Stranger Things re-review: Netflix hit’s most divisive episode is weirder than you remember
Our re-review of Stranger Things reaches the show’s most divisive episode 👀
- Eleven heads to the big city in Stranger Things’ most divisive episode.
- The stand-alone hour The Lost Sister is a strange experiment.
- But how did it hold up on this re-watch?
Stranger Things season two takes a surprising swerve in probably its most divisive episode so far - if not ever. Despite ending on a major cliffhanger in my rewatch last week, the show opts for a curious standalone outing seemingly cut off from the rest of the action.
Eleven heads to Chicago and meets up with the titular Lost Sister, Kali - who was also experimented on at the Hawkins Institute by Doctor Brenner and has the numerical moniker eight. It was a bold move back in 2017 and has had a bad rep among viewers ever since.
But is it really that bad and what were the Duffer Brothers going for with this episode? Join me in the Upside Down for my latest Stranger Things re-review.
Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister
Synopsis: Psychic visions draw Eleven to a band of violent outcasts and an angry girl with a shadowy past.
Going back and watching through Stranger Things week-by-week, I was a tad worried about getting to The Lost Sister. I think on my previous rewatch in the run-up to season four, it was the only episode I skipped.
This time around that wasn’t an option and it actually turns out to be a fascinating episode to dissect. It remains the total black sheep of the whole show and while it might be a bold swing, it is going for something interesting.
I imagine it must be an extremely difficult task for the writers of the show to deal with Eleven. She is such a powerful character that they kind of have to find ways to keep her out of the action until the climax.
Not only does she have superpowers, she has superpowers that are practically genetically engineered to deal with the threats of the Upside Down. They work in a weird symbiotic harmony with each other.
For the whole of the second season, Eleven has been sidelined so far - kept in the cabin by Hopper for her own protection. It means she has not had a lot to do and clearly this episode is meant to basically give her the majority of her character arc this season.
During her trip to Chicago and teaming up with Kali, she is plagued by the question of what does she want? Is it blind revenge against those who harmed her and left her mother in a vegetative state - or is it to return to the life she started to forge in season one.
It offers rich thematic ground, as we see her slowly being seduced into this new life. One of vengeance and increased power - it is a bit of a training montage episode in a way.
However, it bites off more than it can chew. It is both too short and too long, managing to feel rushed and threadbare in a way.
The Lost Sister storyline feels like a multi-episode arc condensed into just one standalone one. We don’t have enough time to really feel Eleven’s dark seduction, because it happens in about the space of 20 minutes.
It also never feels like a real choice of whether she will stay since she barely has a relationship with Kali. So there is no real weight behind the moment when Eleven has to decide, it feels like it is going through the motions.
Perhaps because there is so much potential in El’s plotline that is the reason The Lost Sister feels like such a whiff, there are great bones, but it isn’t fully fleshed out. It was also weirdly set up to fail in a way, landing right as the action back in Hawkins is really ramping up, and so it feels very jarring to just completely drop everything and head off to Chicago.
There is also the added wrinkle of this episode feeling like a back-door pilot. Which might be a term that leaves you scratching your head in 2025.
Back in the early 2000s, and before, when network TV shows ran for 20 plus episodes, if they wanted to introduce a spin-off, they would sometimes do an episode in the original show that suddenly introduces the new setting and cast, to sort of test the waters first. The Lost Sister feels very much like that, as if they were thinking of doing a spin-off focused on Kali.
But that never panned out. Next week we will be returning to Hawkins for the final two episodes of season two.
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