Stranger Things Season 5 Review: Did the Finale Stick the Landing?

After nearly a decade of Demogorgons, government conspiracies, psychic children, and synth-heavy nostalgia, Stranger Things has finally come to an end. Season 5 arrived with enormous expectations: it had to wrap up a sprawling mythology, resolve long-running character arcs, and deliver an emotionally satisfying conclusion to one of Netflix’s flagship shows.

So the big question is simple: did it work?

This Stranger Things Season 5 review with special guest Rik Carranza takes a clear-eyed look at what the final season gets right, where it stumbles, and whether it ultimately earns its place in the show’s legacy.

A Season Built on Payoff, Not Mystery

Unlike earlier seasons, Stranger Things Season 5 is not interested in slow-burn mystery. There’s no question about what the Upside Down is, who the villain is, or what’s at stake. Vecna is fully established, Hawkins is broken, and the characters are living with the consequences of everything that’s come before.

This makes Season 5 feel more like a direct continuation of Season 4’s finale than a standalone chapter. For some viewers, that’s a strength — the story moves quickly, the tone is urgent, and the stakes are clear. For others, it removes some of the intrigue that made the early seasons so compelling.

The upside: the show knows exactly what it’s doing.
The downside: there’s very little room to breathe.

Character Arcs: Strong Moments, Uneven Focus

One of the highlights of this Stranger Things Season 5 review is the cast’s continued commitment. Even when the writing falters, the performances remain strong across the board.

• Eleven continues to carry the emotional core of the show, though her arc feels more about resolution than growth.

• Hopper and Joyce finally get their emotional payoff, and for many viewers, Joyce’s role in the climax feels well-earned.

• Dustin once again proves to be one of the show’s most consistent and emotionally grounded characters

• Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan suffer the most from overcrowding — too many characters, not enough narrative space.

A common criticism is that Season 5 is reluctant to make hard choices. Several characters feel like they’re positioned for major consequences that never fully materialise, which slightly undercuts the sense of danger.

Vecna and the Villain Problem

Vecna remains an effective antagonist, but Season 5 leans heavily into making him a fully realised “final boss.” While this brings clarity, it also simplifies the horror.

Earlier seasons thrived on ambiguity — the fear of the unknown, the suggestion that something larger and more incomprehensible was at work. By the end, Vecna is understandable, personal, and beatable.

That’s not necessarily bad, but it does shift Stranger Things away from cosmic horror and toward a more conventional blockbuster ending.

Tone and Pacing: Ambitious, Sometimes Bloated

If there’s one consistent issue raised in discussions and reviews, it’s pacing. Season 5 has big ideas and emotional beats, but it occasionally struggles with overlong scenes and repeated themes.

There are moments of genuine tension and beauty — particularly in character interactions — but also stretches where the story feels like it’s circling points it’s already made.

This makes the finale feel slightly overstuffed. It’s not that the show doesn’t know how to end — it’s that it wants to say goodbye several times over.

Does Stranger Things Season 5 Stick the Landing?

So, does it work?

In this Stranger Things Season 5 review, the most honest answer is: mostly.

The finale delivers emotional closure, strong performances, and a sense that the creators cared deeply about these characters. It may not be as bold or ruthless as some fans hoped, but it avoids the worst pitfalls of rushed or cynical endings.

Not every thread is perfect. Not every choice will satisfy everyone. But the heart of the show — friendship, sacrifice, and growing up — remains intact.

Final Verdict

Stranger Things Season 5 doesn’t reinvent the series, and it doesn’t fully recapture the magic of Season 1. What it does do is provide a sincere, if occasionally messy, farewell to a world that has meant a lot to its audience.

For a show that grew far bigger than anyone expected, that might be enough.

Rating: A solid, emotional send-off that lands more often than it misses.

Chapters

00:00Introduction and Team Introductions

05:52 What Worked in Season 5?

13:08 Character Arcs and Emotional Moments

18:59 Episode Highlights and Overall Impressions

23:01 Character Reactions and Emotional Stakes

26:32 Max’s Decision-Making in High-Stakes Situations

30:25 Plot Devices and Audience Engagement

34:14 Comparing to Other Series: Lost and Its Impact

38:36 Plot Holes and Character Continuity

43:17 Nerd Induction and Nostalgia

48:49 Character Resurrections and Their Implications

51:38 Expectations vs. Reality in Storytelling

53:31 Conclusions and Reflections on the Series

54:25 Nancy’s Cold-Blooded Actions

55:11 Aging Actors and Character Realism

56:33 Reflections on Aging and Nostalgia

57:56 Missed Opportunities in Season Five

01:04:07 Character Development and Redemption

01:05:20 Final Thoughts on Season Five

01:08:37 Reflections on Stranger Things Season 5

01:11:25 Nostalgia and the 80s Aesthetic

01:13:20 Character Dynamics and Relationships

01:15:03 The Impact of Music and Culture

01:19:35 Trivia and Fun Moments

01:20:51 The Chemical Behind the Sensory Deprivation Tank

01:21:21 Media References and Trivia

01:22:36 Dungeons & Dragons and Eddie Munson

01:23:43 Max’s Escape and Iconic Music

01:24:39 Atari and Nostalgia in Gaming

01:26:30 Merchandise and Cultural References

01:27:26 Satanic Panic and Personal Stories

01:30:02 Closing Thoughts and Future Plans

01:32:31 outro (1).mp4

TRANSCRIPT

Cal MacD (00:00.993)
Okay, good evening and happy new year everyone. Welcome to Ocast, your island gateway to all things geek. And we've got a pretty stacked roster of folks here too. Well, everyone's got opinions on what we're about to talk about Stranger Things Season 5. So I'll quickly go around my team. I'll go in order of the veterans first. So Ciaran, what's happening with you?

MacFuz (00:23.778)
it's New Year. Jeez. I didn't notice. Yeah, not much. Just had a fun game of D &D today and just looking forward to sharing our opinions about Stranger Things Season 5.

Rik (00:26.631)
Yeah.

Graeme (00:26.662)
Ha ha ha!

Heather (00:28.37)
you

Cal MacD (00:38.362)
Yes, there's opinions, there's much opinions tonight. Graham, what's up?

Graeme (00:40.581)
you

Not a lot. New year, new podcast, new things to talk about and probably new complaints. Spoilers.

Cal MacD (00:48.953)
Yeah.

And Heather, what's happening with you Heather apart from looking extremely cold there?

Heather (00:58.578)
Just spent all day counting stock and putting Christmas decorations away. So glad to be doing something that's not numbers.

Cal MacD (01:09.785)
Oh, it's getting the opinions sharpened and ready to go. That's what we're doing. And first time, Emily, what's happening with you?

Rik (01:09.843)
you

Emily McEwan (01:13.804)
Thank

Yeah, good. Thanks for having me. Tapalee'v'Gamoad. And it's exciting to be here. Yeah. So I'm Michelle. I'm in Canada. I'm in Alla'panu'wag. I'm here in Nova Scotia, Canada, joining and excited to talk about Stranger Things Season 5 and all the ways it's traumatized us.

Cal MacD (01:23.241)
clever.

MacFuz (01:39.938)
Hahaha

Rik (01:39.972)
hahahaha

Cal MacD (01:39.993)
And again, a familiar face if you've been to Ocon and we finally back, I think it's been a year I've been chasing you Rick and we finally got you on. How are you doing Rick? You've graced us with your presence.

Emily McEwan (01:49.378)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:50.867)
Hahaha!

Emily McEwan (01:52.169)
Alright.

Rik (01:52.615)
Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm good. mean, I'm surprised you managed to get me so well done on you. but no, I know I'm, I'm good. New year has happened. but I, I thought we were talking about the game of Thrones last season. didn't realize we're talking about stranger things.

Graeme (01:58.354)
you

Cal MacD (01:58.635)
Yes. Good.

Cal MacD (02:07.513)
Oh, well, it's something the internet is upset about. So same thing. You can just take this take the same complaints and just switch the words around a little bit. So then you got it. And also, you're in competition with who is a Dez or Rick is the more Okon or Okast person, because I counted it. Rick's done two Okon hosting Dez has done one.

Emily McEwan (02:12.251)
Hehehehehe

Graeme (02:18.194)
you

Emily McEwan (02:18.636)
hahahahah

MacFuz (02:20.503)
You

Rik (02:21.586)
Really.

Rik (02:34.077)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (02:36.323)
Des has done three old casts and Rick's got his soul. There's a battle going on there. We'll see who wins this over the year. It's a bloody battle, I'm sure, to be seen.

MacFuz (02:39.64)
Hmm.

Wow.

Rik (02:46.897)
Next, next cash. You'll see him. He's got like a bloody nose and he's just like, nothing's why do you keep looking up? Why do keep looking off screen? Des, no reason, no reason.

MacFuz (02:49.512)
hahahaha

Emily McEwan (02:49.686)
you

Cal MacD (02:49.785)
Because yourself and Dad's just...

MacFuz (02:54.124)
Is that with or-

Emily McEwan (02:55.937)
Ahem.

MacFuz (02:58.761)
Hahaha!

Cal MacD (02:58.937)
So as we said, we're here to talk about Stranger Things Season 5. So I'll just quickly go around everyone and I think it's going to be the same order if my memory is not so terrible. So just a quick question. Did it stick the landing? Kieran?

Graeme (02:59.399)
Ha ha.

MacFuz (03:15.852)
Ooh, 50-50.

Cal MacD (03:18.603)
All right.

MacFuz (03:22.368)
Yeah, I'd say it went for the landing skidded and then fell over.

Cal MacD (03:29.241)
So a bit like a Loganair flight really. So Graham, did it stick the landing for you? that's emphatic. Heather, did it stick the landing for you?

Rik (03:29.443)
Hahahahah

Emily McEwan (03:32.824)
You

MacFuz (03:33.676)
Yeah.

Graeme (03:39.192)
No it did not. It did not stick the landing for me.

Heather (03:45.714)
And it did two days ago. And I am there like sitting thinking on it.

MacFuz (03:49.132)
Hahaha

Heather (03:54.77)
This could have been better. That could have been better. It did try.

MacFuz (03:54.804)
It tried!

Cal MacD (03:58.209)
Yeah. Emily, did it stick the landing for you?

Emily McEwan (04:01.656)
I'm going to agree with Kieran. It's like that Delta flight at Toronto Airport last year. Yeah, hit the runway, skidded, flipped. But everybody got out safely, so we'll call it a win.

MacFuz (04:10.041)
god, Delta.

Cal MacD (04:11.545)
Right?

MacFuz (04:16.075)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (04:17.945)
So Rick, did it stick the landing and what flight are you comparing it to?

Rik (04:22.791)
Well, I'm going to take issue with you comparing it to Loganera. At least on Loganera, I got like a caramel. Like I got like some snacks, you know, like I was quite happy on that flight.

Cal MacD (04:26.126)
Yeah

Yeah. But like Logan here, stranger things cost multiple, multiple amounts of money per minute. It's actually in operation.

Heather (04:30.534)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (04:31.926)
You did get a ton of X yet.

Rik (04:41.331)
I I walked out, I walked out, I finished watching, yeah, I walked out my own house in disgust. Went to the front, give me my money back for that note. I finished watching it with the same feeling that I had after watching Rise of Skywalker. That's what I'm gonna say.

Cal MacD (04:50.329)
Abandon your family and everything that discusses.

MacFuz (04:50.446)
That's it, I'm gone, I've had enough.

Graeme (04:50.802)
At 4 o'clock in the morning on New Year's Day.

Heather (04:54.962)
You

Cal MacD (04:59.353)
You

MacFuz (05:06.062)
Graeme (05:06.14)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (05:06.386)
Cal MacD (05:07.161)
Whoa, dun dun dun.

MacFuz (05:10.42)
a good one. I'd probably prefer a Stranger Things finale compared to Rise of Skywalker.

Rik (05:16.957)
no, hundred percent. like, I felt like when I walked out of Rise of Skywalker, was like, initially going, that was brilliant fun. Like I enjoyed, there was so many good bits. And then I realized it was good bits, but like literally held together with like used sellotape. Like it was just the stuff connecting it just didn't make any sense. And there was like the very little story and it was really badly done. And I just, yeah, a lot of fan service.

MacFuz (05:25.869)
Hmm.

MacFuz (05:34.626)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (05:38.26)
Okay.

MacFuz (05:40.802)
Yeah, fun service.

Cal MacD (05:41.23)
Right.

Emily McEwan (05:44.098)
Mm.

Rik (05:45.339)
And well, actually, you say fan service, I still think they fell short of fan service as well in some things. So I don't know. Yeah.

MacFuz (05:49.531)
I mean they had to wedge Antilles as a gunner and not a pilot.

Cal MacD (05:50.777)
Yeah.

Rik (05:55.547)
Hmm. Yep. Yep. That's just wrong.

Cal MacD (05:56.633)
So with that, I'll probably go to Rick first. So what did you like about it then? We'll start off there. and start the new year off in a positive vibe as hard as we can.

Emily McEwan (06:01.368)
Thank

Rik (06:09.839)
I like that we're not going to have to put up with Eddie Munson fans for a much longer. No, I'm joking. No, no, no, no. love Eddie Munson. No, listen, there was, as I said, it was full of set pieces that I thought were like visually amazing and like really got me like the final fight between sort of Vekna, but more so the

Cal MacD (06:14.745)
Look at that, you just, Heather's gonna go home.

Emily McEwan (06:14.917)
Emily McEwan (06:20.459)
Them's fighting words!

Cal MacD (06:24.023)
Ha ha.

Rik (06:37.447)
The, guys getting together and fighting the mind flayer was a phenomenal sequence. really, really liked that. I, Max's character, I kind of liked her arc a little bit, even though there was gaping holes in sort of what was going on there. I kind of liked that. There was, Holly, thought was brilliant. she was, she was fantastic. her, character arc in the season was really, really good. so there was, there was stuff to like. I'm glad that.

MacFuz (06:56.61)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (07:01.367)
Okay.

Rik (07:06.995)
I don't have to watch it again. That's the one thing that I like.

MacFuz (07:10.603)
Hahaha

Cal MacD (07:12.793)
So anyone else want to chip in with good buds?

MacFuz (07:15.754)
Okay, well, yeah, Holly, she was a fantastic addition. She's introduced originally as just Mike and Nancy's little sister. And then she just comes out her own in the final season, almost manages to break out. And ironically enough, if Vecna hadn't pulled her back in, she would have spluttered all over the ground.

Rik (07:22.067)
Mmm.

Cal MacD (07:41.273)
Yep.

Rik (07:42.099)
Thank

MacFuz (07:43.05)
So we have to thank Vecna for that, unfortunately.

Cal MacD (07:47.949)
Are you just about to go, is Vecna misunderstood, Kieran? Is this where you're heading now?

MacFuz (07:53.518)
Emily McEwan (07:54.516)
Thank

MacFuz (07:56.75)
I mean, I appreciate that they put like a little tragic backstory to him because one thing about that you need to do with villains, especially really good villains, is give them a backstory or at least a goal or reason why they do the things they do or why they are the way they are. And sometimes it's nice to have a nice good old Saturday day cartoon villain. Vector's not one of those.

Cal MacD (07:57.101)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (07:57.931)
you

MacFuz (08:24.64)
It's nice kind of seeing how he got his powers, I guess, and seeing that there's one thing, one memory that he desperately avoided until he was pushed far enough to go through with it and experience those memories again. But I would prefer the idea that Vecna was still the number one bad guy. don't, I mean, the battle with the mind flayer at the end was

Rik (08:28.819)
Hmm.

Emily McEwan (08:49.473)
Mmm.

MacFuz (08:54.318)
Pretty cool. Don't get me wrong. And Nancy was just went full Rambo mixed in with Ripley from Alien. And, but the, yeah, exactly. So was just all these, all these awesome female leads just bonded up into just this awesome young lassie. Fucking awesome. But the mind flayer as the main big bad behind the scenes is a bit anticlimactic.

Emily McEwan (09:00.947)
mixed in with tribute to Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor too, which was a nice touch. Yeah.

Rik (09:03.795)
16 with tribute to Linda Hamilton.

MacFuz (09:24.718)
If they just stuck with Vecna that probably would have been good. You don't need to have, aw but he's being manipulated by the mind flayer who's being manipulated by Jasmine from down the road.

Emily McEwan (09:25.721)
Thank

Emily McEwan (09:39.064)
So I thought for positives, I'm gonna go zoom in on fine details that, well, Holly, of course, yes, Holly was fantastic. And Derek, we actually loved because you know, you know that you knew somebody like that in your school. And for me, the Derek guy was the guy who sat behind me in band and played trumpet and would empty a...

MacFuz (09:49.486)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (09:54.295)
YES! Yeah.

Rik (09:54.655)
yes, yes, yes.

MacFuz (09:55.022)
yes,

Cal MacD (09:55.066)
yes. Yes.

Emily McEwan (10:06.881)
spit valve on my head. So I was just totally like, yes, I know that guy. And then, but apart from that, like smaller details that were positive, big positives for me, the mom rage. As a mom who feels the rage, I loved the mom rage. You know, Joyce, as always, and then of course, Joyce's final, which my kid had said, why don't think she would

MacFuz (10:23.264)
Yes. Yes.

