Though a lot of people generally loved the second season of Stranger Things, but it's not without a few criticisms. Episode 7, titled The Lost Sister, was considered to be an out-of-place chapter where Eleven goes out to connect with another meta-human girl who was also experimented on in the Hawkins Lab. The episode deviated from the entire story of the season and focused solely on Eleven hanging out with a bunch of "runaway mutants" types. Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers, however, feel like the episode was necessary for Eleven's arc in the story, and it allowed them to experiment a bit.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, they explain:
"Whether it works for people or not, it allows us to experiment a little bit. It's important for Ross and I to try stuff and not feel like we're doing the same thing over and over again. It's almost like doing a whole little other pilot episode in the middle of your season, which is kind of a crazy thing to do. But it was really fun to write and cast and work on."
Probably a lot of frustration from the fans was the forced detour that the show took when it was all building up to the climactic battle with the Mind Flayer and his demo-dogs. Maybe it would have been settled easier if they intercut Eleven's journey with snippets from what's happening at Hawkins.
The Duffer Bros continue:
"Our test of the episode was we tried to pull it out of the show just to make sure that we needed it because I didn't want it in there as filler — even though some critics are accusing us of doing that. But Eleven's journey kind of fell apart, like the ending didn't work without it. So I was like, whether this works or not, we need this building block in here or the whole show is going to collapse. It's not going to end well. The Mind Flayer is going to take over Hawkins."
From the way it looks, it seems that a lot of fans will be complaining about The Lost Sister from this point on. Though I think it's interesting to see more of the Hawkins Lab patients, I think Eleven could have been pushed home in a different way. I mean, why did her mom even want her to meet Kali? Did she want them to live together? Did she have some emotional investment to the girl as well?
Either way, I think we'll be seeing more of Eleven's "siblings" as the series progresses. Maybe they can even help with fighting the Mind Flayer in the future; who knows.
Catch Stranger Things 2 now available on Netflix.
See Also: Stranger Things' Jonathan Byer's Forced To Leave The US Because Of Cocaine Possession
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