"Imagine, if you will, the barrier between our worlds is a... concrete dam. Henry is putting cracks in this dam. Cracks in dams create pressure. Left unchecked, the pressure will build. And build. And eventually, it will reach a breaking point. And the dam will burst. And when that happens, Hawkins will fall."
— Brenner
Episode 8 opens back in 1979, as Eleven watches the gate slither shut. Brenner asks the question What have you done? and we cut to Nancy watching Brenner tattoo Henry's arm. Brenner addresses Nancy in Vecna's voice, and she runs into the Hawkins Lab hallway, site of the massacre. The gang in Eddie's trailer frantically search for music to bring Nancy back while she fights with the barriers Vecna has placed around the corridors. She is only able to escape because Vecna has a message...for Eleven. When she gets back, the gang prepare for a battle.
The Russian crew find their way out of the prison, into a lab with creatures from the Upside Down in suspended animation, including what appears to be part of the Mind Flayer itself. They are able to find an air vent passageway that will lead them out of the prison. Knowing those creatures are on the loose, they decide to return and kill them with Yuri's flamethrower.
Eleven comes out of her sensory deprivation memories and gives a demonstration of her rejuvenated powers, apparently stronger than ever. Owens, Brenner, and El have a chat about Henry/One/Vecna. El realizes that her friends in Hawkins are in more danger than she previously thought; Brenner confirms this with vivid, ghoulish description, prompting El to look for them with her powers. Brenner double-crosses her, just in time for the government to show up and pose a threat to them all.
Still on the road to Nevada, Mike and Will discuss the last conversation Mike and El had, and Mike confesses his fears.
This episode provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: When the helicopter gunman keeps missing Dr. Brenner (played by Matthew Modine) and the pilot suggests the gunman give him some lead (anticipate his position). In the 1987 anti-war movie Full Metal Jacket, Joker (played by Modine) asks the helicopter gunman how he can shoot women and children and the gunman replies, "Easy: you just don't lead them so much."
- Alas, Poor Villain:
- The demodog vivisected in the Soviets' lab is portrayed pretty somberly.
- Brenner dies protecting Eleven from the military and affirms his love for her.
- Alien Autopsy: The Soviets are in the process of vivisecting a demodog, having left its chest pried open.
- Answer Cut: Eleven urges Mike's group to leave for Hawkins immediately lest "they" are gonna die. When Will asks her who she means we cut to the "Hawkins" party riding in the RV.
- A-Team Montage: A drawn-out one where the Hawkins party splits up into groups of two to make preparations for the Final Battle.
- The Atoner: Dr. Brenner appears to be genuinely remorseful for the way he's treated Eleven when faced with the likely prospect of imminent death.
- Eleven calls him out for this during her rant towards him, saying that his obsession with opening the gate was to find Henry because Brenner still felt the need to save Henry and atone for what he'd done to him.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Erica reminds Lucas that even though he's "a bench-riding loser," he's still her brother.
- Big Damn Reunion: Between Mike and Eleven in the desert.
- Big "NO!": Nancy screams this as Vecna shows her what he wants Eleven to know, and it's enough to jar her awake.
- Boom, Headshot!: Hopper finds another Soviet demogorgon (in the demodog stage) in the process of being vivisected, and gives it one of these as a Mercy Kill.
- Bullying a Dragon: Jason unsubtly threatening Nancy, who's taken down much worse than him and lived, is easily this. The only reason he got away with it is because they were in a crowded gun shop.
- Call-Back: Max still has her Michael Myers mask from Halloween in Season 2.
- Character Death: Dr. Brenner gets gunned down by the military while trying to escape with El, and unlike the last time he "died", he's not coming back.
- Chore Character Exploration: There is a brief moment before the final fight where the Hawkins gang prepare in a field and talk with one another; Eddie and Dustin play-fight and Eddie tells him to "never change", Erica admits to Lucas that she was at every one of his basketball games (because no matter what, he's her brother), and Robin quietly admits her fears about their survival odds to Steve.
- Comically Missing the Point: Argyle is never quite convinced that Nina's not a small woman, who can hide behind a small tree. In the desert.
- Crucified Hero Shot: Ironically, with Brenner as he bleeds out in the desert: he may have seen himself as a hero, but Eleven (and the other psychic children) wouldn't agree.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Sullivan's troops effortlessly wipe out Brenner's guards in a firefight, losing only one of their own in the process.
- Cut Phone Lines: Brenner cuts the phone line at NINA to interrupt Owens talking to Agent Stinson on the outside.
- Death Equals Redemption: Downplayed. Brenner dies protecting Eleven from the military and affirming his love for her, but although she does say goodbye to him, she refuses to forgive him for everything he did to her.