Heather (10:24.274)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (10:24.327)
Yeah. Yeah.

MacFuz (10:29.142)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (10:35.531)
getting frustrated with why don't they just chop up his head you've got to actually chop off his head got off his head to make him really finally fully truly done and then lo and behold Joyce with the axe going on her back does the job so that was very that was

MacFuz (10:43.244)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (10:48.494)
When?

Rik (10:50.543)
Yeah.

Rik (10:54.663)
like so many shows have not learned from Shaun of the Dead.

Emily McEwan (10:55.113)
Yeah, right. Exactly. Right. So they so they did that and and the mom rage and and Karen Wheeler's mom rage as well was magnificent. mean, never mind that the shockwave from the from that oxygen tank would have toasted all their internal organs. Never mind that. But but no, that was just that was fantastic. So I loved the mom rage that was that was very, very satisfying. The other thing

Cal MacD (10:58.027)
Yeah, double tap.

Heather (10:58.14)
Yes!

MacFuz (11:10.392)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (11:19.554)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (11:23.287)
That was very satisfying for me as a Gen Xer was the music which continued to be fantastic as well. When they played Cowboy Junkies, Sweet Jane there, and it was like, I haven't heard that song since the 90s, since the early 90s. my God. Of course, David Bowie's Heroes and all the other, everything else. Like they were all just perfectly placed, perfectly used.

MacFuz (11:30.893)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (11:31.016)
Mm.

Rik (11:45.267)
You

MacFuz (11:46.318)
You

yeah.

Heather (11:50.898)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (11:52.979)
And then going right along with that, there was a lot of product placement in this one and it was kind of intrusive, but overall they still really nailed all of the, everything, the set dressing, the furniture, the clothing, the food, all of it, the products, everything you saw in the background, all of it. Like as somebody who is basically the same age as the kid protagonists, they just,

nailed it like perfectly. I grew up in the Midwest in Illinois, which is next to Indiana where it's set and my God, they just like, and they changed each year it developed. you know, each, so I know, okay, this is, we're talking about S5 today, but like S1, two, three, four, you know, the stuff, was like the products that people were using. But they also had it like, yes, this was the furniture left over from the seventies that everybody's houses was still furnished with because you didn't refurnish your house every five years.

Rik (12:27.315)
you

MacFuz (12:39.822)
Which is cool.

Emily McEwan (12:52.214)
and the brown and all the brown wood paneling and everything. So that was all just absolutely perfect. And it was so emotional for me to see it all because it reminded me of, you know, my house and my friend's houses and the clothes we wore. like even going back to season one, the dress that Elle wore that they dug out like Nancy's old little kid dress for her to wear.

Rik (12:54.375)
Mmm.

Rik (13:02.664)
MacFuz (13:22.446)
Mm.

Emily McEwan (13:22.454)
I had that dress, not in pale pink, but in red. It was a real dress. I had that dress at the time that Nancy would have worn it as a little girl. And then they were like digging it out as hand-me-down clothes to give to Al in 1983. And it was like, oh, that was brilliant. And they just kept that up. Now, I didn't love the product placement as much, but we can talk about that later. Anyway, yeah, so those are some of the positives, I think, for me.

Cal MacD (13:24.377)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (13:31.509)
It's

Cal MacD (13:55.737)
Okay, who's up next? Heather, we'll go with you if you've got spoken in a while.

Heather (13:59.698)
Top of my list is Karen Effing Wheeler. I was just like, when she grabbed, she was like, what are you on about? What are you on about? Saw the Demogorgon come through the bathroom and she was like, hell no. And just grabbed Holly. And then just, yeah, that scene with the oxygen tank. okay, yeah, she probably couldn't like, you know, pulled herself out of bed, blah, blah. It's a sci-fi show, who kinda cares?

MacFuz (14:02.254)
Yes.

Rik (14:03.965)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (14:04.153)
Right?

MacFuz (14:15.507)
Yeah.

MacFuz (14:21.997)
Aw yeah.

Heather (14:27.804)
But that scene where you see the oxygen tank and you're like, go on. that like, I was like, yeah. I also really appreciated Elle's first outfit, you know, when it's Goonies. Did anybody else pick up on that? Yeah. I really appreciated that. Like Goonie holds a lot of memories for me. My mum kind of showed it to me when I was really little and it became like my favourite childhood film. And that.

Rik (14:28.403)
Yeah.

MacFuz (14:30.638)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (14:33.23)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (14:45.301)
yeah. Yeah.

Rik (14:46.834)
Yeah.

Heather (14:59.234)
That, yeah, I know, I'm a baby. Mum, yeah, so mum showed me that when I was a kid and then that kind of really stood out for me. like, Nancy going full Rambo as well and her outfit kind of reflecting that as well. I really appreciated the costumes and stuff. Yeah.

MacFuz (14:59.436)
Hahaha

MacFuz (15:15.191)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (15:24.441)
Alright, uh, go to you, Grimm. What did you like? Because you are a very emphatic know about this, but there's gotta be some good in it for it.

Emily McEwan (15:54.662)
god, I forgot about that one.

Rik (16:08.851)
you

Emily McEwan (16:25.332)
It was so freaking brown.

Rik (16:26.675)
100 % agree.

Cal MacD (16:27.63)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (16:32.153)
Yeah.

Rik (16:33.207)
so much. Every TV had wood paneling. my God.

Emily McEwan (16:34.428)
Everything I would paneling our dishwasher everything for wood paneling

MacFuz (16:36.459)
you

Cal MacD (16:37.719)
Everything I would pile in here.

Rik (16:41.233)
Yeah. There is, there is a picture from my childhood of my dad putting up wood paneling.

Emily McEwan (16:46.415)
Bye.

Cal MacD (16:48.377)
You

Rik (16:55.123)
Mmm.

Cal MacD (16:55.693)
Hahaha

Heather (17:11.687)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (17:11.906)
Okay, yeah.

Rik (17:16.275)
Hmm.

Heather (17:16.626)
Yeah, think I actually, sorry. I had that on my list when Dustin and his, with his graduation, when you see what Eddie says about graduation, he goes, I'm going to walk that stage next month. I'm going to look Principal Higgins dead in the eye. I'm going to flip him in the bird. I'm going to snatch into Pona. We're going to run like hell. And that's exactly what Dustin did. And I loved it.

Cal MacD (17:18.425)
I'm going to carry on Heather.

Cal MacD (17:27.447)
It's...

MacFuz (17:27.926)
Yeah.

MacFuz (17:37.486)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (17:37.622)
Thank

Rik (17:38.641)
And then one up on that as well, where the girl comes home and says, what you did was really cool. Come and join the party. Which is again, calling back to when he was like, come dance with me. Yeah. That was like, love that. Yeah.

Emily McEwan (17:42.656)
Yeah, yeah.

Heather (17:44.346)
Yeah! Yeah! In the sixth. End of first season, yeah.

Cal MacD (17:51.735)
I'm going to go with Dustin here and his trauma from Eddie's death. I think he's one of the few characters who actually had a proper bit of an arc through this. how he was, know, something we can all relate to when we have a trauma or a loss and we try to do that with protect ourselves by pushing, and what he was doing with Steve was pushing away the one person who was really looking out for him. And that moment where he finally confesses to Steve what's going on. And it just wasn't enough of that stuff.

MacFuz (17:57.271)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (17:57.955)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (18:02.892)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Heather (18:14.162)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (18:21.933)
which we'll come to in another scene. It should have been a personal moment, but everybody gathered for some reason. I think we know the one.

Heather (18:25.136)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (18:28.934)
Yeah.

MacFuz (18:29.294)
I'm

Cal MacD (18:30.817)
And something related to the show, Elon Musk got upset over an episode which made me love it even more, even though... Yes.

Emily McEwan (18:33.937)
Thank

Heather (18:36.23)
I didn't see that.

Rik (18:37.395)
I have to visit America soon, so I'm not going to say anything bad here.

Emily McEwan (18:38.927)
Hehehehehe

Cal MacD (18:43.353)
haha

Heather (18:43.567)
You

MacFuz (18:43.657)
Yeah

Emily McEwan (18:48.664)
Thank

Rik (18:51.379)
Yeah, yeah, Donald Trump is great. No, wait.

Heather (18:51.583)
Hahaha!

MacFuz (18:51.63)
you

Cal MacD (18:51.896)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (18:52.486)
that's you flagged the algorithm now. dear.

Cal MacD (18:54.905)
Yes.

MacFuz (18:56.765)
Don't take that out of context.

you

Cal MacD (19:00.631)
Yes, that's it.

MacFuz (19:04.728)
No.

Rik (19:05.171)
No, no, no, no, wait, no, it'll help, it'll help, yes.

Heather (19:05.72)
You

MacFuz (19:10.702)
That orange tint is not a tan.

Cal MacD (19:11.213)
Yes, we've all... Yeah, well, we can only go up. We already enraged Tom Cruise fans with one of our clips. So the only way is to go to the president next. So, yeah, I don't know if you've seen that clip on Instagram, Rick. We had Jeff Pruitt, the Buffy stunt coordinator was on. And he called out Tom Cruise for claiming he does his own stunts and he says, don't do that. And that reel exploded the next day.

Rik (19:13.927)
Yeah,

Rik (19:21.523)
Amazing,

No, no.

Heather (19:27.483)
It's hilarious.

Rik (19:30.652)
Amazing. Yep.

Cal MacD (19:40.725)
Literally so many Tom Cruise fans go, no he does his own stuff, he does. Tom Cruise said he did it so why would Tom Cruise lie about anything ever?

MacFuz (19:49.454)
You

He's a sign tallest he speaks the truth clearly

Cal MacD (19:55.085)
Yes.

Cal MacD (20:02.521)
So probably next thing, any episode in particular, it's always difficult for me to pick out Stranger Things episodes because it's like such a long continue. Was it a single episode that stood out or?

Heather (20:16.592)
I think the first one was pretty strong. Like that whole set up like, hey look, does Will have powers? look, he can do this, this and that. And at that moment I went, Calum, Calum, Will's got powers, slapping him next to me. And he's like, shut up, like leave me alone, why are you hitting me? And

MacFuz (20:18.286)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (20:19.203)
Yeah.

Rik (20:26.056)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (20:29.269)
You

MacFuz (20:29.603)
Yes.

Cal MacD (20:31.257)
Do you know what?

MacFuz (20:37.846)
You

Emily McEwan (20:41.941)
you

Cal MacD (20:42.125)
This just means we want to see how that in column reaction videos now after hearing this.

Rik (20:42.705)
Yeah, I think I-

Emily McEwan (20:45.023)
That would be good.

MacFuz (20:46.766)
Yeah.

Heather (20:46.802)
And I think it was Will's really important bit where Will develops that friendship with Robin that's so integral to the scene that we like but we don't like at the same time, yeah.

Rik (20:47.533)
Uh-huh-huh-huh.

Cal MacD (20:52.482)
Yes.

MacFuz (21:01.634)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (21:02.349)
Yes.

Cal MacD (21:09.529)
Yes, shall we just talk about that scene then? I think we all know Will's coming out scene, which I understand why it's there, I like it, but its execution and setup leaves a lot to be desired, I think.

Emily McEwan (21:19.349)
How so? How so? Okay.

MacFuz (21:23.917)
Yeah

Rik (21:24.925)
think it, think my-

Cal MacD (21:27.967)
See for me it's just why is everybody there? Why is like yeah why is like Kali must be going who are all these people who's this person like what's like for me that should have been like see Dustin and Steve when they had it should have been like maybe Will, Mike, Jonathan and his mum and it would have been yeah like I said it would have had so much more impact it's just everybody in the room it's just

Rik (21:29.915)
Rik (21:38.033)
Yeah

Cal MacD (21:57.939)
Yeah, I just found.

Heather (21:59.173)
think it does kind of address it where it's it's you know Vecna's using it against him and the because he's so just like nobody's going to accept me and that's his whole group is everybody there his family and I think that's why they do it I just feel like the me too me too I'm like why

Cal MacD (22:02.019)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (22:11.701)
Thank

you

Cal MacD (22:18.155)
Yes.

MacFuz (22:20.27)
Yeah.

Rik (22:21.299)
I think my issue of it is not to do with like what it was. I mean, like the end of the day, think it was, I think it was a good thing to have in there. And I think it was important and I think it needed to be set done. yeah. But my, my, my, my issues to do with like the whole thing in this season and like a big part of my issue with this whole season is like everything is like, we have to do this thing really quickly, but we're going to spend 10 minutes talking about our feelings.

Heather (22:25.138)
yeah

Cal MacD (22:27.725)
Yeah. And it was set up as well, despite what the internet believes.

Emily McEwan (22:39.412)
Mm.

Emily McEwan (22:45.171)
Yeah.

MacFuz (22:45.966)
Yeah.

Heather (22:46.354)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rik (22:50.213)
And then, like, Max is another... Max is another... There's the exit. There's the exit. We have to get to the exit really, really quickly. You see the exit over there? We have to get to it really quickly. We have to go, but we have to go... But it's really quick.

MacFuz (22:51.95)
you

Heather (22:52.442)
MAX!

Cal MacD (22:53.101)
we're gonna bring this up to max.

MacFuz (22:56.546)
Thank you.

Emily McEwan (22:57.117)
My whole family was screaming at Max to like, run! You're supposed to run! All of us were just screaming at the TV.

Cal MacD (23:01.335)
This is how you get to the exit. This is how you exit.

MacFuz (23:04.382)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (23:06.944)
Sit.

Rik (23:07.357)
But it's like, and.

MacFuz (23:08.974)
Yeah, same here. Myself and the wife were just like, Come on! Go!

Rik (23:13.361)
So it's like, this whole season was like supposed to be like, there was supposed to be this sort of like danger and everything's supposed to happen really, really quickly. And it just felt that like, for me, that moment wasn't bad per se in terms of like what it was doing. It was bad in terms of pacing. It killed the pacing at that moment in time. And it just killed that episode for me. in terms, just cause like suddenly I was like, okay, yeah, exactly. And I felt this is one of my biggest issues with this season is that.

MacFuz (23:19.704)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (23:20.217)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (23:28.031)
another expository.

Heather (23:28.839)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (23:30.231)
Yeah, like I said.

Rik (23:40.367)
Somehow, not only is it badly written, it's overwritten. Like, they have to over explain and overemphasize everything.

MacFuz (23:43.64)
Mmm.

Heather (23:43.858)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (23:44.142)
Yep.

MacFuz (23:49.645)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (23:50.051)
think that's what happens when it takes like, so three years it took to make the season or something. It was ridiculous. What's that? Jeez. my goodness.

Emily McEwan (23:50.325)
Jesus.

MacFuz (23:54.114)
Yeah, yeah.

Heather (23:54.576)
Yeah, yeah it was our first talk on that it came out. That's how long ago it was, yeah.

MacFuz (23:59.916)
Yeah, was meant to be 2024 it was meant to come out or was that season form thinking of?

Emily McEwan (24:06.109)
huh.

Cal MacD (24:11.982)
Yeah.

MacFuz (24:16.728)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (24:26.178)
Hmm.

Heather (24:27.004)
There we go.

Rik (24:29.533)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (24:30.918)
I I liked it, I'm, I, there's some things I can't say about why I liked it, but I did like it. But yeah, no, when you talk about it in the, I tend to not kind of notice pacing and things that much. I'd sort of let things wash over me. I'm maybe not as critical of a viewer sometimes, I think. so I just, the only thing that took me out of it and, and kind of spoiled it a little bit was

MacFuz (24:32.151)
Yeah, I-I-

Cal MacD (24:32.433)
So Emily, you said you liked the scene, did you? You don't have a problem with it?

Cal MacD (24:56.728)
Yeah.

Heather (24:57.298)
Mm.

Rik (24:57.939)
Hmm.

Emily McEwan (24:59.02)
I will agree with what other folks have said, like Murray was just standing there like a big lump and like had nothing to do. And that seemed like literally nothing to do. They didn't give him anything to do. And then Joyce was kind of a lump as well, I think, wasn't it? No, no, it wasn't her. No, yeah, it was because Jonathan was the only one who physically reacted. Right. And then Joyce was kind of a lump. And a lot of them were just lumps. They were sort of a nerd, like third wheel, fourth, fifth, sixth,

Rik (25:10.202)
Hahaha.

MacFuz (25:10.421)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (25:10.701)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (25:20.483)
Sheep.

MacFuz (25:24.973)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (25:25.012)
seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth wheel. yeah, I guess I suppose that did take me out of it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, waiting for a cue card. Yeah, unfortunately. So yeah, maybe that took me out of it a little bit, but on the whole, I liked it and I was really glad it was there. Okay, yeah. Maybe, yeah, I don't know. On the whole, I'm good. There were other worse things, way, way, way worse things to complain about, so.

Cal MacD (25:25.536)
Right.

Cal MacD (25:30.903)
Yeah. Well.

MacFuz (25:31.31)
Just waiting for a cue card.

Heather (25:31.996)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (25:36.813)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (25:52.007)
Okay, that that really that really was that was the thing. We were all up out of my seat like yelling at Max, especially because I emotionally needed Max to make it. I really, really needed that for my soul. And if we weren't going to have that, I was going to be extremely upset and possibly turn off the TV and boycott the rest of the episodes. I really was highly invested in Max making it because I was so

Rik (25:53.415)
Yep. Yep. Max, run for the exit! God damn it!

