In this Halloween episode, the giant monster of Will’s visions gets closer and closer every time he sees it. This season of Stranger Things is way more sinister than the last.

The episode begins where Eleven ended last season. She defeats the Demogorgon and vanishes, calling out for Mike.

Everything goes black for a second.

Eleven wakes up in the Upside Down, coughing out some fluid and still calling out for Mike. She wanders the halls of the Upside Down school, and sees a small tear into our reality.

She uses her powers to widen the tear and breaks through. Eleven walks back to Mike’s house, but there are government agents everywhere. Mike sees her as she peeks through the window, but neither say anything to keep Eleven safe from the agents. Eleven leaves and doesn’t come back.

Back in the present, Hopper is making breakfast on Halloween morning. El startles Hopper as she tries to convince him to take her trick-or-treating. She is in a cute ghost costume which in my opinion is the highlight of the episode.

Hopper is extremely cautious and says no, which makes perfect sense. There’s no doubt the government agents are still on high alert for Eleven. She is disappointed and very dissatisfied. Hopper is trying to keep her happy and safe, but it’s not quite possible to do both. She’s going stir-crazy stuck in the hidden little cabin.

Will, Mike, Lucas and Dustin are going to school dressed (very appropriately) as Ghostbusters. Unfortunately when they get to school no one else dressed up. This visually drives home their misfit status to the viewer, and it’s done without making it too depressing. It’s a well-written show.

In the government lab, they send another soldier into the Upside Down to repair some equipment they’ve constructed on the other side. Its purpose is unclear, but it’s definitely made for taking data of some kind. I’m actually surprised that such sophisticated electronics work in the Upside Down. I wouldn’t like to be on the technician side of that hellish signal-to-noise ratio.

Eleven sits at home, learning English by watching TV. She has a flashback to last year after escaping the government. She kills a squirrel psychically, mugs a hunter and steals his coat. I’m with her. She needs it more than he does, and it’s below freezing. She feels guilty though, from the look on her face.

Max drives away from school with, I assume, her brother. He’s a maniac and almost kills Lucas, Dustin and Mike. Will was home getting ready for trick-or-treating.

Hopper and his deputies are investigating more farms that have suddenly become rotten in a way that earthly plants never do. There’s not much to do though, so they just mark the weirdly degraded plants with flags.

Will is trick-or-treating with the group plus a new addition, Max. Will gets bullied and finds himself in another vision of the Upside Down. He calls out, but the monster of his other visions rises up, spreading out its giant tentacles and coming for him with impossible speed.

Will runs. He hides and curls up, closing his eyes. As the tentacles crawl towards him, Will hears his name and Mike once again pulls him from the Upside Down, just like he did last season and just like he did with Will during his first vision in Chapter One: MADMAX.

Hopper breaks his promise to Eleven about when he’ll be back on Halloween night, and he comes home to find she’s taken the TV and locked herself in her room. Hopper is disgusted with himself, as he should be. Eleven watches TV, changing the channel with her mind. She blindfolds herself and psychically watches Mike as he attempts to contact her once again.

Dustin goes home and confronts something rattling in his garbage can. But when he sees what it is, he reacts with surprise, not fear. Unlike Dustin, we have to wait until the next episode to see what it contains. Binge watching FTW!

See all our Stranger Things Season 2 Recaps here