Season 3, Episode 6
E Pluribus Unum is Latin for ‘out of many, one’. Google really is a beautiful thing…
Episode six takes this concept and runs with it until it reaches a grisly and heart-stopping conclusion. The moment when an army of slack-eyed Hawkins residents converge on the old mill only to seemingly implode into a pile of slime to join a mass of seething teeth and guts was one of the most visually arresting scenes of the entire season. Luckily, that wasn’t the only stand out moment in E Pluribus Unum.
We have Eleven tossing the Mindflayer around like a blood-drenched rag doll in order to save Nancy (in a sequence that was more than a little reminiscent of the Resident Evil franchise), Hopper is back to his beautiful, manly best with his questionable psychological mind games with Alexei the Russian, and last but never, ever least, this is also a great week for Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington (thanks Robin) who is drugged, beaten up but still smiling. What a guy.
This was a triumphant hour of television that marked the moment when season three of Stranger Things finally, FINALLY arrived. This is the Hawkins, Indiana we all know and love and while it still feels a little like a retread of season two, and the pacing is arguably way too fast as we hurtle towards the conclusion, E Pluribus Unum must go down as the best episode of season three thus far.
Extras
- Hopper’s unhinged ranting at Joyce and uncanny ability to predict the future was hilarious here without ever spilling over into parody. Welcome back Hopper, you have been sorely missed.
- In an effort to drop in on every major character, it did kind of feel the only person we truly settled on was El and, to be honest, her journey to the far reaches of Billy’s memory was the low point of this episode. Does Stranger Things have a pacing problem?
- The visuals are getting ever darker but I am enjoying this pivot from hard sci-fi to gross out horror. I’ll be interested to see how heavily the Duffer Brothers continue to lean into this trope.
- For the first time in season three, I’m delighted to say that I can’t wait for the next episode. Hallelujah!