Cal MacD (25:53.529)
Yeah.

Heather (25:53.636)
Yeah.

MacFuz (25:57.811)
I got... yeah.

Heather (25:58.512)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (25:58.627)
Yes.

Cal MacD (26:02.84)
like.

MacFuz (26:12.238)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (26:12.531)
Mm.

Cal MacD (26:12.567)
Yeah.

Heather (26:13.052)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (26:22.04)
angry about what they did to her in season four. With the torture. It was torture. no, I didn't, I needed, I needed there to be a positive resolution to that. Just emotionally needed that right now in my life. So anyway.

MacFuz (26:23.264)
You

Cal MacD (26:23.789)
You are going to walk out the house.

MacFuz (26:32.93)
Yeah, it's horrible.

Cal MacD (26:33.529)
Yeah.

Rik (26:34.109)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (26:39.555)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (26:42.733)
Yeah

MacFuz (26:43.118)
It felt like you were trying to like, if you've got a train that you need to catch within the next, you know, half hour or less, you know, we need to get there, we need to get this, we need to get that, we need to go. You start going and then you spot a pub on halfway and just spend the rest of the day in there.

Heather (26:50.162)
Thank

Cal MacD (26:50.413)
Yeah

Emily McEwan (26:51.604)
You

I miss your flight or miss your train. Yeah. Yeah.

Rik (26:57.235)
I'm failing to see the problem here.

Cal MacD (26:59.488)
Thanks.

Man you.

Cal MacD (27:06.711)
Yep. And yeah, mind you, that there's an alternative. It's the length of time Max took was like going to the toilet in a Wetherspoons really, isn't it?

MacFuz (27:17.678)
Thank you.

Rik (27:18.035)
Yeah, down the mine, past the memories of Henry.

Heather (27:18.194)
By the time you climb all the way down the stairs, go round this corner, down that corridor, take a left!

MacFuz (27:22.924)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (27:23.213)
Yeah, yeah. There you go.

Emily McEwan (27:23.438)
I thought that was only the I thought that was only the weather spins out by the by the the climb zone and whatnot and and they're all like that okay jeez

Cal MacD (27:36.503)
No.

MacFuz (27:37.16)
It's every Wetherspoons. Yeah.

Heather (27:37.652)
no, it's everyone!

Rik (27:38.771)
Every weather spins. Yep.

Cal MacD (27:38.975)
Every weather spins.

So if you need to go in a Wetherspoons, you better time it so well or else you're in big trouble. That would be an ideal, if you're going to create an upside down hill dimension on Wetherspoons, that would have been a great setting for Stranger Things. Well.

MacFuz (27:47.086)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (27:49.522)
Yeah, definitely. I try not to go to them, but...

Yeah.

MacFuz (27:56.9)
Nothing else, no other, nothing else, just just Wetherspoons.

Rik (27:58.461)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cal MacD (28:00.919)
Yes, what better villain instead of Eichner than that guy that owns Weatherspins. I can't remember his name but he's a...

Emily McEwan (28:04.756)
No, thank you.

MacFuz (28:05.485)
Yeah.

Rik (28:06.461)
Yeah.

Heather (28:11.526)
But yeah, was when she was there and she was...

Cal MacD (28:11.544)
Right.

MacFuz (28:16.322)
fuck knows.

Cal MacD (28:17.785)
Alright, oh yeah. Right, Heather, get us back on to talking about stranger things like the thing we're here for.

Emily McEwan (28:18.26)
You

Rik (28:20.499)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Heather (28:26.114)
No, it was when Max was walking and we were like, why are you walking? What happened last time? What happened the last time? Why aren't you running immediately? Like, haven't you learnt? You've been stuck for two years and you're walking?

Emily McEwan (28:26.226)
Yes! Yes!

I

Emily McEwan (28:38.738)
I literally watched, I rewatched that scene. Yeah, yeah. I literally rewatched that scene last night because we're rewatching season four right now. And, and she ran, she ran like hell. And I was just like, why are we not running like hell? Yeah.

Cal MacD (28:39.021)
and

Cal MacD (28:44.609)
And not only that, they're playing running up a hill as well.

MacFuz (28:49.102)
You

MacFuz (28:56.615)
That was epic

Heather (29:01.554)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (29:01.985)
Well, maybe she's got a lot of like, well I tried that before. So this time what I'll do is I'll like do forward rolls or like this time I'm going to walk back a moonwalk backwards into the exit that that that Vector is just going, what is going on? I'll let you go. I'll let you go.

Cal MacD (29:07.948)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (29:10.964)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (29:11.009)
Yes, and I'll dab, dab and all that along the way.

Emily McEwan (29:13.62)
What's this? What do we?

Mmm.

MacFuz (29:16.75)
Have a gentle saunter.

Cal MacD (29:17.486)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (29:20.852)
Or could it be that she was reluctant and we didn't, did we not pick up on this? That she was like somehow scared to go back? No, no, it was just.

Rik (29:25.981)
Yeah.

MacFuz (29:26.062)
you

Emily McEwan (29:31.613)
I don't know.

MacFuz (29:34.012)
I think one of those is reluctant,

Emily McEwan (29:35.312)
No, no, body fully functioned in the upside down, her body functioned. yeah, and in his mind rather, not in the upside down, in Vecta's mind, her body functioned.

Rik (29:38.227)
I think you...

Heather (29:43.506)
Rik (29:47.175)
Yeah. I mean, you, you, you, could make, you could make an argument that, she was probably like because of what had happened in the previous season, she was like reluctant to get out there and do that. But that never came across and like that never would, that never came across the writing or the acting or anything. It was never set up that way. In fact, she seemed pretty confident in there, like staying safe and what she's doing, which also brings me to like a big

Emily McEwan (29:50.804)
Mm.

Emily McEwan (29:57.074)
Yeah.

MacFuz (30:12.193)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (30:12.486)
Okay.

Rik (30:16.029)
flaw with that. Like the whole Henry is, know, Vekna has this memory that he doesn't want to confront. And we go through the, so we go through the motions of this memory of how he became Vekna and all, got inflected by the mind flayer to try and give him that sympathetic bad guy vibe that we've, that everyone's doing these days. For Will to then try and go like, you could be good. You could be this person. You could come back. And then suddenly he turns around and says,

no, no, I embraced it. I fully went with it. No, I'm bad. I am bad. Which on one hand, I was like, yes, I like that. Yes, be the bad guy, but just be a bad guy. That's all we need. on the other hand, was like, then it made for me like it destroyed the whole he was unwilling to confront that memory because it's like, sorry, but that's that's your origin story. You should be proud of that. If you're a bad guy, if you're truly, truly embraced the mind flayer and all of that.

Emily McEwan (30:45.747)
Committing to badness.

Cal MacD (30:47.32)
Yeah.

Heather (30:48.038)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (30:51.544)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (30:51.885)
You're just bad and that's it. Yes.

MacFuz (30:55.96)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (30:56.977)
Hmm. Hmm.

MacFuz (31:00.962)
Yeah, the build up.

Heather (31:03.026)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (31:03.203)
Yeah.

Heather (31:07.227)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (31:12.857)
you wouldn't be afraid of that memory. You would be like, this is how it began. This is me.

Heather (31:14.822)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

MacFuz (31:15.662)
Yeah, yeah. mean, in that moment, was a part of me, obviously, like you said, Rick, him being a bad guy and just going, no, I'm embracing this motherfucker. Come on. Yeah, that was cool. You know, we need that bad guy. But there was this small part of me that kind of wanted to turn on the mind flayer. It wouldn't redeem him. It wouldn't, it wouldn't. He killed a lot of people. But you know.

Emily McEwan (31:26.007)
Thank you.

Emily McEwan (31:30.291)
Mm.

Rik (31:31.027)
Hmm.

Rik (31:35.741)
Yeah, yeah, I mean.

Emily McEwan (31:36.123)
or at least if they'd showed him wavering a little longer, maybe, I don't know. They could have taken one minute away from another scene. They could have taken one minute away from Max slow walking it.

Heather (31:36.934)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (31:42.707)
I think if they'd done that...

MacFuz (31:46.542)
Yeah

Heather (31:46.672)
Mm. Yeah.

Rik (31:47.207)
Yes. And I think...

MacFuz (31:50.99)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (31:53.071)
Yeah, and we wouldn't have missed it.

Heather (31:54.638)
Hahaha

MacFuz (31:59.502)
You

Rik (31:59.665)
Yeah. That's the thing is like, if they, would have made more impact for like, so if he had wavered and maybe had that moment of doubt, then, then the fact that he was unwilling to go into that cave for his memory would have had more effect. the fact that they went, no, no, he had embraced it. He was evil. He did it. It just lessened the impact of it. It made me question why wasn't he going to that cave? Why was that set up? Because as I said, like,

Heather (32:09.415)
Mm.

Heather (32:14.673)
Yeah.

MacFuz (32:14.808)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (32:21.616)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (32:26.501)
If that was my origin story, I'd be like, hell yeah, I'm telling everybody that I murdered some dude in a cave to become this, this, you know, thing. it's yeah. Yeah. So I don't know.

MacFuz (32:29.4)
you

Cal MacD (32:30.413)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (32:30.739)
Was anybody else screaming, speaking of the cave and that whole setup, was anybody else screaming at the TV about the briefcase and what the hell is in the briefcase? Like for hours.

Heather (32:31.164)
Mm.

MacFuz (32:45.846)
Yeah. Yeah.

Heather (32:45.926)
Yes!

Rik (32:46.791)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (32:48.575)
Is that explained in the musical?

Rik (32:51.331)
It is, so it's just another issue that I've got.

Heather (32:51.418)
Yes, yeah, it's on the stage show. Yeah, because if we had seen the stage show before this, it would have made so much more sense.

MacFuz (32:54.518)
I had another one!

Cal MacD (32:54.636)
Okay.

Rik (32:59.953)
Yeah. It's starting to be, it's starting to be like the Marvel, the MCU now, isn't it? It's like, you want, if you want to know what this, why this makes sense, you have to have watched everything that exists and have read every comic that exists and yeah.

Emily McEwan (33:00.627)
Great.

Cal MacD (33:00.865)
Anyway,

Heather (33:03.217)
Yeah.

MacFuz (33:04.002)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (33:06.355)
Yeah, ain't nobody got time for that. Oh my God.

Cal MacD (33:08.921)
but not only that.

MacFuz (33:09.134)
you

MacFuz (33:13.358)
What are

Cal MacD (33:13.433)
But only I.

Emily McEwan (33:15.111)
Wait, the wait, wait, there was a Stranger Things musical or are you joking? I don't know.

MacFuz (33:16.376)
But you can only-

Cal MacD (33:16.419)
Go and watch a musical that's only been in two cities on the earth, to understand.

Rik (33:19.587)
Yeah, yeah, it's.

MacFuz (33:20.622)
Yeah, you need exclusive accounts.

Emily McEwan (33:23.271)
What? What?

Heather (33:26.426)
It's a state show.

Rik (33:26.557)
Yeah, no, no, no, no, genuinely was, yeah.

MacFuz (33:26.98)
yeah, there it is.

Emily McEwan (33:27.089)
Watch. okay. Great. All right. Yeah. Actually, actually, and that brings me to another complaint. I don't know if we're doing complaints now, Callum, if that's all right. But, okay. Now we're right into it. Okay. Another thing. No, the, the, yeah.

Cal MacD (33:27.874)
It is.

Rik (33:30.801)
And it, and it explains that whole guy in the cave briefcase thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again, bad writing.

Heather (33:33.392)
Yeah, it's all to do with Henry and his childhood and how he became one and yeah.

MacFuz (33:41.814)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (33:49.341)
we are now. We've taken this over.

MacFuz (33:49.388)
I think, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Cal MacD (33:50.515)
Hannah, Emily, Emily, Emily, I'm going to break some news to you. We're nerds on the internet, that's our thing.

Heather (33:51.292)
Take control, Emily, take control!

Emily McEwan (33:52.762)
Right, okay. I'm usually just a nerd sitting in my house. So, now an internet nerd. here we are. I'm not just a Gaelic nerd, I'm a nerd nerd. So, so the thing when I think back about like, part of our confusion for the first part of season five was, is it aliens? Or is it Vecna? Or is it L? Or what combination and proportion of all three?

Rik (33:59.495)
Yeah

MacFuz (34:01.656)
Hahaha

Cal MacD (34:04.87)
You're now an internet nerd. You've crossed over and there's no going back.

Heather (34:05.426)
Mm-hmm

Rik (34:06.653)
Wait.

Wait, wait, that's every nerd.

Cal MacD (34:11.565)
Yes. No, yes.

Emily McEwan (34:22.201)
is it? And I felt like we were flip-flopping in each season. Well, okay, so season one, was the mind flayer and it was, we thought aliens. And then season two, menopause memory, no idea about season two. I'll have to go back and watch it again. Season three, okay, it's definitely aliens and mind flayer. No, season three was Vecna, right? No, season four was Vecna, right? So season four, it's Vecna and it's not aliens again.

MacFuz (34:23.04)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (34:29.108)
Yeah

MacFuz (34:29.902)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (34:34.306)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (34:44.142)
Yeah

Emily McEwan (34:50.405)
I mean, I have a PhD and I'm still highly confused. anyway, yeah, season four was Vecna and I was like, okay, so is it Vecna? Is it not aliens? And then they were saying, well, hell created this. Well, no, she didn't create it. She just opened the gate to it. Okay, but then did she create it? she, you know, and so then, yeah, so I obviously we kind of know the answer by the end of season five or do we? I don't know. Do we? I think we do. I guess we do.

MacFuz (34:53.248)
No,

Cal MacD (34:53.689)
Piece of 3 was fun.

Rik (34:54.387)
Season four, I was like, yeah.

Emily McEwan (35:22.049)
Yeah.

MacFuz (35:22.647)
you

Rik (35:22.823)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Suddenly, yeah, now it's a bridge to get another dimension. And he's like, wait, isn't that another dime? It was just so overwritten.

Cal MacD (35:22.913)
No, not really.

Emily McEwan (35:25.007)
Yeah...

MacFuz (35:26.028)
mean, there's a wormhole involved.

Emily McEwan (35:28.229)
Is it outer space? Is it not? Is it this universe? Is it a parallel universe? Yeah.

Cal MacD (35:36.161)
I couldn't make sense here.

Yeah, no, but that's the thing when they unveiled us that it's a bridge that should have been at the very start of the season. Give that idea time to, but the very.

Emily McEwan (35:39.697)
Yeah... Yeah...

Emily McEwan (35:47.635)
All right, yeah, the upside down.

Rik (35:49.223)
Yeah. Yeah.

MacFuz (35:49.834)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (35:50.77)
Does that not reflect season one though, when they're talking to their teacher?

Emily McEwan (35:55.923)
and

MacFuz (35:56.366)
They just know it's the upside down. It's known as the upside down. It's just two worlds. It wasn't introduced as a travel system or a tunnel or, you know, what the technical, what the technical term for a theoretical wormhole is. Yeah.

Cal MacD (35:56.441)
Sort of... Yeah.

Rik (35:58.547)
She just noticed the upside down, yeah.

Heather (35:59.922)
Mm.

Emily McEwan (36:00.123)
Yeah, it was a thing in and of itself.

Heather (36:02.645)
yeah.

Rik (36:02.803)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (36:04.625)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I felt like they kind of did change things up as they were writing and that made me a little annoyed. Yeah.

Cal MacD (36:13.25)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (36:15.047)
Yeah.

MacFuz (36:17.666)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (36:18.315)
yeah. Well... Yes. Mystery box, mystery box. Well, thankfully they didn't go full lost with the ending. We can be thankful for that. They didn't go all the way like they did with Lost. But saying that, like... You're fine. Yeah, you are very fine. You've not seen Lost. Keep it that way, Kieran. Believe me.

Rik (36:18.963)
the J.J. Abrams approach.

Heather (36:22.418)
You

Heather (36:29.989)
Yes. Yes.

Emily McEwan (36:31.055)
Yeah, same.

MacFuz (36:33.558)
I've not seen loss so I'm fine.

Heather (36:37.413)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (36:39.78)
Okay.

Rik (36:40.595)
I think season is the best. I think Lost is the best one season show I've ever seen. no, what are you talking about? There's nothing past season one, which is perfect.

Cal MacD (36:46.957)
You've not gone further have you? Or are you just blocking it?

Emily McEwan (36:50.205)
duly noted. I shall not.

Cal MacD (36:53.251)
All right. Yes. What was... Yeah, but I was reading up and... Sorry. Sorry. Go ahead, Grim. No, I just saying, when we were leading up, I was reading. Apparently this was meant to be an anthology series. That's what the Duffer Brothers intended. And each was going to be different characters and it's relating to the upside down in different ways. But...

Heather (36:54.04)
Exactly!

Cal MacD (37:21.303)
They never anticipated this to break out like it did. And they thought the strength of the story, but everyone latched onto the kids and they were saying, people just want, and I think Netflix said they want more of the kids, so you've got to the kids in it. And they were like, we've not planned for this. And it does show now, when you're watching it in retrospect, it does show.

