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overthinking entertainment

Stranger Things: Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler - Season 5, Episode 2

After the Wheeler home is attacked, the coordinated crawl is scattered but finds one another, one by one. Hopper and El search the upside down anew.
Getting Game of Thrones by the end.

We've been trying to reach you about an extended warranty on your flux capacitors.
posted by eustatic on Nov 30, 2025 at 4:48 PM

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it's hard for me to remember what happened in which episode so I'm not going to comment on that, but i do remember thinking during the 1st or 2nd episode (and during my rewatch of s4, maybe s3 too) that if I lived in Hawkins, especially if I was one of the core crew or their connected crew, anytime anything strange happened, my first thought would be Upside Down!

also, all y'all are way harsh on what is basically bubblegum. the amount of 80s entertainment they nod too in this show really should set the bar appropriately.
posted by kokaku at 5:10 PM

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hey, i like this show, it s a comicbook / goth soap opera with amazing production

you have to love the pathos of the character interactions, and truly cannot jump into season 5 before the others

Ma Wheeler 1 vs 1 was fun. iconic wineMom special moves. Calgon cunning action to hide, to dash. but she is only level three, she failed that Dodge action

I am subscribed to Steve's BroTalksInAVan podcast, because vans are where bros talk real talk

I am also enjoying Will the Wise: Mind Detective
posted by eustatic at 7:09 PM

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It's something the whole fam (me, 2 adultish kids) will willingly watch together, so we're entertained. For all its faults the production value is high and there are moments of clarity.

Another me in another time would absolutely be playing a drinking game.
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:41 PM

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For all its faults the production value is high I think the production values this season are uneven. There's some stuff that's great, and some stuff that really isn't.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:22 PM

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Definitely wonky CGI on the Demogorgons. Vecna looks pretty cool tho.
posted by kokaku at 10:55 PM

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Definitely thought this episode was better than the first. And I liked the nod to Aliens.

Anyone else think some of the acting was... off? Like, compared to other seasons?
posted by kyrademon at 7:01 AM

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I know it's not exactly the same, but Vecna's house at the end has to be a callback to 1985's House.
posted by Catblack at 7:37 AM

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I think the acting is off in the sense that we have mature 20somethings who started as very young actors playing teens and everyone seems more worldly and battle weary than we remember these characters from 3 years ago (real world time).

Also, Linda Hamilton's wig is definitely off as is Lucas's there-are-no-black-barbers-in-quarantine.
posted by kokaku at 8:19 AM

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I agree about the acting and the aging. But on a second watch of this episode I was stuck with how much I enjoyed how each little set of characters was in the dark and talking to each other and making their own plans. It's like how with shows you wish two characters would talk more and this is that show.
posted by Catblack at 8:34 AM

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kokaku: "Also, Linda Hamilton's wig is definitely off as is Lucas's there-are-no-black-barbers-in-quarantine."

As someone who grew up in a small town in Indiana, very much like Hawkins is presented, during the same time period as Stranger Things is set, I would be very surprised if there was a black barber in quarantine. To get to a black barber back then would have required at least a 30-minute drive to the city.

Y'know how Lucas's family is the only black family in Hawkins? Yeah, that's accurate.
posted by cooker girl at 8:52 AM

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Also, Linda Hamilton's wig is definitely off as is Lucas's there-are-no-black-barbers-in-quarantine.

Are we sure Linda Hamilton has a wig? This is her when she's not on set, and it looks like it could be a styled thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:55 AM

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I definitely enjoyed this more than Chapter One. It's still uneven and lacks the charm of the earlier seasons (probably, in part, because the main cast aren't children anymore, but are forced to act like they still are), but it is entertaining.
posted by asnider at 9:39 AM

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thanks EC... i thought they put the evil doc's wig on her to signify "this is the bad guy this season".
posted by kokaku at 10:39 AM

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first ep this season: snore
second ep: !!!!!! wow!!!! the Wheeler house scene was like an 80s horror movie. much more fun and engagement.

re Linda H: her hair is really thick and she has a low hairline. srsly, check her hair out in Terminator. that is just what her hair is like.
posted by supermedusa at 11:28 AM

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This episode definitely ramped up the action. Karen definitely wins mother of the year.

I missed the joke about flux capacitor entirely because I didn't expect it.

Linda Hamilton knows how to bring the intensity to her roles. It's a darn delight to have her here for the finale season.
posted by Atreides at 2:13 PM

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miss-lapin: "For all its faults the production value is high I think the production values this season are uneven. There's some stuff that's great, and some stuff that really isn't."

Reportedly, the budget for this season is $50-60 million per episode.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:57 PM

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It's like how with shows you wish two characters would talk more and this is that show.
posted by Catblack

This is what I described as 'comic book / soap opera'. Like Xmen '97.

If you're not into the characters it just seems like there is way too much plot, and then you get a lot of people complaining that the fantasy plot is too fantastic

When really the whole trick of plot point X is so that 'dad and daughter can have heart to heart', etc
posted by eustatic at 4:51 PM

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When Karen went for the demogorgon with the wine bottle, you saw *exactly* where Nancy gets her ferocity from. Nice.
posted by velvet_n_purrs at 5:15 PM

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This Variety interview with Hamilton notes "she was already sporting her wig and costume, for a scene she was about to film involving Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven" so yes it's confirmed to be a wig.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:54 PM

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It's me. I'm back. The Upside Down scene with Hop and El is on the Cherokee Trail in Stone Mountain Park just west of the carving. Back in February 2024, I was out for my usual Saturday morning run on that trail and literally ran right through the area still all done up for the previous night's shooting. As you might imagine, they do some practical effects stuff, with black plastic tendrils and white mesh goo on the trees. But also, these woods just look like Georgia woods in winter, and some of the fleshy stuff in the Upside Down is just leafless muscadine vines done up fancy with CGI.

All railroad track scenes over all 5 seasons were filmed in the park. We have train tracks that are not connected outside the park and only used 10 am - 5 pm on tourist days, so perfect for safe filming. I don't recognize the exact place where they were sitting on the tracks in Episode 2 because it is clearly not super pedestrian friendly.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:46 AM

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I thought from the start that Holly's imaginary friend was going to turn out to be Henry. The retconning of the Upside Down to be Henry's personal playground (and Henry as the Big Boss in general) takes so much power out of the mystery and danger of the series, it's hard to overstate. Once you explain the core concepts of your Horror, it stops being Horror and just becomes Dark Fantasy or something. Horror requires the uncanny, the unknowable. That's why Season 1 had such a perfect ending. The characters we loved were safe (mostly?) but the danger was still hanging over their heads. Going for a full-on happy ending requires a genre shift that makes the whole thing feel untrue to the concept, if that's where they're headed.
posted by rikschell at 5:44 AM

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This was a step up from the first episode, for sure. But I'm mainly wondering: If Vecna is still using the Creel House as his base of operations, why the hell are the protagonists having any trouble finding him? Wouldn't that be the first-through-hundredth place that you'd look for him?
posted by Navelgazer at 12:47 PM

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Didn't the rightside-up version of the Creel house get burned at the end of last season?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:14 PM

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I'm pretty sure Vecna's outfit at the end with the glasses is Peter Weller's from Naked Lunch.
posted by Catblack at 2:36 PM

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Given that Vecna is in his Henry form, it's likely that the Creel House at the end of the episode is also an illusion. They probably searched the ruins of the Creel House in their first crawl since it was the last place they saw him.
posted by Atreides at 2:44 PM

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