Stranger Things Season 1 Episode 4 Recap – The Body

Mourning

The police inspect the Byers’ household to check the wall where Joyce claims that a creature came out. Earlier, Hopper told Joyce that Will must have slipped at the cliffs near the quarry and fell into the water, but she doesn’t believe him. She claims to have been talking to Will with the lights and explains the method he used.

Jonathan and Hopper struggle to believe Joyce as she describes how the creature looked, with its long arms and missing face. Hopper shares that after he lost his daughter Sarah, he also saw her all the time. Still, he had to get over it to move forward. Joyce swears that this is a different case and she’s not crazy. Hopper asks her to check the morgue tomorrow and have some sleep that night. Jonathan copes with Will’s apparent death by listening to music. As for Joyce, she takes an ax from inside the shed and waits menacingly by the couch.

Reports of Will’s death reaches the news, which worries Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. Mike is back at his room, asking El to stop fiddling with the Supercom. He’s still mad that she gave him a false sense of hope that Will was still alive, reminding her that friends don’t lie. Yet after some more fiddling, El manages to play Will’s voice from the Supercom, singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go”. She hands Mike the radio as her nose bleeds from the effort. Mike answers back, but all he hears is static.

Joyce wakes up to Will’s voice, but it was actually Jonathan trying to wake her up. They have to go to the morgue to see Will.

Will’s Voice

Karen checks in on Mike, who asks to not attend class that day. She offers to take him with her but he sheepishly asks to be left in bed. After she leaves, Mike radios Lucas, who’s also not in the mood. He invites him and Dustin over to talk about Will.

Hopper goes to the morgue but soon learns that their regular coroner isn’t there and someone else from the state took over. Jonathan and Joyce watch the body from a window, but the latter isn’t convinced that its him. At the waiting room, Hopper asks about Joyce’s rising anxiety problems. Jonathan is worried, but they both agree that Joyce is tough. Joyce storms off, yelling that it isn’t her son.

Nancy tells Steve the results of her investigation on his house, saying there was a faceless creature there. Instead of being worried about Barb, he’s more concerned about what his parents might think when they find out. Nancy storms off, disappointed.

Jonathan chases after Joyce to tell her that they should prepare for the funeral. An argument ensues as Joyce insists that Will talked to her through the lights.

Mike lets his friends listen in as El fiddles with the Supercom to find will. Lucas claims they just caught the signal of a baby monitor next door but Mike insists that it’s Will because of the song he likes. Dustin thinks the voice is close, but Lucas still thinks Will is dead. Since the radio isn’t working, Mike suggests using the one at the A.V. room. The boys give El a disguise using Nancy’s make up and old clothes.

Enter the Breach

Dr. Brenner watches as a soldier named Shepard wearing protective gear enters the breach in Hawkins lab. Shepard’s waist is tied to a harness that’s bolted to the floor. The soldier hesitates after inspecting the organic membrane, then goes in.

After some time, Shepard reports to Brenner that he can see everything, but it’s all eroded and covered in blood. Suddenly he reports seeing something else in there. The siren blares and Brenner calls to reel Shepard back in. What they retrieve is nothing but a bloody harness.

Nancy gets called from class by officers Callahan and Powell to share her accounts on Barb with Karen listening. She thinks a bear or creature took Barb, and learns that her car isn’t there anymore. At home, Karen scolds Nancy after deducing that she slept with Steve. Nancy yells that it isn’t relevant to Barb’s disappearance and storms off to her room. She pieces together Barb’s photos from Jonathan and sees a figure standing behind her friend.

Hopper talks to the coroner, Gary, who comments that this state intervention seems too much for just a regular kid from their town.

The boys take El to the school’s A.V. room but they stumble upon Mr. Clarke, who asks them to be with Will’s memorial at the gym. He notices El, who Mike introduces as his cousin Eleanor. During the service, Mike sees the mouth breathers making fun of their lost friend. He confronts them both right after but they double down. Mike trips Troy to the ground and El stops Troy from retaliating and makes him pee his pants in front of everyone.

Will’s Hiding place

Nancy approaches Jonathan while he’s shopping for caskets to show him her suspicions on the photo. Jonathan says Barb was alone. Nancy mentions the faceless creature, which matches Joyce’s claims.

Hopper joins the state trooper who found Will’s body at the bar and learns that he’s lying. He beats the trooper outside until he reveals that that he was hired to be there, adding that Hopper’s going to get them both killed. Hopper sees a car spying on them but it soon flees.

Joyce blasts The Clash’s song on the living room in an attempt to contact Will. Meanwhile, El and the boys reach the AV room and use their radio. El remembers an experiment where Brenner asks her to find a specific guy remotely and repeat his words to him. She senses the man in a room inside the lab and manages to broadcast his words to the speakers. She performs the same task to search for Will and manages to make him speak. They hear Will call out for his mom, and Joyce hears it from the wall too. She strips off the wallpaper and sees Will panicking behind a membrane. Will says that he’s in a place like home but it’s dark and empty and something is after him. Joyce swears to get him back and asks him to hide.

Suddenly, a fire breaks down at the AV room which Dustin extinguishes. Joyce hacks the wall with her axe but there’s nothing there. The boys haul a distressed El with a stroller to get her back to safety.

The Faceless Monster

Jonathan and Nancy go back to the dark room, where he mentions Joyce’s story about a faceless man coming out from their wall. She asks about his photography hobby. He’d rather observe people than talk to them, as they usually say more when you capture them at the right moment. Nancy the photo of her undressing was saying. He apologizes having taken it. Barb’s photo finishes developing. It reveals the creature that Nancy saw, and Jonathan finally sees proof that his mom was right. If she strongly claims that Will is alive, then perhaps there’s hope for Barbara as well.

That night, Hopper goes back to the morgue and forces himself into the room where Will’s body is stored. He takes it out, and after some hesitation, cuts the chest open, finding it stuffed with wool.

Lonnie visits Joyce and sees the house wrecked. He gives her a hug.

Hopper heads to the Hawkins Lab fence and goes in with bolt cutters.

Our Thoughts

Seriously, none of the viewpoint characters are boring, and they each feel like a crucial piece to the story. Rating: 4.2/5