Emily McEwan (37:23.283)
characters.

Emily McEwan (37:30.863)
okay, okay. It does, yeah, yeah. I'm here.

Rik (37:37.375)
Yeah.

Heather (37:39.804)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (37:42.279)
Well, yeah, because they set, there's things like set up like, why, why does L, why does L recognize Will? And that's never answered. It's never answered. Like, so it's, it's things like that. They, they could have just left it. If they, if they'd moved onto another set of characters in in subsequent seasons, fine, cool. We didn't need that. That was just a little bit of a mystery, but it was, it was set up in season one and then like never answered at all. Like.

Emily McEwan (37:47.207)
I'm cool.

Heather (37:49.436)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

MacFuz (37:50.83)
Mmm.

Emily McEwan (37:55.569)
Thank

Emily McEwan (38:01.683)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (38:06.947)
Yeah. And there's another thing from season one. Sorry, I'm interrupting you again, Graham. But you you mentioned season one. Like we find out that Vecna is supposed to control all the demogorgons. Why does the demogorgon in season one just behave like a wild animal all the time? Why does it go and eat a deer? apparently it can just... Yeah, it's just, there's things that just compounds as you go along.

MacFuz (38:13.378)
You

Emily McEwan (38:16.85)
Thank

MacFuz (38:20.184)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (38:27.991)
Yeah.

MacFuz (38:32.814)
I mean, you could...

Emily McEwan (38:34.992)
Yeah, it's pretty obvious.

Heather (38:39.248)
Mm-mm.

Cal MacD (38:39.563)
No. No.

MacFuz (38:39.671)
He wasn't.

Emily McEwan (38:42.844)
Hehehehehe

Rik (38:46.059)
And now do you see why I'm comparing this season to Rise of Skywalker? No plan.

Cal MacD (38:49.621)
Yes. Well.

Heather (38:49.714)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no,

MacFuz (38:49.998)
you

MacFuz (38:56.11)
So, okay JJ, we need to have a plan. What's that?

Cal MacD (38:56.579)
Well, myself and Kieran

Emily McEwan (38:57.138)
You

Rik (39:00.346)
Hahaha

Cal MacD (39:00.761)
Somehow he survived.

Rik (39:05.267)
Literally.

Cal MacD (39:06.477)
which myself and Kieran were hoping for in the sea. So everyone go and watch myself and Kieran's season one to four retrospective, which we spoke for.

MacFuz (39:09.294)
god, yeah.

It's just as long as the final episode of season five.

Heather (39:20.946)
I'm

Cal MacD (39:20.985)
And Max will have reached that portal by the time you finish watching it. So myself and Ciaran spoke for two and a half hours about it. But I've lost track of where I was going. No, we were... Yes. Because we were desperately hoping that just Bob would appear. And just said, And just he goes, yes, I was torn apart by dogs, but somehow I survived. Somehow. Just leave it at that.

Emily McEwan (39:24.082)
That's because you didn't have the rest of us to rein you in.

Rik (39:24.453)
HAHAHAHA

MacFuz (39:32.388)
it's about Bob.

MacFuz (39:36.238)
You

Heather (39:41.161)
yes, it was I!

Rik (39:42.095)
The

MacFuz (39:47.662)
you

Rik (39:48.851)
I I wanted justice for Barb. That's what I wanted.

MacFuz (39:52.862)
yeah, yes. That was kind of left in the air. mean, she got mentioned in season two where her parents, they're like, you know, they've been told that she's either missing or she's moved away, but they firmly believe that she's lost. They might hold hope that she's still alive, but they never get their closure.

Heather (39:52.934)
Yes!

Cal MacD (39:53.497)
Mmm.

Emily McEwan (39:55.186)
it.

Emily McEwan (40:16.622)
yeah.

Cal MacD (40:18.061)
Yeah, which speaking of someone disappearing, Ted Wheeler. What happened to him? He vanishes and then he's there at the graduation again.

Emily McEwan (40:21.234)
I'm although although Karen's scars were so badass like you know that was that was amazing but yeah and then Ted was just yeah.

Heather (40:24.624)
Yeah!

MacFuz (40:28.327)
Mmm. he's not important enough. He's Ted Wheeler.

MacFuz (40:34.442)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, they were. really were. She deserved those. Well, she didn't deserve it, she does deserve the coolness of those scars. Just to clarify.

Heather (40:35.014)
I'm sorry.

Rik (40:36.05)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (40:37.478)
was very badass. would, definitely went through the mill. then yeah, Ted, Ted was like basically unchanged by the whole experience. He just, was, wasn't he sedated in a coma? He was sedated in a coma through the whole thing in an artificially induced coma. And suddenly he's fine. Yeah.

Heather (40:44.134)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (40:46.342)
Yeah

MacFuz (40:50.954)
Mm-hmm. no one likes Ted anyway.

Cal MacD (40:52.707)
Yeah. But, menu, that fits in with his character.

Heather (40:53.042)
You can count them, or like, he is a dove.

MacFuz (40:56.186)
Yeah. Yeah. And suddenly he's fine. Somehow he's fine.

Cal MacD (41:00.963)
Was it? Which is? Yes.

Which fits his character because he's oblivious to everything going on around him so maybe it did work in a weird way.

MacFuz (41:09.602)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean.

Rik (41:13.271)
I think.

Rik (41:19.187)
Right, thank you! Thank you so much, that annoyed me so much. everyone thinks it's an earthquake.

Heather (41:21.33)
It's

MacFuz (41:26.358)
the one at end of season four, where that just splits apart. Yeah, yeah. that's Sinu. That's obviously Roots.

Heather (41:28.73)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm late.

Cal MacD (41:29.293)
Yes. Yeah.

Cal MacD (41:36.343)
Earthquake dust.

MacFuz (41:47.789)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (41:50.008)
Mm-hmm. Mm.

Rik (41:53.865)
that's...

Cal MacD (41:57.209)
Yep.

Emily McEwan (41:57.388)
gosh.

Rik (41:57.533)
Yeah, nothing.

MacFuz (41:58.999)
They're just there.

Emily McEwan (42:01.946)
I wanted her to have an actual demise at the end because she didn't have an actual demise, did she? There needed to be a whole...

Cal MacD (42:05.555)
she was pointless which was such a waste such a waste yeah

MacFuz (42:06.008)
Yeah.

Rik (42:06.137)
Yes. Look, what an awful waste of an actor!

Heather (42:07.046)
What an awful character.

Emily McEwan (42:11.59)
Yeah, actually.

MacFuz (42:12.643)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (42:13.298)
Yeah.

Rik (42:16.467)
But she was wasted, genuinely.

Emily McEwan (42:17.213)
Thank

MacFuz (42:17.334)
I thought, I mean, in what was it? It's either in the third or fourth episode when 11 and Hopper go into the upside down. And this is like during the same episode where they discover Carly. It looked like for a moment that Dr. K and the lieutenant actually just got taken out. And I thought that was them dead.

Cal MacD (42:17.465)
She didn't have a

Emily McEwan (42:29.724)
I thought they did. I actually thought they did. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. And maybe that was when they were supposed to be. And maybe they rewrote it after that and added more stuff.

Rik (42:32.956)
Ugh.

Heather (42:37.842)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (42:38.002)
Hmm.

Heather (42:40.743)
Yeah.

Rik (42:41.959)
Yep. Yep.

MacFuz (42:43.254)
And when you see them on screen again, it's just like,

Heather (42:43.462)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (42:46.148)
Yeah, yeah, actually. yeah.

MacFuz (42:47.438)
Mmm.

Rik (42:49.735)
We got, we got guys, we got Linda Hamilton. rewrite that scene then.

Heather (42:49.778)
I think they went.

MacFuz (42:53.08)
Yeah.

Heather (42:53.19)
yeah i think they went we don't have brennan we don't have owens who's going to be the big bad guy like military baddie because there's no brennan there's no owens

Emily McEwan (42:54.702)
But then they needed their big 80s, like they needed their big 80s bad guy come up and, you know, demise, didn't they? Yeah, that's a good point. We were denied that. We were denied that.

Rik (42:59.827)
Yeah.

MacFuz (43:01.336)
I mean, it's like, is there a need for a military bad guy?

Cal MacD (43:13.261)
Yeah. But, yeah.

Emily McEwan (43:13.65)
Thank

MacFuz (43:16.27)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Rik (43:19.461)
Yeah. I think the biggest problem like of all of it is just that, you you mentioned sort of season, you know, the first episode is like setting up like the military are there and everything like that. The biggest problem is that it was set 18 months after the end of season four, which like literally they'd set up like this could have been bad ass. It could have been a bad ass way to begin the first next season. I like what they could have done is they could have done like the first set of episodes could have been

Cal MacD (43:20.579)
Yeah.

MacFuz (43:30.765)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (43:37.111)
Yeah.

MacFuz (43:37.548)
Yeah.

.

Cal MacD (43:42.389)
Yeah.

Heather (43:43.846)
Yeah.

MacFuz (43:44.206)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (43:46.467)
All right. Yeah.

Rik (43:48.903)
dealing with the immediate stuff and then suddenly, okay, then we jump 18 months for the second part. You know, they could have done that instead they were like, no, and in that 18 months, there's like a lot of like things that you go like, okay, so for example, Nancy and Jonathan's relationship in season four was already on the rocks. So why are they still together 18 months later to have this weird breakup scene again, which made like,

MacFuz (43:50.798)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (43:54.428)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (43:57.688)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (44:04.274)
Yeah.

Heather (44:09.01)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (44:09.422)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (44:09.689)
So they've kept going for a year and a half. Yeah.

MacFuz (44:14.062)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Rik (44:18.879)
If you're right, I to come up and say, by the way, that definitely was a breakup. That's bad writing again. Like it was bad. Then you've got like, you know, Robin's still not being on that date. then we jumped ahead at the end as well. Still not being on that day. And apparently now they've broken up as well. Like what the hell's going on here? And I listen, Dustin was fantastic and like his arc was great, but it would have had more of an impact if it had been.

Heather (44:23.075)
Yeah!

MacFuz (44:23.798)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (44:27.034)
Yeah.

MacFuz (44:32.467)
Hehehehehe

Heather (44:33.03)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Heather (44:44.422)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (44:47.351)
It was a no.

Rik (44:48.891)
And I think to be 18 months later, it's kind of like, okay, dude, it's been 18 months. You like, but at this point you should have gone to get some help. I'm sure someone would have, like we all deal with grief differently. Don't get me wrong. yeah, it's very true. Yeah. Go drink. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well that would have helped.

Emily McEwan (44:53.359)
Well, no, you didn't get help in the 80s though. I will say that in fairness, in fairness to the era and the sort of help that was available. If you had trauma from somebody close to you dying, don't ask how I know this. Please don't ask how I know this. But you didn't get a lot of help back then.

MacFuz (44:53.578)
That's more than enough time.

Heather (44:56.156)
How have you not dealt with this?

Cal MacD (44:57.977)
Peace. Yeah.

MacFuz (44:57.986)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (44:59.772)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (45:03.776)
I was about to say, it's the 80s.

Cal MacD (45:06.839)
Yes.

Heather (45:06.982)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (45:11.25)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (45:11.63)
Here kid, have some whiskey.

Rik (45:20.327)
Yeah. I mean, to be, to be fair, but I think it would, it would have had much more of an, yeah. Yeah. It would have had more of an effect if it was like straight away. Like if I had been like, I feel like, I don't know. just, the 18 month jump. And again, this is to do with just the, the, the timing of the filming and the writing and everything like this writer strikes and everything like that, which affected everything. But I think it just really just, again, just it's that whole pacing issue again, like season four ended on such a high.

Heather (45:20.764)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (45:21.678)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (45:24.721)
Yeah.

MacFuz (45:29.1)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (45:29.977)
Yeah.

Heather (45:37.298)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (45:39.653)
Yeah.

Rik (45:50.033)
That you were just like, it was kind of like a shock to go into season five so slow.

Emily McEwan (45:50.417)
You're just progressively ruining this part of your life piece by piece.

Cal MacD (45:52.985)
Yeah. Do know what it reminds me of, Rick? You'll remember this. it D? Yes. But Rick. Yeah.

Emily McEwan (45:56.641)
yeah, yeah, I didn't think about that.

Rik (46:02.734)
hahahaha

MacFuz (46:03.63)
I mean, it's not an actual- it's not- this isn't actually a retrospective, it's like, let's ruin this for Emily.

Emily McEwan (46:10.513)
It's like 1983 in grade 8.

Rik (46:10.533)
Yeah, yeah. We all discussed this beforehand, Emily.

Cal MacD (46:10.574)
Yes.

Heather (46:11.186)
Bye.

You

Cal MacD (46:14.377)
Yes, because as you said, know, we wanted to make you

Rik (46:18.909)
But this is-

Emily McEwan (46:19.255)
Yeah, that was 1981.

Rik (46:23.889)
Yeah. I was the one with the trumpet valve.

Cal MacD (46:24.813)
No, we've got to... Yeah, we've got to... Yeah. Yes. See, you've got to become... Yeah. Our goal is to make you bitter and cynical, a proper internet nerd. I wish to see that.

Emily McEwan (46:28.705)
old. Yeah, okay, it's working, it's working. I thought I was only like that about Gaelic.

Rik (46:34.352)
hahahaha

MacFuz (46:37.976)
Hehehehehe

Rik (46:39.057)
But not like-

But this is the thing, as I said, like, as I said, I do want to go back to say, like, I enjoyed so much, so much of the individual scenes and the set pieces, but it is, when I, it's when I started to pick it apart. I was just like, it's just a lot of it. Yeah. It was, it was a narrative just was like, this is, there's a lot of things that, yeah. I mean, like I,

Cal MacD (46:45.409)
Hahaha

Emily McEwan (46:50.639)
No, it is fair enough. Everything you say is fair enough. Yeah.

MacFuz (46:52.878)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (46:53.357)
Yeah, it's just what... yeah.

Heather (46:54.29)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (46:57.83)
Yeah.

MacFuz (46:58.69)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (46:59.673)
Yeah.

Rik (47:08.115)
Dustin, as I said, I didn't mention it, which I had now, because yeah, he was fantastic. Like his arc was fantastic, but it would have had more of an impact if it happened straight away. Yeah, it's such a weird thing. It was just,

Heather (47:11.57)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (47:15.864)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (47:19.481)
Yeah, I was going to say, Rick, it reminds me of I think it's Deep Space Nine season five, isn't it? When the Dominion take over the station. Do you remember the last scene of that season, the Defiant Flies and you see the Federation fleet and you're going, wow, I can't wait. And then it's just the next season, like they jump.

Rik (47:26.163)
Yeah. Yeah.

MacFuz (47:27.414)
Yeah, yeah.

MacFuz (47:34.658)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (47:36.605)
Could you, could you imagine, could you imagine what one of the greatest cliffhangers of all time was Star Trek, the next generation end of season three, best of both worlds. Riker says, right. You know, Riker is about to he's on the bridge. and you know, card is there and it's like, it's that moment. And we had to wait, you know, a year to find out what happened next. Could you imagine, could you imagine if it, the episode opened up a year later and they were all in space stop going.

Emily McEwan (47:39.169)
yeah.

MacFuz (47:46.528)
Yes!

MacFuz (47:57.653)
huh.

Cal MacD (47:57.74)
Yeah, remember.

MacFuz (48:02.806)
god.

Rik (48:04.205)
Jesus, that was bad, wasn't it? What are you talking about?

Emily McEwan (48:04.324)
Thank

Cal MacD (48:06.162)
Yeah, we made it to that one alright. Yes.

MacFuz (48:06.603)
yeah it's like hmm just just right right you're sitting there stroking his beard hmm that picard fellow should we rescue him i think we should

Heather (48:07.854)
You

Cal MacD (48:13.357)
Yeah, yeah, yes, yes. We've had a long time to think about this. No, this.

Rik (48:13.459)
Yai yai yai.

Emily McEwan (48:23.707)
See, why didn't they have you on the writer's room, honestly? It does make you think maybe they were like under so much secrecy that they couldn't have like a normal amount of feedback from friends and colleagues.

Heather (48:26.29)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (48:26.423)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (48:27.224)
Yes.

Rik (48:31.613)
Yes.

MacFuz (48:31.79)
you

Cal MacD (48:35.628)
Yes.

Cal MacD (48:41.026)
I think

Heather (48:42.16)
Yeah.

Rik (48:42.546)
Did you?

MacFuz (48:43.465)
I think Grey would just make them feel guilty.

Rik (48:48.189)
Did you guys see the interview? think it was with Millie and Finn.

Heather (48:53.202)
and Millie went to the Duffer Brothers.

Rik (48:55.859)
Yeah, all these fans were putting like Ford theories and stuff like that and they were like, yeah, you guys was right. Better the Duffer brothers. And you go like, I'm sure that was said in jest, but you're all, you're also like, yeah, they can.

Heather (48:58.46)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (48:59.521)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (49:04.973)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (49:07.889)
Oh. Here we go.

Heather (49:08.434)
Did you see where Millie was like, I went to the Duffer Brothers because I wasn't happy with Elle's ending?

Rik (49:14.087)
Yep. Yep. and... That annoyed me as well.

