Stranger Things 2: Episode 7 “The Lost Sister” Review

Eleven/Jane finds home in this necessary, but overly simple, detour.

★★★ (borderline two and a half)

“The Lost Sister” is a chamber piece; namely, an episode that represents a momentary stylistic and perhaps thematic focus shift away from the rest of a season (possibly involving some sort of high-concept in the process). It’s a kind of episode that is becoming more popular as of late, which is kind of interesting given the rise of serialized storytelling in television, but can often provide a series with some of its best moments. Bojack Horseman has staked something of a claim to having a chamber piece each season with stories such as “Fish out of Water” – an episode that is almost entirely devoid of dialogue (much like Buffy’s “Hush”). Breaking Bad had “The Fly” wherein Walter and Jesse spend an entire episode chasing a fly in the meth lab which ends up functioning as a glimpse into Walt’s damaged psyche. Doctor Who has endulged chamber pieces for the last three seasons and, as a result, netted arguably the best episode of television ever with “Heaven Sent”. “The Lost Sister” is Stranger Things’ go and while I actually kind of enjoyed it, just thinking about this episode for review is enough to bring to light that, as good as this episode sounds on paper, it just doesn’t pack enough of a punch to justify the 40 minute detour.

The episode definitely isn’t as bad as most people will have you believe. I mean, yeesh, take a quick Google and see for yourself. A couple more clicks will probably tell you that the main reason it sucks is because it sticks jams a big crowbar into the show’s pacing just as it was heating up. I, somewhat surprisingly, don’t really mind this shift in pace; partly because the pacing this season hasn’t tried to go for a constant stream of ante-upping, but also because I kind of saw it coming. I mean, Eleven was gone for a whole episode that ended with the show’s biggest cliffhanger yet. Given the trouble the writers seem to have had fitting her storyline into the season so far, it’s not much of a leap to reason that they are about to take an episode out to give her storyline its proper due. Most importantly the episode is a necessary one as well, providing Jane with her pivotal character moment this Season.

No longer on run, but now in hiding, Eleven has spent all of Season 2 yearning for home. Having abandoned the one provided by Hopper, she follows the memories provided by her mother to find others abused by the Hawkins Lab. She finds Eight or Kali – a girl living amongst outlaws that has the ability to make people see things that aren’t really there. Wow, spelling that out makes the episode sound even more on the nose than it actually is.

The key character turn of the episode revolves around Eleven realising that she can’t live out a life of vengeance and that she needs to return home. This is obviously going to be essential for later on, but the episode doesn’t really explore its own concepts nearly as much as it thinks it’s going to. This is the ultimate episode where more nuance would have been appropriate, but instead we get an episode whose dialogue is “Vengeance is good”, “Actually no it isn’t, oh wait I’m getting a vision so bye.”

I get the feeling the writers wrote themselves into a bit of a wall by having Eleven’s storyline play disconnected to the main group rather than properly tangentially related to each other. “The Lost Sister” is pivotal enough that shoving it into flashback-sized chunks would seem texturally inappropriate, but at the same time, the episode could have achieved exactly what it needed to in about half the runtime.

It doesn’t help that the supporting cast for the episode are a bit naff. Kali comes out strongest, although I couldn’t claim to have as good a read on her as other new characters such as Bob, while the supporting cast are about as richly drawn as the playable band members in Guitar Hero.

I actually don’t enjoy grumbling about this one. I lambasted Stranger Things last Season in part for bad episodic storytelling, so it’s almost beyond comprehension that they’ve decided to try such an explicitly standalone episode here. In fact, I hope that when Season 3 comes knocking, they maybe take stock and give the whole thing another go.

But for this first effort, it really comes down to one reason as to why “The Lost Sister” doesn’t work even though it’s conceptually more focused than an episode such as “Will the Wise”: I just can’t imagine wanting to watch this episode again. The best chamber pieces in television often take the opportunity to openly reflect and dismantle a character (or the entire show) up to that point and I would have loved for Stranger Things to be so ambitious, especially given Season 2 has been a much more cohesive effort than Season 1. But instead it largely wastes the opportunity and that might just be what sucks most of all.

Episode 8 "The Mind Flayer" review here.

Other notes:

• I've seen a lot of vitriol flung this episode's way and I want clarify again that I really don't think it deserves it. I tried to make it clear that I appreciate the effort that goes into the necessity of Eleven's development; I just think they could have gone further.

• Millie Bobby Brown continues to blow her last Season work out of the water. And I thought she was good last season.

• If the final scene of this season is James McAvoy or Patrick Stewart inviting Jane and Kali to his school, then know that I called it here first.

• This episode really loves its needle drops; I mean, ‘Runaway’ by Bon Jovi? I don’t really mind all that much, but we’re stepping dangerously close to Suicide Squad levels, here.

• There’s more to talk about here, but if it’s okay with everyone, I just want to move on and see what the show has in store next. Cool? Cool.

• And yes, I see the irony in me calling out an episode for not going as deep as it could and then not looking into that episode as deep as I could. Don't @ me.

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