911, what's your emergency?
Is someone there? Hello?
What do you want?
Hey! I said, what do you want?
-I said, what do you want?
Hey. Is everything okay?
Yes.
Hello, this is the Wheelers.
Yeah, just a sec.
Mike!
Phone!
Okay!
Hello?
It's 9:32. Where are you?
Sorry, I-- I was just about to call.
I, um...
can't see you today.
What... Why not?
It's my Nana.
She's very sick.
But Hop said that your Nana was okay,
that it was a false alarm.
Yeah.
That's... what... we thought it was at first,
but then she took a real turn for the worse.
-Oh. -Yeah.
We think she might...
-die. -What?
Mom! Get off the phone!
How many times?!
Did Nana call?!
No, Mom! Just get off the phone!
Sorry about that.
-Was that your mom? -Yeah.
She's so upset, she's making no sense.
Because we have to go to the nursing home.
To see Nana.
-You can come over after? -No!
I mean, I--
I just think... I need to be alone today.
With my...
feelings?
Do you lie?
What? No.
Friends don't lie.
What, Mom?
My mom's calling me. Better go.
Talk to you tomorrow. Miss you already. Bye!
Hey.
What's going on?
♪ And they say You don't tug on Superman's cape ♪
♪ You don't spit into the wind ♪
♪ You don't pull the mask on That old Lone Ranger ♪
♪ And you don't mess around with Jim ♪
♪ Yeah I'm lookin' for the king Of 42nd Street ♪
♪ He drivin' a drop top Cadillac ♪
♪ Last week he took all my money And it may sound funny ♪
♪ But I come to get my money back ♪
♪ And everybody say Jack... ♪
Emotions have been shared.
Boundaries have been set.
Order...
has been...
-restored. -Wait, wait, it worked?
Uh, this is the first day
in six long, excruciating months
that they will not be seeing each other.
Yes, I think it worked! Yes!
No, stop.
It's all you.
I'm a puppet, you're the master.
So you remembered everything?
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I had to improvise a little bit, you know?
It turns out, getting to Mike,
now that was the key.
And you didn't yell at him?
I'll tell you everything over dinner.
I was thinking, you know, Enzo's, tonight, 7:00.
Hey, before you say no,
I'd-- I'd like to make one thing crystal clear.
This is not a date.
Wait, a date?
You never said anything about a date.
I know, I didn't say anything about a date.
I just wanted to clear it up in case there was any confusion on your part.
-There's not. -Great.
It's just two friends getting together for a nice dinner.
I mean, we've earned it, haven't we?
I can't be out late.
You'll be home by 9:00.
-8:00. -8:30, I'll pick you up.
-I'll meet you there. -7:00. Enzo's. Meeting there.
Deal.
- Hey, Chief, you copy? Chief!
Yeah, I'm a little busy right now.
Recall the mall!
-Yeah, well, I'm busier here. -Recall the mall!
You wanna keep your job tomorrow,
I think you need to get your ass to Town Hall. Now.
Duty calls.
Oh! Jeez.
Cleanup on aisle five.
-Bye. -See you tonight.
Oh, shit, shit.
Whoopsie-daisy!
Careful there, Nancy Drew. Careful.
Pouring coffee's a tough gig, girl.
And here you are, two creams, two sugars.
Thanks, sweetheart.
Of course.
-Tom? -Hm?
I really hate to ask this,
but do you think one of the other girls could run and grab lunch today?
They're needed at their desks.
I know, I just, um...
I really need to go to the doctor.
I've been having some...
um...
girl problems.
-Oh, come on! The light! -Let's go.
Look, I just...
I just don't know if this is such a good idea anymore.
Really? Because I feel like it's the best idea I've had all summer.
Look, all I'm saying is, what harm is there in asking?
The harm in asking is that Tom will say no.
We ask for forgiveness, not permission.
And if this story's as good as I think it's gonna be, then Tom won't care.
In fact, he'll thank us.
Or the old lady is nuts
and the story blows up in our face
and Tom fires us.
And then we never have to work at this shithole again.
♪ Go, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ So get up and go ♪
♪ If you're so tired of moving slow ♪
♪ Go ♪
♪ Get up and go! ♪
-Have a nice day. - Thank you.
-Hi. -Hi.
I'm Dustin.
I'm Robin.