MacFuz (49:15.502)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (49:19.432)
The opinions are coming!

Cal MacD (49:19.673)
Alright. Yes. Rant, rant, rant, rant. Your opinions are out.

Heather (49:20.938)
Here we go!

Rik (49:23.571)
You

Rik (49:27.085)
Season four, season four, spends the entire season struggling to say, love you to Elle, right? And like suddenly, yes.

Emily McEwan (49:33.167)
Now that you mention it. Shoot. man.

Heather (49:35.509)
And that doesn't seem to tall until the end!

Cal MacD (49:38.498)
Yes.

Rik (49:40.752)
just really, really hacked me off.

Cal MacD (49:41.145)
Just one thing they... I'm just saying, one thing from season four they did get right was there's no sign of Argyle. He has vanished and no one seems to mention him ever again. I am so glad for that, yes.

Emily McEwan (49:47.429)
The hippie, yeah, the pizza delivery guy.

Heather (49:50.993)
Yeah.

MacFuz (49:53.63)
who is Argyle? it rings a bell. yes, of course. I keep forgetting about him. Yeah, yeah, I remember now, yeah. He's that forgettable.

Heather (49:55.952)
You

Emily McEwan (49:56.697)
Okay, so it was better that they brought back Kali than that our dial at least.

Heather (49:59.474)
Sorry for doing pizza or whatever it was.

Rik (50:00.243)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (50:01.517)
Yeah. Yeah.

Emily McEwan (50:04.442)
HAHAHA

Cal MacD (50:05.069)
But I was disappointed that...

Rik (50:05.587)
Yeah.

Heather (50:10.37)
No! No no no no no no no no!

Emily McEwan (50:10.929)
you

MacFuz (50:11.042)
Cal MacD (50:11.509)
No. that's like, that's like, you're talking migraine and headache over your other between the two.

Rik (50:11.588)
Nope.

Emily McEwan (50:15.063)
I like to a Anyway.

MacFuz (50:18.926)
Well, be fair, once... Oh, sorry.

Rik (50:19.443)
to Heather. Heather, that reaction, I was gonna say Heather.

So was going to offer Heather my soapbox for that reaction there.

MacFuz (50:29.506)
Yeah.

Heather (50:29.522)
Cal MacD (50:30.393)
There it is.

You've got an opinion, Rick. This is unheard of. So Heather, talk about Cali or rant about Cali.

Rik (50:35.407)
no no no no the heather cillian

MacFuz (50:38.7)
Ladies first.

Heather (50:43.138)
story was done. of season two she was done. They went off. Whatever. Why bring her back? Why? So just for that one scene where she saves everyone because Ella's like I'm going to go and she casts her little no! That really really annoyed me. She was so annoying and I was like the whole time I was like if she's not evil there is no point and she wasn't evil and I was like well why?

MacFuz (50:56.654)
Hmm.

MacFuz (51:11.457)
She was just depressed.

Cal MacD (51:11.481)
She was there?

Heather (51:12.626)
Yeah.

Heather (51:19.632)
I just, yeah. That annoyed me. She was just there. And I'm like, why bring a character like that back and do nothing? That really annoyed me. Then it felt like Avengers, where you're bringing back everyone. But Avengers, they all had a point to the plan. Here, they didn't.

Cal MacD (51:20.129)
I that's all she was, was there.

Emily McEwan (51:21.134)
See you

MacFuz (51:22.926)
Hmm.

Rik (51:27.939)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (51:29.258)
Yep. Annoying.

MacFuz (51:30.304)
Mmm.

Emily McEwan (51:30.768)
I had a different take on it. I was annoyed because they brought her back and didn't give her her due. And they like basically just brought her back to abuse her. And for me, with her being kind of the only character who wasn't white besides Lucas, the main characters, that really didn't sit well with me. And I got really angry actually about that. Yeah.

MacFuz (51:39.918)
I'm so g-

Rik (51:43.987)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

MacFuz (51:46.766)
Yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that.

Cal MacD (51:59.982)
Yeah.

MacFuz (52:02.006)
Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't mind it if, mean, I like the ass, well, I suppose like is a very loose term, but the whole idea that, you know, Kali is willing to sacrifice herself and Eleven, you know, because they believe they're in a cycle, which is fair. I actually understand that. You know, if you, if you, if you don't want the cycle to continue, you break it. If you feel that you're the cause. And obviously that brings about like the predictability. Okay. They're going to off themselves.

Heather (52:04.306)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (52:20.278)
That was great,

Heather (52:23.058)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (52:30.68)
But at the same time, you see that moment where you realize Kylie actually saved 11. But it would have been kind of nice if both of them had survived and just left together to do their own thing. And then that's that. Done. They're smart.

Emily McEwan (52:36.448)
it's giving, it's giving Avatar what's her name and what's her name. my God. I can't believe I'm not getting the characters names. The final. Yes, thank you. Yes. Yeah, that would be nice actually. But yeah.

Heather (52:44.978)
Mm.

MacFuz (52:53.934)
Which one? Oh, are you thinking Legend of Korra? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Because, it's well deserved. And that's their story ended. And as far as anyone else is concerned, they're no longer alive. So military can't chase them anymore. And all their allies and friends and Mike and such can't reveal their location because they don't know whether or not if they're still alive. Or as far as they're concerned, they're

Rik (53:05.811)
Hmm Do we believe that?

Emily McEwan (53:11.472)
Thank

Emily McEwan (53:17.296)
Speaking of which, do we believe Mike at the very end there? Do we believe him? Or was this just his delusion?

MacFuz (53:22.924)
lost in the no longer upside down. But yeah, there's a

Emily McEwan (53:29.402)
Yeah.

MacFuz (53:31.168)
I think the intent, I think the intention is to offer the hope, but also, you know, if you're logical person, you can choose either ending. I think it's up to the personal viewer.

Rik (53:37.936)
Yeah. I actually think that was the one I actually liked that, the way that that, so for all my, for all my crit. No, no, no. I actually, I actually really liked the way the, the ambiguity, that was one bit of really good writing. Actually. It was the ambiguity, way that was presented. I actually thought that was re that was actually well done because it didn't give the.

Emily McEwan (53:39.212)
Really? I thought that was going to be the big thing that you hated.

Heather (53:39.729)
Bye-bye.

Cal MacD (53:42.835)
It's... I'm...

Yeah.

Heather (53:48.177)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (53:50.384)
Okay.

MacFuz (53:50.794)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (53:55.362)
you

MacFuz (53:57.198)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (53:58.427)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (54:04.639)
the cop out Hollywood ending, also gave you the possibility that it could have happened. which, which I thought was quite nice. I choose to believe that she stayed in the upside down and she sacrificed herself. Like, but there is that possibility, which I thought was quite nice actually.

MacFuz (54:06.455)
Mm.

Cal MacD (54:06.647)
Yeah.

Heather (54:08.572)
Yeah.

MacFuz (54:09.144)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (54:09.165)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (54:11.044)
Was that, I, yeah.

Heather (54:14.258)
Thank

Cal MacD (54:14.455)
Yeah. Yeah.

MacFuz (54:15.117)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (54:17.827)
See, I'm a little bit more cynical. think it's the writers just want to say we killed the character, but we kind of didn't. And it's just like, we don't want to upset anyone. we're playing it, you know, they're having their cake and eating a little bit. That's what it came across as to me. Yeah.

Heather (54:29.404)
Mmm.

Heather (54:32.924)
But I don't think it could have ended any other way. Like, you know, because if Elle came back, survived, then you've still got the, the military is after her constantly and da da. I don't think it could have ended another way with her just going, I'm going to take one for the team.

MacFuz (54:36.27)
Mmm.

Rik (54:36.434)
Yeah.

MacFuz (54:43.662)
Mmm.

Emily McEwan (54:44.654)
Yeah, actually. Who among us was absolutely convinced? Who was absolutely convinced that Steve and Dustin were gonna fight it together? Who? Yeah, yeah, I was like, I mean, I hated the idea. I didn't want it to happen, but I was so sure they had set that up to happen. I was convinced.

Rik (54:45.811)
My big criticism is that there weren't enough deaths. there weren't, like, Jonathan should have died.

Cal MacD (54:48.857)
Yeah.

MacFuz (54:49.176)
Mmm.

MacFuz (54:52.942)
Yeah

Heather (54:53.21)
Yeah! Yeah!

Cal MacD (54:54.137)
Like, Jonathan should have died. He should have died.

Heather (54:59.184)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (54:59.319)
it.

Heather (55:05.17)
Me!

Rik (55:07.271)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

MacFuz (55:08.744)
hmm. Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (55:09.944)
Hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Heather (55:11.9)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (55:14.179)
Yes.

MacFuz (55:17.76)
Yes, I was thinking that as well.

Rik (55:18.396)
Yep, yep.

Heather (55:18.48)
Yeah!

Cal MacD (55:19.063)
And he should have, because he does nothing for the...

Rik (55:22.131)
because for the entire series, he's constantly sacrificing himself and he's like, I've never get to actually do it. come on. Give me

MacFuz (55:24.642)
what?

Emily McEwan (55:25.122)
I know.

dear. Yeah, yeah. That was pretty horrendous.

MacFuz (55:29.55)
Yeah, and then what's his main sacrifice is shooting L three times

Cal MacD (55:29.964)
It's like,

Rik (55:36.955)
or thinking that you shot it.

MacFuz (55:38.05)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean...

Cal MacD (55:38.253)
Sorry, Heather.

Heather (55:38.282)
Mm, yeah. Did anybody pick up? Did you pick up? They focused on that suicide vest for so long and nothing happens with it. I'm like, why?

MacFuz (55:48.292)
yeah. It's there. It's in the upside down now. mean, well, it's gone now, presumably exploded. But it was there. It was a prop. It might have been sausages.

Cal MacD (55:50.115)
Yeah.

Rik (55:51.488)
Mm-mm. Yep.

Cal MacD (55:54.105)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (55:56.336)
Okay, I won't

Cal MacD (55:58.841)
A vest full of kielbasa.

Emily McEwan (56:00.78)
one little question. Sorry. Sorry, Karen. At the very end, I did not count three waterfalls. I counted two. Did I miss a waterfall? What the hell? There was supposed to be three waterfalls. I wanted three waterfalls. So what was up with that?

Rik (56:01.107)
Somehow.

MacFuz (56:02.611)
Somehow it's right. And then that'll be the...

yeah, that'll be the spin-off.

Cal MacD (56:12.269)
Yes.

MacFuz (56:18.476)
Yes! Yeah, yeah.

Rik (56:18.643)
Two. I counted two.

Heather (56:19.275)
I was like, three waterfalls and then I was like, two.

MacFuz (56:22.99)
You

Emily McEwan (56:24.399)
okay. and was that in New Zealand, by the way? Do we think that was in New Zealand, that last scene? it was, okay. Yeah, I wanted a third waterfall. I don't know why they did. That was annoying. I was annoyed.

Rik (56:24.422)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MacFuz (56:26.653)
They didn't have a budget for three.

Rik (56:28.307)
The third waterfall were our tears.

MacFuz (56:32.931)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (56:33.357)
Yes, yes, symbolic.

Heather (56:39.822)
Iceland

Rik (56:40.902)
Iceland.

MacFuz (56:41.036)
Iceland.

Cal MacD (56:41.045)
Iceland's yeah, they filmed in Iceland quite a lot here. I think a lot of the other

Heather (56:43.858)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (56:44.368)
Yeah.

MacFuz (56:48.27)
So military.

Cal MacD (56:48.761)
Because a lot of

Rik (56:51.013)
Did anyone else get to end of the Vekna fight and go like, they check the time on it? There's an hour? There's still an hour to go?

Emily McEwan (56:51.561)
Yeah, well, yeah.

Cal MacD (56:52.055)
So who's going first here?

Heather (56:56.092)
Is that it?

Emily McEwan (56:57.86)
What now?

Heather (56:59.09)
Mm.

Cal MacD (56:59.728)
Yes

Emily McEwan (57:00.505)
No.

Emily McEwan (57:18.031)
He he.

MacFuz (57:20.942)
Thank you.

Rik (57:21.105)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cal MacD (57:22.487)
Or Return of the Kings. Return of the Kings is known for how many engines it has.

Rik (57:25.519)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Heather (57:27.642)
I appreciated it though.

MacFuz (57:34.936)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (57:35.891)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (57:42.05)
Yeah.

Heather (57:47.804)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (57:50.305)
Although...

MacFuz (57:51.15)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (57:55.031)
would hopper not actually be in jail for a very long time for all the sort of

Rik (57:55.342)
There's a.

Emily McEwan (57:56.143)
Nancy! How many did Nancy off? Oh my word! She is a cold-blooded killer!

MacFuz (57:59.608)
Yeah, cause he faked his death.

Heather (58:00.689)
Yeah.

MacFuz (58:05.93)
Only 200. no. Yeah, not Nancy would be confined for to like solitary she would just Mm-hmm. I'm just a journalist

Rik (58:07.72)
Nancy, yeah, I Nancy.

Heather (58:09.243)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (58:14.276)
I felt bad for the actors by speaking of Nancy. I felt bad for the actors like kind of aging out of because of the pandemic disruption and the whole thing taking so long because Nancy and the actors to play Nancy and Jonathan did not look the age that the characters were supposed to be. They simply didn't. By the end there, they just looked 30. They are 30 and they look 30, you know, that took me out of it a bit.

Cal MacD (58:15.224)
Yeah.

this.

MacFuz (58:19.118)
Right Nancy was badass though.

Heather (58:19.494)
yet first one to sacrifice herself.

MacFuz (58:32.632)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (58:33.559)
Yeah.

Heather (58:34.962)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (58:41.002)
Yeah, yep.

MacFuz (58:41.614)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (58:41.991)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (58:44.527)
Right, yeah, that's right. You get in the air to it. On the other hand though, where they have the characters like the, just like I said, rewatching season four, when they have the characters that are high school kids, but they look like they're like 25. But that really was a thing. Like the guys did look older in high school then than they do now. And I don't know why that is, but they really did. had beards and mustaches and things and smoked and maybe it's the smoking.

MacFuz (58:46.222)
I

Heather (58:46.546)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (58:48.403)
I mean, to be fair, grew up with Beverly Hills 90210, so I'm used to teenagers looking 30.

Cal MacD (58:53.297)
yes.

MacFuz (58:54.753)
Yeah

Cal MacD (58:56.729)
Yeah.

Rik (58:58.451)
You

MacFuz (58:59.152)
Ugh.

MacFuz (59:08.205)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (59:12.941)
Yeah.

Heather (59:13.351)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (59:13.871)
you

Rik (59:14.021)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well.

Emily McEwan (59:17.039)
I'm the same age as Winona Ryder. Like I am the exact, almost exact same age as Winona Ryder, which is kind of freaky. So.

Rik (59:20.019)
I'm older. I'm older than Frazier. Like Kelsey Grammer was in Cheers.

MacFuz (59:27.284)
wow.

Cal MacD (59:27.833)
You

MacFuz (59:30.945)
Yeah

Cal MacD (59:31.225)
Let's create.

Rik (59:38.515)
I saw a TikTok the other day that freaked me out. was like, I basically, I am older than Kevin McAllister's mum. And that did not sit right with me in any way, but I was also like, damn, okay.

MacFuz (59:38.988)
Bye.

Emily McEwan (59:39.324)
Yeah.

Yeah, I find it so weird to be like, when I'm watching it actually, like when I'm, my God, I lost my tab here. When I'm, because I was trying to look up Kevin McAllister's mom's age, you can still see me, right? when I, I was made for the diagnostic of getting old. Anyway, when I, so when I watch the whole of Stranger Things, I'm having this weird double, triple.

Cal MacD (59:49.239)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (59:54.783)
Kevin!

Cal MacD (59:55.513)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Rik (59:58.803)
Yeah, I

Cal MacD (01:00:12.857)
Yes.

MacFuz (01:00:14.349)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (01:00:17.552)
experience because I'm like, I'm the same age as Winona Ryder and I'm and I've grown up watching her career grow up on screen and being like the same age as me. Obviously she gets more plastic surgery since I get none. And she obviously gets a lot but like, but you know, so I've grown up watching Winona Ryder and she's the same age as me but then the character her her kid, her younger kid in the show is a year.

Rik (01:00:31.699)
Yeah. Okay.

Emily McEwan (01:00:43.595)
younger than me. thought they were the same, but maybe they got their graduation got delayed by the events in the plot. But at any rate, so that they're like, they're like the same age that I was then. And when owner writers like the same age that I am now, and then with all the all the 80s stuff going on, like super screen accurate, it just kind of it messes with my head and it goes like straight in and bypasses all of the like pacing and plotholes and stuff that you guys

Rik (01:01:01.331)
Yeah. Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:01:09.871)
and actually pointing out and I'm oh yeah, actually, no. For me, it's more like an immersive experience of my youth and reflecting on aging and motherhood and all this stuff and like pop culture and whoa, it's really, it hits me like no other show because of that, all of that exact stuff. It's just the strangest experience. It's stranger, it's stranger things. Anyway, sorry.

Cal MacD (01:01:21.209)
You

Emily McEwan (01:01:40.479)
yes. A very strange thing. Yes!

