While the boys make their escape in a pizza van, some shady government operatives trash Joyce's house and find a letter from El. Owens takes El to a "top secret" desert lab, where we find out the past is not quite at rest the way we thought. While Chrissy's funeral takes place in Hawkins, Owens's people investigate the scene of her death and find a crack in the ceiling of the trailer. Nancy realizes Max saw the stained glass at the Creel house and the gang goes to investigate. The basketball team catches up with Eddie.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bathroom Break-Out: Discussed. Murray ensures Joyce that him requesting Yuri to take a leak on the plane was not a ploy to escape.
- Belly-Scraping Flight: The tanking plane touches some tree tops before Coming in Hot.
- Brick Joke: Joyce tries to get Murray to make good on his boast that he's a black belt now.
- Call-Back:
- El spends time in the sensory deprivation tank, as she did in the first season.
- Will sings The Neverending Story theme to remind Jonathan of who they plan to visit in Salt Lake City.
- When lights flicker at Victor Creel's villa, Nancy mentions (and explains to Robin who doesn't know about it) the Christmas lights Will used to communicate with Joyce while he was trapped in the Upside Down in the first season.
- Celebrity Paradox: Dustin states Vecna's nightmare world is like Freddy Krueger's boiler room. He says this to Nancy, who was talking to Freddy himself in the last episode.
- Character Death: Right as Patrick and Jason are about to get Eddie, Patrick is brutally killed by Vecna. The two boys can only watch in horror.
- *Click* Hello: Yuri greets Joyce with his pistol from behind when she is distracted freeing Murray with a shard.
- Cobweb of Disuse: The long-abandoned Creel house is full of webs that gets into Steve's hair.
- Conveniently Placed Sharp Thing: The peanut butter glasses on the plane are conveniently close to Joyce for her to turn them into shards for cutting their ropes.
- Double Meaning: Will's comment that it's scary to open up to the people you care about because they could reject you works as an insight into Mike's communication problems with El, but it's also clearly Will musing on his fear of coming out and confessing his own feelings for Mike.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Steve does not find Robin's joke about not finding spiders in his hair until their eggs hatch amusing.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Joyce realizes that Yuri not being able to hear them with his headphones on could be used against him.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Mike realizes that the pen must be a clue while bouncing ideas off of Will.
- Haunted House: The gang sneaks into Victor Creel's abandoned villa looking for clues of the supernatural type.
- Heel–Face Turn: At present, Dr. Brenner seems to have turned over a new leaf, wanting to genuinely help Eleven regain her powers for the purposes of stopping the Russian conspiracy from leading to World War 3 on America. Eleven understandably doesn't trust him for one second at first, but once she sees his Mind Screw tactics mentioned below did help her regain some of her powers and the fact that he actually opened the mechanical door of the facility allowing her a chance to leave, she decides to give "Papa" a second chance... or at least the benefit of the doubt.
- Heroic BSoD: Hop has one after getting recaptured and learning that Joyce has been captured too. He feels like being a curse to everyone around him.
- I Have a Family: Joyce tries to make Yuri change his mind by pointing out that she has three kids waiting for her at home. Yuri counters that he has a family too and he wants to offer them a better life.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Before Agent Harmon succumbs to his injuries, he hands Mike a pen. However, when Argyle later tries to use the pen only to find it nonfunctional, Mike realizes that the pen may have some other purpose. Sure enough, when he unscrews it, he discovers that the phone number they needed was hidden inside on a strip of paper.
- I Want Them Alive!: Yuri acknowledges that he cannot kill Joyce because the KGB wants her alive but it doesn't mean he cannot break her a little.
- Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: This exchange between Dustin and Steve at the Creel house:Steve: Could you maybe, uh, clarify what sort of clues we're supposed to be looking for here?Dustin: (with a British accent) The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.Steve: *no reaction*Dustin: Sherlock Holmes.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Murray engaging Yuri in combat when the latter threatens to harm Joyce.
- The Lonely Door: Downplayed as it is not a literal version of the trope, but the bunker entrance is just a door that opens to a narrow stairwell that goes down. The door is first shown in a shot that looks at it straight-on and because anything behind it is blocked it has the illusion of this trope: a strange door standing alone in the middle of a barren desert.
- Longing Look: At one point while burying Agent Harmon, Will gets distracted and gazes longingly at Mike for a few seconds before Mike notices.
