In “Chapter Six: The Monster” of Stranger Things 1, here’s a few storylines, which you may of missed in a first look. First, the Hawkins Laboratory is doing secret reseach on children. Second, Chief Hopper is doing illegal background checks. Third, Dr. Brenner’s people go undercover. Finally, the CIA is conducting LSD experiments, which result in women losing children. These are just some storylines to follow if you missed them in the first watch of this episode.
In this episode, the Hawkins Laboratory is conducting secret research on children. Chief hopper says, “There was a laboratory where they must do experiments or something. There was this kids room…Because I told you. The size of the bed. A drawing. There was a stuffed animal. There was a drawing of an adult and a child, said Eleven on it.” The public is unaware of this research.
Basiaclly, the lab kidnapped Terri Ives’ child. Chief Hopper says, “Look! This woman, Terry Ives, ‘She claims to lost her daughter Jane.” She sued Brenner. She sued the government. The claims came to nothing.”
Interestingly, in one scene at a phone booth on the outskirts of Hawkins, Chief Hopper calls his New York cop buddy to do a background check as a favor. Hopper explains to his buddy, saying, “Yeah, it’s Terry Ives… It’s with a ‘y’. Yeah, I got a pen. Great. Thanks. I really appreciate this, Frank. Say hi to the boys for me, too.” However, only federal agents did background checks at this time because local police departments did not have the jurisdiction or resources to do these federal background checks; moreover, it was illegal for local police officers to make background checks for personal reasons.
Meanwhile, in this segment, a Dr. Brenner agent goes undercover at the Scott Clark residence.
“And we’re making a newsletter, which we will send out monthly. It will showcase all the latest equipment. As well ‘how-to” articles,” says the undercover agent posing as recruiting officer for AV careers, “which the kids write themselves. What we’re really trying to do here Mr. Clark, Scott, what were trying to do here, Scott, is connect kids from all over the state and give them the support and encouragement to pursue carreers in technology. We feel these are the kinds of kids that are going to make Indiana proud. So you know any kids that you think might want to participate?”
Also, during this broadcast, Dustin’s comes up with a plan to defeat a divide and conquer strategy. “Do you even remember what happened on the blood stone path? We couldn’t agree on what path so we split up the party, and those trolls took us out one by one. And it all went to shit. And we were all disabled. So we stick together no matter what.”
In this episode, we learn secret CIA experiments caused pregancy losses in women according to Terry’s sister, Becky.
“She was part of some study in college. Yeah, that’s the one. It started in the 50s. By the time Terry got involved, it was supposed to ramping down, but the drugs just got crazier. Messed her up good… You and Terry would of got along. The man with the big capital M. They would pay a couple hundred bucks to people like my sister. Give them drugs, psychedelics, LSD mostly, and then they would strip her naked and put her in these isolation tanks. These big bathtubs, basically, filled with these salt waters. so you can float around in there. You lose any sense of sense, feel nothing, see nothing. They wanted to expand the boundaries of the mind. Real hippy crappy. It’s not like they were forcing her to do anything. The thing is she didn’t know she was pregnant at the time.”
In this broadcast, Becky denies the existence of baby Jane aka Eleven. “There is no birth certificate. Nothing from the hospital. Doctors and nurses confirmed that she miscarried.”
Because Chief Hopper has seen what the Hawkins Lab can do in regards to cover-ups, Hopper doesn’t buy Becky’s story. “That could of all been covered up, right?”
Strangely, in what sounds like a line from the movie 12 Years A Slave, Joyce makes a comment to Hopper about Terry. “Twelve years! Twelve years! She’s been looking for her.”
Once again, a CIA black project comes up in this espisode. Hopper says, “MKULTRA… This was the CIA that ran this?”
As well, the government kidnapped baby Jane according to Becky. “That is why the big bad man stole Jane away. Her baby is a weapon of fighting the commies.”
Elsewhere, the Stranger Thing kids beat the local school bullies at the end of this segment. Dustin tells the bullies: “Yeah that’s right. You better run. She’s our friend, and she’s crazy. You come back here and she’ll kill you. You hear me? She’ll kill you sons of bitches.” They beat the bullies with the help of Eleven.
In conclusion, “Chapter Six: The Monster” had some interesting storylines, which deserved a second look. We learn the Hawkins Laboratory is carrying out secret reseach on children. Also, Chief Hopper is breaking the law in regards to background checks and sharing information with private citizens. As well, Dr. Brenner sends a smiling killer undercover. Finally, also, we learn CIA experiments resulted in women losing children. These are just some missed storylines on my first look at this episode of Stranger Things 1.