#twilight zone best episodes

[thhecaptainschair]

Listen, I know The Twilight Zone doesn’t take place in the world of Magnus, but how can I watch “To Serve Man” and not see the Flesh? Or an avatar of the Eye in the man who always knew exactly what a person needed? How about Maple Street descending into madness because they thought aliens were among them? Sounds like the work of the Stranger to me

[benjinkies]

the thing about elevated horror stans is that you can derive meaning from literally anything. you can go all 8th grade english class annotations in the margins about LITERALLY ANYTHING. especially horror movies. on the flip side i can watch hereditary and say yeah seems like an average day in utah usa and be on my merry frickin way

[birbfeeder2artisticboogaloo]

i am watching a film called 'don't blink' (2014) and i. don't care for it very much actually :P

this is probably the fourth time i've seen it and it does not improve upon rewatch unfortunately ;A; the premise is that when ppl blink or stop looking at each other.........they disappear. sometimes. not all the time tho!!! and maybe the animals too, bc there's no birbs or bugs or bunnies or anything!!! it's quiet and empty!! the fisherman is gone!!! their cars mysteriously refuse to drive!!!

um. we never actually get an explanation for it btw?? i can't remember if our group have been to this specific building before but....other ppl definitely have??? like there's half eaten breakfast and unused bath water and all, so ppl have BEEN here???? is this....a new phenomenon?? ppl just....disappearing??? has it happened before??? and NOBODY'S noticed?? NONE of these ppl had ANYONE who would miss them??? ;A;

and where did they GO??? a parallel dimension??? the underworld??? or is THIS the underworld and the disappeared ppl go back to reality???? is this some sort of.....elaborate prank???? WHAT IS HAPPENING.

i just. i just wish i UNDERSTOOD. i just DON"T GET IT. PLS IF U UNDERSTAND THIS, PLS EXPLAIN IT TO MEEEE ;A;

spoiler under cut

AND THEN!!! after establishing throughout the whole film that ppl disappear ONE BY ONE.............at the very end, when it seems like the last woman standing is about to be saved.....she looks up.....

AND THE COPS AND PARAMEDICS HAVE ALL DISAPPEARED IN ONE GO!!!!!

LIKE!!! u just did that for the EFFECT!!! the AESTHETIC!!! u ignored ALL the rules u gave us for one last lil ~spook~ !!! completely undermining the entire thing just for a lil 'gothcha!!' at the end!! i do not care for that ._.

[caffinated-squid]

Dissecting Pete and his complicated role in The Eltingville Club

Time to talk about Pete, the character that I have actually struggled the most to write about because I have a lot to say and have been struggling to coherently organize it. Also because I have seen some other people make really good analysis pieces about him, so I’m going to try my best to contribute.

On surface level Pete appears to have the same function as Jerry in the club, he is the support of the group and is able to break up a lot of the arguments that Bill and Josh get into. However, Pete doesn’t resolve the actual problem, he actually has the tendency to exacerbate it by actively encouraging the characters shitty behaviors instead of calming them down. One example that comes to mind is the Steel figures, instead of getting Josh to calm down and move on, he goes on a rant about the movie, and then encourages Josh with the idea of burning down the Steel display.

There is also the possibility that he originally joined the club as a kid both to talk about their nerdy interests together, as well as to get away from the violence in his family. But overtime he ended up needing to deal with fights and arguments from the club, as well as eventually participating in it.

*Focusing on Petes temper for a second, I think the main reason why a lot of his outbursts result in property damage is from him having no fucking clue how to deal with his emotions. From the brief scenes we hear his dad talk and what Dorkin has mentioned, Pete grew up in a household that encouraged toxic masculinity and rejected his own interests as being unimportant or for children. Dorkin also mentioned Pete growing up in a physical household where he was hit a lot, (which can also be implied when his dad threatens to break his legs if he ever tries to meet with the club again) so his go to for anything is to get violent, its the only acceptable emotion to express.

**I also like to think this is why Pete had the least of a reaction when Bill goes on his rant tearing him down, its probably the norm for him.

I find Pete’s contributions to the environment of the club to be interesting because of how contradictory it is. Pete is usually the character to call other characters pussies or make fun of them for not doing things that are traditionally masculine, (like the comment to Jerry about how sewing is for chicks, sissies, and sweatshop workers) but at the same time needs to defend his own interests from the club as it gets brushed off as being gay or not worth discussion, including needing to defend his admiration of horror make up/special effects.

His reaction makes sense in the context of his family life since they don’t care about his interests either, and the club being his only friend group probably gives the urgency to both protect his interests while also aggressively stamping out any suggestion that it implies something about him. If bi Pete is canon, I’m assuming he doesn’t even want to think about it because if it were true, it would probably lead to more isolation and more things for the club and his family to shit on him for.

Out of all the character punishments, next to Josh, I think Pete got the worst of it when it came to punishments, as he was forced to throw out all of his horror stuff after the comic shop burned down, since his method of escapism was completely ripped away from him and confirmed as non important kids stuff that he needs to grow out of. It’s also sad to see because in comics like Unstable Molecules and They’re Dead, They’re All Messed Up, you can see Pete’s interest in horror make up and costumes shine through. Mentions of him improving the zombie looks from the prior year and his admiration for the horror make up in The Twilight Zone episodes show that he cares about the craft behind it. (same with him talking about horror icons like Peter Cushing, Anne Rice, and Christopher Lee)

Destroying this escapism didn’t make Pete more of an adult. Ironically he became more of a child as he got older, his insecurity about his interests made him seek out more adult content, both because its content he gets off to, as well as wanting to be perceived as an adult, which is why he gave up comics years ago ‘to take up fuckin.’ Pete never solved any of his actual problems, he’s still short tempered, a sex pest, and insecure about himself, but is now the one abusing other people with his scrap of power, just like his dad and probably his brothers did to him.

[supinternets]

Just two days! Here we have the dashing Jamie McCrimmon and the cosmic hobo that is the Second Doctor. They are one of the great duos in Who. I consider Patrick Troughton one of the best Doctors, old & new. Matt Smith, whom played the Eleventh Doctor took inspiration from him in his portrayal of the Time Lord. Some of my favorite stories that I’d recommend are “Enemy of the World” & “The Mind Robber”. The later I’d also say is one of the best episodes period. I have such a love of this era of Who, when it’s at its best it gives me Twilight Zone vibes. Also if you are a fan of Outlander, you have Jamie McCrimmon to thank for that.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If Rod Serling came out at the end of the Twilight Saga to do a Twilight Zone closing monologue, what do you think he'd say? And would the star of the Twilight Twilight Zone Saga be Jacob or Bella? A townsperson???

Oh, it's Charlie's story, easy.

It already is a Twilight Zone episode in that we have this ordinary man we're introduced to with a very distracting emotional drama. Out of nowhere, his teenage daughter decides to live with him instead of her mother. Her mother had just remarried but he can't get any confirmation that there's anything up with the step father, in fact he can't get much out of Bella period and is having a very difficult time connecting with her.

Then we get Bella noticing the Cullens and Charlie notes that they've been here for two years and people have to stop getting weird about them!

Then his daughter goes through this horrific relationship where her decisions get stranger and stranger and she goes through a horrible depression. He blames this boy, and when she finally gets out of it, for some reason Edward shows back up again with his family with an excuse that is... plausible but not very likely.

And it ends with Charlie, after having seen Jacob transform into a wolf, realizing everyone from his daughter to his best friend have been lying to him for years. He's entered the twilight zone, and he meets with his daughter, a now crystal alien, who believes she's doing a fantastic job convincing him she's the same old Bella as always.

And there's a little girl, Edward's "niece", who has that alien skin, Edward's hair color, and her mother's eyes.

Roll monologue/music/credits.

To that effect I imagine it would be something along the lines of how much you really know your friends and family and how the twilight zone has sometimes been there for far longer than you ever suspected.

The reason it has to be Charlie is that he's the character who isn't a part of this world, who gets to glimpse in and know that there is something here that is Wrong and happened despite all his trying to prevent a thing he didn't even realize could occur.

No one else quite goes through what Charlie does.

[thebardbullseye]

I can't recall a one-shot of an actual play that felt like a short story ("The Most Dangerous Game" springs to mind) or as an episode of The Twilight Zone.

"The Clearing" is so evocative of place and character in its short run time while being ripe for analysis.

Goddamn y'all. Best $5/month in my budget.

[mylordshesacactus]

SAME. The first time I heard the "only five episodes" statistic I was like well that can't possibly be right and Time Enough At Last was literally my first thought.

After some thought though I do agree with the general consensus on Time Enough, in that anything that involves an ACTUAL nuclear apocalypse--as opposed to a false alarm--pushes it into the alternate-reality realm of sci-fi.

