Threats escalate to a whole new level when “Filly” and “Feather” strike.
Stranger Things season 3 Chapter 3 is titled ‘The Case of the Missing Lifeguard’. Indeed, lifeguard Heather Holloway goes missing, well, sort of. In true chauvinistic fashion, the male staffers at the Hawkins Post also have a running gag referring to Nancy as Nancy Drew. The title also fits well with these jokes they use to torment Nancy. At least one of those guys gets a gag order, so to speak, in this episode.
Max and El investigate stranger than normal behaviors from Billy. Dustin, Steve and Robin also continue their own investigation into the secret Russian transmission. Joyce and Hopper make a scary discovery of their own at Hawkins Laboratory just as they begin opening up about their feelings.
El and Max unlock the mystery of …. boys pic.twitter.com/yrMgnkMMGh
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) July 6, 2019
When a sleepover is not just fun and games
Max joins El at the cabin for a sleepover. They wonder what their male counterparts are up to. El uses her ability to “see” people to spy on the guys. They switch the radio to static and she places her blindfold over her eyes. El focuses and is rewarded with a burp and fart fest in the Wheeler basement. The girls laugh.
So, why not see what some of the other locals are doing? What looks like a game of “spin the bottle” is actually a spinner to determine who El will take a peek at next. When Mr. Wheeler is deemed to boring, they spin again and land on Billy.
Max warns El that Billy’s activities can get weird, but El proceeds. She sees Billy on the floor talking to someone. We know it is Heather based on last episode and she is about to be sacrificed to the “creature”. As El approaches Billy in her mind, he turns around and surprises her. This is unusual behavior for these spy missions. Normally, except for Mike, El is the voyeur and undetected by the subject.
An anxious visitor
Hopper returns home sullen from the dinner where Joyce did not show. He first mistakes Max for Mike as the guest in El’s bedroom. The Chief is relieved to find the two girls hanging out for a sleepover.
The next day Hopper gets dressed for work and finds a note that El is now going to Max’s house for a sleepover. His morning routine is interrupted by Joyce’s arrival. The pair talks about why she missed the dinner. Hopper is jealous that Joyce was spending time with Mr. Clarke and does not understand why she is so worried about the magnets not working.
Joyce suggests that they return to Hawkins Lab thinking there could be a ginormous machine there interrupting the magnetic field. Hopper thinks Joyce is paranoid and too afraid to believe that things could actually be back to normal.
Jim leaves his makeshift bedroom and Joyce is nowhere to be found. He walks outside and Joyce pops out of the shed with tools to go to the lab. Hopper is left with little choice but to comply with Joyce’s wishes.
Photo credit: Escape Woods
Eerie discoveries in Billy’s bathroom
El and Max decide to dig deeper into Billy’s activities. They arrive at Max’s house to see that Billy is not home. They snoop through his room and bathroom. The tub is full of water and ice packs. Max suggests the ice is from his workouts. El suspects something more ominous. We continue to be reminded of this theme of hot and burning bodies, whether it be Billy or the rats.
They look through his belongings and find a bloody lifeguard whistle and fanny pack. The girls take the fanny pack to the pool and find out it belongs to Heather Holloway. They snatch a picture of Heather from the bulletin board for El to “find” her with her special powers. El sees as red door and an a tub full of ice. In the vision, Heather abruptly and fearfully pops up from the ice. El then sees Heather falling away almost like she is being sucked into the Upside Down.
Dungeons and Dragons, anyone?
Will wakes up his friends Lucas and Mike wearing full “Will the Wise” garb. He is ready to begin their next campaign. Lucas and Mike begrudgingly play with feigned enthusiasm. Finally, Will has had enough and gets up to leave. Mike calls follows after him and Will complains about Mike and Lucas being more interested in girls now. Sadly, the boys are in different seasons right now. It appears that Will is not quite at the same place as the others. Will is not so anxious to leave childhood behind.
Will bicycles home and sits in his fort Castle Byers reminiscing about memories of fun with his friends. He then becomes frustrated that his friends do not appreciate things the same way anymore. His emotions get the best of him and he rips photos and begins destroying Castle Byers. He feels something on his neck.
