Episode 6 follows the story lines of Will who is under care at Hawkins Labs, Dustin, Steve, Lucas, and Max who are hunting for Dart, and Hopper who discovers the secrets of Hawkins Labs. The episode also concludes Nancy and Jonathan’s visit to Murray and continues to explore the town of Hawkins and the characters we have grown to love. It begins the buildup to the finale, setting the stage for episode 8; episode 7 follows the story of eleven alone. It also introduces the main conflicts for the rest of the season
!!WARNING!!
The second part of this article contains a spoiler heavy review of Stranger Things Season 2 Episode 6: The Spy and therefor
SPOILERS.
Spoiler Review
The episode begins with Will in horrible pain being taken into Hawkins Labs. It briefly shows Hopper being washed after his venture into the tunnels under Hawkins before returning to Will in a bed with an oxygen mask and the staff of Hawkins Lab all around him checking his vitals as he cries in pain. “Will, where does it hurt?” Inquires one of the doctors. “All over” is his response. Doctor Brenner leans over him and “She says he feels like he’s burning. Check for burns.” They cut open his shirt yet find nothing prompting the female doctor to say “I don’t see anything.” She then asks “Where does it hurt the most, Will?” “Everywhere! Everywhere!” is Will’s response. A needle pierces his skin and an unknown injection is given. There is a shot of Joyce’s distressed face before the scene cuts to a car traveling in the night.
In this car sits Dustin and Steve listening to Hammer to Fall by queen, and on their way to Dustin’s house to kill Dart who supposedly is still locked in Dustin’s cellar. They reach the house and Steve retrieves his spiked club from the previous season from his car’s trunk. The approach the locked cellar door and Steve nervously bangs on the door with his club. “All right, listen, kid. I swear if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you’re dead.” Dustin responds “Its not” Steve asks about a key, which Dustin fetches. They open the door and Dustin shines his light into empty cellar. “I’ll stay up here in case he tries to escape.” says Dustin. Steve gives him a look of disdain before venturing down into the cellar he spends a moment searching around and finds a mucus like substance. “Steve? Steve, what’s going on down there?” asks Dustin. The light of Steve’s flashlight flashes up in Dustin’s face. “Get down here.” Dustin makes his way down and they see, in the corner of the room is a hole in the wall. The camera zooms back though the hole and out into the center of the woods. The cry of Dart begins the episode.
The introduction sequence ends with shot of Will’s drawings of the network of tunnels under Hawkins. Outside the house vehicles are heard and a moment later the door begins to open. Four men presumably employed by Hawkins lab enter the house and take photos of these drawings. The shot changes to one of Will in bed with Joyce heard talking to Owens in the background. The shot cuts to this conversation which is taking place in the meeting room at Hawkins with Joyce talking to the researchers. She expresses how discontent she is with the lack of help Will has been getting over the past year and when one of the doctors says he is getting the best treatment he can she rebuts the comment by asking “And what are you treating him for, exactly?” momentary silence and Joyce continues “Can anyone tell me what’s wrong with him? Can a single person in this room tell me what is wrong with my boy?” again silence as the doctors look at each other. “What is wrong with my boy?”
We next see a tape with the voice of Owens playing from it, the recording taken by Jonathan and Nancy in the previous episode. This is taken by Murray and put in a yellow envelope by Nancy which is signed by Jonathan and put into a stack of similar envelopes addressed to news organizations. “To taking down the man” says Murray now sitting with them in his living room drinking to celebrate a job well done. Murray offers that they stay as it is late and that they both take his guest room. Jonathan requests to use the sofa and Murray says “Okay, I’m confused. What’s going on here? A lovers’ quarrel?” at the response by Nancy and Jonathan that they are “just friends” Murray laughs and says “You’ve told me a lot of shockers today, but that, that is the first lie.” “It’s not a lie” says Nancy. “No?” replies Murray “You’re young, attractive. You’ve got chemistry, history, plus the real shit, shared trauma.” he goes on to try and read Jonathan and Nancy’s personalities to prove his deductive abilities but concedes and offers Jonathan the pull-out sofa in his study. We are shown Jonathan and Nancy in there rooms contemplating Murray’s comments. They then both walk out of there rooms and run into each other in the hall where they talk for a moment about Murray who they agree was drunk, before returning to their respective rooms. We see Nancy sittings in her room thinking, before standing up and walking to the door which she opens only to see Jonathan standing outside. They kiss and make their way into Nancy’s room closing the door behind them.