Rik (01:01:40.787)
Yeah

Cal MacD (01:01:48.141)
Yeah, it's a strange thing, yeah.

MacFuz (01:01:48.845)
bizarre innit

Heather (01:01:49.746)
You

Emily McEwan (01:01:54.092)
and

Heather (01:01:54.674)
Can I go back to that final fight? Because I got to that, Becna's impaled and I was like, is that it? All that for that.

Cal MacD (01:01:57.326)
Kush!

Cal MacD (01:02:02.679)
Yep, I was... Yes.

Rik (01:02:04.595)
Where are all the demogorgons?

Heather (01:02:07.94)
I like to think they were sat in an office somewhere going, screw that guy.

MacFuz (01:02:12.606)
I would imagine like, we imagine them like the Demogorgons in the office. That's like receptionist with like very long painted nails and like giant hoop earrings.

Cal MacD (01:02:12.761)
We're unionizing.

Emily McEwan (01:02:14.191)
Heather (01:02:20.338)
You

Rik (01:02:20.369)
Yeah.

Rik (01:02:23.851)
No, I'm now pitching unionizing against Vecna now. like, listen, listen, listen, guys. We have we have not been getting hazard pay and quite a lot of did you see? Did you see Steve? Did you see Clive? Did you see Clive? He got snapped in half by Will. Right. Like literally all every bone broken. We should be getting private health care and we should be getting some hazard pay here. But Vecna is not paying up. So we're on strike. We're on strike. was that? Wait, what?

Heather (01:02:24.754)
You

Cal MacD (01:02:27.437)
Yes.

MacFuz (01:02:28.599)
Yep.

Cal MacD (01:02:30.361)
You

MacFuz (01:02:33.197)
You

Heather (01:02:37.362)
I'm

Cal MacD (01:02:38.232)
Yes.

MacFuz (01:02:40.044)
You

Heather (01:02:40.497)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:02:42.669)
You

Cal MacD (01:02:47.661)
Yeah.

Heather (01:02:50.002)
Thanks.

Cal MacD (01:02:50.296)
and

Rik (01:02:52.903)
He's been decapitated.

Heather (01:02:57.766)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:02:57.933)
Well, shit.

Cal MacD (01:02:58.733)
Yeah. Well, they're just me. What do we do know? What do the Demogorgons do know?

Rik (01:02:59.187)
Anyone hiring?

MacFuz (01:03:02.029)
Yeah

Emily McEwan (01:03:04.974)
Thank

Rik (01:03:05.075)
Try to... I'm trying get over the world!

MacFuz (01:03:05.384)
Oopsie.

Heather (01:03:05.926)
Mm-hmm. I was like...

MacFuz (01:03:08.48)
I was gonna say, yeah I was gonna say try to take over the world.

Emily McEwan (01:03:09.526)
You

Cal MacD (01:03:09.643)
Yes.

Yes.

Cal MacD (01:03:17.113)
You

Heather (01:03:18.052)
You

Rik (01:03:18.835)
No.

Emily McEwan (01:03:20.162)
Mm.

Cal MacD (01:03:21.017)
What I wanted to do?

MacFuz (01:03:23.595)
Hello, Derek!

Heather (01:03:26.29)
It just felt too easy.

Emily McEwan (01:03:26.926)
Thank

Cal MacD (01:03:29.303)
Yeah, it did feel too easy and like I said, were comparing like I see Avengers Endgame like there's that battle, there's multiple people, you know where everyone is and the geography makes sense and this has been brought up as well when Nancy says go to the top of those hills and then they're there in 20 seconds it's like

Heather (01:03:35.9)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Heather (01:03:45.136)
How did they get there so fast?

Emily McEwan (01:03:47.424)
More.

Rik (01:03:49.821)
They played Kate Bush and they were just like...

MacFuz (01:03:50.955)
Hahaha

Cal MacD (01:03:51.319)
No, and they were just writing, Max, Max, this is how you do it. Do this next time.

Heather (01:03:51.442)
Channeling Max!

Emily McEwan (01:03:52.364)
Thank

MacFuz (01:03:54.477)
Yeah.

You

Emily McEwan (01:04:00.137)
Yes! Yes!

Rik (01:04:00.683)
Also, like I, I, I, I'm so angry that I didn't get to see Elle be like Legolas, you know, the hobbit jumping up the, the, you know, like I want to, I want, I want to see full Mario. That's what I wanted to see. Like I want the sound and everything. want to, but nope, didn't get that just, I'm here now.

Emily McEwan (01:04:05.622)
Actually, yeah.

Heather (01:04:09.582)
Yes! I wanted to see that!

MacFuz (01:04:09.688)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:04:11.234)
Did they just run out of money for that bit?

Cal MacD (01:04:12.505)
Let's...

Emily McEwan (01:04:17.816)
Sorry, Graham.

Cal MacD (01:04:19.669)
No.

MacFuz (01:04:20.855)
Hahaha.

Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:04:25.113)
Which-

Cal MacD (01:04:25.145)
Cream, for her. For her.

MacFuz (01:04:30.167)
Sorry, Graham.

Heather (01:04:31.578)
I noticed that, yes!

Cal MacD (01:04:31.597)
Yes.

Rik (01:04:46.375)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:04:46.379)
yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:04:49.826)
I'm going to have to go back and look at that.

Rik (01:04:53.117)
Hmm.

Emily McEwan (01:04:59.854)
Thank

Rik (01:05:02.003)
I'm gonna have to go back for that, yeah.

Cal MacD (01:05:02.381)
Yeah, we'll do it. Yeah. But,

Heather (01:05:03.122)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (01:05:04.512)
I know

I know one of the major scores that the Duffer Brothers tend to use specifically for Vecna. They didn't use it as much in season five as they did in season four, but they used the scores of Coeionus Caci by Philip Glass quite a lot. Specifically to refer to Vecna through the score, The Prophecy. That was done really well. It really, it provides that spookiness and it was only used once in season five a couple of times. And Philip Glass's.

Rik (01:05:07.421)
Ha ha ha.

Emily McEwan (01:05:14.465)
Okay.

Thank

Cal MacD (01:05:33.209)
Okay. Alright.

MacFuz (01:05:37.441)
He's He's like, you know, old school.

Cal MacD (01:05:41.137)
I was wanting to bring up a gripe I've had with Hopper over the seasons, how his character just veers from one thing. So season one, jaded, cynical, and through his experience with Joyce, he gains purpose in life. Season two becomes a dad. Suddenly in season three, he's a violent, unhinged psychopath who's shouting all the time. Then he's in the prison, and then in this one, he's...

MacFuz (01:05:53.325)
Mm-mm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:06:09.857)
Again, like Cali, he's just there sometimes.

Rik (01:06:13.106)
Just spot the people who have not been dads.

MacFuz (01:06:16.813)
Yeah

Cal MacD (01:06:16.887)
Yes. So are you going to slaughter a military base tomorrow, Henrik?

MacFuz (01:06:21.6)
Rik (01:06:23.112)
if my kid pushes me the wrong way.

Heather (01:06:26.123)
You

MacFuz (01:06:26.178)
Yeah

Cal MacD (01:06:29.529)
No, but it was. It's just, character seemed to veer from one thing to the other over the season. So they thought the first two establish a nice arc and then season three disrupted it. And then in this one, he's just murdering folk left, right and centre. See, don't blow up a whole helicopter at one point as well. Time to remember. Alright.

Heather (01:06:42.599)
Mm.

MacFuz (01:06:45.462)
No, that was Murray.

Heather (01:06:45.574)
That was Marie.

MacFuz (01:06:49.773)
Mm-hmm, yeah. I mean, that was kind of a cool moment. It's just kind of neat to see that someone who didn't really have military background, excluding Nancy, but some of that really, you wouldn't really expect to do something like that. Your home comes along, Mario's gone, okay, fine, takes up the C4 and just hurls it at the helicopter.

Cal MacD (01:06:50.189)
Yeah.

Rik (01:06:57.565)
Yeah.

Heather (01:07:02.95)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:07:03.127)
Okay.

Rik (01:07:07.507)
I am surprised that David Harbour didn't get confused by what he was in and didn't go all like Red Guardian by the end of the thing. Because it was so close, like the character, it was just, yeah, just about the humor.

Heather (01:07:14.93)
haha

Emily McEwan (01:07:15.02)
Okay.

Cal MacD (01:07:15.373)
Yeah

Heather (01:07:17.777)
Yeah

Cal MacD (01:07:18.211)
Yeah. Yeah.

Heather (01:07:21.66)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:07:22.585)
This is another improvement I know. See Murray and Hopper at the end with the bomb. They should have had the bomb fail and then it becomes a dead man switch and they have to the argument over who's going to... That would have been some nice tension but then... Yeah.

MacFuz (01:07:28.653)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (01:07:32.915)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (01:07:34.514)
That would be, yeah.

Rik (01:07:36.549)
Not enough deaths.

MacFuz (01:07:36.621)
Hopper would have won that argument without a doubt.

Emily McEwan (01:07:39.649)
Okay.

Rik (01:07:42.567)
Well, no, I think that would have been really cool to see Hopper not win that argument to be like, you have a reason to see that you have a reason to live. You have L and then for L to sacrifice herself, he would be broken. It'd be brilliant. No, but no.

Heather (01:07:43.963)
actually

Yeah, and muddy when it-

MacFuz (01:07:48.375)
Mm.

Heather (01:07:52.06)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:07:53.985)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:07:54.413)
I like my like my tea like I like my characters broken

Emily McEwan (01:07:55.031)
Okay.

Rik (01:08:01.477)
Yeah. But I, I think it would have been like, and then like, but then actually then you would have seen them healing, like healing with Joyce would have been like the next stage of it. And I think that, yeah, it would, again, missed opportunities.

Cal MacD (01:08:02.489)
You

Heather (01:08:08.07)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

MacFuz (01:08:08.757)
Hmm, definitely. It would have built up more.

Cal MacD (01:08:09.389)
Yeah. Yeah.

MacFuz (01:08:14.924)
Yeah.

Heather (01:08:15.504)
It feels like the Duffer brothers could have gone, we'll let everybody live. we'll kill one or two characters or we'll annoy everybody and kill everything. So they just went down middle of road.

Cal MacD (01:08:15.768)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (01:08:18.254)
Mmm.

Emily McEwan (01:08:22.094)
Thank

Rik (01:08:25.511)
Well, they were trying to, they were trying to please everybody. think that's the problem. think they were trying to make every person happy, which is, you know, it's like the labor party. Like you're just not going to make everyone happy.

Heather (01:08:28.145)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:08:28.905)
Yeah.

Heather (01:08:34.054)
You're never going to do.

Cal MacD (01:08:35.821)
Yep. Keep staring.

MacFuz (01:08:37.293)
They're like a more ethical JK Rowling.

Cal MacD (01:08:46.393)
jeez.

Emily McEwan (01:08:49.804)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:08:51.27)
god.

See, Rick, when we were discussing our moments of 2025 in the back chat, and I said, what's the worst? And I just said a lot of things that Kieran says, especially as you. So I think, where are we? We're at, well, we're over an hour. So I'll go around everyone for final thoughts. Again, in the same order, Kieran, final thoughts on the season five.

Rik (01:08:54.813)
clip that.

Heather (01:08:56.124)
hahaha

Rik (01:09:05.499)
Ha ha ha.

Heather (01:09:10.386)
you

Emily McEwan (01:09:13.294)
Thank

MacFuz (01:09:21.857)
and season five as a whole. So, Stranger Things. Yeah. So yeah, I think yeah, best summed up. think many people either agree with this or say this word for word. There is a lot of good points about Stranger Things season five, lot of good moments.

Cal MacD (01:09:24.163)
Yeah. And then Stranger Things as a whole. So start with season five and then go to Stranger Things as a whole.

MacFuz (01:09:49.889)
But when you, and when you obviously when you watch it as a whole, you finish it without thinking about it. Like, yeah, that was good. That was really good. I enjoyed that. And then you start thinking about it. You start analyzing it and it goes, yeah, that, that scene didn't work. That scene didn't work. That dragged on for way too long. Max, what the fuck are you doing? and a lot of anti-climax, but despite that, even though I may not necessarily watch it again,

I still enjoyed season five. There's obviously a lot of things that they could have done better. yeah, mean, I did get my thrills out of it. I did get enjoyment out of it. I didn't really need tissues at all. The closest I would argue I came to having to wash your eyes was just that moment between Hopper and Mike in the epilogue.

Rik (01:10:47.643)
Mm-hmm

MacFuz (01:10:47.819)
because they're bonding over someone that they've both lost. And you could argue that that's potential for Hopper to become the sort of surrogate father figure for Mike as well. But yeah, think that's my sort of opinions on season five.

Emily McEwan (01:11:00.525)
Okay.

Cal MacD (01:11:09.305)
cream.

Emily McEwan (01:11:10.144)
Okay.

Cal MacD (01:11:17.589)
Okay, works.

Yeah.

MacFuz (01:11:33.719)
Mm.

Cal MacD (01:11:39.321)
You

MacFuz (01:11:39.543)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:11:44.217)
Garlic bread.

Emily McEwan (01:11:47.259)
Okay.

Cal MacD (01:11:47.513)
you

MacFuz (01:12:12.065)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:12:14.658)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:12:20.394)
Thank

MacFuz (01:12:28.973)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Cal MacD (01:12:29.227)
Yep, the doctor scientist trope, isn't it?

Rik (01:12:40.511)
Mm. .

Cal MacD (01:13:03.713)
Okay. yeah, yeah. Heather, so season five and then the whole season, the whole series,

Heather (01:13:09.682)
Season 5, I still like season 5. I think it just, did what it did and when it did it, it did it well. And I think my love of it, because Joyce gets her redemption after being put through hell with her kids, she gets to kill him. And I think she was the only person who deserved to kill him really. I still loved it. It had its moments where you're a like, and it's still one of my favorite shows.

MacFuz (01:13:24.557)
.

MacFuz (01:13:30.251)
Yep, agreed.

Rik (01:13:30.995)
Mm-hmm

Heather (01:13:39.346)
I got from what came out when I was 18, I'm now 27, like I've gone through my early twenties with it and it'll be something that I will always go back to in love.

Emily McEwan (01:13:43.413)
Yeah, season five, good enough, I think, is maybe my two word summing up, kind of drawing on what everyone else has said so far.

Cal MacD (01:13:50.881)
Okay, Emily.

Rik (01:13:51.407)
Love that. Thank

Emily McEwan (01:13:58.007)
I know you guys have ruined it for me. No, no, you haven't really. You really haven't. You made me think more critically about it for sure. And overall though, I just say, Stranger Things, just the absolute best 80s show that wasn't made in the 80s. The absolute friggin' best.

MacFuz (01:14:00.876)
you

You

Cal MacD (01:14:04.409)
We've just been watching your enthusiasm drain as we've been talking.

MacFuz (01:14:07.405)
This is good enough.

Rik (01:14:08.564)
I'm sorry.

MacFuz (01:14:11.784)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:14:14.393)
You

Emily McEwan (01:14:22.86)
trip down 80s memory lane that I've ever seen or would ever hope to have and I'll definitely be going back to it every few years and rewatching. So there you go.

Rik (01:14:28.456)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Emily McEwan (01:14:37.421)
Cracks his knuckles.

Emily McEwan (01:14:43.597)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (01:14:44.482)
Rick, get up. Take the floor.

Rik (01:14:46.375)
Ah, right. Okay. Here we go. No, no, no. The time set had really stick it to it. No. Season five, think like, we can Graham say the best. It was a missed opportunity. think, as I say, when I finished watching it, was like, there were so many cool moments, but so little substance at the end of it. I think like, I said it, I think it's...

MacFuz (01:14:47.661)
opinions.

Heather (01:14:48.722)
You

Rik (01:15:13.427)
I said it bit earlier on, I think the biggest flaw really is that they tried to please everybody and they tried to make everybody happy. They tried to fulfill every fan's wants. And the problem was it didn't take any creative risks, which is what I feel like it did in earlier seasons. Like I felt like it really did that in earlier seasons. that's what really drove people to continue watching it. Cause you didn't know what was going to happen next. And I think like this one, they played it way too safe. It was...

Cal MacD (01:15:18.681)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:15:31.309)
Yep.

MacFuz (01:15:32.471)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:15:43.225)
Yes.

Rik (01:15:43.847)
and I, I, you know, I have, I have issues with the writing. I have issues with the cinematography as well. Like I remember the early seasons were so dark and so grainy. This, this one looks like it's just, it's too bright. It's way too bright all the way through it. And even, even the upside down loses that murkiness that it used to have in the, season one. So I think like it was just, it felt like it was maybe it's not the Duffer Brothers problem.

Emily McEwan (01:15:44.522)
Thank

Heather (01:15:51.442)
Mmm.

MacFuz (01:15:52.245)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:15:52.419)
They look so much better.

MacFuz (01:16:04.171)
Yeah!

Cal MacD (01:16:04.846)
Yeah.

Rik (01:16:12.311)
Maybe it's more of a producer's problem where Netflix were like, you have to deliver this and kind of like, kind of like where Game of Thrones fell down. It's not had the same drop off that Game of Thrones had like don't like Game of Thrones last season compared to this. This is much better because, because there were parts that I very much enjoyed and I probably will go back and watch it. Like that's the thing. And that's the thing. Like as a whole series, like Emily says it best, this is the best representation of the eighties I've seen in any media.

