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"Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak" is the tenth episode of Stranger Things and the second episode of the second season. It premiered on October 27, 2017 along with the rest of the season. 

Synopsis[]

After Will sees something terrible on trick-or-treat night, Mike wonders if Eleven is still out there. Nancy wrestles with the truth about Barb.

Plot[]

Chapter Two - Trick or Treat, Freak

Eleven uses her powers to open the gate in Hawkins Middle

Awakening in the Upside Down after destroying the Demogorgon, a disoriented Eleven screams for Mike Wheeler until she finds a gate created by the Demogorgon. After the soldiers she sees patrolling the other side of it leave, she uses her powers to widen the gate and slip through into Hawkins Middle. She hurries to the Wheeler house, only to find it swarming with agents from Hawkins National Laboratory, telling the Wheelers that Eleven is dangerous. Eleven watches through a window as Mike remains adamant that he would never give her up. When he spots her through the window, the agents give chase and she hides in the woods, distraught.

S2E02 Eleven as a bedsheet ghost

In the present day, she asks Jim Hopper if she can go out on Halloween as a ghost, as she would not be recognized with a sheet over her. Hopper refuses, but offers to take the evening off and spend it eating candy and watching horror movies together. He explains the concept of a "compromise" to her, and she accepts. Joyce Byers expresses a brief moment of panic when she wakes up and find Will not in his bed, but realizes he is just using the bathroom. She notices a drawing of the creature from his visions on his desk. Will denies having another episode. Will, Dustin Henderson, and Lucas Sinclair all suit up in their Ghostbusters Halloween costumes, Will as Egon Spengler, Dustin as Ray Stantz, and Lucas as Peter Venkman. Their mothers enthusiastically take pictures of the ecstatic boys, Lucas' sister Erica mocking him the whole time. Mike, also Venkman, is less enthusiastic. The boys arrive at school and Lucas and Mike argue over their assigned roles, Lucas believing Mike is trying to make him be Winston Zeddemore because of his race. They soon realize they are the only ones who have dressed up for Halloween, to their embarrassment. Dustin and Lucas debate asking Max Mayfield to join the group, but cannot work up the courage to.

S2E02 Lucas, Will, Dustin and Mike as Ghostbusters

Joyce shows Hopper that the setting of Will's drawing perfectly matches their front yard, concluding that he lied about not having an episode. Hopper agrees with Sam Owens' theory about the anniversary effect, and regretfully tells her that their situation will not go back to the way it was, but it can get better. They reminisce about their time in high school together before Joyce expresses that she wants it all to be over. In the bowels of the lab, a soldier steps through the gate following the power surge and is guided by Owens to a generator built in the Upside Down, repairing it and putting their connection systems back online. Owens listens to the recording of Will's most recent session, contemplating. Nancy Wheeler sees a girl in Hawkins High's library that resembles Barb Holland, spacing out until Steve Harrington notices and pulls her aside. She tells him that she is tired of pretending that she does not know what happened to Barb, but Steve reminds her that they will be arrested should they leak any information. He encourages her to go to the Halloween party so they can "pretend like we're stupid teenagers."

S2E02 Dustin and Lucas looking at Max

Dustin and Lucas approach Max, who seems to rebuff their invitation to go trick or treating with them. Eleven watches a romance movie in the cabin and repeats several lines before noticing a squirrel outside. She remembers killing one with her powers and cooking it while hiding out in the woods, and hurling the flaming squirrel at a hunter who approaches her, stealing his coat and hat. Pumpkin farmer Eugene McCorkle shows up at the Hawkins Police Station with his crop severely rotted, believing it to be the work of the accusatory Merrill Wright. He reports all his neighbor farmers experiencing similar problems. Max is berated by her aggressive stepbrother Billy Hargrove for her lateness as he drives her home. As he disparages Hawkins as a whole, he reminds her that he blames her for having to move there. Wanting her to admit her apparent culpability, he speeds up when he notices Mike, Dustin and Lucas biking in the road, narrowly stopped from hitting them by Max grabbing the wheel. The boys recognize her as the car shoots by.

S2E2-Bob saying they can be normal

Hopper arrives at the McCorkle farm and tracks the rot, finding it spreading to trees in the form of a grey, mucousy substance. He orders Phil Callahan and Calvin Powell to start marking the rot, worried it could be poisonous. As Jonathan drives Will to meet up with his friends, he feels bad for him when Will bemoans having Jonathan chaperone. He lets Will go with his friends alone on the condition that he stays in the neighborhood and be back in by nine, giving him Bob Newby's loaned video camera to document the evening. At the Halloween party, Billy breaks Steve's keg stand record as Nancy begins drinking excessively to forget her problems. Joyce and Bob dance together and she mentions her anxiety about Will being away from her. He reassures her that he cares for her and her sons, and posits the idea of moving out of Hawkins to help leave the family's traumatic experiences behind. Max, dressed as Michael Myers, joins the boys uninvited.

Strangerthings

Will Byers experiencing another episode

Hopper tracks the rot through the woods, hearing strange noises, until McCorkle's grandson interrupts him and he remembers his promise to Eleven. He pays the boy for some of his candy and speeds home. He signals to her on their morse code radio that he will be late, and she remembers coming across Hopper's wooden box in the woods. As Dustin and Lucas try to impress Max, Mike expresses annoyance at them inviting her into the group without consulting him and Will. Will is approached by older boys who taunt him, calling him "Zombie Boy" and making him fall to the ground, seemingly sending him into the Upside Down. Confused, Will calls for Mike until the spider creature, floating, unfurls in front of him and begins to pursue him. Mike finds Will hiding behind a house and snaps him out of it, taking him home and telling the rest of the group to continue without them.

