Stranger Things: Chapter Five: Dig Dug

October 28, 2017 1:46 PM - Season 2, Episode 5

Nancy and Jonathan swap conspiracy theories with a new ally as Eleven searches for someone from her past. "Bob the Brain" tackles a difficult problem.
posted by Fizz (32 comments total)

I have long maintained that Brett Gelman is a national treasure and was pleased to see him living up to my expectations.
posted by elsietheeel at 3:07 PM on October 28, 2017 [6 favorites]

Also Mike's dad is the absolute worst. All of the Wheelers are the worst, but Mr. Wheeler is their king.
posted by elsietheeel at 3:12 PM on October 28, 2017 [17 favorites]

My initial reaction to Brett Gelman was "he's the Skeet Ulrich to Paul Giamatti's Johnny Depp", but I really came to enjoy his performance.

Upon research, he was also the collateral damage recipient of Mr. Jackpots' good fortune in the recent season on Twin Peaks.
posted by Cogito at 3:15 PM on October 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

Also Mike's dad is the absolute worst. All of the Wheelers are the worst, but Mr. Wheeler is their king.

I might be the only person who doesn't hate the Wheeler family, but I can't argue here: Mr. Wheeler is completely awful.
posted by codacorolla at 3:19 PM on October 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

I hope the Duffer brothers know they've struck casting gold again with little Erica and make sure to give her more screen time in seasons 3 & 4, so far she may be my favorite thing about this season.

Poor Eleven's mom. I was expecting we'd learn that her string of words was something prophetic that would help in the monster-fighting, to learn instead that she's trapped in a trauma loop?

I liked the little "Hi, Bob" "Hi, Jim" moment in the tunnels before the flamethrower dudes showed up. Cute.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:02 PM on October 28, 2017 [26 favorites]

(I probably said Gelman was a national treasure in the Twin Peaks threads as well.)

So Sean Astin said that the Duffers were kind of apprehensive about casting him because they thought it might be a bit too on the nose with the whole Goonies thing, but it seems like they got over it since Mikey Bob had to find the X like a treasure map.
posted by elsietheeel at 4:03 PM on October 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

“I'm sorry. You ate my cat.”

Best line of the entire season thus far.
posted by Fizz at 6:51 PM on October 28, 2017 [31 favorites]

As soon as Dustin's mom was putting out cat food and calling for the cat I went, "oh no, mews is dead."
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 7:06 PM on October 28, 2017 [11 favorites]

The whole conversation with Mr. Wheeler and Dustin. Mr. Wheeler is such an idiot. I can't wait till S3 or S4 when Karen inevitably leaves his ass.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 7:15 PM on October 28, 2017 [8 favorites]

I can't wait until he gets eaten by something.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:21 PM on October 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

I have a friend that had shock therapy performed on them as a kid, and they have troubles today. I cried watching that scene, knowing Jane's mom is trapped like that.

Also: geezus christ Will's face at the end.
posted by curious nu at 8:17 PM on October 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

The whole conversation with Mr. Wheeler and Dustin.

This was my favorite exchange in the entire season. Dustin just flaming off utter disdain for the guy and Mike's Dad is oblivious to it except for the bad language.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:47 PM on October 28, 2017 [17 favorites]

sorry if this was last episode and not this one, but for all that I want to punch Jonathan right in his stoner eye-bags every time I see him, the part where he opens the bedroom door to see his little brother sleeping in his mom's arms, one complete unit, and himself no longer even the parentified surrogate-husband figure but now, with the advent of Bob, completely superfluous and unwanted in his own home and family, no longer cast in the wrong role in the group of three but out of it altogether, well

well, pity is nice but Nancy still deserves better. and I hate Nancy. how dare you curl your lip at vodka, Nancy. you only hang out with Jonathan because he makes you look like the smart one, is what I think. better than Steve ever could. poor old steve.

& Mr. Wheeler may be a prick with the worst glasses on earth and bad politics, but at least he didn't KILL HIS OWN MOTHER'S CAT. check your completely unearned sense of superiority, dustin
posted by queenofbithynia at 11:27 PM on October 28, 2017 [7 favorites]

Imagine if you could go back in time to when you were halfway through the first season...

Present Me: Hey, Steve is super awesome!
Past Me: Self, have you started drinking again?
Present Me: No really, he's great!
Past Me: Go home, self. You're obviously on drugs.
posted by elsietheeel at 11:33 PM on October 28, 2017 [12 favorites]

#teamsteve
posted by cooker girl at 12:48 PM on October 29, 2017 [7 favorites]

Also Mike's dad is the absolute worst. All of the Wheelers are the worst, but Mr. Wheeler is their king.

I might be the only person who doesn't hate the Wheeler family, but I can't argue here: Mr. Wheeler is completely awful.

I'm 100% on #TeamNancy, adore Karen, and like Mike, even though he's full-on Book-Five Capslock Harry this season. Ted Wheeler is the worst, though, to the point where he's now my flashpoint example of a dude not at all putting in any emotional labor. Loved Dustin telling him off.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:57 PM on October 29, 2017 [7 favorites]

Goddamnit, call for backup before you go in the scary dark tunnel.

