopper, and Max as catalysts of growth for her, and we’re starting to see the results, with a slightly snarkier, more confident Eleven starting to emerge, independent of her powers (though having them available to slam a door or spy on a boyfriend obviously has its uses).

After Eleven sees Billy in the void, “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” is off to the races with its trio of lead stories, focused around Will, Starcourt, and the Mind Flayer’s emerging plan to kidnap and corrupt as many people of Hawkins as possible (whether they’re turning them into fertilizer-eating, exploding corpses to make meat-creatures out of, remains to be seen… it’s not looking good, though). And without the context of the underlying story just outside everyone’s purview, it might make for a really jarring, distonal episode; the Scoops Ahoy + Dustin gang’s slapstick humor is not exactly neat bedfellows with the gory, creepy story unfolding with Billy (who is very sweaty this episode) and Will’s depressing anxiety as he realizes his childhood is ending before he’s ready for it to.

But boy, Eleven and Max’s pursuit of Billy throughout the episode makes for some really terrifying material when they show up to Heather’s home (her father turns out to be Nancy’s boss, which cannot bode well for Nancy and Jonathan in coming episodes), and is greeted by an unsettlingly Stepford Wive-ish vision of Billy having dinner with the Holloway family. Max and Eleven might make it out in the rain in one piece, but not before Billy recognizes Eleven – and not soon after, we’re treated to Heather beating her parents with a wine bottle, before restraining them and bringing them straight to the Mind Flayer.

It would be easy for something like Will’s internal conflict to feel small next to the hulking, oozing story of the Mind Flayer’s growing army – which includes Mrs. Driscoll, whom Nancy and Jonathan find chugging fertilizer in her basement after their visit in the past episode. Though this story is still a little too heavy on the Gary Busey misogyny to feel like a truly layered subplot, it does find its place next to the other stories, all of which focus their attention on characters blinking and realizing everything around them has suddenly changed. In this case, it makes for a really visceral example, one that only has a nascent effect on the overall tenor of the episode – but nonetheless, that thematic harmony makes it a bit easier for it to transition between this story, the Mind Flayers, and the much lighter, brighter story happening over at the mall.

At this point, these characters almost feel cordoned off into their own television show; not just because Dustin, Steve, and Robin are isolated in their own corner of the mall, but because their story is so wildly different in tone and shape than the stories of exploding animals, existential teenage angst, and whatever the hell happened to Hopper’s demeanor this season (seriously – that dude is slightly unhinged in his joy over Eleven’s angst and his dogged pursuit of the clearly-still recovering Joyce). The Starcourt material so far is comedy, through and through, full of fun misdirections of the boys thinking an aerobic instructor, and supposedly comedic asides with characters like Erica (who is quickly becoming one of the most annoying characters of any cinematic medium in recent memory; if anyone came to my ice cream shop and demanded samples like this, they would be leaving very unhappy).

Of course, we all know that this is going to be an important component of the season’s endgame, given its prominence – and the fact they concocted a whole other character, Robin, for this plot, since Steve and Dustin would be a bit too dumb and goofy to work these plot points out themselves – but if there is a part where this episode drags a bit, it’s when it comes out of the rain pouring down around Hawkins, and into the logo and halogen-fueled nightmare of consumerism that’s become the heart of the town almost overnight.

In fact, without Hopper getting the shit beat out him at the remnants of Hawkins Lab (where he takes Joyce, to try and prove her magnet theory is crazy), it might feel like the Russian story is a weightless distraction from the real heart of the season’s story. But as we are learning through the Scoops Ahoy gang, the Russians are lingering around the mall in really ominous ways, proving that both of these disparate stories, despite having each of their own shortcomings, stand to come together in interesting ways in the season’s back half, as the Russian and Mind Flayer plans become a bit clearer, and our merry band of misfit heroes finally start to tune into the true frequency of what’s happening in the town.

… and then there’s Will, who tears apart Castle Byers after donning his wizard costume and forcing Mike and Lucas to play a rainy day campaign with him – which they end abruptly to leave and deal with girl problems, leading to Will and Mike’s confrontational conversation, in which Mike points out that Will “doesn’t even like girls anyway”. While one can appreciate the experience of otherness Will is struggling with, tying that to his sexuality is such a strange, needless choice for Stranger Things; though it seemingly acts to give him both internal and external conflicts that can’t be defeated with magic or guns, it really just turns Will into a character who isn’t given the opportunity to verbalize his feelings in any way, shape, or form – which just seems to sell the character short, making him a thin, two-dimensional presence defined by a weak upper lip and a bowl cut. It’s reductive, but it’s how it feels the show treats Will at times – and increasingly so as Stranger Things 3‘s attention gets pulled in an ever-increasing number of directions.

Despite those few hiccups, “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” is an episode with plenty of allusive qualities, all of which build to the episode’s final sequence – which ends with a terrifyingly unemotional Heather drugging her father in order to bring him to the Mind Flayer, another strong accelerant in a season that’s built itself less like a contained, low-budget Halloween creepfest, and more like a tentpole action series with a sprawling cast of characters and stories (as if the change in release window from October to July didn’t give that away). So far, it’s made for a more kinetic, driven season – whether it can maintain that momentum, though, will come down to how all these pieces coalesce as Stranger Things 3 builds to its climactic moments.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

• If there is an overarching theme to this episode, it is that nobody listens to the women of Stranger Things, and most end up worse off for it.
  
• Also – how am I JUST noticing the first two people the Mind Flayer’s corrupted in Hawkins are BOTH named William.
  
• Did Will really think the wizard suit was going to win him any favors?
  
• Steve is becoming one of my favorite characters – but there are still moments he acts like a douche bag to the people around him, giving him the aura of lovable asshole the show has lost a bit with Hopper.
  
• Love how Joyce walks out on Hopper while he’s going on about how she’s making up the magnet theories because she’s just afraid to “move on” and go out with him.
  
• There is a great shot of Hopper’s shadow as he clicks back the hammer on his revolver; thought it is happening a bit less this season, Stranger Things 3 is still capable of delivering some really evocative images at random moments.
  
• What a missed opportunity for Stranger Things; had it released anytime before 2003, the amount of money it would’ve made on licensed soundtracks would be insane.
  
• Hopper gets the shit beat out of him by the Russian dude we saw in the mayor’s office in the last episode – honestly, it might be what his character needs this season.