Recap / Stranger Things S 3 E 5 Chapter Five The Flayed

Strange surprises lurk inside an old farmhouse and deep beneath the Starcourt Mall. Meanwhile, the Mind Flayer is gaining strength.

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This episode provides examples of:

• Battle Couple: Nancy and Jonathan when they fight the Flayed Tom and Bruce.

• Body Horror: The Mind Flayer's flesh avatar is made from melted corpses.
  • Implied with the green acidic goo Erica was attempting to drink, after explaining she'd rather drink it rather than die from thirst, and then seeing it spill on the floor.
    Robin: You still want to drink that?
• *Click* Hello: How Hopper greets Grigori when they meet at the secret facility.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Bruce, who is pursuing Nancy at the hospital, calls out for her this way.
• Counting to Three: When Hopper has Grigori at gunpoint, he does a Dramatic Gun Cock and counts to three for the latter to drop his weapon. However, on three Grigori turns the tables and disarms Hopper.
• Dangerous Key Fumble: When Hopper, Alexei and Joyce are fleeing from Grigori, Joyce fumbles with the car keys which distresses Hopper.
• Easily-Overheard Conversation: Mike frets to Lucas and Will about the girls "conspiring" against him while Max helps El clean up in the bathroom after using her powers. Max points out that she and El can still hear him, even though the bathroom door is closed.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Soviets have one of these under Starcourt Mall.
• The Elevator from Ipanema: The music playing when Nancy and Jonathan have their reconciliation talk in the hospital elevator.
• Empty Elevator: When the Soviet guards open the elevator, the group around Steve is gone. The next shot reveals that they hid on top of the elevator car.
• Endless Corridor: The Soviet underground base has them.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Hopper's truck explodes in the forest after he tried to fix the engine problem.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: While walking through the underground pass, the four wonder why the Soviets built a secret base under Hawkins of all places. Dustin and Steve believe it has to do with the Mind Flayer.
• Flashed-Badge Hijack: Hopper does this to a man at a gas station.
• Guns Do Not Work That Way: Murray Bauman somehow managed to pump a double-barreled shotgun.
• Impeded Communication: The hospital receptionist is too busy gossiping on the phone to answer Nancy's emergency call.
• I'm Melting!: When Bruce and Tom are killed by Nancy and Jonathan, the Mind Flayer decides to make them dissolve meaty blobs and then fuse together into a massive monster.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Hopper tries to calm Alexei by assuring him that Murray Bauman is completely harmless. Cue Bauman opening the door and pointing a shotgun at our friends.
• Malicious Misnaming: Hopper calls Alexei "Smirnoff".
• Oh, Crap!: Hopper has this reaction when Joyce tries to throw his gun to him, only for it to land next to Grigori.
  Hopper: Oh, shit.
• Only Sane Man: Will, increasingly, to Mike and Lucas in regards to their relationship issues.
  Mike (about El and Max): They're conspiring against me.
  Will: Is that really what you're concerned about right now?!
  Mike: It's not my main concern, it's just a sub-concern!
  • Robin, given she is with Steve, Dustin, and Erica.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: When Nancy finishes off Bruce with a fire extinguisher.
  Nancy: Go... to... hell! - *Bang*
• Sassy Black Woman: The hospital receptionist.
• Searching the Stalls: Bruce searching Nancy in an operation room, going from section to section.
• Shout-Out: This time to Die Hard.
  Soviet: You're a policeman. Policemen have rules.
• Skewed Priorities: Lampshaded by Will when he questions why Mike seems more concerned with El and Max "conspiring against him" than he is with the return of the Mind Flayer.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Mike sharing his M&Ms with Eleven breaks the ice.
• Thwarted Coup de Grâce: At the hospital, when Bruce is about to finish off Jonathan with a chair, Nancy stabs him in the back with a pair of scissors.
• Trick-and-Follow Ploy: Discussed; Jonathan suggests that they allow Mrs. Driscoll, whom they know has been flayed, to escape from the hospital so they can follow her back to the place where the Mindflayer is hiding. The plan fails when it turns out several other flayed people are waiting for them in the hospital, and already released Mrs. Driscoll.
• Vanity License Plate: TODFTHR.
• We've Got Company: Line said by Robin after she spotted some Soviet guards.
• Wrench Whack: During his fight with the Soviet, Hopper finds a wrench on the floor, which he uses to smack the Soviet.

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