Pleasure to meet you. Uh, is-- is he here?
Is who here?
Henderson.
Henderson! He's back!
-He's back! -I'm back!
You got the job!
I got the job!
Hey! Oh!
Ah!
How many children are you friends with?
No, no. No way.
-Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No. -Mm-hmm.
Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in.
She says kissing is better without teeth.
Wow. Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man.
That's ro-- That's kinda romantic.
-That's like... Wow. -Hm.
So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?
Yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though.
-I gotta keep in shape for the ladies. -Yeah, and how's that working out for you?
-Ignore her. -She seems cool.
She's not. So, where are the other knuckleheads?
They ditched me yesterday.
-No. -My first day back.
-Can you believe that shit? -Whoa. Seriously?
I swear to God. Mm.
They're gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don't get to share in my glory.
Glory? What glory?
So, last night,
we're trying to get in contact with Suzie...
Oh. Mm.
-Mm-hmm? -Mm-hmm.
And, uh...
...and the orange sherbert and chocolate.
I intercepted a secret Russian communication.
What?
Uh...
I intercepted a secret Russian communication.
-Just speak louder. - I intercepted
a secret Russian communication!
Jeez, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said.
What-- What does that mean?
It means, Steve, we could be heroes.
True American heroes.
-Huh. -Mm-hmm?
-American heroes. -Just think,
you could have all the ladies you want and more.
-More? -More.
-I like more. -Mm-hmm.
What's the catch?
No catch, I just need your help.
With what?
Translation.
Shit!
Hi.
Hi?
Can we talk?
And then he said he-- he missed me.
And then he just hung up.
-He's a piece of shit. -What?
Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, and his Nana obviously isn't sick.
I guarantee you, him and Lucas are playing Atari right now.
But friends don't lie.
Yeah, well, boyfriends lie.
All the time.
She knows I'm lying. She knows I'm lying.
-I don't even understand. Why lie? -Hopper.
He threatened me.
-Did he say he'd kill you? -What? No.
-So then, what's the big deal? -The big deal is
if I don't do what he says, then he'll stop me from seeing El.
Like, permanently.
-You don't understand, Lucas. He's crazy.
He's lost his mind.
Hey, guys, I'm almost set up here.
I had no choice, Lucas. I really had no choice.
I just wish you'd consulted me,
because the way you handled this,
you're in deep shit.
You're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore his calls.
As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist.
Doesn't exist?
He treated you like garbage.
You're gonna treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine.
Give him the medicine.
Mm-hmm. And if he doesn't fix this,
if he doesn't explain himself,
dump his ass.
I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna be bad.
But...
you can fix this.
It's just one little mistake.
I've made hundreds, thousands.
Max has dumped me five times.
But what have I done?
Huh? Have I despaired? No.
I've marched back into battle,
and I've won her back every single freaking time.
-How? -I'll show you.
Come on.
-Where are we going? -To have some fun.
There's more to life than stupid boys, you know.
Wait, guys!
I'm still here!
Guys?
Hey! No dunking, Curtis.
No...
dunking.
God, even her voice annoys me.
Nails on a chalkboard.
Don't worry, ladies, ten more minutes till showtime.
Liz, will you get my back?
♪ I've done it again ♪
♪ I've let you in ♪
♪ To tear my heart in two... ♪
Hey, Jill, I gotta use the restroom. Will you watch Holly for me?
-Sure thing, hon. -Thanks.
Billy?
I...
I understand if you're angry with me.
I just...
I wanted to explain...
...why I didn't come last night.
It's not you, it's just...
I have a family.
And I can't do anything that will hurt them.
You can understand that, right?
-But I shouldn't have said that--
Billy.
Billy...
Please, will you talk to me?
Stay away from me, Karen.
Looking good, Billy.
Afternoon, Billy.
Mmm.
Can I try the peppermint stick?
Haven't you already tried the peppermint stick?
Yes, and I'd like to try it again.
Steve!
So what do you think?
-It sounded familiar. -What?
The music. The music right there at the end.
Why are you listening to the music, Steve?
Listen to the Russian!
-We're translating Russian! -I'm trying to listen to the Russian,
-but there's music-- -All right, babysitting time is over.
You need to get in there.
Hey, my board. That was important data, shitbirds.
I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data.
Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?