Cal MacD (01:16:17.251)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:16:30.751)
It really is.

Rik (01:16:41.809)
Like that, that wasn't actually made in the eighties. Like they, they, they nailed the look of it. Like I was born in 1982 and like, I was at that tail end. I have a lot of my memories come from sort of like the mid eighties onwards where you were still having to say the, the, the TVs wrapped in woods, the wood paneling everywhere. Everything was brown. It was like, I remember all of that. The, the, the, phones being on a cord, all of that, like the, the meeting my friends up.

Cal MacD (01:16:45.55)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (01:16:54.719)
Okay.

Cal MacD (01:16:58.689)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:17:00.812)
The bikes, absolutely the bikes. Oh my God. It was exactly, exactly like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rik (01:17:10.203)
at the park on the bikes and stuff like that. That was all stuff I remember. the, the bikes, always the bikes, always kids on bikes and just leaving them, just leaving them anywhere and then coming back and they were always back there. That was what I loved. wasn't all, and even when, even like the mall, when they introduced the mall, yeah, that was neon, but that was the point. It was like only that was neon. Actual life itself was this. And that's what I loved so much about Stranger Things is that

Emily McEwan (01:17:13.597)
Thank

Cal MacD (01:17:16.377)
Kids on bikes.

MacFuz (01:17:19.65)
Hmm.

Rik (01:17:36.495)
through all the the sci-fi-ness, the horror, all of that, it was actually just about these kids and like what they growing up in the 80s and I loved that and I don't think it's a show that I'm... it's not like Game of Thrones where like I just can't bring myself to watch it again because I know how it ends. This is a show that I will watch again. Knowing how ends, I will still watch it again because the journey is worth it. So, yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:17:44.646)
Okay.

Cal MacD (01:17:50.105)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:17:56.216)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:17:59.117)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:17:59.737)
Yeah, I think I'm just echoing everyone else and just saying the one thing that the glue that held this was the original group of kids, those actors and their chemistry and then the friendships they added onto it. If it wasn't for that, would have fallen apart a lot quicker. we even, the Dustin Steve friendship, was that season two that came in? Holy crap, that was just the most genius decision in the history of writing to stick those.

MacFuz (01:18:09.174)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (01:18:15.443)
Hmm. Yep.

MacFuz (01:18:23.112)
Yes, even too, yeah.

Rik (01:18:23.72)
Brilliant.

Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (01:18:27.479)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:18:28.107)
And it so sweet and so fantastic. I'll probably go back to this a few times. Sorry, carry on, Kieran.

Emily McEwan (01:18:29.261)
Thank

MacFuz (01:18:32.876)
Yeah, I think.

I think the one thing that sticks in my mind in regards to the Dustin and Steve thing is when they see each other and scoops ahoy and they do that little...

Cal MacD (01:18:43.329)
yes, I love that. Who doesn't love that?

Heather (01:18:43.6)
Yeah

Cal MacD (01:18:49.401)
So we're drawing. right.

Rik (01:18:50.859)
Emily McEwan (01:18:51.5)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (01:19:02.115)
Yes. Yep.

MacFuz (01:19:07.117)
Hmm.

Cal MacD (01:19:07.715)
And I've got to say, that's incredible they got the Princey state to actually go because they are notoriously stingy about copyright because famously, did they not take down somebody, they had a party of their kids, was a video of their kids birthday party, there was a Prince song in the background and they went after them for copyright infringement because of that. So that's how bad the Princey state is. Yeah, he was notorious about it.

Rik (01:19:08.083)
I'm.

Heather (01:19:12.646)
Yeah, so stingy.

Rik (01:19:15.936)
Mmm. Mmm.

Emily McEwan (01:19:22.326)
Thank

Heather (01:19:41.244)
Yeah.

Heather (01:19:57.49)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (01:19:58.0)
Yeah, brilliant, yeah.

Cal MacD (01:20:00.771)
So as we're wrapping up, I can see Heather, Kieran and Graham knowing what's coming next. Right, yes. Rick and Evelie, you're probably not gonna like, you're not gonna, I'm gonna say a phrase, I'm gonna say a phrase, Evelie and Rick, this'll bring some PTSD. You know I like writing quizzes.

Emily McEwan (01:20:08.373)
What?

MacFuz (01:20:12.887)
Hang on.

Heather (01:20:13.794)
Emily McEwan (01:20:17.815)
no. No.

MacFuz (01:20:22.091)
I'm not here.

Rik (01:20:26.788)
God.

Heather (01:20:27.867)
You

MacFuz (01:20:28.951)
Well, if I would chip in, if I would chip in very quickly, Callum, I would like to chip in very quickly. In reference to quizzes, you're lucky Howard isn't here. You need to hand out medals.

Cal MacD (01:20:31.395)
So yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:20:34.038)
I bombed the OCon quiz, myself and my guest team, we bombed it. And we didn't have any millennials that we could call for a lifeline or Gen Z.

Cal MacD (01:20:40.178)
ssss...

Rik (01:20:41.499)
If this is, if, God, this is a Stranger Things quiz, I'm gonna, no.

Cal MacD (01:20:46.135)
Yes, it is.

Heather (01:20:46.242)
You

MacFuz (01:20:52.749)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:20:52.984)
Yes.

Emily McEwan (01:20:54.604)
you

Rik (01:20:55.291)
I mean, mean, to be fair, I-

Heather (01:20:57.158)
My team only won one year because Rick's team gave us the win.

MacFuz (01:21:01.447)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:21:01.657)
Yeah

Emily McEwan (01:21:02.609)
no.

Heather (01:21:03.57)
You

MacFuz (01:21:04.557)
Yeah

Rik (01:21:04.787)
Hahaha

Cal MacD (01:21:05.145)
See, that's it. There you go, Rick. never gave anyone the win when he won the quiz, so you've got that over him. Yes. This ongoing debate. Yes. So, Des, you've got to up your game here. Right. So here we go. The Stranger Things trivia. So in season one, what song is playing on Will's stereo when Joyce first sees the lights respond to her?

Emily McEwan (01:21:05.42)
Thanks

Rik (01:21:09.139)
you

Heather (01:21:12.754)
That's...

MacFuz (01:21:13.278)
Hahaha

Rik (01:21:14.279)
So, so who's the better person? Yes.

Emily McEwan (01:21:16.166)
frig.

MacFuz (01:21:17.229)
Rick is humble. He gives.

Emily McEwan (01:21:23.916)
Should I stay or should I go?

Rik (01:21:28.046)
Jesus.

Emily McEwan (01:21:28.086)
That's easy enough.

Emily McEwan (01:21:33.164)
Okay, just remember you said that in October 2026, okay?

MacFuz (01:21:34.835)
yeah, yeah. Should I stay or should I just go?

Heather (01:21:34.93)
Should I stay or should I go, isn't it?

Cal MacD (01:21:36.899)
Yeah. There we go. See, I can be nice with my questions. It's possible.

Rik (01:21:38.203)
I am.

Heather (01:21:40.05)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (01:21:44.333)
Mm.

Rik (01:21:45.245)
That's the only nice one, isn't it?

MacFuz (01:21:47.308)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:21:48.429)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:21:48.583)
no.

Rik (01:21:50.546)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:21:51.031)
Hahaha

Heather (01:21:51.378)
lol

Cal MacD (01:21:51.382)
or you...

You've not heard myself and Graham are making plans for the quiz already. It's going to be quite entertaining. Right, anyway, number two. Nice questions I've got now. What is the full model name of the radio transceiver Dustin uses to contact Susie in season three?

Heather (01:21:58.517)
no.

Emily McEwan (01:22:04.728)
yeah, actually, justice for Suzy.

Emily McEwan (01:22:11.883)
Thanks.

Rik (01:22:13.832)
also what happened to Suzy?

MacFuz (01:22:15.467)
Yeah. I'll answer that question with another question.

Cal MacD (01:22:16.109)
Yes, yes, Any guesses at all?

Emily McEwan (01:22:27.488)
And I just want you to know that Radio Shack is a real store. It was a real store, a real thing, very real.

MacFuz (01:22:34.445)
I'm

Rik (01:22:34.673)
Yeah. Radio McRadioface?

Cal MacD (01:22:35.833)
No

MacFuz (01:22:36.909)
have a preference for the e-model myself.

Emily McEwan (01:22:37.833)
Yeah, right, okay.

MacFuz (01:22:43.625)
Mm-hmm. It is. It is.

Heather (01:22:43.782)
Mm-hmm.

Rik (01:22:44.134)
get-

Cal MacD (01:22:44.737)
Alright. So, yeah. I'll also accept the nickname. The nickname he gives the radio as well. I'll accept that.

MacFuz (01:22:56.418)
Bob.

Rik (01:22:57.938)
Okay

Cal MacD (01:22:58.027)
No, it's Cerebro.

MacFuz (01:23:01.873)
yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense, yeah.

Heather (01:23:02.136)
Never remembered that.

Cal MacD (01:23:02.563)
You know? Yeah. All right, so number.

Rik (01:23:02.94)
Yes.

Cal MacD (01:23:08.249)
Number three. Number three. What specific D &D creature does Will draw on the back of his castle by his fort in season one?

MacFuz (01:23:18.273)
Ooh.

Heather (01:23:19.253)
MacFuz (01:23:22.303)
Right. Is it a type of monster?

Cal MacD (01:23:26.457)
A D &D creature, that's all I'm telling you. I'm being as kind as I am with other causes.

MacFuz (01:23:28.663)
Okay. Bipedal or corpedal? Does have three legs or four?

Rik (01:23:29.267)
I love how you're to you're going to 20 questions this. Is it, is it, is it a Jackal? Is it a Jackal? A Jackal? It's a Jackal.

Cal MacD (01:23:34.456)
Yes.

Heather (01:23:38.866)
Does it have wings?

MacFuz (01:23:41.847)
It's a jackal! It's a jackal! It's a jackal! God!

Cal MacD (01:23:44.673)
Animal vegetable mineral, yeah.

MacFuz (01:23:46.906)
I'm gonna say Orc.

Cal MacD (01:23:52.973)
Wrong. I'll ha. Wrong. Heather?

Emily McEwan (01:23:55.539)
No, I'm not going to. I'll just, I'll just, I won't distinguish myself. It wasn't a Demogorgon.

Heather (01:23:59.76)
No.

MacFuz (01:24:00.717)
Donald Trump.

Cal MacD (01:24:00.949)
Okay. Emily, are you going to take a shot? I think you'll kick yourselves when...

Rik (01:24:02.732)
Hahaha

MacFuz (01:24:08.813)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:24:09.323)
same actually okay beware of Kalam and his trick questions

Rik (01:24:10.361)
No idea. No idea.

Cal MacD (01:24:11.231)
It... well, it's Demogorgon. It was...

MacFuz (01:24:15.199)
of course. I was gonna say Devogorgon, but it felt too obvious.

Heather (01:24:15.442)
Wow.

Rik (01:24:15.921)
AHHHH

Emily McEwan (01:24:17.547)
You

Heather (01:24:20.41)
It's like too obvious, yeah.

Rik (01:24:23.409)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:24:25.241)
Okay, this one... Yes.

MacFuz (01:24:26.381)
we're all part of the same hive mind the obvious question is the obvious answer is there but we're not gonna say it

Cal MacD (01:24:31.949)
Yeah. So what does the Russian phrase Hopper decodes from the Interceptor transmission in season three?

Rik (01:24:32.143)
Yep.

MacFuz (01:24:40.288)
You've got this Callum.

Heather (01:24:40.774)
Okay.

MacFuz (01:24:43.789)
Hahaha

Ow.

Emily McEwan (01:24:49.471)
P-tape.

MacFuz (01:24:51.341)
I meant chicken Kievs. Chicken Kievs.

Rik (01:24:53.843)
We have, we have the photos of Trump.

Heather (01:24:54.342)
You

Emily McEwan (01:24:54.623)
Yeah, I was going to say that. the something is something in the east. Yeah, that.

Cal MacD (01:24:55.673)
Yeah, so.

Yeah, well, it's not Hopper. That's pretty strong. It's, yeah, it's Robin. Sorry. Yeah, I got that wrong. Sorry, Robin.

Heather (01:25:02.96)
No it's not, it's Robin. the silver cat, the silver cat, something in the east rises?

Emily McEwan (01:25:03.155)
It's rising in the east, arising.

Rik (01:25:05.799)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:25:07.111)
Cal MacD (01:25:11.551)
Yep. Yep, you're almost there.

Emily McEwan (01:25:11.913)
close enough.

Rik (01:25:13.587)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:25:17.943)
Where, okay, the week is long the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the east.

Emily McEwan (01:25:18.219)
Haven't done my rewatch yet.

MacFuz (01:25:21.709)
See if, Okay, now I need, yeah.

Heather (01:25:23.628)
Emily McEwan (01:25:24.523)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:25:27.097)
All right. So, we've got a PhD here. So yeah, you should get this one. What real world Cold War program inspired Dr. Brenner's experiments? There we go. Yeah.

Rik (01:25:27.933)
Sounds about right for a cat. It's fussy and will only eat at a certain time. Yeah.

Heather (01:25:30.65)
You

MacFuz (01:25:30.669)
Yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:25:34.003)
well it wasn't Sputnik. I forget the name of it. I'm sorry. I didn't do my PhD in polysci.

MacFuz (01:25:37.772)
No pressure.

MacFuz (01:25:45.417)
my dad could probably answer this one.

Heather (01:25:47.879)
home.

Emily McEwan (01:25:49.611)
yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you should know that.

Cal MacD (01:25:50.425)
No.

MacFuz (01:25:54.708)
I could probably ask my great uncle Bruce, he might help.

Cal MacD (01:25:57.389)
Yeah, it's all right. Yep, there you go.

MacFuz (01:26:02.078)
well done.

Emily McEwan (01:26:05.449)
Was it Galaga? It wasn't Galaga. wasn't...asteroids? No. What was it?

Cal MacD (01:26:05.766)
This might be... Okay. Number six. What is the name of the arcade game Max beats Dustin and Lucas at causing their obsession with our score?

Heather (01:26:13.426)
Awww.

MacFuz (01:26:15.432)
was it not? It wasn't Mortal Kombat.

Cal MacD (01:26:19.157)
No, no knockout. No, no.

Emily McEwan (01:26:19.844)
wait, was the one with the video clips in it. damn it.

Rik (01:26:20.298)
No, not...

Heather (01:26:21.97)
Was it Donkey Kong?

Emily McEwan (01:26:26.075)
Ugh, I didn't spend enough time in arcades. I'm so sorry. Yeah.

Rik (01:26:30.253)
MacFuz (01:26:31.346)
Emily McEwan (01:26:34.038)
For flip's sake! Okay, of course it was.

Rik (01:26:40.723)
That's gone.

MacFuz (01:26:40.875)
Nah, he's gone.

Emily McEwan (01:26:41.611)
I haven't yet, so you can't pin that on me.

Cal MacD (01:26:43.786)
It's dig-dug.

MacFuz (01:26:45.28)
No. Okay.

Rik (01:26:45.899)
Ha

MacFuz (01:26:48.652)
Could you tell that we recently rewatched season 1 to 3?

Cal MacD (01:26:48.769)
Yeah.

Heather (01:26:54.148)
No.

Cal MacD (01:26:54.809)
Yes. So, Number seven. What is the chemical used by the Hawkins lab to sedate 11 and the sensory deprivation tank? What chemical do they use?

MacFuz (01:26:58.836)
Nah, neither have I.

MacFuz (01:27:07.361)
Academy.

Emily McEwan (01:27:12.02)
Emerald.

Cal MacD (01:27:13.911)
No, it's one that comes up quite a lot and I I find... What's that? Nope. Nope. You've heard... You will have heard this mentioned in some of the media we've watched. Nope.

MacFuz (01:27:17.686)
Emily McEwan (01:27:24.277)
Somebody is yelling at the screen watching YouTube right now, yelling the answer at all of us, and we can't pick it up.

MacFuz (01:27:27.66)
Pepto Bismol

Rik (01:27:29.907)
I'm so miserable.

Emily McEwan (01:27:33.511)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:27:38.771)
Yeah, except when we're asked it.

Cal MacD (01:27:39.609)
Yeah, yeah. It's sodium phenylpentol, truth serum, isn't it? Is that the truth serum? Yes. Yes. So, I'll just start easy on. What's the name of the newspaper where Nancy and Jonathan work in season three?

MacFuz (01:27:40.214)
Probably.

MacFuz (01:27:45.644)
that was easy. Easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So did Patrick. Everyone knows that. Yeah.

Rik (01:27:46.993)
Sodium pentanol, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:27:47.659)
The Hawkins Herald? Was it the Hawkins Herald?

Was it not the Herald?

MacFuz (01:27:59.07)
Not the Daily Bugle.

Emily McEwan (01:27:59.157)
Chronicle.

Cal MacD (01:28:02.411)
No, you're close though.

Emily McEwan (01:28:03.979)
Speaking of which, we actually still have a daily, we have a newspaper here in Nova Scotia called The Casket. Isn't that great? The Casket.

