History Recap / StrangerThingsS2E9ChapterNineTheGate

* JerkassHasAPoint: Billy is a total asshole, but he's not wrong to want some context for why his 13-year-old stepsister is in a complete stranger's house with a bunch of boys, and the only "adult" supervision being a high school senior.

* AndroclesLion: Dustin taking care of the Demo-dog D'Artagnan when it was small allowed him and his friends some good will when trying to defeat the EldritchAbomination from The Upsidedown.

* DeliciousDistraction: Dustin distracts Dart with some "3 Musketeers" bars allowing the group to sneak past.

* BigDamnReunion: Between Eleven and Mike, of course. Soon after, Eleven with the rest of the boys as well as with Hopper and Joyce.

* GroupHug: A three-way hug between Will, Joyce and Jonathan after they manage to drive the virus out of Will's system.

* TheChainOfHarm: A quite visual example. Billy's father takes his anger out on Billy by pushing him aginst a wall. When Billy finds Max, does the same with her.

** In one shot we see that they had to tape a box to the accelerator because Max was too short to be able to reach it.

* PedalToTheMetalShot: A closeup shot shows that Max needs a box under her foot to reach the gas pedal of her brother's car.

* CurbStompBattle: Steve vs. Billy. They are roughly the same height, but Billy is much stronger and crazier. Steve gets a few good hits in, but Billy positively mashes Steve's face (it also helps that Billy [[CombatPragmatist fights dirty, and bashes Steve's head with a plate to stun him]]). Steve ends up passing out from the pain, and takes a while to properly wake up.

* ForebodingFleeingFlock: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]], when a large group of demodogs runs past Dustin without attacking, everybody [[OhCrap realizes]] that the Mind Flayer is sending them after Eleven.

* KidsDrivingCars: Steve (18) blacks out after his fight with Billy. Since he was the only one in the group old enough to drive, Max (13) ends up driving everyone to the pumpkin patch. Needless to say, she doesn't kill anyone, but Steve is very alarmed when he wakes up to find an eighth-grader driving the car.

* InterruptedBath: Mike's mom is enjoying a relaxing bath when the door bell rings.

* NearMissGroinAttack: When Billy confronts the group at one point and gets too physical with them that he beats up Steve and pushes Lucas into a shelf. Max stops him by injecting him with a syringe full of sedatives, then threatens him to never harm them again by using a spike bat and hitting the ground near his groin.

* MakeoverMontage: Played with. All of the boys are shown either already dressed up or getting ready for the winter dance, while Max's mom does her hair. Eleven isn't part of the sequence, but later shows up complete with some purple eyeshadow that compliments her dress.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: Steve, Lucas & Max collectively take down an AxCrazy Billy halfway through the episode.

* {{Bookends}}: The scene of Dustin looking for his hairspray mirrors his search for quarters in the season premiere.

* CallBack:
** Dustin using the Farrah Fawcett spray, as recommended by Steve.
** At the dance, Nancy tells one of the boys the punch is "[[Recap/StrangerThingsS2E2ChapterTwoTrickOrTreatFreak pure fuel]]."

* DancePartyEnding: Season 2 ends with a school dance.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: When they are trying to force the Mind Flayer out of will, Joyce flat out demands the EldritchAbomination leave her son.

* GroinAttack: How Billy takes out Steve during their first bout. It's also one of the few things that Billy seems to be vulnerable to. Lucas manages to temporarily stun Billy by kneeing his nuts when the latter attacks him. Later we see Max threatening Billy's groin with a nail bat which seems to be the only thing that gets him to stop his rampage.

* OhCrap: Billy's reaction when Max threatens to smash his groin with Steve's bat.

One month later, Hawkins Lab has shut down. Barb is given a funeral, and Owens provides Hopper a birth certificate for Eleven. The students attend the school's winter dance, the Snow Ball. Max and Lucas kiss, as do Mike and Eleven. Nancy pities Dustin and dances with him. In the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer towers over the school.

* SealedEvilInACan: The Mind Flayer still has total dominance over the Upside-Down, but Eleven closing the Gate has prevented it from entering our dimension. All it can do is seethe at the heroes at the Hawkins Middle School in the Upside-Down.

* CallBack: Dustin using the Farrah Fawcett spray, as recommended by Steve.

* ChristmasEpilogue: The season ends on the holiday centric Snowball Dance.

* RealityEnsues: Steve vs. Billy. They are roughly the same height, but Billy is much stronger and crazier. Steve gets a few good hits in, but Billy positively mashes Steve's face (it also helps that Billy [[CombatPragmatist fights dirty, and bashes Steve's head with a plate to stun him]]). Steve ends up passing out from the pain, and takes a while to properly wake up.

* PassThePopcorn: As the military finishes withdrawing from Hawkins Lab, Bauman is sitting in his camping chair watching them leave. And drinking beer. And smiling. And saluting. And laughing. And waving. Really, popcorn with some schadenfreude on top. For an added bonus, he doesn't live in the city or, judging by how Nancy and Jonathan had to sleep in a motel to get to his place, anywhere particularly close to it.