-How does she know about the Russians? -I don't know.
-You told her about-- -It wasn't me.
Hello, I can hear you. Actually, I can hear everything.
You are both extremely loud.
You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape,
and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word
because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet.
Sound about right?
-Whoa! What do you think you're doing? -I wanna hear it.
- Why? -'Cause maybe I can help.
-I'm fluent in four languages, you know. -Russian?
Ou-yay are-yay umb-day.
Oh-ho-ho!
Holy shit!
That was Pig Latin, dingus.
-Idiot. -But I can speak Spanish
and French and Italian, and I've been in band for 12 years.
-My ears are little geniuses, trust me. -Uh...
Come on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate.
I don't even want credit. I'm just bored.
Yes?
-Mrs. Driscoll? -Yes?
Hi, um, I'm Nancy.
Nancy Wheeler. We spoke briefly on the phone last night.
We're from The Hawkins Post.
Oh! Oh, yes!
Oh, my goodness.
Oh. You look too young for reporters.
-We get that a lot.
Follow me.
Oh, it's... it's lovely.
Um, do you live here all alone?
Yes. Jack, my husband,
he passed away, what is it now, ten years ago.
Oh, um... I'm... I'm so sorry.
Oh, don't be.
I kinda like the quiet.
At least, I did.
This way.
It's right over there.
You see those little teeth marks, don't ya?
And...
these bags, um...
you're sure they were full before?
I'm old, honey, not senile.
Bought them over at Blackburn's Supplies just last Tuesday.
Now you tell me,
why would rats want to eat a poor old woman's fertilizer?
Are you sure they did?
Maybe they just gnawed the bag? I mean...
eating fertilizer seems--
Crazy. Believe me, I know, honey.
But...
...something's not right with these rats.
What does that mean, exactly...
"not right"?
Rabies, my guess.
That's when I said to myself,
"Doris, you gotta call the paper.
Because if those diseased rats are runnin' loose,
the people, they oughta know." Wouldn't you agree?
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention!
Come on over here.
I caught one of the little bastards.
Kline's a swine! Kline's a swine!
Jim?
Mayor Kline is ready for you.
Great.
Thank you.
Jim.
Thanks for coming by.
I'm not doing it, Larry.
Calm down, now. You don't even know what I want.
You don't like your fan club, you want me to shut 'em down. Sound about right?
When'd you get so serious?
Take a seat.
My fan club, as you call them,
now, you know why they're out there, don't ya?
They're not actually fans?
They lost their jobs to the mall
and blame me for helping make that happen.
Now,
you go ask anyone else in this town.
They all love the mall.
It's helped our economy grow, brought in new jobs,
and just some incredible new stores.
Which is why they all stopped shopping at their, uh, mom-and-pops.
Now, that's not me, Jim.
-Mm-hmm? -Uh-uh.
That's just, uh, good old fashioned American capitalism.
Well, Larry, I think that they're just exercising
their good old fashioned American right to protest.
-I agree.
-Yeah. -If.
If they had a permit.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, Jim, but, uh...
I don't believe they secured a permit from your office,
did they?
Not that I'm aware of.
Then I do believe it's within my right to get rid of them.
Larry,
I'm not a politics guy,
but I think if you force those people out of here without provocation,
I don't think that's a good look for your re-election campaign.
You know what's in four days, Jim?
Independence Day?
That's right.
And I'm gonna throw this town the biggest bash it's ever seen.
Fireworks, music, activities, you name it.
I'm gonna pull out all the stops. You know why?
'Cause at the end of the day, that's all the voters will remember.
But I can't think, much less plan,
with all that racket going on out there.
So, if you don't mind,
please...
just do your job.
Flash your little gold badge,
and get rid of them.
So, what do you think?
Hey, what's wrong?
Too many people.
Against the rules.
Seriously?
You have superpowers.
What's the worst that could happen?
So, what should we do first?
You've never been shopping before, have you?
Well, then I guess we're just gonna have to try everything.
Ooh. Come on.
I just... I don't understand what we're looking for.
Something pretty and shiny that says "I'm sorry."
What, just something that literally says "I'm sorry"?
No!
Do you like that?
How do I know... what I like?
You just try things on.
Until you find something that feels like you.
Like me?
Yeah.
Not Hopper.
Not Mike.
You.
