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

Stranger Things Season 1, Episode 7 “Chapter Seven: The Bathtub”
Written by Justin Doble
Directed by The Duffer Brothers
Premiered July 15, 2016 on Netflix

With dangers bearing down from both the known and unknown parts of their universe, Stranger Things‘ penultimate episode “Chapter Seven: The Bathtub” spends most of its time with the threats of Brenner and the Demogorgon slowly bearing down on our not-so-merry band of misfits. With various characters nurses wounds physical and emotional, “The Bathtub” finds itself in a precarious place, as it tries to both give characters space to heal, but also meticulously works to arrange its pieces to properly set up the impending finale. Those mechanisms are laid a bit bare throughout the episode – but even though its a slight step back from some of the dramatic highs of “The Body” or “The Flea and the Acrobat”, “The Bathtub” is a quality entry with a couple of really strong moments, ensuring that the season didn’t lose any dramatic momentum at the most critical moment before the season finale.

It helps the episode opens on Brenner’s men chasing down the reunited party (with Eleven in tow); it kicks things off with some infectious kinetic energy, observing Eleven’s quickly-expanding powers as she flips a van to block the road from Brenner’s goons chasing them down the streets of Hawkins. From there, “The Bathtub” pulls back considerably on its pace, only occasionally giving the episode some sense of consequence whenever Brenner’s team draw closer to Eleven – which, being the shortest episode of the entire series, means there’s not a whole lot of room for either confrontation or reflection in between the more mechanical constructions of ensuring all of the Hawkins players end up in the same room before the end of the episode.

How it gets there, thankfully, doesn’t feel completely rushed or underdeveloped; smartly, “The Bathtub” uses the opportunity of the different groups coming together to explore Eleven, and how her time with Brenner affected her sense of identity and self. Some of this is normal kid stuff, like her asking Mike if she’s still pretty without the blonde wig she wore through the middle of the season – but more potently, it quietly explores the difference between Joyce and Brenner in the context of Eleven, as she tries to reach out into the void to find Mike for her recently reconciled group of friends (Lucas, the asshole all season, finally stands up and apologizes to Eleven).

It’s a really smart move by Stranger Things, who has really relied on the audience’s trust that yes, Joyce actually is a good mother and not just a person on the edge of a manic breakdown; with Jonathan off on his own adventures trying to be the man of the house, it’s been hard for the series to convey Joyce’s character outside of her passionate, desperate commitment to find her son. In “The Bathtub”, she is an absolute powerhouse: after reconnecting with her older son and learning more about the Demogorgon and where Will might be, one of the episode’s unexpected highlights turns out to be when the adult party meets up with the younger party, finally putting Joyce and Eleven in the same room for the first time.

How Joyce interacts with Eleven in this episode, thanking her for helping save her family and promising to be by her side, makes for not only an episode highlight, but some of the most satisfying character interactions of the whole season. Their scene together, before the pool-filling montage that sets the stage for Eleven to find Castle Byers in the void, is as powerful as anything we see in the first season; not only because it shows someone not treating Eleven as just a dangerous weapon, but it stands to the show’s ethos of the power of love and compassion as the ultimate tools to defeat evil (and you know, having a girl who is basically the 80’s equivalent of Jean Grey to help out).

Anchored by those moments of reconciliation and community, the only real weak spot of “The Bathtub” comes from Steve, who is unfortunately siloed off into his own story of regretting his life choices, from his selection of friends, to his treatment of Nancy and Jonathan – which leads him to look solemnly off-camera a lot, and then offer to clean up the theater’s marquee from yesterday’s emotional spray paint job. There’s better stories to come for Steve, of course, but inside the walls of “The Bathtub”, he feels a bit isolated in ways that make his scenes drag more than anything else in the episode, clearly a show twiddling its thumbs to make sure everything’s in place before bringing him fully into the fold.

One can see where it tries to tie his actions into the others, as everyone (except Brenner) tries to take the noblest path laid out in front of them – but in the episode’s third act, everyone springs into action inspired directly by watching Eleven reach out into the darkness to find Will, a catalyzing moment Steve’s just too far removed to benefit from. However, his story does fit alongside these other moments inspired by Eleven, as generating defining moments of change for our main characters; Lucas to be more accepting, Steve to not be an asshole, Hopper to confront the government at Hawkins Lab, and Nancy to become a badass unwilling to let Hopper and Joyce walk right into the Demogorgon without help… buoyed by Eleven’s selfless actions to help everyone find Will, “The Bathtub” finds its thoroughline in the closing moments observing everyone’s reactions to Eleven, and it gives the otherwise-workmanlike episode a critical emotional anchor to tether everything together with.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• The real MVP of this episode, of course, is Ted Wheeler, from his befuddlment at hearing his son was running around Hawkins with a girl, to his comment to Karen: “This is our government; they’re on our side!”
  
• They do not hold back on the makeup for Steve, whose face looks like absolute dogshit after getting his ass kicked by Jonathan.
  
• Lucas’s reaction to Eleven flipping a van is adorable: “It was awesome.”
  
• I know it’s a small town in the 80s, but it’s a little too easy for Jonathan to just walk into the precinct and grab the supplies they bought in the last episode.
  
• Mike and Eleven almost share a kiss in the opening of the episode, a cute little moment that thankfully doesn’t dominate their interactions for the rest of “The Bathtub”.
  
• Gotta love seeing Dustin test the salt content of the water using an egg. Science!
  
• Barb’s body is seen with slugs crawling out of it in the Upside Down, confirming the worst possible outcome for Nancy’s bestie. RIP Barb.
  
• How is Mr. Clarke the most sauced-up person in Hawkins? He’s chilling with a cute woman when the kids call him at night – and after Dustin convinces him that they’re building a sensory deprivation tank for “fun”, he lays out the plans on how to make one.