...I STILL think I Shot An Arrow fits the theme better than One More Pallbearer, despite being just barely on the wrong side of "the only possible way for this plot to occur would be if we had space travel advanced enough to get lost between solar systems". I just still think Pallbearer has trappings of supernatural or divine retribution in making his cruel manipulative lie a reality. However, I do admit defeat in that TTZ is not exactly SUBTLE when its laser-guided karma is intended to be read as divine.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be vague in those tags! this is just a generally-recognized category when talking about TZ--that there are only five episodes that contain no supernatural elements, WITH SCIENCE FICTION (any technology wildly outside our abilities, such as interstellar travel, alternate timelines that didn't happen in real life, etc) COUNTING AS SUPERNATURAL. The tags were off the cuff so I didn't clarify, but the five generally acknowledged as fitting that category are Where Is Everybody?, The Shelter, The Silence, One More Pallbearer, and The Jeopardy Room. (Personally, I think One More Pallbearer is pushing the definition because that level of hallucination seems pretty supernatural to me, but it TECHNICALLY qualifies. I also think you're right to include I Shot An Arrow instead; the reason it's not generally included is that the level of space travel necessary to crash-land on Earth AND NOT REALIZE IT is definitely outside of our abilities--at our current technology level, we can't get far enough away to get lost in the first place. I still think it fits the spirit of the list better than Pallbearer but I was not consulted.)

genuinely love this. The first episode that came to mind when contemplating what could fit was "time enough at last" so I while I am still confused by the count, I am now keen to re-watch all of these to see how they fit. I spent quite a bit of time contemplating "sing the body electric" as well, which was solidly in the "any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" when it first aired, but is now solidly in the realm of reality.

[tuttle-did-it]

As someone who has worked on war and history in an academic setting, the rise of Trump all felt incredibly familiar to everything I've read and seen.

When Trump started shouting into the void, I said that he reminded me of Vollmer, the character Dennis Hopper played in The Twilight Zone episode, 'He's Alive.'

(First thing's first, please try to go watch this episode and then read the rest of this, because the episode was incredibly well done.)

Everyone told me that Trump was just a harmless clown-- that no one would really vote for him. That I was inventing absurdities just because I don't like Republicans and Trump. He's just a joke. He's a sexist, homophobic, racist, transphobic rapist. And no one would vote for him. We're too civilised for this, now. We've evolved as a species, and that will never happen again.

Everyone got a pretty clear reality when people did, enthusiastically, salivate over the idea of having a sexist, homophobic, racist, transphobic rapist in power. And over the past few years, he's become enveloped in his own conspiracy theories and hatred. And I am still strongly reminded of Vollmer every time I see Trump speak.

For those who are not aware, the episode is about a tiny, useless little white man who craves power and adoration. (spoilers for a 61 year old show below.)

A man in the shadows teaches Vollmer how to capture the attentions and hatred of the white audiences and rise to power. The phantom is eventually revealed to be Adolph Hitler.

S4 E4, Episode aired Jan 24, 1963, Written by Rod Serling, directed by Stuart Rosenberg.

Rod Serling's Opening Monologue:

Key scene where the Phantom (Hitler) teaches Vollmer from the shadows. Tell me that Trump and the other Republicans have not learned these lessons just as well as Vollmer ever did.

Rod Serling's End Monologue:

All of this has happened before. All of this IS happening again. Make no mistake-- Trump is unstable, and doesn't know about half the lies that come out of his mouth every day. But if you think, for a second, that this man has your best interests in mind? You are going to get a very, very harsh dose of reality. But not before millions of people suffer at the hands of this monster, and will for many, many years to come.

[askmovieslate]

John Carpenter originally called this the ending to his Doomsday Trilogy, which was preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness. This may be controversial, but this is my favorite one of the three, yes even more than The Thing.

It's wonderfully meta and the acting is stellar, also at barely 80 minutes long the movie feels like the absolute best Twilight Zone episode ever made. Jordan Peele dreams he could make something as effective as this movie.

It's super depressing and kinda goofy, so be aware of it before going into it.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #69 – Please Undo This Hurt by Seth Dickinson

As a general rule, I feel like including a short story (not even 40 generously spaced pages on the ebook) in the list of what I’ve read this year is kind of cheating. But I got this as a gift and found it affecting enough that I feel like writing out my feelings, and in any case I’ve been reading 10,000+ words of web serial a week all year so I’ve got a bit of ethical room to manner here, I think.

This reads like an old school Idea Story, which I mean in the best possible way – a more grounded than usual Twilight Zone episode, a light dusting of interpersonal drama, uncanniness and sci fi/horror vibes over what’s exploring and wrestling with a single thought – or really, a single temptation.

Does it ever like life is a trap, morally speaking? Like every act you take cannot help but hurt someone, like complicity in more distant atrocities than you can count is a precondition of existence, like even when you try to be helpful or do the right thing it just ends up being a different kind of selfishness? Like, if you were the star of It’s a Wonderful Life, everyone’s life really would have been that much brighter if you had never been in it? Like in the final analysis, when all you have ever done or will ever do is tallied up and your heart is weight against the Feather of Ma’at, it will fall so far that it breaks the scales?

Well, what if there was a way out? Not suicide, but something cleaner – to be undone, to never have been, to never have hurt or been hurt in the first place. Wouldn’t you be tempted? How, in a world where there are maggots gnawing on every root, and every thing you care about is just one more hook to draw you deeper into the mire, could you convince yourself not to take it?

I intensely dislike psychoanalyzing authors based on their work. So I will instead say that this story is a truly masterful and incredibly successful exercise in writing from the perspective of someone grappling with intense depression – a perspective that simply takes for granted that the main objection to suicide is that it is a selfish escape at the expense of the distress inflicted on those around you. Even the finial resolution is less any realization of life’s inherent worth or goodness than an acceptance of the necessity of sacrifice in endless and varying degrees. It drips from every sentence, and cuts enough to hurt.

Dickinson is easily one of my favourite working writers, and finding another piece of theirs I haven’t come across before is always a delight. Their short stories especially are quite often emotionally raw and beautifully written enough to effect me like very little prose does. It’s no surprise that both their non-sequel novels basically take one of the short stories as the emotional core and climax of them (something I’d say Baru Cormorant did more successfully than Exordia, which felt like it flinched, but that’s a tangent). I don’t particularly think this would benefit from being expanded on, but the rawness feels similar.

This is by far the least worldbuilding-heavy story of theirs I think I've read, but there’s enough dreams and uncanny events and just colourful imagery for the prose to still absolutely sing. It’s a short enough story that actually quoting any excerpts feels like it defeats the point, but there are some lines and images I already know will be rattling around my head for some time to come.

[badolmen]

“Is he really normal doctor?”

“That is a word we try not to use Mrs. Parkes.”

“Well why not?”

“Because it’s meaningless. Normal, in the popular sense, refers to the behavoir pattern of the majority. And that pattern is not necessarily good. […] What I’m trying to say is don’t judge Charlie’s emotional health by the degree to which he conforms to other people’s standards. Don’t expect him to, well, be like other people.”

“Well then you don’t think he’s sick?”

“Oh no, not now. He was when he came here - the constant pressure of trying to be something he wasn’t, of trying to act and feel and think the way you wanted him to, instead of the way he wanted him to, well these things contributed to a serious breakdown.”

watching the twilight zone and seeing a character that is so autistic it’s hardly coded and the narrative treats him with such compassion in his introduction I can only hope his story ends as gently

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things (1x02): “The Weirdo on Maple Street” Review

Just like the previous episode, this one contains neat homages and references to different 80s movies that help lay out the structure of the show and its story without overshadowing it. It also incorporates unique call-forwards to future episodes (specifically in season 4) that, when viewed again on rewatch (especially having seen the play The First Shadow), recontextualizes the entire mytharc.

Ironically, despite the name of this episode deriving from a famous Twilight Zone episode, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” they have very little in common plot-wise with each other, and the themes present in that particular episode will come into play later in season 4, specifically with Jason’s witch hunt against the Hellfire Club.

Part 1: Mike, Dustin, and Lucas meet El

The interactions at the beginning between El, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas is a combination of both amusing (since they’re 12 year old boys who are implied to have never really talked to girls their age) and gives some initial insight into each character.

Mike is the one who comes off the most empathetic to El’s plight in this situation (note that he took off his coat earlier and wrapped it around El to keep her warm). He’s genuinely concerned over why she’s out in the rain looking scared with barely any clothes on (save Benny’s T-shirt), and he’s the the one who gives her clothes to wear. I also think it’s interesting that, when El refuses to have the door to the bathroom closed for privacy, Mike agrees to keep the door open slightly.

