Stranger Things Recap: Episode 2 “The Weirdo on Maple Street”

Recapping the second episode of the Netflix Original series Stranger Things “The Weirdo on Maple Street.”

After finding Eleven at the end of the pilot episode, Michael, Dustin and Lucas try to get some answers from her and who she is and why she was out in the rain with no jacket or anything. They thin she escaped from a mental hospital and that she’s some Michael Myers figure or something. They need to keep her a secret because they found her when they were supposed to be home so they hide her in Mike’s basement where she sleeps in a homemade fort and cries herself to sleep.

The next morning, Mike wanted Eleven to ring the doorbell so his mom could take her in and call the right people to help her. Eleven doesn’t let that happen because she tells him bad people are after her. The kind of bad people who kill.

The viewer sees a flashback scene where Eleven is dragged to an isolated room as she screams for her “papa” to help her. It’s revealed that her “papa” is none other than Dr. Brenner. What did he to do her? Why did he do it? How did she get out? Did he give her powers or was he trying to take them away?

Back to the present, the search for Will continues with the police scouring the town for any clues to his whereabouts. Meanwhile, it continues for Dr. Brenner and his team of scientists in their all-white protective outfits that look like they’re out of E.T. His team is at the shed where Will vanished and Brenner calls his findings extraordinary.

Meanwhile, Eleven sees a picture of Will at Mike’s house and reacts in horror as if she knows him. She tells Mike, Lucas, and Dustin that Will is hiding, but not from the bad men, rather some sort of scary creature. They were going to tell Mike’s mom Karen again, but Eleven closed the door shut with her mind. She used one of the dragon figures from the dungeons and dragons board they played in the opener to depict the monster he’s hiding from. When are we going to see this monster?!

Chief Hopper goes to Benny Hammond’s diner where they think his death was a suicide, but he thinks something weird is at play because there is a missing person and a suicide in a town where that just doesn’t happen. He thinks he’s cursed.

Jonathan goes to his dad Lonnie’s house to see if Will was there. He’s not but he gives his dad a sign he made with his picture on it. They look like they haven’t seen each other in a long time. On his way home, Jonathan is taking pictures with the hopes of finding some clues about his younger brother’s disappearance when he stumbles upon a party where Nancy is at with her boyfriend Steve.

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Nancy is Mike’s older sister and was friendly to Jonathan when he came to school to put up a missing person’s sign of Will. She is unleashing her wild side and breaking free from her normal self. She shotguns beers and pressures her friend Barb to do the same until she cuts her hand trying to pop the can. Nancy and Steve go upstairs and she tells Barb to go home and she’ll be fine with Steve.

We cut away to the Byers home where Joyce has waited by the phone for another call from who she suspects is Will. Finally, a call comes through and this time, a voice comes through on the other end to confirm it’s Will, but we still don’t know where he is, but we can guess there is some sort of electrical force field or alternate plane where he’s existing.

The static overwhelms the call and a surge of electricity spikes and shorts out the phone again. Suddenly, music starts blaring from Will’s room where The Clash song “Should I Stay or Should I Go” plays as lights flicker in the room. Then, the walls start to move in a creepy sort of way that made it seem like the walls were melting or there was a figure beyond the walls and trying to get to the other side.

Joyce runs out of the house and to her car in horror before collecting herself and going back in the house.

Back to the party house where Barb is sitting on the edge of the diving board worried about her friend Nancy. Jonathan is still taking his pictures of the house from a distance when he looks down for a second after Barb noticed a drop of blood fell into the pool. It wasn’t from her hand. It was from the mysterious frightening creature that apparently is invisible or leaves no trace of its presence and snatched her up, leaving no trace of her behind.