- Double Meaning: Will tells Mike that El has been made to feel different from other people her entire life, and she's only been fighting with Mike because she's afraid of losing him, since he's the one person who makes her feel like being different is a good thing. It's made clear that Will is talking about himself as much as El, and this is his way of confessing his feelings for Mike without Mike knowing.
- Dramatic Guncock: Dmitri cocks his gun on Yuri in the van to make him cooperate.
- Driver Faces Passenger: When Steve drives the RV, his head is mostly turned towards Nancy in the co-driver seat instead of focusing on the road ahead.
- Exact Words: Invoked when Joyce goes crazy on Yuri for saying he had a plane when he shows them his run-down helicopter. Yuri corrects her that he never said a plane: he simply said he could fly them out of there.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Brenner carries Eleven out of the bunker and finds the bodies of escaping scientists scattered around the exit, before Brenner himself is shot by a sniper positioned in a helicopter.
- For Your Own Good: In his dying moments, Brenner asserts to Eleven that all he ever did for her was for her own good. Eleven's silence to that statement tells us that she doesn't agree.
- Four Is Death: The teens realize that Vecna's clock chimes four times, and he specifically targeted four people, meaning that he plans to open four gates that will allow the Upside-Down to seep into Hawkins.
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: Eddie easily hotwires an RV. Apparently, his father taught him this skill.
- Headbutt of Love: Mike and El share one upon reuniting in the desert.
- The Heart: Will reminds Mike that this is his role in the group, when Mike falters about his relationship with El.
- Hellish Copter: The episode features one of the only helicopters on the entire show, which gets a few minutes of screentime before El causes it to crash down. Admittedly, its occupants had it coming.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Brenner gives his life to protect Eleven from Sullivan's forces.
- He's Back!: Eleven's powers have been restored, and she demonstrates this by lifting the NINA pod from the ground & then replacing it. She then shows it off again by bringing down the helicopter that was trying to shoot her.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: If Brenner had conceded to Owens' position that El had the right to leave and simply thrown his weight behind supporting her, all the Nina Project personnel might well have cleared out of the base before Sullivan and his forces got there.
- I Have This Friend: A variation, in that the "friend" is an actual person. In his discussion of the painting, Will obliquely confesses his own feelings to Mike by pretending they are El's.
- Incompatible Orientation:
- Robin is taken aback when she sees her crush with her boyfriend at the gun shop.
- It's pretty clear based on Will's face and body language during his speech to Mike that he knows he has no chance of being with Mike.
- Insecure Love Interest: Mike admits to Will that he feels like El doesn't need him anymore and is worried that once she realises this she'll decide to leave him.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Despite his own feelings for Mike, and recognizing their Incompatible Orientation, Will's lie about the painting is designed to help Mike and El's relationship.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Eddie's not prepared for "Bat-tle."
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Robin being absolutely bewildered at the absence of '80s pop-rock hits in Eddie's music library is both a character-based gag and a metatextual wink at the show's noted tendency to go with Nothing but Hits as far as music goes.
- Lonely Funeral: Discussed. When Joyce tells Hop that they had a funeral for him back home, he jokingly asks if anyone turned up. Joyce assures him that it was a Meaningful Funeral and he is now considered the town's hero.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Steve tells Nancy that he'd always imagined having six kids; when Nancy points out that having so many children sounds hellish, Steve lampshades that he's already got practice and nods in the direction of Dustin and the others.
- Mercy Kill: Hopper sees a demogorgon strapped to an operating table with its abdomen sliced open and flailing wildly. After looking on in horror for a few seconds, he ends its suffering.
- Motivational Lie: Will's claim that El commissioned his painting, as well as El's feelings about it, motivate Mike to be honest with El about his feelings in the next episode.
- Nothing but Hits: Used as a brief (slightly metatextual) gag where Robin is completely confused that Eddie's music library has no "music", by which she means "top-of-the-charts pop-rock of the 1980s" (Blondie, Madonna, etc.). Eddie indignantly notes (about Iron Maiden's Piece Of Mind), "This! Is! Music!"
- No, You: Played for Drama during Brenner and El's argument once El finally puts together just how much responsibility Brenner holds for the series' events.
- No Bisexuals: After seeing Vicky with her boyfriend at the gun shop, Steve starts speculating on how she turned out to be straight when he was so sure she was gay. The idea that Vicky could be bi never crosses his mind, somewhat justified by the perceptions of the time.
- Oh, Crap!: Nancy and Erica as they realize the basketball team are also stocking up on weapons whilst Eddie, Dustin, and Lucas are all hiding in a stolen RV parked outside.
- People Jars: The Russians have a lab with demogorgons in suspended animation tanks.