The next scene is of Lucas’s sister messing with two action figures one of which belongs to Lucas which he claims when he enters the room. However not before his sister says “Then tell your little nerdy friends to shut his mouth.” to which he responds “What are you talking about?” “Code red, Lucas. Code red. Code red.” says his sister mockingly “Bunch of nerds.” Lucas rushes off to find his walkie talkie to contact Dustin who we see wearing a headset and unloading gasoline and buckets of meat from Steve’s car. Lucas apologizes and tells him that his sister turned off his walkie talkie. In response Dustin tells him about Dart having grown and escaped, and requests he come over to meet himself and Steve in the junkyard.
Next we see Dr. Brenner open a door into a room where Hopper sits still fazed after the previous night. Brenner askes how he is feeling and he replies “Never better.” A man steps out from behind Brenner carrying a white suit like the ones we seen worn when entering the upside down. “All right, well, got a present for ya.” says Brenner. After Hopper replies “The hell is that?” Brenner says “Something you should see”. The scene cuts to hopper walking into the room where the portal had been, a yellow light glaring from behind him as he approaches. Brenner directs him into a lift where another man is waiting. The lift creaks, making its way down. Darkness, then a yellow light turns on in the lift and Hopper turns to gaze off of it and towards the camera. The camera changes to a wide shot behind him and we see a webbing with a red glow behind it, a crack through the blackness, an extension of the portal to the upside down. “All living organisms develop defense mechanisms against attack.” Says Brenner as they descend. “They adapt. They find some way to survive.” They reach the bottom and Hopper, who is in a state of disbelief already, is shown the tunnels that run throughout Hawkins, and the work that is being done presumably to document and contain them, yet no fire. “Why aren’t you burning it?” Hopper asks. “There’s a complication.” is Owens’s response.
All the players are set and the threat is known, however there is a final major scene before the main plot of the episode gets underway. Will is lying in a hospital bed. Mike is sleeping in the chair beside him and Joyce is recounting the events of the previous year to Bob. “Man, I always thought stuff like this happened in movies and comic books. Certainly not in Hawkins, and certainly not to someone like you.” Bob says to Joyce. “Or you.” she replies. A minute later will begins to stir. Bob runs into the hall to fetch a doctor and Joyce walks to his bedside and asks how he is feeling. Bob approaches and says “Okay, they’re on their way.” Will looks up at Bob and asks “Who is that?” “It’s me, big guy. It’s Bob.” Bob replies. He reaches out to touch Will’s hand but will nervously pulls it away. “Are you a” says will pausing momentarily “doctor?” “No. No, it’s just me, Just… just Bob.” Will looks to Joyce for comfort. The music builds up as Bob and Joyce look back in wonder and the scene ends with a shot of Mike now awakes staring curiously.
From here the plot already set in motion begin to play out. Lucas meets up with Max and brings her to help on the hunt for Dart. They meet with Dustin and Max in the junkyard who have created a trail of red meat through the woods to attract Dart. They pour gasoline on a pile of meat and hide in a bus fifty feet away with gasoline leading to the pile from them, a trap for the growing Demogorgon.
Will begins to have visions of the shadow monster and the maze of tunnels under Hawkins and tells the doctors that there is a point that the shadow monster doesn’t want them to go.They lay out pictures of his drawings across the large table that they had held their meeting at and have Will attempt to pinpoint this point eventually pointing to a location where many of the tunnels converge. They begin making preparations to send soldiers there.
Nancy and Jonathan leave Murray and go back to the Byers home. Here they are surprised that they cannot find Will and Joyce and Jonathan begins to worry. After some time they find evidence of the men who took photos of Will’s drawings and are pointed towards Hawkins lab.
Finally night arrives the men are sent to the location Will told them of, making their way through the tunnels. In the junkyard a dense fog sets but after some time Lucas and Max notice movement. The young demogorgon seems wary of the meat however and Steve decides to go out to meet him donning his spiked bat. It circles around him but after a moment the kids I. The bus notice another shape in the fog, another Demogorgon, behind Steve. They call out to him as the Demogorgons leaps at him. He smacks the first one with his bat and rolls over a car next to him to dodge the second. He then runs back to the bus and they try to reinforce the doors and defend the bus. Yet moments later the assault stops, the Demogorgons make their way elsewhere, into the tunnels. The forces sent by the lab reach the intersection, only to find a graveyard of bones strewn across the ground. Suddenly a sound and the Demogorgons descend on them from the tunnels. One after another the flashlights go out as they are taken down. Will has lied, set up a trap. Will is, as we realize as the episode ends, under the influence of the Shadow Monster.