S2E02 Mike and Will at home

Arriving at the party, Jonathan awkwardly flirts with a classmate before being distracted by an altercation between Nancy and Steve, in which she is accidentally splashed with alcohol. While being cleaned up in the bathroom, she tells Steve that he and their love is "bullshit," and he leaves. Jonathan notices Steve leaving the party and drives Nancy home, tucking her in before leaving as she murmurs his name. Will explains his episode to Mike as being stuck between their world and the Upside Down, as well as describing the massive creature. He is unsure if the episode was a hallucination or real, and begs him not to tell the others. Mike remarks that Eleven would have understood and admits that he sometimes hears and sees her, feeling as though he is losing their mind. He promises Will that if they both go crazy, they will go "crazy together."

Eleven tries to reach out Mike on the 352nd day through the Void but fails

Eleven trying to contact Mike Wheeler

Hopper returns to find Eleven irate and locked in her room with the television inside. Despite his apologies, she stays inside. She switches the TV to static to block out her hearing and blindfolds herself, slipping into the void and revealing she has been listening in on Mike's calls to her. Mike asks her to give him a sign if she is still alive and seems to sense her presence when she kneels before him and says his name. He closes the Supercom before she can touch him, leaving her distraught. Dustin arrives home to hear something rattling around in his garbage can. He draws his costume's photon blaster and creeps towards it, and utters "holy shit" when he sees what is inside.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Also Starring[]

Co-Starring[]

Music[]

Soundtrack[]

  • "Ghostbusters (Instrumental Version)" by Ray Parker Jr. - The boys are getting dressed up for Halloween as their parents take photos.
  • "Wango Tango" by Ted Nugent - Billy complains about having to move to Hawkins as he drives Max home.
  • "Blackout" by Swing Set - Jonathan drives Will to meet his friends.
  • "Shout at the Devil" by Mötley Crüe - Steve, Nancy and Billy at the Halloween Party.
  • "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - Bob and Joyce dance around her living room.
  • "Monster Mash" by Bobby Boris Pickett - Max and the guys continue trick-or-treating; Mike tells Will that Max's presence is ruining his night.
  • "Girls On Film" by Duran Duran - Jonathan arrives at the Halloween Party.
  • "Outside the Realm" by Big Giant Circles - Mike tells Will it feels like Eleven is still around; Jonathan drives Nancy home, helps her to her room and tucks her into bed.
  • "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. - Dustin flips off the garbage can lid and peers inside; end credits.

Original Score[]

  • "Never Tell" - Eleven makes her way back to the Wheeler's house, before being forced to hide from the government.
  • "Presumptuous" - Dustin and Lucas invite Max to go trick-or-treating.
  • "This Isn't You" - Steve talks Nancy down on coming clean about Barb. Again when Jonathan lets Will go trick-or-treating without him.
  • "Tree Slime" - Hopper finds slime on trees.
  • "Eggo in the Snow" - Eleven relives the moment she first came across Hopper's supplies.
  • "Castle Byers" - Eleven reaches out to Mike in the void before stopping herself.

Gallery[]

View Gallery For this subject's gallery, see Trick or Treat, Freak/Gallery.


Notes[]

  • On August 31, 2016, the second season was announced through a trailer published across social media, listing the tentative titles of the nine episodes. This episode was given the initial title of "The Boy Who Came Back to Life". However, the final title of the episode was revealed on October 9, 2017, along with those for episode one and episodes three through to six.[1]
Eleven transported concept 1
Eleven transported concept 2

Art by Michael Maher, Jr.[2]

  • Concept artist Michael Maher, Jr. explored alternative concepts for Eleven being transported to the Upside Down. In the art, Eleven is sent flying through a glowing blue portal, and arrives in the Upside Down's woods rather than Mr. Clarke's classroom.[2]
  • In the scene before Billy drives the car recklessly with Max in the passenger seat, there is a panned shot of the water tower, car park and Max on her skateboard. The water tower has digital cellular transceiver antennae around it. Digital cellular networks were not invented until at least 20 years later.
  • The house where the boys first go trick-or-treating (where the elderly woman calls them "four little exterminators") is located at 2545 Piney Wood Lane, East Point Georgia and is located across the street from the house used as the exterior for the Wheeler house.
  • The scenes involving trick-or-treating in Loch Nora were filmed on Planter's Row in Stone Mountain, Georgia. In particular, the scene were Will saw the Shadow Monster was filmed in front of 1590 Planter's Row.
  • Mike and Lucas both wanted to dress up as the same Ghostbuster (Venkman), but Mike wanted Lucas to be Winston instead, to which Lucas claimed he never agreed to.
  • Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters", which hit #1 on the American Top 40, is heard when the boys get their pictures and during the credits.

References[]

  1. "The story continues. New chapters on October 27." Stranger Things on Twitter. October 9, 2017.
  2. 2.0 2.1 The VFX Wizardry Behind Stranger Things 2 (NAB Show 2018) | Adobe Creative Cloud The "Adobe Creative Cloud" YouTube channel. April 19, 2018.
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