- Phlebotinum Analogy: Brenner uses a pencil (and the concept of a dam) as a visual metaphor for how One is using the gates to crack down the barrier between the two worlds until it bursts and destroys Hawkins.
- Post-Victory Collapse: Brenner mentions to El that after defeating One she fell into a coma which almost destroyed her.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Eddie in the opening scene, when Robin dismisses the tape for Iron Maiden's Piece Of Mind (a classic album of the band) when looking for music to wake up Nancy.Eddie: THIS! IS! MUSIC!
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Eleven delivers a brutal one to Brenner when she points out that everything throughout the show happened because of him: Him experimenting on Henry led to Henry slaughtering the other experiments, leading to her being manipulated by him and her sending him into the Upside Down, which led to Brenner's obsession with opening the gate as a way to find Henry, which in itself led to the Mind Flayer knowing about the world's existence and its desire to invade it, leading to several dozens, if not hundreds to die because of him.
- Sawed-Off Shotgun: The Hawkins group arm themselves with various weapons in order to try to destroy Vecna. As part of the preparations, Max watches Nancy shorten a shotgun barrel with a saw; the latter comments that what they're doing is likely a felony.
- Secret Underground Passage: The group around Hopper escapes the Russian prison via the sewer system which leads to a manhole on the outside.
- Shooting Superman: The Russian guards keep shooting the demogorgon although they should know better. Worse yet, they stick to their automatic firearms instead of using heavier weaponry.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Jason's lecture to Nancy about the issues with shotguns as weapons leans hard on this exaggeration of the shotgun's weakness. Of course, considering he's trying to lecture an experienced gun owner like Nancy, he could just be a Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
- Shout-Out:
- A monster carrying a girl while being shot from a helicopter...
- An apprentice arguing with their master about whether to stay and finish their training, or go into danger to save their friends...
- Sullivan's invasion of the NINA facility is reminiscent of the Rebel Blockade Runner scene from Star Wars.
- Joyce compares Murray and herself to Starsky & Hutch.
- Eddie holds a tape of Iron Maiden's Piece Of Mind while discussing music with Robin. Eddie's own name is likely derived from the band mascot "Eddie the Head" (pictured in the album's cover).
- One of the Colonel's subordinate soldiers is called Hicks
- Spare a Messenger: Though Vecna has Nancy at his mercy, he spares her only for the purpose of telling Eleven of the vision he proceeds to show her. Steve makes sure to cite this as to why confronting Vecna is a bad idea; Nancy only survived because he wanted her to.
- Tempting Fate: Upon hearing some sort of animalistic howling in the next room over in the Soviet prison, Murray audibly hopes that the Russians don't have another demogorgon the main cast aren't aware of. It turns out they have several demodogs, and what seems to be a piece of the Mind Flayer.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Hopper, Joyce, Murray, and Dmitri have this reaction when they see Yuri's way of getting them out of the Soviets' crosshairs is a dingy helicopter that he's never flown before.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Soviet soldiers who start rapidly shooting the Soviets' demogorgon despite their superior's orders not to, since its skin is bulletproof and it is pretty angry already.
- Trying Not to Cry: Will is barely holding it together throughout his speech to Mike about how much "El" loves and needs him. When it's over, he turns his head towards the window and clamps a hand over his mouth to try to keep himself from sobbing.
- Two Aliases, One Character: The teens lampshade the fact that Vecna/Henry/One has three aliases, and can't decide on what to call him now.Robin: We were wrong about Vecna... Henry... One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?
Dustin: One.
Erica: Vecna.
Lucas: One!
Nancy: Henry.
Robin: Right. We've learned something new about Henry/Vecna/One. - Unequal Pairing: Mike feels insecure in his relationship with El because of their power differential. Will assures him that she, as an outcast, needs him just as much as he needs her.
- Villain Ball: In Colonel Sullivans' eyes, he has a rogue child with unknown superpowers with the power to create a pathway to an alternate hostile dimension. To defeat this, he only deploys about 15 soldiers and a single helicopter. This allows Eleven to escape easily once she takes out the helicopter.
- Villain's Dying Grace: Fatally shot while trying to spirit Eleven away from Sullivan's marines, Brenner's final act is to deactivate the Restraining Bolt he'd collared her with. El can't quite give him the parting forgiveness he pleads for, but she does take his hand and bid "papa" a sombre farewell.
- Wham Shot: Hopper's group walk in on a second Soviet demogorgon (in the demodog stage), strapped to an operating table in the process of being vivisected. Hop puts it out of its misery with a well-placed bullet, but upon turning away from the blood spatter, he sees several more adolescents of the same species being held in stasis, then what appears to be a piece of the Mind Flayer in the back of the room.