I know this is often attributed by most of the fandom to Hopper since he’s the one who makes a big stink in season 3 about El having her door open three inches (something that’s played as a recurring joke), but this episode introduces it first with Mike’s arrangement with El, as well as El’s desire for a semi-open door due to the trauma of being locked in solitary confinement at the Lab (as we’ll see later on).

By contrast, Lucas and Dustin come off as insensitive, even though that likely wasn’t their intention. Dustin’s dialogue about El, from asking out-loud whether she has cancer due to short hair, or if she’s deaf, or even if she slept naked, indicates he views her in the moment as a curiosity. That curiosity certainly peaks when he later finds out she has powers, and he will eventually move past this initial perception of her. Lucas is a lot blunter in openly noting that El doesn’t act like a normal girl, speculates that she came from Pennhurst (the asylum which would later make an appearance in the season 4 episode “Dear Billy”), and uses phrases like “psycho” “freak” “weirdo” and “something wrong in the head with her” (The latter phrase would later be used by the Duffer Brothers to describe Angela in S4, although that had less to do with mental illness in Angela’s case and more to do with her being a genuinely vile human being).

While we're on this topic………let’s discuss Lucas’s initial attitude towards El, and how the fandom reacted towards it.

I am aware of the negativity that got directed at Lucas in the first season because of this, to the point that even Caleb McLaughlin was not only painfully aware of it, but was even on the receiving end of fandom racism because of it. It doesn’t help that some of these fans who trashed Lucas in this season would later go on to defend Billy in season 2, and either pretend that his racism towards Lucas wasn’t a thing, or use Lucas’s initial behavior towards El as a justification for why it was okay for Billy to treat Lucas like shit. I am deeply sorry Caleb was on the receiving end of that at a young age, and he deserved a helluva lot better than having to put up with that kind of racist bullshit.

While I wasn’t happy about the terminology Lucas used to describe El, it’s important to note he is 12 at this point. Like any kid his age, he is going to say stuff that, in hindsight, comes off as insensitive at best, and hurtful at worst. A lot of this can be chalked up to ignorance surrounding mental health issues and abuse, as well as the fact he’s facing a freaky situation with someone who isn’t acting in a way considered ‘normal.’ The result is falling back on stereotypes and cliches about abnormal people that he likely picked up from movies like John Carpenter’s Halloween (which is referenced in the comparison Lucas and Dustin make between El and Michael Myers) and other kids his age who discussed that stuff with the same levels of ignorance.

Third, just like with Steve (who acts callously insensitive at different points in this episode), Lucas is being presented with flaws and biases that he must overcome. This is how a character arc is supposed to work. They start out one way, undergo a journey, are forced to confront their flaws, realize they need to make a change, and apply those lessons to become better people than they were before. It's why I find it eye-roll inducing how many idiots in this fandom fall into this Puritain-esque way of thinking where, if a character has ever said or done anything remotely uncaring in the past, the idea is they should never live it down, EVEN IF they have long since apologized and put in the work to be better.

I want to be careful not to infantilize Lucas the same way fans have done with Billy or Angela to try and absolve them for their disgusting behavior. Unlike those two, whose intentions were based on getting a kick out of sadistically hurting others to make themselves feel superior, all the while never apologizing and doubling down, Lucas’s initial attitude was more rooted in seeing El as an inconvenience to their goal of finding Will as opposed to just wanting to make El’s life a living hell (like Angela) or taking his anger out on others (like Billy).

Again, I’m not saying this attitude was okay. It was immature in the same way Steve’s initial reaction towards Jonathan putting up Missing Posters for Will was callow. However, it’s not rooted in the mean-spirited cruelty some fans have accused it of being, and it’s supposed to be a point for both Lucas (and Steve) to grow from.

Speaking of El, just like there was the implication El was intentionally starved at the Lab, we get more subtle signs of how she was abused: Her reaction to putting the fresh pair of clothes Mike gives her on her cheek (indicating she’d been in that hospital gown for quite a while). Her panicked reaction later in the episode when she’s forced to hide in Mike’s closet, triggering a PTSD flashback to when Brenner forced the orderlies to lock her up in solitary confinement. Her flinching at little things, like when Dustin claps in her face, or the lightning outside (though that is likely due to never having been outside the Lab before now and being unfamiliar with lightning), or when Lucas points to the blood on her, or when he later angrily demands from El to know where Will is. Even the scene of her almost stripping in front of the guys, while played for laughs, all but spells out how she never had access to privacy and was under constant watch (I can’t remember if there was a security camera in her room at the Lab, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was).

El’s situation and reactions remind me of Genie, a real life case we studied in my psychology class in school involving a feral girl from Los Angeles who'd spent 13 years of her life locked in a room and chained to a toilet by her parents (specifically her father, though her mother and brother also enabled this due to being at the receiving end of his abuse as well). She was constantly subjected to the rage and neglect of her father, including beatings, malnourishment, isolation from the outside world, and constantly being kept in the dark. It’s even been speculated he may have sexually abused her at various points as well. The dude was a real piece of work, and the damage he did to her severely affected Genie's physical, mental, and emotional development, to the point she learned not to make any noises (lest her father beat her with a wooden plank) and didn’t develop the language and communication skills kids her age would have picked up by that point. She was eventually discovered in 1970 by a social worker, who alerted authorities and had her taken to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The case got public attention and the father, who was unable to handle the media scrutiny, committed suicide, all while leaving behind a note where he refused to take responsibility for what he did to his daughter.

It's unclear whether the Duffer Brothers based aspects of El’s character on Genie, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did (If this is true, and there was an interview I missed talking about this subject, feel free to link to it in the reblogs). Both girls are abuse survivors who were stunted in their growth and development because of what they were put through. In the case of Genie, her father’s abuse of her caused lasting physical damage, including having limited gross motor skills (i.e. basic functions kids learn during development like standing, sitting, walking, etc) and impairing her ability to communicate and learn new words and vocabulary.

In El’s case, she also has limited vocabulary and is unfamiliar with certain words (like “friend”) but she’s shown to understand concepts even if she doesn’t have the words to name them. The abuse Brenner subjected El to was along the lines of Operant Conditioning (i.e. rewarding and punishing behavior, and behavior based on the removal or addition of stimuli), and was done as a way of molding her into the weapon he wanted (in stark contrast to Genie’s father, whose abuse stemmed from wanting nothing to do with his daughter and resenting her existence). Unlike with Genie, we see that El did develop gross motor skills (i.e. the flashback Terry has where she sees a three year old El playing with Kali/Eight, and the rainbow room in season 4 with the special kids playing with toys), and there clearly was some attempt at raising El to make sure El could understand and communicate with Brenner and the orderlies in order to spy on the Russians. The abuse in question was specifically tailored by Brenner: Keeping El isolated from the outside world, and limiting her knowledge to only what Brenner wanted her to know. Drilling into El that she was expected to perform certain tasks on his command, and punishing her with solitary confinement if she disobeyed or refused. Allowing the other kids at the lab to bully El because she was slow in the development of her powers and hoping that the ostracization would produce the results he wanted.

There’s also the trauma associated with memories El has repressed, but have slowly started to seep through. For story related purposes, we don’t yet see the flashbacks to the Massacre at Hawkins Lab and the events leading up to that (at least not until season 4), but it is subtly alluded to in the scene where Mr. Clarke finds a piece of El’s hospital gown in the tunnel she used to escape. AKA the same tunnel Henry/One/Vecna led her to in 1979:

Like I said, this episode contains several call-forwards, and this is one of them. It explains how El knew where to go to escape the Lab once the gate opened, and “The Monster” elaborates on WHY she finally did.

It’s pretty clear Mike and El’s interactions at the house during the day are meant to invoke Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, with Mike faking sick to stay home (the difference being Karen sees through it, but allows Mike the day off because of what happened to Will, while also telling him he can always talk to her if he needs to), showing El around his house, introducing her to Star War toys the same way Elliot did with E.T., and even making food for her. There’s even the later scene of El wandering the house during dinner and Karen nearly missing her, similar to Elliot’s mom having near misses with E.T. when Gertie brought him downstairs. These scenes have a nice charm to them, and have always been fun to watch.

Another movie this episode pays homage to in one particular scene is a 1985 Harrison Ford film called Witness:

Witness centers around a German Amish boy named Samuel Lapp who, after the death of his father, travels to Baltimore with his mother Rachel to visit her sister. Like El, this is Samuel’s first time in a new environment other than his Amish community, and his initial reaction is one of quiet curiosity. While at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, waiting for a late train, he ends up using the restroom and becomes an eyewitness to the murder of a detective that takes place there. Because Samuel saw the culprit of the crime while hiding in one of the stalls, Samuel and his mother are forced to cooperate with a police detective named John Book (played by Harrison Ford) in helping to track down the killer. When El points to Will in the science photograph next to Mike’s trophies, this is a direct homage to the scene when Samuel points to a photograph of Lieutenant James McFee, indicating to Book that McFee is the murderer.

