History Recap / StrangerThingsS1E5ChapterFiveTheFleaAndTheAcrobat

The boys determine Will is trapped in an alternate dimension Eleven calls the "Upside Down," and he is being pursued by a monster similar to a Demogorgon. After Will's funeral, the boys ask their science teacher Mr. Clarke about alternative dimensions. He explains that a high-energy spacetime tear could theoretically create a passage between dimensions, and that such a phenomenon would create a disruption in the Earth's electromagnetic field. Using their compasses, the party heads into the woods to search for such a disruption. Eleven remembers encountering the creature during a lab experiment, and afraid, she redirects the compasses. Lucas notices and confronts her. Mike defends her, he and Lucas fight, and Eleven telekinetically flings Lucas off Mike. While Dustin and Mike tend to the unconscious Lucas, Eleven disappears.

Lonnie comes back to town ostensibly to console Joyce about Will's disappearance. The two make peace with each other, until Joyce discovers that Lonnie still doesn't actually care about his sons, [[OnlyInItForTheMoney but is really just trying to cash in on Will's death with a wrongful death lawsuit]]. Therefore, she angrily demands that he leaves again.

* AllJustADream: Invoked; after finding Hopper snooping around their lab, Hawkins' employees drug him and bring him back to his house, placing pills and empty cans around him, in hopes that Hopper will believe everything he saw there was just a bad dream. It doesn't take because he's too ProperlyParanoid to accept it's just a dream, and sure enough, he finds a bug planted in his home that confirms his suspiciouns.

* DoesntKnowTheirOwnChild: Joyce proves how little Lonnie cares about Jonathan by pointing out
that he doesn't even know about his son's long-lasting wish to get into NYU.

** A not-entirely-deliberate example (or, at least, one that touches on EntertaininglyWrong), since Lonnie doesn't actually know about the genuine paranormal events occurring within the house and genuinely does think Joyce is simply having a breakdown out of stress and grief. However, he's barely been back a day before managing to almost convince Joyce that she actually is losing her mind and just imagining seeing Will again, and he brings up the idea of suing the quarry company in a rather insidious fashion that smacks of this kind of manipulation. She quickly snaps out of it upon discovering the compensation forms he's planning to use to try and cash in on Will's death, however, and it's implied that this isn't the first time Joyce has had to deal with Lonnie playing these kind of mind games with her.

* DoesntKnowTheirOwnChild: Joyce proves how little Loonie cares about Jonathan by pointing out that he doesn't even know about his son's long-lasting wish to get into NYU.

* GetOut: Joyce yells this phrase at least three times at Lonnie after she finds out he's only there to cash in on Will's death.

Lonnie comes back to town ostensibly to console Joyce about Will's disappearance. The two make peace with each other, until Joyce discovers that Lonnie still doesn't actually care about his sons, [[OnlyInItForTheMoney but is really just trying to cash in on Will's death with a wrongful death lawsuit]]. Angry, she demands that he leaves again.

* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Sure, Lonnie is a deadbeat dad trying to cash in on his son's apparent death, but he is right: that gorge is ridiculously unsafe. It's just a sheer dead drop over the side into the water around a hundred feet down. Later, we see Mike nearly fall in, too. Even if Will really wasn't killed there, someone likely would be.
** The boys are hurt, betrayed and angry when it's revealed that Eleven has been manipulating their compasses to direct them away from the source of the disruption. Of course, they don't know but the audience ''does'' both what kind of horrors Eleven has experienced there and the dangers currently occurring at that particular location, making Eleven's actions entirely understandable (if not exactly admirable).

* BreakingTheFellowship: Lucas and Eleven have a fallout which makes the former decide to go and look for Will all by himself and the latter to leave the group until her BigDamnHero return at the end of Episode 6.

* TalkingWithSigns: PlayedForDrama. Hopper says nothing to Joyce when he first enters her home, instead holding up a piece of paper with "Don't say anything" written on it, because he doesn't want to accidentally give away that the two of them know of potential bugs in her home. Luckily there is no bug.

* AllJustADream: Played with; after finding Hopper snooping around their lab, Hawkins' employees drug him and bring him back to his house, placing pills and empty cans around him, in hopes that Hopper will believe everything he saw there was just a bad dream.

* BreakingTheFellowship: Lucas and Eleven have a fall out which makes the former decide to go and look for Will all by himself and the latter to leave the group until her BigDamnHero return at the end of Episode 6.
* DoesntKnowTheirOwnChild: Joyce proves how little Loonie cares about Jonathan by pointing out that the doesn't even know about his son's long-lasting wish to get into NYU.

** The Hawkins Lab people also try this on Hopper to make him believe that his investigation of the lab and discovery of the portal to the Upside Down was simply the result of an hallucination during a drug bender. He doesn't buy it, however, and instead tears his place apart until he discovers the bug they've planted to monitor him.

* HowManyFingers: Dustin does this after he and Mike revive an unconcious Lucas.

** The boys are hurt, betrayed and angry when it's revealed that Eleven has been manipulating their compasses to direct them away from the source of the disruption. Of course, they don't know but the audience ''does'' both what kind of horrors Eleven has experienced there and the dangers currently occuring at that particular location, making Eleven's actions entirely understandable (if not exactly admirable).

-->'''Jonathan Byers:''' Well, I was just starting to think you were okay. I was thinking, 'Nancy Wheeler. She's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does, until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales, and they live out a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac just like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now hey, they get it.'

* WhooshInFrontOfTheCamera: Happens to Hopper when he prepares to enter the Gate. His attempt look for the cause gets him captured by the guards.

* ProperlyParanoid: Hopper not only doesn't fall for the trick to make him believe his trip to Hawkins lab was just a dream, he also correctly predicts that Hawkins' people might be keeping an eye on him now that he's onto them and thoroughly searches his house for any microphone, which he eventually finds. Later, when visiting Joyce, he urges her to stay quiet until he has searched her house for any microphone, as well.

* PlotHole: Until now the Hawkins agents have been utterly ruthless in covering up their experiments and killing any witnesses. However, when Hopper breaks into their lab and discovers what they're up to, they're content to just drug him and drop him home.

* DoesntKnowTheirOwnChild: Joice proves how little Loonie cares about Jonathan by pointing out that the doesn't even know about his son's long-lasting wish to get into NYU.

* InternalReveal: Hopper confirms to Joice that Will's body was a fake.

* GoingInCircles: Eleven secretly manipulated the boys' compasses and made them go in circles to keep them away from the Gate.

* TurningIntoYourParent: Jonathan calls Nancy out for despising her parents while acting just like them.