Stranger Things – Chapter Seven: The Bite

By: Nicole Rodenbaugh

The Fourth of July Fair is filled with happy townspeople eating and enjoying rides. Mayor Larry Kline (Cary Elwes) gives a speech. A couple and their child ride the ferris wheel and it stops at the top so they can see the fireworks, which start to explode in the sky above them. The child notices trees rustling. Her parents ignore her.

In the shuffling trees a growl escapes. At the cabin in the woods the fireworks are seen in the distance. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) explains what Billy told her about the army to stop her. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Max (Sadie Sink), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Will (Noah Schnapp) are listening. Nancy then hears a noise out the window. She asks El if in her vision Billy was talking to her in the cabin. Will senses the Mind Flayer. They all run out to see it approaching.

Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is driving Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Erica (Priah Ferguson) down the hallway to the elevator. They crash into barrels to stop. The team is now in the elevator headed up. Steve and Robin are still drugged and enjoying the trip up. Dustin and Erica worry if they will be okay. Dustin asks where the car is parked. Steve tells Dustin the keys were taken. They walk out the doors and more Russian Military run towards them. They enter a side door of the mall.

Nancy grabs a shot gun and Jonathan grabs a hatchet as the rest of the team barricades the doors and windows with furniture. They wait quietly back to back in a circle as the light flickers. One of the Mind Flayer’s arms bursts through the wall and Jonathan tries to cut it in half. It throws him and Nancy starts to shoot at it. It turns to her and El stops it before it can grasp Nancy. She rips its claws off. Two more bust through the wall and El is holding both back now. She proceeds to rip their claws off, too. Then, one comes through the ceiling directly out of the Mind Flayer’s mouth. It grabs El by the leg and pulls her. Max, Will and Mike try to pull El out of its grasp. Lucas runs up and chops the arm off. El stands up and rips its head in half. All the kids run out to the car and race away.

Robin, Dustin, Steve and Erica enter the movie theater through the back hall. Back to the Future is playing in a packed theater. Dustin sits Robin and Steve down in empty seats and then proceeds to sit with Erica in empty seats at the other end. Dustin tells Erica to watch Robin and Steve. Dustin leaves to find a way out.

Still in the car, Alexei (Alec Utgoff) is explaining they need 2 keys to shut down the laser machine. Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) argue back and forth. Murray (Brett Gelman) tells them to admit their feelings for each other or get a room. Alexei and Murray laugh at the fact that Hopper and Joyce haven’t had sex yet.

Nancy and team break into a grocery store to get supplies to help El’s leg. Nancy tells Jonathan that she thinks if they kill the Mind Flayer the flayed die. Lucas finds and grabs a cart of fireworks as a backup plan. Mike tells El he is sorry and dodges telling her he loves her.

Mike hears Dustin over the radio, but it cuts in and out. Dustin comes back to the theater and Steve and Robin are gone. Robin and Steve are in the lobby drinking out of the water fountain. Steve and Robin get entranced by the ceiling lights before running to the bathroom to get sick.

Hopper, Joyce, Alexei and Murray pull up to the fair. Hopper and Joyce enter the fair while Alexei and Murray stay in the car. Mayor Larry spots Hopper and runs to call the Russians from his car phone.

El is sitting in front of Eggo waffle section of the grocery store using the white noise of the refrigerator to channel. She saw Dustin at the theater. They leave the store and the puddle of El’s blood turns to a mini flay goo spot.

In the bathroom Steve and Robin try to determine if they are still drugged by asking each other questions. Steve tells Robin that she is the girl for him. Robin tells Steve that she likes girls. That’s why she was obsessed with Steve. Not because she liked him, but a girl she liked only noticed Steve and not her. Steve tells her that girl wasn’t good enough for Robin anyway. Dustin and Erica burst in the bathroom door.

Billy (Dacre Montgomery) enters the grocery store and finds Eleven’s blood.

Alexei and Murray decide to go into the fair for some fun. Murray buys tickets and hands them to Alexei. Murray leaves Alexei to play games while he goes to get food. Hopper and Lucas spot Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) and Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) entering the Graviton so they follow. They ask where the kids are and Karen says they are sleeping over someone’s house. The Graviton starts with Hopper and Joyce in it. They hold hands.

The movie ends and Dustin, Erica, Steve and Robin try to get on a bus with the group leaving the theater. A Russian spots the kids. They run back into the mall.

Alexei wins the big prize back at the fair. While walking to meet Murray, the Man in Black Grigori (Andrey Ivchenko) walks by and shoots him with a gun and silencer. Murray drags a bleeding Alexei next to a food cart and runs to get Hopper and Joyce. He yells to Hopper who spots the Grigori and runs with Joyce. Another Russian man is walking up to them from the other way. Hopper distracts the Russians by entering the Fun House while Joyce gets the car to save Alexei and Murray. They Russians follow Hopper.

Joyce and Murray go back to Alexei who has died. Hopper beats up the first man to enter and grabs his gun and walkie talkie. Grigori enters the funhouse next. Joyce and Hopper walk out of the fair. Joyce spots Larry and punches and kicks him. She knows he alerted the Russians. Grigori is now in the mirror section of the funhouse. He shoots at Hopper, but it is just a reflection and Hopper shoots him and leaves. The Man in Black was wearing a bulletproof vest and follows Hopper. Hopper catches Joyce driving and jumps in the car. Hopper now has Murray translating the radio transmission.

At the food court armed Russian men are looking for the kids. They spot movement and walk towards where the kids are hiding. Before they can shoot a car display is activated. El is there and she throws the car with it crushing the men. The Scoops gang look up to see Eleven. They reunite happily. Erica and Robin are confused how El has super powers. Dustin tried to explain the Russian issue. Eleven is overwhelmed by a loud noise and falls. It is her leg. A flay creature is in her leg. She screams.