In both scenarios, what follows is the untangling of a massive conspiracy: In Witness, it centers around police corruption and illegal drug dealings. In Stranger Things, it’s centered around government corruption and the Upside Down. The big difference is that while Samuel is still present in Witness, the movie shifts focus to John Book as the main character, especially when he’s targeted by corrupt cops and forced to go on the run and hide within the Amish community to protect himself, Rachel, and Samuel. Meanwhile, El remains central as a character, and ironically enough is the one working to protect Mike, Dustin, and Lucas from Brenner and the Demogorgon while hiding among them.

Speaking of Brenner (who has physical similarities to Chief Paul Schaeffer, the main antagonist of Witness, as well similar personality traits of demanding loyalty from his men without feeling obligated to return it), his reaction towards Will’s disappearance and finding the ooze in the shed at the Byers house takes on a whole different context after having seen The First Shadow (or Season 4 for that matter). The play reveals that, as far back as the 1940s, Brenner was aware of the Upside Down. Granted, he hadn’t actually seen the dimension with his own eyes. The most information he got was from his own dying father (who was a part of the fateful Philadelphia Experiment in 1943) and maybe even Henry/One/Vecna (depending on what kind of information Henry willingly or unwillingly provided to Brenner). In any case, his lack of surprise over Joyce’s phone call to Flo about Will and some kind of animal on the other end indicates he knew Will was in the Upside Down and was being hunted. Not that Brenner truly cared about Will in the grand scheme of things.

In regards to Will, for those who are interested in what exactly happened in the end scene with Joyce and the lights flickering and the recorder playing “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” this is how things looked like from his perspective in the comic The Other Side:

The show already implied this is what was going on, with Will hiding and the Demogorgon chasing him, but it helps give more context to why the Demogorgon temporarily turned its attention to Joyce and stopped pursuing Will.

I am curious about the Demogorgon’s decision not to go after Joyce despite trying to tear through the wall: Was it just trying to scare her away in the moment, or did Joyce manage to outrun it quick enough that it went back into the Upside Down because it decided she wasn’t worth it? Is this even the same Demogorgon that would later attack Barbara, or was that a different one considering the distance between the Byers House and Steve’s House?

Speaking of which, let’s talk more about the Byers family, including Lonnie and Hopper:

Part 2: The Byers, Lonnie, and Hopper

I forgot about the tense exchange between Joyce and Hopper in this episode. Her insisting that it was Will’s voice on the other end of the phone and, when Hopper remains skeptical, bringing up how she’d recognize Will's breathing the same way Hopper would recognize his daughter’s breathing. To her credit, she does regret that and realizes how low of a blow that is, and Hopper, despite being hurt, doesn’t take his anger out on her, and recognizes her outburst as coming from stress and frustration over her son’s disappearance rather than vindictiveness. Add in how these two have history with one another (especially from their interactions in The First Shadow when they were attending high school and were already starting to realize they were attracted to one another) and there’s a lot both Joyce and Hopper are willing to overlook when it comes to each other’s flaws.

Hopper’s depression is hard to watch. I’ve never had a kid, and I have no intention of having one either (especially with the way our world has gone), but I understand what it’s like to be in that kind of mental state between wanting to care and yet being so beaten down by life and what it has taken from you that it’s hard not to slip into apathy.  Compared to his time in New York City, where Sara was still alive, his wife was married to him, and he felt rejuvenated with a purpose, Hopper in the beginning of this show is directionless, burying himself in booze, drugs, and women, all while putting in the bare minimum into his 4 years as chief of police. Then, after Joyce's son disappears, and his best friend Benny is murdered while it's staged to look like a suicide, Hopper is forced to realize he still cares, and no amount of drowning himself is going to change that. As he bitterly notes to the woman he’s sleeping with:

BTW, note how he never references the last time a person got murdered in Hawkins. That was a clever way for the Duffer Brothers to later lay the groundwork for the Creel murders in 1959. As depicted in The First Shadow, Hopper saw the bodies of Virginia and Alice Creel around the time the police arrested Victor for their deaths.

I will go more in detail about Joyce’s arc as it develops this season, but there is one comparison that is relevant to this episode: Her similarities to Florence “Rusty” Tullis from the 1985 film Mask, which is based on the real-life story of Rocky Dennis. The Duffer Brothers have cited the movie as an inspiration for how they wrote Joyce’s character, as well as how Joyce’s costumes were designed. Both women are single mothers working to provide for their sons, both of them have sons who deal with mistreatment because of their physical appearance (Will because of his clothes and Rocky because of his Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia (CDD)), both of them are overworked and stressed and turn to drugs (Joyce’s chainsmoking in this episode and Rusty’s addictions, which becomes a source of conflict between her and Rocky), both of them worry constantly about the well-being of their sons, and both of them are perceived as being “unstable” when in fact they are fiercely determined and would go through hell to keep their sons alive and safe. In Joyce’s case, that involves going back inside her house at the end of this episode to keep in contact with Will despite a monster lurking within her walls.

On the other side of the parenting spectrum is Lonnie Byers, and his establishing character moment tells us everything: He’s dating a woman half his age (though Cynthia doesn’t appear to be a teenager as Joyce implied in the previous episode), his first appearance is shoving Jonathan into a wall before making a half-assed introduction between Jonathan and Cynthia and makes a pretense of trying to hug Jonathan despite Jonathan not wanting him to.

Then there’s Jonathan looking for Will throughout Lonnie’s house, including in the trunk of Lonnie's car:

Just this scene alone makes me question what kind of child custody dispute went on between Joyce and Lonnie during their divorce, and if Lonnie at one point took Will without Joyce’s permission. I can buy he’d do it for financial reasons (and we’ll see that aspect rear its ugly head when he later comes to exploit Will’s funeral and file a lawsuit to get money to cover his debts) but other than that, he just comes off as a lazy bum who wants nothing to do with his sons. Makes me question why on earth he even wanted kids with Joyce in the first place.

I talked about this in my review of The First Shadow, but Lonnie in this episode pretty much is the same as he was in the play: He’s lazy, he has no desire to make anything of his life, he’s costing off other people, and he’s a douchebag. The only difference is instead of being a teenager, he’s a grown-ass adult well into his 40s, and a deadbeat father on top of that. I know a lot of people hate Lonnie (and rightfully so), but the most I can muster for him is contempt as opposed to the burning hatred I have for characters like Angela.

Jonathan is a mixed bag in this episode. On the one hand, his love and devotion to his brother is on full display, and it’s a combination of sweet and sad given the circumstances. His interaction with Nancy at the school and her giving genuine condolences to him over Will’s disappearance was a highlight (and was when I started to care about Nancy the first time I watched the show), as well as the flashback to his conversation with Will and the playlist he introduces to him.

One of those bands he recommends btw is The Smiths, and one of their songs, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” has been used in the marketing for season 5, specifically in reference to Jonathan:

I’m sure plenty of fans have already made speculations, but all I can say is I hope this doesn’t foreshadow something bad happening to Jonathan because…………YIKES!! “Why do I give valuable time to people who don’t care if I live or die?” I’m not really surprised that Jonathan has depression and self-confidence issues, partly because of his parents’ failed marriage, his worries about becoming like his father, and being an outcast, but if his perception is that people don’t care, he is DEAD WRONG. And I’m not just talking about his family when I say this.

In any case, his attempts to boost Will’s self-confidence despite struggles with his own, and to encourage Will to chart his own course regarding things Will likes vs what other people tell him he should like, is one of the best moments in the show, and a life lesson that needs more applicability (especially when it comes to fandom culture).

The part where Jonathan loses me is towards the end of the episode. You all know what I’m talking about: The photographs he takes of Steve’s pool party.

First off, I want to make clear that, in spite of what he did, this wasn’t a deal-breaker for me in terms of liking his character. Yes, I agree it was creepy and wrong to take the pictures without the others knowledge or consent, and to his credit, he does acknowledge later that he shouldn’t have done it. The only good thing that came out of that was inadvertently capturing the Demogorgon on the picture he took of Barbara at the pool, but that in no way excuses the other photos he took. Contrary to what my time on Tumblr may suggest, I’m a private person, and I’m someone who does NOT like having pictures taken of me without my permission. I also imagine plenty of other people feel the same way, and I get why some fans were upset by this scene. It doesn’t help that the screenplay contains this tidbit regarding Jonathan’s motivations:

This does hearken forward to what Robin later tells Steve in season 3 about how outcasts like herself still desire to be popular and normal (which is specifically associated thematically in the show with being accepted). As much as Jonathan has embraced the identity of outcast, I don’t think it’s completely out-of-character for him to want that as well, especially if it’s tied to being accepted for who he is. At the same time though, out of all the ways he could have expressed that, this was the worst way to go about it. Again, the reason I don’t hold it against him is because of his apology to Nancy, similar to how Steve would later apologize to Nancy and Jonathan for his behavior, and Lucas would apologize to El for his. Characters start out in a flawed way and go through an evolution. That’s how it works.

