Just running through a second binge watch and haven't commented on the season yet, so...
There were a few rough spots (like how the heck could the Russians build such a massive underground complex so fast, in the middle of the US no less; and why no one bothered to inform the police about mall deliveries being done with several guys with automatic weapons openly walking around a publicly viewable area; and why something that secret wouldn't be using actual encrypted coms instead of trivially cracked codes, 40 years after WW2 military secrets were using encrypted coms).
(spoiler tags for talking about things beyond eps 1-4 as the article title might make people halfway through show up)
Hopper immediately went after and beat information out of the mayor, but spent a whole day playing nice with Alexei and getting him a slurpee before getting aggressive, when that guy seemed like one good punch to the face would have him spilling his guts?
They saw what that rat was doing but still thought it was just rabies for a while?
But mostly I loved it. Robin was a great addition, Erica's expanded role was fun, thought the inevitable teenage dramas with the kids was handled pretty well, even if Hopper was a little overboard with Mike.
Was so happy Suzie turned out to be real, was amazed how they turned Billy around so much I was tearing up with that last scene with him and El then him breaking the Mind Flayer's hold and sacrificing himself, and the letter at the end omg
The complex was mostly built along with the mall. It's kind of not near anything else and they could have brought anything in during construction. Also, that loading dock was not in a publicly viewable area; they had to be somewhere they weren't supposed to be to see it. Also, there weren't guards there all the time; most of the time it was unguarded.
Only 1 year has passed since Season 2... unless they started long before even Season 1 (which they wouldn't have, because they chose that site because El opened the gate there), there's just no way they could build something like that... did you see how deep underground that was? And how long those tunnels were, and how complex the facility was? My issue was how they could have possibly done it in a year.
They had to go to the roof to see it without being caught... did we get a complete enough view of the layout to determine nobody walking around the parking lot or driving along a road couldn't see it? You could be right on that, but other store employees would be back there all the time anyway. I get your point, but still feel it's really implausible nobody else would notice the automatic weapon toting fellows.
Pretty sure Hopper went to town on the mayor because he knew the mayor. He wasn't certain about Alexei at first, and then when he was, he realized that his best play was to play his game and call his bluff on running. Also, there may have been some calculus regarding Murray's view of him at play, as well.
As for the kids, why would they have any reason to suspect that the rat had anything wrong with it other than rabies? As far as they knew, the UD was closed and wouldn't affect them any more. They had more pressing concerns to deal with like rampant misogyny and the possibility of getting fired.
Fair enough, but time was even more critical at this juncture so it was enough to make me stop and question it. And should have mentioned it in my post I thought Murray was another great part of the season.
The rat, because it was practically screaming, screams which sounded like a rat-size Demogorgon, and slamming itself into every side of the cage wall nonstop... and it's Hawkins... it even looked like Jonathan was starting to realize that behavior was way too extreme for rabies, but just didn't get there (possibly because of bigger concerns, point taken there).
