History Recap / StrangerThingsS3E1ChapterOneSuzieDoYouCopy

** Dustin named his homemade ham radio "[[Franchise/XMen Cerebro]]."

* JerkassHasAPoint: Learning to be more respectful to adults in general, police officers in particular, and your girlfriend's adoptive father most of all is a good lesson for any teenager to learn, but Mike's not wrong that Hopper ''did'' lie to him (and about a family member's death at that) to get him alone, or that the level of anger Hopper winds up displaying is entirely inappropriate for a grown man dealing with a fourteen-year-old.

* HopeSpot: When Nancy walks into a meeting to make food deliveries and the newsmen are talking about what their local stories should focus on, she suggests covering [[PredatoryBusiness Starcourt Mall]] and how many of the small businesses are suffering and she was about to gain praise from the boss for such an idea, only for him to give her a hard time about the lack of mustard on his burger.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Learning to be more respectful to adults in general, police officers in particular, and your girlfriend's adoptive father most of all is a good lesson for any teenager to learn, but Mike's not wrong that Hopper ''did'' lie to him (and about a family member's death at that) to get him alone, or that the level of anger Hopper winds up displaying when defied is entirely inappropriate for a grown man dealing with a fourteen-year-old.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Learning to be more respectful to adults in general, police officers in particular, and your girlfriend's adoptive father most of all is a good lesson for any teenager to learn, but Mike's not wrong that Hopper ''did'' lie to him to get him alone, or that the level of anger Hopper winds up displaying when defied is entirely inappropriate for a grown man dealing with a fourteen-year-old.
* JumpScare: As Billy approaches the motel he plans to meet up with Karen at, a rat suddenly slams into his windshield and makes him crash. Another one ends the episode shortly after, where he gets dragged off by an unseen monster to his apparent death.

* UselessBystanderParent: No one, steps up when Billy insults a fat kid for his weight in public, even though the pool is populated with adults (including Karen and her friends).

But near the fourth of July, things start to go south. Hopper feels that Mike and Eleven are spending too much time together. He seeks advice from Joyce, who encourages him to talk it out politely with the young couple. But when they don't respond respectfully to his attempt to do this, he takes Mike aside and scares him into backing off. What's worse, while Dustin's new radio fails to contact Suzie, it does pick up a Soviet broadcast that seems ''very'' close by... and Will senses of something wrong have been acting up again...especially whenever he's in Starcourt Mall.

* EyeScream: Lucas gets a face full of Dustin's hairspray when the kids surprise him after coming home from science camp.

* TrickDialogue: We see Hopper in close-up giving his speech. Then we cut over to see that he is still with Joyce in her shop.

* FutureLoser: Steve bemoans that he's in the early stages of this; he didn't get good enough grades to get into college and his dad is forcing him to work at a humiliating minimum wage job at the mall ice-cream parlour to teach him a lesson. He's even lost his charm with girls, who appear to find him more laughable than sexy, although he does have a point that the goofy Scoops Ahoy uniform isn't helping.

* HopeSpot: When Nancy walks into a meeting to make food deliveries and the newsmen are talking about what their local stories should focus on, she suggests covering [[PredatoryBusiness Starcourt Mall]] and how many of the small-businesses are suffering and she was about to gain praise from the boss for such an idea, only for him to give her a hard time about the lack of mustard on his burger.

* LadyInRed: Before attempting to leave the house to meet Billy, Karen wears a flowy, figure forming dress in red and was seen wearing red lingerie.

* NoTellMotel: Billy invites Karen to one, ostensibly for "swimming lessons". Neither could be any more blatant about the fact they're they're discussing a possible affair.

* RageBreakingPoint: Hopper has been increasingly irritated by Mike and Eleven's relationship throughout the episode, but it's when Mike undermines him by making cheap sniggering comments when he's trying to patiently confront the two that Hopper decides that [[TwerpSweating a little alone time between him and Mike would be a good idea]]. Even then, he doesn't completely snap until Mike, realizing Hopper's deception, yells that he's a "lying piece of shit", after which Hopper gets [[TranquilFury quietly]] ''[[TranquilFury enraged]]''. Only then does Mike, now locked in a police car with his girlfriend's police-chief father whom he has succeeded in ''seriously'' pissing off, realise that he has crossed a line and is now in real trouble.

