Review: ‘Stranger Things 3’ Leaves Us With Many Unanswered Questions

[00:00:04] Stranger Things 3 Leaves Us With Many Unanswered Questions, Spoiler alert! Stranger Things 3 opens with a teasing revelation of the ultimate bad guy of the third season, the Russians. After all, the season is set in 1985 when much of the American fiction was pervaded with hostility

[00:00:23] towards Russia thanks to the Cold War. The Russians. The year is 1984 and in an obscure lab, a Tassarat-like machine is charging a powerful beam at what seems to be the gate to upside down which 11 had closed last season. However, things go horribly wrong and the

[00:00:41] machine along with some scientists are blown apart into smithereens. We learn from the laboratories' impatient proprietors that this isn't the first failure they've encountered. Much to our alarm, we also find that the facility is nowhere near Hawkins

[00:00:56] Indiana but in a freezing military base somewhere in Russia. It's summer at Hawkins. We're taken back to Hawkins after the credits. Unlike last season, the third season of Netflix's sci-fi horror series Stranger Things was released on July 4th and is therefore set

[00:01:16] in summer. Summer jobs swimsuit sunbathing, summer camp and of course teenage romance incline the show in a lighter direction. After the credits, Millie Bobby Brown's Elle and Finn Wolfhard's Mike are seen kissing in Elle's room with the radio blasting. If

[00:01:33] the awkward snowball dance case last season left you uneasy, you would probably feel better knowing that they have been practicing. This routine of theirs has come to give much grief to Elle's dad. Hopper isn't the only one frustrated. The entire gang

[00:01:49] Dustin, Will, Lucas and Max are trying to balance their collective interest with the ups and downs of teenhood. Will is especially perplexed unable to see the appeal of girls and relationships when all he really wants to do is play Dungeons & Dragons. Even Dustin

[00:02:09] has a girlfriend although no one thinks she is real. As if drawing parallels with the kids' sudden tolerance or should we say appetite for horror, thrill and adult-like things that teens want to like, the showmakers have also scaled up the visually terrifying

[00:02:24] and scream-inducing elements in the show. This season is not for the faint hearted though season 1 and season 2 do prepare you for some of it. Exploding rats, broken magnets and a secret Russian code. To taken by the summer nobody seems to pay attention to

[00:02:43] the rats in the town going bonkers. They eat fertilizers and explode into a moving blob of flesh and bone. Everyone except Nancy Wheeler and her reluctant boyfriend Jonathan Byers. The two are interns at the Hawking's Post. While Jonathan is happy to be in the

[00:03:00] dark room developing photographs, Nancy has to buy burgers for the men in the newsroom and tolerate unsolicited comments they are making about her. Classic 80s sexism. Good old days right? Meanwhile Joyce Byers thinks it is odd that the magnets in the

[00:03:16] town have lost their power. After a session with the kids maths teacher and a misdate with Hopper she is convinced that the government or the people from the Hawking's lab are up to something. Hopper enjoys thus set out on a mid-adventure only to find that the

[00:03:30] newly built Starcourt Mall is the hiding base of a dark secret. These events take a terminator risk turn when a Russian assassin targets the two. Dustin Steve and his new summer job partner Robin and Lucas's sister Rika are already on the Russians and

[00:03:52] after Dustin's cool new radio device picks up a secret Russian code which the kids get to crack. Their curious and resourceful minds lead them to a secret Russian base right in the middle of Hawkins but unfortunately they are found out. If you go back to the last

[00:04:08] two seasons what defined the side quest arcs was seeing the characters developed through conversation. Out of many one. A Pluribus Unum is the American motor printed on most dollar bills. It is Latin for part of many one. It is ironic how this expression also

[00:04:29] fits perfectly with the monster out to get L and the gang and everyone else. We learn that the bit of the mind flayer who possessed Will in season two was logged in the real world and has evolved since. After feeding on weaker hosts like rats, yep those exploding

[00:04:47] rats it targets Billy, Max's brother as a primary host and through him now controls many of the townspeople who turn into a mass of flesh and bone at the mind flayer's command. If reading this doesn't scare you enough watching perfectly novel people

[00:05:05] turn into grotesque blob of flesh should hopefully. What does however get frustrating to watch is how most of the characters ignore evidence signs of strange things underway. They remain disbelieving after having spent the previous two seasons hunting interdimensional monsters

[00:05:24] or cracking government conspiracies. The season finale. We have Russians operating a secret base in Hawkins, a Russian assassin who refuses to die and an enormous upside down monster controlling the townspeople and else limit being tested after fighting the evolved

[00:05:44] mind flayer multiple times. This is the state of affairs when the young heroes Joyce repeat. This is the state of affairs when the young heroes along with Joyce and Hopper walk into the finale. If you're expecting a happy ending where every strand of the story

[00:06:09] is neatly tied into a bow be warned. The season finale is dark and sometimes quite painful to watch. Joyce Hopper and Murray set out to destroy the key in the Russian base below the mall

[00:06:22] to close the gate. They refuse to put the kids life in danger by dragging them with them. While Dustin and Erica guide them through the different levels of the Russian base they are now so familiar with, the other kids are to leave town and seek refuge at Murray's.

[00:06:40] This seemingly perfect plan is thwarted by the untimely arrival of Billy and of course the monster. With Else power gone the kids literally grasp at straw ends and fireworks to keep themselves alive long enough for Joyce and Hopper to shut the gate thereby

[00:06:56] cutting the mint flare from its actual mind inside the upside down. Down at the base Hopper finds himself in a final face-off with the Russian assassin as Joyce crumbles to destroy the key in the control room. Hopper barely manages to win putting himself right in the

[00:07:13] line of the explosion when Joyce destroys the key. Billy's last minutes sacrifice saves Elf from the monster who drops dead soon hinting that the gate has been closed but at what cost? Is this the end? In the true American 4th of July style the season's

[00:07:31] ending is bigger than what was last. The cost is massive, there are fireworks and it leaves you wanting more. However for the characters that isn't the case. The final few minutes said three months after the Starcourt mall incident give you the sense of an ending.

[00:07:48] It is hard to imagine how the series will return now that the buyers are leaving Hawkins along with El. While the group is still emotionally connected they can no longer be together with Will moving. Nancy and Jonathan's yearning hug in the latter's empty room is

[00:08:02] heartbreaking. And El? With Hopper gone it is only natural that Joyce takes her along with Will and Jonathan. Some are along with it, the lives of the characters accustomed to end. The post credits scene however takes us back to a Russian facility where prisoners

[00:08:19] are being fed to a captured demodog. Loyalists of the show can't help but put their faith in the seemingly triffling detail, not the American. Could Hopper be alive and help captive in Russia? The season leaves you with many unanswered questions and gives you a lot

[00:08:36] of room for speculation while you wait for the show's 4th season, the release date of which is yet to be announced.