Hello?
♪ Ooh, my little hungry one Hungry one ♪
♪ Open up a package of... ♪
Hello?
♪ Top it with a little of My bologna ♪
♪ My, my, ay, ay, woo! ♪
♪ M-m-m-m-m My, my, my, ay, ay, woo! ♪
♪ M-m-m-my bologna... ♪
Mrs. Byers?
♪ M-m-m-my bologna ♪
We're gonna have to keep doing this until you stop moving, you little shit.
Hi, yes, um, this is Nancy Wheeler from The Hawkins Post.
Yeah, um...
I have a bit of a weird question for you.
I was wondering if you guys had gotten any recent calls about, um...
rabid rats?
No, uh, rabid rats.
Rats with rabies?
Okay, um...
What about just rats, in general?
Uh-huh.
Okay. Thank you.
You're a regular little detective, aren't ya?
Lemonade? It's fresh-squeezed.
Sure, thanks.
Um...
Do you mind if I make just a few more calls?
Not at all. I enjoy the company.
You all right, little bud?
Jonathan!
I have a lead.
Uh...
Yeah, okay, but, uh...
I just think there's something really wrong with this rat.
Yeah, no shit.
-Come on. -No, I...
Nancy, wait up.
I said, what do you want?!
To build.
I want you to build.
To build what?
What you see.
I don't understand.
I don't understand!
What do you mean? I don't understand!
Hey, man!
Billy, are you okay?
Billy?
Billy.
Take me to him.
What?
I said, are you hurt?
What's going on? I heard screaming.
Should I call an ambulance?
Billy?
-Excuse me, sir. -Mm-hmm?
How much for this teddy bear right here?
Three hundred?
Three hundred.
I should've shoved that teddy bear right up his--
-♪ Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me ♪
♪ I think they're okay ♪
♪ If they don't give me proper credit ♪
♪ I just walk away ♪
♪ They can beg and they can plead ♪
-♪ But they can't see the light ♪ -♪That's right, that's right ♪
♪ 'Cause the boy with the cold hard cash ♪
♪ Is always Mister Right ♪
♪ 'Cause we are living In a material world ♪
♪ And I am a material girl ♪
♪ You know that we are living In a material world ♪
♪ And I am a material girl ♪
Hey, Mike.
-Oh!
Uh! Ahh!
♪ If they can't raise my interest... ♪
That's it, girls!
Okay, here we go.
Wardrobe change, please!
Wardrobe change! Thank you!
Shake it. Shake it out for me.
♪ 'Cause we are living ♪
-♪ In a material world... ♪
♪ You know that we are living In a material world ♪
-♪ And I am a material girl ♪
♪ Living in a material world ♪
♪ And I am a material girl ♪
♪ You know that we are living In a material world... ♪
Come on!
See? What'd I tell you?
There's more to life than stupid boys.
Can we please play D&D now?
-No. -No.
Wait, that last part, just one more time.
-Okay.
Okay, that word. Um...
It's pronounced... "dly-nna-ya."
-"Dly-nna-ya..." -Which is spelled...
-D... D, D, D...
The-- The chair. The chair-looking thingy.
Yeah, okay.
-We've got our first sentence. -Oh, seriously?
Yeah. "The week is long."
Well, that's thrilling.
I know. But, progress.
Okay, here you go, you got a strawberry and then a vanilla with sprinkles,
-extra whipped cream. - Thanks.
Wait a second.
Are you even allowed to be here?
That...
Okay.
You wanna trade?
That's ridiculous. Why can't I just...
Oh, you've gotta be shitting me.
- Haven't got that much. -Okay, what if we split it?
Split it with what? Does that even make sense?
Isn't this a nice surprise.
What are you doing here?
Shopping.
This is her new style.
-What do you think? -What's wrong with you?
You know she's not allowed to be here.
What is she, your little pet?
Yeah.
-Am I your pet? -What? No!
-Then why do you treat me like garbage? -What?
-You said Nana was sick. -She is.
She is. She is sick.
-Yeah, sick-- she's sick. -She's sick.
She's super sick. That's why we're here, actually.
Yeah, we're shopping.
Not for us, but for her, for Nana.
-For Nana. -Also, we're here to get a gift for you.
Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you
and I only have, like, $3.50, so it's hard.
Super hard.
It's-- It's expensive.