Will and Lucas arrive and try to apologize and ask what is wrong. Will tells them that “he is back”.
Robin cracks the code
Dustin and Steve use binoculars to search for a stereotypical version of a Russian spy. While looking for duffle bags, ear pieces, and the like, Dustin berates Steve for not seeing Robin as a potential girlfriend. Steve denies an attraction and tells Dustin that he is the one who should be giving the dating advice, not Dustin. They mistake a Jazzercise instructor as their target before seeing him pull a boom box out of his duffel.
Meanwhile, back at Scoops Ahoy, Robin steadfastly works at cracking the code of the Russian transmission. She accepts a Scoops Ahoy delivery from the Lynx delivery service and notices the lynx on their logo – a silver cat! This leads to a burst of mental machinations leading her to identify a Chinese restaurant and shoe store referenced in the code. Robin realizes that the mall’s blue and yellow clock hands line up and point “west” at 8:45.
Robin shares the intel with Dustin and Steve. The trio watches from the mall rooftop as the Lynx delivery company brings mysterious packages to the mall. The teens begin fighting over the binoculars and they drop. The noise catches the attention of the armed men down below. The trio ducks. Robin and Steve realize they were briefly holding hands! They escape inside before the armed guard reaches the rooftop.
don't look at us while we're binging pic.twitter.com/YmOqKTijfI
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) July 5, 2019
Discovering Doris
The male writing staff at the Hawkins Post continue to torment Nancy with their juvenile jokes. They plant a rubber rat in the cabinet to surprise her. She’s had enough. She interrupts Jonathan’s photo developing (again!) and convinces him that they should collect the rat from Mrs. Driscoll’s house as evidence of their findings.
Doris does not answer the door. Nancy decides to go inside anyway suggesting Mrs. Driscoll may have had an accident inside. The pair walks down the basement stairs and discovers “Doris” (is it really still Doris?) bent over chowing on fertilizer. Yikes!
Laboratory findings
All appears well at the Hawkins Lab, except for surveillance camera that still appear to be functioning. Only the viewers catch a glimpse of this, however.
Joyce has a painful vision of Bob’s death at the lab. Holes have been closed and no one is in sight. Hopper believes there is no longer any activity at the lab.
Hopper and Joyce engage in a heart to heart talk about Hawkins and how Hopper knows Joyce has plans to move. He points out that she has people in Hawkins who care for her and understand her history. He wants her to feel safe enough to stay.
Just then, they hear a loud noise and Hopper goes to investigate. The Russian that we saw at Enzo’s restaurant the night before attacks Hopper. Hopper puts up a good fight, but is knocked out on the floor. Joyce runs in to find Hopper on the floor and sees Grigori fleeing on a motorcycle.
okay so we * were * 6 hours away. now we’re only 5 hours away. pic.twitter.com/lyXDe9ZX8B
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) July 4, 2019
“Filly” and “Feather”
El and Max arrive at Heather Holloway’s house with the red door. Seated at the table are parents Janet and Tom. Yes, Tom Holloway is Nancy’s boss at the paper and Heather’s dad. An usually calm and civil version of Billy sits between them.
The girls inquire about Heather’s well-being because they heard she did not show up for work. A very “Stepford”-like version of Heather appears with a batch of cookies. (Please don’t accept the cookies, girls!) Billy says Heather was not feeling well and missed work.
The girls leave and Billy watches El closely from the door. He has a vision of Eleven closing the gate last season, but then the gate flashes open again. This happens right as Will feels the sensation on his neck at Castle Byers.
Billy returns to the table. Suddenly, Janet is feeling woozy and leaves the table only to pass out on the floor. Tom follows as do Heather and Billy with a bottle of wine and something resembling chloroform. Heather hits Tom over the head with the wine bottle and knocks him out with the chloroform-like substance.
We can only assume these are “fake” versions of Billy and Heather – shall we say “Filly” and “Feather”? We are led to believe that the monster has taken over their bodies much like the rat at Mrs. Driscoll’s house last episode.
Will Tom and Janet be next?
Things are definitely “heating” up! Come back for more observations when we look at Stranger Things season 3 Chapeter Four.
Find reconnaissance for Chapter Two here.
Stay connected with So Many Shows: