Most of the Hawkins police department arrives at the scene of the latest death. Rather than believe Eddie is not responsible, Jason decides he must be in league with the Devil. The boys arrive in Salt Lake City to find Suzie, amid chaos, and she really is a genius. Hopper and Dmitri sit down to a last supper, and Hopper explains what they're facing. Lucas tries to repair things with Max. Eleven has more sessions at the lab and remembers dealing with her more sadistic older siblings years earlier. Steve locates the gate.
This episode contains examples of:
- Anachronism Stew: While the prop for Suzie's computer is period-accurate, including the standard Workbench GUI from 1985, it behaves like far more modern hardware (starting up near-instantaneously after a power-cut, rather than taking minutes to boot); conversely interface is presented as monochrome, rather than the more advanced color interface of the computer in question. Her Hollywood Hacking in the internet is also based around lingo and technology that would be more at home in 1996 rather than 1986.
- Angrish: Eddie lets out a solid few seconds of gibberish mixed with random expletives before deciding to follow Steve, Nancy, and Robin into the Upside-Down.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: According to Suzie, what seems even worse to Father than the fact that she broke the law by changing Dusty-bun's grade is that she is dating an Agnostic.
- As the Good Book Says...: In his speech at City Hall, Jason quotes Romans 12:21, "Do not be overcome by evil. But overcome evil with good."
- Bears Are Bad News: Murray mentions to Yuri that he saw bear tracks which prompt the latter to cooperate and lead them to Hopper's prison.
- Berate and Switch: Yuri when he assesses the Suicide Mission of sneaking into the gulag and breaking Hopper out:"It is risky, crazy, you will still probably die, yet I like it."
- Break the Comedian: Eddie's clearly not having a good time while on the run from Jason and company. With the entire town out for his blood, It's even worse for him.
- Bumbling Dad: Mr. Bingham has at least 8 children, and clearly has no idea how to deal with or discipline them, as is shown when the younger kids wreak havoc so Suzie and the rest of the gang can sneak into his study and use the computer. Suzie mentions that her father spends all his time in his study, working.
- Call-Back:
- The gang again has to deal with compasses not working correctly due to a strong electromagnetic field.
- Also when Steve is pulled through the "Water Gate" into the Upside Down, he finds himself in a barren landscape. This indicates there are no naturally occurring bodies of water in the Upside Down, something which was hinted at in Season 2.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early on, one of the guards flashes his lighter which Hopper spots and later snatches from him to be used against the Demogorgon.
- Yuri also mentions his flamethrower.
- Children Do the Housework: Two of Suzie's younger siblings are responsible for cooking the family's meals, with the older of the two scolding her brother for adding too much salt to the food. And it's implied that Eden and Suzie, the two oldest, are responsible for babysitting the younger ones.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Steve trapped in the Upside Down, being attacked by Demobats and strangled by a tentacle.
- Closest Thing We Got: Steve notes that, as a former Hawkins High swimming team co-Captain and a former lifeguard of three summers, he's the only one remotely qualified to swim to the bottom of the lake to see if there's a gate at the bottom.
- Convenient Escape Boat: The gang around Steve conveniently comes across a motor boat waiting by the shore to take them onto the lake. Unless it was the one Eddie took (presumably after climbing back on).
- Cut Himself Shaving: Discussed. Lucas mentions that Vecna's last victim Patrick once came to practice with a black eye saying he fell. Lucas didn't buy into it and rather attributed it to Domestic Abuse which seems to connect all of Vecna's victims.
- Distracting Fake Fight: Hopper delays his and the prisoners' fight with the Demogorgon by insulting Dmitri's idealistic view of their fate, and later his son. It gets him another harsh beating from the guards, but he's able to snag a lighter from one of them and inform the rest of the prisoners that the Demogorgon is susceptible to fire.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Suzie, Jonathan, Will and Mike catching Argyle and Eden smoking pot in the back of Argyle's van is framed as if the two of them were caught doing something much more risqué.
- Dramatic Slip: When running from the cops in the woods, Dustin slips and falls. Max and Lucas turn around to help him which gets all three of them captured.
- Eating the Eye Candy: When Steve goes shirtless to look for the "water gate," Nancy sneaks a glance whilst Max snatches the binoculars from Lucas and takes a good, long stare.
- Electric Torture: In her flashback, Eleven finds the friendly orderly being tortured with Shock Sticks with Dr. Brenner watching on from the next room.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Given the information he has and that he himself witnessed his friend being gruesomely murdered by an unseen supernatural entity and the Satanic Panic sweeping across America, the conclusion Jason comes to that Satan is to blame and Eddie is his vessel (Eddie was present for two of the deaths) is not that unreasonable. He happens to be wrong, but only because the truth is even more farfetched.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Suzie gets the idea of how to draw her dad away from the computer when the lights suddenly go out in the house due to one of her siblings messing with the power switch.
- From Bad to Worse: First it was just Jason and his cronies gunning after Eddie. Now the entire town of Hawkins wants his head after Patrick's death.
- Gang of Bullies: Two is a rather horrifying counterpart to Angela. He and his siblings throw Eleven around like a ragdoll for being the weak one after taunting her with how he was holding back during the sessions. They then threatened to kill her if she tells on them. It's bad enough when it's a teenage Eleven, who is as tall as Two...then you remember Eleven was only seven or eight when this was happening and it's much, much worse.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: When Suzie manages to access the Nina website, Mike censors his surprise reaction in the last possible moment:Mike: Holy sh...heck.
- Hollywood Hacking: The entire section of Suzie accessing the Nina project is full of this, including subtropes that didn't really occur in media until the late 1990s (the code scrolling on her monitor is source code for a website - and they didn't even exist until 1991 or so, for example).