Speaking of Steve and Nancy………..

Part 3: The Pool Party

We get our introduction of Tommy and Carol in this episode, and I completely forgot that the first thing Tommy does is stick his finger in Barbara’s ear to be a dick. Charming. 😒 And you have Carol being snide to both Nancy and Jonathan. Lovely. 🙄

They say you are judged by the company you keep, and they take that principle and run with it here with Steve. Whenever Tommy and Carol are around, we see a callous side to Steve fueled by those two’s toxicity, and it’s not pleasant. I even question how much of the Pool Party was his idea vs Tommy and Carol’s who wanted the excuse to party hard and shack up in Steve’s huge house. It reminds me of Risky Business when the Tom Cruise character, Joel Goodsen (whom Steve shares parallels with) has his parents leave for a trip, and he's put in charge of watching over the house, all while his friends pressure him to exploit the opportunity to party and have sex. The big difference is while Joel’s friends try to help him once the shenanigans go over the top, Tommy and Carol would have left Steve out to dry. The pool party was for their benefit as opposed to Steve’s.

Steve’s line about how his mom is traveling with his dad because she doesn’t trust him makes me question what goes on in Steve’s family. We’ve never seen Steve’s parents (they don’t appear in The First Shadow either), so we have very little information to go on, but that line alone makes me wonder how much his dad’s cheating has impacted Steve. It reminds me of the fractured relationship between Ted and Karen, where emotions get suppressed and it’s hard for anyone to say they “love" someone because that entire marriage is NOT running on love. In Nancy and Mike’s case, they act like this is the norm, and we will see how it impacts their relationships with Steve and El in the future. In Steve’s case, I wouldn’t be shocked if he picked up the womanizing aspect from his dad. As for why his mom would stay with his dad if he was cheating on him………..there’s an episode of Freaks and Geeks (a show that was a big inspiration for Stranger Things) where one of the main characters, Neal, finds out his dad (whom he’s looked up to in the past) has been cheating on his mom. Angry and betrayed, he publicly lashes out at his dad through mean-spirited jokes at his expense during a party, and later flees to his room in tears. When his mom later goes to visit Neal to comfort him, it’s revealed she is aware of her husband’s infidelity, but is working to keep the peace, noting that it’s a complicated situation for the both of them. Given that Steve's mom hasn't divorced his dad yet, it's possible their situation and how they're handling it could be similar to Neal's parents.

I remember there was a period prior to season 4 where there was this idea in the fandom that Steve had actively gone out of his way to bully others, including Jonathan. I agree that there were instances of him being self-absorbed and dickishly insensitive, but I never got the impression from watching the show or reading the supplementary materials that he actively went out of his way to make others lives a living hell the way Billy and Angela did. Tommy was certainly guilty of that on a constant basis (something the Eddie Munson prequel Flight of Icarus explores), but the two instances Steve was antagonistic towards Jonathan (i.e. the camera incident and when he thought Nancy had cheated on him with Jonathan) had more to do with specific circumstnaces rather than getting his kicks making other people miserable like Angela did with El. Otherwise, his entire attitude towards Jonathan seemed rooted in indifference.

Like I’ve said, it’s not great, and I’m not surprised there were multiple characters like Robin, Keith, and Eddie who referred to Steve as an asshole and a douchebag (because that's the image he projected), but this isn’t the same thing as active maliciousness. We even see Steve get uncomfortable with Tommy when he makes a nasty joke about Jonathan killing Will, and Steve tells him to shut up, indicating he finds that inappropriate and crossing a line.

Speaking of projecting an image…..we see plenty of that at the pool party, with Steve smoking (which I don’t think he does again at any other point in the show) and shotgunning beer cans to impress Nancy and the other partygoers (with the exception of Barbara). Even his answering the door for Nancy and Barbara in dramatic fashion while “Raise a Little Hell” by Trooper plays in the background is a cliché unto itself. However, it’s noteworthy Nancy doesn’t seem bothered by this, and the exchange between her and Steve in that moment makes it clear she knows he’s purposefully being a cliché, but finds it amusing, which is why Steve continues with it.

In fact, if we look at Nancy’s behavior in this episode, it comes off less like she’s throwing herself at Steve (as the Montauk script depicts) and more like she’s thought this through and decided this is what she wants. Apart for Barbara, Nancy doesn’t particularly care for what Tommy and Carol think of her. We got hints of that in her discussion with Barbara in the previous episode, and we see it in the scene where she talks with Jonathan in front of them despite their snide comments about him.

This is a big reason I strongly disagree with the idea Nancy’s interest in Steve has anything to do with wanting his approval (or Tommy and Carol’s approval for that matter) or even elevating her social status in high school. She certainly didn’t give a damn about what they were thinking of her in this moment with Jonathan, or how it would look to others to be interacting with the local outcast. She genuinely felt bad for what Jonathan was going through and wanted to offer some words of comfort.

On top of that, she’s seen Steve without Tommy and Carol by his side enough times to recognize he is a different person without them around. She has enough intuition to trust that, even if she’s still navigating the way this relationship is going, there are desirable qualities in Steve beyond his good looks (in contrast to the Montauk script where she barely knew him and was only going by his good looks and charm). So her making the decision to have sex with Steve comes off less like she’s operating under pressure and more like she’s made the decision that this is what she wants, even against Barbara’s protests.

Speaking of Barbara, I’ve never understood this idea the fandom has perpetrated about how Barbara was worried over being left behind by Nancy to join the popular crowd.

First of all, if Barbara really pegged Nancy as that superficial, there is no way she would have remained friends with Nancy for so long.

Second, the idea of Barbara being jealous of Nancy climbing the social ladder comes in direct contrast with how she acts at the pool party. Barbara makes it clear at the beginning that she’s only there for Nancy because Nancy asked her to be, and doesn’t make the effort to socialize with anyone else there, all the while looking disgusted with Tommy and Carol and unamused at Steve showing off. That does NOT translate to jealousy. That sounds like someone who doesn’t want to be in the same room with these people. The only reason she even makes an effort at shotgunning a beer can (and getting a deep cut on her thumb that attracts the Demogorgon's attention) is because Nancy pressured her into doing so. This was not done because she gave a damn about impressing Steve or Tommy or Carol.

Third, Barbara’s concern for Nancy wanting to have sex with Steve isn’t entirely invalid, and it sure as hell does NOT constitute slut-shaming like some fans have framed it as. Barbara knows that Tommy and Carol are toxic people, and the fact that they’re hanging around Steve doesn’t make Steve look good. While she is interested in Nancy’s relationship with Steve (as we saw in the previous episode) it’s natural for her as a friend to be worried about whether Nancy is rushing into this too quickly, especially because Barbara doesn’t know Steve very well and has no clue how Steve is going to treat her. As we see in later episodes, some of her concerns were valid and others were not.

I get everyone is entitled to their opinions, but sometimes I wonder how much of these takes from fans are rooted in projection and bad-faith interpretations. 😒

I should quickly talk about the sex scene between Steve and Nancy, and how it was changed from the Montauk script from being a rape scene to consenual. I am fine with this change for several reasons:

I have never been a fan of shows that use rape as a plot device to drive another character’s arc (especially a female character). I have seen plenty of shows that have done this where it ends up going horribly wrong in the writing process and comes off as gratuitous, as well as enforcing the idea that this kind of trauma is necessary for a person to stop being naïve and grow up. Just…………YUCK! 🤮

 When it comes to the subject of rape, there are plenty of shows out there that try to tackle this subject and either end up being extremely tone-deaf, or perpetrate the rape culture aspects they were trying to avoid. True Blood. Game of Thrones. 13 Reasons Why. General Hospital. The Umbrella Academy. Even The Boys wasn’t immune from this: Contrast the somber way Starlight’s assault from The Deep is depicted on that show to how Hughie’s sexual assault and rape at the hands of Ted Knight and the shapeshifter in season 4 is handled. That's also including how The Boys showrunner, Eric Kripke, admitted that Hughie's assault was intended to be played for black comedy. There are so many pitfalls with this subject matter that it would have reflected badly on the show if the Duffer Brothers had fallen into them. There’s also the question of whether the Duffer Brothers had any interest in actually depicting Nancy’s trauma over being raped in a thoughtful intelligent manner, or if was simply a means of driving Nancy into Jonathan’s arms while glossing over the ramifications of what happened to her.

