Stranger Things Season 1 Episode 6 Recap – The Monster

Back Home from the Horrors

Jonathan calls out for Nancy, who’s now running around in the Upside Down, also yelling for him. They both hear echoes of each other’s voices, so he tries to lead her to the exit by calling out continually. The creature senses Nancy, forcing her to hide. He finds the entrance and yells for her. Nancy’s hand comes out, and he pulls her back to the real world. Jonathan watches as the portal closes.

Steve asks Tommy and Carol to join him as he checks on Nancy, saying she was acting strange earlier. Steve climbs the roof to her window and finds Jonathan putting a blanket around Nancy.

Joyce asks Hopper to recount everything he saw in Hawkins Lab. He describes the kid’s room he saw as well as the stick figure drawings. Joyce shows Hopper Will’s semi-realistic drawings of his characters and confirms that it’s not him. Hopper then remembers Earl’s statement about a kid with a shaved head who went to Benny for food. He shows her the article about Brenner being sued by a woman named Terry Ives for the abduction of her daughter Jane. Hopper wonders if he was searching for the wrong kid all along. Later, Hopper tracks down Ives’ address and drives with Joyce to find her.

Nancy takes a shower and remembers every horror she saw in the Upside Down. Jonathan lays down blankets on the floor and asks if she’s feeling better. Both of them don’t want to sleep alone after what has happened. She lies down for a while but later asks him to come up to the bed and keep the lights on. Jonathan says it can’t catch up to them in her bedroom, but Nancy says: “we don’t know for sure.”

The next morning, Mike tears down Eleven’s fort after what happened with his group.

Planning for Payback

Jonathan wakes up to find Nancy writing as she can’t sleep. After seeing the creature devour a deer, she wonders what could have happened to Will and Barb. Jonathan says Will is still alive, as per his mom, but that would also mean they’re trapped in that awful place. She wants to find it again and lure the creature to a trap by using blood as bait. Suddenly the locked door knob shakes, and Karen invites Nancy for breakfast. Startled, Nancy finds herself holding hands with Jonathan. Later, Karen picks the lock on Nancy’s room and finds her missing, having gone out the window.

Connie Frazier from Hawkins lab visits Scott Clarke under the guise of providing equipment for the A.V. club. She asks for some potential candidates, which leads her to get Dustin, Lucas, and Mike’s names.

Dustin visits Mike to calm him down. He says that he, Lucas, and Eleven acted out of line and caused their rift. He instructs him to prepare to apologize to Lucas and find Eleven afterward.

Eleven remembers Dr. Brenner waking her up with a gift for their next experiment, where they’ll be making contact with the Demogorgon. She wakes up in the woods and screams at her reflection in the lake.

Mike asks to shake Lucas’ hand at Dustin’s behest, admitting he drew first blood. Lucas accepts on the condition that they banish Eleven, but Mike doesn’t agree. Dustin reminds them of when they broke up at the party and got in trouble. Lucas insists that El betrayed them, but Mike reasons that she was only protecting them. Dustin adds that her powers looked awesome. Mike says they can fight the Demogorgon and find Will if they have her. Lucas still refuses and decides to go his own way to find Will.

In the Tank

Eleven goes to the supermarket and finds everyone staring at her. This reminds her of when Brenner placed her in the depravation tank to find the Demogorgon. She takes boxes of Eggos and uses her powers to stop the store workers.

Hopper and Joyce visit Terry Ives at her home but finds that she’s in a catatonic state. They ask him about Jane or Brenner, but she doesn’t speak. Terry’s sister explains that she was part of MK Ultra, and experiments were done on her while she was unknowingly pregnant with Jane. Terry miscarried in the third trimester, but she still thinks Jane will come home someday, and she has superpowers.

Lucas dons his gear and bandana, passing by the repairman before biking off to find Will. Elsewhere, Dustin tells Mike that Lucas might be jealous because he replaced him with this new girl as his best friend. Mike insists they all are his best friends. They spot a commotion in the grocery store and follow it. Lucas arrives at the Hawkins Lab’s fence after following his compass and stakes the perimeter with his binoculars.

Mike and Jonathan buy hunting supplies and bullets. Some passersby call out to her, and she sees a wall vandalized with her name, calling her a slut. She spots Steve and his friends nearby, still painting. Steve asks her to explain what happened last night. Jonathan asks her to go, but Steve insults him and his whole family instead.

Jonathan slaps Steve, and a fight ensues despite Nancy’s protests. He goes into a frenzy and gets arrested by officer Callahan while the others flee.

The Fight

Joyce stares at Terry for one last time before leaving. In the car, Hopper assures her they’ll find Will, even if Terry couldn’t find her daughter for twelve years. She was there at Benny’s the other night. Hopper adds that he’d give anything to get his daughter back. He gets radioed in by his men to report what Jonathan did.

Nancy joins Jonathan at the station and nurses his face with ice. The secretary told her earlier that only love can put someone like that in trouble.

While enjoying her Eggos, Eleven hears Mike and Dustin calling out for her in the woods. The boys hear a rustling in their area, only to find Troy and James, with the former carrying a switchblade. A chase ensues.

Meanwhile, Lucas finds a spot where the compass needle goes crazy and finds a tree nearby to watch the area. He sees a military vehicle enter Hawkins lab and multiple repair vans parked nearby.

The chase leads Dustin and Mike to the Sattler Quarry, in which Tom and James manage to catch them from two directions. The only other safe spot is the cliff. Troy manages to catch Dustin and uses him as a hostage. He threatens to cut Dustin’s teeth unless Mike jumps in the water.

The Monster

Mike agrees and faces the impossible drop to the lake. He jumps, to everyone’s surprise, but doesn’t fall. Instead, Mike levitates back to the ground. Eleven arrives and breaks Troy’s arm before telling them to run. She passes out while Dustin rains down insults on the mouth breathers.

Eleven remembers seeing the Demogorgon during the experiment as it feasts on something. The creature managed to catch her, causing her powers to go haywire. This, in turn, opened the gate in Hawkins lab.

El apologizes to Mike, saying she was responsible for opening the gate and she’s a monster. Mike tells her she isn’t a monster and that she just saved his life. He hugs El and Dustin joins them. A repairman spots the three of them as they head home and radios Dr. Brenner and his crew. Lucas sees the caravan of repair vans as it leaves the lab.

Our Thoughts

Stranger Things manages to pay tribute to classic films and books without getting bogged down by them. Rating: 4.3/5.