Heather (01:28:04.274)
It's the Hock and something.

MacFuz (01:28:06.038)
The Hawkins Mail?

Rik (01:28:07.005)
Hawkins Times, the Hawkins News, the Hawkins Tribune, the Hawkins Bugle, the Hawkins, the Daily Hawkins.

Cal MacD (01:28:10.873)
No. No. No. No. No.

Heather (01:28:15.854)
Daily Hawkins! No?

MacFuz (01:28:18.272)
The Hawkins' son!

Rik (01:28:20.626)
Yeah.

Rik (01:28:24.132)
Hawkins live Hawkins.

Emily McEwan (01:28:24.217)
frig.

Cal MacD (01:28:25.869)
Yeah.

no no hawkins 24 hawkins no it's hawkins post

Emily McEwan (01:28:33.291)
you

Rik (01:28:35.731)
That was going to be my next guess.

MacFuz (01:28:38.686)
I was gonna say Hawkins Daily Mail.

Cal MacD (01:28:39.715)
Yes. OK, yes. So what D &D class does Eddie Munson play?

Emily McEwan (01:28:41.482)
So what does that count?

Rik (01:28:47.187)
All these Demogorgons coming over here committing our murders.

Heather (01:28:49.778)
What does Eddie play?

Cal MacD (01:28:51.097)
So yep there you go you got it yeah a bard. Look this easy one to finish off see I'm being nice now. What's the name of the song that played during Max's escape from Vecna in season four?

Heather (01:28:54.264)
No. I see! I didn't think he was bored.

Emily McEwan (01:28:59.242)
Still walking up that hill.

MacFuz (01:29:01.669)
sure.

Heather (01:29:03.113)
huh.

MacFuz (01:29:04.0)
Yeah, yeah.

MacFuz (01:29:08.634)
it's something to do with a hill. Is it running? Yeah, I think it's more like a saunter.

Heather (01:29:10.105)
Hit him.

Rik (01:29:12.707)
Yeah, Slow moves. That's what it is, by the way.

Heather (01:29:13.498)
Just.

Emily McEwan (01:29:15.05)
Stop and think.

Cal MacD (01:29:15.083)
and then let's be most what what yes yes slow dancing

MacFuz (01:29:16.408)
Assaunter followed by a stagger stagger stagger walk walk walk stagger stagger stagger

Heather (01:29:18.694)
What is that?

Cal MacD (01:29:24.793)
And then just add a wee bit more in. What year was it released in? What year was it released in?

Emily McEwan (01:29:26.388)
the song.

Rik (01:29:27.271)
It's the lazy song by Bruno Mars, isn't it?

MacFuz (01:29:29.029)
Ha ha.

Heather (01:29:29.264)
Hahaha!

MacFuz (01:29:33.96)
82.

Heather (01:29:35.515)
Ugh.

Cal MacD (01:29:37.803)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Rik (01:29:38.867)
83, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85.

Heather (01:29:39.161)
No.

MacFuz (01:29:43.884)
84.7

Cal MacD (01:29:46.147)
So you've now seen a Rick once, once managed to win the course that he didn't win. Even though Heddaward is still claiming that. Do you know he's still?

Rik (01:29:49.095)
Hahaha

MacFuz (01:29:53.12)
Somehow Rick won.

Rik (01:29:58.557)
I am all the quiz.

MacFuz (01:29:58.828)
All your quiz up belong to me!

Cal MacD (01:30:01.751)
Yes. Do you know he's still wearing that medal? Rick, do you know he's still wearing that medal? We interviewed Howard Scott Warshaw, legendary Atari developer, and he had that medal on and showed it to Howard. Because he said to Howard, they said, I'm a therapist too. And he went, yeah, Howard, but look. my God.

Rik (01:30:05.811)
you

Heather (01:30:14.83)
You came...

Heather (01:30:20.658)
He came up to me on New Year's Eve at work and in Lanter and he goes, he goes, my New Year's resolution for next year is to win more quizzes. And I was like, not to be more humble. And he went, no.

Rik (01:30:20.851)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:30:25.273)
god.

Rik (01:30:33.171)
hahahahah

Cal MacD (01:30:33.663)
No.

MacFuz (01:30:34.284)
Well, if it helps, think he won another quiz last year.

Heather (01:30:41.764)
Yeah he won the gateway nerds one.

MacFuz (01:30:43.06)
Yes, he did. He's a part of my team. I'll say that. It is my team.

Cal MacD (01:30:43.097)
no he won too

Rik (01:30:48.935)
Put Des and me on the same team and see how he feels.

Heather (01:30:51.74)
Yeah

Emily McEwan (01:30:51.946)
OK. Yeah. That'll be all right. Because we've got a good generational spread now, so that could work in our favor.

Cal MacD (01:30:53.489)
Is this what will finally bring you and Des together? must... Heraward must be stopped no matter the cost.

Rik (01:30:55.79)
Hahaha

Heather (01:30:56.966)
We must be terrified.

Rik (01:30:59.335)
Hahaha

MacFuz (01:30:59.958)
Hey, what?

Ooh yeah, that would actually be quite good. But question is how many people are on the host team because yeah.

Heather (01:31:04.027)
Ooh!

Cal MacD (01:31:06.009)
I'm okay.

Emily McEwan (01:31:06.346)
Yes, we do.

Just had to put the word Atari in there.

Cal MacD (01:31:11.97)
Yeah.

Well.

MacFuz (01:31:16.821)
Atari

Cal MacD (01:31:18.809)
Atari? Yep. Yes. I will see. I will buy someone the bottle of drink of their choice if they just answered everything Atari in the quotes next year. I will happily.

MacFuz (01:31:19.412)
Atari.

Rik (01:31:23.507)
huh.

MacFuz (01:31:25.313)
Sorry.

MacFuz (01:31:32.532)
mass media, i-i-i have a pre- i have a preference for spiced rum, specifically kraken or mead

Emily McEwan (01:31:35.422)
Hmm. Hmm.

Cal MacD (01:31:38.745)
Okay, you've got all you got to do is deliberately sabotage your quiz entry. But then head of word wins. But head of word wins if you do that. So are you willing to make that sacrifice letting head of word win again?

Heather (01:31:40.658)
What?

Emily McEwan (01:31:42.698)
Calum, I think you should have.

MacFuz (01:31:42.998)
All right, done.

Heather (01:31:46.523)
Yeah

MacFuz (01:31:46.636)
It's fine.

Rik (01:31:51.155)
I will enjoy that bottle of Lagavulin.

MacFuz (01:31:51.704)
absolutely. Yep, Give me that meme.

Cal MacD (01:31:54.873)
All right.

Heather (01:31:55.282)
Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:31:58.455)
So no, what happened there... So I think... So Rick, the explanation behind the old Atari thing was Riverside generated a clip of the best of our year. And it said the most said word was Atari. And then it presented a clip of me, Herward, and Howard Scott Warshaw saying the word Atari over and over again. And so now, like when Herward says, presenting on his Facebook profile, you just see us commenting.

Rik (01:32:02.727)
Let me just look up most expensive whiskey available.

MacFuz (01:32:05.793)
Hahaha

Heather (01:32:05.933)
Hahaha

MacFuz (01:32:12.737)
yeah.

Emily McEwan (01:32:12.906)
Thank

Rik (01:32:14.258)
Mmm.

Rik (01:32:22.245)
Amazing.

Cal MacD (01:32:27.991)
I tidy all the time.

Rik (01:32:29.403)
Brilliant. Approve.

Emily McEwan (01:32:31.595)
I think you should, you should let Graham and myself show off our shirts. because we didn't do that when the podcast started. So yeah, but you, but you, but your shows how the two are related, right? So if you got it, you got to stand up slightly. Okay. So, so yours is the, yours is the, is the merchandising. Yours is the merch for stranger things, Hellfire club. And so I'm wearing one of the things that was.

MacFuz (01:32:32.819)
So if any of you guys are watching this just now, if you approve of this podcast, write Atari.

Cal MacD (01:32:32.961)
Yes.

Cal MacD (01:32:39.725)
Yes, just spam Atari in the comments please.

Rik (01:32:39.739)
MacFuz (01:32:48.544)
Yeah. Yes.

Cal MacD (01:32:49.059)
Yes, go ahead. Yes. Explain your shirt, Emily.

Heather (01:32:54.309)
I'm no-

Emily McEwan (01:32:58.364)
an inspiration for the Hellfire Club shirts, is mine's actually 1987, but even in 87, this was a throwback to their 1982 broadsword and the beast tour t-shirt of Jethro Tull, course. And I was not. What's that?

Cal MacD (01:33:02.137)
Stand up for the crowd.

Emily McEwan (01:33:19.402)
Oh, turn around, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right,

Cal MacD (01:33:25.827)
But now drop the mic, drop the mic now. You've got your mic drop moment. Yeah, see.

Rik (01:33:27.175)
Okay.

Emily McEwan (01:33:33.313)
Anyway.

MacFuz (01:33:36.844)
The other guy.

Cal MacD (01:33:42.489)
I'm when he finds this podcast he'll be happy to see I'm the other guy.

Emily McEwan (01:33:43.05)
Apologies to the other guy if he ever ends up seeing this. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, no, so this was 87, but it was based on the 1982 original Broad Sword and the Beast tour t-shirt. So they were calling back to it. This was from the Crest of a Knave tour in 1987, but it is still 80s. So yes, there you go. And my high school had its own actual satanic panic D &D thing with somebody who actually did kill two people, a student.

MacFuz (01:33:48.358)
he's even signed- he's even signed the other guy

Cal MacD (01:33:53.879)
Yes. Yes. Hello. Yes.

Heather (01:33:58.511)
I'm

Rik (01:34:03.763)
Okay.

Cal MacD (01:34:12.217)
You

Emily McEwan (01:34:12.766)
who was in the year above mine, who actually did murder two other students in his year. And he was a D &D player and they tried to pin it on that. So anyway, I'll tell you more about that some other time.

Cal MacD (01:34:15.481)
Okay.

MacFuz (01:34:18.892)
Mm-hmm.

Emily McEwan (01:34:27.53)
my gosh.

Cal MacD (01:34:29.229)
Look, I'm going to tell you this.

Rik (01:34:32.031)
And he was a B &B player. Anyway, I'll tell you more about that.

Cal MacD (01:34:36.153)
I've got a satanic panic story of myself. I got severely reprimanded, remanded by my local youth club for what I said. They brought in this evangelical minister to warn us about the evils of Satanism. And then he started going, I knew this boy. He listened to Iron Maiden and he killed himself. Without thinking, I said the words, well, their new stuff's not that great, but come on.

Emily McEwan (01:34:59.529)
Well done. And here you are today.

Rik (01:35:00.595)
Brilliant.

Cal MacD (01:35:05.279)
Nuts. I just couldn't help it.

Heather (01:35:05.927)
Thank

Emily McEwan (01:35:13.449)
You

don't know how it makes sense.

Cal MacD (01:35:19.713)
Yes, I'm such a happy well adjust. I've channeled all that hate, you know, into my quizzes now. That's my outlet for all that awful stuff in me. As you all know, I make people suffer through... Yeah, what better way to answer people's suffer through my quiz questions. yeah.

Heather (01:35:20.53)
you

Rik (01:35:23.155)
Okay.

MacFuz (01:35:33.502)
You

Emily McEwan (01:35:34.205)
You created a monster. We're just going to call you Frankenstein now. yeah, Robin actually did say that. That was quite good, wasn't it? Robin, Robin saying it's Frankenstein. Good moment.

Rik (01:35:38.555)
Yeah.

MacFuz (01:35:39.772)
and make other people suffer even more through Herod winning them.

Heather (01:35:40.357)
Meh.

Cal MacD (01:35:43.489)
Yes, I've unleashed, I've unwittingly created our own. Yeah, the old.

Heather (01:35:45.661)
You've got the least of beasts.

MacFuz (01:35:47.317)
Yeah.

Cal MacD (01:35:53.517)
Yeah, I've created the.

MacFuz (01:35:55.85)
Although my irritation is if Frankenstein was a German, if it's an actual German name, the last three, the letters EI would be swapped around. IE produces the E sound. EI produces I sound. I can speak a little German, but it's not perfect. that's my sort of linguistical irritation.

Rik (01:36:09.555)
and and

Emily McEwan (01:36:09.737)
you

Cal MacD (01:36:16.803)
You

Cal MacD (01:36:20.276)
jeez.

Thank you.

MacFuz (01:36:25.408)
But then again, I understand because as people migrate, languages are mispronounced and that just becomes the norm.

Emily McEwan (01:36:28.179)
Hehehehehe

Cal MacD (01:36:35.054)
You've mentioned linguistics. There's a bat signal going off for Founch as we speak now. He's going to be rushing the earth to correct everyone. All right, everyone. Thank you, whole team, for coming along. This has been a blast. And especially big thanks to Rick for finally coming on the show. There he is. It's always great to have you, Rick. And will you come back in the future?

Heather (01:36:39.566)
I'm

Emily McEwan (01:36:42.087)
Yay!

Rik (01:36:53.143)
Yeah, thank you. It's lovely to be here.

MacFuz (01:36:59.126)
Yes.

Rik (01:36:59.787)
just don't do the quiz again. No, of course, of course we got, we got, got Starfleet Academy coming up.

Cal MacD (01:37:01.665)
Yes. Yes. Because we do need to.

Heather (01:37:01.714)
Hahaha!

MacFuz (01:37:08.764)
nice, yes.

Cal MacD (01:37:09.205)
yes. And it's been mentioned, somebody mentioned that I was doing an IT-cred retrospective at some point.

MacFuz (01:37:15.372)
I need to get back into the IT crowd, I've not seen that in a while.

Emily McEwan (01:37:15.667)
the

Rik (01:37:15.795)
Emily McEwan (01:37:18.864)
Thank

Cal MacD (01:37:18.921)
which Heather hasn't watched and I'm saying if you watch that Heather I'll watch all of Supernatural which is yes yes

MacFuz (01:37:22.464)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (01:37:23.922)
Well you're watch all the Supernatural anyway, because Supernatural's brilliant!

Cal MacD (01:37:30.519)
So yeah, we've got two nodes. Yes.

Heather (01:37:30.866)
There was and I got them all right.

MacFuz (01:37:34.06)
You

Cal MacD (01:37:36.473)
So with that everyone, Rick, as you're the guest, where can people find you if they've enjoyed your opinions and your opinionating tonight?

Rik (01:37:44.551)
Well, I hope they don't find me in my house. That's the, stay away from that. that'd be weird. but.

MacFuz (01:37:51.864)
Just knock on the door go HELLO

Emily McEwan (01:37:52.405)
Thank

Rik (01:37:54.355)
I'm on like social media just like search for my name. So Rick Carranza. Good luck spelling it. So I really should have put it here, like the full thing. I really should have put the full thing here, but I didn't think that through. So, but yeah, it's fine. put it. I'm on,

Cal MacD (01:38:06.03)
Yes.

Heather (01:38:06.512)
Mm-hmm.

MacFuz (01:38:07.948)
Post editing.

Cal MacD (01:38:12.42)
And I can put in actual quiz winner as well too. I know you had a word. Yes.

Rik (01:38:15.667)
There we go. Thank you. I've got a, yeah, I've got a YouTube chat. I've got a YouTube channel. Um, so go check that out where I talk a lot of Star Trek stuff. Um, and, uh, you can find me on most social media. So I am still on Facebook for some reason I'm on like Instagram. I'm on tick tock because I'm trying to recapture my youth. Um, and, uh, I'm not on X that can go burn in hell. Uh, but you can find me on, you find me on threads and blue sky instead. I'll have to my name. Okay. Cool.

Heather (01:38:15.698)
Take that from me, thanks.

MacFuz (01:38:16.777)
Yeah

Emily McEwan (01:38:30.025)
through sky.

MacFuz (01:38:38.4)
Yes.

Cal MacD (01:38:39.181)
Yes.

Heather (01:38:39.256)
Yes!

MacFuz (01:38:42.358)
Blue skies good.

Cal MacD (01:38:42.635)
Alright.

Okay and well there is one last question we always ask but you've already answered this question twice Rick. Is would you consider visiting the Hebrides? So you're such a good one. You've already done it before. I'm sure we'll see you again.

Emily McEwan (01:38:46.249)
Thank

MacFuz (01:38:55.392)
Okay.

Rik (01:38:58.739)
I I feel like it's Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so much. I also appreciate the last time I came up, there was this one building that was covered in pride flags and upside down American flags with shame on you, Donald. I was like, well done, well done. I appreciate you. So I'm coming back just to see that place again.

Cal MacD (01:39:02.689)
Yes.

MacFuz (01:39:02.758)
Hahaha!

MacFuz (01:39:07.111)
You

MacFuz (01:39:17.28)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Cal MacD (01:39:21.517)
Yes.

You are right. Yes.

Heather (01:39:25.969)
Yep.

Cal MacD (01:39:29.975)
Yep. Yes. So with that everyone, enjoy the rest of your evening and look forward to a good year. We've got lots of good stuff coming, so stay tuned. Good night everyone. Bye.

MacFuz (01:39:44.064)
Bye.

Heather (01:39:45.276)
Bye!