- Hope Crusher: A less malevolent version, but Hopper grimly dispels the other prisoners' hope that the lavish feast is meant to give them enough energy to fight off the Demogorgon, rather telling them what it really is meant to do: fatten them up so it doesn't starve. Dmitri admonishes Hopper for this.
- Irony:
- Jason quotes a passage from the Bible about fighting evil with good deeds note while he's rousing a lynch mob to go after Eddie and the rest of the Hellfire Club.
- Jonathan and Mike caution Argyle to be on his best behavior at the Binghams' home due to their religion, only to encounter all of Suzie's siblings either misbehaving or being rude to the guys, and the eldest daughter cussing and later being caught with Argyle in his van hitting a bong.
- Lame Pun Reaction: While waiting on the shore, Dustin jokingly points out that the gate being underwater makes it a literal Watergate. Lucas and Max both react with annoyance.
- Long-Distance Relationship: Nancy and Robin discuss the former's relationship with Jonathan, with Nancy acknowledging the strain on the relationship due to them now being several thousand miles apart.
- Love at First Sight: Argyle is immediately smitten with Suzie's sister Eden the first time he sees her. And Eden doesn't take long to warm up to Argyle.
- Ludicrous Precision: Suzie mentions that Dustin's birthday is in two months, three days and five hours.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Suzie and Eden have a lot of younger siblings around the house.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!":
- The Party seeing Eddie being accused of another murder on live television, realizing that this will make things so much harder for both them and poor Eddie.
- Dmitri (who translates for Hopper) and the rest of the Russian prisoners silently react like this when Hopper informs them of the Demogorgon (the monster from the Season 3 finale stinger) that awaits them, and what it can and will do to them from his experience.
- The Wheeler, Henderson and Sinclair families when Jason accuses the Hellfire Club of being a satanic cult responsible for all of the unexplained murders in Hawkins, and hands out flyers with a picture of the entire group - including Mike, Dustin and Lucas.
- Mordor: Eddie compares the Upside Down to Mordor.
- Never My Fault: Ted claims that Karen constantly twists his words, immediately after he implies that he thinks Lucas, Dustin and Mike could be involved with the murders.
- Not So Above It All: Despite his protests in previous seasons, this marks one of (if not the) first times Hopper, or any adult for that matter, refer to any of the Upside Down strangeness by the kids' terminology.Hopper: We call it a Demogorgon.
- Only Sane Man: Chief Powell's priority at the town meeting is trying to mitigate the town's panic, and he's clearly frustrated when Jason incites a vigilante mob to hunt down Eddie and the rest of the Hellfire Club.
- The Pig-Pen: Suzie's little brother answers the door dressed in shorts with dried mud and dirt covering him and plastered in his hair, then shoots Mike with a toy arrow and runs off. His siblings' lack of reaction indicates this is his usual appearance and behavior.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: As the older Party members prepare to venture into the Upside Down, Eddie compares the desolate Alternate Universe to Mordor from The Lord of the Rings. Steve doesn't get the reference, being nowhere near enough of a nerd to have read Tolkien, and this is two decades before the eponymous film adaptations were released, a medium Steve has more familiarity with.
- The Power of Hate: At the lab, Eleven beats Two in the battle of Psychic Powers by tapping into the anger she feels about how her mother was mistreated.
- Prisoner's Last Meal: Hopper, Enzo, and six other prisoners in the Russian gulag are presented with a delicious looking meal. At first, most of them happily dig in, believing it will strengthen them against the Demogorgon. Their joy turns to despair when Hopper informs them just how powerful the Demogorgon is, that they are only being fed to fortify themselves with the nutrients the Demogorgon needs rather than give them a fighting chance, and that this meal will indeed be their last.
- Shipper on Deck: Robin reminds Nancy that she might still have feelings for Steve, considering that her Long-Distance Relationship with Jonathan doesn't seem to be working out.
- Shirtless Scene: Steve takes his shirt and shoes off to look for the gate in the lake, planning to keep them dry to put back on. As things go a bit upside down he is not reunited with his shirt and shoes as planned.
- Stopped Clock: Eddie's digital wristwatch stopped at 09:27 pm when it got soaked in the lake around the time Patrick was killed. Robin notes that their flashlights flickered at the same time which ties Vecna's presence to the crime scene.
- Techno Babble: Suzie when explaining to the gang what she's doing online, using terms that wouldn't exist until the 1990s:I'm running the IP through a geolocation software. Basically a form of data mining.
- Was It Really Worth It?: Dmitri angrily asks this of Hopper after they are carted into a cell above the Demogorgon's lair. After explaining the rest of what he knows about the Demogorgon, the latter answers:Hopper: You asked me if [the beating] was worth it? To answer your question... yeah. I think it was worth it.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Almost the entire town joining Jason's witch hunt for Eddie. While trying to kill a teenager is certainly extreme, they genuinely believe he's dangerous, which is actually not that unreasonable based off the information they have, and unlike the main characters, they don't know the real reason for the string of gruesome deaths and tragedies and want it to end. With the charismatic golden star Jason (secretly a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing) leading the charge, their desire to hunt Eddie down amplifies.
- We Need a Distraction: Suzie convinces her younger siblings to cause chaos around the house so their father will leave his study for a while, allowing her and her new friends to use the computer he confiscated from her.
- You Just Ruined the Shot: Mr. Bingham comes across two of his kids filming a death scene and thinks his daughter's throat has been slit. His son, behind the camera, thanks him for making the shot with his believable panic.
- You Remind Me of X: The friendly orderly notes that Eleven reminds him of One who also found his strength in a memory of the past.