As I stated in the previous episode, changing Steve’s character not only improved him, but also improved Nancy and Barbara by extension. Steve’s motivations for wanting a relationship with Nancy become more complex than simply wanting “another notch under his belt,” Nancy’s crush on Steve is a lot less shallow and more about seeing through the image he projects and wanting to get to know the real Steve Harrington, and Barbara has more of a personality here where she’s caught between wanting to support Nancy but also being wary of Nancy’s relationship with Steve and this new side to Nancy that she’s seeing. She also isn’t someone who abandons Nancy like in the Montauk script, but is reluctant to leave Nancy at Steve's house alone (and only does so at Nancy’s insistence), making it much more heartbreaking when she’s later dragged into the Upside Down.

Part 4: Song Choices

We get a nice selection of songs in this episode, including the one that would become the signature song for season 1 and for both Will and Jonathan: “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by The Clash.

While The Clash has refused to assign meaning to the lyrics, especially in regards to whether those lyrics were in reference to events going on in the band at the time, my interpretation of the song is that it’s about someone in a relationship where they’re not sure if the other person wants them there, and is demanding a more direct answer about where they stand. “One day it’s fine and the next it’s black,” certainly gives the impression their relationship is tumultuous, and “this indecision is bugging me” makes it sound like both parties can’t agree on where to go from here. Ironically enough, it doesn't seem to apply at all to Jonathan and Will’s situation, where neither of them have been in a romantic relationship yet, and both brothers are supportive of one another in spite of their parents' messy divorce.

“Raise a Little Hell” by Trooper is played in the scene when Steve answers the door for Barabara and Nancy. Initially, the song seems to foreshadow that this is going to be a rumbustious party, but in comparison to the Montauk script, the party in this episode is tame. On top of that, the song itself really isn’t a party anthem, but a motivational one encouraging the listener to change their circumstances if they’re not happy about their situation and “raise a little hell” in the process. It's a big reason why it's been adopted as a sports anthem. Considering that Steve is an athlete himself, I'm not surprised he likes it.

“I Melt With You” by Modern English has always been a personal favorite of mine, and I was happy with its use in this episode. Despite being a dance song, the lyrics have a dark undertone to them, depicting two people falling in love as the world is coming to an end. It’s similar to Prince’s “1999” and R.E.M.’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)” where the singer has accepted the inevitability of their world being screwed, and is more content with living in the moment rather than worrying about what can’t be changed. In the context of this episode, with a group partying while (unbeknownst to them) the Upside Down is beginning to leak into Hawkins, and even claims one of the attendees later on (Barbara), the song is appropriate for that scene.

Finally, we have “Hazy Shade of Winter,” by The Bangles, which plays when Nancy and Steve have sex for the first time.

This was a remix of one of Simon and Garfunkel’s songs from the 60s, and while I like the original, I’m a bigger fan for The Bangles version. It has a very eerie tone to it, dealing with regret and the passage of time over the seasons as the singer lambasts about opportunities and hopes slipping away. It’s not exactly an uplifting song to be playing during what’s supposed to be a romantic moment, and given what happens to Barbara the same time Nancy is consummating her relationship with Steve, it’s dark foreshadowing for the guilt she’s going to be feeling later on over Barbara’s death.

Final Thoughts:

One more thing I wanted to mention before closing out this review is the poster of The Dark Crystal in Mike’s bedroom:

The Dark Crystal is a 1982 fantasy film set on a distant world that, while once green and fertile, has become desolate and corrupted due to a fracturing of the eponymous Crystal, which has created two different races: the Skeksis, who act as the tyrannical rulers of the planet, and the Mystics, who act in opposition to them. The main plot deals with a Gelfling named Jen who is tasked by the Mystics to retrieve the broken shard of the crystal and return it to the original source, thereby bringing balance and stability to their world. All the while, he’s brought into conflict with the Skeksis, who killed his parents in the past, and want to use the crystal for their own selfish desires.

Given Mike’s love for fantasy, I’m not surprised this is a favorite movie of his. However, I’m curious if the themes and story of that movie could have been used by the Duffer Brothers as inspiration for how they mapped out the Upside Down.

I remember having a theory back in season 3 that the Upside Down was once a prosperous world before the Mind Flayer showed up and turned it into its personal hellhole. While I still think that’s true to some extent, there’s also the question regarding why this dimension, which was depicted as a hellscape when Vecna arrived, and even before when the USS Eldridge was transported to it in 1943, suddenly replicated the exact image of Hawkins and the rest of Earth the night El opened the gate and Will disappeared: November 6th, 1983. This has been presented by season 4 and The First Shadow as an anomaly that hasn’t been explained yet, and could possibly have connections to Will’s disappearance.

In regards to how this ties back to The Dark Crystal, is it possible the Upside Down may have been “a green and fertile land” at one point, like the planet in said movie, before some catastrophic event happened that threw that world into chaos and desolation? Just like with the Skeksis, the Mind Flayer is taking advantage of the situation to impose its rule, but maybe that tyranny has been upset somehow by Will’s arrival, similar to how Jen’s quest in the movie threatens the Skeksis’s hold on power. There’s also how the Skeksis are responsible for the creation of the Garthim, which involved using the dark crystal to splice different species together and turning the resulting creatures into their personal attack dogs, as well as creating crystal bats which act as their spies in the sky. Likewise, it's possible that the Mind Flayer, through its own power, may have been responsible for twisting, or even creating, the inhabitants of the Upside Down to become Demogorgons, Demobats, and other hideous monsters that serve it.

The only difference I see has to do with how the main antagonists are dealt with:

In the movie, there’s an established connection between the Skeksis and the Mystics, where the death of one results in the death of the other they are connected to. Skeksis are essentially the worst aspects of their former counterparts, the urSkeks, in contrast to the Mystics which represent their positive aspects. They are one being split into two extreme animated personalities. As the movie reveals, the solution isn’t killing the Skeksis, but healing the crystal to allow the two parts to reunite.

In the show, they have not introduced a positive counterpart to the Mind Flayer (at least not yet), and since the Mind Flayer is interconnected with every part of the Upside Down (including Vecna), there’s a real chance its permanent destruction would result in the total annihilation of the Upside Down (similar to how Sauron’s downfall led to the destruction of Mordor in Lord of the Rings). While they could go this route in season 5, the names for the last two episodes (i.e. “The Bridge” and “The Rightside Up”) imply that dealing with the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down is more centered on fixing something that’s broken between the two worlds, similar to fixing the crystal in the movie, which could be the key to permanently defeating the Mind Flayer instead. Just like with Jen, that could be Will’s role in this story for season 5.

And to officially close out this review, this is what I ended up getting for my birthday! 🥰

[forthegothicheroine]

Most Fallout-ish Twilight Zone episodes

Possibly for an audience of exactly me, but here they are. Doing my best to give pitches without spoilers!

Time Enough at Last- There might be an upside to a nuclear war.

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street- Who is the inhuman saboteur in a small town?

The Lateness of the Hour- A family staffs their home entirely with robots.

A Quality of Mercy- Ever wonder about the soldiers on the opposite side of the war?

The Shelter- Only one person in a friend group has a fallout shelter. Things get worse from there.

One More Pallbearer- A fallout shelter has some sadistic conditions.

[b4mpyre-k1zz3s]

i’m not the person who originally asked but part two of cupids chokehold where the jackass boys meet y/n maybe?? if not thats cool!!

Cupid’s Chokehold (Pt. 2)

When a Viva la Bam episode brings the cast back together, the cast finally meet this mystery girl and find out what Bam sees in this woman.

Bam Margera X Fem!Reader, Johnny Knoxville X Fem!Reader

(Fluff)

3.6 Words

Warnings: Suggestive content, drug use, misogyny if you squint, jealousy, clingyness, possessive behavior, tampering with food, injury

An: Thank you so much for the request!! I really try to write my guys as ‘in character’ as posible, but I also find it really fun to explore what kinds of circumstances might make them act otherwise :] Anyways, thank you for sending requests and please keep them coming!

The reason you met the guys in the first place was due mostly in part to a group of MTV executives who, given Steve and Chris’ recent success with Wildboyz and the premiere date of that big movie Knoxville was in creeping closer, thought that now would be the best time for a crossover episode with Bam’s show; consider it a Jackass reunion. This was a shock to you- hell, you thought that the last movie would be the end of Jackass and you could go along with your life following your boyfriend's fifteen seconds running out. But you know how things go: one thing leads to another and all of a sudden you were appearing in living rooms across the country on MTV’s hottest new program: Viva La Bam.