Everything is fine, but the plot is straining too hard to keep everyone separate. Eleven's reunion with everyone better be awesome, but at this point it may be too wonderful in my head, so the reality will fall short of that.

Bob's character is a nice addition to the character mix, hope he's not a plant. BUT I HAVE SUSPICIOUSNESS.

Why is Steve still here? I want to trade the cat for Steve.

See what I mean, Hop? Call for goddamn backup first.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:04 PM on October 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

Y'all, we've seen Hop's deputies in action (such as it is) - with backup like that, going in solo suddenly doesn't seem all that bad an idea.
posted by soundguy99 at 10:23 PM on October 29, 2017 [18 favorites]

Yeah, the Hawkins deputies are like one step up from Barney Fife in some places. "Don't touch it without gloves."
(Cut to them touching goo with bare hands and sniffing it)

There are a whole lot of idiot balls that everyone is holding this season, I would like the characters to put them down now, please.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:01 AM on October 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

I love 4/5 of the Wheelers. Karen is every good intentioned 80s mother, ever. I'm looking forward to the divorce and/or Ted getting eaten by something.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 12:29 AM on October 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

Jesus, doesn't he have rope or something in that truck? Tie a line and you can find your way out or something.

And, yeah, "Hi Bob" "Hi Jim" is great.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:11 AM on October 30, 2017

Jesus, doesn't he have rope or something in that truck? Tie a line and you can find your way out or something.

Like, this is a problem that was solved in ancient Greece for fuck's sake.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:11 PM on October 31, 2017 [5 favorites]

OK, so a touch I loved: when Eleven's mom flickers the lights to communicate with El, its not only a call back to season 1 - its a callback to how the game Dragon's Lair cued the players on what direction to go.

My immediate thought on Bob's face in the tunnels: he's thinking about the time he did this with Mr Frodo and wondering where the spider is.
posted by nubs at 10:06 PM on October 31, 2017 [21 favorites]

Bob's character is a nice addition to the character mix, hope he's not a plant. BUT I HAVE SUSPICIOUSNESS.

I also have much suspiciousness about Bob. Although, with him getting in the tunnels, I briefly thought "oh, he's going to get killed." When that didn't happen, back to suspiciousness.
posted by easternblot at 4:00 AM on November 2, 2017

I am so on board for Steve and Dustin hanging out. If the ghost of Barb joined them, I would be 100% content.
posted by amarynth at 10:17 AM on November 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm guessing Max's skepticism won't last long, but I was briefly amused at the thought of her becoming Scully to Lucas's Mulder. Always coming up with a "rational" explanation for the evidence. D'Artagnan acting like Mr. Snuffleupagus, always disappearing right before Max arrives.
posted by mbrubeck at 4:09 PM on November 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dustin has an Armatron! I had an Armatron. Best. Toy. Ever.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:16 PM on November 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

I really need this season to not be Sports Night Season 2: "We're Doing Dumb Shit Because...Reasons" all over again. I can forgive Hop the blowup with El because parenting normal adolescents is hard, but running off into the tunnels with no backup? Dustin adopting the pollywog was borderline, but not being freaked out about any of the many weirdnesses before it busted out of the tank was dumb. And I'm on the fence about Lucas's disclosure to Max. Oh, and highly secretive lab doesn't screen "guests" for giant tape recorders? (Am somewhat willing to let that last one go, as "underestimated teenage girl saves the world" is a trope I can live with.) I'm still along for the ride and enjoying it, but the female leads are doing more than their fair share of work keeping me interested in the show this season.
posted by EvaDestruction at 2:22 PM on November 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is not a detail that will matter at all to most people, but when Bob started pointing out bodies of water and mentioned Lake Jordan and the Eno River, I gasped and ran straight to Wikipedia to confirm that the Duffer Brothers are, like me, from central North Carolina. Those are both real bodies of water, and they ain't in Indiana. Now I want to go back and check all the other names (but I'm not done with the season yet and don't wanna get spoiled).
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:24 PM on November 13, 2017 [7 favorites]

When Bob brings a stack of games to Joyce's house, there's a Hi-Q in the pile. My family had that when I was kid! I think I saw another one we had too.
posted by orange swan at 8:59 PM on February 13, 2018

Super psyched for Dustin and Steve hanging out. I generally am not a big fan of Dustin, but his completely don't-give-a-fuck exchange with Mr. Wheeler was awesome.

I was really distracted for a few minutes by Brett Gelman, since I spent most of last weekend watching Love on Netflix, where he plays an absolutely horrible talk-radio host.

I loved Max's critique of Lucas' story as "derivative". I would have been tempted to have her call out similarities with say, E.T. or something, but that probably would have been too on the nose.

I love movie-spelunking rules. First, you never need to figure out how you're going to get out before you go in. Second, you can always make a torch out of a stick and a rag, no lamp-oil necessary. It will burn for at least 700 hours.
posted by skewed at 10:34 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I must be watching a different series than y’all because Dustin, Max, and Erica not awesome, funny, or cool, just frickin’ annoying.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:19 PM on September 17, 2021