** Hopper has clearly grown his moustache to emulate Tom Selleck's. To illustrate this, he is seen at one point watching ''Series/MagnumPI''.

* SpySpeak: The instructions that the Soviets broadcast via radio signal is encoded like this.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Teenage hormones and the confidence coming from having a girlfriend appears to have gone to Mike's head somewhat, as he's a lot more smug, disrespectful and obnoxious than he was in previous seasons. Unfortunately for him, he makes the mistake of being a bit ''too'' smug and cocky towards Hopper, leading to a TwerpSweating which quickly brings him crashing back to earth.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: A more minor case than usual, but likely no-one would've been able to find out if Karen had slept with Billy. However, seeing Ted sleeping with their daughter Holly on his lap causes her to decide not to go through with the temptation.

* OverprotectiveDad: Hopper is ''not happy'' with the physical intimacy that Mike and Eleven are indulging in. He's also considerably less than thrilled about the way Mike seems to be disrespecting him.

* BrickJoke : The Creator/FarahFawcett hairspray discussed in Season 2 makes a reappearance as Dustin's weapon of choice.

* DyingTown: Or a dying ''part'' of town, at least. The opening of Starcourt Mall has clearly done a number on Hawkins' pre-existing shopping district; most shops are empty and abandoned, the general store where Joyce works is having a 70% off sale, there are flyers up organising meetings protesting the mall, and there are hardly any customers around.

* TwerpSweating: After having his buttons pushed a little too often, Hopper contrives a reason involving Mike's grandmother to get him alone in the car, ostensibly to take him home but ''clearly'' so that he can pull some of this. In Hopper's defense, and to his credit, he actually made a genuine effort to be calm, reasonable and patient with the two and speak to them respectfully on their level about his discomfort with the situation, but Mike made the mistake of getting a bit cocky and disrespectful. In Mike's defense, when he called Hopper out a bit ''too'' strongly for ''lying'', it's quite possible that he was alluding to at least one occasion that put him through a year of misery and another occasion that risked his ''life'' with the government agents... Another point in Mike's defense is the nature of Hopper's lie, [[AdultFear that something happened to Mike's grandmother]], and that evoking ''that'' kind of fear just for the sake of this trope goes a bit too far.

* MakeoutKids: Teen hormones coupled with making up for nearly a year's separation added with summer break mean Mike and Eleven are having some heavy make-out sessions, much to Hopper's increasing frustration.

* SickeninglySweethearts: Even leaving aside Hopper's frustration with the near-constant making out, Mike and Eleven have clearly reached the point in their relationship where their all-consuming fixation on each other is starting to annoy their friends a bit; when they make up a lame excuse to ditch Dustin's homecoming because of Eleven's "curfew", Dustin is clearly a bit hurt by this and Lucas and Will irritatedly gripe that they've been like that all summer. The sole outlier is Max, who thinks their behavior is romantic.

Lucas and Max also have a good relationship, and Dustin, upon returning from summer camp, reveals that he also now has a girlfriend named Suzy, who lives in Utah. He asks the party to go with him on an expedition to outskirts of Hawkins to set up a radio antenna, so he can talk with her over the radio he constructed at the science camp and formally introduce her to the party.

But near the fourth of July, things start to go south. Hopper feels that Mike and Eleven are spending too much time together. He seeks advice from Joyce, who encourages him to talk it out politely with the young couple. But when they don't respond respectfully to his attempt to do this, he takes Mike aside and scares him into backing off. What's worse, while Dustin's new radio fails to contact Suzy, it does pick up a Soviet broadcast that seems ''very'' close by... and Will senses of something wrong have been acting up again...especially whenever he's in Starcourt Mall.