When Johnny, Chris, and Steve (the only cast members MTV wanted for the episode) arrived to the compound of chaos that was Castle Bam, it appeared that their absent host was a bit tied up, far too distracted spreading his lawn and crashing into his buddies on four wheelers to even notice that they were there. At the time, you were in the kitchen watching everything go down, so you scampered outside to wave the guys in. “So we have an empty bed upstairs in the guest room,” you showed them around the castle, taking them through everything they would need to know, “but i think one’a you’s gonna be stuck on the floor for a couple nights…” The whole time you were giving them the tour, there was this collective murmur about this weird lady in Bam’s house; maybe she was his maid or a cleaning lady- or an assistant! But before they could make any further assumptions, there your boyfriend comes in, making his grand entrance clamoring in through the kitchen window. Bam flashed the guys a grin, “Oh! You guys already met Y/N!”

Given how much Bam talked about you, the cast all put together this idea of how they thought you would look, this Frankensteined amalgamation of celebrities: Beyoncé’s face with Pamela Anderson’s tits, legs like Jessica Rabbit (thanks, Chris), and a personality like Bridget from the Girls Next Door. So it’s safe to say that jaws hit the floor. This woman he’s been obsessing over for months is this…normal looking?

The air crackled with charged silence for a moment before Steve, who wasn’t totally with it mentally at that moment thanks to whatever he took before the plane ride there, blurted out what everyone else was thinking, “Wait, that’s Y/N? Like- your girlfriend, Y/N?” “Yeah!” A hint of indignation crept into Bam’s tone at what he was actually asking with that question and his face reflected this as he retorted, “She’s super hot, sweet as hell- and she has got the finest ass I’ve ever seen!” Your boyfriend punctuated his words with an affectionate swat to your behind, and you giggled at his sleazy behavior while all the guys were left wondering what kind of Twilight Zone shit was going on. “Alright, alright!” Still lightly blushing, you hurried them off, “Let’s get you boys settled in before you start trashing the place…”

Given the fact that it was summer, it was a perfect time to film some stuff outside. Due to the juvenile, scripted nature of Viva la Bam, the premise created would’ve fit well in any teen b-movie: Bam was having a pool party with his bros that out of nowhere the Jackass guys happened to crash when they decided to stop by, which leads to him getting revenge via spending the day pranking them- think of it as a CKY vs. Jackass turf war. Ignoring how unrealistic it was, you thought it would make for a pretty entertaining episode.

The sun-kissed opening scene looked straight out of some demented David Hockney painting: Ryan, lounging on a pool chair next to his pile of cans while Raab and Rake tried to drown each other in the pool and Dico quietly tapped away at some handheld gaming system under an umbrella (because the story producers on the show had a tendency to dumb his personality down to ‘liking video games’ when he wasn’t participating in the madness). Speaking of the story producers, it was their idea to put you in that cute little black bikini and those blingy, bug-eyed sunglasses, not that you minded showing off as you tip-toed down the deck steps with an oversized fancy fruit tray in your hands. “Hey boys! I got the-“

Without warning, the guys came charging in, water guns blazing! A cold blast of water courtesy of Knoxville’s super soaker startled you and you let out a dramatic yelp, playing your shock up for the cameras. He yelled across the yard to you with feigned disregard as he redirected his attention to the idiots in the pool, “Sorry, ma’am!” Following close behind was Chris, armed with a Costco-sized bottle of suntan lotion. He was not sorry about absolutely dousing Dunn in the sticky, coconut scented goo with a chuckle, unable to resist a filthy incendio, “Don’t worry, man! It came from a bottle- none’a that homemade stuff!” Not seeming nearly as pissed off as you would expect, Ryan simply groaned, wiping off his eyelids, “Better not be- now I smell like a damn pina colada…” Pontius flashed that sweet dopey grin and continued his attack, splattering some haphazardly across your body as Steve, knew how to make these childish antics look fun, cackled like a madman as henailed Dico from across the pool deck, knocking his handheld out of his hands and leaving it to sputter and fizz on the ground. “Dude! You drenched my GameBoy- my sweet, old-school GameBoy!”

Right as Steve was going to ask who the hell even uses a GameBoy in 2004, guess who came charging out of the house? “What the hell is goin’ on out here?” Padding down the deck stairs in those black swim trunks that sat real low on his hips was your boyfriend, rushing to your side and swiping up a bit of the lotion with his finger to examine. Johnny flashed him that movie star smirk, “Hey, Bam! Nice t’see ya!” Meandering up next to you, it was a scene straight out of some Animal Planet documentary with the two males fighting over the female of the pack, as he leaned in with provocativity heavy in his tone, “I could rub some’a that in if you’d like…” Though Bam was better than Knoxville at dramatizing things for TV, it was clear that there was some real jealousy behind the way he pulled you closer with a hand around your waist as if he couldn’t even stand the thought of another guy near you, “Keep your hands off’a my girl.” He spat, looking him up and down with more than feigned venom in his gaze behind those dark sunglasses, “It’s settled then. This is war!”

That night, the only sounds to be heard from the other side of the door of the dinky little attic/guest bedroom the three of them were all stuffed in tinned fish style was the repetitive thumping of Bam jumping off the second story balcony onto the couch, oniy to run up the stairs and do it all over again. Johnny groaned, leaning his head back into the hard pillows, “God…how does she put up with this?” While your boyfriend banged around the ceiling like some jacked up, oversized moth, you were sitting peacefully on the couch, watching TV as if nothing were amiss. Steve bunched up the jacket he was using as a pillow and sighed from his spot on the floor, “Beats me. Maybe she’s a gold digger or somethin’.” But while Bam is an idiot, he's not dumb enough to fall for some chick who’s just in it for the money. It had to be something else- love? “She’s a saint- that’s what she is...” Johnny shook his head and Chris piped in with his own opinion, “I think she’s hot!”

When he’s not causing chaos and buzzing around like a little kid off five Mellow Yellows, Bam can be quite the sweetheart, especially when it gets late at night and everything dies down, the same way dogs quiet down when you put a blanket on their cage. He’s desperate for your attention normally, but when you’re in his bed, laying by his side, it’s as if all every ounce of ego melts out of his ears. Nuzzling into the crook of your neck the way an overly affectionate cat might, your boyfriend murmured with a lovesick smile plastered on his face, “Mmm…missed you, babe.” This was your nightly routine: Bam, in his flannel pajama pants and no shirt, cuddling up to your side with no regard for personal space and endlessly fussing over you. You let out a breathless chuckle, raking your fingers through his hair, “I was with you all day!” His clinginess bordered on excessive sometimes, but you didn’t mind. There was satisfaction to be found in how whipped he was for you- dead and buried, you had Bam Margera under your thumb, and honestly he wouldn’t have it any other way. Arms slipping around your ribs, he shifted against you with a soft whine, “Yeah, still…”

Just as he was about to feebly defend himself, your boyfriend was cut off by this shriek from next door that could’ve rivaled any horror movie final girl. Guessing this was Bam’s doing, you sat up and whipped your head around, “What the hell was that?” Judging by the mischievous little glint in his eye that shone through the darkness, you guessed right. “Oh yeah- I sent Don Vito over there in his tighty-whities to surprise em’.” You could see it in your head as if you were there: down the hall stumbled Vito, clad solely in his underwear, cracking open the door to the guest room and laying down next to whoever was nearest- in this case, judging by the, “Fuck-fuck fuck, dude!” trailing down the hall, it was Steve. Nobody wants to be woken up by a grown man they’ve never met snuggling up next to them, so you couldn’t really blame him for whatever revenge he may innact, but in your head all you could do was hope they wouldn’t retaliate with something worse that night.

The strike came in the morning, as you groggily blinked awake to your boyfriend's terrified yelps, “Y/N- Y/N! Get the fuck up- I’m not even joking!” You rubbed the blurriness out of your eyes to find him back up against the wall with eyes as wide as gum balls, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he gawked at what sat atop the hurriedly tossed aside sheets on his side of the bed: a garden snake, not longer than one foot in length and perfectly harmless judging by the way the damn thing wasn't really doing anything. Inching along to the door, he tried the handle again, his voice cracking just barely perceptibly, “Dude- dude, this is so not funny! Let me the fuck out.” But all he was met with was snickering as someone on the other end (Chris, you assumed) held it shut. At the same time, you calmly grabbed the snake by the head to gently pick it up and set it outside before returning to Bam, your voice staying soft and level knowing how much this shit gets to him, “There, it’s gone.” But, turning away from him, your calming platitudes turned into you yelling through the plywood, banging, “C’mon, guys! Open the fuckin’ door!” Eventually they relented, and since you were leaning against the door and Bam was clinging to your side, the two of you went tumbling to the floor which you had to admit looked pretty funny on camera. Bam shot a glare at Knoxville who stood with a sheepish grin at Pontius’ side before he stumbled to his feet, “You fuckers are dead!”