- Meaningful Background Event: Dmitri, who's been mostly calm and collected up to this point, looks up in shock when Hopper says that he was exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam war. Even before Hop goes on to explain the chemical's gruesome effects, you can tell just from the look on Dmitri's face that it's bad news.
- Mind Screw: In the sensory deprivation tank, El has a flashback to her time in Hawkins Labs which at first gets stuck in a constant loop of her walking into a playroom and a nurse calling her a sleepyhead. When she tries to run out of the room, the hallways always loop her back to it, and all the doors lead into it no matter which one she opens, at which point the dialogue resets again, this symbolizes the mess the memories of her early childhood are.
- My Parents Are Dead: Subverted. Murray mocks Yuri by telling him that his mother must be proud of his deed. Yuri replies that his mother is dead...tired of living like a bum.
- Never Recycle a Building: Victor Creel's Big Fancy House where he allegedly killed his family in the 1950s is located in a pristine area but remains abandoned and boarded-up since no one wanted to live there since.Robin: I guess a triple homicide isn't good for resale value.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Eleven has this reaction when she sees Dr. Brenner is still alive and seemingly planning to use her as his personal little lab rat again.
- Joyce has this reaction when Murray knocks Yuri unconscious who was supposed to fly them into Russia.
- Enzo's reaction when Hop talks about his daughter and how he was exposed to Agent Orange back in Vietnam. He knows full well how the story is going to end.
- Orbital Shot: The camera circles around the phone booth from which Mike tries to reach the number they found inside the pen.
- Percussive Maintenance: While preparing for the flight, Yuri makes the rotor of his plane work by banging against the hull.
- Placebo Eureka Moment: Thinking Out Loud, Murray realizes that he can beat Yuri since he is not as trained as his sparring partners and then thanks Joyce for getting him to this revelation while she helped little to get him there.
- Plot Armor: All three of our characters survive the plane crash with nothing but a few small scratches because the plot requires them to survive.
- Ransacked Room: The military ransacks the Byers house searching for leads about Eleven.
- The Reveal: Turns out that Hop had additional reasons to fall apart after Sarah's death. He feels responsible for her illness because he had her knowing that his exposure to Agent Orange
(for herbicidal purposes, he was told) during the war meant his children could be more prone to birth defects and the like. - Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Eleven understandably has no intention of trusting Dr. Brenner at first, let alone be his little guinea pig again, and tries to bolt. Unfortunately, without her powers, Eleven is no match for the armed, highly trained guards, who overpower her, knock her out and force her to partake in the tests.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Brenner, who else? He knows what he's doing may put El in danger, but does it anyway - it's unclear if it's because he tries to push her towards a Traumatic Superpower Awakening or if he simply doesn't care enough to be less forceful.Brenner: She'll swim.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The agent who was shot in the chest and presumed dead at the Byers' house last episode is still alive and bleeding out against a wall at least 30 minutes later.
- These Hands Have Killed: During her Mind Screw flashback sequence, El looks down on her bloody right hand in horror as she believes she was responsible for the massacre at the lab.
- Tragic Stillbirth: Several of Hopper's fellow men who were exposed to Agent Orange along with him also tried to start families, but unlike Hop, they didn't even get the luxury of spending a few years with an alive functional baby.
- Traumatic Haircut: Eleven is shocked when she discovers that, after years of it growing long, her hair has been shaven down once again.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Eleven is eventually able to tap into her powers when the guards try to keep her from escaping the facility. It mirrors what happened to the orderlies at Hawkings Lab when they mistreated her one time too many.
- Unexplained Recovery: Brenner, last seen being attacked face-first by one of the most dangerous monsters in the whole show, is apparently alive and kicking. He does have a scar to tell the story, however.
- Unnaturally Looping Location: In her distorted memory, Eleven panickedly runs around in an attempt to escape, only to repetitively find herself back in the playroom regardless of what door she entered.
- Villainous Rescue: Vecna inadvertently saves Eddie's butt by murdering one of the basketball players, Patrick, just as they're about to catch him.
- Wham Shot: The episode's opening ends with no other than Dr. Brenner, who was thought dead since Season 1, greeting Eleven in the Nevada base.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Jonathan's reaction at realizing who they plan to visit in Salt Lake City.