You lie.
Why do you lie?
I dump your ass.
♪ You're as cold as ice ♪
♪ You're willing to sacrifice Our love... ♪
-Now can we play D&D? -No.
He raised my property taxes, Jim.
Forced me off my land.
You can protest all you want, Henry,
you've just gotta go through the proper channels first.
Nothing proper about what that man did to us!
-To our town! -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Special delivery!
Ooh, yeah.
That the right one?
Yeah.
Yeah!
That's a lot of color for you, Chief.
It's cutting-edge stuff, all right?
-It's cutting-edge!
I'll start off with a Scotch, you can make that a double.
Very good, sir.
And I think we'll have a bottle of red, as well.
Very good, sir.
And how's your "chee-anti"?
-Our Chianti is quite good. -Chianti.
Medium-bodied, with just a hint of cherry.
Great.
Women love cherries, huh?
All right, we'll have that and two-- two glasses, please,
one for, uh, me and one for the lady.
Ooh. Very good, sir.
And what is this again?
This is a solenoid.
It's a coil, wrapped around a metallic core,
and when electricity passes through it...
It creates an electromagnetic field.
Exactamundo.
Now for the fun part.
-Shall we? -Yeah.
I... I don't see anything.
Nope.
You can't see it, but it's there, I assure you.
Our very own Clarke-Byers Electromagnetic Field.
Pretty neato, huh?
Yeah.
And this field affects any charged object in its vicinity.
-Just like my magnets. -Just like your magnets.
Okay, why is nothing happening?
Oh, because our field is stable.
But, if we reduce the current...
How...
The magnetic dipoles tried to orient according to the field, but--
No, no, no, I mean, how is this happening at my house?
You want my honest opinion?
One of your kiddos got up in the middle of the night,
bumped into the fridge, and knocked the suckers loose.
And the magnets at Melvald's?
-Apophenia. -Apo-what-o-whah?
Apophenia. Uh...
You're seeing patterns that aren't there. Coincidence.
But what if...
it's not?
Well...
Theoretically-speaking,
I suppose some large version of this AC transformer could exist.
A machine of some kind.
A machine?
But, in order to reach your house and downtown, gosh,
that would take billions of volts of electricity
and cost tens of millions of dollars.
But it is possible.
We cured polio in '53.
Landed on the moon in '69.
As I tell my students,
once you open up that curiosity door,
anything is possible.
"The week is long,
the silver cat feeds,
when blue meets yellow in the west."
I mean, it just...
it just can't be right.
- It's right. -Honestly, I think it's great news.
How is this great news?
I mean, so much for being American heroes.
-It's total nonsense. -It's not nonsense.
It's too specific. It's obviously a code.
-What do you mean, a code? -Like a super secret spy code.
-That's a total stretch. - I don't know, is it?
You're buying into this?
Listen, just for kicks,
let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission.
What'd you think they were gonna say, "Fire the warhead at noon"?
-Exactly. -And my translation is correct.
I know that for sure, so...
"The silver cat feeds." Why would anyone talk like that
unless they're trying to mask
-the meaning of their message? -Exactly.
Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message
unless the message was somehow sensitive?
Exactly.
-So I guess that confirms your suspicion. -Evil Russians.
I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but,
yeah, totally evil Russians.
So how do we crack it?
Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges.
A pattern. Right, like maybe "silver cat" is a meeting place?
Or a person.
Or a weapon.
It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but...
Where's Steve?
- Hey, Steve.
What are you doing?
Uh, it's a quarter. I need-- Do you have a quarter?
-Sure you're tall enough for that ride? -Quarter!
You need help getting up, little Stevie?
-Shh!
Would you two just shut up and listen?
Holy shit.
The music.
The music!
I don't understand.
It's the exact same song on the recording.
Maybe they have horses like this in Russia.
"Indiana Flyer"? I don't...
I don't think so.
This code, it... didn't come from Russia.
It came from here.
Would you like to order your entrée, sir?
You know what, Enzo?
My name is not Enzo.
I just lost my appetite, all right?
So, here you go.
You can keep the change.
-Sir!
I'm afraid no alcohol is allowed off the premises.
I can do anything I want.
I'm the chief of police.
Billy, are you okay?
Don't be afraid.
It'll be over soon.
Just stay very still.
No!