A good amount of Bam’s genius prank ideas actually came from you, even if on camera it was made to appear as if he was some evil mastermind of mischief. You got this one- one of your best, actually- after you overheard a conversation between Knoxville and Steve. “God, do I miss April’s cooking... It's a shame our lazy asses slept in so late.” Before Steve could say that it sure beats the gas station coffee and doughnuts they eat on the road while filming, you piped in, “Hey- I could go pick up some burgers if you’d like!” And they just gave you their orders, not expecting anything from you!.

Scampering out of the room and trying to hide your excitement, you let the rest of the CKY crew in on your plan, where it was elected that Dico would be the culinary mastermind behind this operation.

As Raab pulled out of the McDonalds drive through, you and Bam sat in the backseat where he was supposed to be manning the handheld. Supposed to be- because he was dedicating most of his attention to you, staring at you with those big, adoring eyes, “You are a genius, Y/N…” The guys usually tried to keep you apart in case things like this happened. He got snapped out of his fawning by a sharp elbow to the side, courtesy of Rake, “Dude- film the food!” Scrambling with the camcorder, Bam shot over Dico’s shoulder as he began working his magic. Whistling the French Chef theme to himself, he fished around in his pockets for the micleanious continent packets he grabbed from the house and you would’ve thought he was making Coq au Vin with the precision and love you could feels in how he smothered that food in a sloppy mess of grape jelly, sweet n sour sauce, and ranch dressing. Turning to the backseat, Bran held up the double cheeseburger in his hand the way those ladies on QVC show off shitty dinnerware, “Wait, is this Steve-O’s?” Receiving an affirmative, this look of vindictive glee flashed across Dico’s face as he leaned down and spat onto the patty before squishing the top bun on top and wrapping the whole disaster up, proclaiming in a faux French accent, “Bon appetit!”

Ryan was bestowed the honor of delivering the tainted food and also got the privilege of having a front row seat to the golden reactions you were sure you’d get. Speaking with a mouthful of food, Johnny was the first to say anything about it, chewing his burger like unappreciative, doomed cattle, “Hey, something’s kinda…off about these.” Luckily Dunn, who thinks of everything, quickly cobbled together an explanation, “You’re just not used to burgers from Pennsylvania- they’re all like that.” From behind the wall Bam, Dico, and you were hiding, you held back snickers at the hint of suspicion that crept across Knoxville’s features as he turned to Steve, “Doesn’t that taste weird t’you?” You were most excited to see his reaction, but he didn’t really have much of one, quickly scarfing his food down to mumble, “Yeah, but I’m fuckin’ hungry!” To your collective disappointment, the plan didn’t elicit the reactions you anticipated, no matter how cathartic it felt to watch them eat that shit. Nobody was more disappointed than Bam who threw his hands up in frustration and stormed out the back door with a groan, “Fuck it- I’m goin’ skatin’.

Having you around while your boyfriend was skating was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because you were his greatest cheerleader and always stared at him with such awe in your eyes, completely enraptured by his skills- which would make anyone feel pretty damn good about themselves. It was a curse, however, in the way that if Bam wasn't totally consumed by what he was doing, his attention was devoted to impressing you to the point he was liable to break something. That’s why he didn’t notice the fact that his trucks were a little loose until the third time he walled off the board and took a nosedive into the plywood.

Right away, you rushed to his side, even though he repeatedly assured you he was fine, “Are you okay, Bam? That last one looked pretty nasty…” Rubbing the spot on his head that bounced off the ramp, he shot you a pained smile, “Yeah- yeah, m’alright…gotta tighten these trucks, though.” Leaning forward, your boyfriend planted a sweet kiss on your cheek before heading inside, “Be right back.” Sitting down at his desk, Bam scrounged around in the drawer that he usually stowed his Alan key in, only for it not to budge. It took a few seconds for it to dawn on him what happened: the damn thing was glued down. Those fuckers…grumbling to himself, he remembered that other board he had set up a couple weeks ago and decided to just deal with the other one later. Which is what he would’ve done, if that one didn’t also have loose trucks.

This required some serious, swift- chemical retribution. But for the time being you needed to play it cool and keep up appearances, so you and the rest of the guys spent the afternoon inside playing video games. You didn’t mind, because you found it hilarious to watch them argue about benign shit. Dico, the Mortal Kombat scholar and by all means a god at that game, was getting his ass handed to him, “Dude- you’re button mashing! That shit isn’t fair.” Bam just snickered, showing his distaste for what was fair and rules in general by doing random combos, not even looking at his hands. Everyone was laughing and enjoying watching him hit five Nut Crackers in a row, when from the bathroom at the far end of the hall, there was this massive boom, as if someone just set off an entire box of illegal fireworks.

Which is what you would’ve assumed happened if it was Bam’s idea, but you knew this plan was Rake’s doing, who spent the greater part of the last hour rigging up a minor explosive device in there which was triggered by lifting the toilet lid. Essentially, if you went to piss, you would be covered in whatever shit was in that device. As indicated by the white powder that coated every inch of Chris as he stumbled out, totally dazed, it was flour. He just chuckled with that ditzy smile on his face, “Woah…” and you knew your plan was a success.

There was only one scene left to film for the episode, and at this point, the guys were barely holding it together. Being in Castle Bam for any amount of time forced Johnny, Chris, and Steve to be on constant high alert, like some kind of torture method that was definately banned by the geneva conventions. The lot of you sat clustered around the dining table, hunched over the food April lovingly cooked for and scarfing it down the way sailors eat on the off chance someone decided to taint yet another meal. Standing up from his food, Johnny looked across the table with bags under his eyes from the constant chaos he had endured over the course of the two days you were filming, “Alright, Bam- I think we’ve done enough pranks to each other and we should just call this whole thing even.” Your boyfriend gave the cameras that malicious look he always did when he had some scheme in mind before he shot Knoxville a diplomatic nod, “Alright. But I don’t think we’re quite even-“ and with that, Bam swiftly grabbed a fist of corn and potatoes and hurled it across the table, and I mean- there’s only so many places that could go. Yep, in seconds, things escalated into an all out food fight, and while laughered roared out and peas and carrots soared through the air, you seemed, yet again, completely unaffected by it.

Once the plates were emptied, Bam stood up with this giddy smile on his face, wiping off a gob of whatever was stuck to his face, “Alright! Let’s go build a bonfire in the backyard!” And without a second thought, everybody flooded out the back door, leaving you with the mess. Well, you and Johnny, who stayed back and had a few questions for you. “I’d hate to intrude, ma’am- but…“ following you into the kitchen, Knoxville carefully phrased his next words, speaking with genuine empathy in his voice, “why on earth do you put up with him? I mean, with all the chaos, and the mess…Bam doesn’t really seem t’pitch in as much as you do.“ Standing up from where you bent under the sink to grab some cleaning supplies, you glanced up at him with a calm, assured smile, “Oh, he’d help out if I asked. Watch-“

Throwing open the back door with a whoosh, you shouted out, “Bam! Come inside and help me clean up!” While you didn’t hear him, you could see your boyfriend say something to the other guys who looked around with confusion plastered on their faces as Bam turned around and dashed up the deck stairs. It was as if you cast some evil spell on their buddy Bam that made him do your bidding, even if your bidding in this case was scrubbing mashed potatoes off of the wall. Still, they followed behind him and let you direct where they needed to help out- he seemed so happy to be with this girl, so they kept their mouths shut and got to cleaning.

[sketchingwithlyn]

It's officially the first day of fall!!!... You know what that means:

My official guide to my favorite Fall/ Halloween movies and shows!

Brooklyn 99 (Halloween heists!!!):

Season 1 episode 6

Season 2 episode 4

Season 3 episode 5

Season 4 episode 5

Season 5 episode 4

Season 6 episode 16

Season 7 episode 11

Season 8 episodes 9 and 10

Gravity Falls: (Iconic/ my fav of all time! Love the triangle guy who sees with one eye!)

Over the Garden Wall: (The perfect fall/ spooky show. Made it a yearly tradition to rewatch it!)

A Series of Unfortunate Events: (Very underrated!!! Lots of mystery and scheming.)

Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated: (The best Scooby Doo show!🥳)

The Owl House: (Iconic/ done dirty by the big rat Disney)

The X-Files: (Makes you question reality)

The Twilight Zone: (Makes you question reality x100)

The Nightmare Before Christmas: (A classic!)

Coraline: (Perfect for Halloween!)

Let me know what your favorite Fall or Halloween movies and shows are!