I don't need a letter, I don't want a letter. Just talk to me, to your friends. We're right here, I'm right here."

As part of an "agreement" with Dr. Brenner to gain passage through the Gate, Hopper revealed El and the boys' location to laboratory officials. Agents broke into the school, capturing El and the boys. Eleven killed most of the agents, crushing their brains and making them bleed to death, however, this "drained" her of energy and strength, causing her to collapse. Without her protection they were recaptured; but the Monster, attracted by pools of blood spilling from dead bodies, burst through the school wall via a temporary portal. In "The Bite", he is shown to have an acquired taste for New Coke, much to the disgust of his friends. But all of the little niggles are easily overlooked as the nostalgia and Stranger Things theme totally wins the day. This is the kind of retro gift that adults are going to love just as much as the teens!!! Seeing that the Mind Flayer was headed toward the cabin, the group prepared for battle. In the assault, the Mind Flayer grabbed El by the leg with one of his tentacles. After Lucas freed El from the creature’s grasp with an axe, El severed the Mind Flayer’s head in half, temporarily incapacitating him and allowing the group to escape.Another thing that makes Stranger Things feel so incredibly authentic to its era is how it works its product placement into the actual story (see, for example, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Reese’s Pieces). Here, it’s Jif peanut butter, which was almost ubiquitous in the ’80s for its ad campaign which promised that “choosy moms choose Jif,” implying that if you were buying your kids Skippy then maybe we should be dropping a dime on you to social services or something. And if anyone is a “choosy mom” it is Joyce! Pulp Fiction Later, as Lucas rode his bike home with Dustin and Mike, Dustin had noticed a car speeding up towards them so Lucas and his friends tried to ride their bikes as fast they can until the car suddenly swerved to the other lane to avoid collision with the boys. As Lucas and his friends recovered, he and his friends saw that Max was in the car with her stepbrother, Billy Hargrove.

The next day, Lucas and Dustin noticed Mike wasn't at school, since he was at home to accommodate El. After school, Dustin and Lucas came to Mike's house, discussing Eleven and what could have happened to Will. Lucas said that they should tell Karen about Eleven, but El used her telekinesis to prevent him from opening the door to leave. Later that evening, El attempted to explain Will's situation; she flipped their Dungeons & Dragons board upside down, on top of which she placed Will's player piece and then the Demogorgon piece. This gave Lucas, Mike and Dustin a vital clue as they continued to theorize about what happened to Will. Having the 4 different light modes adds to the fun. With certain modes suiting certain templates more. The flashing mode was the most annoying and we tended to like white light and rotating flash the best for the templates we used. Owens takes El to Nevada, where she’s forced to confront her past, while the Hawkins kids comb a crumbling house for clues. Vecna claims another victim.” Madonna Lucas' karate-themed outfit that he wears from "E Pluribus Unum" to "The Battle of Starcourt" was inspired by 1984's The Karate Kid, a film Max loves due to having a crush on Ralph Macchio. Yuri likens Hopper to Steve McQueen “The Cooler King”. This is referring to McQueen’s classic character Virgil Hilts from The Great Escape about an American who never stopped trying to escape a German prison camp. Billy Hargrove’s GraveAs the group were waiting in the bus, they suddenly heard a screeching sound. The sound's source was revealed to Interestingly, Billy’s grave reads as his full name “William Hargrove” and not “Billy Hargrove.” This is significant because in the first full trailer for season 4, there were shots featuring both the William and Billy spellings, suggesting one of them could have been as part of a dream sequence. Ponch and John The next day at school, Lucas told Max the false story on how Will had gone missing in the woods and was believed to be dead last year due to a dead body of a boy that looked similar to Will being found in the Sattler Quarry. Though Max was not convinced of the story, Lucas assured her that it was true and told her to not ask Will about it as he is very sensitive about it, which Max agreed to. Eddie’s introduction is sandwiched by a pair of menacing songs from the Cramps’ 1980 album Songs the Lord Taught Us. Is “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” its name taken from a 1957 movie starring Michael Landon, some kind of clue? (Probably not, but it’s a cool song.)